Proceedings therein and in all things committed to our Charge shall be such as shall be able to answer the whole World both in honour and discharge of our Consciences And where your Grace writeth that the most part of the Realm through a naughty Liberty and Presumption are now brought into such a Division as if we Executors go not about to bring them to that stay that our late Master left them they will forsake all Obedience unless they have their own Will and Phantasies and then it must follow that the King shall not be well served and that all other Realms shall have us in an Obloquy and Derision and not without just cause Madam as these words written or spoken by you soundeth not well so can I not perswade my self that they have proceeded from the sincere mind of so vertuous and so wise a Lady but rather by the setting on and procurement of some uncharitable and malicious Persons of which sort there are too many in these days the more pity but yet we must not be so simple so to weigh and regard the Sayings of ill-disposed People and the Doings of other Realms and Countries as for that Report we should neglect our Duty to God and to our Soveraign Lord and Native Country for then we might be justly called evil Servants and Masters and thanks be given unto the Lord such hath been the King's Majesty's Proceedings our young Noble Master that now is that all his faithful Subjects have more cause to render their hearty thanks for the manifold Benefits shewed unto his Grace and to his People and Realm sithence the first day of his Reign until this hour than to be offended with it and thereby rather to judg and think that God who knoweth the Hearts of all Men is contented and pleased with his Ministers who seek nothing but the true Glory of God and the Surety of the King's Person with the Quietness and Wealth of his Subjects And where your Grace writeth also That there was a Godly Order and Quietness left by the King our late Master your Graces Father in this Realm at the time of his Death and that the Spiritualty and Temporalty of the whole Realm did not only without compulsion fully assent to his Doings and Proceedings specially in Matters of Religion but also in all kind of Talk whereof as your Grace wrote ye can partly be witness your self at which your Graces Sayings I do something marvel For if it may please you to call to your remembrance what great Labours Travels and Pains his Grace had before he could reform some of those stiff-necked Romanists or Papists yea and did not they cause his Subjects Rise and Rebel against him and constrained him to take the Sword in his hand not without danger to his Person and Realm Alas why should your Grace so shortly forget that great Outrage done by those Generations of Vipers unto his Noble Person only for God's Cause Did not some of the same ill kind also I mean that Romanist Sect as well with his own Realm as without conspire oftentimes his Death which was manifestly and oftentimes proved to the confusion of some of their privy Assisters Then was it not that all the Spiritualty nor yet the Temporalty did so fully assent to his Godly Orders as your Grace writeth of Did not his Grace also depart from this Life before he had fully finished such Orders as he minded to have established to all his People if death had not prevented him Is it not most true that no kind of Religion was perfected at his Death but left all uncertain most like to have brought us in Parties and Divisions if God had not only helpt us And doth your Grace think it convenient it should so remain God forbid What regret and sorrow our late Master had the time he saw he must depart for that he knew the Religion was not established as he purposed to have done I and others can be witness and testify and what he would have done further in it if he had lived a great many know and also I can testifie And doth your Grace who is learned and should know God's Word esteem true Religion and the knowledg of the Scriptures to be new-fangledness and fantasie For the Lord's sake turn the Leaf and look the other while upon the other side I mean with another Judgment which must pass by an humble Spirit through the Peace of the Living God who of his infinite Goodness and Mercy grant unto your Grace plenty thereof to the satisfying of your Soveraign and your most noble Hearts continual desire Number 16. Certain Petitions and Requests made by the Clergie of the Lower House of the Convocation to the most Reverend Father in God the Arch-Bishop of Canterbury his Grace and the residue of the Prelats of the Higher House for the furtherance of certain Articles following FIrst Ex M. S. Dr. Stillingfleet That Ecclesiastical Laws may be made and established in this Realm by thirty two Persons or so many as shall please the King's Majesty to name and appoint according to the effect of a late Statute made in 35th Year of the most noble King and of most famous Memory King Henry the 8th So that all Judges Ecclesiastical proceeding