Auricular Confession is expedient and necessary to be retained and continued used and frequented in the Church of God For the which most Godly study pain and travel of His Majesty and determination and resolution of the Premises His humble and obedient Subjects the Lords Spiritual and Temporal and the Commons in this present Parliament Assembled not only render and give unto His Highness their most high and hearty Thanks and think themselves most bound to Pray for the long continuance of his Graces most Royal Estate and Dignity And being also desirous that his most Godly enterprize may be well accomplished and brought to a full end and perfection and so Established that the same might be to the Honor of God and after to the common Quiet Unity and Concord to be had in the whole Body of this Realm for ever Do most humbly beseech His Royal Majesty that the Resolution and Determination above written of the said Articles may be established and perpetually perfected by the Authority of this present Parliament It is therefore Ordained and Enacted by the King our Sovereign Lord and by the Lords Spiritual and Temporal and by the Commons in this present Parliament Assembled and by the Authority of the same That if any Person or Persons within this Realm of England or in any other of the Kings Dominions do by Word Writing Printing Ciphering or any otherwise Publish Preach Teach Say Affirm Declare Dispute Argue or Hold any Opinion 1. That in the Blessed Sacrament of the Altar under the Form of Bread and Wine after the Consecration thereof there is not present really the natural Body and Blood of our Saviour Jesus Christ conceived of the Virgin Mary or that after the said Consecration there remains any Substance of Bread or Wine or any other Substance but the Substance of Christ God and Man or likewise to Publish Preach Teach Say Affirm Declare Dispute Argue or Hold Opinion that in the Flesh under the Form of Bread there is not the very Blood of Christ or that with the Blood under the Form of Wine there is not the very Flesh of Christ as well apart as though they were both together or by any the means abovesaid or otherwise do Preach Teach Declare or Affirm the said Sacrament to be of other Substance than is abovesaid or do by any means Contemn Deprave or Despise the said Blessed Sacrament that then such Person or Persons so offending shall be deemed and adjudged Hereticks and that every such offence shall be judged manifest Heresie and that every such Offender and Offenders shall therefore have and suffer Judgment Execution Pain and Pains of Death by way of Burning without any Abjuration Clergy or Sanctuary and their Estates to be Confiscated to the King as in Cases of High Treason 2. And moreover if any do obstinately Affirm Uphold Maintain or Defend that the Communion of the Blessed Sacrament in both kinds that is to say in Form of Bread and also of Wine is necessary for the health of Man's Soul or that it ought or should be Given and Administred to any Persons in both kinds or that it is necessary so to be taken or received by any Person other than Priests being at Mass and Consecrating the same 3. Or that any Man after having received the Order of Priesthood may marry 4. Or that any Man or Woman who hath advisedly vowed or professed Chastity or Widowhood may marry 5. Or that Private Masses be not lawful or not laudable or should not be celebrated had nor used in the Realm nor be not agreeable to the Laws of God 6. Or that Auricular Confession is not expedient and necessary to be retained and continued used and frequented in the Church of God Such Persons are to suffer pains of death as in cases of Felony without any benefit of Clergie or Priviledge of Church or Sanctuary and shall forfeit all their Lands and Goods as in cases of Felony Thus far out of the same Book CHAP. IV. Of another Effect of this Change which was a horrid Effusion of Blood QUeen Anne Boleign who had been the first occasion of this Change of Religion was beheaded Whereof there is this Relation Baker pag. 407. It was now the Twenty eighth year of King Henries Reign When there were solemn Justs at Greenwich from whence the King suddenly departed and came to Westminster Whose sudden departure struck amazement into many but to the Queen especially And not without cause For the next day the Lord Rochford her Brother and Henry Norris were brought to the Tower Prisoners Whither also the same day was brought Queen Anne her self Who at the Tower-gate fell on her knees beseeching God to help her as she was innocent of that whereof she was accused Soon after this she was arraigned in the Tower and found guilty and had Judgment pronounced Immediately the Lord Rochford her Brother was likewise Arraigned Who together with Henry Norris Mark Smeton William Brierton and Francis Weston all of the King's Privy-Chamber about matters touching the Queen were beheaded on Tower-hill Within Two days Queen Anne her self on a Scaffold upon the Green within the Tower was also beheaded At her death she spake these words God save my Master and Sovereign the King the most Goodliest Noblest and Gentlest Prince that is and grant him that he may long Reign over you which words she spake with a smiling countenance which done she kneeled down and the Hangman of Calais smote off her head at one stroke For her Religion she was an earnest Professor and one of the first Counternancers of the Gospel The Crimes for which she died were Adultery and Incest She had many Enemies as being a Protestant and perhaps in that respect the King himself not greatly her Friend For though he had excluded the Pope yet he continued a Papist still Her Death cast upon King Henry a dishonorable Imputation Insomuch that whereas the Protestant Princes of Germany had resolved to chuse him for Head of their League after they heard of this Queens Death they utterly refused him Thus far Sir Rich. Baker The next day after her Death the King Married the Lady Jane Seymour Stow Page 573. In the next place Thomas Cromwel who had been the grand Promoter of this business was likewise beheaded Whereof thus writes Howes upon Stow page 508. THomas Cromwel Earl of Essex being in the Council-Chamber was suddenly apprehended and committed to the Tower of London and soon after attainted of Heresie and High Treason When he was brought to the Scaffold on Tower-hill to be executed he spake these words I pray you that be here to bear me witness that I die in the Catholick Faith not doubting in any Article of my Faith or in any Sacrament of the Church Many have slandered me and reported that I have been an A better of such as have maintained evil Opinions which is untrue But I confess that like as God by his holy Spirit does instruct us
make it known what they were Prestons Chantery THis was Founded by John Preston for two Priests to Sing Mass daily for the good Estate of Him the said John during this mortal Life and afterwards for the health of his Soul as also for the Souls of his Parents and Benefactors and all the Faithful Deceased Thus Mr. Dugdale Of Gilds or Fraternities The word Gild Proceeds from the Saxon word Gelo or Gilo which signifies Money because that such as were either for Charity Religion or Merchandize sake associated did cast their Money Goods yea and sometimes Lands together for the publick support of their own common charge These had their Annual Feasts â—…nd Neighbourly Meetings The First and most Ancient of these Gilds here in Coventry was Founded in the Fourteenth year of Edward the Third At which time the King granted Licence to the Coventry men That they should have a Merchants Gild and a Fraternity of Brethren and Sisters of the same in this Town with a Master or Warden thereof to be chosen out of the same Fraternity And that they might make Chantries bestow Alms do other works of Piety and Constituted Ordinances touching the same with all Appurtenances thereto And in the Seventeenth year Edward the Third gave leave to several to enter into a Fraternity and make a Gild consisting of themselves and such others as would joyn with them to the Honor of St. John Baptist. As also to purchase certain Lands Tenements and Rents for the Founding of a Chantry of Six Priests to Sing Mass every day in the Church of the Holy Trinity and St. Michael in Coventry for the Souls of the King's Progenitors and for the good Estate of the King Queen Isabel his Mother Queen Philippa his Wife and their Children As also of Walter Chesthunt and William De-Belgrave during their lives here on Earth and for their Souls after their departure hence and for the good Estate of the said John John Tho. Rich. Pet. and William and the rest of the said Gild with their Benefactors and likewise for the Soul of John Eltham late Earl of Cornwal and all of the Faithful Deceased Which Gild being so Founded within Two years after the same King Edward gave Licence to Queen Isabel his Mother to Give and Assign thereunto a parcel of Land to build thereupon a Chappel to the Honor of our Bâ—…essed Saviour and St. John Baptist for Two Priests to Sing Mass daily for the good Estate of the said King Edward Queen Isabel his Mother Queen Philippa his Wife Edward Prince of Wales and of the Brethren and Benefactors of the same Gild whilst they lived in this World and for their Souls after their Departure hence As also for the Soul of John of Eltham Earl of Cornwal and the Souls of the said Brethren and Benefactors with all the Faithful Deceased Thus Mr. Dugdale p. 119. There were great store of these and such like Pious Foundations throughout all England as appears by the same History All destroyed by King Henry the Eighth and his Son This Change being made something must necessarily be established in order to Religion CHAP. III. A Book of Religion Published THE Clergy held a Convocation in St. Paul's Church where after much disputing and debating of matters they Published a Book of Religion Entituled Articles Devised by the King's Highness c. In which Book is mentioned but Three Sacraments Baptism Eucharist and Penance The Articles contained in this Book were Six And by an Act of Parliament all were condemned for Hereticks and to be Burnt that should hold the contrary to them Asserting 1. That the Body of Christ was not really present in the Sacrament of the Eucharist after Consecration 2. That Priests entred into Holy Orders might Marry 3. That the Sacrament might not truly be Administred in one kind 4. That Vows of Chastity made upon mature deliberation were not to be kept That Private Masses were not to be used That Auricular Confession was not necessary in the Church Thus Sir Rich. Baker pag. 408. Here followeth the Act it self out of the Statute Book An Act of Parliament made in King Henry the Eighth's time for abolishing diversity of Opinions in certain Articles concerning Religion THe King 's Most Royal Majesty most prudently considering that by occasion of various Opinions and Judgments concerning some Articles in Religion great discord and variance hath arisen as well amongst the Clergy of this Realm as amongst a great number of the vulgar People And being in a full hope and trust that a full and perfect Resolution of the said Articles would make a perfect Concord and Unity generally amongst all His Loving and Obedient Subjects of His most Excellent Goodness not only Commanded that the said Articles should Deliberately and Advisedly by His Archbishops Bishops and other Learned Men of His Clergy be Debated Argued and Reasoned and their Opinions therein to be Understood Declared and Known But also most Graciously vouchsafed in his own Princely Person to come unto his High Court of Parliament and Council and there like a wise Prince of most high Prudence and no less Learning opened and declared many Things of most high Learning and great Knowledge touching the said Articles Matters and Questions for an Unity to be had in the same Whereupon after a great and long deliberate and advised Disputation and Consultation had and made concerning the said Articles as well by the consent of the King's Highness as by the Assent of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal and other Leaned Men of His Clergy in their Convocations and by the Consent of the Commons in Parliament Assembled it was and is finally resolved accorded and Agreed in manner and form following that is to say 1. First That in the most Blessed Sacrament of the Altar by the strength and efficacy of Christ's mighty Word it being spoken by the Priest is present really under the Forms of Bread and Wine the natural Body and Blood of our Saviour Jesus Christ conceived of the Virgin Mary and that after the Consecration there remains no substance of the Bread or Wine nor any other Substance but the Substance of Christ God and Man 2. That the Communion in both kinds is not necessary to Salvation by the Law of God to all Persons and that it is to be Believed and not Doubted but that in the Flesh under the Form of Bread is the very Blood and with Blood under the Form of Wine is the very Flesh as well apart as if they were both together 3. That Priests after the Order of Priesthood received may not Marry by the Law of God 4. That Vows of Chastity Widowhood c. are to be kept 5. That it is meet and necessary that Private Masses be continued and admitted in the King 's English Church and Congregation as whereby good Christian People orcering themselves accordingly do receive both Godly and Goodly Consolations and Benefits and it is agreeable also to God's Law 6. That
Preached and Written partly by divers the natural born Subjects of this Realm and partly being brought in hither from sundry other Forein Countries hath been sowen and spread abroad within the same By reason whereof as well the Spirituality as the Temporality of this Kingdom have swerved from the Obedience of the See Apostolick and declined from the Unity of Christ's Church and have so continued until such time as your Majesty being settled in the Royal Throne the Pope's Holiness and the See Apostolick sent hither unto your Majesty as a Person undefiled and by God's Goodness preserved from the common infection aforesaid and to the whole Realm the most Reverend Father in God the Lord Cardinal Pool to call us home again into the right way from whence we have all this long while wandred and strayeâ—… abroad And we after sundry long and grievous Plagues and Calamities seeing by the Goodness of God our own Errors have acknowledged the same unto the same most Reverend Father in God and by him been and are received and embraced into the Unity and bosom of Christ's Church upon our humble submission and promise made for a Declaration of our Repentance to Repeal and Abrogate such Acts and Statutes as had been made in Parliament since the said Twentieth year of the said King against the Supremacy of the See Apostolick as in our Submission exhibited appears The tenor whereof here ensueth We the Lords Spiritual and Temporal and the Commons Assembled in this present Parliament in the Name of our selves and the whole Kingdom do declare our selves very sorry and repentant of the Schism and Disobedience committed in this Realm and the Dominions thereof against the See Apostolick either by making agreeing or executing any Laws Ordinances or Commands against the Supremacy of the said See or otherwise by doing or speaking any thing that might impugn the same Offering our selves and promising by this our Supplication that for a token and acknowledgment of our said repentance we be and shall be always ready to the utmost of our Power to do what lies in us for the abrogating and the repealing of the said Acts and Ordinances in this present Parliament c. Whereupon we most humbly desire your Majesty to set forth this our most humble Suit That we may obtain from the See Apostolick release and discharge from all danger of such Censures and Sentences as by the Laws of the Church we are fallen into and that we may as Children repentant be received into the bosom and unity of Christ's Church so as this Noble Realm withal the members thereof may in this unity and perfect obedience to the See Apostolick serve God and your Majesty to the furtherance and advancement of his Honor and Glory c. This Petition being granted They further add We being now at the Intercession of your Majesty assoiled discharged and delivered from Excommunication Interdiction and other Censures Ecclesiastical which have hanged over our heads for our said faults since the time of the said Schism mentioned in our Supplication May it therefore now please your Majesty That for the better accomplishment of our promise made in the said Supplication we may Repeal All Laws and Statutes made contrary to the said Supremacy and See Apostolick during the said Schism Thus as to the Repealing of all such Laws made in the Reign of King Henry the 8th Another Act for the Repealing of certain Statutes made in the time of King Edward the Sixth FOrasmuch as by divers and several Acts of Parliament made in the time of King Edward the Sixth as well the Divine Service and good Administration of the Sacraments as divers other matters of Religion which we and our Fore-fathers found in this Church of England to us left by the Authority of the Catholick Church be partly altered and in some part taken from us and in place thereof New Things imagined and set forth by the said Acts such as a few of singularity have of themselves devised Whereof hath ensued amongst us in a very short time numbers of diverse and strange Opinions and diversity of Sects and thereby grown great unquietness and much discord to the great disturbance of the Kingdom And in a very short time like to grow to extreme peril and utter confusion of the same unless some remedy be in that behalf provided Which Thing all True Loving and Obedient Subjects ought to fore-see and to provide against to the utmost of their power c. Be it therefore Enacted c. A third Act for the Repeal of Two several Acts made in the time of King Edward the Sixth touching the Dissolution of the Bishoprick of Durham WHereas there hath been time out of mind of any man to the contrary a See of a Bishop of Durham commonly called The Bishoprick of Durham which hath been one of the most Ancient and worthiest Bishopricks in Dignity and Spiritual Promotion within the Realm of England and the same place always supplied and furnished with a man of great Learning and Virtue which was both to the Honor of God and the encrease of his True Religion and a great Surety to that part of the Realm Nevertheless the said Bishoprick was without any just cause or consideration by Authority of Parliament Dissolved Extinguished and Exterminated And further by the Authority of the said Parliament it was Ordained and Enacted That the said Bishoprick together with all the ordinary Jurisdiction thereunto appertaining should be adjudged clearly dissolved and extinguished and that King Edward the Sixth should from thence-forth have possess and enjoy to him his heirs and successors for ever whatsoever did appertain or belong to the said Bishoprick in as large and ample manner and form as any Bishop thereof had held or possessed or of right ought to have had held or possessed c. Be it therefore Enacted c. Thus far as to these Acts of Parliament CHAP. IV. A Relation of some English Protestants that forsook the Kingdom and of the Factions and Schisms that were amongst them being in other Countries Anno Reg. Mar. 3. Dr. Heylyn pag. 59. MAny English Protestants forsook the Kingdom to the number of Eight Hundred who having put themselves into several Cities partly in Germany and partly amongst the Switzers and their Confederates kept up the Face and Form of an English Church in each of their several Congregations Their principal retiring places amongst the last were Arow Zurick and Geneva And in the first the Cities of Emden Strasburgh and Frankfort In Frankfort they enjoyed the greatest privileges and therefore resorted thither in greatest numbers which made them the more apt unto Schisms and Factions At their first coming to the place 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
