several Ages till the state of Monkery rose And then when they engrossed the riches and the Popes assumed the Dominion of the World it was not consistent with these Designs nor with the Arts used to promote them to let the Scriptures be much known Therefore Legends and strange stories of Visions with other devices were thought more proper for keeping up their Credit and carrying on their Ends. It was now generally desired that if there were just exceptions against what Tindal had done these might be amended in a New Translation This was a plausible thing and wrought much on all that heard it who plainly concluded that those who denyed the people the use of the Scriptures in their vulgar tongues must needs know their own Doctrine and practices to be inconsistent with it Upon these grounds Cranmer who was projecting the most effectual means for promoting a Reformation of Doctrine moved in Convocation that they should Petition the King for leave to make a Translation of the Bible But Gardiner and all his party opposed it both in Convocation and in secret with the King It was said that all the Heresies and extravagant Opinions which were then in Germany and from thence coming over to England sprang from the free use of the Scriptures And whereas in May the last year Nineteen Hollanders were accused of some Heretical Opinions denying Christ to be both God and man or that he took Flesh and Blood of the Virgin Mary or that the Sacraments had any effect on those that received them in which opinions Fourteen of them remained Obstinate and were burnt by pairs in several places it was complained that all those drew their Damnable errors from the indiscreet use of the Scriptures And to offer the Bible in the English tongue to the whole Nation during these distractions would prove as they pretended the greatest Snare that could be Therefore they proposed that there should be a short exposition of the most useful and necessary Doctrines of the Christian Faith given to the people in the English tongue for the Instruction of the Nation which would keep them in a certain Subjection to the King and the Church in Matters of Faith The other party though they liked well the publishing such a Treatise in the vulgar tongue yet by no means thought that sufficient but said the people must be allowed to search the Scripture by which they might be convinced that such Treatises were according to it These Arguments prevailed with the Two Houses of Convocation So they petitioned the King that he would give order to some to set about it To this great Opposition was made at Court Some on the one hand told the King that a diversity of opinions would arise out of it and that he could no more Govern his Subjects if he gave way to that But on the other hand it was represented that nothing would make his Supremacy so acceptable to the Nation and make the Pope more hateful than to let them see that whereas the Popes had Governed them by a blind obedience and kept them in darkness the King brought them into the light and gave them the free use of the word of God And nothing would more effectually extirpate the Popes Authority and discover the Impostures of the Monks than the Bible in English in which all people would clearly discern there was no Foundation for those things These Arguments joyned with the Power that the Queen had in his affections were so much considered by the King that he gave order for setting about it immediately To whom that work was committed or how they proceeded in it I know not For the Account of these things has not been preserved nor conveighed to us with that care that the Importance of the thing required Yet it appears that the work was carryed on at a good rate for Three years after this it was Printed at Paris which shows they made all convenient hast in a thing that required so much deliberation But this was the last publick good Act of this unfortunate Queen who the nearer she drew to her end grew more full of good works She had distributed in the last Nine Moneths of her Life between Fourteen and Fifteen Thousand Pounds to the poor and was designing great and publick good things And by all appearance if she had lived the Money that was raised by the Suppression of Religious Houses had been better employed than it was In Ianuary she brought forth a dead Son This was thought to have made ill Impressions on the King and that as he concluded from the death of his Sons by the former Queen that the Marriage was displeasing to God so he might upon this misfortune begin to make the like Judgment of this Marriage Sure enough the Popish party were earnestly set against the Queen looking on her as the great supporter of Heresie And at that time Fox then Bishop of Hereford was in Germany at Smalcald treating a League with the Protestant Princes who insisted much on the Ausburg Confession There were many Conferences between Fox and Doctor Barnes and some others with the Lutheran Divines for accommodating the differences between them and the thing was in a good forwardness All which was imputed to the Queen Gardiner was then Ambassador in France and wrote earnestly to the King to dissuade him from entring into any Religious League with these Princes for that would alienate all the World from him and dispose his own Subjects to Rebel The King thought the German-Princes and Divines should have submitted all things to his Judgment and had such an Opinion of his own Learning and was so puft up with the flattering praises that he daily heard that he grew impatient of any opposition and thought that his Dictates should pass for Oracles And because the Germans would not receive them so his mind was alienated from them But the Duke of Norfolk at Court and Gardiner beyond Sea thought there might easily be found a mean to accommodate the King both with the Emperor and the Pope if the Queen were once out of the way for then he might freely Marry any one whom he pleased and that Marriage with the Male Issue of it could not be disputed Whereas as long as the Queen lived her Marriage as being judged Null from the beginning could never be allowed by the Court of Rome or any of that Party with these reasons of State others of affection concurred The Queen had been his Wife Three years but at this time he entertained a secret Love for Iane Seimour who had all the charmes both of Beauty and Youth in her person and her humor was tempered between the severe gravity of Queen Katharine and the gay pleasantness of Queen Anne The Queen perceiving this Alienation of the Kings heart used all possible Arts to recover that affection of whose decay she was sadly sensible But the Success was quite contrary to what she designed For the King
the Cure and Charge both in Preaching and other duties And so many hundred Pounds as any had so many Students he was to breed up Tenthly Where Parsonage or Vicarage-Houses were in great decay the Incumbent was every year to give a fifth part of his profits to the repairing of them till they were finished and then to maintain them in the State they were in Eleventhly All these Injunctions were to be observed under pain of suspension and sequestration of the mean profits till they were observed These were equally ingrateful to the Corrupt Clergy and to the Laity that adhered to the old Doctrine The very same opinions about Pilgrimages Images and Saints departed and instructing the people in the Principles of Christian Religion in the Vulgar tongue for which the Lollards were not long ago either burnt or forced to abjure them were now set up by the Kings Authority From whence they concluded that whatsoever the King said of his maintaining the old Doctrine yet he was now changing it The Clergy also were much troubled at this Precedent of the Kings giving such Injunctions to them without the consent of the Convocation From which they concluded they were now to be slaves to the Lord Vice-gerent The matter of these Injunctions was also very uneasie to them The great profits they made by their Images and Relicks and the Pilgrimages to them were now taken away and yet severe Impositions and heavy Taxes were laid on them a fifth part for Repairs a tenth at least for an Exhibitioner and a fortieth for Charity which were cryed out on as intolerable burdens Their Labour was also increased and they were bound up to many severities of Life All these things touched the Secular Clergy to the quick and made them concur with the Regular Clergy in disposing the people to Rebel This was secretly fomented by the great Abbots For though they were not yet struck at yet the way was prepared to it and their Houses were oppressed with crouds of those who were sent to them from the suppressed Houses There was some pains taken to remove their fears For a Letter was sent to them all in the Kings name to silence the reports that were spread abroad as if all Monasteries were to be quite suppressed This they were required not to believe but to serve God according to their Order to obey the Kings Injunctions to keep Hospitality and make no wastes nor dilapidations Yet this gave them small comfort and as all such things do rather encreased than quieted their jealousies and fears So many secret causes concurring no wonder the people fell into mutinous and seditious practices The first rising was in Lincolnshire in the beginning of October where a Church-man disguised into a Cobler and directed by a Monk drew a great body of men after him About 20000 were gathered together They swore to be true to God the King and the Common-wealth and digested their Grievances into a few Articles which they sent to the King desiring a redress of them They complained of some things that related to secular concerns and some Acts of Parliament that were uneasie to them They also complained of the suppression of so many Religious Houses that the King had mean persons in high places about him who were ill Councellors They also complained of some Bishops who had subverted the Faith and they apprehended the Jewels and Plate of their Churches should be taken away Therefore they desired the King would call to him the Nobility of the Realm and by their advice redress their Grievances Concluding with an acknowledgment of the Kings being their Supream Head and that the Tenthes and first Fruits of all Livings belonged to him of Right When the King heard of this Insurrection he presently sent the Duke of Suffolk with a Commission to raise forces for dispersing them But with him he sent an answer to their Petition He began with that about his Councellors and said It was never before heard of that the Rabble presumed to Dictate to their Prince what Councellors he should choose That was the Princes work and not theirs The Suppression of Religious Houses was done pursuant to an Act of Parliament and was not set forth by any of his Counsellors The Heads of these Religious Houses had under their own hands confessed those horrid scandals which made them a reproach to the Nation And in many Houses there were not above Four or Five Religious persons So it seemed they were better pleased that such dissolute persons should consume their Rents in riotous and idle living than that their Prince should have them for the Common good of the whole Kingdom He also answered their other Demands in the same high and commanding strain and required them to submit themselves to his mercy and to deliver their Captains and Lieutenants into the hands of his Lieutenants and to disperse and carry themselves as became good and obedient Subjects and to put an hundred of their number into the hands of his Lieutenants to be ordered as they had deserved When this answer was brought to them it raised their Spirits higher The practising Clergy-men continued to inflame them They perswaded them that the Christian Religion would be very soon defaced and taken away quite if they did not vigorously defend it That it would come to that that no man should marry a Wife receive any of the Sacraments nor eat a piece of rost meat but he should pay for it That it were better to live under the Turk than under such oppression Therefore there was no cause in which they could with more honour and a better conscience hazard their Lives than for the Holy Faith This encouraged and kept them together a little longer They had forced many of the Gentry of the Countrey to go along with them These sent a secret Message to the Duke of Suffolk letting him know what ill effects the Kings rough answer had produced That they had joyned with the people only to moderate them a little and they knew nothing that would be so effectual as the offer of a general pardon So the Duke of Suffolk as he moved towards them with the forces which he had drawn together sent to the King to know his pleasure and earnestly advised a gentle composing of the matter without blood At that same time the King was advertised from the North that there was a general and formidable Rising there Of which he had the greater apprehensions because of their neighbourhood to Scotland whose King being the Kings Nephew was the Heir presumptive of the Crown since the King had Illegitimated both his Daughters And though the Kings firm Alliance with France made him less apprehensive of trouble from Scotland and their King was at this time in France to marry the Daughter of Francis yet he did not know how far a general Rising might invite that King to send orders to head and assist the Rebels in
