English Chruch in each of their several congregations Their principal retiring places amongst the last were Arrow Zurick and Geneva and in the first the Cities of Embden Stralsburge and Franckfort In Franckfort they enjoyed the greatest privileges and therefore resorted thither in the greatest numbers which made them the more apt unto Schisms and factions At their first coming to that place which was on the 27th of June Anno 1554. by the power and favour of John Glauberge one of the Senators of that City they were permitted to have the use of one of their Churches which had before been granted to such French exiles as had repaired thither on the like occasion yet so that the French were still to hold their right the English to have the use of it one day and the French another and on the Lords day so to divide the hours between them that the one might be no hinderance unto the other It hath been said also that there was another condition imposed upon them of being conform unto the French in Doctrine and Ceremonies Which condition if it were imposed by the Magistrates not sought by themselves must needs be very agreeable to the temper and complexion of their principal Leaders who being for the most part of the Zuinglian-Gospellers at their going hence became the great promoters of the Puritan faction at their comming home The names of Whittingham Williams Goodman Wood and Sutton who appeared in the head of this congregation declare sufficiently of what Principles and strain they were how willing they would be to lay aside the face of an English Church and frame themselves to any Liturgie but their own On July the 14th they first obtained a grant of their Church and on the 29th took possession of it The interval they spent in altering and disfiguring the English Lyturgie of which they left nothing but the reading of the Psalms and Chapters Those comfortable interlocutories between the Minister and the People were no longer used as savouring in their opinion of some disorder in the course of the ministration the Letany and the Surplice they cast aside as having too much in them of the Church of Rome the Confession they had altered so as they conceived most agreeable to their present condition and for the Hymns which intervened between the Chapters and the Creed they changed them for such Psalms in the English Meerer as had been made by Sternhold and Hopkins in the time of King Edward The Psalm being done the Preacher goes into the Pulpit in which the Minister prayed for the assistance of God's Spirit and so proceeded to the Sermon Which done an other Prayer was made for all orders and estates of men but more particularly for the welfare of the Church of England composed in imitation of the Prayer for the Church Militant here on earth but ending as that did not with the Pater-noster After which most extreamly out of order followed the rehearsal of the Articles of the Christian Faith another Psalm and finally the dismission of the people with The Peace of God This was the form devised for that Congregation for the imposing whereof on all the rest of the English Churches they did then use their best endeavours and for obtruding which on the whole Church of England they raised such tumults and commotions in the following times Growing in love with this fair Babe of their own begetting they write their Letters of the second of August to such of the English as remained at Stralsburge and Zurick inviting them to repair to Franckfort and unite themselves unto that Church which had been there erected with the leave of the Magistrate But they had heard in both places of those Alterations which had been made at Franckfort in the form of Gods publick Service and thereupon refused to accept of the invitation though it seemed to promise them some advantages by the commodious situation of that City in respect of England the great resort of strangers thither at the yearly Marts plenty of Books and other helps in the way of study which were not to be found in the other two Cities From Stralsburge modestly from Zurick resolutely but from both it was plainly signified that they resolved to maintain the Order of the Church of England The like Letter had been writ to the English at Embden of which Congregation Doctor Scory the late Bishop of Chichester was the Super-intendent and we may readily believe that they received the like repulse from his Church at Embden as they had from Gryndal Sandys and Haddon or who had the constituting of the Church of Stralsburge or from Horn Chambers Parkhurst and other of the Students which remained at Zurick The noise of this new Church at Franckfort occasioned Knox who after proved the great incendiary of the Realm and Church of Scotland to leave his Sanctuary in Geneva in hope to make a better market for himself in that Congregation He had not long before published a seditious Pamphlet entituled The first blast of the Trumpet in which he bitterly inveighed against the Government of Women aiming there especially at the three Queen Maries that is to say Mary Queen of England Mary Queen of Scots and Mary of Lorrain Queen Regent of Scotland By which seditious Pamphlet he had made not onely his own Country too hot for him but could assure himself of no safety in France or England To Geneva therefore he retires and from thence removes to Franckfort as the â—itter Scene for his intendments hoping to get as great a name in this new Plantation as Calvin had gotten in the old It was about the end of September that he came to Franckfort where he took the charge of that Church upon him Whittingham and the rest submitting unto his Apostleship This gave a new dis-satisfaction to the English at Stralsburge and Zurick who knew the spirit of the man and feared the dangerous consequents and effects thereof Nor was the condition of affairs much bettered by the coming of Whitehead who afterwards refused the Archbishoprick of Canterbury though far the more moderate of the two New Letters are reciprocated between Franckfort and Zurick from Franckfort on the 15th of November in open defiance as it were to the English Liturgy from Zurick on the 28th in defence thereof and of their constancy and resolution for adhering to it The breach growing every day more wide than other Gryndal and Chambers came from Stralsburge to attone the difference by whom it was proposed unto them That the substance of the English Liturgy being retained there might be a forbearance of some ceremonies and offices in it But Knox and Whittingham were as much bent against the substance of the Book as against any of the circumstantials and extrinsicals which belonged unto it So that no good effect following on this interposition the Agents of the Church of Stralsburge return back to their brethren who by their Letters of the 13th of December expostulate in
is that upon the very first Reports of a Reformation here intended Calvin had offered his Assistance to Arch-Bishop Craenmer as himself confesseth But the Arch-Bishop knew the Man and refused the Offer And it appears in one of Bishop Latimer's Sermons that there was report about this time of Melancthon's coming but it proved onely a Report And though it was thought necessary for the better seasoning of the Vniversities in the Protestant Reformed Religion that Martin Bucer and Peter Martyr two eminent Divines of the Foreign Churches should be invited to come over yet the Arch-Bishop's Letter of Invitation sent to Martin Bucer was not written till the twelfth day of October At what time the Liturgie then in hand being the chief Key to the whole Work of Reformation was in very good forwardness and must needs be compleatly finished before he could so settle and dispose his Affairs in Germany as to come for England And though Peter Martyr being either more at Leasure or less engaged or otherwise more willing to accept of the Invitation came many Moneths before the other yet neither do we finde him here till the end of November when the Liturgie had been approved of by the King and Council if it had not also passed the Approbation of both Houses of Parliament Nor was it likely that they should make use of such a Man in composing a Liturgie wherein they were resolved to retain a great part of the Antient Ceremonies who being made Canon of Christ-Church in Oxford and frequently present at Divine Service in that Church could never be prevailed with to put on the Surplice Being left therefore to themselves they were at the more liberty for following the King 's most Godly and most Wise Directions having in the first place an eye and respect to the most sincere and Pure Religion taught by the Scripture and in the second to the Vsages of the Primitive Church and making out of both one convenient and meet Order Rite and Fashion of Common Prayer and Administration of the Sacraments to be had and used in the Realm of Englâ—nd and the Principality of Wales Which being finished they all subscribed their Names unto it but Day of Chichester who would by no means have his Hand in the Subscription as is related in the Register-Book of the Parish of Petwoâ—th But being subscribed by all the rest it was by them with all due Reverence humbly presented to the King by whom it was received to His great Comfort and Quietness of mind as the Statute telleth us And being by him commended to the Lords and Commons then Assembled in Parliament which Parliament took beginning on the fourth day of November they did not onâ—ly give His Highness most hearty and lowly thanks for his Care therein but on peruâ—aâ— of the Book declared it to be done by the aid of the Holy Ghost And therâ—upoâ— considering the Godly Prayers Orders Rites and Ceremonies in the said Book mentioned and also the reasons of Altering of those things which be altered and the retaining those things which be retained together with the Hoâ—our of God and the great Quietâ—ess which by the Grace of God was likely to ensâ—e on suâ—h an Uâ—iform Order in Common Prayer Rites and External Ceremonies to be used in all England and Wales in Calice and the Marches of the â—ame it was Eâ—acâ—ed That all and singular Ministers in any Cathedral or 〈◊〉 Church or other Place within this Realm of England Wales Calce and the Marches of the same or other the King's Dominions should from and after the Feast of Pentecost next coming that Interval being given for the Printing of it be bounden to say and use the Mattens Even-song Celebration of the Lord's Supper â—â—mmonly caâ—â—ed The Mass and Administration of each of the Sacraments and all their Common and Open Prayer in such Order and Form as is mentioned in the same Book and no otherwise with several Penalties therein mentioned to be imposed on all such in their several places as either should willfully refuse to Officiate by it or hinder the Lawfull Exâ—cution oâ— it or speak any thing in Derogation of the said Book or any thing therein contained The passing of this Act gave great Offence to those of the Romish Paâ—ty not that they could except against it in regard either of the Manner or Matter of it which they acknowledged to be Consonant to the Antient Forms but bâ—cause it was communicated to the People in the Vulgar Tongue And this they charged as a gâ—eat Eâ—rour in those Men who had the chief Hand in the Conduct of that Affâ—iâ— becaâ—se that by the Rules thereof the Scriptures were to be read publâ—ckly in the 〈◊〉 Tongue Which what else was it as they said but the committing so much Heavenly Treasure unto Râ—tten Vessels the trusting so much Excellent 〈◊〉 to such Musty Bâ—ttles And being that there are many things in he Divine Offices of the Church quae secreta esse debent as the Cardinal telleth us which ought to have been kept as Secrets from all Vulgar knowledg it must needs be of very ill Conâ—equence to communicate them to all sorâ—s of People But certainly the Holy Ghost was able to direct the Church in â— betâ—er way then such as should be subject unto Man's Exceptions And he directs the Service of the Church to be Officiated in such a Language to which the ignorant and unlearned may say Amen 1 Cor. xiv 9 16. Upon which Words it is observed by Lyra and Aquinas two as great Clerks as any in the Church of Rome That The Publick Service of the Church in the Primitive Times was in the Common Vulgar Language The like affirmed by Doctour Haâ—aing as great a Stickler for that Church and the Doctrines of it as any other of his Time adding withall That it was necessary in the Primitive Times that it should be so and granting also That it were still better that the People had their Service in their own Vulgar Tongue for their better understanding of it So he in Answer to the Challenge made by Bishop Jewel Art 3. Sect. 28 and 33. And theâ—efore having the confession and acknowledgment of the very Adveâ—saâ—y not onely as to the Antiquity but the Fitness also of Celebrating Divine Offices in the Vulgar Language it may be thought a loss both of Time and Travail to press the Argument any further Which nâ—twithstanding for the more perfect clearing of the Point in question it wâ—ll be found upon a very easie seach that the Jews did Celebrate their Divine Offiâ—es Tractatus and Oblationes as the Father hath it most commonly in the Syriack and sometimes in the Hebrew Tongue the natural Languages of that People as is affirmed by St. Ambrose upon 1 Cor. cap. 14. and out of him by Durand in his Rationale Eckius a great Servant of the Popes affirmeth in his Common Places That the Indians have their Service in the Indian Tongue and
the same to the great Perill of his Souls health 25. And that no Curate admit to the Communion such who are in Ranchor and Malice with their Neighbours till such controversies be reconciled That to avoid Contentions and strife which heretofore have risen amongst the King's Subjects by challenging of places in Procession no Procession hereafter be used about the Church or Church-yard but immediately before High-Mass the Letany shall be distinctly said or sung in English none departing the Church without just cause and all ringing of Bells save one utterly forborn That they take away and destroy all Shrines Covering of Shrines Tables Candlesticks Trindils and Rolls of Wax Pictures Paintings and other Monuments of feigned Miracles so that no Memory of them remain in Walls or Windows exhotting their Parishioners to do the like in their several houses That the Holy-day at the first beginning Godly-Instituted and ordained be wholly given to God in hearing the Word of God read and taught in private and publique Prayers in acknowledging their Offences to God and amendment in reconciling themselves to their Neighbours receiving the Communion Visiting the sick c. Onely it shall be lawfull for them in time of Harvest to labour upon Holy and Festival days and save that thing which God hath sent and that scrupulosity to abstain from working upon those days doth grievously offend God That a Register Book be carefully kept in every Parish for Weddings Christenings and Burials 29. That a strong Chest with an hole in the upper part thereof with three keys thereunto belonging be provided to receive the Charity of the People to the Poor and the same at convenient times be distributed unto them in the presence of the Parish And that a comely Palpit be provided in a convenient place That because of the lack of Preachers Curates shall read Homilies which are or shall be set forth by the King's Authority 36. That when any such Sermon or Homily shall be had the Primes and Hours shall be omitted That none bound to pay Tithes detain them by colour of Duty omitted by their Curates and so redoub one wrong with another 33. And whereas many indiscrete persons do incharitably condemn and abuse Priests having small Learning His Majesty chargeth His Subjects That from henceforth they be reverently used for their Office and Ministration sake 31. And that to avoid the detestable sin of Simonie the Seller shall lose his right of Patronage for that time and the Buyer to be deprived and made unable to receive Spiritual Promotion That to prevent sick persons in the damnable vice of Despair They shall learn and have always in readiness such comfortable places and Sentences of Scripture as do set forth the Mercies Benefits and Goodness of God Almighty towards all penitent and believing persons 30. But that Priests be not bound to go visit women in Child-bed except in times of dangerous sickness and not to fetch any Coars except it be brought to the Church yard 34. That all persons not understanding Latine shall pray on no other Primer but what lately was set forth in English by King Henry the Eighth and that such who have knowledge in the Latine use no other also that all Graces before and after Meat be said in English and no Grammar taught in Scholes but that which is set forth by Authority 39. That Chantry-Priests teach Youth to read and write And finally That these Injunctions be read once a Quarter Besides these general Injunctions for the whole Estate of the Realm there were also certain others particularly appointed for the Bishops onely which being delivered unto the Commissioners were likewise by them in their Visitations committed unto the said Bishops with charge to be inviolably observed and kept upon pain of the King's Majesties displeasure the effect whereof is as in manner followeth 1. That they should to the utmost of their power wit and understanding sâ—e and cause all and singular the King's Injunctions heretofore given or after to be given from time to time in and through their Diocess duly faithfully and truly to be kept observed and accomplished And that they should Personally Preach within their Diocess every Quarter of a year once at the least that is to say once in their Cathedral Churches and thrice in other several places of their Diocesses whereas they should see it most convenient and necessary except they had a reasonable excuse to the contrary Likewise that they should not retain into their Service or Houshold any Chaplain but such as were Learned and able to Preach the Word of God and those they should also cause to Exercise the same 2. And Secondly That they should not give Orders to any Person but such as were Learned in Holy Scripture neither should deny them to such as were Learned in the same being of honest conversation or living And Lastly That they should not at any time or place Preach or set forth unto the People any Doctrine contrary or repugnant to the effâ—ct and intent contained or set forth in the King's Highnesse's Homilies neither yet should admit or give Licence to Preach to any within their Diocess but to such as they should know or at least assuredly trust would do the same And if at any time by hearing or by report proved they should perceive the contrary they should then incontinent not only inhibit that Person so offending but also punish him and revoke their Licence There was also a Form of Bidding Prayer prescribed by the Visitours to be used by all Preachers in the Realm eiâ—her before or in their Sermons as to them seemed best Which Form of Bidding Prayer or Bidding of the Beads as it was then commonly called was this that followeth You shall Pray for the whole Congregation of Christ's Church and specially for this Church of England and Ireland wherein first I commend to your devout Prayers the King 's most Excellent Majesty Supreme Head immediately under God of the Spirituality and Temporality of the same Church And for Queen Katharine Dowager and also for my Lady Mary and my Lady Elizabeth the King's Sisters Secondly You shall Pray for my Lord Protectour's Grace with all the rest of the King's Majesty His Council for all the Lords of His Realm and for the Clergy and the Commons of the same beseeching God Almighty to give â—very of them in his degree grace to use themselves in such wise as may be to God's Glory the King's Honour and the VVeal of this Realm Thirdly You shall Pray for all them that be departed out of this VVorld in the Faith of Christ that they with us and we with them at the day of Judgement may rest both body and soul with Abraham Isaac and Jacob in the Kingdom of Heaven Such were the Orders and Injunctions wherewith the King's Commissioners were furnished for their Visitation Most of them such as had been formerly given out by Cromwell or otherwise published and pursued but not
