364. An Expedition against France pag. 365. Many strange Accidents ibid. A Treaty of Peace pag. 366. The Battel of Graveling ibid. Many Protestants in France ibid. Dolphin marries the Queen of Scots pag. 367. A Convention of Estates in Scotland ibid. A Parliament in England pag. 368. The Queens Sickness and Death pag. 369. Cardinal Pool dies ibid. His Character ibid. The Queens Character pag. 370. BOOK III. Of the Settlement of the Reformation of Religion in the beginning of Queen Elizabeths Reign QVeen Elizabeth succeeds pag. 373. And comes to London pag. 374. She sends a Dispatch to Rome ibid. But to no effect ibid. King Philip Courts her pag. 375. The Queens Council ibid. A Consultation about the Change of Religion pag. 376. A Method proposed for it pag. 377. Many forward to Reform pag. 378. Parker named to be Arch-Bishop of Canterbury ibid. 1559. Bacon made Lord Keeper pag. 380. The Queens Coronation ibid. The Parliament meets pag. 381. The Treaty at Cambray pag. 382. A Peace agreed on with France ibid. The Proceedings of the Parliament pag. 383. An Address to the Queen to marry pag. 384. Her Answer to it ibid. They Recognise her Title pag. 385. Acts concerning Religion ibid. The Bishops against the Supremacy pag. 386. The beginning of the High Commission pag. 387. A Conference at Westminster pag. 388. Arguments for the Latin Service pag. 389. Arguments against it pag. 390. The Conference breaks up pag. 391. The Liturgy corrected and explained pag. 392. Debates about the Act of Vniformity pag. 393. Arguments for the Changes then made pag. 394. Bills proposed but rejected pag. 395. The Bishops refuse the Oath of Supremacy pag. 396. The Queens gentleness to them ibid. Injunctions for a Visitation pag. 397. The Queen desires to have Images retained ibid. Reasons brought against it ibid. The Heads of the Injunctions pag. 398. Reflections made on them pag. 399. The first High Commission pag. 400. Parkers unwillingness to accept of the Archbishoprick of Canterbury pag. 401. His Consecration pag. 402. The Fable of the Nags-head confuted pag. 403. The Articles of Religion prepared pag. 405. An Explanation of the Presence in the Sacrament ibid. The Translation of the Bible pag. 406. The beginnings of the Divisions pag. 407. The Reformation in Scotland ibid. Mills Martyrdome pag. 408. It occasions great discontents pag. 409. A Revolt at St. Johnstoun pag. 410. The French King intends to grant them liberty of Religion pag. 411. But is killed ibid. A Truce agreed to ibid. The Queen Regent is deposed pag. 412. The Scots implore the Queen of England's Aid ibid. Leith besieged by the English ibid. The Queen Regent dies pag. 413. A Peace is concluded ibid. The Reformation setled by Parliament ibid. Francis the second dies ibid. The Civil Wars of France pag. 415. The Wars of the Netherlands pag. 416. The misfortunes of the Queen of Scotland pag. 417. Queen Elizabeth deposed by the Pope pag. 418. Sir Fr. Walsinghams Letter concerning the Queens proceeding with Papists and Puritans ibid. The Conclusion pag. 421. FINIS A COLLECTION OF RECORDS AND Original Papers WITH OTHER INSTRUMENTS Referred to in the SECOND PART OF THE History of the Reformation OF THE Church of England LONDON Printed by J.D. for Richard Chiswell 1680. The Journal of King EDWARD'S Reign written with his own Hand The Original is in the Cotton Library Nero C. 10. THe Year of our Lord 1537 was a Prince born to King Henry the 8th by Jane Seimour then Queen who within few days after the Birth of her Son died and was buried at the Castle of Windsor This Child was Christned by the Duke of Norfolk the Duke of Suffolk and the Arch-Bishop of Canterbury Afterwards was brought up till he came to six Years old among the Women At the sixth Year of his Age he was brought up in Learning by Master Doctor Cox who was after his Almoner and John Cheeke Master of Arts two well-learned Men who sought to bring him up in learning of Tongues of the Scripture of Philosophy and all Liberal Sciences Also John Bellmaine Frenchman did teach him the French Language The tenth Year not yet ended it was appointed he should be created Prince of Wales Duke of Cornwal and Count Palatine of Chester At which time being the Year of our Lord 1547 the said King died of a Dropsie as it was thought After whose Death incontinent came Edward Earl of Hartford and Sir Anthony Brown Master of the Horse to convoy this Prince to Enfield where the Earl of Hartford declared to him and his younger Sister Elizabeth the Death of their Father Here he begins anew again AFter the Death of King Henry the 8th his Son Edward Prince of Wales was come to at Hartford by the Earl of Hartford and Sir Anthony Brown Master of the Horse for whom before was made great preparation that he might be created Prince of Wales and afterward was brought to Enfield where the Death of his Father was first shewed him and the same day the Death of his Father was shewed in London where was great lamentation and weeping and suddenly he proclaimed King The next day being the _____ of _____ He was brought to the Tower of London where he tarried the space of three weeks and in the mean season the Council sat every day for the performance of the Will and at length thought best that the Earl of Hartford should be made Duke of Somerset Sir Thomas Seimour Lord Sudley the Earl of Essex Marquess of Northampton and divers Knights should be made Barons as the Lord Sheffield with divers others Also they thought best to chuse the Duke of Somerset to be Protector of the Realm and Governour of the King's Person during his Minority to which all the Gentlemen and Lords did agree because he was the King's Uncle on his Mothers side Also in this time the late King was buried at Windsor with much solemnity and the Officers broke their Staves hurling them into the Grave but they were restored to them again when they came to the Tower The Lord Lisle was made Earl of Warwick and the Lord Great Chamberlainship was given to him and the Lord Sudley made Admiral of England all these things were done the King being in the Tower Afterwards all things being prepared for the Coronation the King being then but nine Years old passed through the City of London as heretofore hath been used and came to the Palace of Westminster and the next day came into Westminster-Hall And it was asked the People Whether they would have him to be their King Who answered Yea yea Then he was crowned King of England France and Ireland by the Arch-Bishop of Canterbury and all the rest of the Clergy and Nobles and Anointed with all such Ceremonies as were accustomed and took his Oath and gave a General Pardon and so was brought to the Hall to Dinner on Shrove-sunday where he sat with the Crown on his Head with the Arch-Bishop of Canterbury
there was such an attempt of Nature that not only England but the World has reason to lament his being so early snatched away How truly was it said of such extraordinary Persons That their Lives are short and seldom do they come to be old He gave us an Essay of Vertue though he did not live to give a Pattern of it When the gravity of a King was needful he carried himself like an Old Man and yet he was always affable and gentle as became his Age. He played on the Lute he medled in Affairs of State and for Bounty he did in that emulate his Father though he even when he endeavoured to be too good might appear to have been bad but there was no ground of suspecting any such thing in the Son whose mind was cultivated by the study of Philosophy It has been said in the end of his Fathers Life A desiâ—n to create him Prince of Wales that he then designed to create him Prince of Wales For though he was called so as the Heirs of this Crown are yet he was not by a formal Creation invested with that dignity This pretence was made use of to hasten forward the Attainder of the Duke of Norfolk since he had many Offices for life which the King intended to dispose of and desired to have them speedily filled in order to the creating of his Son Prince of Wales King Henry dies In the mean time his Father died and the Earl of Hartford and Sir Anthony Brown were sent by the Council to give him notice of it being then at Hartford and to bring him to the Tower of London and having brought him to Enfield with his Sister the Lady Elizabeth they let him know of his Fathers death and that he was now their King On the 31st of January Jan. 31. the Kings Death was published in London and he Proclaimed King At the Tower his Fathers Executors King Edward came to the Tower with the rest of the Privy-Council received him with the respects due to their King So tempering their sorrow for the death of their late Master with their joy for his Sons happy succeeding him that by an excess of joy they might not seem to have forgot the one so soon nor to bode ill to the other by an extreme grief The first thing they did was the opening King Henry's Will King Henry's Will opened by which they found he had nominated sixteen Persons to be his Executors and Governours to his Son and to the Kingdom till his Son was eighteen years of age These were the Arch-bishop of Canterbury the Lord Wriothesley Lord Chancellor the Lord St. John Great Master the Lord Russel Lord Privy-Seal the Earl of Hartford Lord Great Chamberlain the Viscount Lisle Lord Admiral Tonstall Bishop of Duresme Sir Anthony Brown Master of the Horse Sir William Paget Secretary of State Sir Edward North Chancellor of the Court of Augmentations Sir Edward Montague Lord Chief-Justice of the Common-Pleas Judge Bromley Sir Anthony Denny and Sir William Herbert Chief Gentlemen of the Privy-Chamber Sir Edward Wotton Treasurer of Callice and Dr. Wotton Dean of Canterbury and York These or the major part of them were to execute his Will and to administer the Affairs of the Kingdom By their consent were the King and his Sisters to be disposed of in Marriage But with this difference that it was only ordered That the King should marry by their Advice but the two Sisters were so limited in their Marriage that they were to forfeit their Right of Succession if they married without their consent it being of far greater importance to the Peace and Interest of the Nation who should be their Husbands if the Crown did devolve on them than who should be the Kings Wife And by the Act passed in the 35th Year of King Henry he was empowered to leave the Crown to them with what limitations he should think fit To the Executors the King added by his Will a Privy-Council who should be assisting to them These were the Earls of Arundel and Essex Sir Thom. Cheyney Treasurer of the Houshold Sir John Gage Comptroller Sir Anthony Wingfield Vice-Chamberlain Sir William Petre Secretary of State Sir Richard Rich Sir John Baker Sir Ralph Sadler Sir Thom. Seimour Sir Richard Sowthwell and Sir Edmund Peckham The King also ordered That if any of the Executors should die the Survivors without giving them a Power of substituting others should continue to administer Affairs He also charged them to pay all his Debts and the Legacies he left and to perfect any Grants he had begun and to make good every thing that he had promised The Will being opened and read all the Executors Judge Bromley and the two Wottons only excepted were present and did resolve to execute the Will in all points and to take an Oath for their faithful discharge of that Trust Debate about choosing a Protector But it was also proposed That for the speedier dispatch of things and for a more certain order and direction of all Affairs there should be one chosen to be Head of the rest to whom Ambassadors and others might address themselves It was added to caution this That the Person to be raised to that Dignity should do nothing of any sort without the Advice and Consent of the greater part of the rest But this was opposed by the Lord Chancellour who thought that the Dignity of his Office setting him next the Arch-bishop of Canterbury who did not much follow Secular Affairs he should have the chief stroke in the Government therefore he pressed That they might not depart from the Kings Will in any particular neither by adding to it nor taking from it It was plain the late King intended they should be all alike in the Administration and the raising one to a Title or Degree above the rest was a great change from what he had ordered And whereas it was now said that the Person to be thus nominated was to have no manner of Power over the rest that was only to exalt him into an high Dignity with the less envy or apprehension of danger for it was certain great Titles always make way for high Power But the Earl of Hartford had so great a Party among them that it was agreed to the Lord Chancellor himself consenting when he saw his opposition was without effect The Earl of Hartford chosen that one should be raised over the rest in Title to be called the Protector of the Kings Realms and the Governour of his Person The next Point held no long debate who should be nominated to this high Trust for they unanimously agreed That the Earl of Hartford by reason of his nearness of Blood to the King and the great experience he had in Affairs was the fittest Person So he was declared Protector of the Realm and Governour to the Kings Person but with that special and express Condition that he should not do any Act