notorious Fornicator that was among the Corinthians and by the Authority of his Apostleship unto which Apostles Christ ascending into Heaven did leave the whole Spiritual Government of his Church as it appeareth by those plain words of St. Paul in his Epistle to the Ephesians Chap. 4th saying Ipse dedit Ecclesiae suae c. He hath given to his Church some to be Apostles some Evangelists some Pastors and Doctors for consummation of the Saints to the work of the Ministry for edifying of the Body of Christ. But a Woman in the degrees of the Church is not called to be an Apostle nor Evangelist nor to be a Pastor as much as to say a Shepheard nor a Doctor or a Preacher Therefore she cannot be Supream Head of Christ's Militant Church nor yet of any part thereof For this High Government God hath appointed only to the Bishops and Pastors of his People as St. Paul plainly witnesseth in these words in the 20th Chapter of the Acts of the Apostles saying Attendite vobis universo gregi c. And thus much I have here said right Honorable and my very good Lords against this Act of Supremacy for the discharge of my poor Conscience and for the Love and Fear and Dread that I chiefly owe unto God to my Sovereign Lord and Lady the Queens Majesties Highness and to your Honors All. Where otherwise without mature consideration of all these Premises your Honors shall never be able to shew your faces before your enemies in this matter being so strange a spectacle and example in Christ's Church as in this Realm is only to be found and in no other Christian Realm Thus humbly beseeching your Honors to take in good part this my rude and plain Speech which here I have used of much Zeal and fervent good will And now I shall not trouble your Honors any longer Thus as to this Speech But notwithstanding this Speech or whatsoever else could be said against it the Act passed and this Supremacy was granted to the Queen CHAP. IV. A further Prosecution of the Settlement of this Change of Religion Established by Parliament and of the Opposition of the Catholick Clergy against this strange Innovation Dr. Heylyn pag. 108. NOw for the better exercising and enjoying the Jurisdiction thus acknowledged in the Crown there was this Clause put into the Act That it should be Lawful for the Queen to give Power to such as she thought fit to exercise all manner of Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction and to visit reform redress order correct and amend all kind of Errors Heresies Schisms c. With this Proviso notwithstanding that nothing should from thenceforth be accounted Heresie but what was so adjudged in the Holy Scripture or in one of the four first General Councils or in any other National or Provincial Council determining according to the word of God or finally which should be so adjudged in the time to come by the Court of Parliament This was the first Foundation of the High Commission Court And from hence issued that Commission by which the Queens ministers proceeded in that visitation in the first year of her Reign for rectifying all such things as they found amiss There also passed another Act for recommending and imposing the Book of Common-Prayer and Administration of Sacraments according to such Alterations and Corrections as were made therein by those that were appointed to review it In performance of which service there was great care taken to expunge out all such passages in it as might give any Scandal or Offence to the Papists or be urged by them in excuse for their not coming to Church In the Litany fiâ—…st made and published by King Henry the Eighth and afterwards continued in the two Liturgies of King Edward the Sixth there was a Prayer to be delivered from the Tyranny and all the detestable enormities of the Bishop of Rome Which was thought fit to be left out as giving matter of Scandal and dissatisfaction to all that Party In the first Liturgy of King Edward the Sacrament of our Lord's 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 Soul 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 Carnal presence of Christ in the Sacrament which passed by the name of Transubstantiation in the Schools of Rome was altered in this Form into the second Liturgy that is to say Take and Eat this in remembrance that Christ died for thee and feed 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 ceny a real presence as was deâ—…ended in the Writings of the Ancient 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 Communion was required for no other reason than for a signification of the humble and grateful acknowledgâ—…ent of the Benefits of Christ given therein unto the worthy Râ—…ceiver 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 or Essential Presence of Christ's Body and Blood This Rubrick is again lately inserted And to come up closer to those of the Church of Rome it was ordered by the Queens Injunctions That the Sacramental Bread which the Book required only to be made of the finest Flower should be made round in the fashion of the Wafers used in the time of Queen Mary She also Ordered that the Lord's Table should be placed where the Altar stood and that the accustomed Reverence should be made at the Name of Jesus Musick retained in the Church and all the other Festivals observed with their several Eves By which compliances and the expunging of the passages before mentioned the Book was made more plausible And that it might pass 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 keked at Two Speeches were made against this Book in the House of Peers by Scot and Feckenham and one against the Queens Supremacy by the Archbishop of York But they prevailed little in both Points by the Power of their Eloquence In the Convocation which accompanied this present Parliament there was little done because they despared of doing any good to Themselves or their Cause The chief thing they did was a Declaration of their Judgments in some certain Points which at that time were conceived fit to be commended to the sight of the Parliament that is to say First That in the Sacrament of the Altar by
those days as wise and well-learned men in both the Realms as be now at this day who thought the Marriage between you and me good and lawful Therefore it is a wonder to me what new inventions are now invented against me And now to put me to stand to the Order and Judgment of this Court seems very unreasonable For you may condemn me for want of being able to answer for my self as having no Counse but such as you assigned me who cannot be indifferent on my part since they are your own Subjects and such as you have taken and chosen out of your own Council whereunto they are privy and dare not disclose your Will and Intent Therefore I humbly pray you to spare me until I may know what Counsel my Friends in Spain will advise me to take And if you will not then your Pleasure be fulfilled And with that she rose up and departed never more appearing in any Court The King perceiving that she was gone said I Will now in her Absence declare this unto you all That She has been unto me as True and Obedient a Wife as I would wish or desire She has all the virtuous qualities that ought to be in a Woman of her Dignity or in any other of Mean Condition She is also surely a Noble Woman born Her Condition will well declare it After this the King sent the Two Cardinals Campeius and Wolsey to speak with her WHen the Queen was told that the Cardinals were come to speak with Her She rose up and with a Skein of white Thred about her neck came into her Chamber of Presence The Cardinals said they were sent by the King to understand her mind concerning the business between Him and Her My Lords saith the Queen I cannot answer you so suddenly for I was set among my Maids at work little thinking of any such matter wherein there needs a longer deliberation and a better head then mine to make Answer For I have need of Counsel in this case which concerns me so near and for any Counsel or Friends that I can find in England they are not for my Profit For it is not likely that any English man will Counsel me or be a Friend to me against the King's Pleasure since they are his Subjects And for my Counsel in which I may trust they are in Spain The Cardinals returning to the King gave him an account of what She said Thus the case went forward from Court to Court till it came to Judgment The King's Counsel at the Bar called for Judgment unto whom Cardinal Campeius said thus I will not give Judgment till I have made relation to the Pope of all our proceedings whose Counsel and Command I will observe The matter is too high for us to give an hasty Judgment considering the Highness of the Persons and doubtfulness of the Case and also whose Commissioners we be under whose Authority we sit It were therefore reason that we should make our Chief Head a Counsel in the same before we proceed to a definitive sentence I come not to please for Favour Need or Dread of any Person alive be he King or otherwise I have no such respect to the Person that I will offend my Conscience I will not for the Favour or Disfavour of any High Estate do that thing which shall be against the Will of God I am an old man both weak and sickly that look daily for death I will not wade any further in this matter until I have the Opinion and Assent of the Pope Wherefore I will adjourn the Court for this time according to the Order of the Court of Rome from whence such Jurisdiction is deriv'd Upon this the Court was dissolv'd and no more done Then step'd forth the Duke of Suffolk from the King and uttered with an haughty Countenance these words It was never merry in ENGLAND since we had any Cardinals amongst us Thus far Stow. Upon this there was a Debate held in Council Whether it were convenient for the King to Assume to himself the Supremacy in Ecclesiastical Affairs In opposition to which there was this Speech made related in my Lord Herbert ' s History pag. 362. SIR YOur Highness is come to a point which needs a strong and firm Resolution it being not only the most important in its self that can be presented but likewise of that consequence that it will comprehend your Kingdom and Posterity It is whether in this business of your Divorce and Second Marriage as well as in all other Ecclesiastical Affairs in your Dominions you would make use of your own or the Popes Authority For my own part as an Englishman and your Highnes's Subject I must wish all Power in your Highness But when I consider the Ancient practice of this Kingdom I cannot but think any Innovation dangerous For if in every Temporal Estate it be necessary to come to some Supream Authority whence all inferior Magistracy should be derived it seems much more necessary in Religion both as the Body thereof seems more susceptible of a Head than any else and as that Head again must direct so many others We should therefore above all things labour to keep an unity in the parts thereof as being the Sacred bond which knits and holds together not its own alone but all other Government But how much Sir should we recede from the Dignity thereof if we at once retrenched this its chief and most eminent part And who ever liked that Body long whose Head was taken away Certainly Sir an Authority received for many Ages ought not rashly to be rejected For is not the Pope Communis Pater in the Christian World and Arbiter of their Differences Does not he Support the Majesty of Religion and vindicate it from neglect Does not the holding his Authority from God keep Men in awe not of Temporal alone but Eternal punishments and therein extend his Power beyond death it self And will it be secure to lay aside those potent means of reducing People to their Duty and trust only to the Sword of Justice and Secular Arms Besides who shall mitigate the rigor of Laws in those Cases which may admit exception if the Pope be taken away Who shall presume to give Orders or Administer the Sacraments of the Church Who shall be Depository of the Oaths and Leagues of Princes Or Fulminate against the perjur'd Infractors of them For my part as Affairs now stand I find not how either a general Peace amongst Princes or any equal moderation in Humane Affairs can be well conserved without him For as his Court is a kind of Chancery to all other Courts of Justice in the Christian World so if you take it away you subvert that Equity and Conscience which should be the Rule and Interpreter of all Laws and Constitutions whatsoever I will conclude that I wish your Highness as my King and Sovereign all true Greatness and Happiness but think it not fit in this
Case that your Subjects should either examine by what right Ecclesiastical Government is Innovated or enquire how far they are bound thereby since beside that it might cause Division and hazzard the Overthrow both of the one and the other Authority it would give that Offence and Scandal abroad that Forein Princes would both reprove and disallow all our Proceedings in this kind and upon occasion be disposed easily to joyn against us Thus my Lord Herbert relates this excellent Speech But notwithstanding this Speech or whatsoever could be said against it the Popes Supremacy was excluded and the King Married Anne Boleign which is thus set down by Stow continued by How 's Pag. 554. KIng Henry upon occasion of these delays made by the Pope in his Controversie of Divorce and through Displeasure of such Reports as he heard had been made of him to the Court of Rome and Thirdly moved by some Counsellors to follow the example of the Germans caused a Proclamation to be made in the Two and twentieth year of his Reign forbidding all his Subjects to purchase any manner of thing from the Court of Rome And obtaining a Divorce from Queen Catherine his Wife by an Act of Parliament he privately Married Anne Boleign And upon that by another Act of Parliament the Pope with all his Authority was clean banished his Realm and Order taken that he should no more be called Pope but Bishop of Rome and the King to be taken and reputed as Supream Head of the Church of England having full Authority to Reform all Errors Heresies and Abuses in the same It was further Enacted by another Act of Parliament That no Person should Appeal for any Cause out of this Realm to the Court of Rome but from the Commissary to the Bishop from the Bishop to the Archbishop from the Archbishop to the King and all Causes of the King to be tryed in the Upper-House of Parliament Moreover the First-Fruits and Tenths of all Ecclesiastical Dignities and Promotions were granted to the King Thus far Stow. This Deserting of the Pope is thus related by Dr. Heylyn in the Preface of his History of Reformation KIng Henry the Eighth being violently hurried with the Transport of some private Affections And finding that the Pope appeared the greatest Obstacle to his desires he extinguished his Authority in the Realm of England This opened the first way to the Reformation and gave encouragement to those who inclined unto it To which the King afforded no small countenance out of Politick Ends. But for his own part he adhered to his Old Religion severely Persecuting those that Dissented from it And died though Excommunicated in that Faith and Doctrine which he had sucked in as it were with his Mothers milk And of which he shewed himself so stout a Champion against Luther Thus Dr. Heylyn concerning the beginning of this prodigious Change of Religion The first Opposition against this sudden Change was a Sermon of one Friar Peto in opposition to the King 's second Marriage Thus related by Howes upon Stow Pag. 562. THe First that openly resisted or reprehended the King touching his Marriage with Anne Boleign was one Friar Peto a simple Man yet very Devout of the Ordâ—… of the Observants This Man Preaching at Greenwich upon the Two and twentieth Chapter of the third Book of the Kings to wit the last part of the story of Achab saying Even where the