we find the Queens Professor in Oxford to pass amongst the Non-Conformists though somewhat more moderate than the rest and Cartwright the Lady Margarets in Cambridge to prove an unextinguished firebrand to the Church of England Whittington the chief Ringleader of the Franckfort Schismaticks preferred unto the Deanry of Durham from thence encouraging Knox and Goodman in setting up Presbytery and Sedition in the Kirk of Scotland Sampson advanced unto the Deanry of Christ-Church and within few years after turned out again for an incorrigible Non-Conformist Hardiman one of the first twelve Prebends of the Church of Westminster deprived soon after for throwing down the Altar and defacing the vestments of the Church Which things I only touch at now leaving the further prosecution of them to another place Of all these traverses the Pope received advertisement from the first to the last But being of a rugged humouâ— he fell most infinitely short of that dexterity which the case required for finding out a fit expedient to prevent the rupture When his first sullen fits had left him he began to treat more seriously with the English Agent not that the Queen should sue unto him for the Crown which she was possessed of but that no alteration of Religion might be driven at by her To whiâ—h Karn answered according to such instructions as he had received That he could give him no assurance in that point unless the Pope would first declare that the mariage of King Henry with Queen Anne Bollen had been good and lawful Which cross request so stumbled both the Pope and the Conclave that they made choise rather of doing nothing than to do that of which they could not promise to themselves any fortunate issue Roused at the last by the continual alarums which came from England he entertains some secret practices with the French and on the sudden signifies his commands to Karn that he should not depart out of Râ—me without his leave and that in the mean time he should take upon him the government of the English Hospital in the City In which command each of them is affirmed to have had his own proper ends For Karn affected that restraint which he was thought to have procured under hand because he had no mind to return into England where he wâ—s like to find a different Religion from that which he embraced in his own particular And the Pope had his own ends also in hindering as he thought â—he discovering of that secret intelligence which he maintained with the French King to the Queens destruction if his designs had took effect But his design was carried with so little cunning that presently it discovered it self without the help of a revelation from the English Agent For whether it were by his instigation or by the solicitation of the French King or the ambition of the Daulphin who had then maried the Queen of Scots as before was said the Queen of Scots assumes unto her self the stile and title of Queen of England quartereth the Arms thereof upon all her Plate and in all Armories and Escoutcheons as she had occasion And this she did as Cosen and next heir to the Queen deceased which could not be without imputing bastardy to the Queen then living A folly which occasioned such displeasure in the heart of Elizabeth that it could neither be forgotten nor so much as forgiven till that unfortunate Lady was driven out of her Kingdom hunted into a close imprisonment and finally brought out to the fatal block This as it somewhat startled the new Queen of England so it engaged her the more resolutely in that Reformation which was so happily begun And to that end she sets out by Advice of her Council a certain Body of Injunctions the same in purpose and effect with those which had been published in the first of King Edward but more accommodated to the temper of the present time Nothing more singular in the same than the severe course taken about Ministers Mariages the use of singing and the Reverences in Divine Worship to be kept in Church the posture of the Communion Table and the form of bidding Prayers in the Congregation This last almost the same verbaâ—im with that which is prescribed Can. 55. Anno 1603. and therefore not so necessary to be here repeated The first worne long since out â—f use and not much observed neither when it first came out as if it had been published in the way of caution to make the Clergy men more wary in the choice of their wives than with a purpose of persuing it to an execution But as for that concerning the use of singing and the accustomed Reverences to be kept in Churches they are these that follow Touching the last it is enjoyed That whensoever the name of Jesus should be in any Lesson Sermon or otherwise in the Church pronounced that due reverence be made of all persons young and old with lowliness of courtesie and uncovering of the heads of the men kind as thereunto did necessarily belong and heretofore hath been accustomed For the encouragement of the Art and the continuance of the use of Singing in the Church of Engâ—and it was thus enjoyned that is to say That because in divers Collegiat as also in some Parish Câ—urches heretofore there hath been Livings appointed for the maintenance of men and children for singing in the Church by means whereof the laudable exercise of Musick hath been had in estimation and preserved in knowledge The Queens Majesty neither meaning in any wiâ—e the decay of any thing that might conveniently tend to the use and continuance of the said Science neither to have the same so abused in any part of the Church that thereby the common-Common-Prayer should be the worse understood by the Hearers willeth and commandeth that first no alterations be made of such assignments of Living as heretofore hath been appointed to the use of Singing or Musick in the Church but that the same so remain And that there be a modest and distinct Song so used in all parts of the common-Common-Prayers in the Church that the same may be as plainly understood as if it were read without singing And yet nevertheless for the comforting of such as delight in Musick it may be permitted that in the beginning or in the end of common-common-Prayer either at morning or evening there may be sung an Hymn or such like Song to the praise of Almighty God in the best Melody and Musick that may be conveniently devised having respect that the sentence of the Hymn may be understood and perceived According to which order as Plain-song was retained in most Parish-Churches for the daily Psalms so in her own Chapels and in the Quire of all Cathedrals and some Colleges the Hymns were sung after a more melodious manner with Organs commonly and sometimes with other musical Instruments as the solemnity required No mention here of singing David's Psalms in Meeter though afterwards they first thrust out the Hymns
and specious overtures he was designed to encourage a Rebellion amongst the Papists as was thought by some or rather that the Queen was grown so confident of her own just Title and the affections of her people as not to be beholden to the Pope for a confirmation remains a matter undetermined by our best Historians How it succeeded with this Pope in another project for the reducing of this Kingdom under his command we shall see hereafter But all this while there was no care taken to suppress the practice of another Faction who secretly did as much endeavour the subverâ—ion of the English Lituâ—gy as the Pope seemed willing to confirm it For whilst the Prelates oâ— the Church and the other learned men before remembred bent all their forces toward the confuting of some Popish Errors another enemy appeared whâ—ch seemed not openly to aim at the Church's Doctrines but quarrelled rather at some Rites and Extrinsecalls of it Their purpose was to shew themselves so expert in the Art of War as to take in the Out-works of Religion first before they levelled there Artillery at the Fort it self The Schismaticks at Franckfort had no sooner heard of Queen Mary's death but they made what haste they could for England in hope of fishing better for themselves in a troubled water than a composed and quiet Current Followed not long after by the brethren of the Separation which retired from thence unto Geneva who having left some few behind to compleat their Notes upon the Bible and make up so many of the Psalms in English Meeter as had been left unfinished by Sâ—ernhold and Hopkins hastned as fast homewards as the others But notwithstanding all their haste they came not time enough to effect their purposes either in reference to the Liturgy or Episcopal Government on which the Queen had so resolved according to her own most excellent judgment that they were not able to prevail in either project It grieved them at the heart that their own Prayers might not be made the rule of Worship in their Congregations and that they might not Lord it here in their several Parishe as Calvin did in the Presbytery of the Church of Geneva Some friends they had abouâ— the Queen and Calvin was resolved to make use of all his power and credit both with her and Cecil as appears by his Letters unto both to advance their ends and he was seconded therein by Peter Martyr who thought his interest in England to be greater than Calvin's though his name was not so eminent in other places But the Queen had fixed her self on her resolution of keeping up the Church in such outward splendor as might make it every way considerable in the eye of the world so that they must have faith enough to remove a mountain before they could have hope enough to draw her to them When therefore they saw the Liturgy imposed by Act of Parliament and so many Episcopal Sees supplyed with able Pastors nothing seemed more expedieâ—t to them than to revive the quarrels raised in King Edward's time against Capps and Surplices and such particulars as had then been questioned in the publick Liturgy And herein they were seconded as before in King Edward's time by the same Peter Martyr as appears by his Letters to a nameless friend bearing date at Zarick on the 4th of November 1560. to which he added his dislike in another of his Letters to the same friend also touching the same and other points proposed unto him that is to say the Cap the Episcopal Habit the Patrimony of the Church the manner of proceeding to be held against Papists the Perambulation used in the Rogation weeks with many other points of the like condition in which his judgment was desired But these helps being too far off and not to be consulted with upon all inconveniencies without a greater loss of time than could consist with the impatiency of their desires they fell upon another project which promised them more hopes of setting up their Discipline and decrying the Liturgy their quarrells about Caps and Vestments Some friends they had about the Court as before was said and Gryâ—dal the new Bishop of London was known to have a great respect to the name of Calvin the business therefore is so ordered that by Calvin's Letters unto Gryndal and the friends they had about the Queen way should be given to such of the French Nation as had repaired hitâ— her to enjoy the freedom of their own Religion to have a Church unto themselves and in that Church not onely to erect the Genevian discipline but to set up a form of Prayer which should hold no conformity with the English Liturgy They could not but remember those many advantages which John Alasco and his Church of Strangers afforded to the Zuingiian Gospellers in the Reign of King Edward and they despaired not of the like nor of greater neither if a French Church were setled upon Caâ—vin's Principles in some part of London A Synagogue had been built for the use of the Jews Anno 1231. not far from the place in which now stands the Hall of the Merchant Taylors near the Royal Exchange But the Jews having removed themselves to some other place the Christians obtained that it should be dedicated to the blessed Virgin and by that name was given unto the Brotherhood of St. Anthony of Vienna by King Henry the 3d. After which time an Hospital was there founded by the name of St. Anthony consisting of a Master two Priests one School-master and twelve poor men Inlarged in the succeeding times by the addition of a fair Grammar-School and other publick Buildings for the use of the Brethren It was privileged by King Edward the 4th to have Priests Clerks Scholars poor men and Brethren of the same or Lay-men Quiristers Proctors Messengers Servants in houshold and other things whatsoever like unto the Prior and Covent of St. Anthonie of Vâ—enna c. and being so privileged it was annexed to the Collegiat Chapel of St. George in Windsor under whose Patronage it remained but muâ—h impoverished by the fraud and folly of one of its School-masters till the final dissolution of it amongst other Hospitals and Brotherhoods by King Edward the sixth so that being vested in the Crown and of no present use to the City it was no hard matter to obtain it for the use of the French as it still continueth And now again we have another Church in London as different from the Church of England in Government and forms of Worship and some Doctrinals also as that of John Alasco was in the Augustine Friers Not must we marvail if we find the like dangerous consequents to ensue upon it for what else is the setting up of a Presbytery in a Church founded and established by the Rules of Episcopacy than the erecting of a Commonwealth or popular Estate in the midst of a Monarchy Which Calvin well enough perceived and thereupon gave Gryndal thanks
rather to their condemnation do eat and drink the Sign or Sacrament of so great a thing XXX Of Both Kinds 32 The Cup of the Lord is not to be denyed to the Lay People For both the parts of the Lords Sacrament by Christs Ordinance and Commandment ought to be ministred to all Christian People alike _____ XXX Of the one Oblation of Christ finished upon the Crosse. The Offering of Christ once made is the perfect Redemption Propitiation and Satisfaction for all the sins of the whole World both Original and Actual and there is none other Satisfaction for sin but that alone Wherefore the Sacrifices of Masses in which it was commonly said that the Priests did offer Christ for the quick and the dead to have remission of pain or guilt were fables and dangerous deceits XXXI Of the one Oblation of Christ finished upon the Crosse. The offering of Christ once made is the perfect Redemption c. were blasphemous fables and 33 dangerous deceits XXXI A single Life is imposed on none by the Word of God Bishops Priests and Deacons are not commanded by God's Law either to vow the estate of a single life or to abstain from Marriage XXXII Of the Marriage of Priests Bishops Priests and Deacons are not commanded by Gods Law c. Therefore it is lawful also for them 34 as for all other Christian men to marry at their own discretion as they shall judge the same to serve better to godlinesse XXXII Excommunicated Persons are to be avoided That person which by open Denunciation of the Church is rightly cut off from the unity of the Church and Excommunicated ought to be taken of the whole multitude of the faithful as an Heathen and Publican untill he be openly reconciled by Penance and received into the Church by a Judge which hath authority thereunto XXXIII Of Excommunicated Persons how they are to be avoided That person which by open Denunciation of the Church c. XXXIII Of the Traditions of the Church It is not necessary that Traditions and Ceremonies be in all places one and utterly like for at all times they have been divers and may be changed according to the diversities of Countries Times and mens Manners so that nothing be ordained against Gods Word Whosoever through his private judgment willingly and purposely doth openly break the Traditions and Ceremonies of the Church which be not repugnant to the Word of God and be ordained and approved by common Authority ought to be rebuked openly that others may fear to do the like as he that offendeth against the common Order of the Church and hurteth the Authority of the Magistrate and woundeth the Consciences of the weak Brethren XXXIV Of the Traditions of the Church It is not necessary that Traditions and Ceremonies c. Every particular or National Church 35 hath Authority to ordain change or aboâ—ish Ceremonies or Rites of the Church ordained onely by Man's Authority so that all things be done to edifying XXXIV Of the Homilies The Homilies lately delivered 36 and commended to the Church of England by the Kings Injunctionâ— do contain a godly and wholsome Doctrine and fit to be embraced by all men and for that cause they are diligently plainly and distinctly to be read to the People XXXV Of Homilies The second Book of Homilies the several Titles whereof we have joyned