Reformation from its first and small beginnings in England till it came to a compleat settlement in the time of this Queen Of whose Reign if I have adventured to give any Account it was not intended so much for a full Character of Her and her Councils as to set out the great and vissible Blessings of God that attended on her the many Preservations she had and that by such signal Discoveries as both sav'd her Life and secured her Government and the unusual happiness of her whole Reign which raised her to the Esteem and Envy of that Age and the Wonder of all Posterity It was wonderful indeed that a Virgin Queen could rule such a Kingdom for above 44 Years with such constant success in so great tranquility at Home with a vast encrease of Wealth and with such Glory abroad All which may justly be esteem-to have been the Rewards of Heaven crowning that Reign with so much Honour and Triumph that was begun with the Reformation of Religion The end of the third Book and of the History of the Reformation of the Church of England THE TABLE OF THE CONTENTS Of the Second Part of the History of the Reformation of the CHURCH of England BOOK I. Of the Life and Reign of King Edward the Sixth 1547. K. Edward's Birth and Baptism pag. 1 His Education and Temper pag. 2 Cardan's Character of him ibid. A design to create him Prince of Wales pag. 3 King Henry dies and he succeeds ibid. King Henry's Will ibid. Debate about choosing a Protector pag. 4 The Earl of Hartford is chosen pag. 5 It is declared in Council ibid. The Bishops take out Commissions pag. 6 Reasons for a Creation of Peers ibid. Affairs of Scotland pag. 8 Lay men in Ecclesiastical Dignities ibid. Images taken away in a Church in London pag. 9 The progress of Image-Worship ibid. Many pull down Images pag. 11 Gardiner is offended at it ibid. The Protector writes about it ibid. Gardiner writes to Ridley about them pag. 12 Commissions to the Justices of Peace pag. 13 The form of Coronation changed ibid. King Henry's Burial ibid. Soul-Masses examined pag. 14 A Creation of Peers pag. 15 The King is crowned ibid. The Lord Chancellor is turned out ibid. The Protector made by Patent pag. 17 The Affairs of Germany pag. 19 Ferdinand made K. of the Romans ibid. The Diet at Spire ibid Emperor makes Peace with France and with the Turk pag. 20 And sets about the ruin of the Protest ibid. Protestant Princes meet at Frankfort pag. 21 D. of Sax and Land of Hesse Arm pag. 22 Peace between England and France pag. 23 Francis the first dies ibid. A Reformation set about in England pag. 24 A Visitation resolved on pag. 26 Some Homilies compiled pag. 27 Injunctions for the Visitation pag. 28 Injunctions for the Bishops pag. 29 Censures passed upon them ibid. Protector goes into Scotland pag. 31 Scotland said to be Subject to England ib. Protector enters Scotland pag. 33 Makes Offers to the Scots ibid. The Scots Defeat at Musselburgh pag. 34 Protector returns to England pag. 35 The Visitors execute the Injunctions pag. 36 Bonner Protests and Recants ibid. Gardiner would not obey ibid. His Reasons against them ibid. He complains to the Protector pag. 38 The Lady Mary complains also pag. 39 The Protector writes to her ibid. The Parliament meets ibid. An Act repealing severe Laws pag. 40 An Act about the Communion pag. 41 Communion in both kinds ibid. Private Masses put down pag. 42 An Act about the admission of Bishops pag. 43 Ancient ways of electing Bishops ibid. An Act against Vagabonds pag. 45 Chauntries given to the King ibid. Acts proposed but not passed pag. 46 The Convocation meets pag. 47 And makes some Petitions ibid. The Clergie desire to have Representatives in the House of Commons ibid. The Grounds of that pag. 48 The Affairs of Germany pag. 50 Duke of Saxe taken ibid. The Archbishop of Colen resigns pag. 51 A Decree made in the Diet pag. 52 Proceedings at Trent ibid. The Council removed to Boloign pag. 53 The French quarrel about Buloign ibid. The Protector and the Admiral fall out pag. 54 1548. Gardiner is set at liberty pag. 55 Mâ—rq of Northampton sues a Divorce pag. 56 The Arguments for it pag. 57 A Progress in the Reformation pag. 58 Proclamation against Innovation pag. 59 All Images taken away pag. 60 Restraints put on Preachers pag. 61 Some Bishops and Doctors examine the Publick Offices and Prayers ibid. Corruptions in the Office of the Commun pag. 62 A new Office for the Communion pag. 64 It is variously censured pag. 65 Auricular Confession left indifferent ibid. Chauntry Lands sold pag. 67 Gardiner falls into new Troubles pag. 68 He is ordered to preach pag. 69 But gives offence and is imprisoned pag. 70 A Catechism set out by Cranmer pag. 71 A further reformation of public Offices ibid. A new Liturgie resolved upon pag. 72 The Changes made in it pag. 73 Preface to it pag. 79 Reflections made on it ibid. All preaching forbid for a time pag. 81 Affairs of Scotland ibid. The Queen of Scots sent to France pag. 82 The Siege of Hadingtoun ibid. A Fleet sent against Scotland pag. 83 But without success ibid. The Siege of Hadingtoun raised pag. 84 Discontents in Scotland pag. 85 The Affairs of Germany ibid. The Book of the Interim pag. 86 Both sides offended at it ibid. Calvin writes to the Protector pag. 88 Bucer writes against Gardiner ibid. A Session of Parliament ibid. Act for the Marriage of the Clergie pag. 89 Which was much debated ibid. Arguments for it from Scripture ibid. And from the Fathers pag. 90 The Reasons against it examined pag. 91 An Act confirming the Liturgie pag. 93 Censures passed upon it pag. 94 The singing of Psalms set up ibid. 1549. An Act about Fasts pag. 95 Some Bills that did not pass pag. 96 A design of digesting the Common Law into a Body ibid. The Admiral 's Attainder pag. 97 He was sent to the Tower ibid. The Matter referred to the Parliament pag. 99 The Bill against him passed ibid. The Warrant for his Execution pag. 100 It is signed by Cranmer ibid. Censures upon that ibid. Subsidies granted pag. 101 A New Visitation ibid. All obey the Laws except Lady Mary pag. 103 A Treaty of Marriage for her ibid. The Council required her to obey pag. 104 Christ's Presence in the Sacrament examined ibid. Publick Disputations about it pag. 105 The manner of the Presence explained pag. 107 Proceedings against Anabaptists pag. 110 Of these there were two sorts ibid. Two of them burnt pag. 112 Which was much censured ibid. Disputes concerning Infant Baptism ibid. Predestination much abused pag. 113 Tumults in England ibid. Some are soon quieted pag. 114 The Devonshire Rebellion pag. 115 Their Demands ibid. An Answer sent to them pag. 116 They make new Demands pag. 117 Which are rejected ibid. The Norfolk Rebellion ibid. The Yorkshire Rebellion pag. 118
Ranks and thought the Lands the King intended to give were not sufficient for the maintenance of the Honour to be conferred on them which he reported to the best advantage he could for every Man and endeavoured to raise the Kings favour to them as high as he could But while this was in consultation the Duke of Norfolk very prudently apprehending the ruin of his Posterity if his Lands were divided into many Hands out of which he could not so easily recover them whereas if they continued in the Crown some turn of Affairs might again establish his Family and intending also to oblige the King by so unusual a Complement sent a desire to him that he would be pleased to settle all his Lands on the Prince the now King and not give them away for said he according to the Phrase of that Time They are good and stately Gear This wrought so far on the King that he resolved to reserve them for himself and to reward his Servants some other way Whereupon Paget pressed him once to resolve on the Honours he would bestow and what he would give with them and they should afterwards consider of the way how to give it The King growing still worse said to him That if ought came to him but good as he thought he could not long endure he intended to place them all about his Son as Men whom he trusted and loved above all other and that therefore he would consider them the more So after many Consultations he ordered the Book to be thus filled up The Earl of Hartford to be Earl Marshal and Lord Treasurer and to be Duke of Somerset Exeter or Hartford and his Son to be Earl of Wiltshire with 800 l. a year of Land and 300 l. a year out of the next Bishops Land that fell void the Earl of Essex to be Marquess of Essex the Viscount Lisle to be Earl of Coventry the Lord Wriothesly to be Earl of Winchester Sir Tho. Seimour to be a Baron and Lord Admiral Sir Richard Rich Sir Jo. St. Leiger Sir William Willoughby Sir Ed. Sheffield and Sir Christopher Danby to be Barons with yearly Revenues to them and several other Persons And having at the Suit of Sir Edw. North promised to give the Earl of Hartford six of the best Prebends that should fall in any Cathedral except Deanries and Treasurerships at his suit he agreed that a Deanry and a Treasurership should be in stead of two of the six Prebendaries And thus all this being written as the King had ordered it the King took the Book and put it in his Pocket and gave the Secretary order to let every one know what he had determined for them But before these things took effect the King died Yet being on his Death-bed put in mind of what he had promised he ordered it to be put in his Will that his Executors should perform every thing that should appear to have been promised by him All this Denny and Herbert confirmed for they then waited in his Chamber and when the Secretary went out the King told them the substance of what had passed between them and made Denny read the Book over again to him whereupon Herbert observed that the Secretary had remembred all but himself to which the King answered He should not forget him and ordered Denny to write 400 l. a year for him All these things being thus declared upon Oath and the greatest part of them having been formerly signified to some of them and the whole matter being well known and spread abroad the Executors both out of Conscience to the Kings Will and for their own Honours resolved to fulfil what the King had intended but was hindred by death to accomplish But being apprehensive both of Wars with the Emperour and French King they resolved not to lessen the Kings Treasure nor Revenue nor to sell his Jewels or Plate but to find some other ways to pay them and this put them afterwards on selling the Chantry Lands The Affairs of Scotland The business of Scotland was then so pressing that Balnaves who was Agent for those that had shut themselves within the Castle of St. Andrews had this day 1180 l. ordered to be carried to them for an half years pay to the Soldiers of that Garrison There were also Pensions appointed for the most leading Men in that Business The Earl of Rothes eldest Son had 280 Pound Sir James Kircaldy had 200 and many others had smaller Pensions allowed them for their amity as it is expressed in the Council Books 1547. Feb. 6. the King Knighted That day the Lord Protector Knighted the King being authorized to do it by Letters Pattents So it seems that as the Laws of Chivalry required that the King should receive Knighthood from the Hand of some other Knight so it was judged too great a presumption for his own Subject to give it without a Warrant under the Great Seal The King at the same time Knighted Sir John Hublethorn the Lord Major of