Dogs licked the Blood of Nabaoth even there shall Dogs lick thy Blood also O King And therewithal spake of the Lying Prophets which abused the King c. I am saith he that Micheas whom you will hate because I must tell you truly that this Marriage is unlawful And I know that I shall eat the Bread of Affliction and drink the Water of Sorrow yet because our Lord hath put it into my mouth I must speak it And when he had strongly enveighed against the King's second Marriage to diswade him from it he also said There are many other Preachers yea too many which Preach and Perswade you otherwise feeding your folly and frail Affections upon hope of their own worldly Promotion and by that means betray your Soul your Honour and Posterity to obtain Fat Benefices to become Rich Abbots and get Episcopal Jurisdiction and other Ecclesiastical Dignities These I say are the Four hundred Prophets who in the spirit of Lying seek to deceive you But take good heed lest you being seduced find Achab ' s punishment which was to have his Blood licked up by Dogs saying that it was one of the greatest miseries in Princes to be daily abused by Flatterers The King being thus reproved endured it patiently and did no violence to Peto But the next Sunday Dr. Curwin Preached in the same place who most sharply reprehended Peto and his Preaching calling him Dog Slanderer base beggarly Friar Rebel Traytor saying that no Subject should speak so audaciously to Princes And having spoken much to that effect and in Commendation of the King's Marriage thereby to Establish his Seed in his Seat for ever c. He then supposing that he had utterly suppressed Peto and his partakers lifted up his voice and said I speak to thee Peto which makest thy self Micheas that thou mayst speak evil of Kings But now thou art not to be found being fled for fear and shame as being unable to answer my Arguments And whilst he thus spake there was one Elstow a fellow Friar to Peto standing in the Rood-loft who said to Dr. Curwin Good Sir you know that Father Peto as he was Commanded is now gone to a Provincial Council held at Canterbury and not fled for fear of you for to morrow he will return again In the mean time I am here as another Micheas and will lay down my Life to prove all those things true which he hath taught out of the holy Scripture and to this Combate 〈◊〉 challenge thee before God and all equal Judges even unto thee Curwin I say which art one of the Four hundred false Prophets into whom the spirit of Lying is entred and seekest by Adultery to establish a Succession betraying the King unto endless Perdition more for thine own vain Glory and hope of Promotion than for discharge of thy clogged Conscience and the King's Salvation This Elstow waxed hot and spake very earnestly so as they could not make him cease his Speech until the King himself bad him hold his peace And gave Order that He and Peto should be Convented before the Council which was done the next day And when the Lords had rebuked them then the Earl of Essex told them that they had deserved to be put into a Sack and cast into the Thames Whereunto Elstow smiling said Threaten these things to Rich and Dainty Persons who are clothed in Purple fare Deliciously and have their chiefest hope in this World For we esteem them not but are joyful that for the discharge of our Duty we are driven hence
in the Truth so the Devil is ready to seduce us And I have been seduced But bear me witness That I die in the Catholick Faith of the holy Church And I desire you to pray for me that so long as life remains in this Flesh I waver nothing in my Faith Having said this he was presently beheaded Thus Howes This following Relation although it concerns not the shedding of Blood yet is very remarkable as manifesting how the King's Marriage with the Lady Anne of Cleve was in Parliament declared not lawful Which is thus related by Howes upon Stow Page 578. AFter the Death of the Lady Jane Seymour the King 's Third Wife He Married the Lady Anne of Cleve in the Two and thirtieth year of his Reign From which time the King not only continued his first Misliking of her but his hatred encreased more and more against her not only for want of beauty whereof at first he took exceptions but also for sundry other qualities whereof he secretly accused her As also he said that her body was unpleasant making great doubt that she was no Virgin when she came into England with divers other defects which he said he knew by her outward appearance to be in her And being thus so sore perplexed and desperate of redress he grew wondrous apt and willing to call in question any thing that might tend to the dissolving of this Marriage Within Eight dayes the King told his Physicians his further cause of grief That she was loathsome to him in Bed and that her Body was foul and out of order The King being thus tormented in Body and Mind knew not how to ease himself until he had procured a speedy Divorce Which was thus effected Certain Lords came down into the Lower-House of Parliament expresly declaring the causes why this Marriage was not Lawful And in conclusion the matter was by the Convocation clearly determined that the King might lawfully marry where he would and so might she It appears clearly in the Record what moved the King to this Marriage For these are his words I declare that when the first Communication was had with me about this Marriage I was glad to hearken to it trusting to have some assured Friend by it I much doubting at that time both the Emperor France and the Bishop of Rome Thus Stow. The King 's Fifth Wife Catherine Howard put to death for Adultery As appears by this Relation Baker page 514. THe King was informed of the Queens dissolute life first before her Marriage with one Francis Dereham and since her Marriage with one Thomas Culpepper of the King's Bed-Chamber Whereupon Sir Tho. Wriothsâ—…ey was sent to the Queen at Hampton-Court to charge her with these Crimes and discharging her Houshold to cause her to be conveighed to Syon The Delinquents being examined Dereham confessed that before the King's Marriage with the Lady Catherine there had been a pre-contract between him and her But when once he understood of the King 's good liking to her he then waved it and concealed it for her preferment These Gentlemen were arraigned and had Judgment to die as in cases of Treason They were drawn from the Tower to Tyburn Where Culpepper was beheaded and Dereham hanged and dismember'd The Lord William Howard and the Lady Margaret his Wife Catherine Tilney and Alice Bestwold Gentlewomen Joan Bulmer Anne Howard Wife to Henry Noward the Queens Brother with divers others were all condemned for Misprision of Treason in concealing the Queens misdemeanour and adjudged to forfeit all their Lands and Goods during life and to remain in perpetual Prison The Lords and Commons in Parliament Petitioned the King That he would not vex himself with the Queens Offences and that both she and the Lady Rochford might be Attainted by Parliament And that to avoid protracting of time he would give his Royal Assent to it under the Great Seal without staying for the end of the Parliament Also that Dereham and Culpepper having been Attainted before by the Common-Law might be Attainted likewise by Parliament All which was Assented unto by the King After this the Queen and the Lady Rochford were beheaded on the Green within the Tower It is certainly said that after her Condemnation She protested to Dr. White Bishop of Winchester her last Confessor That as for the Act for which She was condemn'd She took God and his holy Angels to witness upon her Souls Salvation that She died guiltless Thus of the putting to death of his Wives Here follows an unheard of Cruelty of Bloodshed for Religion in these times of Confusion and Change of Religion ONe Lambert was accused for denying the real presence in the Sacrament who Appeal'd to the King and the King was content to hear him Whereupon a Throne was set up in the Hall of the King's Palace at Westminster for the King to sit And when the Bishops had urged their Arguments and could not prevail then the King took him in hand hoping perhaps to have the Honor of converting an Heretick when the Bishops could not do it and withal promised him pardon if he would recant But all would not do for he remained obstinate the King miss'd his Honor and the Delinquent his Pardon Being shortly after drawn to Smithfield and burnt Baker page 412. Two more were for the same cause burnt Baker in the same page Dr. John Fisher Bishop of Rochester and Sir Thomas Moor expresly denyed at Lambeth before the Archbishop of Canterbury to take the Oath of Supremacy and thereupon were both beheaded Bishop Fisher was much lamented as being reputed a man both learned and wise and of good life Sir Thomas Moor was both learned and very wise His Devotion was such that he used to wear a Shirt of Hair-cloth next his skin for a perpetual Penance And oftentimes in the Church he would put on a Surplice and help the Priest at Mass Which he did not forbear to do when he was Lord Chancellor of England as one time the Duke of Norfolk coming to the Church found him doing it Baker page 406. Sir William Peterson Priest late Commissary of Calais and Sir William Richardson Priest of St. Maries in Calais were both there drawn hang'd and quarter'd in the Market-place for the Supremacy Stow page 579. Dr. Wilson and Dr. Samson Bishop of Chichester were sent to the Tower for relieving certain Prisoners who had denyed to Subscribe to the King's Supremacy And for the same offence Richard Farmer Grocer of London a rich and wealthy Citizen was committed to the Marshalsea and after arraigned and attainted in a Praemunire and lost all his Goods his Wife and Children thrust out of doors Stow page 580. Robert Barns Dr. of Divinity Thomas Gerrard Parson of Honey-lane and William Jerom Vicar of Stepney-Heath Bachelors in Divinity Also Edward Powel Thomas Able and Richard Fetherston all Three Doctors were drawn from the Tower of London to West Smithfield The Three First were drawn to a Stake and there
the same time giving him a Subsidy of six shillings in the Pound to be paid out of their Spiritual Promotions poor Stipendiary Priests paying each of them six shillings eight pence to encrease the Sum which also was so soon consumed that the next year he press'd his Subjects to a Benevolence and in the following year he obtain'd the Grant of all Chantries Hospitals Colleges and Free-Chappels within the Realm though he lived not to enjoy the benefit of it Most true it is that it was somewhat of the latest before he cast his Eye on the Lands of Bishopricks though there were some that thought the time long till they fell upon them Concerning which there goes a story That after the Court-Harpies had devoured the greatest part of the Spoyl which came by the Suppression of Abbeys they began to seek some other way to satiate that greedy Appetite which the division of the former Booty had left unsatisfied And for the satisfying whereof they found not any thing so necessary as the Bishops Lands This to Effect Sir Thomas Seymour is employed as the fittest man being in Favor with the King and Brother to Queen Jane his most beloved and best Wife and having opportunity of access unto him as being one of his Privy Chamber And he not having any good affection to Archbishop Cranmer desired that the experiment should be try'd on him And therefore took his time to inform the King that my Lord of Canterbury did nothing but fell his Woods letting long Leases for great Fines and making havock of the Royalties of his Arch Bishoprick to raise thereby a Fortune to his Wife and Children Withal he acquainted the King That the Archbishop kept no Hospitality in respect of such a large Revenue and that in the Opinion of many wise men it was more convenient for the Bishops to have a sufficient yearly stipend out of the Exchequer than to be so encumbred with Temporal Royalties being so great a hinderance to their Studies and Pastoral Charge and that the Lands and Royalties being taken to his Majesties use would afford him besides the said Annual Stipends a great yearly Revenue The King considering of it could not think fit that such a plausible Proposition as taking to himself the Lands of Bishops should be made in vain only he was resolv'd to prey further off and not to fall upon the spoyl too near the Court for fear of having more partakers in the Booty than might stand with his profit And to this end he deals with Holgate preferred not long before from Landaff to the See of York from whom he takes at one time no fewer than Seventy Mannors and Townships of good old Rents giving him in exchange to the like yearly value certain Impropriations Pensions Tythes and Portions of Tythes but all of an extended Rent which had accrued to the Crown by the Fall of Abbeys Which Lands he laid by Act of Parliament to the Dutchy of Lancaster For which see 37 Hen. 8. Chap. 16. He dismembred also by these Acts certain Mannors from the See of London and others in like manner from the See of Canterbury but not without some reasonable Compensation for them And although by reason of his death which followed within a short time after there was no further Alienation made in his time of the Churches Patrimony yet having open'd such a gap and discovered this Secret that the Sacred Patrimony might be Alienated with so little trouble the Courtiers of King Edward's time would not be kept from breaking violently into it and making up their own Fortune in the spoyl of Bishopricks So impossible a thing it is for the ill Examples of Great Princes not to find followers in all Ages especially where Profit or Preferment may be furthered by it Thus Heylyn CHAP. VI. Of some other Passages concerning this King and likewise of his death HAving now prosecuted this Relation thus far and drawing to an end of it we will here insert a Passage out of Dr. Heylyn's History of Reformation Pag. 6. concerning King Henry the Eighth's Absolute Power of disposing of the Crown The words are these Anno Regni 28. In the Act of Succession which past in the Parliament of this year there is this Clause to wit That for lack of Lawful Heirs of the Kings Body it should and might be lawful for Him to confer the Crown on any such Person or Persons as should please his Highness and according to such Estate and after such Manner Form Fashion Order and Condition as should be Expressed Named Declared and Limited in his 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 Highness's Lawful Heirs to the Imperial Crown of this Realm Thus Dr. Heylyn By this and what hath been said in these Collections it evidently appears that all Inheritances both Civil and Ecclesiastical as likewise the Lives of all men in the Reign of this King depended upon the Arbitrary Government of those times Now we must end this story concerning matters of Religion in this Kings Reign with a brief Relation of his Death with a Summary Account of his Wives and the years of his Reign The Relation of his Death is thus deliver'd by Dr. Heylyn in his History of Reformation Page 14. THe King having lived a voluptuous Life and too much indulged to his Palate was grown so corpulent or rather so over-grown with an unweildy burthen of Flesh that he was not able to go up Stairs from one Room to another but as he was hoised up by an Engine which filling his Body with foul and foggy Humors did both wast his Spirits and encrease his Passions In the midst of which Distempers it was not his least care to provide for the Succession of the Crown to his own Posterity At such time as he married Anne Bulleign He procur'd his Daughter Mary to be declar'd Illegitimate by Act of Parliament The like he also did by his Daughter Elizabeth when he had married Jane Seymour settling the Crown upon his Issue by the said Queen Jane But having no other Issue by her but Prince Edward and none at all by his following Wives he thought it a point of prudence to establish the Succession by more Stayes than one For which cause he procured an Act of Parliament in the 35 year of his Reign in which it is declared That in default of Issue of the said Prince Edward the Crown should be entail'd to the Kings Daughter the Lady Mary and the Heirs of her Body And so likewise to the Lady Elizabeth and the Heirs of her Body And for lack of such Issue to such as the King by his Letters Patents or his last Will in Writing should limit Of which Act of Parliament he being now sick and fearing his approaching end made such use in laying down the state of the