under this Article doth contain a godly and wholsome Doctrin and necessary for the times as doth the former Book of Homilies which were set forth in the time of Edward the sixth and therefore we judge them to be read in Churches by the Ministers diligently and distinctly that they may be understood of the People The names of the Homilies Of the Right use of the Church Of Repairing Churches Against the Peril of Idolatry Of Good Works c. XXXV Of the Book of Common Prayer and other Rites and Ceremonies of the Church of England The Book lately delivered to the Church of England by the Authority of the King and Parliament 37 containing the manner and form of publick Prayer and the ministration of the Sacraments in the said Church of England as also the Book published by the same Authority for Ordering Ministers in the Church are both of them very pious as to â—uth of Doctrine in nothing contrary but agreeable to the wholsome Doctrine of the Gospel which they do very much promote and illustrate And for that cause they are by all faithful Members of the Church of England but chiefly of the Ministers of the Word with all thankfulness and readiness of mind to be received approved and commended to the People of God XXXVI Of Consecration of Bishops and Ministers The Book of Consecration of 38 Archbishops and Bishops and ordering of Priests and Deacons lately set forth in the time of King Edward the sixth and confirmed at the same time by Authority of Parliament doth contain all things necessary to such Consecration and Ordering Neither hath it any thing that of it self is superstitious and ungodly And therfore whosoever are Consecrated or ordered according to the Rites of that Book since the second year of the afore-named King Edward unto this time or hereafter shall be Consecrated or ordered according to the same Rites we decree all such to be rightly orderly and lawfully Consecrated and Ordered XXXVI Of the Civil Magistrates The King of England is after Christ 39 the Supream Head on Earth of the Church of England and Ireland The Bishop of Rome hath no Jurisdiction in this Realm of England The Civil Magistrate is ordained and approved by God and therefore are to be obeyed not onely for fear of wrath but for conscience sake Câ—vil or temporal Laws may punish Christian men with death for heinous and grievous offences It is lawful for Christian men at the commandment of the Magistrate to wear Weapons and serve in the Wars XXXVII Of the Civil Magistrates The Queens Majesty hath the chief Power in this Realm of England and other her Dominions unto whom the chief Government of all Estates of this Realm whether they be Ecclesiastical or Civil in all cases doth appertain and is not nor ought to be subject to any Forein Jurisdiction Where we attribute to the Queens Majesty the chief Government 40 by which Titles we understand the minds of some slanderous folks to be offended We give not to our Princess the Ministry either of Gods Word or of the Sacraments the which thing the Injunctions lately set forth by Elizabeth our Queen do most plainly testifie but that onely Prerogative which we see to have been given always to all godly Princes in holy Scriptutes by God himself that is that they should rule all Estates committed to their charge by God whether they be Ecclesiastical or Temporal and restrain with the Civil Sword the stubborn and evil doers The Bishop of Rome hath no Jurisdiction in this Realm of England The Laws of this Realm may punish Christian men with death
by the Divines of King Edward's time that neither any satisfaction had been given to their Arguments nor that any right judgement could be made in the points disputed where the adverse party late as Judges in their own concernments Many checks had been given by Weston to the â—ix Divines but especially to the Arch-Deacon of Winchester and there was much disorder otherwise in the disputation though certain great Lords were present at it which hindered it from producing any good effect So that being weary at the last of their own confusions it was thought fit to put an end to the dispute Which Weston did accordingly in these following words It is not saith he the Queens pleasure that we should spend any longer time in these debates and ye are well enough already For you saith he have the Word and we have the Sword So powerful is the truth that may times it will find some means to vent it self when we least intend it and sometimes also when we most labour to suppress it The Parliament and Convocation had thus concluded on the point and little question would be made but that such Bishops as disliked the alterations in the time of King Edward will be sufficiently active in advancing the results of both But Bonner will not stay so long he is resolved to go along with the Parliament if not before it For after the ending of the Even song on St. Katherine's day before the consultations of the Parliament had been confirmed by the Royal assent he caused the Quire of St. Paul's to go about the steeple singing with lights after the old custome And on St Andrew's day next following he began the Procession in Latine himself with many Parsons and Curates and the whole Quire together with the Lord Mayor and divers of the Aldermen the Prebends of the Church attired in their old gray Amises as they used to call them in which manner they continued it for three dayes after In setting up the Mass with all the Pomps and Rites thereof at the time appointed it is not to be thought that he could be backward who shewed himself so forward in the rest of his actings And therefore it can be no news to hear that on the 14th of January he restored the solemn Sundays Procession about the Church with the Mayor and Aldermen in their Clokes the Preacher taking his benediction in the midst of the Church according to the ancient custome or that he should send out his Mandates to all Parsons and Curates within his Diocess for taking the names of all such as would not come the Lent following to Auricular confession and receive at Easter or finally that he should issue out the like commands to all Priests and Curates which lived within the compass of his jurisdiction for the abolishing of such Paintings and Sentences of holy Scripture as had been pensiled on the Church walls in King Edward's dayes He knew full well that as the actions of the Mother Church would easily become exemplary to the rest of the City so the proceedings of that City and the parts about it would in time give the law to the rest of the Kingdom and that there was no speedier way to advance a general conformity over all the Kingdom than to take beginning at the head from whence both sence and motion is derived to the rest of the body Which makes it seem the greater wonder that he should be so backward in advancing Images if at the least his actings in that kind have not been misplaced as not to go about it till the year next following unless it were that he began to be so wise as to stay until the Queen's affairs were better setled But no sooner was her marriage past when we find him at it For having by that time prepared a fair and large Image of our Saviour which they called the Rood he caused it to be laid along upon the pavement of St Paul's Quire and all the doors of the Church to be kept close shut whilst he together with the Prebends sung and said divers prayers by it Which done they anointed it with oyl in divers places and after the anointing of it crept unto it and kissed it and after weighed it up and set it in its accustomed place the whole quire in the mean time singing Te Deum and the bels publishing their joy at the end of the Pageant After which a command is given to Dr Story who was then Chancellor of his Diocess and afterwards a most active instrument in all his butcheries to visit every Parish Church in London and Middlesex to see their Rood loâ—ts repaired and the Images of the Crucifix with Mary and John to be placed on them But it is time that we return to the former Parliament during the sitting whereof the Queen had been desired to mary and three husbands had been nominated of several qualities that she might please her self in the choice of one That is to say Edward Lord Courtney whom she had lately restored to the Title of Earl of Devon Reginald Pole a Cardinal of the Church of Rome descended from George Duke of Clarence and Philip the eldest son of Charles the Emperour It is affirmed that she had carried some good affections to the Earl of Devonshire ever since she first saw him in the Tower as being of a lovely personage and Royal extraction the Grandson of a Daughter of King Edward the 4th But he being sounded afar off had declined the matter Concerning which there goes a story that the young Earl peâ—itioning her for leave to travel she advised him to mary and stay at home assuring him that no Lady in the land how high soever would refuse to accept him for an husband By which words though she pointed out her self unto him as plainly as might either stand with the Modesty or Majesty of a Maiden Queen Yet the young Gentleman not daring to look so high as a Crown or being better affected to the person of the Princess Elizabeth desired the Queen to give him leave to mary her sister Which gave the Queen so much displeasure that she looked with an evil eye upon them both for ever after upon the Earl for not accepting that love which she seemed to offer and on her sister as her Rival in the Earls affections It was supposed also that she might have some inclinations to Cardinal Pole as having been brought up with him in the house of his Mother the late Countess of Salisbury But against him it was objected that he began to grow in years and was so given unto his book that he seemed fitter for a Coul than to wear a Crown that he had few dependances at home and fewer alliances abroad and that the Queen's affairs did require a man both stout and active well back'd with friends and able at all points to carry on the great concernments of the Kingdom And then what fitter husband â—ould be found out for
enjoying all those Rights and Privileges which formerly he stood possessed of in this Kingdom For the passing of which Bill into Act the King and Queen vouchsafed their presence as soon as it was fitted and prepared for them not staying till the end of the Session as at other times because the businesse might not suffer such a long delay It was upon the 24 th of November that the Cardinal came first to London and had his Lodgings in or near the Court till Lambeth house could be made ready to receive him Having reposed himself for a day or two the Lords and Commons are required to attend their Majesties at the Court where the Cardinal in a very grave and eloquent speech first gave them thanks for being restored unto his Country in recompence whereof he told them that he was come to restore them to the Country and Court of Heaven from which by their departing from the Church they had been estranged He therefore earnestly exhorts them to acknowledge their errors and cheerfully to receive that benefit which Christ was ready by his Vicar to extend unto them His Speech is said to have been long and artificial but it concluded to this purpose That he had the Keys to open them a way into the Church which they had shut against themselves by making so many Laws to the dishonour and reproach of the See Apostolick on the revoking of which Laws they should â—ind him ready to make use of his Keys in opening the doors of the Church unto them It was concluded hereupon by both Houses of Parliament that a Petition should be made in the name of the Kingdom wherein should be declared how â—orry they were that they had withdrawn their obedience from the Apostolick See and consenting to the Statutes made against it promising to do their best endeavour hereafter that the said Laws and Statutes should be repealed and beseeching the King and Queen to intercede for them with his Holiness that they may be absolved from the Crimes and Censures and be received as penitent children into the bosom of the Church These things being thus resolved upon both Houses are called again to the Court on St. Andrews day where being assembled in the presence of the King and Queen they were asked by the Lord Chancellor Gardiner whether they were pleased that Pardon should be demanded of the Legat and whether they would return to the Unity of the Church and Obedience of the Pope Supream Head thereof To which when some cryed Yea and the rest said nothing their silence was taken for consent and so the Petition was presented to their Majesties in the name of the Parliament Which being publickly read they arose with a purpose to have moved the Cardinal in it who meeting their desires declared his readinesse in giving them that satisfaction which they would have craved And having caused the Authority given him by the Pope to be publickly read he showed how acceptable the repentance of a sâ—nner was in the sight of God and that the very Angels in Heaven rejoyced at the conversion of this Kingdom Which said they all kneeled upon their knees and imploring the mercy of God received absolution for themselves and the rest of the Kingdom which Absolution was pronounced in these following words Our Lord Jesus Christ which with his most precious blood hath redeemed and wash'd uâ— from all our sins and iniquities that he might purchase unto himself a glorious Spouse without spot or wrinckle and whom the Father hath appointed Head over all his Church He by his mercy absolve you And we by Apostolick Authority given unto us by the most holy Lord Pope Julius the 3 d his Vicegerent here on earth do absolve and deliver you and every of you with the whole Realm and the Dominions thereof from all Heresie and Schism and from all and every Judgment Censures and Pains for that cause incurred And also we do restore you again unto the unity of our Mother the holy Church as in our Letters more plainly it shall appear In the Name of the Father the Son and the Holy Ghost Which words of his being seconded with a loud Amen by such as were present he concluded the days work with a solemn Procession to the Chapel for rendring Prayers and Thanks to Almighty God And because this great work was wrought on St. Andrews day the Cardinal procured a Decree or Canon to be made in the Convocation of the Bishops and Clergy that from thenceforth the Feast of St. Andrew should be kept in the Church of England for a Majus Duplex as the Rituals call it and celebrated with as much solemnity as any other in the year It was thought fit also that the actions of the day should be communicated on the Sunday following being the second of December at St. Paul's Crosse in the hearing of the Lord Mayor Aldermen and the rest of the City According to which appointment the Cardinal went from Lambeth by water and landing at St. Paul's Wharf from thence proceeded to the Church with a Cross two Pillars and two Pole-axes of silver born before him Received by the Lord Chancellor with a solemn Procession they â—arried till the King came from Westminster Immediately upon whose comming the Lord Chancellor went into the Pulpit and preached upon on those words of St. Paul Rom. 13. Fratres scientes quia hora est jam nos de somno surgerâ— c. In which Sermon he declared what had been done on the Friday before in the submission which was made to the Pope by the Lords and Commons in the name of themselves and the whole Kingdom and the Absolution granted to them by the Cardinal in the name of the Pope Which done and Praiers being made for the whole Estate of the Catholick Church the company was for that time dismissed And on the Thursday after being the Feast of St. Nicholas day the Bishops and Clergy then assembled in their Convocation presented themselves before the Cardinal at Lamboth and kneeling reverently on their knees they obtained pardon for all their Perjuries Schisms and Heresies From which a formal Absolution was pronounced also that so all sorts of people might partake of the Pope's Benediction and thereby testifie their obedience and submission to him The news whereof being speedily posted over to the Pope he caused not onely many solemn Processions to be made in Rome and most parts of Italy but proclaimed a Jubile to be held on the 24th of December then next comming For the anticipating of which solemnity he alleged this reason That it became him to imitate the father of the Prodigal child and having received his lost son not onely to expresse a domestical joy but to invite all others to partake thereof During this Parliament was held a Convocation also as before was intimated Bonner continuing President of it and Henry Cole Archdeacon of Ely admitted to the office of Prolocutor They knew well how the Cards were