London When it was known abroad what a distribution of Honour and Wealth the Council had resolved on it was much censured many saying that it was not enough for them to have drained the dead King of all his Treasure but that the first step of their proceedings in their new Trust was to provide Honour and Estates for themselves whereas it had been a more decent way for them to have reserved their Pretensions till the King had come to be of Age. Another thing in the Attestations seemed much to lessen the credit of the Kings Will which was said to be Signed the 30th of Decemb. and so did bear date whereas this Narration insinuates that it was made a very little while before he died not being able to accomplish his design in these things which he had projected but it was well known that he was not so ill on the 30th of December Secular Men had their Ecclesiastical Dignities It may perhaps seem strange that the Earl of Hartford had six good Prebends promised him two of these being afterwards converted into a Deanry and a Treasurership But it was ordinary at that time The Lord Cromwell had been Dean of Wells and many other Secular Men had these Ecclesiastical Benefices without Cure conferred on them For which there being no charge of Souls annexed to them this might seem to be an excuse Yet even those had a sacred charge incumbent on them in the Cathedrals and were just and necessary encouragements either for such as by Age or other defects were not fit for a Parochial Charge and yet might be otherwise capable to do eminent service in the Church or for the support of such as in their Parochial labours did serve so well as to merit preferment and yet perhaps were so meanly provided for as to need some farther help for their subsistence But certainly they were never intended for the enriching of such lazy and sensual Men who having given themselves up
used to bless of which I never met with any thing before I saw this Letter but since I understand the Office of Blessing of these Rings is extant as it was prepared for Queen Maries use as shall be told in her Reign It must be left to conjecture whether he did it as a practice of former Kings or whether upon his being made Supream Head he thought fit to take on him as the Pope did to consecrate such things and send them about Where to be sure Fancy and Flattery would raise many Stories of the wonderful effects of what he had so blessed and perhaps these might have been as true as the Reports made of the Vertues of Agnus Deis touched Beads blessed Peebles with such other goodly Ware which the Friars were wont to carry about and distribute to their Benefactors as things highly sanctified This I set down more fully and have laid some things together that fell not out till some months after this being the first step that was made towards a Reformation in this Reign Upon this occasion it is not unlikely that the Council wrote their Letteâ—s to all the Justices of Peace of England 1547. Feb. 12. The Commission of the Justices of the Peace on the 12th of Feb. letting them know that they had sent down new Commissions to them for keeping the Peace ordering them to assemble together and first to call earnestly on God for his Grace to discharge their Duties faithfully according to the Oaths which they were to take and that they should impartially without corruption or sinister affection execute their Office so that it might appear that they had God and the good of their King and Country before their Eyes and that they should divide themselves into the several Hundreds and see to the publick Peace and that all Vagabonds and disturbers of the Peace should be duly punished and that once every six weeks they should write to the Lord Protector and Council the state in which the County was till they were otherwise commanded That which was sent into the County of Norfolk will be found in the Collection Collection Number 3. But now the Funeral of the deceased King and the Coronation of his Son were to be dispatched In the Coronation-Ceremonies that had been formerly used there were some things that did not agree with the present Laws of the Land as the Promise made to the Abbots for maintaining their Lands and Dignities They were also so tedious that a new Form was ordered to be drawn which the Reader will find in the Collection The most material thing in it is the first Ceremony Collection Number 4. whereby the King being shewed to the People at the four Corners of the Stage the Arch-bishop was to demand their Consent to it and yet in such terms as should demonstrate he was no Elective Prince for he being declared the rightful and undoubted Heir both by the Laws of God and Man they were desired to give their good Wills and Assents to the same as by their Duty of Allegiance they were bound to do This being agreed on the 13th of Feb. on the day following King Henry's Body was with all the pomp of a Royal Funeral removed to Sheen in the way to Windsor 1547. Feb. 13. King Henry buried There great observation was made on a thing that was no extraordinary matter He had been extreme corpulent and dying of a Dropsie or some thing like it it was no wonder if a fortnight after upon so long a motion some putrid Matter might run thorough the Coffin But Sheen having been a House of Religious Women it was called a signal Mark of the displeasure of Heaven that some of his Blood and Fat droped through the Lead in the night and to make this work mightily on weak People it was said that the Dogs licked it next morning This was much magnified in Commendation of Friar Peto afterwards made Cardinal who as was told Page 151. of the former Part had threatned him in a Sermon at Greenwich That the Dogs should lick his Blood Though to consider things more equally it had been a Wonder indeed if it had been otherwise But having met with this Observation in a MS. written near that time I would not envy the World the Pleasure of it Next day he was brought to Windsor and interred in St. George's Chappel And he having by his Will left that Church 600 l. a year for ever for two Priests to say Mass at his Tomb daily for four Obits yearly and a Sermon at every Obit with 10 l. to the Poor and for a Sermon every Sunday together with the maintenance of thirteen poor Knights The Judges were consulted how this should be well setled in Law Who advised that the Lands which the King had given should be made over to that Colledge by Indentures Tripartite the King being one Party the Protector and the other Executors a second and the Dean and Chapter of Windsor a third Party These were to be Signed with the Kings Hand and the Great Seal put to them with the Hands and Seals of all the rest and then Patents were to be given for the Lands founded on the Kings Testament and the Indentures Tripartite Soul-Masses examined But the Pomp of this Business ministred an occasion of enquiring into the use and lawfulness of Soul-Masses and Obits which came to be among the first things that were reformed Christ had instituted the Sacrament to be celebrated in remembrance of his Death and it was a Sacrament only to those who did participate in it but that the consecrating the Sacrament could be of any use to departed Souls seemed a thing not easie to be conceived For if they are the Prayers of the Living that profit the Dead then these would have done as well without a Mass But the People would not have esteemed bare Prayers so much nor have payed so dear for them So that the true original of Soul-Masses was thought to have been only to encrease the Esteem and Wealth of the Clergy It is true in the Primitive Church there was a Commemoration of the Saints departed in the Daily Sacrifice so they termed the Communion and such as had given any offence at their death were not remembred in it So that for so slight an offence as the leaving a Priest Tutor to ones Children which might distract them from their Spiritual care ones Name was to be left out of that Commemoration in Cyprians time which was a very disproportioned punishment to that offence if such Commemorations had been thought useful or necessary to the Souls departed But all this was nothing to the private Masses for them and was indeed nothing at first but an honourable mention of such as had died in the Faith And they believing then generally that there was a Glorious Thousand Years to be on Earth and that the Saints should rise some sooner and some later to have their part in it they
prayed in general for their quiet Rest and their speedy Resurrection Yet these Prayers growing as all superstitious devices do to be more considered some began to frame an Hypothesis to justifie them by that of the Thousand Years being generally exploded And in St. Austin's time they began to fancy there was a state of punishment even for the Good in another Life out of which some were sooner and some later freed according to the measure of their Repentance for their Sins in this Life But he tells us this was taken up without any sure ground and that it was no way certain Yet by Visions Dreams and Tales the belief of it was so far promoted that it came to be generally received in the next Age after him and then as the People were told that the Saints interceded for them so it was added that they might intercede for their departed Friends And this was the Foundation of all that Trade of Souls-Masses and Obits Now the deceased King had acted like one who did not believe that these things signified much otherwise he was to have but ill reception in Purgatory having by the subversion of the Monasteries deprived the departed Souls of the benefit of the many Masses that were said for them in these Houses yet it seems at his death he would make the matter sure and to shew he intended as much benefit to the Living as to himself being dead he took care that there should be not only Masses and Obits but so many Sermons at Windsor and a frequent distribution of Alms for the relief of the Poor But upon this occasion it came to be examined what value there was in such things Yet the Arch-bishop plainly saw that the Lord Chancellor would give great opposition to every motion that should be made for any further alteration for which he and all that Party had this specious pretence always in their Mouths That their late Glorious King was not only the most learned Prince but the most learned Divine in the World for the flattering him did not end with his Life and that therefore they were at least to keep all things in the condition wherein he had left them till the King were of Age. And this seemed also necessary on Considerations of State For Changes in matter of Religion might bring on Commotions and Disorders which they as faithful Executors ought to avoid But to this it was answered That as their late King was infinitely learned for both Parties flattered him dead as well as living so he had resolved to make great Alterations and was contriving how to change the Mass into a Communion that therefore they were not to put off a thing of such consequence wherein the Salvation of Peoples Souls was so much concerned but were immediately to set about it But the Lord Chancellor gave quickly great advantage against himself to his Enemies who were resolved to make use of any Error he might be guilty of so far as to ease themselves of the trouble he was like to give them The Kings Funeral being over The Creation of Peers order was given for the Creation of Peers The Protector was to be Duke of Somerset the Earl of Essex to be Marquess of Northampton the Viscount Lisle to be Earl of Warwick the Lord Wriothesley Earl of Southampton beside the new Creation of the Lords Seimour Rich Willoughby of Parham and Sheffield the rest it seems excusing themselves from new Honours as it appeared from the Deposition of Paget that many of those on whom the late King had intended to confer Titles of Honour had declined it formerly 1547. Feb. 20. Coronation On the 20th of Feb. being Shrove-Sunday the King was Crowned by the Arch-bishop of Canterbury according to the form that was agreed to The Protector serving in it as Lord Steward the Marquess of Dorset as Lord Constable and the Earl of Arundel as Earl Marshal deputed by the Protector A Pardon was proclaimed out of which the Duke of Norfolk Cardinal Pole and some others were excepted The first Business of importance after the Coronation