Succession to the Crown in this Last Will that contrary to all Justice he totally Excluded the whole Scottish-Line Descended from the Lady Margaret his eldest Sister from all hopes of having their turns in it His Infirmity and the weakness it brought upon him confining him to his Bed he had a great desire to receive the Sacrament and being perswaded to receive it in the easiest posture sitting or raised up in his Bed he would by no means yield unto it but caus'd himself to be taken up and plac'd in his Chair in which he heard the greatest part of the Mass till the Consecration and then receiv'd the Blessed Sacrament on his Knees as at other times saying withal as Saunders relates the Story That if he did not only cast himself upon the Ground but even under it also he could not give unto the Sacrament the Honor that was due unto it The instant of his Death approaching none of his Servants though thereunto desir'd by his Physicians durst acquaint him with it till at last Sir Anthony Denny undertook that ungrateful Office which the King entertaining with less impatience than was looked for from him gave order that Archbishop Cranmer should be presently sent for But he being then at Croyden it was so long before he came that he found him speechless However applying himself to the Kings present condition and discoursing to Him on this Point That Salvation was to be obtain'd only by Faith in Christ He desired the King if he understood the effect of his words and believ'd the same that he would signifie so much by some Sign or other which the King did by wringing him gently by the Hand and shortly after died There is a sharp but shrewd Character of this King to wit That he never sparea Woman in his Lust nor Man in his Anger Sir Walter Rawleigh says of him That if all the Patterns of a Merciless Prince had been lost in the World they might have been found in this King Thus Dr. Heylyn I will here set down some Passages out of his last Will related by Dr. Heylyn pag. 23. By which it will appear how constant he was till his death in professing and maintaining these following Points of Catholick Doctrine to wit The Real Presence in the Sacrament Invocation of Saints and Prayer for the Dead The words of the Will are these WE most humbly and heartily recommend our Soul to God who in the Person of his Son redeemed us with his most precious Body and Blood And for our better remembrance thereof hath left here with us in his Church Militant the Consecration and Administration of his most precious Body and Blood We also instantly desire that the Blessed Virgin Mary with all the Holy Company of Heaven may continually pray for us whilst we live in this World and at our passing out of it that we may the sooner attain everlasting life We likewise further Ordain That there be a convenient Altar at Windsor honorably prepared with all things requisite and necessary for a daily Mass there to be said perpetually while the World should endure Moreover He gave Order That all Divine Offices accustomed for the Dead should be daily Celebrated for him And that at the removal of his Body to Windsor a Thousand Marks should be distributed amongst the Poor to pray for the Remission of his Sins and the good of his Soul Thus Dr. Heylyn An Account of his Wives Of Six Wives this King had Anne Boleign his Second Wife was beheaded for Incest with her own Brother The Third Jane Seymour being in Child-birth and in danger of death had her Belly ripp'd up to preserve the Child The Fourth Anne of Cleve was cast off within two or three Months The Fifth Catherine Howard was beheaded for Adultery Concerning his Sixth Wife thus writes Sir Rich. Baker Page 418. The Sixth Catherine Parre being an earnest Protestant was accused to the King to have Heretical Books in her Closet and this was so aggravated against her that they prevail'd with the King to Sign a Warrant to Commit her to the Tower with a purpose to have burnt her for Heresie This Warrant was committed to Wriothsley Lord Chancellor and he by chance letting it fall from him it was taken up and carried to the Queen who having read it went soon after to visit the King Being come to the King he presently fell into Talk with her about some Points of Religion demanding her Resolution therein But she knowing that his nature was not to be cross'd specially considering the case she was in made him answer That She was a Woman accompanied with many Imperfections but his Majesty was Wise and Judicious of whom she must learn as of her Lord and Head Not so by St. Mary said the King for you are a Doctor Kate to instruct us and not to be instructed by us as often we have seen heretofore Indeed Sir said She if your Majesty have so conceiv'd I have been mistaken For if heretofore I have held talk with your Majesty it hath been to learn some Point of your Majesty whereof I stood in doubt and sometimes that with my Talk I might make you forget your present infirmity And is it so says King Then we are Friends But nevertheless soon after upon a day appointed by the Kings Warrant for apprehending her the King being dispos'd to walk into the Garden took the Queen with him when all on the sudden the Lord Chancellor with Forty of the Guard came into the Garden with a purpose to apprehend her whom as soon as the King saw he stept to the Chancellor and calling him Knave and Fool bid him get him out of his Presence The Queen seeing the King so angry with him began to intreat him to whom the King said You little know what it is he came about Of my Word Sweet-heart he hath been a very Knave to Thee Thus the Queen was preserv'd who else had tasted of as bitter a cup as any of his former Wives had done Thus Sir Rich. Baker Now we will give an Account of the Years when these changes were made Sir Rich. Baker Page 425. IN the Eighth year of this King's Reign Luther began to Preach against the Authority of the Pope and to bring in a Reformation of Religion for repressing of whom the Council of Trent was called by Pope Paul the Third At the same time with Luther there arose also in the same Country other Reformers of Religion as Zuinglius Oecolampadius Melancthon c. whâ—… differing from Luther in some Points made the difference which is at this day of Lutherans and Protestants so call'd at first at Ausburgh for making a Protestation in defence of their Doctrine In his Two and twentieth year a Proclamation was set forth That no Person should purchase any thing from the Court of Rome and this was the first beginning of his Deserting the Church of Rome In his Three and twentieth year the Clergy
submitting themselves to the King for being found guilty of a Premunire were the first that called him Supreme Head of the Church yet with this restriction So far as it was according unto Gods Word and not otherwise In his Four and twentieth year an Act of Parliament was made That no Person should Appeal for any Cause out of this Realm to the Court of Rome In his Twenty sixth year an Act was made which Authoriz'd the King to be Supreme Head of the Church of England and the Authority of the Pope to be abolish'd and then also was given to the King the First Fruits and Tenths of all Spiritual Livings and this Year were many put to death Papists for denying the Kings Supremacy Protestants for denying the Real Presence in the Sacrament nor is it credible what numbers suffered death for these two Causes in the last Ten Years of the Kings Reign of whom if we should make particular mention it would reach a great way in the Book of Martyrs In his Eight and twentieth Year the Lord Cromwel was made Vicar General under the King over the Spirituality and at least Four Hundred Monasteries were suppress'd and all their Lands and Goods conferred upon the King by an Act of Parliament In his One and thirtieth Year was set forth by the Bishops the Book of the Six Articles and all the rest of the Monasteries were conferred upon him Lastly In his Thirty fifth Year all Colleges Chantries and Hospitals were given to him Thus Sir Rich. Baker Here you have had a short view of the Beginning and sad Effects of this Prodigious Change of Religion begun by King Henry the Eighth A Further PROSECUTION Of these HISTORICAL COLLECTIONS Concerning a Second Change of Religion Made for POLITICK ENDS And of the Occurrences concerning it In the Reign of King EDWARD the Sixth A Preamble THIS is a Summary Account of this King's Reign as to these matters of Religion taken out of the Preface of Dr. Heylyn's History of Reformation Where after a brief Narration of King Henry the Eighth's Deserting the Pope he gives this following Account of his Son King Edward the Sixth The Relation whereof begins thus Next comes his Son Edward the Sixth upon the Stage whose Name was made use of to serve Turns withal and his Authority abused to his own undoing In his First year the Reformation was resolved on but on different ends endeavoured by some Bishops and others of the Lower Clergy and promoted with the like Zeal and Industry but not with like Integrity by some great Men about the â—…rt Who under Colour of removing corruptions out of the Church had cast their eyes upon the Spoil of Shrines and Images though still preserved in the greatest part of the Lutheran Churches and the improving their own Fortunes by the Chantry Lands All which they most Sacrilegiously divided amongst themselves without admitting the poor King to share with them though nothing but the filling his Coffers by the Spoil of the one and the Encrease of his Revenue by the fall of the other was openly pretended in the Conduct of it But to speak no more of this the work chiefly intended was vigorously carried on by the King and his Counsellors as appears by the Doctrinals in the Book of Homilies and by the Practical part of Christian Piety And here the business might have rested if Calvin's Pragmatical Spirit had not interposed He first began to quarrel at some passages in the Liturgy and afterwards never left Soliciting the Lord Protector and practising by his Agents on the Court the Country and the Universities till he had laid the first Foundation of the Zuinglian Faction who laboured nothing more than Innovation both in Doctrine and Discipline to which they were encouraged by nothing more than some improvident Indulgence granted unto John Alasco who bringing with him a mixed multitude of Poles and Germans obtained the Priviledge of a Church for himself and his distinct in Government and Form of Worship from the Church of England This much animated the Zuinglian Gospellers to practice first upon the Church who being Countenanced if not Headed by the Earl of Warwick who then began to undermine the Lord Protector first quarrelled the Episcopal Habit and afterwards enveighed against Caps and Surplices against Gowns and Tippets But fell at last upon the Altars which were left standing by the Rules of the Liturgy The touching upon this string made excellent Musick to most of the Grandees of the Court who had before cast many an envious eye on those costly Hangings that massy Plate and other Rich and Precious things which adorned those Altars And what need all this wast said Judas when one poor Chalice only and perhaps not that might have served the turn Beside there was no small spoil to be made of Copes in which the Priest Officiated at the Holy Sacrament Some of them being made of Cloth of Tissue Cloth of Gold and Silver or Embroydred Velvet the meanest being made of Silk or Sattin with some decent Trimming And might not these be handsomely converted unto private uses to serve as Carpets to their Tables Coverlets to their Beds or Cushions for their Chairs and Windows Hereupon some rude People are encouraged under-hand to beat down some Altars which makes way for an Order of the Council-Table to take down the rest and set up Tables in their places followed by a Commission to be executed in all parts of the Kingdom for seizing on the Premises for the King's use But as the Grandees of the Court intended to defraud the King of so great a booty and the Commissioners to put a cheat upon the court-Court-Lords who employed them in it So they were both prevented in some places by the Lords and Gentry of the Country who thought the Altar-cloths together with the Copes and Plate of their several Churches to be as necessary for themselves as for any others This Change drew on the Alteration of the former Liturgy but almost as unpleasing to the Zuinglian Faction as the former was In which conjuncture of Affairs King Edward the Sixth died From the begining of whose Reign the Reformation began All that was done in order to it under King Henry the Eighth seemed but accidental only and by the by rather designed on Private Ends than out of any settled purpose of a Reformation and therefore intermitted and resumed again as those Ends had variance But now the great Work was carried on with a constant hand the Clergy cooperating with the King and the Council for the effecting of it But scarce had they brought it to this pass when King Edward died whose Death I cannot reckon for an infelicity to the Church of England For being ill principled in himsels and easily enclined to embrace such Counsels as were offered to him it is not to be thought but that the rest of the Bishopricks before sufficiently impoverished must have followed Durham and the poor Church be left as destitute
of Lands and Ornaments as when she came into the World in her Natural Nakedness Nor was it like to happen otherwise in the following Reign of Queen Jane if it had lasted longer than a Nine-days wonder For Dudley of Northumberland who then ruled the rost and had before dissolved and in hope devoured the wealthy Bishoprick of Durham might easily have possessed himself of the greatest part of the Revenues of York and Carlisle By means whereof he would have made himself more absolute on the North-side of Trent than the poor Titular Queen had been on the South-side of it To carry on whose Interest and maintain her Title the poor remainder of the Churches Patrimony was in all probability to have been shared amongst those of the Party to make them sure unto that side Thus far out of Dr. Heylyn ' s Preface Summarily concerning this Rapine and Sacriliege which followed this Second Change of Religion Now in the History it self Page 33. Dr. Heylyn begins orderly to treat of the Reign of this King as to matters of Religion as will appear by what shall be here said CHAP. I. Of the many Policies used in the Introducing this Second Change of Religion Anno Regni Edwardi Sexti 1. THE Solemnities of the Coronation being passed the Grandees of the Court began to entertain some thoughts of a Reformation In which they found Archbishop Cranmer and some other Bishops to be as forward as themselves but on different ends endeavoured by the Bishops out of Zeal but by the Courtiers upon a hope of enriching themselves by the spoil of Bishopricks To the Advancement of which Work the Conjuncture seemed to be as proper as they could desire Fot first the King being of such tender Age and wholly governed by the Wâ—…ll of the Lord Protector who had declared himself a Friend to the Lutheran party in the time of King Henry was easie to be moulded into any form And as the Champions of the Papacy were removed out of all Office so it was thought expedient for the better carrying on of the Design not only to release all such as had been committed unto Prison but also to recal all such as had been forced to abandon the Kingdom for not submitting to King Henries Six Articles But the business was of greater moment than to expect the coming back of these Men. Wherefore neither to lose time nor to press too much at once upon the People it was thought fit to smooth the way to the intended Reformation by setting out some Preparatory Injunctions and this to be done by sending out Commissioners into all parts of the Kingdom armed with Instructions to enquire into all Ecclesiastical Concernments Which Commissioners were accompanied with Preachers appointed to instruct the People And that they might not cool or fall off again from what they had been taught they were to leave some Homilies with the Parish-Priest which the Archbishop had composed Now besides the Points contained in the said Injunctions the Preachers were to perswade them from Invocation of Saints Praying for the Dead Images Use of Beads Ashes Processions Mass Dirges c. All which was done to this intent That the People being prepared by little and little might with more ease and less opposition admit the total Alteration in the face of the Church which was intended in due time to be introduced Thus Dr. Heylyn concerning this Policy Another Policy But there was something more than the Authority of a Minor King which drew on such a general Conformity to these Injunctions and thereby smoothed the way to those Alterations both in Doctrine and Worship which the Grandees of the Court and Church had began to fashion The Lord Protector and his Party were more experienced in Affairs of State than to be told That all great Counsels tending to Innovation in the Publick Government especially where Religion is concerned are either to be back'd by Arms or otherwise prove destructive to the undertakers For this cause he resolves to put himself at the Head of an Army as well for the security of his Person and the preservation of his Party as for the carrying on of the Design against all Opponents And for the raising of an Army there could not be found a fairer colour nor a more popular pretence than a Wat with Scotland not to be made on any new Emergent Quarrel which might be apt to bread suspition in the heads of the People but in pursuit of the great Project of the King Deceased for uniting that Realm by a Marriage to the Crown of England On this Pretence Levies are made in all parts of the Kingdom He entertained also certain Regiments of Walloons and Germans because they were conceived more likely to enforce Obedience if his Design should meet with any opposition than the natural English Thus Dr. Heylyn concerning this War with Scotland A Third Policy But in the first place care was taken that none of the Neighboring Princes should either hinder his Proceedings or assist the Enemy That which seemed to give most satisfaction to the Court of France was the performance of a Solemn Obsequy for King Francis the First Whose Funerals were no sooner Solemnized in France but Order was given for a Dirge to be sung in all the Churches of London as also in the Cathedral Church of St. Paul in the Quire whereof hung with Black a sumptuous Hearse was set up for the present Ceremony And the next day Archbishop Cranmer assisted with Eight other of the Bishops all in their rich Miters and other their Pontificals did sing a Mass of Requiem the Funeral Sermon being Preached by Dr. Ridley This great Solemnity being thus honorably performed the Commissioners for the Visitation were dispatched to their several Circuits and the Army drawn to their Rendezvous Thus Dr. Heylyn concerning what was done before the calling of a Parliament CHAP. II. Of what was done in Parliament in order to the Establishing this Change of Religion Dr. Heylyn Page 47. A Parliament began upon the Fourth of November in which the Cards were so well pack'd by Sir Ralph Sadler that there was no need of any further Shuffling till the end of the Game This very Parliament without any sensible Alteration of the Members of it being continued until the Death of the King And though this Parliament consisted of such Members as disagreed amongst themselves in respect of Religion yet they agreed well enough together in one common Principle which was to serve the present time and preserve themselves which appears plainly by the strange mixture of the Acts and Results thereof some tending to the present Benefit and Enriching of particular Persons And some again being devised on purpose to prepare a way for exposing the Revenues of the Church unto spoil and rapine There was an Act made in King Henry the Eighths time Inhibiting the reading of the Old and New Testament in the English Tongue But this was here abrogated together with all