so high Concernment should have been neglected especially in such a Critical time and under so severe a King But as I continued down my search to the Fourth year of Queen Mary I found in the Twelvth Roll of that year a Commission which cleared all my former doubts and by which I saw what was become of the things I had so anxiously searched after We have heard of the Expurgation of Books practised in the Church of Rome but it might have been imagined that publick Registers and Records would have been safe yet lest these should have been afterwards Confessors it was resolved they should then be Martyrs for on the 29th of December in the 4th year of her Reign a Commission was issued out under the great Seal to Bonner Bishop of London Cole Dean of St. Pauls and Martine a Doctor of the Civil Law which is of that importance that I shall here insert the material words of it Whereas it is come to our knowledg that in the time of the late Schisme diverse Compts Books Scrolls Instruments and other writings were practised devised and made concerning Professions against the Popes Holiness and the See Apostolick and also sundry infamous Scrutinies taken in Abbeys and other Religious houses tending rather to subvert and overthrow all good Religion and Religious houses than for any truth contained therein Which being in the Custody of divers Registers and we intending to have those writings brought to knowledg whereby they may be Considered and ordered according to our will and pleasure thereupon those three or any two of them are empowered to cite any persons before them and examine them upon the Premisses upon Oath and to bring all such Writings before them and certifie their diligence about it to Cardinal Pool that further order might be given about them When I saw this I soon knew which way so many Writings had gone and as I could not but wonder at their boldness who thus presumed to raze so many Records so their ingenuity in leaving this Commission in the Rolls by which any who had the Curiosity to search for it might be satisfied how the other Commissions were destroyed was much to be commended Yet in the following Work it will appear that some few Papers escaped their hands I know it is needless to make great Protestations of my sincerity in this Work These are of course and are little considered but I shall take a more effectual way to be believed for I shall vouch my Warrants for what I say and tell where they are to be found And having copied out of Records and MSS. many Papers of great importance I shall not only insert the substance of them in the following Work but at the end of it shall give a Collection of them at their full length and in the Language in which they were originally written from which as the Reader will receive full Evidence of the truth of this History so he will not be ill pleased to observe the Genius and way of the Great men in that time of which he will be better able to judge by seeng their Letters and other Papers than by any representation made of them at second hand They are digested into that order in which they are referred to in the History It will surprize some to see a Book of this Bigness written of the History of our Reformation under the Reign of King Henry the Eighth since the true beginnings of it are to be reckoned from the Reign of King Edward the 6. in which the Articles of our Church and the Forms of our Worship were first compiled and set forth by Authority And indeed in King Henry's time the Reformation was rather conceived than brought forth and two Parties were in the last 18 years of his Reign strugling in the Womb having non and then advantages on either side as the unconstant humour of that King changed and as his Interests and often as his passions swayed him Cardinal Wolsey had so dissolved his mind into pleasures and puffed him up with Flattery and servile Compliances that it was not an easie thing to serve him for being boisterous and impatient naturally which was much heightned by his most extravagant vanity and high conceit of his own Learning and Wisdom he was one of the most uncounsellable persons in the World The Book which he wrote had engaged him deep in these Controversies and by perpetual flatteries he was brought to fancie it was written with some degrees of inspiration And Luther in his answer had treated him so unmannerly that it was only the necessity of his Affairs that forced him into any correspondence with that Party in Germany And though Cranmer and Cromwel improved every advantage that either the Kings temper or his Affairs offered them as much as could be yet they were to be pitied having to do with a Prince who upon the slightest pretences threw down those whom he had most advanced which Cromwel felt severely and Cranmer was sometimes near it The faults of this King being so conspicuous and the severity of his proceedings so unjustifiable particularly that heinous violation of the most sacred Rules of Iustice and Government in condemning men without bringing them to make their Answers most of our Writers have separated the Concerns of this Church from his Reign and imagining that all he did was founded only on his Revenge upon the Court of Rome for denying his Divorce have taken little care to examine how matters were transacted in his time But if we consider the great things that were done by him we must acknowledge that there was a signal providence of God in raising up a King of his temper for clearing the way to that blessed Work that followed and that could hardly have been done but by a man of his humour so that I may very fitly apply to him the witty Simile of an ingenious writer who compares Luther to a Postilion in his waxed Boots and oiled Coat lashing his horses through thick and thin and be spattering all about him This Character befits King Henry better saving the Reverence due to his Crown who as the Postilion of Reformation made way for it through a great deal of mire and filth He abolished the Popes Power by which not only that Tyranny was destroyed which had been long an heavie burthen on this oppressed Nation but all the Opinions Rites and Constitutions for which there was no better Authority than Papal Decrees were to fall to the ground The Foundation that supported them being thus sapped He suppressed all the Monasteries in which though there were some inexcusable faults committed yet he wanted not reason to do what he did For the Foundation of those Houses being laid on the Superstitious Conceit of Redeeming Souls out of Purgatory by saying Masses for them they whose Office that was had by counterfeiting Relicks by forging of Miracles and other like Impostures drawn together a vast wealth to the enriching of their Saints
not then just cause to distrust all that came from him when at one time he condemned what he had allowed at another So that the King saw clearly he did not Consider the ease of his Conscience but other worldly respects that had put him on Consulting so many Learned men whose judgments differed much from those few that were about the Pope who thought the Prohibition of such Marriages was onely positive and might be dispensed with by the Pope whereas all other Learned men thought the Law was Moral and indispensable He perceived the Apostolick See was destitute of that Learning by which it should be directed and the Pope had oft professed his own Ignorance and that he spake by other mens mouths but many Universities in England France and Italy had declared the Marriage unlawful and the Dispensation null None honoured the Apostolick See more than he had done and therefore he was sorry to write such things if he could have been silent If he should obey the Popes Letters he would offend God and his own Conscience and give scandal to those who condemned his Marriage he did not willingly dissent from him without a very urgent cause that he might not seem to despise the Apostolick See therefore he desired the Pope would forgive the freedom that he used since it was the Truth that drew it from him And he added that he intended not to Impugn the Popes Authority further except he compelled him and what he did was only to bring it within its first and Ancient Limits to which it was better to reduce it than to let it always run on headlong and do amiss therefore he desired the Pope would Conform himself to the opinions of so many Learned men and do his Duty and Office The Letter ends with a Credence to the Ambassador The Pope seeing his Authority was declining in England resolved now to do all he could to recover it either by force or Treaty and so ordered a Citation to be made of the King to appear in Person or by Proxie at Rome to answer to the Queens appeal upon which Sir Edward Karne was sent to Rome with a new Character of Excusatour His Instructions were to take the best Counsel for pleading an Excuse of the Kings appearance at Rome First upon the grounds that might be found in the Canon Law and these not being sufficient he was to Insist on the Prerogatives of the Crown of England Doctor Bonner went with him who had expressed much zeal in the Kings cause though his great zeal was for Preferment which by the most servile ways he always Courted He was a forward bold man and since there were many Threatnings to be used to the Pope and Cardinals he was thought fittest for the employment but was neither Learned nor discreet They came to Rome in March where they found great heats in the Consistory about the Kings business The Imperialists pressed the Pope to proceed but all the wise and indifferent Cardinals were of another mind And when they understood what an Act was passed about Annates they saw clearly that the Parliament was resolved to adhere to the King in every thing he intended to do against their Interests The Pope expostulated with the Ambassadors about it but they told him the Act was still in the Kings Power and except he provoked him he did not intend to put it in execution The Ambassadors finding the Cardinal of Ravenna of so great reputation both for Learning and Vertue that in all matters of that kind his opinion was heard as an Oracle and gave Law to the whole Consistory they resolved to gain him by all means possible And Doctor Bennet made a secret address to him and offered him what Bishoprick either in France or England he would desire if he would bring the Kings matter to a good issue He was at first very shie at length he said he had been oft deceived by many Princes who had made him great Promises but when their business was ended never thought of performing them therefore he would be sure and so drave a Bargain and got under Doctor Bennets hand a promise of which a Copy being sent to the King written by Bennet himself will be found at the end of this Volume Bearing that he having Powers from the King for that effect dated the 29th of December last did promise the Cardinal for his help in the Kings affair Monasteries or other Benefices in France to the value of 6000 Ducates a year and the first Bishoprick that fell vacant in England and if it were not Ely that when ever that See was vacant upon his resigning the other he should be provided with the Bishoprick of Ely dated at Rome the 7th of February 1532. This I set down as one of the most Considerable Arguments that could be used to satisfie the Cardinals Conscience about the justice of the Kings cause This Cardinal was the fittest to work secretly for the King for he had appeared visible against him I find also by other Letters that both the Cardinals of Anâ—ona and Monte afterwards Pope Iulius the 3d were prevailed with by arguments of the same nature though I cannot find cut what the Bargains were Providellus that was accounted the greatest Canonist in Italy was brought from Bononia and entertained by the Ambassadors to give Counsel in the Kings cause and to plead his Excuse from appearing at Rome The plea was summed up in 28 Articles which were offered to the Pope and he admitted them to be examined in the Consistory appointing three of them to be opened at a Session But the Imperialists opposed that and after fifteen of them had been heard procured a new order that they should be heard in a Congregation of Cardinals before the Pope pretending that a Consistory sitting but once a week and having a great deal of other Business it would be long before the matter could be brought to any issue So Karne was served with a new order to appear in the Congregation the 3d. of April with this Certification That if he appeared not they would proceed Upon which he protested that he would adhere to the former Order yet being warned the second time he went first and protested against it which he got entered in the Datary This being considered in the Congregation they renewed the Order ofhearing it in the Consistory on the 10th of April and then Providellus opened three Conclusions Two of them related to Karne's Powers the third was concerning the Safety of the place to both parties But the Imperialists and the Queens Council being dissatisfied with this Order would not appear Upon which Karne complained of their Contumacy and said By that it was visible they were distrustful of their Cause On the 14th of April a new intimation was made to Karne to appear on the 17th with his Advocates to open all the rest of the Conclusions but he according to the first Order would onely plead