London to give God thanks for their conversion to the Catholick Church Wherein to set out their glorious pomp were ninety Crosses one hundred sixty Priests and Clarks each of them attired in his Cope and after them eight Bishops in their Pontificalibus followed by Bonner carrying the Popish Pix under a Canopy and attended by the Lord Mayor and Companies in their several Liveries Which solemn Procession being ended they all returned into the Church of St Paul where the King and Cardinal together with all the rest heard Mass and the next day the Parliament and Convocation were dissolved Nothing now rested but the sending of a solemn Embassery in the name of the King and Kingdom to the Court of Rome for testifying their submission to his Holiness and receiving his Apostolical benediction To which employment were designed Sir Anthony Brown who on the 2d of September had been created Viscoâ—nt Mountacute in regard of his descent from Sir John Nevil whom King Edward the 4th advanced unto the Title of Marquisse Mountacute as being the second son of Richard Nevil Earl of Sarisbury and Alâ—ce his wife daughter and heir of Thomas Mountacute the last and most renowned Earl of Sarisbury of that Name and Family With whom was joined in Commission an another Ambassador extraordinary Dr Thomas Thurlby Bishop of Ely together with Sir Edward Karâ— appointed to recide as Ordinary in the Papal Court. On the 18th day of February they began their journy but found so great an alteration when they came to Rome that Pope Juâ—â—â—us was not only dead but that Marcellus who succeeded him was deceased also so that the honour and felicity of this address from the King of England devolved on Cardinal Caraffa no great friend of Poles who took unto himself the name of Paul the 4th on the first day of whose Papacy it chanced that the three Ambassadors came first to Rome It was in the first Consistory also after his inauguration that the Ambassadors were brought before him Where prostrating themselves at the Pope's feet they in the name of the Kingdom acknowledged the faults committed relating them all in particular for so the Pope was pleas'd to have it confessing that they had been ungrateful for so many benefits received from the Church and humbly craving pardon for it The pardon was not only granted and the Ambassadors lovingly imbraced but as an overplus the Pope was pleas'd to honour their Majesties with the Title of Kings of Ireland Which Title he conferred upon them by the authority which the Popes pretend to have from God in erecting and subverting Kingdoms He knew right well that Ireland had been erected into a Kingdom by King Henry the 8th and that both Edward the 6th and the Queen now reigning had alwayes used the Title of Kings of Ireland in the style Imperial But he conceived himself not bound to take notice of it or to relinquish any privilege which had been exercised in that kind by his predecessors And thereupon he found out this temperament that is to say to dissemble his knowlege of that which had been done by Henry and of himself to erect the Island into a Kingdom that so the world might be induced to believe that the Queen rather used that Title as indulged by the Pope than as assumed by her Father And this he did according to a secret mystery of Government in the Church of Rome in giving that which they could not take from the possessor as on the other side some Kings to avoid contentions have received of them their own proper goods as gifts and others have dissembled the knowledge of the Gift and the pretence of the Giver These things being thus dispatched in publick the Pope had many private discourses with the Ambassadors in which he found fault that the Church goods were not wholly restored saying that by no means it was to be tolerated and that it was necessary to render all even to a farthing He added that the things which belong to God could never be applied to humane uses and that he who withholdeth the least part of them was in continual state of damnation that if he had power to grant them he would do it most readily for the fartherly affection which he bare unto them and for the experience which he had of their filial obedience but that his authority was not so large as to prophane things dedicated to Almighty God and therefore he would have the people of England be assured that these Church lands would be an Anathema or an accursed thing which by the just revenge of God would keep the Kingdom in perpetual infelicity And of this he charged the Ambassadors to write immediately not speaking it once or twice only but repeating it upon all occasions He also told them that the Peter-Pence ought to be paid assoon as might be and that according to the custome he would send a Collector for that purpose letting them know that himself had exercised that charge in England for three years together and that he was much edified by seeing the forwardness of the people in that contribution The discourse upon which particular he closed with this that they could not hope that St Peter would open to them the gates of Heaven as long as they usurped his goods on earth To all which talk the Ambassadors could not chuse but give a hearing and knew that they should get no more at their coming home At their departure out of England they left the Queen in an opinion of her being with child and doubted not but that they should congratulate her safe delivery when they came to render an account of their imployment but it proved the contrary The Queen about three months after her mariage began to find strong hopes not only that she had conceived but also that she was far gone with child Notice whereof was sent by Letters to Bonner from the Lords of the Council by which he was required to cause Te Deum to be sung in all the Churches of his Diocess with continual prayers to be made for the Queen 's safe delivery And for example to the rest these commands were executed first on the 28th of November Dr Chadsey one of the Prebends of Paul's preaching at the Cross in the presence of the Bishop of London and nine other Bishops the Lord Mayor and Aldermen attending in their scarlet Robes and many of the principal Citizens in their several Liveries Which opinion gathering greater strength with the Queen and belief with the people it was Enacted by the Lords and Commons then sitting in Parliament That if it should happen to the Queen otherwise than well in the time of her travel that then the King should have the politick Government Order and Administration of this Realm during the tender years of her Majestie 's issue together with the Rule Order Education and Government of the said issue Which charge as he was pleased to undergo at their humble
symitry which showed it selfe in all her features and what she carried on that side by that advantage was over-ballanced on the other by a pleasing sprightfulnesse which gained as much upon the hearts of all beholders It was conceived by those Great Critticks in the schooles of Beauty that love which seemed to threaten in the eyes of Queen Jane did only seem to sport it selfe in the eyes of Queen Ann that there was more Majesty in the Gaâ—b of Queen Jane Seimour and more lovelinesse in that of Queen Ann Bollen yet so that the Majesty of the one did excell in Lovelyness and that the Lovelinesse of the other did exceed In majesty Sir John Russell afterwards Earle of Bedford who had beheld both Queens in their greatest Glories did use to say that the richer Queen Jane was in clothes the fairer she appeared but that the other the richer she was apparrelled the worse she looked which showes that Queen Ann only trusted to the Beauties of Nature and that Queen Jane did sometimes help her selfe by externall Ornaments In a word she had in her all the Graces of Queen Ann but Governed if my conjecture doth not faile me with an evener and more constant temper or if you will she may be said to be equally made up of the two last Queens as having in her all the Attractions of Queen Ann but Regulated by the reservednesse of Queen Katharine also It is not to be thought that so many rare perâ—ections should be long concealed from the eye of the King or that love should not worke in him it's accustomed effects of desire and hope In the prosecution whereof he lay so open to discovery that the Queen couâ—d not chuse but take notice of it and intimated her suspitioâ—s to him as appeares by a letter of hers in the Scrinia Sacra Iâ— which she signifies unto him that by hastning her intended death he would be left at liberty both before God and man to follow his affection already setled on the Party for whose sake she was reduced unto that condition and whose name she could some while since have pointed to his Grace not being ignorant of her suspicions And it appeared by the event that she was not much mistaken in the Mark she aimed at For scarce had her lementable death which happened on the nineteenth of May prepared the way for the Legitimating of this new affection but on the morrow after the King was secretly married to Mistress Seimour and openly showed her as his Queen in the Whitsontide following A Marriage which made some alteration in the face of the Court in the advancing of her kindred and discountenancing the Dependants of the former Queen but otherwise produced no change in Affaires of State The King proceeded as before in suppressing Monasteries extinguishing the Popes Authority and â—ltering divers things in the face of the Câ—uâ—ch which tended to that Reformation which after followed For on the eighth of June began the Parliament in which here past an Act for tâ—e finall extinguishing of the Power of the Popes of Rome Cap. 10. And the next day a Convocation of the Bishops and Clergy managed by Sir Thomas Cromwell advanced about that time unto the Title of Lord Cromwell of Wimbledon and made his Majesties Viccar Generall of all Ecclesiast â—all Matâ—ers in the Realme of England By whose Authority a book was published after Mature debate and Deliberation under the name of Articles Devised by the Kings Highness in which mentioned â—ut three Sacraments that is to â—ay Baptisme Penâ—ance and the Lords Supper Besides which book there were some Acts agreed upon in the Convocation for diminishing the superflâ—ous number of Holy dayes especially of such as happened in the time of Harvest Sâ—gnified afterwards to the people in certain Injunctions published in the Kings name by the new Viccar Generall as the first fruits of his Authority In which it was ordained amongst other things that the Curates in every Parish Church should teach the People to say the Lords Prayer the Creed the Ave-Mary and the Ten Commandments in the English Tongue But that which seemed to make most for the Advantage of the new Queen and her Posterity if it please God to give her any was the unexpected death of the Duke of Richmond the Kings naturall Son begotten on the body of the Lady Talboiâ— So dearly cherished by his Father having then no lawful Issuâ—-male that in the sixth yeare of his Age An. 1525. he created him Earl of Nottingham and not long after Duke of Richmond and Sommerset preferred him to the Honourable office of Earle Marshall elected him into the Order of the Garter made him Lord Admirall of the Royall Navy in an expedition against France and finally Affianced him to Mary the daughter of Thomas Howard Duke of Norâ—olk the most â—owerfull Subject in the Kingdom Now were these all the favours intended to him The Crown it selfe being designed him by the King in default of Lawfull Issue to be procreated and begotten of his Royall Body For in the Act of the Succession which past in the Parliament of this year the Crown being first setled upon the Issue of this Queen with the remainder to the Kings issue lawfully begotten on any following wife whatsoever there past this clause in favour of the Duke of Richmond as it was then generally conceived that is to say That for lack of lawfull heires of the Kings body to be procreated or begotten as is afore limitted by this Act it should and might be lawfull for him to confer the same on any such Person or Persons in Possession and Remainder as should please his Highnesse and according to such Estate and after such manner â—orme fashion order and condition as should be expressed declared named and lâ—mitted in his said Letters Patents or by his last Will the Crown to be enjoyed by such person or persons so to be nominated and appointed in as large and ample manner as if such Person or Persons had been his Highnesse Lawfull Heires to the Imperiall Crown of this Realm And though it might please God as it after did to give the King some Lawfull Issue by this Queen yet took he so much care for this naturall son as to enable himselfe by another Clause in the said Act to advance any person or persons of his most Royall Blood by Letters Patents under the Great Seale to any Title Stile or Name of any Estate Dignity or Honour whatsoever it be and to give to them or any of them any Castles Honours Mannours Lands Tenements Liberties Franchiefes or other Hereditaments in â—ee simple or Fee â—tail or for terme of their lives or the life of any of them But all these expectations and Provisions were to no effect the Duke departing this life at the age of 17 yeares or thereabouts within few dayes after the ending of this Session that is to say on the 22th day of July Anno 1536. to the
Hoods To give a beginning hereunto Bishop Ridley then Bishop of London obediently conforming unto that which he could not hinder did the same day Officiate the Divine Service of the Morning in his Rochet onely without Cope or Vestment he Preached also at St. Paul's Cross in the afternoon the Lord Mayor Aldermen and Companies in their best Liveries being present at it the Sermon tending for the most part to the setting forth of the said Book of Common-Prayer and to acquaint them with the Reason of such Alterations as were made therein On the same day the New Liturgie was executed also in all the Churches of London And not long after I know not by what strange forwardness in them that did it the Upper Quire in St. Paul's Church where the High-Altar stood was broken down and all the Quiâ—e thereabout and the Communion-Table was placed in the Lower Part of the Quiâ—e where the Priest sang the Dayly Service What hereupon ensued of the Rich Ornaments and Plate wherewith every Church was furnished after its proportion we shall see shortly when the King's Commissioners shall be sent abroad to seise upon them in His Name for their own Commodity About this time the Psalms of David did first begin to be Composed in English Meeter by one Thomas Sternhold one of the Grooms of the Privy-Chamber who Translating no more then thirty seven left both Example and Encouragement to John Hopkins and others to dispatch the rest A Device first taken up in France by one Clement Marot one of the Grooms of the Bed-Chamber to King Francis the First who being much addicted to Poetry and having some acquaintance with those which were thought to have enclined to the Reformation was perswaded by the Learned Vatablus Professour of the Hebrew Tongue in the University of Paris to exercise his Poetical Fancies in Translating some of David's Psalms For whose satisfaction and his own he Translated the first fifty of them and after flying to Geneva grew acquainted with Beza who in some tract of time Translated the other hundred also and caused them to be fitted unto several Tunes which â— hereupon began to be Sung in private houses and by degrees to be taken up in all the Churches of the French and other Nations which followed the Genevian Plat-form Marot's Translation said by Strada to have been ignorantly and perversely done as being but the Work of a man altogether unlearned but not to be compared with that Barbarity and Botching which every where occurreth in the Translation of Sternhold and Hopkins Which notwithstanding being first allowed for private Devotion they were by little and little brought into the use of the Church Permitted rather then Allowed to be Sung before and after Sermons afterwards Printed and bound up with the Common-Prayer-Book and at last added by the Stationers at the end of the Bible For though it be expressed in the Title of those Singing Psalms that they were set forth and allowed to be Sung in all Churches before and after Morning and Evening Prayer and also before and after Sermons yet this Allowance seems rather to have been a Connivance then an Approbation No such Allowance being any where found by such as have been most Industrious and concerned in the search thereof At first it was pretended onely that the said Psalms should be Sung before and after Morning and Evening Prayer and also before and after Sermons which shews they were not to be intermingled in the Publick Liturgie But in some tract of time as the Puritan Faction grew in strength and confidence they prevailed so far in most places to thrust the Te Deum the Benedictus the Magnificat and the Nunc Dimittis quite out of the Church But of this more perhaps hereafter when we shall come to the Discovery of the Puritan Practices in the Times succeeding Next to the business of Religion that which took up a great part of the Publick Care was the Founding and Establishing of the new Hospital in the late dissolved House of Grey-Friers near New-gate in the City of London and that of St. Thomas in the Borough of Soâ—thwark Concerning which we are to know that the Church belonging to the said House together with the Cloysters and almost all the Publick Building which stood within the Liberties and Precincts thereof had the good Fortune to escape that Ruin which Generally befell all other Houses of that Nature And standing undemolished till the last Times of King Henry it was given by him not many days before His Death to the City of London together with the late dissolved Priory called Little St. Bartholomew's which at the Suppression thereof was valued at 305. pounds 6. s. 7. d. In which Donation there was Reference had to a Double End The one for the Relieving of the Poor out of the Rents of such Messuages and Tenements as in the Grant thereof are contained and specified The other for Constituting a Parish-Church in the Church of the said dissolved Grey-Friers not onely for the use of such as lived within the Precincts of the said two Houses but for the Inhabitants of the Parishes of Saint Nicholas in the Shambles and of Saint Ewines scituate in Warwick-Lane-end near New-gate Market Which Churches with all the Rents and Profits belonging to them were given to the City at the same time also and for advancing the same ends together with five hundred Marks by the year for ever the Church of the Grey-Friers to be from thenceforth called christ-Christ-Church Founded by King Henry the Eighth All which was signified to the City in a Sermon Preached at Saint Paul's Cross by the Bishop of Rochester on the thirteenth of January being no more then a Fortnight before the death of the King so that He wanted not the Prayers of the Poor at the Time of His Death to serve as a Counter-Ballance for those many Curses which the poor Monks and Friers had bestowed upon Him in the Time of His Life In pursuance of this double Design the Church of the said Friers which had before served as a Magazine or Store-house for such French-Wines as had been taken by Reprise was cleansed and made fit for Holy uses and Mass again sang in it on the thirteenth day of January before remembred resorted to by such Parishioners as were appointed to it by the King's Donation After which followed in the first years of King Edward the Sixth the taking down of the said two Churches and building several Tenements on the Ground of the Churches and Church-Yards the Rents thereof to be imployed for the further maintenance and Relief of the poor living and loytering in and about the City to the great Dishonour of the same But neither the first Grant of the King nor these new Additions being able to carry on the work to the end desired it happened that Bishop Ridley preaching before the King did much insist upon the settling of of some constant course for Relief of the Poor Which