to make Deans and Chapters useless and thereby to prepare them for a Dissolution Thus Dr. Heylyn concerning this Act of Parliament I will take leave here although it be not its proper place to insert an Act of Parliament of the third year of this King's Reign concerning the Form to be used in making of Bishops The words of the Act are these to wit THat such form and Manner of Making and Consecrating of Archbishops Bishops Priests and Deacons as by Six Prelates and Six other Learned Men or by the most number of them they being appointed and assigned by the King shall be devised for that purpose and set forth under the Great Seal shall be accounted as lawfully exercised and Used and no other Thus Dr. Heylyn page 82. concerning the Election of Bishops From this Alteration which was made in Parliament in reference to the making of Bishops and the way of Exercising their Authority we shall find in the Progress of this story That there was great Havock and Spoyl made of the Bishopricks themselves Two Examples and Testimonies whereof here immediately follow Related thus by Dr. Heylyn pag. 129. THe See of Lincoln being vacant it was kept void from August till the next June During which interval the Patrimony of that great and wealthy Bishoprick one of the richest in the Kingdom was so dismembred in it self so parcelled out for a prey to others That when the new Bishop was to be restored to his Temporals there was none of all his Mannors reserved for him but his Mannor of Bugden together with some Farms and Impropriations The rest was to be raised out of the Profits of his Jurisdiction Yet so that nothing was to be abated in his Tenths and First Fruits which were kept up according to their former value The second Example is this Doctor Barlow being made Bishop of Bath and Wells gratified the Lord Protector with a Present of Eighteen or Nineteen Mannors which anciently belonged unto it And lying all or most part of them in the County of Sommerset seemed very conveniently disposed of for the better maintenance of the Title of Duke of Sommerset which the Protector had taken to himself Many such strange Donations we shall find in others The more to be excused because there was no other Means as the times then were to preserve the whole but by advancing some part thereof to preserve the rest Thus Dr. Heylyn page 130. concerning these Bishopricks And thus far concerning the proceedings of this Parliament CHAP. III. Of several other Alterations in Religion made in the beginning of this Year Of which Dr. Heylyn gives this Account Page 54. Anno Regni Edwardi Sexti 2. NO sooner was this year begun but it was Ordered by the King and his Privy Council that no Candles should be born upon Candlemas-day nor Ashes or Palms used any longer The Lords drove this business on so fast That before this Order could be published in the remote parts of the Kingdom they followed it with another as little pleasing to the main Body of the People concerning the taking down of all Images which in some places of the Realm were either not taken down at all as was required the year before by the King's Injunctions or had been Re-edified again as soon as the first heats of the Visitation had began to cool Bishop Gardiner in a Letter of his signified his great dislike of some proceedings had at Portsmouth in taking down the Images of Christ and his Saints certifying withal That he had not only seen these Images standing in all the Churches of the Lutherans but that Luther himself had purposly written a Book against some men that had defaced them And therefore it may be well thought that Covetousness spurred on this business more than Zeal There being none of these Images so poor and mean the spoyl whereof would not afford some Gold and Silver if not Jewels also besides Censers Candlesticks and many other rich Utensils appertaining to them In which respect the Commissioners hereto Authorized were entertained in many places with scorn and railing and the further they went from London the worse they were handled Insomuch as that one of them as he was pulling down an Image in Cornwal was stabbed And though the Principal Offender was hanged which quieted all matters for a time yet the next year the storm broke out more violently than before not only to the endangering of the peace of those Western Counties but in a manner of all the Kingdom Thus Dr. Heylyn concerning the Zeal of the People about the taking down of Images Which great Commotions the Council could not but foresee as the most probable Consequents of such Alterations Especially when they are sudden and press'd too fast There being nothing of which People commonly are so tender as they are of Religion on which their happiness depends not only for this world but the world to come And therefore it concerned them in point of Prudence to let the People see that there was no intention to abolish all their ancient Ceremonies And in particular it was held expedient to give the generality of the Subjects some contentment in a Proclamation for the strict keeping of Lent and the Example of the Court in Pursuance of it For Dr. Glasier Preaching at Paul's Cross affirmed That Lent was not Ordained of God to be Fasted neither the eating of Flesh to be forborn But that the same was a Politick Ordinance of men and therefore might be broken by men at their pleasures Upon this there was no scarcity of those that cried down all the Observations of Days and Times even to the Libelling against that ancient and Religious Fast in most scandalous Rhymes Complaint whereof being made by Bishop Gardiner to the Lord Protector a Proclamation was set out by which all People were commanded to abstain from Flesh in the time of Lent and the King's Lenten-dyet was set out and served as in former times Thus Dr. Heylyn concerning this Policy To Establish this more firmly there was this following Act of Parliament made concerning it Thus set down in the Statute Book FOrasmuch as divers of the King's Subjects have of late more than in times past broken and contemned such Abstinencies as have been used in this Realm upon Fridays and Saturdays Ember-days Vigils Lent and other accustomed times this Parliament considering that due and godly Abstinence is a means to Virtue and to subdue mens Bodies to their Soul and Spirit And considering withal that Fishers may thereby be more set a work and that by eating of Fish much Flesh shall be saved and encreased and also for divers other Considerations and Commodities of the Realm doth Enact and Ordain That all manner of Statutes Laws Constitutions and Usages concerning any manner of Fasting and Abstinence from any kind of meats heretofore in this Realm made or used shall lose their force and strength and be void and of no effect And also that no Person
were put by also seeing their Rights depended one upon another But if he pleased to Appoint the Lady Jane the Duke of Suffolk's eldest Daughter and his own next Kinswoman to his Sisters to be his Successor he might then be sure that the True Religion should be maintained to God's great Glory and be a worthy Act of his Religious Prudence This was to strike upon the right string of the young King's Affections with whom nothing was so dear as Preservation of Religion And thereupon his Last Will was appointed to be drawn contrived chiefly by the Lord Chief Justice Mountague and Secretary Cecil By which Will as far as in him lay he excluded his Two Sisters from the Succession and all others but the Duke of Suffolk's Daughters And then causing it to be read before his Council he required them all to Assent unto it and to Subscribe their Hands which they All both Nobility Bishops and Judges did only the Archbishop Cranmer refused at first Sir James Hales a Judge of the Common-Pleas to the last and with them also Sir John Baker Chancellor of the Exchequer His Will being thus made he shortly after dies conceived to have been Poysoned It is noted by some saith Sir Richard Baker That he died the same Month and the day of the Month that his Father King Henry the Eighth had put Sir Thomas Moor to death Thus of this Duke and the Kings Death We will now give an Account of the Years when these changes were made IN the First year a Reformation was resolved on and to prepare the way for it Injunctions were set out and Commissioners sent into all parts of the Kingdom to enquire into all Ecclesiastical Concernments With them also were sent Preachers to disswade the People from their former practices in Religion And this to prepare the way for the total Alteration in Religion which was intended There was likewise a Parliament called to promote and confirm the same Designs In the Second year Images were taken down and many Ancient Customs abolished and a Book of Common-Prayer composed All Colleges Hospitals c. were given to the King In the Third year a part of Pauls and many Churches were pulled down to build Sommerset House in the Strand There were great Troubles and Commotions both in Church and State The Book of Common-Prayer composed in the former year was now set out Peter Martyr and Bucer came over In the Fourth year one John a Lasco a Polonian with his Sectaries settled themselves here The great business of this year was the taking down of Altars Until this following Fifth year nothing had been Positively and Dogmatically concluded in Points of Doctrine Wherefore to set a stop to the great Confusions that were at this time there was a Book of Articles composed And to satisfie the Calvinists ther was a New Book of Common-Prayer set forth In the Sixth year Hopkins Psalms began to be sung in Churches And the use of the New Common-Prayer-Book made strange Alterations but all in order to Calvin's designs who had a chief hand in composing it In the Seventh year the King is found to be extremely engaged in Debt and under Colour of satisfying such Debts great spoyl is made of the Treasures of the Church Thus you have had a short Relation of the strange Confusions and Alterations of Religion which happened in the few years Reign of this King A CONTINUATION Of these HISTORICAL COLLECTIONS Concerning the Restauration of Catholick Religion And the Occurrences concerning it In the Reign of Queen MARY A Preamble WE shall here follow Dr. Heylyns order in relating First some Passages concerning her before She came to the Crown With a brief Narration of her Mother's Death whereof Dr. Heylyn gives this following account in his History of Reformation page 9. The Execution of Bishop Fisher and Sir Thomas Moor with many others who wished well unto her added so much affliction to the desolate Queen that not being able longer to bear the burthen of so many miseries she fell into a languishing Sickness which more and more encreasing on Her And finding the near approach of Death the only Remedy now left for all Her miseries She dictated this ensuing Letter which She caused to be delivered to the King by one of Her Women Wherein She laid before him these Her Last Requests Viz. My most Dear Lord King and Husband for so She called Him THe Hour of my Death now approaching I cannot chuse out of the Love I bear you but advise you of your Soul's health which you ought to prefer before all Considerations of the World or Flesh whatsoever For which yet you have cast me into many Calamities and your Self into many Troubles But I forgive you all and pray God to do so likewise For the rest I commend unto you Mary our Daughter beseeching you to be a good Father unto her as I have heretofore desired I must entreat you also to consider my Maids and give them in Marriage which is not much they being but Three And to grant unto all my other Servants a years pay besides their due lest otherwise they should be unprovided for Lastly I make this Vow That my Eyes have desired you above All Things Farewel Within few days after the writing of which Letter She yielded her pious Soul unto God at the Kings Manner-House of Kimbolton and was Solemnly buried in the Abbey of Peterborough The rending of her Letter drew some tears from the King which could not but be much encreased by the news of her Death Moved by them both to such a measure of Commiseration of Her sad condition That he caused the greatest part of Her Goods amounting to Five Thousand Marks to be expended or her Funeral and in the recompensing of such of Her Servants as had best deserved it Never so kind to Her in the time of her Life as when he had rendred Her incapable of receiving any kindness Thus Dr. Heylyn concerning her Mothers death Now concerning her Self he writes thus Pag. 11. THe Princess Mary is now left wholly to her Self declared Illegitimate by her Father deprived of the comfort of her Mother and in a Manner forsaken by all her Friends whom the severe proceedings against Moor and Fisher had so deterred that few durst pay her any offices of Love or Duty In which condition the poor Princes had no greater comfort than what She could gather from Her Books In which She had been carefully instructed by Dr. John Harman appointed her Tutor by the King and for his good Performance in that place of Trust advanced by him to the See of Exon and afterwards made Lord President of Wales By satisfying the King her Father in a Message sent unto her She gained so far upon him that from that time forwards he held her in the same rank with the rest of his Children gave Her her Turn in the Succession of the Kingdom assigned Her a Portion of Ten thousand pounds to
be paid at her Marriage and in the interim Three Thousand pound per annum for Her personal maintenance Little or nothing more occurs of Her in the time of King Henry because there was little Alteration made in the face of Religion which might give Her any cause of Publick or personal dislike But when the great Alterations happened in the time of King Edward She then declared her Self more openly as She might more safely in opposition to the same Concerning which She thus declared Her self in a Letter to the Lord Protector and the rest of the Council Dated at Kenninghall June 22. Anno 1549. My Lord I Perceive by the Letters which I lately received from you and others of the Council That you be all sorry to find so little Conformity in me touching the observation of his Majesties Laws who am well assured that I have offended no Law unless it be a late Law of your own making which in my Conscience is not worthy the name of a Law both for the King's Honors sake and the wealth of the Realm and giving the occasion of an evil bruit throughout all Christendom besides the partiallity used in the same and as my Conscience is very well perswaded the offending God which passes all the rest But I am very well assured That the King his Father's Laws were allowed and consented to without Compulsion by the whole Realm both Spiritual and Temporal and all the Executors Sworn upon a Book to fulfil the same so that it was an Authorized Law And that I have obeyed and will do with the Grace of God till the King's Majesty my Brother shall have sufficient years to judge in this matter himself In this my Lord I was plain with you at my last being in the Court declaring to you at that time whereunto I would stand And now do assure you all the only occasion of my stay from altering my Opinion is for Two causes One principally for my Conscience The Other that the King my Brother shall not hereafter charge me to be one of those that were agreeable to such Alterations in his tender years And what fruits daily grow by such Changes since the death of the King my Father it well appears to every indifferent Person both to the Displeasure of God and Unquietness of the Realm Notwithstanding I assure you all I would be as loth to see his Highness take hurt or that any evil should come to this his Realm as the best of you all And none of you have the like cause considering how I am compelled by nature being his Majesties poor and humble Sister most tenderly to Love and pray for Him and to wish unto this Realm being born within the same all wealth and prosperity to God's Honor. And if any judge of me the contrary for my Opinions sake as I trust none does I doubt not in the end with God's help to prove my self as True a Natural and Humble Sister as they of the contrary Opinion with all their devices and altering the Laws shall prove themselves good Subjects I pray you my Lords and the rest of the Council no more to disquiet and trouble me with matters touching my Conscience wherein I am at a full point with God's help whatsoever shall happen to me intending with his Grace to trouble you little with any worldly suits But to bestow that short time I think to live in quietness praying for the King's Majesty and all you Heartily wishing that your Proceedings may be to God's Honor the Safeguard of the King's Person and quietness of the Realm And thus my Lords I wish unto you and all the rest as well to do as my self But notwithstanding this Letter no favor was to be hoped for from these Lords They signifying unto her how sensible they were of those Inconveniences which the Example of her Inconformity to the Laws Established was likely to produce amongst the rest of the Subjects And hereupon the Lord Chancellor and Secretary Peters were sent to her who after some Conferences brought her to the King at Westminster Here the Council declared unto her how long the King had