Court had an eye on their Lands made them to be as complyant as could be But Fisher was a man of great reputation and very ancient so that much pains was taken to satisfie him A week before the Parliament sat down the Arch-Bishop of Canterbury proposed to him that he and any Five Doctors such as he should choose and the Bishop of London and Five Doctors with him might confer about it and examine the Authorities of both sides that so there might be an Agreement among them by which the scandal might be removed which otherwise would be taken from their Janglings and Contests among themselves Fisher accepted of this and Stokesley wrote to him on the 8th of Ianuary that he was ready whenever the other pleased and desired him to name time and place and if they could not agree the matter among themselves he moved to refer it to two Learned men whom they should choose in whose determination they would both acquiesce How far this overture went I cannot discover and perhaps Fishers sickness hindred the progress of it But now on the 15th of Ianuary the Parliament sat down by the Journals I find no other Bishops present but the Arch-Bishop of Canterbury the Bishops of London Winchester Lincoln Bath and Wells Landaffe and Carlisle There were also twelve Abbots present but upon what pretences the rest excused their attendance I do not know perhaps some made a difference between submitting to what was done and being active and concurring to make the change During the Session a Bishop preached every Sunday at Pauls-Cross and declared to the people That the Pope had no Authority at all in England In the two former Sessions the Bishops had preached that the general Council was above the Pope but now they struck a note higher This was done to let the people see what justice and reason was in the Acts that were then passing to which I now turn and shall next give an account of this great Session of Parliament which I shall put rather in the natural Method according to the matter of the Acts than in the order of time as they passed On the 9th of March a Bill came up from the Commons for dischargeing the Subjects of all dependance on the Court of Rome it was read the first time in the House of Lords the 13th of March and on the 14th was read the second time and Committed The Committee reported it on the 19th by which it appears there was no stiff nor long opposition and he that was likest to make it was both obnoxious and absent as will afterwards appear On the 19th it was read the third time and on the 20th the fourth time and then passed without any protestation Some Proviso's were added to it by the Lords to which the Commons agreed and so it was made ready for the Royal assent In the Preamble the intolerable exactions for Peter-pence Provisions Pensions and Bulls of all sorts are complained of which were contrary to all Laws and grounded only on the Popes Power of Dispensing which was Usurped But the King and the Lords and Commons within his own Realm had only power to consider how any of the Laws were to be Dispensed with or Abrogated and since the King was acknowledged the Supreme Head of the Church of England by the Prelates and Clergy in their Convocations Therefore it was Enacted that all Payments made to the Apostolick Chamber and all Provisions Bulls or Dispensations should from thenceforth cease But that all Dispensations or Licences for things that were not contrary to the Law of God but only to the Law of the Land should be granted within the Kingdom by and under the Seals of the two Arch-Bishops in their several Provinces who should not presume to grant any contrary to the Laws of Almighty God and should only grant such Licences as had been formerly in use to be granted but give no Licence for any new thing till it were first examined by the King and his Council whether such things might be dispensed with and that all Dispensations which were formerly taxed at or above 4 l. should be also confirmed under the Great-Seal Then many clauses follow about the Rates of Licences and the ways of procuring them It was also declared that they did not hereby intend to vary from Christ's Church about the Articles of the Catholick Faith of Christendom or in any other things declared by the Scriptures and the word of God necessary for their Salvation confirming withal the exemptions of Monasteries formerly granted by the Bishop of Rome exempting them still from the Arch-Bishops Visitations declaring that such Abbeys whose Elections were formerly confirmed by the Pope shall be now confirmed by the King who likewise shall give Commission under his Great-Seal for visiting them providing also that Licences and other Writs obtained from Rome before the 12 of March in that year should be valid and in force except they were contrary to the Laws of the Realm giving also to the King and his Council power to order and reform all Indulgences and Priviledges or the abuses of them which had been granted by the See of Rome The offenders against this Act were to be punished according to the Statutes of Provisors and Premunire This Act as it gave great ease to the Subject so it cut off that base trade of Indulgences about Divine Laws which had been so gainful to the Church of Rome but was of late fatal to it All in the Religious Houses saw their Priviledges now struck at since they were to be reformed as the King saw cause which put them in no small confusion Those that favoured the Reformation rejoyced at this Act not only because the Popes Power was rooted out but because the Faith that was to be adhered to was to be taken from those things which the Scriptures declared necessary to Salvation so that all their fears were now much qualified since the Scripture was to be the standard of the Catholick Faith On the same day that this Bill passed in the House of Lords another Bill was read for confirming the Succession to the Crown in the Issue of the Kings present Marriage with Queen Anne It was read the second time on the 21 of March and Committed It was reported on the 23th and read the third time and passed and sent down to the Commons who sent it back again to them on the 26th so speedily did this Bill go through both Houses without any opposition The Preamble of it was The distractions that had been in England about the Succession to the Crown which had occasioned the effusion of much Blood with many other mischiefs all which flowed from the want of a clear Decision of the true Title from which the Popes had Usurped a Power of investing such as pleased them in other Princes Kingdoms and Princes had often maintained such Donations for their other ends therefore to avoid the like
the Pope had any other Jurisdiction in England than any other forreign Bishop it was referred to Thirty Doctors and Batchelors who were impowered to set the University-Seal to their Conclusion they all agreed in the Negative and the whole University being examined about it man by man assented to their determination All the difficulty that I find made was at Richmond by the Franciscan Friers where the Bishop of Coventry and Lichfield Rowland Lee and Thomas Bedyl tendred some Conclusions to them among which this was one That the Pope if Rome has no greater jurisdiction in this Kingdom of England by the Law of God than any other Forreign Bishop This they told them was already subscribed by the two Arch-Bishops the Bishops of London Winchester Duresm Bath and all the other Prelates and Heads of Houses and all the famous Clerks of the Realm And therefore they desired that the Friers would refer the matter to the Four Seniors of the House and acquiesce in what they should do But the Friers said it concerned their Consciences and therefore they would not submit it to a small part of their House they added that they had sworn to follow the Rule of St. Francis and in that they would live and dy and cited a Chapter of their Rule That their Order should have a Cardinal for their Protector by whose directions they might be governed in their obedience to the Holy See But to this the Bishop answered That St. Francis lived in Italy where the Monks and other Regulars that had Exemptions were subject to the Pope as they were in England to the Arch-Bishop of Canterbury And for the Chapter which they cited it was showed them that it was not written by St. Francis but made since his time and though it were truly a part of his Rule it was told them that no particular Rule ought to be preferred to the Laws of the Land to which all Subjects were bound to give Obedience and could not be excused from it by any voluntary Obligation under which they brought themselves Yet all this could not prevail on them but they said to the Bishop they had professed St. Francis's Rule and would still continue in the Observance of it But though I do not find such resistance made elsewhere yet it appears that some secret practises of many of those Orders against the State were discovered therefore it was resolved that some effectual means must be taken for lessening their credit and Authority with the people and so a general Visitation of all Monasteries and other Religious Houses was resolved on This was chiefly advised by Doctor Leighton who had been in the Cardinals service with Cromwell and was then taken notice of by him as a dextrous and diligent man and therefore was now made use of on this Occasion He by a Letter to Cromwell advertised him that upon a long Conference with the Dean of the Arches he found the Dean was of Opinion that it was not fit to make any Visitation in the Kings name yet for Two or Three years till his Supremacy were better received and that he apprehended a severe Visitation so early would make the Clergy more averse to the Kings Power But Leighton on the other hand thought nothing would so much recommend the Supremacy as to see such good effects of it as might follow upon a strict and exact Visitation And the Abuses of Religious persons were now so great and visible even to the Laity That the Correcting and Reforming these would be a very popular thing He writ further That there had been no Visitation in the Northern parts since the Cardinal Ordered it Therefore he advised one and desired to be employed in York-shire And by another Letter dated the 4th of Iune he wrote to Cromwell desiring that Doctor Lee and he might be imployed in Visiting all the Monasteries from the Diocess of Lincoln Northwards which they could Manage better than any body else having great kindred and a large acquaintance in those parts so that they would be able to discover all the disorders or seditious practises in these Houses He complained that former Visitations had been slight and insignificant and promised great faithfulness and diligence both from himself and Doctor Lee. The Arch-Bishop of Canterbury was now making his