was at the Heart the more Sorrowful appearance did he outwardly Make. Whither any tokens of Poyson did Appear reports are various Certainly his Physicians discerned an invincible Malignity in his disease and the Suspicion did the more encrease for that the Complaint proceded chiefly from the Lights a part as of no quickness so no seat for any sharp Disease The Bruit whereof being got amongst the People they break out into immoderate Passions Complaining that for this cause his two Uncles had been taken away that for this cause the most Faithful of his Nobility and of his Council were disgraced and removed from Court that this was the reason why such were placed next his Person who were most assuredly disposed either to commit or permit any Mischeif that now it did appear that it was not vainly conjectured some years before by Men of Judgment and Foresight that after Sommerset's Death the King should not long Enjoy his Life But the DVKE regarded not much the muttering Multitude knowing full well that Rumours grow Stale and Vanish with Time and yet somewhat to abate or Delay them for the present He caused speeches â—o be spread abroad that the KING began to be in a Recovery of his Health which was the more readily Beleived because most desired it to be true To which Report the General Jugdment of his Physicians gave no little Countenance by whom it was affirmed that they saw some hopes of his Recovery if he might be removed to a Better and more Healthful Air. But this DVKE Dudly did not like of and therefore he so dealt with the LORDS of the Council that they would by no means yield unto it upon pretense of his Inability to endure any such Remove And now the time being near at hand for the last Act of this Tragedy a certain Gentlewoman accounted a fit Instrument for the purpose offered her Service for the Cure giving no small assurance of it if He might be committed wholy to her disposing But from this Proposition the KING'S Physicians shewed themselves to be very averse in regard that as she could give no reason either of the nature of the Disease or of the part afflicted so she would not declare the means whereby she intended to work the Cure Whose Opposition notwithstanding it was in time resolved by the Lords of the Council that the Physicians should be discharged and the Ordering of the King's Person committed unto her alone But she had not kept Him long in hand when He was found to have fallen into such Desperate Extremity as manifestly might Declare that His Death was hastened under pretense of finding out a more quick way for restoring of His Health For now it visibly appeared that His Vital Parts were mortally stuffed Which brought Him to a difficulty of speech and breathing that His Legs swelled his Pulse failed and his Skin changed colour with many other horrid Symptoms of approching Death Which being observed the Physicians were again sent for when it was too late and sent for as they gave it out but for Fashion onely because it was not thought fit in Reason of State that a King should by without having some Physicians in attendance of him by some of which it was secretly whispered That neither their Advice nor Applications had been at all regarded in the course of his Sickness That the King had been ill dealt with more then once or twice and that when by the Benefit both of his Youth and of careful Means there were some fair hopes of his Recovery He was again more strongly Over-laied then ever And for a farther proof that some undue Practises had been used upon him it is Affirmed by a Writer of the Popish Party who could have no great cause to pity such a Calamitous End not onely that the Apothecary who poysoned him as well for the Horrour of the Offence as the Disquietness of his Conscience did not long after drown himself but that the Landress who washed his Shirts loâ—t the Skin of her fingers Againâ—t which general apprehensions of some ill Dealing toward this unfortunate Prince it can be no sufficient Argument if any Argument at all that Queen Mary caused no Enquiry to be made about it as some supposed She would have done if the suspicion had been raised upon any good Grounds For it may easily be Believed that She who afterwards admitted of a Consultation for Burning the Body of Her Father and cutting off the Head of Her Siâ—ter would not be over-Careful in the search and punâ—shment of those who had precipitated the Death of her Brother The differences which were between them in the point of Religion and the King's forwardness in the Cause of the Lady Jane His rendring Her uncapaable as much as in Him was to succeed in the Crown and leaving Her in the Estate of Illegitimation were thought to have enough in them of a Supersedeas unto all Good Nature So that the King might dye by such sinister Practises without putting Queen MARY to the trouble of enquiring after them who thought Her Self to have no Reason of being too sollicitous in searching out the secret Causes of His Death who had been so injurious to Her in the time of His Life A Life which lasted little and was full of trouble so that Death could not be unwelcome to Him when the hopes of His Recovery began to fail Him Of which if He desired a Restitution it was rather for the Church's sake then for His own His dying Prayers not so much aiming at the prolonging of His Life as the Continuance of Religion Not so much at the freeing of Himself from His Disease as the preserving of the Church from the danger of Popery Which dying Prayer as it was taken from His Mouth was in these words following Lord God deliver me out of this miserable and wretched life and take me among thy Chosen Howbeit not my Will but Thine be done Lord I commit my Spirit to Thee O Lord Thou knowest how happy it were for Me to be with Thee Yet for thy Chosen's sake send me Life and Health that I may truly se ve Thee Oh my Lord God! bless my People and save Thine Inheritance O Lord God save thy Chosen People of England Oh Lord God! defend this Realm from Papistry and maintain thy true Religion that I and my People may praise thy Holy Name for Jesus Christ his sake With this Prayer and other Holy Meditations He prepared that Pious Soul for God which He surrendred into the Hands of His Creatout on the sixth of July toward Night when He had lived fifteen Years eight Moneths and four and twenty Days Of which He had Reigned six Years five Moneths and eight Days over His Body kept a while at Greenwich was on the eight of August removed to Westminster and on the morrow after solemnly Interred amoâ—gst His Ancestours in the Abbey Church In the performance whereof the Lord Treasure Paulet with the Earls of
no Sermon was preached at St. Paul's Cross or any publick place in London till the Easter following At what time the Sermons which were to be preached in the Spittle according to the antient custom were performed by Doctor Bill the Almoner to the Queen and afterwards the first Dean of Westminster of the Queens foundation Doctor Richard Cox formerly Dean of Westminster preferred in short time after to the See of Ely and Mr. Robert Horn of whom mention hath been made before at the troubles of Franckfort advanced not long after to the See of Winchester The Rehearsal Sermon accustomably preached at St. Pauls Crosse on the Sunday following was undertook by Doctor Thomas Sampson then newly returned from beyond the Seas and after most unhappily made Dean of Christ-church But so it chanced that when he was to go into the Pulpit the dore was locked and the key thereof not to be found so that a Smith was sent for to break open the dore and that being done the like necessity was found of cleansing and making sweet the place which by a long disuse had contracted so much filth and nastiness as rendred it unfit for another Preacher By the other Proclamation which was published on the 30th of December â—t was enjoyned That no man of what quality or degree soever should presume to alter any thing in the state of Religion or innovate in any of the rites and ceremonies thereunto belonging but that all such rites and ceremonies should be observed in all Parish Churches of the Kingdom as were then used and retained in her Majesties Chapel until some further order should be taken in it Onely it was permitted and withall required that the Letany the Lords Prayer the Creed and the Ten Commandments should be said in the English tongue and that the Epistle and the Gospel at the time of the High Mass should be read in English which was accordingly done in all the Churches of London on the next Sunday after being New-years day and by degrees in all the other Churches of the Kingdom also Further than this she thought it not convenient to proceed at the present but that she had commanded the Priest or Bishop for some say it was the one and some the other who officiated at the Altar in the Chapel-Royal not to make any Elevation of the Sacrament the better to prevent that adoration which was given unto it and which she could not suffer to be done in her sight without a most apparent wrong to her judgment and conscience Which being made known in other places and all other Churches being commanded to conform themselves to the example of the Chapel the elevation was forborn also in most other places to the great discontent and trouble of the Popish party And though there was no further progress toward a Reformation by any publick Act or Edict yet secretly a Reformation in the form of Worship and consequently in point of Doctrine was both intended and projected For making none acquainted with her secret purposes but the Lord Marquis of Northampton Francis Earl of Bedford Sir John Gray of Pergo one of the late Duke of Suffolk's brothers and Sir William Cecil she committed the reviewing of the former Litutgy to the care of Doctor Parker Doctor Gryndal Doctor Cox Doctor Pilkington Doctor Bill Doctor May and Mr. Whitehead together with Sir Thomas Smith Doctor of the Laws a very learned moderate and judicious Gentleman But what they did and what preferments they attained to on the doing of it we shall see anon wheu we shall find the Book reviewed confirmed by Act of Parliament and executed in all parts of the Kingdom as that Act required But first some publick Acts of State and great Solemnities of Court are to be performed The Funeral of the Queen deceased solemnised on the 13th of December at the Abbey of Westminster and the Sermon preached by Doctor White then Bishop of Winchester seemed onely as a preamble to the like Solemnity performed at the said place about ten days after in the Obsequies of Charls the 5th which mighty Emperor having first left the world by resigning his Kingdoms and retiring himself into a Monastery as before was said did after leave his life also in September last and now upon the 24th of this present December a solemn Obsequie was kept for him in the wonted form a rich Hearse being set up for him in the Church of Westminster magnificently covered with a Pall of gold his own Embassador serving as the principal Mourner and all the great Lords and Officers about the Court attending on the same in their rancks and orders And yet both these though stately and majestical in their several kinds came infinitely short of those Pomps and Triumphs which were prepared and reserved for the Coronation As a Preparation whereunto she passed from Westminster to the Tower on the 12th of January attended by the Lord Mayor the Aldermen and other Citizens in their Barges with the Banners and Escutcheons of their several Companies loud Musick sounding all the way and the next day she restored some unto their old and advanced others to new honors according to her own fancy and their deservings The Marquis of Northampton who had lain under an Attaindure ever since the first beginning of the Reign of Queen Mary she restored in blood with all his Titles and Estates The Lord Edward Seimer eldest son to the late Duke of Somerset was by her reconfirmed in the Titles of Viscount Beaâ—châ—mp and Earl of Hertford which had been formerly entayled upon him by Act of Parliament The Lord Thomas Howard second son of Thomas the late Duke of Norfolk and brother to Henry Earl of Surrey beheaded in the last days of King Henry the Eighth she advanced to the Title of Viscount Howard of Bindâ—n She also preferred Sir Oliver St. Johns who derived himself from the Lady Maâ—garet daughter of John Duke of Somerset from whom the Queen her self descended to the dignity of Lord St. John of Bletso and Sir Henry Carte son of Sir William Carie Knight and of Mary Bollen his wife the onely sister of Queen Anne Bollen she promoted to the honor and degree of Lord Carie of Hansdon The ordinary acts of grace and favour being thus dispatched she prepares the next morning for a triumphant passage through London to her Palace at Westminster But first before she takes her Chariot she is said to have lifted up her eyes to heaven and to have used some words to this or the like effect O Lord Almigâ—â—y and everâ—iving 〈◊〉 I give thee most hearty thanks that thou hast been so mercifu unto me as to spare me to see this joyful day And I acknowledge that thou hast dealt as wonderfully and aâ— mercifully with me as thou didst with thy true and faithful servant Daniel thy Prophet whom thou deliveredst out of the den from the cruelty of the raging greedy Lyons even so was I overwhelmed and only by
Injunctions Anno 1559. Not giving such a general satisfaction to that groundless cavil as was expected and intended the Bishops and Clergy in their Convocation of the year 1562. by the Queens authority and consent declared more plainly that is to say That they gave not to their Princess by vertue of the said Act or otherwise either the ministring of Gods word or Sacraments but that only Prerogâ—tive which they saw to have been given alwaies to all godly Princes in holy Scripture by God himself that is to say that they should 〈◊〉 all estates and degrees committed to their charge by God whether they be Ecclesiastical or Temporal and restrain with the Civil Sword the stubborne and evil doers By all which if the cavils of the Adversary be not fully answered it would be known upon what reason they should question that in a soverain Queen which they allow in many cases to a Lady Abbess For that an Abbess may be capable of all and all manner of Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction even to the dâ—nouncing of that dreadful sentence of Excommunication and that thâ—y may lawfully exercise the same upon all such as live within the verge of their authority is commonly acknowledged by their greatest Canonists First for suspension it is affirmed by their Glosse that an Abbess may suspend such Clerks as are subject to her both from their Benefice and Office And questionless either to suspend a Clerk or to bring his Church under the sentence of an Interdict is one of the chief parts of Ecclesiastical or spiritual Censures Nor have they this authority only by way of delegation from the Pope in some certain cases as is affirmed by Aquinas Durandus ' Sylvâ—ster Dominicus Soto and many other of their Schoolmen but in an ordinary way as properly and personally invested them which is the general opinion of their greatest Canonists Next for the Sacraments it is sufficiently known that the ministration of Baptism is performed by Midwives and many other women as of common course not only as a thing connived at in extreme necessity but as a necessary duty in which they are to be instructed against all emergencies by their Parish Priests for which we have the testimony of the late Lord Legate in the Articles published by him for his visitation And finally for excommunication it is affirmed by Palladanus and Navarre none of the meanest in the Pack that the Pope may grant that power to a woman also higher than which there can be none exercised in the Church by the sons of men And if a Pope may grant these powers unto a woman as to a Prioress or Abbess or to any other there can be then no incapacity in the Sex for exersing any part of that jurisdiction which was restored unto the Crown by this Act of Parliament And if perhaps it be objected that a Lady Abbess is an Ecclesiastical or spiritual person in regard of her office which cannot be affirmed of Queens Pope Gregory himself will come in to help us by whom it was not thought unfit to commit the cognisance of a cause concerning the purgation of a Bishop who stood charged with some grievous crime to Brunichildis or Brunholi Queen of France of which although the Gloss upon the Decretals be pleased to say That the Pope stretched his power too far in this particular yet Gregory did no more therein but what the Popes may do and have done of late times by their own confession so little ground there is for so great a clamour as hath been made by Bellarmine and other of the Popish Jesuites upon this occasion Now for the better exercising and enjoying of the jurisdiction thus recognised unto the Crown there are two Clauses in the Act of great importance the first whereof contains an Oath for the acknowledgment and defence of this Supremacy not onely in the Queen but her heirs and successors the said Oath to be taken by all Archbishops Bishops and all other Ecclesiastical persons and also by all temporal Judges Justiciaries Mayors or any other temporal Officers c. For the refusal whereof when lawfully tendred to them by such as were thereto commissionated under the great Seal of England every such person so refusing was actually to stand deprived of his or their Eâ—clesiastical Preferments or other temporal office of what sort soever onely it was provided that the Oath should not be imposed on any of the temporal Peers of whose fidelity the Queen seemed willing to assure her self without any such tye though this exemption was esteemed by others but a piece of cunning the better to facilitate the passing of that Act amongst them which otherwise they might have hindred But this provision was not made till the following Parliament though for the reason before mentioned it was promised now By the last Clause it was enacted That it should and might be lawful to the Queen her heirs and Successors by Letters Patents under the great Seal of England to assigne name and authorise when and as often as her Highness her Heirs or Successors should think convenient such persons being natural born Subjects to them to exercise use and occupie under her Highness her Heirs and Successors all manner of Jurisdictions Privileges and Preheminences in any wise touching or concerning any Spiritual or Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction within the Realms of England and Ireland or any other her Highness Dominions or Countries and to visit reform repress order correct and amend all such errors heresies schisms abuses offences contempts and enormities whatsoever which by any manner of Spiritual or Ecclesiastical Power Authority or Jurisdiction or can or may lawfully be reformed ordered redressed corrected restrained or amended to the pleasure of Almighty God the increase of vertue and conservation of the peace and unity of this Realm With a Proviso notwithstanding that nothing should from thenceforth be accounted for Heresie but what was so adjudged in the holy Scripture or in one of the four first General Councils or in any other National or Provincial Council determining according to the word of God or finally which should be so adjudged in the time to come by the Court of Parliament first having the assent of the Bishops and Clergy in their Convocation This was the first foundation of that famous Court of High Commission the principal Bulwark and Preservative of the Church of England against the practices and assaults of all her Adversaries whether Popish or Puritan And from hence issued that Commission by which the Queens Ministers proceeded in their Visitation in the first year of her Reign for rectifying all such things as they found amiss and could not be redressed by any ordinary Episcopal power without the spending of more time than the exigencies of the Church could then admit of There also past another Act for recommending and imposing the Book of common-Common-Prayer and Administration of the Sacraments according to such alterations and corrections as were made therein by those