permitted her the use of Mass and considering her Obstinacy was resolved now no longer to permit it unless She would put Him in hope of some Conformity in time To which She answered That her Soul was God's and touching her Faith as she could not change so she would not dissemble it Reply was made That the King intended not to constrain her Faith but to restrain the outward profession of it in regard of the danger the Example might draw After some like enterchanges of speeches the Lady was appointed to remain with the King When there arrived an Embassador from the Emperor with a threatning Message of War in case his Cosin the Lady Mary should be denied the Free Exercise of Mass. Hereupon the King presently advised with the Archbishop of Canterbury and with the Bishops of London and Rochester Who gave their Opinion that to give licence to sin was sin But to connive at sin might be allowed so it were not too long nor without hope of Reformation Then Answer was given to the Embassador That the King would send to the Emperor within a Month or Two and give him such Satisfaction as should be fit Upon this Earnest Soliciation of the Emperor it was declared unto her by the King with the consent of his Council That for his sake and her own also it should be suffered and winked at if she had the private Mass used in her own Closet for a season until she might be better informed But so that none but some few of her own Chamber should be present with her And that to all the rest of her House-hold the Service of the Church should be only used Whereupon Mallet and Barkeley Two of her Chaplains saying Mass promiscuously in her absence to her houshold-Servants were seized on and committed Prisoners Which first occasioned an exchange of Letters betwixt her and the King and afterwards more frequently between her and the Council One of which Letters to the Council touching this matter I will here insert taken out of Fox's Acts and Monuments Page 704. The Lady Mary to the Lords of the Council My Lords WHereas you writ that two of my Chaplains Dr. Mallet and Barkeley are Indicted for certain things committed by them contrary to the King's Majesties Laws and that a Process for them is also awarded or given forth and delivered to the Sheriff of Essex I cannot but marvel they should be so used considering it is done as I understand for sâ—…ying Mass within my House and although I have been of my self minded alwaies and yet am to have Mass within my House yet I have been advertised that the Emperor's Majesty also hath been promised that I should never be unquieted nor troubled for my so doing as some of you my Lords can witness Moreover the declaration of the said Promise was made to
She nor any of her Servants would be there to hear him Madam said he I hope you will not refuse to hear God's Word To which she answered That she could noâ—… tell what they called God's Word it not having been accounted such in the days of her Father After which falling into many different expressions against the Religion then Established She dismissed him thus My Lord said she For your Kindness to visit me I thank you But for your offer to Preach before me I thank you not Which said he was conducted by Sir Thomas Wharton to the place where they dined by whom he was presented with a Cup of Wine which having drank and looking very sadly on it Surely said he I have done amiss in drinking in that place where God's Word offered was refused Whereas if I had done my duty I ought to have departed immediately and to have shaken the dust from off my feet in testimony against this House in which the Word of God could not find admittance Which words he spake with such a vehemency of Spirit as made the hair of some of those who were present to stand an end as themselves afterwards confessed Of this behaviour of the Princess the Bishop much complained in a Sermon preached at Paul's Cross July 16. Anno 1553. in which he was appointed by the Lords of the Council to set forth the Title of Queen Jane to whom the Succession of the Crown had been transferred by King Edward Of whose Death the Princess being secretly advertised dispatched Letters to the Lords of the Council requiring them not only to acknowledge Her Just Title to the Crown but likewise to cause Proclamation to be made in the usual Form which was accordingly done Thus Dr. Heylyn And thus far concerning Her before She came to the Crown we will now proceed to make a brief Relation of Her Reign as to matters of Religion CHAP. I. Of the putting to Death of the Duke of Northumberland and some others who had been chief Actors against Her Anno Reg. Mar. 1. THE Lady Mary being Proclaimed Queen gave on the same day Eight-pence to every poor Housholder in London Thus Howes upon Stow pag. 613. Dr. Heylyn pag. 18. The Duke of Northumberland the chief Actor against Her was soon after this condemned to die In that short Interval which past between the Sentence and the Execution he was frequently visited by Dr. Heath Bishop of Worcester He having made it his Request to the Lords That some Godly and Learned man might be licensed by the Queen to repair to him for the quiet and satisfaction of his Conscience When he was on the Scaffold turning himself to 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 of their Ancestors rejecting that of later date which had occasioned all the Misery of the foregoing Thirty years and that for the prevention of the future if they desired to present their Souls unspotted in the sight of God and were truly affected to their Country they should expel those Trumpets of Sedition the Preachers of the Reformed Doctrine That for himself whatever had been otherwise pretended he professed no other Religion than that of his Fathers for testimony whereof he appealed to his good Friend and Ghostly Father the Lord Bishop of Worcester and finally that being blinded with Ambition he had been contented to make rack of his Conscience by temporizing For which he professed himself sincerely repentant and so acknowledged the justice of his Death Thus Dr. Heylyn concerning the Death of this Duke Here follows another Relation of this Duke's Death By Howes upon Stow pag. 614. WHen he came upon the Scaffold he said to the People Though my death be terrible to Nature yet I pray you judge the best in God's works for he doth all for the best And as for me I am a wretched sinner and have deserved to die I forgive all Men and I pray God to forgive them And if I have offended any of you here I pray you and the World to forgive me And most chiefly I desire Forgiveness of the Queens Highness whom I have most heinously Offended And I pray you all to bear me witness that I depart in perfect Love and Charity with all the World and I beg that you will assist me with your Prayers at the hour of my Death And when he had made a Confession of his Belief he added these words And here I do protest to you unfeignedly even from the bottom of my Heart that this which I have spoken is of my self and not moved thereto by any Man nor for any flattery or hope of Life And of this I take to witness my Lord of Worcester my old Friend and Ghostly Father that he found me in this mind and opinion when he came to me Wherefore be assured that I have declared this only upon my own mind and affection and for the Zeal and Love that I bear to my Natural Country I could rehearse much more even by experience that I have of this Evil that hath happened to this Nation by these occasions But you know I have another thing to do whereunto I must prepare me for that time draws near After he had thus spoken he kneeled down saying to them that were about him I beseech you all to bear me witness that I die in the true Catholick Faith And then said the Psalms of Miserere and De Profundis his Pater Noster and six of the first Verses of the Psalm In Te Domine Speravi ending with this Verse Into thy hands O Lord I commend my Spirit and when he had thus ended his Prayers the Executioner asked him forgiveness to whom he said I forgive thee with all my Heart and do thy part without fear And bowing towards the Block he said I have deserved a thousand Deaths and then laid his Head upon the Block and so was Beheaded whose Body with the Head was buried in the Tower by the Body of Edward late Duke of Sommerset So that there lies before the High Altar in St. Peter's Church Two Dukes between Two Queens to wit the Duke of Sommerset and the Duke of Northumberland between Queen Anne and Queen Catherine All Four beheaded At the same time and place also were likewise beheaded Sir John Gates and Sir Thomas Palmer Sir John Gates being upon the Scaffold spake these or the like Words My coming hither this day is to die whereof I assure you all I am well worthy for I have lived as viciously and wickedly as any Man hath done in the World I was the greatest reader of Scripture that might be of a Man of my degree and a worse follower thereof there was not living For I did not read to be edified thereby nor to seek the Glory of God but contrariwise arrogantly to be Seditious and dispute thereof and privately to interpret it
Glory which by rash talk and words many have pretended And in so doing they should best please God and live without danger of the Laws and maintain the tranquillity of the Realm And furthermore for as much as it is well known That Sedition and false Rumors have been nourished and maintained in this Realm by the subtilty and malice of some evil-disposed Persons who take upon them without sufficient Authority to Preach and Interpret the Word of God after their own brains in Churches and other places both Publick and Private and also by playing Enterludes and Printing of false fond Books Ballads Rhymes and other lewd Treatises concerning Doctrine in matters now in Question Her Highness therefore strictly Charges and Commands That nothing in this kind be evermore Acted Thus Dr. Heylyn Relates Her moderate Proceedings as to Religion CHAP. III. A full Relation of the Reconciling this Nation to its former Obedience and Subjection to the Church of Rome Anno Reg. Mar. 2. Dr. Heylyn pag. 41. THe next work was the Reconciling this Nation to its former Obedience and Subjection to the Church of Rome But before the attempting this it was thought fit to remove one Difficulty which was most likely to hinder the progress of this Design The Difficulty was this There was a general fear That if the Popes were restored to their former Power the Church might challenge Restitution of her former Possessions Now to secure them against this Fear they had not only the Promise of the King and Queen but some Assurance underhand from the Cardinal Legat who knew right well that the Church Lands had been so chopped and changed by the Two last Kings as not to be restored without the manifest ruine of many of the Nobility and most of the Gentry who were invested in the same Thus Dr. Heylyn concerning this Obstacle Which being removed the work goes on The Relation whereof is thus delivered by Sir Rich. Baker Page 461. Cardinal Pool being sent for by the King and Queen came over into England from Rome as Legat à Latere Whereupon a Parliament being called and the King and Queen sitting there under a Cloth of State with the Cardinal on their right hand All the Lords Knights and Burgesses being present the Bishop of Winchester Lord Chancellor made a short Speech signifying the Presence of the Lord Cardinal and that he was sent from the Pope as his Legat à Latere to do a work tending to the Glory of God and the Benefit of them all which says he you may better hear from his own Mouth Thus Sir Rich. Baker Dr. Heylyn pag. 41. Then the Cardinal rose up and made a very grave and eloquent Speech First giving 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 departure from the Church they had been estranged He therefore earnestly exhorts them to acknowledge their Errors and chearfully to receive the benefit which Christ was ready by his Vicar to extend unto them His Speech was said to have been long and Artificial but it concluded to this purpose That he had the Keys to open them away into the Church which they had shut against themselves by making so many Laws to the dishonor and reproach of the See Apostolick On the revoking of which Laws they should find him ready to make use of the Keys in opening of the door 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 sorry they were That they had withdrawn their Obedience from the Apostolick See and consented to the Statutes made against it promising to do their best endeavor hereafter That the said Laws and Statutes should be Repealed beseeching the King and Queen to intercede for them with his Holiness that they might be Absolved from their Crimes and Censures which they had incurred 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 Sr. 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 Supreme Head thereof To which they assenting 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 readiness 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 shewed how acceptable the repentance of a Sinner 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 viz. Our Lord Jesus Christ who with his most precious Blood hath redeemed and washed us from all our sins and iniquities that he might purchase to himself a glorious Spouse without spot or wrinkle and whom the Father hath appointed Head over all his Church He by his Mercy Absolve you And we by Apostolical Authority given unto us by his Holiness Pope Julius the 3d. his Vice-gerent here on Earth do Absolve and Free you and every one 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 to the Unity of our Mother the Holy Church as in our Letters more plainly it shall appear In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost Which words of his being seconded by a loud Amen by such as were present he concluded that days work with a solemn Procession to the Chappel 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. Andrews-day 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 that Day should be communicated on the Sunday following at St. Paul's Cross 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 tarried till the King came from Westminster Immediately upon whose coming the Lord Chancellor went into the Pulpit and Preached upon those words of St. Paul Rom. 13. Brethren ye are to know That it is now time to rise from sleep c. In which Sermon he declared what had been done on the Friday before in the Submission which was made to the Pope by the Lords and Commons in the Name of themselves and the whole Kingdom and the Absolution granted to them by the Cardinal in the Name of the Pope Which done and Prayers being made for the whole Estate of the Catholick Church the Company was for that time dismissed And on the Thursday after the Bishops and Clergy then Assembled in their Convocation presented themselves before the Cardinal at Lambeth and kneeling reverently on their Knees they obtained Pardon for all their Perjuries Schisms and Heresies Upon which a formal Absolution was pronounced That so all sorts of People might partake of the Popes Benediction and thereby testifie their Obedience and Submission to him The news whereof coming to the Pope he caused not only many Solemn Processions to be made in Rome and most part of Italy but proclaimed a Jubilee to be held on the 24 th of December then next coming For the Anticipating of which Solemnity he alledged this reason That it became him to imitate the Father of the Prodigal Child and having received his lost Son not only to express a Domestical Joy but likewise to invite all others to partake thereof During this Parliament was held a Convocation also as before was intimated By whom a Petition was prepared to be presented in the Name of the Convocation to both their Majesties humbly beseeching them That they would be pleased to interceed with the Cardinal not to insist on the restoring of Church-Lands Which Petition being not easie to be met withal and never Printed before is here subjoyned according to the Tenor and Effect thereof in the Latin Tongue WE the Bishops and Clergy of the Province of Canterbury assembled in Convocation during the sitting of this Parliament according to the ancient Custom with all due reverence and humility do make known to your Majesties That though we are appointed to take upon us the Care and Charge of all those Churches in which we are placed as Bishops Deans Arch-Deacons Priests or Vicars as also of the Souls therein committed to us together with all Goods Rights and Privileges thereunto belonging according to the true intent and meaning of the Canons made in that behalf And that in this respect we are bound to use all lawful means for the recovery of those Goods Rights Privileges and Jurisdictions which have been lost in the late desperate and pernicious Schism and to regain the same unto the Church as in her fâ—…rst and right estate Yet notwithstanding having took mature deliberation of the whole matter amongst our selves we cannot but 〈◊〉 confess That we know well how â—…ifficult a thâ—…ng if not impossible it is to recoveâ—… tâ—…e said Goods unto their Churches in regard of the manifold unavoidable Contracts Sales and Alienations which have been made about the same And that if any such thing should be attempted it would not only redound to the disturbance of the Publick Peace but be a means that the Unity in the Catholick Church which by the Goodness of your Majesties hath been so happily begun could not obtain its desired effect without very great difficulty Wheresore preferring the Publick Good and Quiet of the Kingdom before our own private Interest and the Salvation of so many Souls redeemed with the precious Blood of Christ before any earthly things whatsoever and not seeking our own but the things of Jesus Christ We do most earnestly and most humbly beseech your Majesties that you would graciously Vouchsafe to interceed in our behalf with the most Reverend Father in God the Lord Cardinal Pool Legat à