The Lord Chancellor is removed from his Office was the Lord Chancellors fall Who resolving to give himself wholly to Matters of State had on the 18th of Feb. put the Great Seal to a Commission directed to Sir Richard Southwell Master of the Rolls John Tregonnel Esq Master of Chancery and to John Oliver and Anthony Bellasis Clerks Masters of Chancery setting forth that the Lord Chancellor being so employed in the Affairs of State that he could not attend on the hearing of Causes in the Court of Chancery these three Masters or any two of them were empowered to execute the Lord Chancellors Office in that Court in as ample manner as if he himself were present only their Decrees were to be brought to the Lord Chancellor to be Signed by him before they were Enrolled This being done without any Warrant from the Lord Protector and the other Executors it was judged a high presumption in the Lord Chancellor thus to devolve on others that Power which the Law had trusted in his Hands The Persons named by him encreased the offence which this gave two of them being Canonists so that the common Lawyers looked upon this as a President of very high and ill consequence And being encouraged by those who had no good will to the Chancellor they petitioned the Council in this Matter and complained of the evil consequences of such a Commission and set forth the fears that all the Students of the Law were under of a Change that was intended to be made of the Laws of England The Council remembred well they had given no Warrant at all to the Lord Chancellor for the issuing out any such Commission so they sent it to the Judges and required them to examine the Commission with the Petition grounded upon it Who delivered their Opinions on the last of Feb. That the Lord Chancellor ought not without Warrant from the Council to have set the Seal to it Feb. 28. and that by his so doing he had by the Common Law forfeited his Place to the King and was liable to Fine and Imprisonment at the Kings pleasure March 6. This lay sleeping till the sixth of March and then the Judges Answer being brought to the Council Signed with all their Hands they entred into a debate how far it ought to be punished The Lord Chancellor carried it very high and as he had used many Menaces to those who had petitioned against him and to the Judges for giving their Opinions as they did so he carried himself insolently to the Protector and told him he held his Place by a better Authority than he held his That the late King being empow'red to it by Act of Parliament had made him not only Chancellor but one of the Governours of the Realm during his Sons Minority and had by his Will given none of them Power over the rest to throw
Principality which his Unkle George had left him only on condition that he turned Papist notwithstanding which he got him to be possessed of it was made use of by the Emperor as the best Instrument to work his ends To him therefore he promised the Electoral Dignity with the Dominions belonging to the Duke of Saxe if he would assist him in the War against his Kinsman the present Elector and gave him assurance under his Hand and Seal That he would make no change in Religion but leave the Princes of the Ausburg Confession the free exercise of their Religion And thus the Emperor singled out the Duke of Saxe and the Landgrave from the rest reckoning wisely that if he once mastered them he should more easily overcome all the rest He pretended some other quarrels against them as that of the Duke of Brunswick who having begun a War with his Neighbours was taken Prisoner and his Dominions possessed by the Landgrave That with some old Quarrels was pretended the ground of the War Upon which the Princes published a Writing to shew that it was Religion only and a secret design to subdue Germany that was the true cause of the War and those alledged were sought Pretences to excuse so infamous a breach of Faith and of the publick Decrees that the Pope who designed the destruction of all of that Confession had set on the Emperor to this who easily laid hold on it that he might master the liberty of Germany Therefore they warned all the Princes of their danger The Emperors Forces being to be drawn together out of several Places in Italy Flanders Burgundy and Boheme they whose Forces lay nearer had a great advantage if they had known how to use it 1546. June The Elector and Landgrave arm For in June they brought into the Field 70000 Foot and 15000 Horse and might have driven the Emperor out of Germany had they proceeded vigorously at first But the divided Command was fatal to them for when one was for Action the other was against it So they lost their opportunity and gave the Emperor time to gather all his Forces about him which were far inferior to theirs in strength but the Emperor gained by time whereas they who had no great Treasure lost much All the Summer and a great deal of the Winter was spent without any considerable Action though the two Armies were oft in view one of another 1546. Jul. 20. Duke of Saxe and Landgrave proscribed But in the beginning of the Winter the Emperor having proscribed the Duke of Saxe and promised to bestow the Principality on Maurice he fell into Saxony and carried a great many of the Cities which were not prepared for any such impression Nov. 23. The Elector returns into Saxony This made the Duke separate his Army and return to the defence of his own Country which he quickly recovered and drove Maurice almost out of all his own Principality The States of Boheme also declared for the Elector of Saxony This was the state of Affairs there The Princes thought they had a good Prospect for the next Year having mediated a Peace between the Crowns of England and France 1546. Jan. 7. Peace concluded between England and France whose Forces falling into Flanders must needs have bred a great distraction in the Emperors Councils But King Henry's death gave them great apprehensions and not without cause For when they sent hither for an Aid in Money to carry on the War the Protector and Council saw great dangers on both hands if they left the Germans to perish the Emperor would be then so lifted up that they might expect to have an uneasie Neighbour of him on the other hand it was a thing of great consequence to engage an Infant King in such a War Therefore their Succours from hence were like to be weak and very slow Howsoever the Council ordered Paget to assure them that within three or four Months they should send 50000 Crowns to their assistance which was to be covered thus The Merchants of the Still-yard were to borrow so much of the King and to engage to bring home Stores to that value they having the Money should send it to Hamburg and so to the Duke of Saxe But the Princes received a second Blow in the loss of Francis the first of France Who having lived long in a familiarity and friendship with King Henry not ordinary for Crowned Heads was so much affected with the news of his death that he was never seen cheerful after it He made Royal Funeral Rites to be performed to his memory in the Church of Nostredame to which the Clergy who one would have thought should have been glad to have seen his Funerals Celebrated in any fashion were very averse But that King had emancipated himself to a good degree from a servile subjection to them and would be obeyed He out-lived the other not long 1557. Mar. 31. Francis I. died for he died the last of March He was the chief Patron of Learned Men and advancer of Learning that had been for many Ages He was generally unsuccessful in his Wars and yet a great Commander At his death he left his Son an Advice to beware of the Brethren of Lorain and to depend much on the Councellors whom he had employed But his Son upon his coming to the Crown did so deliver himself up to the charms of his Mistress Diana that all things were ordered as Men made their Court to her which the Ministers that had served the former King scorning to do and the Brothers of the House of Lorain doing very submissively the one were discharged of their employments and the other governed all the Councils Francis had been oft fluctuating in the business of Religion Sometimes he had resolved to shake off the Popes Obedience and set up a Patriarch in France and had agreed with Henry the 8th to go on in the same Councils with him But he was first diverted by his Alliance with Clement the 7th and afterwards by the Ascendant which the Cardinal of Tournon had over him who engaged him at several times into severities against those that received the Reformation Yet he had such a close Eye upon the Emperors motions that he kept a constant good understanding with the Protestant Princes and had no doubt assisted them if he had lived But upon his death new Councils were taken the Brothers of Lorain were furiously addicted to the Interests of the Papacy one of them being a Cardinal who perswaded the King rather to begin his Reign with the recovery of Bulloine out of the hands of the English So that the state of Germany was almost desperate before he was aware of it And indeed the Germans lost so much in the death of these two Kings upon whose assistance they had depended that it was no wonder they were easily over-run by the Emperor Some of their Allies the Cities of Vlm and Frankfort and the Duke of
excellent Writers of that Age to set it out with all the advantages that so unusual a temper of mind deserved Yet had those Writers lived in our Age and seen a great King not overpow'red by a Superior Prince but by the meanest of his own People and treated with equal degrees of malice and scorn and at last put to death openly with the Pageantry of Justice and yet bearing all this with such invincible Patience Heroical Courage and most Christian Submission to God they had yet found a nobler Subject for their Eloquent Pens but he saved the World the labour of giving a just Representation of his behaviour in his Sufferings having left his own Portraiture drawn by himself in such lively and lasting Colours The Landgrave of Hesse saw he could not long withstand the Emperors Army now so lifted up with success and therefore was willing to submit to him on the best terms that his Sons-in-law the Elector of Brandenburg and Maurice of Saxe could obtain for him Which were very hard only he was to enjoy his Liberty without any Imprisonment and to preserve his Dominions But the Emperors Ministers dealt most unfaithfully with him in this For in the German Language there was but one Letters difference and that only inverted between perpetual Imprisonment and any Imprisonment Ewig for Emig so by this base Artifice he was when he came and submitted to the Emperor detained a Prisoner He had not the Duke of Saxes temper but was out of measure impatient and did exclaim of his ill usage but there was no remedy for the Emperor was now absolute All the Towns of Germany Magdeburg and Breme only excepted submitted to him and redeem'd his favour by great Sums of Money and many Pieces of Ordnance And the Bohemians were also forced to implore his Brothers mercy who before he would receive them into his Hands got his Revenue to be raised vastly And now the Empire was wholly at the Emperors mercy Nothing could withstand him who had in one year turned out two Electors 1546. Apr 16. Herman excommunicated at Rome For Herman Bishop of Colen as he was before condemned by the Pope so was also degraded from that Dignity by the Emperor and Adolph whom he had procured to be made his Coadjutor was declared Elector Many of his Subjects and Neighbour Princes offered their Service if he would stand to his own defence but he was very old and of so meek a temper that he would suffer no Blood to be shed on his account and therefore withdrew peaceably to a retirement in which he lived four years till his death His Brother that was Bishop of Munster and Dean of Bonne Nov. 4. Herman resigned who had gone along with him in his Reformation was also turned out and Gropper was made Dean who was esteemed one of the learnedest and best Men of the Clergy at this time He is said to have expressed a generous contempt of the highest Dignity the See of Rome could bestow on him for he refused a Cardinals Hat when it was offered him yet in this matter he had not behaved himself as became so good a Man and so Learned a Divine For he had consented to