who were appointed to revise it as before is said In the performance of which service there was great care taken for expunging all such passages in it as might give any scandal or offence to the Popish party or be urged by them in excuse for their not comming to Church and joyning with the rest of the Congregation in Gods publick Worship In the Letany first made and published by King Henry the 8th and afterwards continued in the two Lituâ—gies of King Edward the 6th there was a Prayer to be delivered from the tyranny and all the detestable enormities of the Bâ—shop of Rome which was thought fit to be expunged as giving matter of scandal and dis-affection to all that party or otherwise wisht well to that Religion In the first Liturgie of King Edward the Sacrament of the Lords Body was delivered with this Benediction that is to say The Body of our Lord Jesus Christ which was given for the preservation of thy body and sâ—ul to life everlasting The Blood of our Lord Jesus Christ c. Which being thought by Calvin and his Disciples to give some countenance to the grosse and carnal Presence of Christ in the Sacrament which passeth by the name of Transâ—bstantiation in the Schools of Rome was altered into this form in the second Liturgy that is to say Take and eat this in remembrance that Christ died for thee and â—eed on him in thy heart by faith with thanksgiving Take and drink this c. But the Revisors of the Book joyned both Forms together lest under colour of rejecting a Carnal they might be thought also to deny such a Real Presence as was defended in the Writings of the Antient Fathers Upon which ground they expunged also a whole Rubrick at the end of the Communion-service by which it was declared that kneeling at the participation of the Sacrament was required for no other reason than for a signification of the humble and grateful acknowledging of the benefits of Christ given therein unto the worthy Receiver and to avoid that prophanation and disorder which otherwise might have ensued and not for giving any adoration to the Sacramental Bread and Wine there bodily received or in regard of any real and essential presence of Christs body and blood And to come up the closer to those of the Church of Rome it was ordered by the Queens Injunctions that the Sacramental Bread which the Book required onely to be made of the finest flower should be made round in fashion of the Wafers used in the time of Queen Mary She also ordered that the Lords Table should be placed where the Altar stood that the accustomed reverence should be made at the name of Jesus Musick retained in the Church and all the old Festivals observed with their several Eves By which compliances and the expunging of the passages before remembred the Book was made so passable amongst the Papiâ—ts that for ten years they generally repaired to their Parish Churches without doubt or scruple as is affirmed not onely by Sir Edward Coke in his speech againâ—t Gâ—â—net and his Charge given at the Assizes held at Norwich but also by the Queen her self in a Letter to Sir Francis Walsingham then being her Resident or Leiger-Ambassador in the Court of France the same confessed by Sanders also in his Book de Schismate And that the Book might passe the better in both Houses when it came to the Vote it was thought requisite that a Disputation should be held about some points which were most likely to be checked at the Disputants to be five Bishops and four other learned men of the one side and nine of the most learâ—ed men graduated in the Schools on the other side the Disputation to begin on the 30th of March and to be holden in the Church of Westminster in the presence of as many of the Lords of the Council and of the Members of both Houses as were desirous to inform themselves in the state of the Questions The Disputation for that reason to be held in the English Tongue and to be managed for the better avoiding of confusion by a mutual interchange of writings upon every point those writings which were mutually given in upon one day to be reciprocally answer'd on another so from day to day till the whole were ended To all which points the Bishops gave consent for themselves and the rest of their party though they refused to stand unto them when it came to the tryal The points to be disputed on were three in number that is to say That it is against the word of God and the custom of the antient Church to use a Tongue unknown to the people in Common-Praier and in the administration of the Sacâ—aments 2. That every Church hath authority to appoint take away and change Ceremonies and Ecclesiastical Rites so the same be to edification 3. That it cannot be proved by the word of God that there is in the Masse offered up a sacrifice propitiatory for the living and the dead And for the Disputants of each side they were these that follow that is to say first for the Popish party Dr. White Bishop of Winchester Dr. Bayn Bishop of Lichfield Dr. Scot Bishop of Chester and Dr. Watson Bishop of Lincâ—ln Dr. Fecknam Abbot of Westminster Dr. Henry Cole Dean of St. Pauls Dr. Harpâ—field Archdeacon of Canterbury Dr. Chadsey Prebend of St. Paâ—ls and Dr. Langdale Archdeacon of Lewis in Sussex For those of the Protestant perswasion appeared Dr. Scory the late Bishop of Chichester Dr. Cox the late Dean of Westminster Dr. Sandys late Master of Katherine Hal. Mr. Horn the late Dean of Durham Mr. Elmar late Archdeacon of Stow Mr. Whâ—tehead Mr. Gryndal Mr. Gâ—est and Mr. Jewel all of which except onely Whiâ—ehead attained afterwards to some eminent place in the sacred Hieraâ—chy The day being come and the place fitted and accommodated for so great an audience the Lord Keeper Bacon takes the Chair as Moderator not for determining any thing in the points disputed but for seeing good order to be kept and that the Disputation might be managed in the form agreed on When contrary to expectation the Bishops and their party brought nothing in writing to be read publickly in the hearing of all the Auditors but came resolved to try it out by word of mouth and to that end appointed Cole to be their Spokesman For which neglect being reproved by the Lord Keeper they promised a conformity on the Monday following being the second day of April but would not stand unto it them because they would not give their Adversaries so much leisure as a whole nights deliberation to return an answer Desired and pressed by the Lord Keeper to proceed according to the form agreed on for the better satisfaction and contentment of so great an Audience it was most obstinately denyed Wâ—tson and White behaving themselves with so little reverence or so much insolency rather as to threaten the Queen
circumstances and Punctillioes before laid down This stilled the clamour for the present though it brake out again forty years after and was again stilled by the care and industry of the right Reverend Dr. Bâ—amhall Lord Bishop of Derry in a Book Entituled The Church of England defended against some scandalous and fabulous â—â—pâ—tations cast upon her c. Which cavil for it is no better being thus refelled the other objections of the Adversaries will be easily answered though Barlow and Scory were deprived of their Episcopal Sees yet first the justice and legality of their deprivation was not clear in Law and secondly they neither were nor could be deprived of their Episcopal character which remained in them undefaced as before it was And whilst the character remained they were in a capacity of performing all Episcopal Offices to which they should be called by their Metropolitan or any higher Power directing and commanding in all such matters as concerned the Church And as for Suffragans by which title Hodgskins is Commissionated for the Consecration they were no other than the Chore-Epâ—scopi of the Primitive times Subsidiary Bishops ordained for easing the Diocesan of some part of his burthen By means whereof they were enabled to perform such offices belonging to that sacred function not limited to time and place by the ancient Canons by which a Bishop was restrained in some certain acts of Jurisdiction to his proper Diocess Of this sort there were twenty six in the Realm of England distinguished by the names of such principal Towns as were appointed for their title and denomination The names and number whereof together with the jurisdiction and preheminences proportioned to them the Reader may peruse in the Act of Parliament made in the â—6th year of King Henry the 8th No sooner was this solemnity ended but a new mandate comes for the Confirmation of Dr. Barlow in the See of Chichester and Dr Scory to the See of Hereford to which they had been severally elected in August last And though the not restoring of them to their former Sees might seem to juâ—â—ifie the late Queen Mary in their deprivation yet the Queen wanted not good reasons for their present removal not that she did consult therein her own power and profit as is thought by some but studied rather their content and satisfaction than her own concernments For Baâ—low having wasted the revenue of the Church of Wells could not with any comfort behold a place which he had so spoiled and Scory having been deprived of the See of Chichester under pretence of wanting a just title to it desired not to be put upon the hazard of a second ejction But as for Coverdale he did not only wave the acceptation of Oxon but of any other Church then vacant He was now 72 years old and desired rather to enjoy the pleasure of a private life than be disquieted in his old age with the cares of Government And somewhat might be also in it of a disaffection not to the Calling but the Habit which is to be believed the rather because he attended not at the Consecration in his Cope and Rocher as the others did but in a plain black Coat reaching down to his Ankles And now the rest of the Episcopal Sees begin to fill for on the 21 of the same December Dâ— Edmond Gâ—indall was consecrated to the See of London Dr. Râ—chard Cox to that of Ely Dr. Edwin Sandys to the Church of Worcester Dr. Rowland Merick unto that of Bangor On the 21 of January then next following Dr. Nicholas Bullingham was by the like consecration made Bishop of Lincoln the right learned Mr. John Jewel who afterwards accepted the degree of Doctor Bishop of Sarisbury Dr. Thomas Young Bishop of St. Davids and Mr. Râ—chard Davis Bishop of St. Asaph The 24th of March was honoured with the Consecration of three other Bishops that is to say of Mr. Thomas Bentham to the See of Coventry and Lichfield of Mr. Gilbert Barclay to the See of Wâ—lls and of Dr. Edmund Guest to that of Rochester On the 14th of July comes the consecration of Dr. William Alley to the Church of Exon and that of Mr John Parkhurst to the Church of Norwich on the first of September By which account we find no â—ewer than sixteen Sees to be filled with new Bishops within the compass of the year men of ability in matter of learning and suâ—h as had a good report for the integrity of their lives and conversations Nor was it long before the rest of the Episcopal Sees were supplied with new Pastors as shall be shewn hereafter in due time and place The Queens commission of sarvey had not crossed the Trent which possibly may be the reason why we find no new Bishops in the Province of York and Wâ—nchâ—ster must afford one Michaelmas rent more to the Queens Exchequer before the Lord Treasurer could give way to a new incumbent And now we may behold the face of the Church of England as it was first setled and established under Queen Elizabeth The Government of the Church by Archbishops and Bishops according to the practice of the best and happiest times of Christianity These Bishops nominated and elected according to the Statute in the 26th of King Henry the 8th and consecrated by the Ordinal confirmed by Parliament in the 5th and 6th years of King Edward the 6th never appearing publickly but in their Rochets nor officiating otherwise than in Copes at the Holy Altar The Priests not stirring out of doors but in their square Caps Gowns or Canonical Coats nor executing any divine Office but in their Surplice avestment set apart for Religious services in the Primitive times as may be gathered from St Chrysostome for the Eastern Churches and from St Hierom for the Western The Doctrine of the Church reduced unto its ancient purity according to the Articles agreed upon in Convocation Anno 1552. The Liturgy conform to the Primitive patterns and all the Rites and Ceremonies therein prescribed accommodated to the honour of God and increase of piety The Festivals preserved in their former dignity observed with their distinct Offices peculiar to them and celebrated with a Religious couâ—cuâ—â—â— of all sorts of people the weekly Fasts the holy time of Lent the Embrâ—â—◠〈◊〉 together with the Fast of the Rogation severely kept by a forbearance of all â—ind of flesh not now by vertue of the Statute as in the time oâ— King Edward but as appointed by the Church in her publick Calender before the Book of Common Prayer The Sacrament of the Lords Supper celebrated in most reverend manner the Holy Table seated in the place of the Altar the people making their due reverence at their first entrance into the Church kneeling at the Communion the Confession and the publick Prayers standing up at the Creed the Gospels and the Gloria Patri and using the accustomed reverence at the name of Jesus Musick retained in all such Churches
for his favour in it of whom they after served themselves upon all occasions Upon the news of which success divers both French and Dutch repaired into England planting themselves in the Sea-towns and openly professing the Reformed Religion under which covert they disguised their several Heterodoxies and blasphemous Dotages some of them proving to be Anabaptists others infected with unfound opinions of as ill a nature but all endeavouring to disperse their Heretical Doctrines and by invenoming the good people amongst whom they lived to encrease their Sects Which being made known unto the Queen she presently commands them all by her Proclamation to depart the Kingdom whether they were Aliens or natural born English and not to stay above the tearm of twenty days upon pain of imprisonment and forfeiture or loss of all their goods Which Proclamation notwithstanding too many of them lurked in Engâ—and without fear of discovery especially after the erecting of so may French and Dutch Churches in the Maritime parts as at this time they did in London infecting the French and Dutch Churches there with some of their frenzies and occasioneâ— such disputes amongst them upon that account that Peâ—er Marâ—yr found it necessary to interpose his authority with them to the composing of those Heats and differences which had grown amongst them for which consult his Letter bearing date at Zurick on the 15th of February next following after the date of the said Proclamation and superscribed Unto the Church of Sâ—rangers in the City of London Now for the date of the said Proclamation it seemeth to have been about the 19th of September at which time it pleased the Queen to set forth another no less conducing to the honour than did the other to the preservation of the Churches purity She had given command by her Injunctions in the year foregoing for destroying and taking away all Shrines and coverings of Shrines all Tables Candlesticks Trindals and Rolls of Wax together with all Pictures Paintings and other monuments of â—eigned Miracles Pilgrimages Idolatry and Superstition so that there remain no memory of the same in walls glass-windows or else-where whether it were in Churches or mens private houses But some perverting rather than mistaking her intention in it guided by covetousness or over-ruled by some new fangle in Religion under colour of conforming to this command defaced all such Images of Christ and his Apostles all Paintings which presented any History of the holy Bible as they found in any windows of their Churches or Chapels They proceeded also to the breaking down of all Coats of Arms to the tearing off of all the Brasses on the Tombs and Monuments of the dead in which the figures of themselves their wives or children their Ancestors or their Arms had been reserved to posterity And being given to understand that Bells had been bapâ—ized in the times of Popery and that even the Churches themselves had been abused to Superstition and Idolatry their zeal transported them in fine to sell their Bells to turn the Steeples into Dove-coats and to rob the Churches of those sheets of Lead with which they were covered For the restraining of which Sacrilege and prophane abuses she gave command in her said Proclamation of the 19th of September That all manner of men should from thenceforth forbear the breaking or defacing of any parcel of any Monument or Tomb or Grave or other Inscription and Memory of any person deceased being in any manner of place Or to break any Image of Kings Princes or Nobles Estates of this Realm