Latere from his Holiness That he would please to settle and confirm the said Goods of the Church either in whole or in part as he thinks most fit on the present Occupants thereof according to the Power and Faculties committed to him Thereby preferring the publick Good before the Private the Peace and Tranquillity of the Realm before Suits and Troubles and the Salvation of Souls before earthly Treasure And for our parts we do both now and for all times coming consent to all and every thing which by the said Lord Legat shall in this case be finally ordained and concluded on humbly beseeching your Majesties to perswade the Lord Cardinal not to be too strict and difficult in the business And we do further beseech your Majesties to take such course that our Ecclesiastical Rights Liberties and Jurisdictions which have been taken from us by the iniquity of the former times and without which we are not able to discharge our common Duties either in the exercise of the Pastoral Office or the Cure of Souls committed to our â—…rust and care may be again restored unto us and be perpetually preserved inviolably both to us and our Churches And that all Laws which have been made to the prejudice of this our Jurisdiction and other Ecclesiastical Liberties or otherwise have proved a hindrance to it may be repealed to the Honor of God and the Temporal and Spiritual Profit both of your Majesties and this Realm Giving our selves assured hope that your most Excellent Majesties according to your singular Piety to Almighty God for so many and so great benefits received from him Will not be wanting to the necessities of the Kingdom and the occasions of the Churches having Cure of Souls But that you will consider and provide as need shall be for the Peace thereof Which Petition being thus drawn up was humbly offered to the Legat and being assented unto there was a General and Solemn Procession throughout London to give Thanks for their Conversion to the Catholick Church In this Procession there were Ninety Crosses an Hundred and Six Priests in Copes Eight Bishops in Pontificalibus followed by Bonner Bishop of London carrying the Blessed Sacrament under a Canopy attended by the Lord Mayor and Companies in their several Liveries Which Solemn Procession being ended they all returned into the Church of St. Paul where the King and Cardinal together with all the rest heard Mass And the next day the Parliament and Convocation were Dissolved Thus largely Dr. Heylyn concerning this great Solemnity For a more full Satisfaction in this Relation I will here insert some Acts made in this Parliament in order to this business To be found in the Statute Book An Act for Repealing of all Statutes Articles and Provisions made against the See Apostolick since the Twentieth year of Henry the Eighth WHereas since the Twentieth year of King Henry the Eighth much False and Erroneous Doctrine hath been Taught
thereof Some of the Lutherans had given out on the former ground That the English had deservedly suffered the greatest Hardships both at home and abroad because they Writ and Spake so irreverently of the Blessed Sacrament Thus Dr. Heylyn concerning the Lutherans detesting an English Protestant Nothing occurring more in this Queens Reign as to these matters of Religion we will now give an Account of the years when these Changes were made with an Addition of some works of Piety done by Her and in Her time IN the First year of this Queens Reign All Bishops that had been deprived in the time of King Edward the Sixth were restored to their Bishopricks and the new removed Also this year on the Twenty seventh of August the Service was sung in Latin in St. Paul's Church The Pope's Authority being likewise by Act of Parliament restored in England and the Mâ—…ss Commanded in all Churches to be used In her Second year the Realm is Absolved and Reconciled to the Church of Rome and First Fruits and Tenths restored to the Clergy In her Third year Eight hundred English Protestants sorsook the Kingdom who fell into great Confusions amongst themselves being in other Countries In her Fourth year Monasteries were be gun to be re-edified In her Fifth year great endeavors were used by Sectaries to raise Sedition by Seditious Books and unlawful Meetings or Conventicles In her Sixth year She built Publick Schools in the University of Oxford Which being decayed in tract of time and of no beautiful Structure when they were at the best were taken down In place whereof but upon a larger extent of Ground was raised that Goodly and Magnificent Fabrick which we now behold Works of Piety The Queen restored a great part of the Abbey-Lands that were in her Possession In her First year Sir Thomas white then Mayor Erected a College in Oxford called S. John's College He also Erected Schools at Bristow and Reading and gave Two thousand pounds to the City of Bristow to purchase Lands the profits whereof to be employed for the benefit of young Clothiers In her Third year died Sir John Gresham late Mayor of London who Founded a Free-School at Holt in Norfolk and gave to every Ward in London Ten pounds to be distributed to the Poor Also to Maids-Marriages Two hundred pounds Cuthbert Tunstal Bishop of Durham Erected a goodly Library in Cambridge storing it with many Excellent both Printed and Written Books He also bestowed much upon Building at Durham at Alnewick and at Tunbridge Thus Sir Richard Baker Here you have had a short View of the great Zeal and Piety that was in this Nation during the Reign of this Queen And this delivered from the mouths of her Enemies the most zealous Protestants This Account being here ended we will now proceed to relate what Changes were made as to Religion in Queen Elizabeths time Wherein the Scene was totally Altered She following the Example of her Father and Brother in going on with the Destructions and Confusions begun by them The Last Part Of these HISTORICAL COLLECTIONS Concerning A Fourth Change of Religion Made for POLITICK ENDS And of the Occurrences concerning it In the Reign of Queen Elizabeth A Preamble BEfore we begin this Queens Reign we will following Dr. Heylyn's order first make a Relation out of him of the various Fortunes of her Mother Anne Boleign of whom thus he writes in his History of Reformation pag. 86. Anne Boleign from her tender years was brought up in the Court of France Who returning into England was preferred to be Maid of Honor to Queen Catherine In whose Service the King falls in Love with her But so long concealed his Affections that there was a great League contracted betwixt her and the young Lord Peircy Son to the Earl of Northumberland But that being broken off by the endeavors of Cardinal Wolsey and the King laboring for a Divorce from Queen Catherine that he might Marry her that also was sought to be obstructed by the Cardinal Which being understood by Mrs. Anne Boleign she seeks all ways for his destruction and prevailed so far with the King that he was presently Indicted and Attainted of a Praemunire and not long after by the Counsel of Thomas Cromwel who had sormerly been the Cardinals Solicitor in his Legatine Court envolves the whole Clergy in the same Crime with him And by perswasion of this man he requires of the said Clergy to acknowledge him for Supreme Head on Earth of the Church of England and to make no new Canons and Constitutions not to Execute any such when made by his consent And having thus brought his own Clergy under his Command he was the less solicitous how his matters went in the Court of Rome concerning his Divorce Whereupon he privately Marries Mistris Anne Boleign And a long time after to wit Three or Four Months after the Birth of the Princess Elizabeth began a Parliament in which the Kings first Marriage was declared Unlawful and the Succession of the Crown settled upon His Issue by this Second Marriage An Oath being devised in maintenance of the said Succession and not long after Moor and Fisher were Executed for refusing to take that Oath The New Queen being thus settled and considering that the Pope and She had such different Interests that they could not subsist together She resolved to suppress his Power what she could But finding that the Pope was too well entrenched to be dislodged upon a sudden it was advised by Cromwel to begin with taking in the Outworks first which being gained it would be no hard matter to beat him out of his Trenches In order whereunto a Visitation is begun in which a diligent Enquiry was to be made into all Abbey's Priories and Nunneries within the Kingdom an Account of which Visitation and the Dâ—…ssolution of Abbeys hath been formerly given in the Reign of King Henry the Eighth But the New Queen for whose sake Cromwel had contrived that Plot did not live to see this Dissolution For such is the uncertainty of Humane Affairs that when she thought her Self most Secure and free from Danger She became most obnoxious to the ruine prepared for Her It had pleased God upon the Eighth of January to put an end unto the Calamities of the Virtuous but unfortunate Queen unto whose Bed she had succeeded The News whereof she entertained with such contentment that she caused her self to be apparelled in lighter Colours than was agreeable to the season or the sad occasion Whereas if she had rightly understood her own Condition She could not but have known that the long Life of Queen Catherine was to be her best preservation against all changes which the King 's loose Affections or any other Alteration in the Affairs of State were otherwise like to draw upon her But this Contentment held not long For within Three Weeks after She fell in Travail in which she miscarried of a Son to the extreme discontent of the
Father Who looked upon it as an Argument of God's displeasure as being much offended at this Second Marriage He then began to think of His ill Fortune with both His Wives both Marriages subject to cispute and the Legitimation of both His Daughters likely to be called in question in the time succeeding He must therefore cast about for another Wife of whose Marriage and his Issue by Her there could rise no controversie His eye had carried him to a Gentlewoman in the Queens Attendance on the enjoying of whom he so fixed his Thoughts that he had quite obliterated all remembrance of his former Loves Whereupon He began to be as weary of Queen Annes Gayeties and Secular humor as formerly of the Gravity and Reservedness of Queen Katharine And causing many eyes to observe her Actions they brought him a Return of some particulars which he conceived might give him a sufficient ground to proceed upon The Lord Rochfort her own Brother having some Suit to obtain by her means of the King was found whispering to her on her Bed when she was in it which was interpreted for an act of some dishonor done or intended to be done to the King in the aggravating whereof with all odious circumstances none was more forward than the Lady Rochfort her self It was observed also That Sir Henry Norris Groom of the Stool to the King had entertained a very dear affection for her not without giving himself hopes of succeeding in the King's Bed if she chanced to survive Him And it appeared that she had given him opportunity to make his Affection known and to acquaint her with his hopes which she expressed by twitting him in a frolick humor with looking after dead mens shoes Weston and Breerton both Gentlemen of the Privy Chamber were observed also to be very diligent in their Services and Addresses to her which were construed more to proceed from Love than Duty Out of all these Premises the King resolved to come to a conclusion of His aims and wishes A Solemn Tilting was maintained at Greenwich at which both the King and Queen were present the Lord Rochfort and Sir Henry Norris being principal Challengers Here the Queen by chance let fall her Handkerchief which was taken up by one of her supposed Favourites who stood under the Window whom the King perceived to wipe his face with it This taken by the King to have been done of purpose he thereupon leaves the Queen and all the rest and goes immediatly to Westminster Rochfort and Norris are the next day committed to the Tower and the Queen likewise After which Breerton and Weston with Mark Smeton one of the King's Musicians were commited on the same occasion These persons being thus committed and the cause made known the next care was to find sufficient evidence for their condemnation It was objected That the Queen growing out of hope of having any issue Male by the King had used the company of the Lord Rochfort Norris Breerton Weston and Smeton involving her at once in no smaller crimes than Adultery and Incest It appears by a Letter of Sir William Kingston Lieutenant of the Tower that he had much communication with her when she was his Prisoner in which her language seemed to be broken and distressed betwixt tears and laughter She exclaimed against Norris as if he had accused her It was further signified in that Letter that she named some others who had obsequiously applyed themselves to her Love and Service acknowledging such passages as shewed she had made use of very great liberties The conclusion of this Business was That both the Queen and the rest of the Prisoners were all put to death So died this great Lady one of the most remarkable Mockeries and Disports of Fortune which these last ages have produced raised from the quality of a private Lady to the Bed of a King Crowned on the Throne and Executed on the Scaffold the Fabrick of her Power and Glory being Six years in Building but cast down in an instant The splendor and magnificence of her Coronation seeming to have no other end but to make her the more glorious Sacrifice at the next Alteration But her death was not the chief mark the King aim'd at If she had only lost her Head though with the loss of her Honor it would have been no Bar to her Daughter Elizabeth from Succeeding her Father in the Throne Now he must have his Bed free from all such pretensions the better to draw on the following Marriage It was therefore thought necessary that she should be separated from his Bed by some other means than the Ax or Sword and that He should be legally separated from her in a Court of Judicature when the Sentence of Death had deprived Her of all means as well as of all manner of desire to dispute the point It doth not appear in Record upon what ground this Marriage was dissolved All which occurs in reference to it is a Solemn Instrument under the Seal of the Archbishop Cranmer by which that Marriage is declared on good and valid Reasons to be null and void Which Sentence was pronounced at Lambeth in the Presence of most of the great Men of that time and approved by the Prelates and Clergy assembled in their Convocation and lastly confirmed by Act of Parliament In which Act there also passed a Clause which declared the Lady Elizabeth to be Illegitimate Thus far Dr. Heylyn concerning her Mother Now because the Relation here made concerning this Queen belongs to the Reign of King Henry the Eighth I think it will not be altogether improper to insert a Speech made in that Kings Reign which did not come to my hands time enough to be put into its proper place A Speech made in the Upper House of Parliment by Dr. John Fisher Bishop of Rochester in the Reign of King Henry the Eighth in opposition to the Suppressing of the lesser Monasteries My Honored Lords THis is the place where your glorious and noble Progenitors have paternized the Kingdom from oppression Here is the Sanctuary where in all Ages but this of ours our Mother Church found still a sound Protection I should be infinitely sorrowful that from you that are so lovely Branches of antiquity and Catholick Honor the Catholick Faith should be so deeply wounded For God's and your own Goodness sake leave not to Posterity so great a blemish that you were the First and only those that give it up to ruine Where there is Cause you nobly punish and with Justice but beware of infringing so long continued Priviledges or denying the Members of the Church the parts of their Advantage that is enjoyed by every private Subject The Commons shoot their Arrows at our Livings which are the Motives that conceit us or make us to be conceived guilty Is all the Kingdom innocent and we only faulty that there is no room left for other Considerations far more weighty The Diligence Devotion and Liberality of