the Changes had been made and was in a correspondence with Martin Bucer whom Herman brought to Colen as will appear by an excellent Letter of Bucers to him Number 19. which will be found in the Collection concerning that matter by which it is plain he went along with them from the beginning But it seems he did it covertly and fearfully and was afterwards drawn off either by the love of the World or the fears of the Cross of which it appears Bucer had then some apprehensions though he expressed them very modestly Groppers Memory being in such high esteem and this Letter being found among Bucers Papers I thought the publishing of it would not be unacceptable though it be of a Forreign Matter Germany being thus under the Power and Dread of the Emperor a Diet was summoned to Ausburg Where the chief Church was taken from the Protestants and put into the Cardinal of Ausburg's Hands to have the Mass set up again in it though the Town was so much Protestant that they could find none that would come to it but some poor People who were hired The Emperor among other Propositions he put in to the Diet pressed this That all differences in Religion which had so distracted Germany might be removed The Ecclesiastical Princes answered That the only way to effect that was to submit to the General Council that was at Trent Those that were for the Ausburg Confession said they could submit to no Council where the Pope Presided and where the Bishops were sworn to obey him but would submit to it if that Oath was dispensed with and their Divines admitted to defend their Opinions and all the Decrees that had been made were again considered In this difference of Opinion the Emperor thought that if the whole matter should be left to his discretion to which all should be bound to submit he would then be able to determine it as he pleased So he dealt privately with the Electors Palatine and Saxe and as they published it afterwards gave them secret assurances about the freedom of their Religion and that he only desired this to put him in a capacity of dealing on other terms with the Pope Upon which they consented to a Decree referring the Matter of Religion wholly to his care But the Deputies from the Cities who looked on this as a giving up of their Religion could not be wrought to do it without Conditions which they put into another Writing as explanatory of the Submission But the Emperor took no notice of that and only thanked them for their confidence in him and so the Decree was published All this was in some sort necessary for the Emperor who was then in very ill terms with the Pope about the business of Placenzia 1547. Sept. 10. Petrus Aloisius killed For the Popes Natural Son Petrus Aloisius being killed by a Conspiracy the Governour of Millain had seized on Placenzia which made the Pope believe the Emperour was accessary to it for which the Reader is referred to the Italian Historians The Pope saw the Emperor in one Summer delivered of a War which he had hoped would have entangled him his whole life and though in decency he could not but seem to rejoyce and did so no doubt at the ruine of those whom he called Hereticks yet he was not a little grieved to see the Emperor so much exalted The Proceedings at Trent At Trent the Legates had been oft threatned and affronted by the Emperors Ambassadors and Bishops who were much set on reforming abuses and lessening the Power of the See of Rome So they had a mind to break up the Council but that would have been so scandalous a thing and so resented by the Emperor that they resolved rather on a
Christs Flesh and Blood in the Sacrament Upon which many of the Assembly that were indiscreetly hot on both sides cried out some approving and others disliking it Of the Kings Authority under Age and of the Power of the Council in that Case he said not a word and upon that he was imprisoned The occasion of this was the Popish Clergy began generally to have it spread among them that though they had acknowledged the Kings Supremacy yet they had never owned the Councils Supremacy That the Council could only see to the execution of the Laws and Orders that had been made but could not make new ones and that therefore the Supremacy could not be exercised till the King in whose Person it was vested came to be of Age to consider of Matters himself Upon this the Lawyers were consulted who did unanimously resolve that the Supremacy being annexed to the Regal Dignity was the same in a King under Age when it was executed by the Council that it was in a King at full Age and therefore things ordered by the Council now had the same Authority in Law that they could have when the King did act himself But this did not satisfie the greater part of the Clergy Some of whom by the high Flatteries that had been given to Kings in King Henry's time seemed to fancy that there were degrees of Divine Illumination derived unto Princes by the anointing them at the Coronation and these not exerting themselves till a King attained to a ripeness of understanding they thought the Supremacy was to lie dormant while he was so young The Protector and Council endeavoured to have got Gardiner to declare against this but he would not meddle in it How far he might set forward the other Opinion I do not know These Proceedings against him were thought too severe and without Law but he being generally hated they were not so much censured as they had been if they had fallen on a more acceptable Man And thus were the Orders made by the Council generally obeyed many being terrified with the usage Gardiner met with from which others inferred what they might look for if they were refractory when so great a Bishop was so treated The next thing Cranmer set about was the compiling of a Catechisme or large instruction of young Persons in the Grounds of the Christian Religion In it he reckons the two first Commandments but one Cranmer sets out a Catechisme though he says many of the Ancients divided them in two But the division was of no great consequence so no part of the Decalogue were suppressed by the Church He shewed that the excuses the Papists had for Images were no other than what the Heathens brought for their Idolatry who also said they did not worship the Image but that only which was represented by it He particularly takes notice of the Image of the Trinity He shews how St. Peter would not suffer Cornelius and the Angel would not suffer St. John to worship them The believing that there is a vertue in one Image more than in another he accounts plain Idolatry Ezekias broke the Brazen Serpent when abused though it was a Type or Image of Christ made by Gods command to which a miraculous Vertue had been once given So now there was good reason to break Images when they had been so abused to superstition and Idolatry and when they gave such scandal to Jews and Mahometans who generally accounted the Christians Idolaters on that account He asserts besides the two Sacraments of Baptisme and the Lords Supper the Power of reconciling Sinners to God as a third and fully owns the Divine Institution of Bishops and Priests and wishes that the Canons and Rites of publick Penitence were again restored and exhorts much to Confession and the Peoples dealing with their Pastors about their Consciences that so they might upon knowledge bind and loose according to the Gospel Having finished this easie but most useful work he dedicated it to the King And in his Epistle to him complains of the great neglect that had been in former times of Catechising and that Confirmation had not been rightly administred since it ought to be given only to these of Age who understood the Principles of the Christian Doctrine and did upon knowledge and with sincere minds renew their Baptismal Vow From this it will appear that from the beginning of this Reformation the Practice of the Roman Church in the matter of Images was held Idolatrous Cranmer's zeal for restoring the Penitentiary Canons is also clear and it is plain that he had now quite laid aside those singular opinions which he formerly held of the Ecclesiastical Functions for now in a Work which was wholly his own without the concurrence of any others he fully sets forth their Divine Institution All these things made way for a greater Work which these selected Bishops and Divines who had laboured in the setting forth of the Office of the Communion were now preparing which was the entire Reformation of the whole Service of the Church In order to this they brought together all the Offices used in England In the Southern Parts A General Reformation of all the Offices of the Church is set about those after the use of Sarum were universally received which were believed to have been compiled by Osmund Bishop of Sarum In the North of England they had other Offices after the use of York In South-Wales they had them after the use of Hereford In North-Wales after the use of Bangor And in Lincoln another sort of an Office proper to that See In the Primitive Church when the extraordinary Gifts ceased the Bishops of the several Churches put their Offices and Prayers into such a Method as was nearest to what they had heard or remembred from the Apostles And these Liturgies were called by the Apostles Names from whose Forms they had been composed as that at Jerusalem carried the Name of St. James and that of Alexandria the Name of St. Mark though those Books that we have now under these Names are certainly so interpolated that they are of no great Authority But in the fourth Century we have these Liturgies first mentioned The Council of Laodicea appointed the same Office of Prayers to be used in the Mornings and Evenings The Bishops continued to draw up new Additions and to put old Forms into other Methods But this was left to every Bishops care nor was it made the Subject of any publick Consultation till St. Austins time when in their dealings with Hereticks they found they took advantages from some of the Prayers that were in some Churches Upon this he tells us it was ordered that there should be no Prayers used in the Church but upon common advice after that the Liturgies came to be more carefully considered Formerly the Worship of God was a pure and simple thing and so it continued till Superstition had so infected the Church that those Forms were thought too naked
would consent to it so if he had married her without that the possibility of succeeding to the Crown was cut off by King Henry's Will And this Attempt of his occasioned that Act to be put in which was formerly mentioned for declaring the marrying the Kings Sisters without consent of Council to be Treason Seeing he could not compass that design he resolved to carry away the King to his House of Holt in the Country and so to displace his Brother and to take the Government into his own hands For this end he had laid in Magazines of Arms and listed about 10000 Men in several Places and openly complained that his Brother intended to enslave the Nation and make himself Master of all and had therefore brought over those German Soldiers He had also entred into Treaty with several of the Nobility that envied his Brothers greatness and were not ill pleased to see a breach between them and that grown to be irreconcilable To these he promised that they should be of the Council and that he would dispose of the King in Marriage to one of their Daughters the Person is not named The Protector had often told him of these things and warned him of the danger into which he would throw himself by such ways but he persisted still in his designs though he denied and excused them as long as was possible Now his restless ambition seeming incurable he was on the 19th of Jan. sent to the Tower The original Warrant Jan. 19. The Admiral sent to the Tower Signed by all the Privy Council is in the Council-Book formerly mentioned where the Earl of Southampton Signs with the rest who was now in outward appearance reconciled to the Protector On the day following the Admirals Seal of his Office was sent for and put into Secretary Smiths Hands And now many things broke out against him and particularly a Conspiracy of his with Sir W. Sharington Vice-Treasurer of the Mint at Bristol who was to have furnished him with 10000 l. and had already coined about 12000 l. false Money and had clipt a great deal more to the value of 40000 l. in all for which