Metropolitical Visitation having obtained the Kings Licence for it which says That he having desired that according to the Custom and the Prerogative of his Metropolitical See he might make his Visitation The King granted him Licence to do it and required all to assist and obey him dated the 28th of April Things were not yet ripe for doing great matters so that which he now look'd to was to see that all should submit to the Kings Supremacy and renounce any dependance on the Pope whose name was to be struck out of all the Publick Offices of the Church This was begun in May 1535. Stokesly Bishop of London submitted not to this Visitation till he had entered Three Protestations for keeping up of Priviledges In October began the great Visitation of Monasteries which was committed to several Commissioners Leighton Lee and London were most imployed But many others were also empowered to Visit. For I find Letters from Robert Southwell Elâ—ice Price Iohn Ap-price Richard Southwell Iohn â—age Richard Bellasis Waltâ—r Hendle and several others to Cromwell giving him an account of the Progress they made in their several Provinces Their Commissions if they were passed under the great Seal and enrolled have been taken out of the Rolls for there are none of them to be found there Yet I encline to think they were not under the great Seal For I have seen an Original Commission for the Visitation that was next year which was only under the Kings hand and Signet From which it may be inferred that the Commissions this year were of the same nature yet whether such Commissions could Authorize them to grant Dispensations and Discharge men out of the Houses they were in I am not skill'd enough in Law to determine And by their Letters to Cromwell I find they did assume Authority for these things So what their Power was I am not able to discover But besides their Powers and Commissions they got Instructions to direct them in their Visitations and Injunctions to be left in every House of which though I could not recover the Originals yet Copies of very good Authority I have seen which the Reader will find in the Collection at the end of this Book The Instructions contain 86 Articles The substance of them was to try Whether Divine Service was kept up day and night in the right hours And how many were commonly present and who were frequently absent Whether the full number according to the Foundation was in every House Who were the Founders What additions have been made since the Foundation And what were their Revenues Whether it was ever changed from one
Order to another By whom And for what Cause What Mortmains they had And whether their Founders were sufficiently Authorized to make such Donations Upon what suggestions and for what Causes they were exempted from their Diocesans Their Local Statutes were also to be seen and examined The Election of their Head was to be enquired into The Rule of every House was to be considered How many professed And how many Novices were in it And at what time the Novices Professed Whether they knew their Rule and observed it Chiefly the three Vows of Poverty Chastity and Obedience Whether any of them kept any money without the Masters knowledge Whether they kept company with women within or without the Monastery Or if there were any back-doors by which women came within the precinct Whether they had any boys lying by them Whether they observed the Rules of Silence Fasting Abstinence and Hair-shirts Or by what warrant they were dispenced with in any of these Whether they did Eat Sleep wear their Habit and stay within the Monastery according to their Rules Whether the Master was too cruel or too remiss And whether he used the Brethren without partiality or malice Whether any of the Brethren were incorrigible Whether the Master made his accompts faithfully once a year Whether all the other Officers made their accompts truely And whether the whole Revenues of the House were imployed according to the intention of the Founders Whether the Fabrick was kept up and the Plate and Furniture were carefully preserved Whether the Covent-Seal and the Writings of the House were well kept And whether Leases were made by the Master to his Kindred and Friends to the damage of the House Whether Hospitality was kept and whether at the receiving of Novices any money or reward was demanded or promised What care was taken to instruct the Novices Whether any had entred into the House in hope to be once the Master of it Whether in giving Presentations to Livings the Master had reserved a Pension out of them Or what sort of Bargains he made concerning them An account was to be taken of all the Parsonages and Vicarages belonging to every House and how these Benefices were disposed of and how the Cure was served All these things were to be inquired after in the Houses of Monks or Friars And in the Visitation of Nunneries they were to Search Whether the House had a good Enclosure and if the Doors and Windows were kept shut so that no man could enter at inconvenient hours Whether any men conversed with the Sisters alone without the Abbesses leave Whether any Sister was forced to profess either by her Kindred or by the Abbess Whether they went out of their precinct without leave And whether they wore their Habit then What employment they had out of the times of Divine Service What familiarity they had with Religious men Whether they wrote Love-Letters Or sent and received Tokens or Presents Whether the Confessor was a discreet and learned man and of good reputation And how oft a year the Sisters did Confess and Communicate They were also to visit all Collegiate Churches Hospitals and Cathedrals and the Order of the Knights of Ierusalem But if this Copy be compleat they were only to view their Writings and Papers to see what could be gathered out of them about the Reformation of Monastical Orders And as they were to visit according to these Instructions so they were to give some Injunctions in the Kings Name That they should endeavour all that in them lay that the Act of the Kings Succession should be observed where it is said that they had under their Hands and Seals confirmed it This showes that all the Religious Houses of England had acknowledged it and they should teach the people that the Kings Power was Supreme on Earth under God and that the Bishop of Rome's Power was Usurped by Craft and Policy and by his ill Canons and Decretals which had been long tolerated by the Prince but was now justly taken away The Abbot and Brethren were declared to be absolved from any Oath they had Sworn to the Pope or to any Forreign Potentate and the Satutes of any Order that did bind them to a Forreign Subjection were abrogated and ordered to be razed out of their Books That no Monk should go out of the precinct nor any woman enter within it without leave from the King or the Visitor and that there should be no entry to it but one Some Rules were given about their Meals and a Chapter of the Old or New Testament was ordered to be read at every one The Abbots Table was to be served with common Meats and not with delicate and strange Dishes and either he or one of the Seniors were to be always there to entertain strangers Some other Rules follow about the distribution of their Alms their accommodation in Health and Sickness One or two of every House was to be kept at the University that when they were well Instructed they might come and teach others And every day there was to be a Lecture of Divinity for a whole hour The Brethren must all be well employed The Abbot or Head was every day to explain some part of the Rule and apply it according to Christ's Law and to shew them that their Ceremonies were but Elements introductory to true Christianity and that Religion consisted not in Habits or in such like Rites but in cleanness of Heart pureness of Living unfeigned Faith Brotherly Charity and true honouring of God in Spirit and Truth That therefore they must not rest in their Ceremonies but ascend by them to true Religion Other Rules are added about the Revenues of the House and against Wastes and that none be entred into their House nor admitted under twenty four years of Age. Every Priest in the House was to say Mass daily and in it to pray for the King and Queen If any brake any of these Injunctions he was to be denounced to the King or his Visitor-general The Visitor had also Authority to punish any whom he should find guilty of any Crime and to bring the Visitor-general such of their Books and Writings as he thought fit But before I give an account of this Visitation I presume it will not be ingrateful to the Reader to offer him some short view of the Rise and Progress of Monastick Orders in England and of the state they were in at this time What the Ancient British Monks were or by what Rule they were Governed whether it was from the Eastern Churches that this Constitution was brought into Britain and was either suited to the Rule of St. Anthony St. Pachon or St. Basil or whether they had it from France where Sulpitius tells us St. Martin set up Monasteries must be left to conjecture But from the little that remains of them we find they were very numerous and were obedient to the Bishop of Caerleon as all the Monks of the
Sermon a Priest coming to have killed him was taken with the weapon in his hand but when the people were rushing furiously on him Wishart got him in his Arms and saved him from their rage for he said he had done no harm only they saw what they might look for He became a little after this more than ordinary serious and apprehensive of his end he was seen sometimes to rise in the night and spend the greatest part of it in Prayer and he often warned his hearers that his Sufferings were at hand but that few should suffer after him and that the Light of true Religion should be spread over the whole Land He went to a great many places where his Sermons were well received and came last to Lothian where he found a greater neglect of the Gospel than in other parts for which he threatned them That Strangers should chace them from their dwellings and possess them He was Lodged in a Gentleman of Qualities house Cockburn of Ormeston when in the night the house was beset by some horsemen who were sent by the Cardinals means to take him The Earl of Bothwel that had the chief Jurisdiction in the County was with them who promising that no hurt should be done him he caused the Gate to be opened saying The Blessed Will of God be done When he presented himself to the Earl of Bothwel he desired to be proceeded with according to Law for he said he feared less to die openly than to be Murdered in secret The Earl promised upon his honour that no harm should be done him and for some time seemed resolved to have made his words good but the Queen Mother and Cardinal in end prevailed with him to put Wishart in their hands and they sent him to St. Andrews where it was agreed to make a Sacrifice of him Upon this the Cardinal called a meeting of the Bishops to St. Andrews against the 27th of February to destroy him with the more Ceremony but the Arch-Bishop of Glasgow moved that there should be a Warrant procured from the Lord Governour for their proceedings To this the Cardinal consented thinking the Governour was then so linked to their Interests that he would deny them nothing but the Governor bearing in his heart a secret love to Religion and being plainly dealt with by a Noble Gentleman of his name 〈…〉 Preston who laid before him the just and terrible Judgments of God he might look for if he suffered poor Innocents to be so Murdered at the appetite of the Clergy sent the Cardinal word not to proceed till he himself came and that he would not consent to his death till the cause was well examined and that if the Cardinal proceeded against him his blood should be required at his hands But the Cardinal resolved to go on at his peril for he apprehended if he delayed it there might be either a Legal or a violent rescue made so he ordered a mock Citation of Wishart to appear who being brought the next day to the Abbey-Church the Process was opened with a Sermon in which the Preacher delivered a great deal of good Doctrine concerning the Scriptures being the only Touchstone by which Heresie was to be tryed After Sermon the Prisoner was brought to the Bar he first fell down on his knees and after a short Prayer he stood up and gave a long account of his Sermons That he had Preached nothing but what was contained in the ten Commandments the Apostles Creed and the Lords Prayer but was