or of any other that have been in times past erected and set up for the onely memory of them to their posterity in common Churches and not for any Religious honor Or to break down or deface any Image in glass-windows in any Church without the consent of the Ordinary upon pain of being committed to the next Gaol without Bail or Mainprize and there to remain till the next comming of the Justices for Gaol-delivery and then to be further punished by Fine or Imprisonment besides the restitution or re-edification of the thing broken as to the said Justices shall seem meet and if need shall be to use the advice of her Majesties Council in her Star-chamber It was also signified in the said Proclamation That some Patrons of Churches and others who were possessed of Impropriations had prevailed with the Parson and Parishioners to take or throw down the Bells of Churches or Chapels and the Lead of the same and to convert the same to their private gain by which ensued not onely the spoil of the said Churches but even a slanderous desolation of the places of Prayer And thereupon it was commanded that no manner of person should from thenceforth take away any Bells or Lead off any Church or Chapel under pain of Imprisonment during her Majesties pleasure and such further Fine for the contempt as shall be thought meet With a charge given to all Bishops and other Ordinaries to enquire of all such contempts done from the beginning of her Majesties Reign and to enjoyn the persons offending to repair the same within a convenient time and of their doing therein to certifie the Privy Council or the Council in the Star-chamber that order may be taken therein And in persute of this most seasonable and religions Act she did not onely signe the said Proclamation one for all to authorise it for the Press as the custom is but signed them every one apart amounting to a very great number with her own Royal Hand that so it might be known rather for her own proper act than an act of the council With like care also she provided for the honor and prosperity of her estate in affairs Politick and Civil The monies of the Realm had been much debased by King Henry the 8th to the great disprofit of the Merchant and reproach of the Kingdom for which no remedy had been taken by her Brother or Sister though they had better opportunities and more advantages to go thorow with it But this brave Queen endeavouring nothing more than the restoring of her Kingdom to its antient splendor first caused all such base monies as were coined by any of her Predecessors to be decryed to a less value according to the fineness or alloy thereof and that being done by vertue of her Proclamation bearing date the 28th of September she caused all the said base monies so reduced to a lower value to be brought in to her Majesties Mint for which she gave them mony of the purest silver such as passed commonly by the name of Easterling or Sterling mony since which time no base mony hath been coyned in England but onely of pure Gold and Silver to pass for current in the same save that of late times in relation to the necessity of poor people a permission hath been given to the coyning of Farthings which no man can be forced to accept in satisfaction of a Rent or Debt which as it could
her in short time not only to protect her Merchants but command the Ocean Of which the Spaniard found good proof to his great loss and almost to his total ruine in the last 20 years of her glorious government And knowing right well that mony was the â—inew of war she fell upon a prudent and present course to fill her coffers Most of the monies in the Kingdom were of forein coynage brought hither for the most part by the Easterling and Flemish Merchants These she called in by Proclamation â—â—ted the 15th of November being but two dayes before the end of this 3d. year commanding them to be brought to her Majesties Mint there to be coyned and take the stamp of her Royal authority or otherwise not to pass for current within this Realm which counsel took such good effect that monies came flowing into the Mint insomuch that there was weekly brought into the Tower of London for the space of half a year together 8000. 10000. 12000. 16000. 20000. 22000 l. of silver plate and as much more in Pistols and other gold of Spanish coins which were great sums according to the standard of those early dayes and therefore no small profit to be growing to her by the coynage of them The Genevians slept not all this while but were as busily imployed in practising upon the Church as were the Romanists in plotting against the Queen Nothing would satisfie them but the nakedness and simplicity of the Zuinglian Churches the new fashions taken up at Franckfort and the Presbyteries of Geneva According to the pattern which they saw in those mounts the Church of England is to be modell'd nor would the Temple of Jerusalem have served their turn if a new Altar fashioned by that which they found at Damascus might not have been erected in it And they drove on so fast upon it that in some places they had taken down the steps where the Aâ—tar stood and brought the Holy Table into the midst of the Church in others they had laid aside the antient use of Godfathers and Godmothers in the administration of Baptism and left the answering for the child to the charge of the father The weekly Fasts the time of Lent and all other dayes of abstinence by the Church commanded were looked upon as superstitious observations No fast by them allowed of but occasional only and then too of their own appointing And the like course they took with the Festivals also neglecting those which had been instituted by the Church as humane inventions not fit to be retained in a Church reformed And finally that they might wind in there outlandish Doctrines with such forein usages they had procured some of the inferiour Ordinaries to impose upon their several Parishes certain new books of Sermons and Expositions of the holy Scripture which neither were required by the Queens Injunctions nor by Act of Parliament Some abuses also were discovered in the Regular Clergy who served in Churches of peculiar or exempt jurisdiction Amongst whom it began to grow too ordinary to marry all such as came unto them without Bains or Licence and many times not only without the privity but against the express pleasure and command of their Parents For which those Churches past by the name of Lawlesse Churches in the voice of the people For remedy whereof it was found necessary by the Archbishop of Canterbury to have recourse unto the power which was given unto him by the Queens Commission and by a clause or passage of the Act of Parliament for the Uniformity of Common Prayer and Service in the Church c. As one of the Commissioners for Causes Ecclesiastical he was authorized with the rest of his associates according to the Statute made in that behalf To reform redresse order correct and amend all such Errours Heresies Schisms abuses offences conâ—empts and enormities whatsoever as might from time to time arise in the Church of England and did require to be redressed and reformed to the pleasure of Almighty God the increase of vertue and conservation of the peace and unity of the Kingdom And in the passage of the Act before remembred it was especially provided That all such Ornaments of the Church and of the Ministers thereof should be retained and be in use as were in the Church of England by authority of Parliament in the second year of the Reign of King Edward the 6th until further Order should be therein taken by authority of the Queens Majesty with the advice of her Commissioners Appointed Ordered under the Great Seal of England for Causes Ecclesiastical or of the Metropolitan of this Realm And also if there shall happen any contempt or irreverence to be used in the Ceremonies or Rites of the Church by the misusing of the Orders of the said Book of Common Prayer the Queens Majesty might by the like advice of the said Commissioners or Metropolitan Ordain or publish such further Ceremonies or Rites as should be most for the advance of Gods glory the edifying of his Church and the due reverence of Christs holy Mysteries and Sacraments Fortified and assured by which double power the Archbishop by the Queens consent and the advice of some of the Bishops Commissionated and instructed to the same intent sets forth a certain book of Orders to be diligently observed and executed by all and singular persons whom it might concern In which it was provided That no Parson Vicar or Curate of any exempt Church commonly called Lawless Churches should from thenceforth attempt to conjoin by solemnization of Matrimony any not being of his or their Parish Church without sufficient testimony of the Bains being ask'd in the several Churches where they dwel or otherwise were sufficiently licenced That there should be no other dayes observed for Holy days or Fasting dayes as of duty and commandment but only such Holy dayes as be expressed for Holy dayes in the Calendar lately set forth by the Queens authority and none other Fasting dayes to be so commanded but as the Lawes and Proclamations of the Queens Majesty should appoint that it should not be lawful to any Ordinary to assign or enjoyn the Parishes to buy any Books of Sermons or Expositions in any sort than is already or shall be hereafter appointed by publick Authority that neither the Curates or Parents of the children which are brought to Baptism should answer for them at the Font but that the antient use of Godfathers and Godmothers should be still retained and finally that in all such Churches in which the steps to the Altar were not taken down the said steps should remain as before they did that the Communion Table should be set in the said place where the steps then were or had formerly stood and that the Table of Gods Precepts should be fixed upon the wall over the said Communion Board Which passage compared with that in the Advertisements published in the year 1565. of which more hereafter make up this construction that
and Chancellor of the Realm of Ireland who having held it but a year it was again kept vacant twenty years together and then bestowed on Dr. John Underhil who was consecrated Bishop thereof in Dâ—cember 1589. but he dying also shortly after viz. Anno 1592. it was once more kept void till the year 1603. and then took up by Dr. John Bridges Dean of Salisbury rather to satisfie the desires of others than his own ambition So that upon the point this Church was filled but little more than three years in forty sâ—x the Jurisdiction of it was in the mean time managed by some Officers thereunto authorised by the Archbishop of Canterbury the Patrimony and Revenues of it remaining in the hands of the Earl of Leicester and after his decease of the Earl of Eâ—â—ex by whom the Lands thereof were so spoiled and wasted that they left nothing to the last Bishops but Impropriations by means of which havock and destruction all the five Bishopricks erected by King Henry the 8th were so impoverished and destroyed that the new Bishops were necessitated to require the benevolence of their Clergy at their first comming to them to furnish their Episcopal Houses and to enable them to maintain some tolerable degree of Hospitality in their several Diocesses of which we shall hear more hereafter from the pen of an Adversay An. Reg. Eliz. 5. An. Dom. 1562 1563. THe last years practices of the Papists and the dangers thereby threatning both the Queen and State occasioned her to call a Parliament on the 12th of January in which first passed an Act For assurance of the Queens Royal power over all Estates and Subjects within her Dominions In the body whereof it was provided That no man living or residing in the Queens Dominions under the pains and penalties therein appointed should from thenceforth either by word or writing or any other open deed willingly and advisedly endeavour to maintain the Power and Jurisdiction of the Bishop of Rome heretofore claimed and usurped within this Realm And for the better discovery of all such persons as might be popishly affected it was enacted That none should be admitted unto holy Orders or to any Degree in either of the Universities or to be Barrester or Bencher in any of the Inns of Court c. or to practise as an Atturney or otherwise to bear any Office in any of the Courts at Westminster Hall or any other Court whatsoever till he or they should first take the Oath of Supremacy on the holy Evangelists With a Power given to every Archbishop and Bishop within this Realm and the Dominions of the same to tender or minister the Oath aforesaid to all and every spiritual person in their proper Diocesses as well in places exempt as else-where Of which last clause the Reader is to take especial notice because of the great controversie which ensued upon it of which more hereafter And because many of the Popish party had lately busied themselves by Conjurations and other Diabolical Arts to enquire into the length or shortness of her Majesties life and thereupon had caused some dark and doubtful prophecies to be spread abroad There passed two other Statutes for suppressing the like dangerous practices by which her Majesties person might be endangered the people stirred to rebellion or the peace otherwise disturbed For which consult the Acts of Parliament 5 Eliz. c 15 16. By which three Acts and one more for the better executing of the Writ de Excommunicato capiendo the Queen provided very well for her own security but more provoked the Pope his adherents to conspire against her in the time to come against whose machinations back'd by the power and counsels of forein Princes nothing was more conducible than her strength at Sea for the encrease whereof and the continual breeding of a Seminary of expert Mariners an Act was made for adding Wednesday to the number of the weekly Fasâ—s which from thenceforth was called Jejunium Cecilianum as being one of the devices of Sir William Cecil In reference to Religion and the advancement of the service and worship of God it had been declared by the Bishops and Clergy assembled at the same time in their Convocation To be a thing plainly repugnant to the Word of God and the custom of the Primitive Church to have publick prayer in the Church or to minister the Sacraments in a Toung not understood by the people To comply with which pious Declaration and take off all retortion which possibly might be made by those of Rome when they were charged with the administration of the Service and Sacraments in an unknown Toung it was enacted That the Bishops of Hereford St. Davids Bangor Landaff and St. Asaph should take care amongst them for translating the whole Bible with the Common-Prayer Book into the Weâ—ch or British Toung on pain of forfeiting 40 l. a piece in default thereof And to encourage them thereunto it was ordered That one Book of either sort being so translated and imprinted should be provided and bought of every Cathedral or Parish Church as also for all Parish Churches Chapels of Ease where the said Toung is commonly used the Ministers to pay one half of the price and the Parishioners the other The like care was also taken for translating the Books of Homilies but whether it were done by any new order from the Queen or the piety of the four Welch Bishops or that they were considered as a necessary part of the publick Lituâ—gy by reason of the Rubrick at the end of the Nicene Creed I have no whâ—â—e found As for the Convocation which accompanied the present Parliament it began on the 13â—h day of Jaâ—uary in the Cathedral of St. Paâ—l the Latine Sermon 〈◊〉 by Mr. William Day then Provost of Eaton College afterwards 〈◊〉 of 〈◊〉 also and Bishop of Winchester which being finished the Bishop of Lâ—ndâ—â— presents a list of the several Bishops Deans and Chapters which had been cited to appear the catalogue of the Bishops ending with Gabriel Goodman Dean of Westminster that of the Deans beginning on another file with Alexander Novel Dean of St. Pauls elected by the Clergy for their Prolocutor The Convocation after this is adjourned to Westminster for the conveniency of the Prelates by reason of their attendance on affairs of Parliament Goodman the Dean of Westminster had made his Protestation in the Church of St. Paul that by appearing as a Member of the Convocation by veâ—tue of the Arch-bishops Mandat he subjected not himself nor the Church of Westminster to the authority or jurisdiction of the See of Canterbury And now on the Archbishops personal comming to the Church of Westminster he delivers the like Protestation in writing for preserving the Liberties of the Church in which it was declared according to the privilege just rights therof that no Archbishop or Bishop could exercise any Ecclesiastical jurisdiction in it without leave of the Dean for the time