he was attainted by a Process at Common Law and that was confirmed in Parliament Fowler also that waited in the Privy Chamber with some few others were sent to the Tower Many complaints being usually brought against a sinking Man the Lord Russel the Earl of Southampton and Secretary Petre were ordered to receive their Examinations And thus the Business was let alone till the 28 of Feb. in which time his Brother did again try if it were possible to bring him to a better temper And as he had since their first breach granted him 800 l. a year in Land to gain his friendship so means were now used to perswade him to submit himself and to withdraw from Court and from all employment But it appeared that nothing could be done to him that could cure his ambition or the hatred he carried to his Brother And therefore on the 22d of Feb. a full report was made to the Council of all the things that were informed against him consisting not only of the Particulars formerly mentioned but of many foul misdemeanours in the discharge of the Admiralty several Pirates being entertained by him who gave him a share of their Robberies and whom he had protected notwithstanding the Complaints made by other Princes by which the King was in danger of a War from the Princes so complaining The whole Charge consists of 33 Articles which will be found in the Collection Collection Number 31. The Particulars as it is entred in the Council-Book were so manifestly proved not only by Witnesses but by Letters under his own Hand that it did not seem possible to deny them Yet he had been sent to and examined by some of the Council but refused to make a direct Answer to them or to Sign those Answers that he had made So it was ordered that the next day all the Privy Council except the Arch-bishop of Canterbury and Sir John Baker Speaker to the House of Commons who was engaged to attend in the House should go to the Tower and examine him On the 23d the Lord Chancellor with the other Councellors went to him and read the Articles of his Charge and earnestly desired him to make plain Answers to them excusing himself where he could and submitting himself in other things and that he would shew no obstinacy of Mind He answered them That he expected an open Trial and his Accusers to be brought face to face All the Councellors endeavoured to perswade him to be more tractable but to no purpose At last the Lord Chancellor required him on his Allegiance to make his Answer He desired they would leave the Articles with him and he would consider of them otherwise he would make no Answer to them But the Councellors resolved not to leave them with him on those terms On the 24th of Feb. it was resolved in Council that the whole Board should after Dinner acquaint the King with the state of that Affair and desire to know of him whether he would have the Law to take place and since the thing had been before the Parliament whether he would leave it to their determination so tender they were of their young King in a Case that concerned his Unkles Life But the King had begun to discern his seditious temper and was now much alienated from him The Council desired the King to refer the Matter to the Parliament When the Councellors waited on him the Lord Chancellor opened the Matter to the King and delivered his Opinion for leaving it to the Parliament Then every Councellor by himself spake his mind all to the same purpose Last of all the Protector spake he protested this was a most sorrowful business to him that he had used all the means in his power to keep it from coming to this extremity but were it Son or Brother he must prefer his Majesties safety to them for he weighed his Allegiance more than his Blood and that therefore he was not against the request that the other Lords had made and said if he himself were guilty of such offences he should not think he were worthy of life and the rather because he was of all Men the most bound to his Majesty and therefore he could not refuse Justice The King answered them in these words Who consented to it We perceive that there are great things objected and laid to my Lord Admiral my Unkle and they tend to Treason and We perceive that you require but Justice to be done We think it reasonable and We Will that you proceed according to your Request Which words as it is marked in the Council-Book coming so suddenly from his Graces Mouth of his own motion as the Lords might well perceive they were marvellously rejoyced and gave the King most hearty praise and thanks yet resolved that some of both Houses
Philosophical Subtilties and only pretended to be deduced from Scripture as almost all Opinions of Religion were and therefore they rejected them Among these the Baptism of Infants was one They held that to be no Baptism and so were re-baptiz'd but from this which was most taken notice of as being a visible thing they carried all the general Name of Anabaptists Of whom there were two sorts Of these there were two sorts most remarkable The one was of those who only thought that Baptism ought not to be given but to those who were of an Age capable of Instruction and who did earnestly desire it This Opinion they grounded on the silence of the New Testament about the Baptism of Children they observed that our Saviour commanding the Apostles to baptize did joyn Teaching with it and they said the great decay of Christianity flowed from this way of making Children Christians before they understood what they did These were called the gentle or moderate Anabaptists But others who carried that Name denied almost all the Principles of the Christian Doctrine and were Men of fierce and barbarous tempers They had broke out into a general revolt over Germany and raised the War called The Rustick War and possessing themselves of Munster made one of their Teachers John of Leyden their King under the Title of the King of the new Jerusalem Some of them set up a fantastical unintelligible way of talking of Religion which they turned all into Allegories These being joyned in the common Name of Anabaptists with the other brought them also under an ill Character On the 12th of April there was a Complaint brought to the Council that with the Strangers that were come into England some of that Perswasion had come over and were disseminating their Errours and making Proselites Rot. Pat. Par. 6. â— Râ—g So a Commission was ordered for the Arch-bishop of Canterbury the Bishops of Ely Worcester Westminster Chichester Lincoln and Rochester Sir William Petre Sir Tho. Smith Dr. Cox Dr May and some others three of them being a Quorum to examine and search after all Anabaptists Hereticks or contemners of the Common-Prayer They were to endeavour to reclaim them to enjoyn them Penance and give them Absolution or if they were obstinate to excommunicate and imprison them and to deliver them over to the Secular Power to be farther proceeded against Some Tradesmen in London were brought before these Commissioners in May and were perswaded to abjure their former Opinions which were That a Man regenerate could not sin that though the outward Man sinned the inward Man sinned not That there was no Trinity of Persons That Christ was only a Holy Prophet and not at all God That all we had by Christ was that he taught us the way to Heaven That he took no Flesh of the Virgin and that the Baptism of Infants was not profitable One of those who thus abjured was commanded to carry a Faggot next Sunday at St. Pauls where there should be a Sermon setting forth his Heresie But there was another of these extream obstinate Joan Bocher commonly called Joan of Kent She denied that Christ was truly incarnate of the Virgin whose Flesh being sinful he could take none of it but the Word by the consent of the inward Man in the Virgin took Flesh of her these were her words They took much pains about her and had many Conferences with her but she was so extravagantly conceited of her own Notions that she rejected all they said with scorn whereupon she was adjudged an obstinate Heretick and so left to the Secular Power The Sentence against her will be found in the Collection Collection Number 3â— This being returned to the Council the good King was moved to Sign a Warrant for burning her but could not be prevailed on to do it he thought it a piece of cruelty too like that which they had condemned in Papists to burn any for their Consciences And in a long Discourse he had with Sir Jo. Cheek he seemed much confirmed in that Opinion Cranmer was employed to perswade him to Sign the Warrant He argued from the Law of Moses by which Blasphemers were to be stoned He told the King he made a great difference between Errors in other Points of Divinity and those which were directly against the Apostles Creed that these were impieties against God which a Prince as being Gods Deputy ought to punish as the Kings Deputies were obliged to punish offences against the Kings Person These Reasons did rather silence than satisfie the young King who still thought it a hard thing as in truth it was to proceed so sevâ—rely in such Cases so he set his hand to the Warrant with Tears in his Eyes saying to Cranmer That if he did wrong since it was in submission to his Authority he should answer for it to God This struck the Arch-bishop with much horror so that he was very unwilling to have the Sentence executed And both he and Ridley took the Woman then in custody to their Houses to see if they could perswade her But she continued by Jeers and other Insolencies to carry her self so contemptuously that at last the Sentence was executed on her the second of May the next Year An Anabaptist burnt Bishop Scory preaching at her burning she carried her self then as she had done in the former parts of her Process very undecently and in the end was burnt This Action was much censured as being contrary to the clemency of the Gospel and was made oft use of by the Papists who said it was plain that the Reformers were only against Burning when they were in fear of it themselves The Womans carriage made her be look'd on as a frantick Person fitter for Bedlam than a Stake People had generally believed that all the Statutes for burning Hereticks had been repealed but now when the thing was better considered it was found that the burning of Hereticks was done by the Common Law so that the Statutes made about it were only for making the Conviction more easie and the Repealing the Statutes did not take away that which was grounded on a Writ at Common Law To end all this matter at once two years after this one George Van Pare a Dutch-man being accused for saying that God the Father was only God and that Christ was not very God he was dealt with long to abjure but would not so on the 6th of April 1551. he was condemned in the same manner that Joan of Kent was and on the 25th of April was burnt in Smithfield Another burnt He suffered with great constancy of mind and kissed the Stake and Faggots that were to burn him Of this Pare I find a Popish Writer saying That he was a Man of most wonderful strict Life that he used not to eat above once in two days and before he did eat would lie sometime in his devotion prostrate on the ground All this they made use of to