began to build new Altars and set up the Mass So fared it now with the Zealots among the Protestants who measuring the Queens Affections by their own or else presuming that their Errors would be taken for an honest Zeal employed themselves as busily in the demolishing of Altars and defacing of Images as if they had been Licensed and commanded to it by some Legal Warrant It happened also that some of the Ministers who remained at home and others which returned in great numbers from beyond the Seas had put themselves into the Pulpits and bitterly enveighed against the Superstitions and corruptions of the Church of Rome The Papists accused the others of Heresies Schisms Innovation in the Worship of God For the Suppressing of which Disorders the Queen Commanded there should be no Disputes concerning Religion and that no Man of what Perswasion soever he was should be suffered to Preach in publick but only such as should be Licensed Which Command and Proclamation was so strictly observed that no Sermon was Preached at St. Paul's Cross or any Publick place in London till the Easter following At which time when the Preacher was to go into the Pulpit the Door was locked and the Key thereof not to be found So that a Smith was sent for to break open the Door 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 a present Sermon By another Proclamation it 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 Chappel until some further order should be taken in it Only it was permitted That the Litany should be said in the English Tongue as likewise the Epistle and Gospel at the time of High Mass which was accordingly done in all the Churches of London on the next Sunday after and by degrees in all the other Churches of the Kingdom Further than this She thought it not convenient to proceed at the present Only She Commanded the Priest or Bishop for some say it was the one and some the other who Officiated at the Altar in the Chappel Royal not to make any Elevation of the Sacrament the better to prevent the Adoration which was given to it 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 her Chappel the Elevation was forborn also in most other places And though there were no further progress made towards 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 Thus far Dr. Heylyn ' Concerning ' the Policy used in making this Change This Relation is thus otherwise delivered by Sir Rich. Baker pag. 474. QUeen Elizabeth intending an Alteration of Religion would not do it all at once and upon the sudden but by little and little As at first she permitted only the Epistles and Gospels of the Day to be read at Mass in English But in all other matters they were to follow the Roman Rite and Custom until order could be taken for Establishing Religion by Authority of Parliament And a severe Proclamation was set out prohibiting all Disputations of Religion By which means She both put the Protestants in hope and put not Papists out of hope Yet privately She committed the Correcting of the Book of Common-Prayer set forth in the English Tongue under King Edward the Sixth to the care and diligence of Dr. Parker and others But the matter was carried on so closely that it was not communicated to any but the Marquess of Northampton the Earl of Bedford and Sir William Cecil Soon after this the use of the Lord's Supper in both kinds was by Parliament allowed And within Two or Three Months the Sacrifice of the Mass was abolished and the Liturgy in the English Tongue Established though as some say but with the difference of Six Voices in the House of Commons The next Month the Oath of Supremacy was offered to the Catholick Bishops and others and the Month following Images were removed out of the Churches broken and burnt By these degrees Religion in England was changed The Supremacy confirmed to the Queen As many of the Bishops as refused to take the Oath were presently deprived of their Bishopricks and Protestant Bishops put in the possession of them Thus Sir Rich. Baker relates this strange manner of changing Religion by degrees A necessary consequence of these Proceedings was a general Confusion in matters of Religion Which is thus set down by Howes upon Stow pag. 635. At this time the English Nation was wonderfully divided in Opinions as well in matters of Ecclesiastical Government as in divers Points of Religion by reason of Three Changes within the compass of Twelve years Every one of these varying from that which was Authorized by Henry the Eighth For King Henry assuming the Ecclesiastical Supremacy with the First Fruits and Tenths maintained Seven Sacraments with Obits and Mass for the Quick and Dead King Edward abolished the Mass Authorized a Book of Common-Prayer in English with Hallowing the Bread and Wine c. and Established only Two Sacraments Queen Mary restored all Things according to the Church of Rome reduced all Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction to the Papal Obedience with restitution of First Fruits and Tenths permitting nothing within her Realm and Dominions repugnant to the Roman Catholick Church Queen Elizabeth in Her First Parliament expelled the Papal Supremacy resumed the First Fruits and Tenths Suppressed the Mass and for the general Uniformity of her Dominions Established the Book of Common-Prayer in the English Tongue forbidding all others Thus Stow ' concerning these Prodigious Changes in Religion made by Publick Authority CHAP. III. Of the order of the Establishment of this last Change of Religion by Parliament And of a Speech made in Parliament in Opposition to the Queens Supremacy Dr. Heylyn pag. 107. NOw a Parliament draws on Summoned chiefly in reference to the Reformation which was therein to be established The Queens design in order to it could not be so closely carried but that such Lords and Gentlemen as had the managing of Elections in their several Counties retained such Men for Members of the House of Commons as they conceived most likely to comply with their intentions for a Reformation Amongst whom none appeared more active than the Duke of Norfolk the Earl of Arundel and Sir William Cecil In this Parliament there passed an Act for Restoring to the Crown the Tenths and
Answer that it is a True Church of God where Jesus Christ is truly taught and his Sacraments rightly Administred how can we disburthen our selves of our forsaking and flying from that Church which we do confess and acknowledge to be of God When with that Church which is of God we ought to be One and not to admit of any Separation If you Answer the Church of Rome is not of God but a Malignant Church then it will follow that we the Inhabitants of this Realm have not as yet received any Benefit of Christ seeing we have received no Gospel or other Doctrine nor no other Sacraments but what was sent unto us from the Church of Rome First in King Lucius his days at whose humble Epistle the Holy Martyr Elutherius then Bishop of Rome did send into this Realm two Holy Monks Fugatius and Damianus by whose Doctrine and Preaching we were first brought to the knowledge of the Faith of Jesus Chrrst of his Holy Gospel and his most Holy Sacraments Then Secuâ—…y 〈◊〉 St. Gregory being Bishop of Rome did senâ—… 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Realm two other Holy Monks St. Austin 〈◊〉 the Apostle of England and Milletus to receive the very self same Faith that had been before planted here in this Realm in the days of King Lucius Thirdly and Last of all Paulus Tertius being Bishop of Rome did send hither the Lord Cardinal Pool his Grace by Birth a Nobleman of this Land his Legate to restore us unto the same Faith which the Martyr St. Eleutherius and St. Gregory had Planted here many years before If therefore the Church of Rome be not of God but a false and Malignant Church then have we been deceived all this while seeing the Gospel the Doctrine Faith and Sacraments must be of the same nature as that Church is from whence it and they came and therefore in relinquishing and forsaking that Church the Inhabitants of this Realm shall be forced to seek further for another Gospel of Christ other Doctrine other Faith and Sacraments than we have hitherto received Which will breed such a Schism and Error in Faith as was never in any Christian Realm And therefore of your Wisdoms worthy of Consideration and maturely to be pondered and be provided for before you pass this Act of Supremacy Thus much touching the First chief Point Now to the Second Deliberation wherein I promised to move your Honors to consider What this Supremacy is which we go about by vertue of this Act to give unto the Queen and wherein it doth consist whether in Spiritual Government or Temporal But if Spiritual as these words in the Act do import Supream Head of the Church of England immediately and next unto God Then it would be considered in what Points this Spiritual Government doth consist and the Points being well known it would be considered Whether this House hath Authority to grant them and her Highness Ability to receive them And as concerning the Points wherein Spiritual Government doth consist I have in reading the Gospel and the whole course of Divinity thereupon as to my Vocation belongeth observed these Four as chief among many others whereof the first is The Power to loose and bind Sins When our Saviour in ordaining Peter to be Chief and Head-Governor of his Church said unto him Tibi dabo Claves Regni Coelorum c. That is To thee will I give the the Keys of the Kingdom of Heaven c. Now it would be considered by your Wisdoms whewhether you have sufficient Authority to grant unto her Majesty this first Point of Spiritual Government and to say unto Her Tibi dabimus c. To Thee will we give the Keys of the Kingdom of Heaven If you say Yea then do we require the sight of Warrant and Commission by the Virtue of God's Word And if you say No then you may be well assured and perswade your selves that you have not sufficient Authority to make her Highness Supream Head of the Church of Christ here in this Realm The Second Point of Spiritual Government is gathered out of these words of our Saviour Christ spoken to St. Peter in the 20th Chapter of St. John's Gospel Pasce Pasce Pasce That is Feed my Lambs Feed my Lambs Feed my Sheep Now whether your Honors have Authority by this Court of Parliament to say unto our Sovereign Lady Pasce Pasce Pasce c. That is to say Feed you the Flock of Christ you must shew your Warrant and Commission for it And further it is evident that Her Majesty being a Woman by Birth and Nature is not qualified by God's word to feed the Flock of Christ appears most plainly by St. Paul in this wise Taceant Mulieres in Ecclesiis sicut lex dicit Ler Women be silent in the Church for it is not Lawful for them to speak but to be in subjection as the Law saith And it followeth in the same place Turpe est enim Mulieres loqui in Ecclesiâ that is for that it is not seemly for a Woman to speak in the Church And in his second Epistle to Timothy Dominari in virum sed esse silentes that is to say I allow not that a Woman be a Teacher or to be above her Husband but to keep her self in silence Therefore it appears likewise as your Honors have not Authority to give her Highness this second Point of Spiritual Government to Feed the Flock of Christ So by St. Pauls Doctrine her Highness may not intermeddle her self with the same And therefore She cannot be Supream Head of the Church here in England The Third chief Point of Spiritual Government is gathered out of those words of our Saviour Christ spoken to St. Peter in the 22th Chapter of St. Lukes Gospel Ego rogavi pro Te ut non deficiat fides Tua Tu aliquando conversus confirma fratres Tuos That is I Prayed for Thee that thy Faith shall not fail and thou being converted Confirm thy Brethren and ratifie them in wholesome Doctrine and Administration of the Sacraments which are the Holy Instruments of God so Instituted and Ordained for our Sanctification that without them his Grace is not to be received But to Preach or to administer the Sacraments a Woman may not be admitted to do neither may she be Supream of Christ's Church The Fourth and Last chief point of Spiritual Government which I promised to Note unto you doth consist in the Excommunication and Spiritual Punishment of all such as shall approve themselves not to be the Obedient Children of Christ's Church Of which Authority our Saviour Christ speaks in St. Matthew's Gospel in the 18th Chapter saying If your Brother offending will not hear your charitable admonition whether secretly at first or yet before one or two Witnesses then we must complain of him to the Church and If he will not hear the Church let him be taken as an Heathen or Publican So the Apostle did Excommunicate the
determined to discharge her Self from the Trouble of all Church-Concernments and leave them wholly to his care That She was sensible enough into what Disorder and Confusion the Affairs of the Church were brought by the connivance of some Bishops the obstinacy of some Ministers and the Power of some great Lords both in Court and Country But that notwithstanding he must resolve not only to assert the Episcopal Power but also to restore the Uniformity in God's Publick Worship which by the weakness of his Predecessor was so much endangered It is not easie to imagine what clamors were raised amongst the Brethren upon this occasion how they moved Heaven and Earth the Court and Country and all the Friends they had of the Clergy or Laity to come to their assistance in this time of their tryal By means whereof they raised so strong an opposition against his proceedings that it put him to great difficulties Some great Men about the Court who had engaged themselves in the Puritan Quarrels thought best to stand a while behind the Curtain and set Beal upon him of whose impetuosity and edge against him they were well assured This Beal was in himself a most eager Puritan trained up by Walsingham to draw dry-foot after Priests and Jesuits his extream hatred to those men being looked on as the only good quality which he could pretend to But being over-blinded with zeal he conceived that whatsoever was not Puritan must needs be Popish And that the Bishops were to be esteemed no otherwise than the Sons of Antichrist because they were not looked upon as Fathers by the Brotherhood And so far was he hurried on by these disaffections that though he were raised to be one of the Clerks of the Council yet he preferred the Interest of that Faction before that of the Queens Insomuch that he was noted to Jeer and Gibe at all such Sermons as did most commend her Majesties Government and move the Auditory to Obedience not sparing to accuse the Preachers to have broached false Doctrine From this man the Archbishop received great affronts The Lord Burleigh upon some complaint made against the Liturgy by some of the Brethren required them to compose another such as they thought might generally be accepted by them The first Classis thereupon devised a new one agreeable in most things to the Form of Geneva But this draught being offered to the Consideration of the second Classis for so the wise States-men had of purpose contrived the plot there were no fewer than Six-hundred Exceptions made against it and consequently so many Alterations to be made therein before it was to be admitted The Third Classis quarrelled at those Alterations and resolved therefore on a new Model which should have nothing of the other And against this the Fourth Classis was able to pretend as many Objections as had been made against the first So that no likelihood appearing of any other Form of Worship either better or worse to be agreed upon between them he dismiss'd their Agents for the present with this assurance that whensoever they could agree upon any Liturgy which might be universally received amongst them they should find him very ready to serve them in the setling of it Walsingham tries his Fortune next in hope to bring them to allow of the English Liturgy on the removal of such things as seemed most offensive And thereupon he offered in the Queens Name that the Three Ceremonies at which they seemed most to boggle that is to say Kneeling at the Communion the Surplice and the Cross in Baptism should be expunged out of the Book of Common-Prayer if that would content them But thereunto it was replied That they would have a total Abolition of the Book without retaining any part or office in it in their next New-nothing Which peremptory Answer did much alienate his Affections from them as afterwards he affirmed to some from whose Pen I have it The Brethren on the other-side finding how little they had gotten by their Application to the Lords of the Council began to steer another course by practising upon the temper of the following Parliaments into which they had procured many of their chief Friends to be received for Knights or Burgesses as they could prevail By whose means notwithstanding that the Queen had commanded them not to deal in any thing which was of concernment to the Church they procured a Bill to pass in the House of Commons 1585 for making tryal of the Sufficiency of such as were to be ordained or admitted Ministers by Twelve Lay-men whose Approbation and Allowance they were first to pass before they were to receive Institution into any Benefice Another Bill was also passed for making Marriage lawful at all times of the year which had been formerly attempted by the Convocation They were in hand also with a Third concerning Ecclesiastical Courts and the Episcopal Visitations pretending only a redress of some Exorbitancies in excessive Fees but aiming plainly at the overthrow of the Jurisdiction The like attempts were made in some following Sessions in which some Members shewed themselves troublesome to sober men alienated from the present Government and disrespective towards the Queen Thus Dr. Heylyn CHAP. XXII Their Design is promoted from Scotland and from many Great Men about the Court. Dr. Heylyn pag. 261. THe chief Zealots of the Faction of Scotland finding that they could not have their Wills on the young King James whose Mother was Prisoner in England and his Council came into England where they were much countenanced by Mr. Secretary Walsingham who had set them at work and therefore was obliged to gratifie them The Lords and great Men of that Nation were ordered to retire to Norwich and many of the Ministers permitted to prepare for London Oxford Cambridge and some other places At London they are suffered by some Zealous Brethren to possess the Pulpits in which they rail without controul against their King the Council and their Natural Queen labouring withal to beget amongst the People an ill opinion against the present Government and to engage them for advancing that of the Presbytery It would be too tedious to relate all that they acted in this kind The Lords of this Faction obtained such Assistance from Queen Elizabeth that they got the King into their hands put a new Guard upon him and conducted him whither they pleased Upon this the English Puritans shewed themselves to have more of the Scot in them than in former times For presently upon the News of the good Success which their Scottish Brethren had a scandalous Libel in the nature of a Dialogue is published and dispersed in most parts of England in which the state of this Church is pretended to be laid open They likewise had prepared their way to the Parliament then sitting Anno 1586 by telling them That if the Reformation they desired were not granted they should betray God his Truth and the whole Kingdom That they should declare