required subscription of the rest in their several places threatning no less than deprivation to such as wilfully refused and obstinately persisted in that refusal Many there were whoâ— bogled at it as they all did but did it not so perversely nor in such great numbers as when their faction was grown strong and improved to multitudes Some stumbled at it in regard of the first clause added to the 20th Article about the Authority of the Church others in reference to the 36th touching the Consecration of Archbishops and Bishops some thought they attributed more authority to the Supream Magistrate over all persons and causes both Ecclesiastical and Civil than could consist with that Autocratie and Independency which Calvin arrogated unto his Presbyteries and other Churches of that platform And others looked upon the Homil es as beggarly rudiments scarce milk for Babes but by no means to be served in for a stronger stomach In general thought by the Genevians and Zuinglian Gospellers to have too much in them of the Pope or too little of Calvin and therefore not to be subscribed by any who desired the reputation of keeping a good conscience with faith unfeigned Of which number none so much remarkable as father John Fox the Marâ—yrologist who had before appeared in the Schism at Franckfort and left that Church when Cox had got the better in it to retire to Geneva being now called on to subscribe that the opinion which was had of his parts and piety might advance the service he is said to have appeared before the Bishop but whether before the Archbishop or his own Diocesan is not much material with the New-Testament in Greek To this said he I will subscribe and it this will not serve take my Prebend of Salisbury the onely preferment which I hold in the Church of England and much good may it do you This refractory answer for it was no better might well have moved the Bishop to proceed against him as he did against some others who had stood on the same refusal but kissing goes by kindness as the saying is and so much kindness was shewed to him that he both kept his resolution and his place together which whether it might not do more hurt to the Church than that preferment in the Church did advantage him I think no wise man will make a question for commonly the exemption or indemnity of some few particulars confirms the obstinacy of the rest in hope of being privileged with the like indemnity And therefore it was well observed by Bishop Bancroft when King James proposed the writing of a Letter to the Bishop of Chester for respiting some Ministers of his Diocess from a present conformity That if this purpose should proceed the copy of those Letters would fly over the Kingdom and then others would make the same request for some friends of theirs and so no fruit would follow of the present Conference but that all things would be worse than before they were But Queen Elizabeth was not drawn so easily to the like indulgencies for which she received her own just praises from the Pen of an Adversary Harding by name in his Epistle Dedicatory prefixed before his Answer to the Bishops Apology commends her earnest zeal and travail in bringing those disordered Ministers into some order of decent apparel which yet some of them wanted reason to apply themselves to And Sanders who seldom speaks well of her first informs his Reader What bickerings there were in England about the Rochet and other Vestments of the Clergy that many of the opposite party regarded not the Queens judgment in it but sent for counsel and advice to Germany France Savoy and Switzerland but specially to Theodore Beza and Peter Martyr but finally that notwithstanding the advice of the one and the addresses of the other the Queen proceeded vigorously to the deprivation of all such persons as wilfully opposed her order made in that behalf It seems by this that our Genevians for the greater countenancing of their inconformity had stirred up the most eminent Divines of the Gallick and Helvetian Churches to declare in favour of their doings And it appears also by remembrances in some Authors that Calvin apprehending some neglect from Mr. Secretary Cecil in making either no return or a return which signified nothing to his first addresses had laid aside his care of the Church of England for which he could expect no thanks from the Bishops or had received so little from the greaâ— men of the Court But Peter Martyr while he lived conceived himself to have some interess in this Church in which he had enjoyed such a good preferment but more in some particular persons and members of it who seemed to depend upon his judgment and to ask counsel of him as their surest Oracle In which how much he countenanced that faction in King Edward's time both by his practice and his pen and what encouragement he gave them in this present Reign hath been shewn before how much out-gone by Theodore Beza who next usurped a super-intendency over all the Churches of this Island may be seen hereafter All that shall now be said of either of them or of all together shall be briefly this that this poor Church might better have counted their best helps in points of Doctrine than have been troubled with their intermedlings in matter of Discipline More modestly then so dealt Bullinger and Gualter two Divines of Suitzerland as eminent in all points of learning as the best amongst them who being sollicited by some some zealous brethren to signifie their judgment in the present controversie about the Aparel of the Clergy return an approbation of it but send the same inclosed in several Letters to Sandys Horn and Gryndal that they might see that neither of them would engage in the affairs of this Church without the privity of the Governors and Rulers of it To bring this quarel to an end or otherwise to render all opponents the more inexcusable the Queen thought fit to make a further signification of her Royall pleasure not grounded onely on the Soveraign Power and Prerogative Royal by which she published her Injunctions in the first year of her Reign but legally declared by her Commissioners for causes Ecclesiastical according to the Acts and Statutes made in that behalf for then it was to be presumed that such as had denyed obedience to her sole commands would at least give it to the Laws The Archbishop is thereupon required to consult together with such Bishops and Commissioners as were next at hand upon the making of such Rules and Orders as they thought necessary for the peace of the Church with reference to the present condition and estate thereof Which being accordingly performed presented to the Queen and by her approved the said Rules and Orders were set forth and published in a certain book entituled Advertisements partly for due order in the publick Administration of the common-Common-Prayers and using the
following they were dismist with many rich Presents and an annual pension from the Queen conducted honourably by the Lord Aburgavenny to the Port of Dover and there shipped for Calais filling all places in the way betwixt that and Baden with the report of the magnificence of their entertainment in the Court of England And that the Glories of their entertainment might appear the greater it hapned that Rambouillet a French Ambassador came hither at that time upon two solemnities that is to say to be installed Knight of the Garter in the place and person of that King and to present the Order of St Michael the principal Order of that Kingdom to Thomas Duke of Norfolk and the Earl of Leicester The one performed with the accustomed Pomps and Ceremonies in the Chapel of St George at Windsor the other with like State and splendour in the Royal Chapel at Whitehall Such a well tempered piety did at that time appear in the Devotions of the Church of England that generally the English Papists and the Ambassadors of forein Princes still resorted to them But true it is that at that time some zealots of the Church of Rome had begun to slacken their attendance not out of any new dislike which they took at the service but in regard of a Decree set forth in the Council of â—rent prohibiting all resort to the Churches of Hereticks Which notwithstanding the far greater part continued in their first obedience till the coming over of that Roaring Bull from Pope Pius the 5th by which the Queen was excommunicated the subjects discharged from their obedience to the Laws and the going or not going to the Church made a sign distinctive to difference a Roman Catholick from an English Protestant And it is possible enough that they might have stood much longer to their first conformity if the discords brought into the Church by the Zuinglian faction together with their many innovations both in Doctrine and Discipline had not afforded them some further ground for the desertion For in this year it was that the Zuinglian or Calvinian faction began to be first known by the name of Puritans if Genebrard Gualier and Spondanus being all of them right good Chronologers be not mistaken in the time Which name hath ever since been appropriate to them because of their pretending to a greater Purity in the service of God than was held forth unto them as they gave it out in the Common Prayer Book and to a greater opposition to the Rites and Usages of the Church of Rome than was agreeable to the constitution of the Church of England But this Purity was accompanied with such irreverence this opposition drew along with it so much licenciousnesse as gave great scandal and offence to all sober men so that it was high time for those which had the care of the Church to look narrowly unto them to give a check to those disorders and confusions which by their practices and their preachings they had brought into it and thereby laid the ground of that woful schism which soon after followed And for a check to those disorders they published the Advertisement before remembred subscribed by the Archbishop of Canâ—erbury the Bishops of London Winchester Ely Lincoln Rochester and other of her Majesties Commissioners for Causes Ecclesiastical according to the Statute made in that behalf This was the only present remedy which could then be thought of And to prevent the like confusions for the time to come a Protestation was devised to be taken by all Parsons Vicars and Curates in their several stations by which they were required to declare and promise That they would not preach not publickly interpret but only read that which is appointed by publick authority without special Licence of the Bishop under his Seal that they would read the Service plainly distinctly and audibly that all the people might hear and understand that they would keep the Register book according to the Queens Majesties Injunctions that they would use sobriety in apparel and especially in the Church at Common Prayers according to Order appointed that they would move the Parishioners to quiet and concord and not give them cause of offence and help to reconcile them that be at variance to their utmost power that they would read dayly at the least one Chapter of the Old Testament and another of the New with good advisement to the increase of their knowledge that they would in their own persons use and exercise their Office and Place to the honour of God and the quiet of the Queens subjects within their charge in truth concord and unity as also observe keep and maintain such Order and Uniformity in all external Policy Rites and Ceremonies of the Church as by the Lawes good usages and Orders are already well provided and established and finally that they would not openly meddle with any Artificers occupations as covetously to seek a gain thereby having in Ecclesiastical Livings twenty Nobles or above by the year Which protestation if it either had been generally pressed upon all the Clergy as perhaps it was not or better kept by them that took it the Church might questionlesse have been saved from those distractions which by the Puritan Innovators were occasioned in it Anno Reg. Eliz. 8. A. D. 1565 1566. THus have we seen the publick Liturgy confirmed in Parliament with divers penalties on all those who either did reproach it or neglect to use it or wilfully withdrew their attendance from it the Doctrine of the Church declared in the Book of Articles agreed upon in Convocation and ratified in due form of Law by the Queens authority external matters in officiating Gods publick service and the apparel of the Clergy regulated and reduced to their first condition by the Books of Orders and Advertisements Nothing remaineth but that we settle the Episcopal Government and then it will be time to conclude this History And for the setling of this Government by as good authority as could be given unto it by the Lawes of the Land we aâ—e beholden to the obstinacy of Dr Edmond Bonner the late great slaughter-man of London By a Statute made in the last Parliament for keeping her Majesties Subjects in their due obedience a power was given unto the Bishops to tender and receive the oath of Supremacy of all manner of persons dwelling and residing in their several Diocesses Bonner was then prisoner in the Clink or Marshalsea which being in the Burrough of Southwark brought him within the Jurisdiction of Horn Bishop of Winchester by whose Chancellor the Oath was tender'd to him On the refusal of which Oath he is endicted at the Kings Bench upon the Statute to which he appeared in some Term of the year foregoing and desires that counsel be assigned to plead his cause according to the course of the Court The Court assigns him no worse men than Christopher Wâ—ay afterwards chief Justice of the Common Pleas that famous Lawyer Edmond
some be present to interpret XXIV Of speaking in the Congregation in such a Toung as the people understandeth It is a thing plainly repugnant to the VVord of God and the custom of the primitive Church to have publick prayer in the Church or to minister the Sacraments in a Tongue not understanded by the people XXVI Of the Sacraments Our Lord Jesus Christ gathered his people into a Society 22 by Sacraments very few in number most easie to be kept and of most excellent signification that is to say Baptism and the Supper of the Lord. The Sacraments were not ordained of Christ to be gazed upon or to be carried about but that we should duly use them And in such onely as worthily receive the same they have a wholesome effect or operation not as some say Ex opere operato 24 Which terms as they are strange and utterly unknown to the Holy Scripture so do they yield a sense which savoureth of little piety but of much superstition but they that receive them unworthily receive to themselves damnation The Sacraments ordained by the Word of God be not onely badges or tokens of Christian mens profession but rather they be certain sure witnesses effectual signs of grace and Gods Good will toward us by the which he doth work invisibly in us and doth not onely quicken but also strengthen and confirm our faith in him XXV Of the Sacraments Sacraments ordained of Christ 23 be not onely badges and tokens of Christian mens profession but rather they be certain sure witnesses and effectual signes of Grace and Gods good-will towards us by the which he doth work invisibly in us and doth not onely quicken but also strengthen and confirm our faith in him There are two Sacraments ordained of Christ our Loâ—d in the Gospel that is to say Baptism and the â—upper of the Lord. Those five commonly called Sacraments 25 that is to say Confirmation Penance Orders Matrimony and Extream Unction are not to be counted for Sacraments of the Gospel being such as have grown partly of the corrupt following of the Apostles partly are states of life allowed in the Scriptures but yet have not like nature of Sacraments with Baptism and the Lords Supper for that they have not any visible Sign or Ceremony ordained of God The Sacraments were not ordained of Christ to be gazed on or to be carried about but that we should duly use them And in such onely as worthily receive the same they have a wholsome effect or operation But they that receive them unworthily purchase to themselves Damnation as St. Paul saith XXVII The wickedness of the Ministers takes not away the Efficacy of Divine Institutions Although in the visible Church the Evil be ever mingled with the Good and sometimes the Evil have chief Authority in the Ministration of the Word and Sacraments yet forasmuch as they do not the same in their own name but in Christs and do minister by his Commission and Authority we may use their Ministry both in hearing the Word of God and in receiving of the Sacraments Neither is the effect of Christs Ordinance taken away by their wickednesse nor the Grace of Gods of Gifts diminished from such as by faith and rightly do receive the Sacraments ministred unto them which be effectual because of Christs Institution and promise although they be ministred by evill men Neverthelesse it appertaineth to the Discipline of the Church that inquiry be made after them and that they be accused by those that have knowledge of their offences and finally being found guilty by just judgment be deposed XXVI Of the unworthiness of the Ministers which hinder not the Effect of the Sacraments Although in the visible Church the Evill be ever mingled c. that inquiry be made after evill Ministers c. XXVIII Of Baptism Baptism is not onely a sign of Profession and mark of Difference whereby Christian men are discerned from others that be not Christned but it is also a sign of Regeneration or new birth whereby as by an Instrument they that receive Baptism Rightly are grafted into the Church the promises of forgivnesse of sin and of our Adoption to be the sons of God by the holy Ghost are visibly signed and sealed Faith is confirmed and Grace increased by vertue of Prayer unto God The custom of the Church 26 for Baptising young Children is both to be commended and by all means to be retained in the Church XXVII Of Baptism Baptism is not onely a sign of Profession and mark of Difference c. The Baptism of young children is in any wise to be retained in the Church as most agreeable to the Institution of Christ. 27 XXIX Of the Lords Supper The Supper of the Lord is not onely a sign of the Love that Christians ought to have amongst themselves one to another but rather it is a Sacrament of our Redemption by Christs death Insomuch that to such as Rightly Worthily and with Faith receive the same the Bread which we break is a partaking of the Body of Christ and likewise the Cup of Blessing is a partaking of the Blood of Christ. Transubstantiation or the change of the substance of Bread and Wine in the Supper of the Lord cannot be proved by Holy Writ but it is repugnant to the plain words of Scripture and hath given occasion to many Superstitions Since the very beeing of human nature doth require 29 that the body of one and the same man cannot be at one and the same time in many places but of necessity must be in some certain and determinate place therefore the Body of Christ cannot be present in many different places at the same time And since as the holy Scriptures testifie Christ hath been taken up into Heaven and there is to abide till the end of the world it becommeth not any of the faithful to believe or professe that there is a Real or Corporal presence as they phrase it of the Body and Blood of Christ in the holy Eucharist The Sacrament of the Lords Supper was not by Christs Ordinance reserved carried about lifted up or worshiped XXVIII Of the Lords Supper The Supper of the Lord is not onely a sign of the Love c. but is repugnant to the plain words of Scripture overthroweth the nature of a Sacrament 28 and hath given occasion to many Superstitions The Body of Christ is given taken and eaten in the Supper onely after an heavenly and spiritual manner 30 And the mean whereby the Body of Christ is received and eaten in the Supper is Faith The Sacrament of the Lords Supper was not by Christs Ordinance c. _____ XXIX Of the Wicked which eat not the Body of Christ in the Lord's Supper 31 The wicked and such as be void of a lively faith although they do carnally and visibly presse with their teeth as St. Augustine saith the Sacrament of the Body and Blood of Christ yet in no wise are they partakers of Christ but