Church received that Sacrament frequently and in both kinds To the sixth Baptism in Cases of necessity was to be administred at any time but out of these Cases it was fit to do it solemnly and in the Ancient Church it was chiefly done on the Eves of Easter and Whit-Sunday of which usage some Footsteps remained still in the old Offices To the seventh these were late superstitious devices Images were contrary to the Scriptures first set up for remembrance but soon after made Objects of Worship To the eight The old Service had many ludicrous things in it the new was simple and grave If it appeared ridiculous to them it was as the Gospel was long ago foolishness to the Greeks To the ninth The Scriptures say nothing of it it was a superstitious Invention derogatory to Christs death To the tenth The Scriptures are the Word of God and the readiest way to confound that which is Heresie indeed To the eleventh These were ignorant superstitious and deceitful Persons To the twelfth Pool had been attainted in Parliament for his spiteful Writings and Doings against the late King To the thirteenth It was foolish and unreasonable one Servant could not do a Man's business and by this many Servants would want employment To the fourteenth This was to rob the King and those who had these Lands of him and would be a means to make so foul a Rebellion be remembred in their Prayers To the fifteenth These were notorious Traitors to whom the Kings Council was not to submit themselves After this they grew more moderate and sent eight Articles They make new Demands 1. Concerning Baptism 2. About Confirmation 3. Of the Mass 4. For reserving the Host 5. For Holy Bread and Water 6. For the old Service 7. For the single Lives of Priests 8. For the Six Articles and concluded God save the King for they were His both Body and Goods To this there was an Answer sent in the Kings Name on the 8th of July so long did the Treaty with them hold in which Which were also rejected after Expressions of the Kings affection to his People he taxes their rising in Arms against him their King as contrary to the Laws of God He tells them That they are abused by their Priests as in the Instance of Baptism which according to the Book might necessity requiring it be done at all times that the Changes that had been set out were made after long and great consultation and the Worship of this Church by the advice of many Bishops and Learned Men was reformed as near to what Christ and his Apostles had taught and done as could be and all things had been setled in Parliament But the most specious thing that misled them being that of the Kings Age it was shewed them that his Blood and not his Years gave him the Crown and the state of Government requires that at all times there should be the same Authority in Princes and the same Obedience in the People It was all penned in a high threatning Style and concluded with an earnest Invitation of them to submit to the Kings Mercy as others that had risen had also done to whom he had not only shewed Mercy but granted Redress of their just grievances otherwise they might expect the utmost severity that Traitors deserved But nothing prevailed on this enraged Multitude whom the Priests inflamed with all the Artifices they could imagine and among whom the Host was carried about by a Priest on a Cart that all might see it But when this Commotion was thus grown to a Head The Rebellion in Norfolk headed by Ket a Tanner the Men of Norfolk rose the 6th of July being led by one Ket a Tanner These pretended nothing of Religion but only to suppress and destroy the Gentry and to raise the commons and to put new Councellors about the King They encreased mightily and became 20000 strong but had no Order nor Discipline and committed many horrid outrages The Sheriff of the County came boldly to them and required them in the Kings Name to disperse and go home but had he not been well mounted they had put him cruelly to death They came to Moushold Hill above Norwich and were much favoured by many in that City Parker afterwards Arch-bishop of Canterbury came among them and preached very freely to them of their ill Lives their Rebellion against the King and the Robberies they daily committed by which he was in great danger of his Life Ket assumed to himself the Power of Judicature and under an old Oak called from thence the Oak of Reformation did such Justice as might be expected from such a Judge and in such a Camp The Marquess of Northampton was sent against them but with Orders to keep at a distance from them and to cut off their Provisions for so it was hoped that without the shedding much Blood they might come to themselves again When the news of this Rising came into York-shire the Commons there rose also A Rising in York-shire being further encouraged by a Prophecy That there should be no King nor Nobility in England that the Kingdom should be ruled by four Governours chosen by the Commons who should hold a Parliament in commotion to begin at the South and North Seas This they applied to the Devon-shire Men on the South Seas and themselves on the North Seas They at their first rising fired Beacons and so gathered the Country as if it had been for the defence of the Coast and meeting two Gentlemen with two others with them they without any provocation murdered them and left their naked Bodies unburied The French fall into the Bullognese At the same time that England was in this Commotion the News came that the French King had sent a great Army into the Territory of Bulloigne so that the Government was put to most extraordinary straits A Fast at Court where Cranmer preached Ex MS. Col. C. C. Cantab. There was a Fast proclaimed in and about London Cranmer preached on the Fast-day at Court I have seen the greatest part of his Sermon under his own Hand and it is the only Sermon of his I ever saw It is a very plain unartificial Discourse no shews of Learning or conceits of Wit in it but he severely expostulated in the Name of God with his Hearers for their ill Lives their Blasphemies Adulteries mutual Hatred Oppression and Contempt of the Gospel and complained of the slackness in punishing these sins by which the Government became in some sort guilty of them He set many Passages of the Jewish Story before them of the Judgments such sins drew on and of Gods Mercy in the unexpected deliverances they met with upon their true Repentance But he chiefly lamented the scandal given by many who pretended a zeal for Religion but used that for a Cloak to disguise their other Vices He set before them the fresh Example of Germany where People generally
and to all the Devils if they did not furnish him well with Pears and Puddings It may perhaps be thought indecent to print such Letters being the privacies of friendship which ought not to be made publick but I confess Bonner was so brutish and so bloody a Man that I was not ill pleased to meet with any thing that might set him forth in his natural Colours to the World Forreign Affairs Thus did the Affairs of England go on this Summer within the Kingdom but it will be now necessary to consider the state of our Affairs in Forreign Parts The King of France finding it was very chargeable to carry on the War wholly in Scotland resolved this year to lessen that Expence and to make War directly with England both at Sea and Land So he came in person with a great Army and fell into the Country of Bulloigne The French take many Places about Bulloigne where he took many little Castles about the Town as Sellaque Blackness Hambletue Newhaven and some lesser ones The English Writers say those were ill provided which made them be so easily lost but Thuanus says they were all very well stored In the night they assaulted Bullingberg but were beat off then they designed to burn the Ships that were in the Harbour and had prepared Wild-fire with other combustible Matter but were driven away by the English At the same time the French Fleet met the English Fleet at Jersey but as King Edward writes in his Diary they were beat off with the loss of 1000 Men though Thuanus puts the loss wholly on the English side The French King sate down before Bulloigne in September hoping that the disorders then in England would make that Place be ill supplied and easily yielded the English finding Bullingberg was not tenable razed it and retired into the Town but the Plague broke into the French Camp so the King left it under the command of Chastilion He endeavoured chiefly to take the Pierre and so to cut off the Town from the Sea and from all communication with England and after a long Battery he gave the Assault upon it but was beat off There followed many Skirmishes between him and the Garrison and he made many attempts to close up the Channel and thought to have sunk a Galley full of Stones and Gravel in it but in all these he was still unsuccessful And therefore Winter coming on the Siege was raised only the Forts about the Town which the French had taken were strongly garrisoned so that Bulloigne was in danger of being lost the next year In Scotland also the English Affairs declined much this year Thermes The English insuccessful in Scotland before the Winter was ended had taken Broughty Castle and destroyed almost the whole Garrison In the Southern Parts there was a change made of the Lords Wardens of the English Marches Sir Robert Bowes was complained of as negligent in relieving Hadingtoun the former year so the Lord Dacres was put in his room And the Lord Gray who lost the great advantage he had when the French raised the Siege of Hadingtoun was removed and the Earl of Rutland was sent to command The Earl made an Inroad into Scotland and supplied Hadingtoun plentifully with all sorts of Provisions necessary for a Siege He had some Germans and Spaniards with him but a Party of Scotch Horse surprised the Germans Baggage and Romero with the Spanish Troop was also fallen on and taken and almost all his Men were cut off The Earl of Warwick was to have marched with a more considerable Army this Summer into Scotland had not the disorders in England diverted him as it has been already shewn Thermes did not much more this Year He intended once to have renewed the Siege of Hadingtoun but when he understood how well they were furnished he gave it over But the English Council finding how great a charge the keeping of it was and the Country all about it being destroyed so that no Provisions could be had but what were brought from England from which it was 28 Miles distant resolved to withdraw their Garrison and quit it which was done on the first of October So that the English having now no Garrison within Scotland but Lauder Thermes sate down before that and pressed it so that had not the Peace been made up with France it had fallen into his Hands Things being in this disorder both at home and abroad the Protector had nothing to depend on but the Emperors Aid and he was so ill satisfied with the Changes that had been made in Religion that much was not to be expected from him The confusions this year occasioned that Change to be made in the Office of the daily Prayers where the Answer to the Petition Give Peace in our time O Lord which was formerly and is still continued was now made Because there is none other that fighteth for us but only thou O God The state of Germany For now the Emperor having reduced all the Princes and most of the Cities of Germany to his obedience none but Magdeburg and Breame standing out did by a mistake incident to great Conquerors neglect those advantages which were then in his hands and did not prosecute his Victories but leaving Germany came this Summer into the Netherlands whither he had ordered his Son Prince Philip to come from Spain to him thorough Italy and Germany that he might put him into possession of these Provinces and make them swear Homage to him Whether at this time the Emperor was beginning to form the design of retiring or whether he did this only to prevent the Mutinies and Revolts that might fall out upon his death if his Son were not in actual possession of them is not so certain One thing is memorable in that Transaction that was called the Laetus Introitus or the terms upon which he was received Prince of Brabant to which the other Provinces had been formerly united into one Principality after many Rules and Limitations of Government in the matter of Taxes and publick Assemblies Cott. Library Galba B. 12. the not keeping up of Forces and governing them not by Strangers but by Natives it was added That if he broke these Conditions it should be free for them not to obey him or acknowledge him any longer till he returned to govern according to their Laws This was afterwards the chief ground on which they justified their shaking off the Spanish Yoke all these Conditions being publickly violated Jealousies arise in the Emperors Family At this time there were great jealousies in the Emperors Family For as he intended to have had his Brother resign his Election to be King of the Romans that it might be transferred on his own Son so there were designs in Flanders which the French cherished much to have Maximilian Ferdinands Son the most accomplish'd and vertuous Prince that had been for many Ages to be made their Prince The