after those Laws may be without danger and peril Also that according to the Ancient Custom of this Realm and the Tenour of the King 's Writ for the summoning of the Parliament which be now and ever have been directed to the Bishops of every Diocess the Clergy of the Lower House of the Convocation may be adjoined and associate with the Lower House of the Parliament or else That all such Statutes and Ordinances as shall be made concerning all Matters of Religion and Causes Ecclesiastical may not pass without the sight and assent of the said Clergy Also that whereas by the Commandment of King Henry the 8th certain Prelats and learned Men were appointed to alter the Service in the Church and to devise other convenient and uniform Order therein Who according to the same Appointment did make certain Books as they be informed Their Request is That the said Books may be seen and perused by them for a better expedition of Divine Service to be set forth accordingly Also that Men being called to Spiritual Promotions or Benefices may have some Allowance for their necessary Living and other Charges to be sustained and born concerning the same Benefices in the first Year wherein they pay the first Fruits Whether the Clergy of the Convocation may liberally speak their Minds without danger of Statute or Law Number 17. A second Petition to the same purpose Ex M. S. Dr. Stillingfleet WHere the Clergy in this present Convocation assembled have made humble suit unto the most Reverend Father in God my Lord Arch-Bishop of Canterbury and all the other Bishops That it may please them to be a Mean to the King's Majesty and Lord Protector 's Grace
to preserve the Catholick Religion both which she promised but performed neither This is said without any Proof and is not at all probable but is an Ornament added to set off the one and blemish the other Queen Mary's Sickness was concealed as much as was possible A week before her Death they were burning Hereticks as busily as ever and by the managing Affairs in the Parliament it appears there was great care taken to conceal the desperate Condition she was in so it is not likely that any such Messages was sent by her to her Sister And thus far have I traced our Author in the History he gives of the Reigns of King Henry the Eighth Edward the Sixth and Queen Mary and have discovered an equal measure of Ignorance and Malice in him but he was the fitter to serve their Ends who employed him and were resolved to believe him how false or improbable soever his Relation might be We see what use they have made of him ever since that Time His Friends were so sensible of the Advantage their Cause received from such a way of Writing that they resolved to continue down the History through Queen Elizabeth's Reign in which we are told Sanders himself made some Progress but that not being done to such a perfection as Rishton and others intended to bring it they undertook it and have written so skilfully after the Copy Sanders had given them that if it is possible they have out-done him in these two particular Excellencies of writing Histories in which he was so great a Master Impudence and Falshood as to Matter of Fact In one thing they had manifestly the better of him that they writing of what fell out in their own Time could not be ignorant of the truth of Things whereas he writing of what was done before he was born or when he was but a Child might have said many things more innocently delivering them as he had them by report But this Excuse cannot fit them who did knowingly and on Design prevaricate so grosly in Matters of Fact A little taste of these I shall give only so far as I have carried down the History of this Queen for to examine all the Faults they have committed would require a new Volume but from the taste I shall give the Reader he will easily know what judgment to pass on the whole work As for the Decency of the Style the first Period gives an Essay of it in which the Author promises such a Description of the Queen's Reign that this Lioness shall be known by her Claws And for his sincerity in writing the whole Preface is one indication of it in which he accuses the Queen for acting against the Laws of Nature and Religion in assuming the Supremacy and represents it so that the Reader must needs think she was the High Priest of England that ordained Bishops and Ministers and performed all other Holy Offices whereas she was so scrupulous in this Point that as she would not be called the Supream Head of this Church so she made it be declared both in one of the Articles of Religion set forth in the beginning of her Reign and afterwards in an Act of Parliament what was the nature of that Supremacy which she assumed making it both a part of the Religion and the Law of the Land By these it was declared that they gave her not the Ministry of God's Word or of the Sacraments but only that Prerogative which was given by God himself in the Scriptures to Godly Princes that they should rule all committed to their charge by God whether they be Ecclesiastical or Temporal and restrain with the Civil Sword the stubborn and evil Doers If Men were not past shame they could not after such an express and publick Declaration put on the confidence of writing as this Author does I shall follow him in some more steps and doubt not not but I shall convince the Reader that he was the fittest Man that could be found to have writ a Continuation of Sanders's History Pag. 255. 