interrupted with reproachful words and required to answer plainly to the Articles obâ—ected to him Upon which he appealed to an indifferent Judge he desired to be tryed by the word of God and before my Lord Governor whose Prisoner he was but the Indictment being read he confessing and offering to justifie most of the Articles objected against him was Judged an obstinate Heretick and Condemned to be burnt All the next night he spent in Prayer In the Morning two â—riers came to Confess him but he said he would have nothing to do with them yet if he could he would gladly speak with the Learned man that Preached the day before So he being sent to him after much Conference he asked him if he would receive the Sacrament Wishart answered he would most gladly do it if he might have it as Christ had instituted it under both kinds but the Cardinal would not suâ—fer the Sacrament to be given him And so breakfast being broughâ— he discoursed to those that were present of the death of Christ and the ends of the Sacrament and then having blessed and consecrated the Elements he took the Sacrament himself and gave it to those that were with him That being done he would taste no other thing but retired to his Devotion Two hours after the Executioners came and put on him a Coat of black Linning full of bags of Powder and carryed him out to the place of Execution which was before the Cardinals Castle He spake a little to the people desiring them not to be offended at the good word of God for the sufferings that followed it it was the true Gospel of Christ that he had Preached and for which with a most glad heart and mind he now offered up his Life The Cardinal was set in state in a great Window of his Castle looking on this sad Spectacle When Wishart was tyed to the Stake he cryed aloud O Saviour of the World have Mercy upon me â—ather of Heaven I recommend my Spirit into thy Holy hands So the Executioners kindled the fire but one perceiving after some time that he was yet alive encouraged him to call still on God to whom he answered The flame hath scorched my body yet hath it not daunted my Spirit but he who from yonder high place looking up to the Cardinal beholdâ—th us with such pride shall within few days lie in the same as ignominiously as now he is seen proudly to rest himself The Executioner drawing the Cord that was about his neck straiter sâ—opt his breath so that he could speak no more and his body was soon consumed by the fire Thus died this eminent servant and witnâ—ss of Christ on whose Sufferings I have enlarged the more because they proved so fatal to the interests of the Popish Clergy for not any one thing hastned forward the Reformation more than this did and since he had both his Education and Ordination in England a full account of him seems no impertinent Digression The Clergy rejoyced much at his death and thought according to the constant Maxime of all Persecutors that they should live more at ease now when Wishart was out of the way They magnified the Cardinal for proceeding so vigorously without or rather against the Governorâ— Orders But the people did universally look on him as a Martyr and believed an extraordinary measure of Gods Spirit had rested on him since besides great innocency and purity of Life his predictions came so oft to
Hospital and he order'd the Church of the Franciscans a little within Newgate to be opened which he gave to the Hospital This was done the 3d of Ianuary Another was of Trinity Colledg in Cambridg one of the Noblest Foundations in Christendom He continued in a decay till the 27 of the moneth and then many signs of his approaching end appearing few would adventure on so unwelcom a thing as to put him in mind of his change then imminent but Sir Anthony Denny had the honesty and courage to do it and desired him to prepare for death and remember his former life and to call on God for mercy through Jesus Christ. Upon which the King expressed his grief for the Sins of his past Life yet he said he trusted in the mercies of Christ which were greater than they were Then Denny asked him if any Churchman should be sent for and he said if any it should be Arch-Bishop Cranmer and after he had rested a little finding his Spirits decay apace he ordered him to be sent for to Croydon where he was then But before he could come the King was Speechless So Cranmer desired him to give some sign of his dying in the Faith of Christ upon which he squeezed his hand and soon after died after he had Reigned 37 years and 9 months in the six and fiftieth year of his age His death was kept up three dayes for the Journals of the House of Lords shew that they continued reading Bills and going on in business till the 31st and no sooner did the Lord Chancellor signify to them that the King was dead and that the Parliament was thereby dissolved It is certain the Parliament had no being after the Kings breath was out so their sitting till the 31st shews that the Kings death was not generally known all those three dayes The reasons of concealing it so long might either be that they were considering what to do with the Duke of Norfolk or that the Seymours were laying their matters so as to be secure in the Government before they published the Kings Death I shall not adventure on adding any further Character of him to that which is done with so much Wit and Judgment by the Lord Hâ—rbert but shall refer the Reader wholly to him only adding an account of the blackest part of it the Attaindors that passed the last 13 years of his life which are comprehended within this Book of which I have cast over the Relation to the Conclusion of it In the latter part of his Reign there were many things that seem great severities especially as they are represented by the Writers of the Roman party whose relations are not a little strengthned by the faint excuses and the mistaken accounts that most of the Protestant Historians have made The King was naturally impetuous and could not bear provocation the times were very ticklish his Subjects were generally addicted to the old Superstition especially in the Northern parts the Monks and Friers were both numerous and wealthy the Pope was his implacable Enemy the Emperor was a formidable Prince and being then Master of all the Netherlands had many advantages for the War he designed against Enâ—land Cardinal Pole his kinsman was going over all the Courts of Christendom to perswade a League against England as being a thing of greater necessity and merit than a War against the Turk This being without the least aggravation the state of affairs at that time it must be confessed he was sore put to it A Superstition that was so blind and headstrong and Enemies that were both so powerful so spiteful and so industrious made rigour necessary nor is any General of an Army more concerned to deal severely with Spies and Intelligencers than he was to proceed against all the Popes adherents or such as kept correspondence with Pole He had observed in History that upon much less provocation than himself had given not only several Emperors and forreign Princes had been dispossessed of their Dominions but two of his own Ancestors Henry the 2d and King Iohn had been driven to great extremities and forced to unusual and most indecent submissions by the means of the Popes and their Clergy The Popes power over the Clergy was so absolute and their dependence and obedience to him was so implicite and the Popish Clergy had so great an interest in the superstitious multitude whose consciences they governed that nothing but a stronger passion could either tame the Clergy or quiet the People If there had been the least hope of impunity the last part of his Reign would have been one continued Rebellion therefore to prevent a more profuse effusion of blood it seemed necessary to execute Laws severely in some particular instances There is one calumny that runs in a thread through all the Historians of the Popish side which not a few of our own have ignorantly taken up That many were put to death for not swearing the Kings Supremacy It is an impudent falshood for not so much as one person suffered on that account nor was there any Law for any such Oath before the Parliament in the 28th year of the Kings Reign when the unsufferable Bull of Pope Paul the 3d engaged him to look a little more to his own safety Then indeed in the Oath for maintaining the successiono f the Crown the Subjects were required under the pains of Treason to swear that the King was supream head of the Church of England but that was not mentioned in the former Oath that was made in the 25th and enacted in the 26 year of his Reign It cannot but be confessed that to enact under pain of death that none should deny the Kings Titles and to proceed upon that against offenders is a very different thing from forcing them to swear the King to be the Supream Head of the Church The first instance of these Capital proceedings was in Easter-Term in the beginning of the 27th year of his reign Three Priors and a Monk of the Carthusian Order were then endited of Treason for saying that the King was not Supream head under Christ of the Church of England These were Iohn Houghton Prior of the Charter-house near London Augustin Webster Prior of Axholme Robert Laurence Prior of Bâ—vâ—ll and Richard Reynolds a Monk of Sion this last was esteemed a learned man for that time and that Order They were tried in Westminster-Hall by a Commission of Oyer and Terminer they pleaded not guilty but the Jury found them guilty and judgment was given that they should suffer as Traitors The Record mentions no other particulars but the writers of the Popish side make a splendid recital of the courage and constancy they expressed both in their Tryal and at their Death It was no difficult thing for men so used to the Legend and the making of fine stories for the Saints and Martyrs of their Orders to dress up such Narratives with much pomp But as their pleading Not
the Imposition of hands so they raised their Order or Office so high as to make it equal with the Order of a Bishop But as they designed to extol the Order of Priesthood so the Canonists had as great a mind to depress the Episcopal Order They generally wrote for preferment and the way to it was to exalt the Papacy Nothing could do that so effectually as to bring down the Power of Bishops This only could justifie the Exemptions of the Monks and Friers the Popes setting up Legantine Courts and receiving at first Appeals and then Original causes before them together with many other Encroachments on their Jurisdiction All which were unlawful if the Bishops had by Divine right Jurisdiction in their Dioceses Therefore it was necessary to lay them as low as could be and to make them think that the Power they held was rather as Delegates of the Apostolick See than by a Commission from Christ or his Apostles So that they looked on the declaring Episcopal Authority to be of Divine right as a blow that would be fatal to the Court of Rome and therefore they did after this at Trent use all possible endeavours to hinder any such Decision It having been then the Common stile of that Age to reckon Bishops and Priests as the same Office it is no wonder if at this time the Clergy of this Church the greatest part of them being still leavened with the old superstition and the rest of them not having enough of spare-time to examine lesser matters retained still the former phrases in this particular On this I have insisted the more that it may appear how little they have considered things who are so far carryed with their zeal against the established Government of this Church as to make much use of some passages of the Schoolmen and Canonists that deny them to be distinct Offices for these are the very dregs of Popery the one raising the Priests higher for the sake of Transubstantiation the other pulling the Bishops lower for the sake of the Popes Supremacy and by such means bringing them almost to an equality So partial are some men to their particular conceits that they make use of the most mischievous Topicks when they can serve their turnâ—punc not considering how much further these Arguments will run if they ever admit them Ad Page 255. line 28. The Princes of Germany did always press the King to enter into a Religious League with them the first League that was made in the year 1536 was conceived in general terms against the Pope as the Common Enemy and for setting up true Religion according to the Gospel But they did afterwards send over Ambassadors to treat about particulars and they having presented a Memorial of these there were Conferences appointed between them and some Bishops and Divines of this Church I find no Divines was sent over hither but Frederick Miconius Minister of Gotha by whom Melanthon who could not be spared out of Germany sent several Letters to the King the fullest and longest of them will be found in the Collection It is all to this purpose to perswade the King to go on vigorously in the Reforming of Abuses according to the word of God The King sent over the particulars which they proposed in order to a perfect agreement to Gardiner who was then at Paris Upon which he sent back his Opinion touching them all the Original of which under his own hand I have seen but it relates so much to the other Paper that was sent him which I never saw that without it his meaning can hardly be understood and therefore I have not put it in the Collection The main thing in it at which it chiefly drives is to press the King to finish first a Civil League with them and to leave those particulars concerning Religion to be afterwards treated of The King followed his advice so far as to write to the German Princes to that effect But when the King declared his resolution to have the six Articles established all that favoured the Reformation were much alarmed at it and pressed their friends in Germany to interpose with the King for preventing it I have seen an Original Letter of Hains Dean of Exeter in which he laments the sad effects that would follow on that Act which was then preparing that all the Corruptions in the Church rose from the establishing some points without clear proofs from Scripture he wished the Germans would consider of it for if the King and Parliament should make such a Law this was a President for the Emperor to make the like in the Diet of the Empire Neither were the German Ambassadors backward in doing their friends in England all the service they could for after they had held several conferences with these that were appointed by the King to treat with them they finding they could not prevail with them wrote a long and Learned Letter to the King against the taking away the Chalice in the Sacrament and against private Masses and the Celibate of the Clergy with some other abuses which the Reader will find in the Collection as it is Copied from the Original which I have seen To this I have added the Answer which the King wrote to it He employed Tonstall Bishop of Duresm to draw it for I have seen a rude draught of a great part of it written with his hand By both these compared together every indifferent Reader will clearly see the force and simplicity of the Arguments on the one hand and the art and shuffling that was used on the other side As soon as the Act was past notwithstanding all their endeavours to the contrary they in an Audience before the King represented the great concern their Masters would have when the King on whom they had relyed so much as the Defender of the Faith should proceed with the severity expressed in that Act against those that agreed with them in Doctrine and pressed the King earnestly to put a stop to the Execution of it The King promised he would see to it and that though he judged the Act necessary to restrain the Insolence of some of his Subjects yet it should not be Executed but upon great provocation he also proposed the renewing a Civil League with them without mentioning matters of Religion To this the Princes made answer that the League as it was at first projected was chiefly upon a design of Religion and therefore without a common consent of all that were in their League they could not alter it they lamented this passing of the late Act but writ their thanks to the King for stopping the Execution of it and warn'd him that some of his Bishops who set him on to these courses were in their hearts still for all the old Abuses and for the Popes Supremacy and were pressing on the King to be severe against his best Subjects that they might thereby bring on a design which they could not hope
specially forasmuch as we pretend none atrocity nor use no rethorick in the exaggerating and encreasing the indignity of the Matter but if I speak of any thing that toucheth the quick it proceedeth of the meer verity which we cannot nor ought not to hide in this Cause for it toucheth not Worldly Things but Divine not frail but eternal in which things no feigned false nor painted Reasons but only the Truth shall obtain and take place and God is the Truth to whom we are bound to obey rather than to Men and nevertheless we cannot but obey unto Men also as we were wont to do unless there be an express cause why we should not which by those our Letters we now do to your Holiness and we do it with charity not intending to spread it abroad nor yet further to impugn your Authority unless ye do compel us albeit also that that we do doth not impugne your Authority but confirmeth the same which we revocate to its first foundations and better it is in the middle way to return than always to run forth head-long and do ill Wherefore if your Holiness do regard or esteem the tranquillity of our Mind let the same be established with verity which hath been brought to light by the consent of so many Learned Men So shall your Holiness reduce and bring us to a certainty and quietness and shall deliver us from all anxiety and shall provide both for us and our Realm and finally shall do your Office and Duty The residue of our Affairs we have committed to our Ambassadours to be propounded unto you to whom we beseech your Holiness to give credence c. XLIII A Promise made for engaging the Cardinal of Ravenna An Original Rome Februar 7. 1532. EGo Willielmus Benet Serenissimi Domini mei D. Henrici Octavi Angliae c. Regis in Romana Curia Orator habens ad inscripta ab ipso Rege potestatem facultatem prout constat per ipsius Majestatis Literas Patentes datas in Regia sua Greenewici die penultima Decemb M. D. XXXI manu sua propria suprascriptas secreto sigillo suo sigillatas Quoniam in ipsius Regis arduis negotiis expertus sum singularem praeclaram operam Reverendissimi in Christo Patris Domini D. Henrici Sancti Eusebii S. R. E. Presbyteri Cardinalis Ravennae quibus deinceps uti cupio ut eandem semper voluntatem operam sua Dominatio Reverendissima erga ipsum regem praestet libere promitto eidem Cardinali nomine dicti mei Regis quod sua Majestas provideri faciet eidem Cardinali de aliquo Monasterio seu Monasteriis aut aliis beneficiis Ecclesiasticis in Regno Galliae primo vacaturis usque ad valorem annuum sex millium ducatorum Et insuper promitto quod Rex Angliae praedictus praesentabit seu nominabit eundem Cardinalem ad Ecclesiam Cathedralem primo quovis modo vacaturam seu ad praesens vacantem in Regno Angliae de illa ei provideri faciet casu quo Ecclesia primo vacatura hujusmodi ceu ad praesens vacans non sit Ecclesia Eliensis promitto etiam quod succedente postea vacatione Ecclesiae Eliensis Rex Angliae transferri faciet eundem Cardinalem si ipsi Cardinali magis placuerit ab illa alia Ecclesia de qua provisus erit ad Ecclesiam Eliensem dictorum Monasteriorum Beneficiorum Ecclesiasticorum in Regno Galliae Ecclesiae Cathedralis in Regno Angliae possessionem pacificam cum fructuum perceptione ipsum Cardinalem assequi faciet Et haec omnia libere promitto quod Rex meus supradictus plenissime sine ulla prorsus exceptione ratificabit observabit exequetur in quorum fidem praesentes manu mea propria scripsi subscripsi sigilloque munivi Dat. Rom. die septimo Februarii M. D. XXXII XLIV Bonner's Letter about the proceedings at Rome An Original Rome April 29. 1532. PLeaseth it your Highness This is to advertise the same That sithen we William Benet Edward Karne and Edmond Bonner sent our Letters of the 7 th of this present to your Highness There hath been two Disputations publick the one the 13 th of this the other the 20 th day of the same according to the order given and assigned which was three Conclusions to be disputed every Consistory and what was spoken as well by your Highness's Counsel for the justification of the Conclusion purposed the said 13 th as also for the impugnation thereof by the Party adverse with Answers made thereunto by your Highness's said Counsel as fully as were any wise deduced your said Highness shall perceive by the Books sent herewithal containing the same and also the Justifications Objections and Answers made in the 6 th of this present according as I Edward Karne in my said Letters promised The Copies of all the which Justifications Objections and Answers after that they were fully noted and deduced in writing and maturely considered by your Highness's Learned Counsel I Edward Karne did bring to the Pope's Holiness and to the Cardinals for their better information and likewise did of the first alwise afore the Consistory according to the order assigned at the beginning looking in likewise that the Queen's Counsel should do this same but as yet they have done nothing therein tho your Ambassadors and I have called upon the Pope many times for the same And as concerning such things as were spoken and done for either part in the Disputation of the 20 th day it is not possible for us by reason of the shortness of time to reduce all in good order and to send the same to your Highness at this time nevertheless with all speed it shall be made ready and sent to your Highness by the next Courier After the Disputation done the said 13 th day of this present the Advocate of the Party adverse did alledg That we did seek this Disputation but only to defer the Process protesting therefore That the Queen's Counsel would dispute no more and desiring therefore the Pope's Holiness and the whole Consistory to make Process in the principal Cause Whereunto I Edward Karne said That the Pope's Holiness with the whole Senate had granted the Disputations upon the Matters and given an order that the Conclusions published should be disputed according to the same Whereupon I desired that forasmuch as there remained sixteen Conclusions not disputed which to propose and justify with your Highness's Counsel I would be ready at all times that if the Party adverse knowing the Conclusions to be Canonical would not confess them and thereby avoid Disputations that then the said Party should dispute them and upon the refusal of both the same the Matters excusatories to be admitted byhis Holiness especially because the said Party adverse hath nothing material that could be perceived to lett the same The Pope's Holiness answered That he would deliberate upon the
demand of both Parties The 16 th of this present the Datary on the Pope's behalf sent unto me Edward Karne an Intimation for disputation of the Consistory to be kept the 20 of this present and that I should send the Conclusions not disputed that they might be in the said Consistory disputed adding withal that the said Consistory should be ultimus peremptorius terminus quoad alias Disputationes Of the which Intimation your Highness shall receive a Copy herewith Upon this with the advice of your Ambassadors and Counsel here I repaired unto the said Datary and brought unto him three Conclusions to be disputed with a Protestation De non recedendo ab ordine hactenus observato according to the Proem of the said Conclusions the Copy whereof your Highness shall receive herewith Afterwards with the same Conclusions and Protestation I went to Cardinal de Monte who said at the beginning That all the Consistory crieth out upon the Disputations and that we had been heard sufficiently and that it was enough that we should have the fourth Disputation adding withal That it was a thing never seen before after such sort and that it stood not with the honour of the See to have such Disputations in the Consistory to the great disquieting of the Pope and the Cardinals especially considering the manner that is used and that all the Conclusions be touched which should content us To this I answered and desired his most Reverend Lordship to call to his remembrance what he had promised to your Highness's Ambassadors and me in the Castel-Angel upon Shrove-Sunday the Pope being present and allowing the same contented that all the Conclusions should be disputed singulariter and that I should at my pleasure from time to time chuse the Conclusions to be disputed And how also afterward viz. 17 Febr. the Pope's Holiness Cardinal Ancona and his Lordship not going from that promise gave direction for three Conclusions to be disputed every Consistory the choice whereof to