1. He says Henry the Second of France in a solemn Assembly did after Queen Mary's Death declare the Queen of Scotland his Daughter-in-Law Queen of England and Ireland This was neither done in a Solemn Assembly nor presently after Queen Mary's Death nor was it done by Henry the Second The Queen of Scotland did by her Uncles Advice assume that Title without any publick Act and it was not done till they understood that Philip was moving for a Dispensation in the Court of Rome for marrying Queen Elizabeth King Henry did only connive at it but neither ordered it nor justified it when the Queen's Ambassador complained of it An Author that is so happy in his first Period as to make three such Mistakes is likely to give us an excellent History Ibid. 2. He says The Arch-Bishop of York and all the other Bishops one only excepted refused to anoint her This was one of the most extraordinary things that ever was in any Government that the Bishops refusing to crown the Queen were not only not punished for it but continued to hold their Bishopricks still and the Arch-Bishop of York was continued a Privy Counsellor many months after this This is none of the Claws of a Lioness but rather a slackness and easiness of Clemency that deserves censure if it had not been that the Queen resolved to begin her Reign with the most signal Acts of Mercy that were possible Pag. 256. 3. He says Cecil and his Friend Bacon raised vast Estates to themselves and involved the Government into vast Difficulties and brought the Queen's Revenue into great or rather inextricable Confusion This may pass among Forreigners and perhaps be believed but we at home that when we wish for happy Times and excellent Counsellors do naturally reflect on the Days of that glorious Queen and her wise Councils will not be much wrought on by it The Revenue was never better managed the Undertakings of the Government were never greater and the Charge was never less This gives a Character of those Ministers beyond all exception Sir Nicholas Bacon never raised himself above that Quality which he brought with him into the Court. And Cecil was not advanced above the lowest Rank of Nobility tho he was in the chief Ministry above thirty Years and though they both left good Estates behind them yet far short of what might have been expected after so long a course in such great and high Employments 4. He says Pag. 257. There was an Oath enacted in the Parliament for the Queen's Supremacy and those who refused to swear it for the first Offence were to forfeit their Benefices and all their Goods and to be Prisoners for Life the second Offence was made Treason Such a false recital of a printed Act deserves a severer Animadversion than I shall bestow on it The refusing that Oath did infer no other punishment but the forfeiture of Benefices and
from Rome This Storm against Pool went soon over by the Peace that was made between Philip and the Pope of which it will not be unpleasant to give the Relation The Duke of Guise having carried his Army out of Italy the Duke of Alva marched towards Rome and took and spoiled all Places on his way When he came near Rome all was in such confusion that he might have easily taken it but he made no assault The Pope called the Cardinals together and setting out the danger he was in with many Tears said he would undauntedly suffer Martyrdome which they who knew that the trouble he was in flowed only from his restless ambition and fierceness could scarce hear without laughter The Duke of Alva was willing to treat A Peace made between the Pope and the King of Spain The Pope stood high on the Points of Honour and would needs keep that entire though he was forced to yield in the chief matters he said rather than lose one jot that was due to him he would see the whole World ruined pretending it was not his own Honour but Christs that he sought In fine the Duke of Alva was required by him to come to Rome and on his Knees to ask pardon for invading the Patrimony of the Church and to receive Absolution for himself and his Master He being superstitiously devoted to the Papacy and having got satisfaction in other things consented to this So the Conqueror was brought to ask pardon and the vain Pope received him and gave him Absolution with as much haughtiness and state as if he had been his Prisoner This was done on the 14th of September and the news of it being brought into England on the 6th of October Letters were written by the Council to the Lord Major and Aldermen of London requiring