be at my liberty according to the Copy of the said Order which I sent to your Highness with my Letters of the date of the 22 of the last And furthermore that what time the order to dispute three Conclusions in a Consistory was sent unto me and I required to send the Conclusions first to be disputed according to the said order I did to avoid all manner of doubts protest afore I would accept it and in the deliverance of the said Conclusions that I would not otherwise accept it but that all the Conclusions according to the order promised in Castel-Angel should be disputed and examined singulariter and that standing and not otherwise I delivered my said Conclusions according to the Order of the 17 th of February which Order the Pope's Holiness hitherto had approved and observed and from that I neither could nor would go from And where he said that we had been heard sufficiently I said that Audience and Information of less than the one half of a Matter could not be sufficient and if they intended to see the truth of the whole every point must be discussed And as for the crying out of the Cardinals I said They had no cause so to do for it was more for the honour of the See Apostolick to see such a Cause as this is well and surely tried so that the Truth may appear and the Matters be well known than to proceed praecipitanter as they did at the beginning of this Matter afore they well knew what the Matter was And as touching the disquieting the Pope's Holiness and the said Cardinals I said your Highness for their pains was much beholden unto them nevertheless I said that they might on the other side ponder such pains as your Highness hath taken for them in part declared by me which was much more than for them to sit in their Chairs two or three hours in a week to hear the justice of your defence in this cause And as touching the manner used in the said Disputation I said his Lordship knew well that it was by the Party adverse which all manner of ways goeth about to fatigate and make weary the Consistory of the Disputations specially in chiding scolding and alledging Laws and Decisions that never were nor spoken of by any Doctor and vainly continuing the time to the intent that the Pope's Holiness and the Cardinals dissolving the Consistory and not giving audience the said Party without Law Reason or any good ground might attain their desire and keep under the Truth that it should not appear and if any thing was sharply spoken of our Party I said it was done only for our defence and to shew the errors and falsity of the Queen's Advocates in their Allegations wherein I said they should not be spared And forasmuch as on the behalf of your Highness there was nothing spoken but that which was grounded upon Law and declared in what place so that it cannot be denied I desired his Lordship that he would continue his goodness in this Matter as your Highness's especial trust was he would do and that we might always as we were accustomed have recourse unto the same in all our Business for his good help and counsel His Lordship not yet satisfied said That as concerning the Order the Pope's Holiness might interpretate and declare what he meaned by it and as touching the Conclusions they were superfluous impertinent and calumnious only proposed to defer the Matter I answered and said That to interpretate the said Order where it is clear out of doubt the Pope's Holiness considering the promise made on Shrove-Sunday with my Protestation foresaid and the execution of the said Order to that time in divers Consistories observed could not by right interpretate the said Order admitting disputation upon all the Conclusions and of this I said That if such alterations were made without any cause given of your Highness's Party there was little certainty to be reckoned upon amongst them And as touching the superfluity and impertinency of the said Conclusions I said That that was the saying of the Party adverse that did not understand the same Conclusions And further that such Conclusions as were clamorously by the Advocates of the Party adverse alledged to be superfluous his Lordship in the Disputation and trial thereof in the Consistory did manifestly perceive that it was not so And where it was alledged the said Conclusions to be calumnious and laid in to defer the Process I answered That we might well alledg again the Counsel of the Party adverse the thing against us alledged and say truly that we were calumniously dealed withal seeing the matters were so just and clear and yet not admitted Then his Lordship went further and said that Impedimentum allegatum erat perpetuum because your Highness ex causa reipublicae could not come out your Realm and quia dignitas vestra est perpetua and also quod Causa requirit celeritatem To this I said that his
Lordship mistook the Matter for we said not in the Matters that your Highness could not go out of your Realm to no place but we said that the same could not go ad loca tam remota as Rome is so that it was not perpetuum impedimentum And to the other I shewed him a Text and the common opinion of Doctors in a Cause of Matrimony being inter Regem Reginam which took away the thing that he had said Then his Lordship said That it was enough that the place were sure to the Procurator by the Chapter Cum olim de testibus I said That that Chapter did not prove that Allegation and that they mistook the Text that so did understand it for the Alternative that is in that Text is not referred ad locum tutum but ad ordinem Citationis inchoandae in persona principali aut ejus procuratore and so Petrus de Anchorano understandeth that Text and otherwise understanding the same it should be against the Chapter Ex parte de appellatione and the common opinion there Then he said that Aretine saith Quod sufficit quum locus sit tutus procuratori I said that under his favour Aretine saith the contrary for he saith Quod partibus debet locus tutus assignari si poterit si non poterit partibus detur procuratoribus Then his Lordship said to me That I knew well he began to set forward these Disputations and that he would do the best he could for the furtherance thereof The 19 th of this present I went with your Highness's Ambassadors to the Pope and delivered his Holiness in writing those things that were done in the Disputation of the 13 th of this And then your Ambassadors were in hand with the Pope to alter the Intimation and to put out the term peremptory and other that were exclusory of further Disputations to be had upon the same Conclusions The Pope's Holiness said That Disputations was no act Judicial requiring to be in the Consistory and therefore he said he would call certain Congregations of Cardinals on Friday and Monday following to hear the Disputations Then I William Benet said That that could not stand very well with the Decree of the Intimation which was peremptory for any further Disputations after the 20 th of this present and therefore I spake that the same term peremptory might be put out of the Intimation alledging withal that upon the said Friday or Monday it was no time to hear the Disputation being so nigh after and that his Holiness hitherto hath observed the Consistory for the Disputations which Consistory cannot be unto after Easter if the manner of the Court be observed Then the Pope said he might call a Consistory when he would as he hath done in making of Cardinals an Act much more solemn than a Disputation To that I said his Holiness might so do if he would howbeit it should be praeter solitum morem and therefore desired his Holiness to consider therein the order before assigned and that this term peremptory would not stand with the order His Holiness then willed we should inform the Cardinals Anchona and de Monte and so we did Anchona shewed himself somewhat reasonable and was contented the term peremptory should be put out De Monte said that the Pope would promise to hear the Conclusions disputed in Congregations calling thereto certain Cardinals so that the term peremptory should not be prejudicial Then I Edward Karne desired him that if the said term should not be prejudicial that it might be stricken out for I told him plainly that I would not stand to words the writing shewing the contrary adding withal that I would not dispute in this term tanquam peremptorio but would manifestly shew and protest That I with other your Highness's Counsel were ready to defend the Conclusions published according to the order given and hitherto observed alledging also that the Conclusions being justified the Matters ought to be admitted and that if the Pope's Holiness and the Cardinals would not give audience to me and your Highness's said Counsel for the manifest trial and showing of the truth they should give us cause to complain upon them and to cry out usque ad Sidera your Highness's Ambassadors all affirming the same Then the said Cardinal de Monte said that the Pope's Holiness would provide for the Disputations notwithstanding the term peremptory assigned and said also that in the Morning he would speak with the Pope and give your Ambassadors and me an answer In the morning which was the 20 th of this present the said Cardinal would that nothing of the Decree of Intimation should be manifested because the other part had a Copy thereof but would the Pope's Holiness to give an order that the word peremptory should be only for Disputations to be had in the Consistory and not in Congregations in which Congregations the Conclusions remaining might be disputed and tho they had drawn out this Order yet because it was nothing plain neither certain to be conformable to the former Order I would have had the said Cardinal to speak to the said Datary for to make it as afore and he was then contented howbeit the Pope's Holiness commanded all the Cardinals to their places so that I could not have the said Order and was driven thereby either to dispute and accept the term tanquam peremptorium or else to fly the Disputations giving occasion to the adverse Party to say that I diffided in the justness of the Matters and defence of the Conclusions Whereupon your Highness's Ambassadors and we with other your Learned Counsel concluded that I Edward Karne should protest De non consentiendo in termino tanquam peremptorio and afterward to proceed to the proposing of the Conclusions and so I did by mouth according to the tenour of a Copy which here withal your Highness shall receive When I had protested and the Pope had spoken this word Acceptamus the Queen's Advocate began to protest that they would dispute no more and desired his Holiness to proceed in the principal Cause Then I Edward Karne said That the Pope's Holiness did well perceive that the Conclusions were published and proposed not only for them to dispute but also for all other come who would for the information of his Holiness and the whole Consistory And therefore I said that tho they would not dispute yet I was there with other your Highness's Learned Counsel to propose the Conclusions according to the Order given justifying them to be Canonical and ready to defend them against all those that would gainsay them and thereupon desired the Pope's Holiness that tho the Counsel of the Party Adverse would not dispute yet I with your Highness's Learned Counsel might be heard again against which my desire the Queen's Advocate made great exclamations till at the last the Pope commanded him to silence and willed us to go to the Conclusions which we did And
here now it is determined That we shall have no more Disputations in the Consistory but the rest of the Conclusions to be disputed in Congregations before the Pope purposely made for the same and what therein shall be determined or done your Highness from time to time shall thereof by us be advertised and of all other our doings in that behalf And as concerning the Letters which your Highness sent by Francis the Courier of the last of February as well to the Pope as to me Edward Karne for the admission of me and the Matter excusatory we shall according to your Highness's pleasure and order assigned in the common Letter sent unto us by your said Highness proceed and do therein as may be most beneficial and profitable for the same And thus most humbly we commend us to your Highness beseeching Almighty God to preserve the same in felicity and health many years At Rome the 28 th of March 1532. Your Highness's most humble Subjects Servants and Chaplains William Benet Edward Karne Edmond Bonner XLV Another Letter concerning the Process at Rome An Original PLeaseth it your Highness sithen our Letters of the 23 of March here hath been great labour and solliciting to bring the Disputation publick out of the Consistory kept once in the week into the Congregations to be observed and kept before the Pope's Holiness and the Cardinals in such place and as oft as should please them to the intent as we perceived that the said Disputation might be the sooner ended and not take such effect as it was devised for And upon this great importune labour I Edward Karne was monished oftentimes to send Conclusions to be proposed in the said Congregations as well in Palm-Sunday week as in Easter-week as appeareth by the Copies of the Intimations sent herewithal to your Highness Upon which Intimations I delivered certain Conclusions according to the order taken at the beginning with a Protestation devised by your Grace's Counsel here De non recedendo ab eodem ordine de proponendo easdem Conclusiones in Consistorio juxta eundem ordinem non aliter That notwithstanding the Pope's Holiness caused me to be monished again cum Comminatione that if I would not come in cum Advocatis the third day of April procederet ad ulteriora protestatione me a praevia non obstante Whereupon with the advice of your said Learned Counsel I conceived a Protestation and the same delivered to the Pope's Holiness the said third day in the morning protesting as it was therein contained and causing it to be registred by the Datary of the which Protestation your Highness shall also receive a Copy herewithal This notwithstanding the Pope's Holiness the said third day in the afternoon made a Congregation where the said Protestation was examined and after the Treaty had upon the same we were in conclusion remitted again to the Consistory there to be heard as much as the Consistory intendeth to hear upon the Conclusions that are published which was much more beneficial to us than to have had all proposed in Congregations to have been kept as is afore And by this means the Matter was shifted off and deferred unto the 10 th of this month at which time the Pope's Holiness kept the Consistory And one Mr. Providal a singular good Clerk which came from Bonony for the furtherance of your Highness's Cause very compendiously and after good fashion and handling to the great contentation as appeared of the Audience there purposed three Conclusions of the which two concerned the habilitation of me Edward Karne to lay in the Matters Excusatory And the third was that the Cause ought to be committed extra curiam ad locum tutum utrique parti Of the which Conclusions and also his Sayings the said 10 th day your Highness shall receive a Copy here-withal And forasmuch as at the said Consistory neither the Imperials neither yet the Queens Counsel did appear I Edward Karne with the advice of your Highness's Counsel said to the Pope's Holiness after the Proposition made by Mr. Providel that his Holiness might perceive well that if the Party adverse had any good matter to alledg against such things as were deduced for the justification of the Conclusions and matter Excusatory and did not diffide of their part they would not have absented themselves or shrunken from the Disputations which they afore had accepted and taken wherefore I accused their contumacy and absence desiring that it might be enacted and thereupon departed from the Consistory for that day dissolved The 14 th of this present the Pope's Holiness caused Intimation to be made unto me of the Consistory to be kept the 17 th of the same willing me to be there cum Advocatis to dispute all the Conclusions not proposed and disputed Upon the which Intimation I delivered to the Datary three Conclusions the 19 the 20 and the 21 in order with a Protestation devised by your Learned Counsel sent here-withal to your Highness And in the said Consistory Mr. Providel did also alledg for the justification of the Matters and Conclusions and over that answered to such Objections as he thought the Party adverse to make foundation upon and that very compendiously being sorry that the Imperials and Queen's Counsel did not come in to dispute the said Conclusions and the sayings of the said Mr. Providel in the said Consistory with my Protestation also in not agreeing to the term as peremptory your Highness shall perceive in writing sent here-withal As concerning the seven Conclusions yet remaining undisputed we think the Pope's Holiness will hear us no further in the Consistory saying that the Part adverse will not abide the Disputations nor come in to the same Nevertheless to take otherwise out of the Consistory with the Cardinals Information his Holiness is well contented And verily Sir to study labour set forward and call upon such things as may confer to the advancement of the Matter and your Highness's Purpose there shall not want neither good will neither diligenâ— to the uttermost that we can excogitate or desire as hitherto surely neither Party hath failed trusting in God that thereby if Justice be not oppressed some good effect shall follow to the good contentation of your Highness With these Presents your Highness shall also receive a Copy of all things that were spoken as well for your Highness's behalf as by the Party adverse in the Consistory the 20 th day of March. And thus most humbly we commend us to your Highness beseeching Almighty God long to continue the same in his most Royal Estate At Rome the 29 th of April Your Highness's most humble Subjects and poor Servants Edward Karne Edmond Bonner XLVI A Letter from Benet and Cassali about the Process An Original SErenissime Invictissime Domine noster Supreme salutem Tribus Superioribus Consistoriis ante vacationes habitis de Causa Excusatoria actum fuit sed quid illud fuerit quod
other Enormities so that good and devout Persons be much offended therewith Wherefore I require and command you to declare to such as keepeth Ale-houses or Taverns within your Parishes that at such times from henceforth they shall not suffer in their Houses any such unlawful and ungodly Assemblies neither receive such Persons to Bowling and Drinking at such Seasons into their Houses under pain of Excommunication and otherwise to be punished for their so doing according to the Laws in that behalf Item That all Curats shall declare openly in the Pulpit twice every Quarter to their Parishioners the seven deadly Sins and the Ten Commandments so that the People thereby may not only learn how to obey honour and serve God their Prince Superiors and Parents but also to avoid and eschew Sin and Vice and to live vertuously following God's Commandments and his Laws Item That where I am credily informed that certain Priests of my Diocess and Jurisdiction doth use to go in an unseemly and unpriestly habit and apparel with unlawful tonsures carrying and having upon them also Armour and Weapons contrary to all wholsome and godly Laws and Ordinances more like Persons of the Lay than of the Clergy which may and doth minister occasion to light Persons and to Persons unknown where such Persons come in place to be more licentious both of their Communication and also of their Acts to the great slander of the Clergy Wherefore in the avoiding of such slander and obloquy hereafter I admonish and command all and singular Parsons Vicars Curats and all other Priests whatsoever they be dwelling or inhabiting or hereafter shall dwell and inhabit within my Diocess and Jurisdiction That from henceforth they and every of them do use and wear meet convenient and decent Apparel with their Trussures accordingly whereby they may be known at all times from Lay-People and to be of the Clergy as they intend to avoid and eschew the penalty of the Laws ordained in that behalf Item That no Parson Vicar or other Beneficed Man having Cure within my Diocess and Jurisdiction do suffer any Priest to say Mass or to have any Service within their Cure unless they first give knowledg and present them with the Letters of their Orders to me as Ordinary or to my Officers deputed in that behalf and the said Priest so presented shall be by me or my said Officers found able and sufficient thereunto Item That every Curat not only in his Preachings open Sermons and Collations made to the People but also at all other times necessary do perswade exhort and monish the People being of his Cure whatsoever they be to beware and abstain from Swearing and blaspheming of the Holy Name of God or any part of Christ's most precious Body or Blood And likewise to beware and abstain from Cursing Banning Chiding Scolding Backbiting Slandering and Lying And also from talking and jangling in the Church specially in time of Divine-Service or Sermon-time And semblably to abstain from Adultery Fornication Gluttony and Drunkenness And if they or any of them be found notoriously faulty or infamed upon any of the said Crimes and Offences then to detect them at every Visitation or sooner as the case shall require so that the said Offenders may be corrected and reformed to the example of other Item That no Priest from henceforth do use any unlawful Games or frequently use any Ale-houses Taverns or any suspect place at any unlawful times or any light Company but only for their Necessaries as they and any of them will avoid the danger that may ensue thereupon Item That in the Plague-time no dead Bodies or Corpses be brought into the Church except it be brought streight to the Grave and immediately buried whereby the People may the rather avoid infection Item That no Parsons Vicars nor Curats permit or suffer any manner of common Plays Games or Interludes to be played setforth or declared within their Churches or Chappels contrary to this our forbidding and Commandment that then you or either of you in whose Churches or Chappels any such Games Plays or Interludes shall be so used shall immediately thereupon make relation of the names of the Person or Persons so obstinately and disobediently using themselves unto me my Chancellor or other my Officers to the intent that they may be therefore reformed and punished according to the Laws Item That all Priests shall take this order when they Preach first They shall not rehearse no Sermons made by other Men within this 200 or 300 Years but when they shall preach they shall take the Gospel or Epistle of the day which they shall recite and declare to the people plainly distinctly and sincerely from the beginning to the end thereof and then to desire the people to pray with them for Grace after the usage of the Church of England now used And that done we will that every Preacher shall declare the same Gospel or Epistle or both from the beginning not after his own Mind but after the Mind of some Catholick Doctor allowed in this Church of England and in no wise to affirm any thing but that which he shall be ready always to shew in some Ancient Writer and in no wise to make rehearsal of any Opinion not allowed for the intent to reprove the same but to leave that for those that are and shall be admitted to preach by the King's Majesty or by me the Bishop of London your Ordinary or by mine authority In the which Epistle and Gospel ye shall note and consider diligently certain godly and devout places which may incense and stir the Hearers to obedience of good Works and Prayers And in case any notable Ceremony used to be observed in the Church shall happen that day when any preaching shall be appointed it shall be meet and convenient that the Preacher declare and set forth to the people the true meaning of the same in such sort that the people may perceive thereby what is meant and signified by such Ceremony and also know how to use and accept it to their own edifying Furthermore That no Preacher shall rage or rail in his Sermon but coldly discreetly and charitably open declare and set forth the excellency of Vertue and to suppress the abomination of Sin and Vice every Preacher shall if time and occasion will serve instruct and teach his Audience what Prayer is used in the Church that day and for what thing the Church prayeth specially that day to the intent that all the people may pray together with one heart for the same and as occasion will serve to shew and declare to the people what the Sacraments signifieth what strength and efficacy they be of how every Man should use them reverently and devoutly at the receiving of them And to declare wherefore the Mass is so highly to be esteemed and honoured with all the Circumstances appertaining to the same Let every Preacher beware that he do not feed his Audience with any Fable