them to come to St. Pauls where high Mass was to be said for the Peace now concluded between the Pope and the King after which Bonfires were ordered One of the secret Articles of the Peace was the restoring Pool to his Legatine Power The beginnings of a War between England and Scotland War being now proclaimed between England and France the French sent to the Scotish Queen Regent to engage Scotland in the War with England Hereupon a Convention of the Estates was called But in it there were two different Parties Those of the Clergy liked now the English Interest as much as they had been formerly jealous of it and so refused to engage in the War since they were at Peace with England They had also a secret dislike to the Regent for her kindness to the Heretical Lords On the other hand those Lords were ready enough to gain the protection of the Regent and the favour of France and therefore were ready to enter into the War hoping that thereby they should have their Party made the stronger in Scotland by the entertainment that the Queen Regent would be obliged to give to such as should fly out of England for Religion Yet the greater part of the Convention were against the War The Queen Regent thought at least to engage the Kingdom in a defensive War by forcing the English to begin with them Therefore she sent D'Oisel who was in chief command to fortifie Aymouth which by the last Treaty with England was to be unfortified So the Governour of Berwick making Inroads into Scotland for the disturbing of their Works upon that D'Oisel began the War and went into England and besieged Warke Castle The Scotish Lords upon this met at Edenburgh and complained that D'Oisel was engaging them in a War with England without their consent and required him to return back under pain of being declared an Enemy to the Nation which he very unwillingly obeyed But while he lay there the Duke of Norfolk was sent down with some Troops to defend the Marches There was only one Engagement between him and the Kers but after a long dispute they were defeated and many of them taken The Queen Regent seeing her Authority was so little considered writ to France to hasten the Marriage of her Daughter to the Dolphin for that he being thereupon invested with the Crown of Scotland the French would become more absolute Upon this a Message was sent from France to a Convention of Estates that sate in December to let them know that the Dolphin was now coming to be of Age and therefore they desired they would send oversome to treat about the Articles of the Marriage They sent the Arch-bishop of Glasgow the Bishop of Orkney the Prior of St. Andrews who afterwards was Earl of Murray the Earls of Rothes and Cassils the Lord Fleeming and the Provosts of Edenburgh and Mountrose some of every Estate that in the Name of the three Estates they might conclude that Treaty These Wars coming upon England when the Queens Treasure was quite exhausted it was not easie to raise Money for carrying them on They found such a backwardness in the last Parliament that they were afraid the supply from thence would not come easily or at least that some favour would be desired for the Hereticks Therefore they tried first to raise Money by sending Orders under the Privy Seal for the borrowing of certain Sums But though the Council writ many Letters to set on those Methods of getting Money yet they being without if not against Law there was not much got this way so that after all it was found necessary to summon a Parliament to assemble on the 20th of January In the end of the Year the Queen had Advertisements sent her from the King that he understood the French had a design on Calais but she either for want of Money or that she thought the place secure in the Winter did not send these Supplies that were necessary and thus ended the Affairs of England this Year In Germany there was a Conference appointed The Affairs of Germany to bring matters of Religion to a fuller settlement Twelve Papists and twelve Protestants were appointed to manage it Julius Pflugius that had drawn the Interim being the chief of the Papists moved that they should begin first with condemning the Heresie of Zuinglius Melancthon upon that said it was preposterous to begin with the condemnation of errors till they had first setled the Doctrines of Religion Yet that which the Papists expected followed upon this for some of the fiercer Lutherans being much set against the Zuinglians agreed to it This raised heats among themselves which made the Conference break up without bringing things to any issue Upon this occasion Men could not but see that Artifice of the Roman Church which has been often used before and since with too great success When they cannot bear down those they call Hereticks with open force their next way is to divide them among themselves and to engage them into Heats about those lesser matters in which they differ hoping that by those animosities their endeavours which being united would