Flemings were much disgusted with the Queen Regents Government who when there was need of Money sent to Bruges and Antwerp ordering Deputies to be sent her from Flanders and Brabant and when they were come she told them what Money must be raised and if they made any objections she used to bid them give over merchandizing with the Emperor for he must and would have the Money he asked so that nothing remained to them but to see how to raise what was thus demanded of them rather than desired from them This as the English Ambassador writ from Bruges seemed to be the reason that moved the Emperor to make his Son swear to such Rules of Government which the Sequel of his Life shewed he meant to observe in the same manner that his Father had done before him At the same time in May this year I find a secret Advertisement was sent over from France to the English Court that there was a private Treaty set on foot between that King and the Princes of Germany for restoring the liberty of the Empire but that the King of France was resolved to have Bulloigne in his Hands before he entred on new Projects Therefore it was proposed to the Protector to consider whether it were not best to deliver it up by a Treaty and so to leave the King of France free to the defence of their Friends in the Empire for I find the consideration of the Protestant Religion was the chief measure of our Councils all this Reign A great Faction against the Protector Upon this there was great distraction in the Councils at home The Protector was inclined to deliver up Bulloigne for a Sum of Money and to make Peace both with the French and Scots The Kings Treasure was exhausted Affairs at home were in great confusion the defence of Bulloign was a great charge and a War with France was a thing of that consequence that in that state of Affairs it was not to be adventured on But on the other hand those who hated the Protector and measured Councils more by the bravery than the solidity of them said it would be a reproach to the Nation to deliver up a Place of that consequence which their late King in the declining of his days had gained with so much loss of Men and Treasure and to sell this for a little Money was accounted so sordid that the Protector durst not adventure on it Upon this occasion I find Sir William Paget being made Comptroller of the Kings Houshold Pagets Advice about Forreign Affairs which was then thought an advancement from the Office of a Secretary of State made a long Discourse Cotton Libr. Titus B. 2. and put it in Writing The substance of it was to ballance the dangers in which England was at that time The Business of Scotland and Bulloigne drew France into a Quarrel against it On the account of Religion it had no reason to expect much from the Emperor The Interest of England was then to preserve the Protestants of Germany and therefore to unite with France which would be easily engaged in that Quarrel against the Emperor He proposed a firm Alliance with the Venetians who were then jealous of the Emperors Progress in Italy and would be ready to joyn against him if he were throughly engaged in Germany and by their means England was to make up an agreement with France On the other hand William Thomas then a Clerk of the Council Thomas's Advice differs from his Cott. Libr. Vespasian D. 18. writ a long Discourse of other Expedients He agreed with Paget as to the ill state of England having many Enemies and no Friends The North of England was wasted by the incursion of the Scots Ireland was also in an ill condition for the Natives there did generally joyn with the Scots being addicted to the old Superstition The Emperor was so set on reducing all to one Religion that they could expect no great Aid from him unless they gave him some hope of returning to the Roman Religion But the continuance of the War would undo the Nation for if the War went on the People would take advantage from it to break out into new disorders it would be also very dishonourable to deliver up or rather to sell the late Conquests in France Therefore he proposed that to gain time they should treat with the Emperor and even give him hopes of re-examining what had been done in Religion though there was danger even in that of disheart'ning those of Magdeburg and the few remaining Protestants in Germany as also they might expect the Emperor would be highly enraged when he should come to find that he had been deluded but the gaining of time was then so necessary that the preservation of the Nation depended on it For Scotland he proposed that the Governour of that Kingdom should be pressed to pretend to the Crown since their Queen was gone into a strange Country by this means Scotland would be for that whole Age separated from the Interests of France and obliged to depend on England and the French were now so hated in Scotland that any who would set up against them would have an easie Work especially being assisted by the nearness of England And for Ireland he proposed that the chief Heads of Families should be drawn over and kept at Court And that England thus being respited from Forreign War the Nation should be armed and exercised the Coin reformed Treasure laid up and things in the Government at home that were uneasie should be corrected Thus I have opened the Councils at that time as I found them laid before me in these Authentick Papers from which I drew them Paget sent over to treat with the Emperor The result of their Consultation was to send over Sir William Paget to joyn with Sir Philip Hobbey then Resident at the Emperors Court His Instructions will be found in the Collection The Substance of them was Collection Number 38. That the Treaty between the Emperor and the late King should be renewed with this King and confirmed by the Prince and the States of Flanders that some ambiguous Passages in it should be cleared that the Emperor would comprehend Bulloigne within the League defensive and so protect it England being ready to offer any thing reciprocal in the room of it He was also to shew their readiness to agree to the Emperor concerning the Lady Maries Marriage to adjust some differences occasioned by the complaints made of the Admiralty and about Trade to shew the reason of the Messages that passed between them and France and to engage that if the Emperor would heartily assist them they would never agree with France Paget was also to propose as of himself that Bulloigne should be put into the Emperors Hands upon a reasonable recompence Thus was Paget instructed and sent over in June this Year But the Emperor put him off with many delays and said The carrying of his
the Girl whom he maintained among the Nuns was an English-man's Daughter to whom he had assigned an allowance Caraffa prevailed little and the next night the number was compleat so that the Cardinals came to adore him and make him Pope but he receiving that with his usual coldness said it was night and God loved light better than darkness therefore he desired to delay it till day came The Italians who what ever Judges they may be about the qualifications of such a Pope as is necessary for their Affairs understood not this temper of mind which in better times would have recommended one with the highest advantages shrunk all from him and after some intrigues usual on such occasions chose the Cardinal de Monte afterwards Pope Julius the third who gave a strange Omen of what advancements he intended to make when he gave his own Hat according to the custom of the Popes who bestow their Hats before they go out of the Conclave on a mean Servant of his who had the charge of a Monkey that he kept and being asked what he observed in him to make him a Cardinal he answered as much as the Cardinals had seen in him to make him Pope But it was commonly said that the secret of this Promotion was an unnatural affection to him Upon this occasion I shall refer the Reader to a Letter which I have put in the Collection Collection Number 47. written by Cardinal Woolsey upon the death of Pope Adrian the sixth to get himself chosen Pope it sets out so naturally the Intrigues of that Court on such occasions that though it belongs to the former Volume yet having fallen upon it since I published it I thought it would be no unacceptable thing to insert in this Volume though it does not belong to it It will demonstrate how likely it is that a Bishop chosen by such Arts should be the infallible Judge of Controversies and the Head of the Church And now to return to England A Treaty between the English and French it was resolved to send Ambassadors to France who were the Lord Russel Paget now made a Lord Secretary Petre and Sir John Mason Their Instructions will be found in the Collection The Substance of them was they were not to stick about the Place of Treaty Collection Number 48. Instructions given to the English Ambassadors but to have it at Calais or Bulloigne if it might be they were to agree to the delivery up of Bulloigne but to demand that the Scotch Queen should be sent back for perfecting the Marriage formerly agreed on That the Fortifications of Newhaven and Blackness should be ruinated That the perpetual Pension agreed to King Henry should still be payed together with all Arrears that were due before the Wars they were only to insist on the last if they saw the former could not be obtained They were to agree the time and manner of the delivery of Bulloigne to be as honourable as might be For Scotland they being also in War with the Emperor the King of England could not make Peace with them unless the Emperor his Ally who had made War on them upon his account were also satisfied All Places there were to be offered up except Roxburgh and Aymouth If the French spoke any thing of the Kings marrying their Kings Daughter Elizabeth they were to put it off since the King was yet so young They were also at first to agree to no more but a Cessation So they went over on the 21st of January the French Commissioners appointed to treat with them were Rochpot Chastilion Mortier and de Sany who desired the Meeting might be near Bulloigne though the English endeavoured to have brought it to Guisnes Upon the English laying out their Demands the French answered them roundly that for delivering up the Queen of Scots they would not treat about it nor about a perpetual Pension since as the King was resolved to marry the Scotch Queen to the Dolphin so he would give no perpetual Pension which was in effect to become a tributary Prince but for a Sum of Money they were ready to treat about it As to Scotland they demanded that all the Places that had been taken should be restored as well as Roxburgh and Aymouth as Lauder and Dunglasse The latter two were soon yielded to but the Commissioners were limited as to the former There was also some discourse of razing the Fortifications of Alderney and Sark two small Islands in the Channel that belonged to England the latter was in the Hands of the French who were willing to yield it up so the Fortifications both in it and Alderny were razed Upon this there were second Instructions sent over from the Council which are in the Collection that they should so far insist on the keeping of Roxburgh Collection Number 49. and Aymouth as to break up their Conference upon it but if that did not work on the French they should yield it rather than give over the Treaty They were also instructed to require Hostages from the French till the Money were all payed and to offer Hostages on the part of England till Bulloigne was delivered and to struggle in the matter of the Isles all they could but not to break about it Between the giving the first and second Instructions the Lord St. John was created Earl of Wilt-shire as appears by his Subscriptions The Commissioners finished their Treaty about the end of February Articles of the Treaty on these Articles On condition that all Claims of either side should be reserved as they were at the beginning of the War This was a temper between the English demand of all the Arrears of King Henry's Pension and the French denial of it for thus the King reserved all the right he had before the War Bulloigne was to be delivered within six Months with all the Places about it and the Ordnance except what the English had and was to have 1000 l. a year of the Rents of the Bishoprick and for his further Supply was dispensed with to hold a Prebendary of Canterbury and Westminster It was thought needless to have two Bishopricks so near one another and some gaping after the Lands of both procured this Union But I do not see any reason to think that at any time in this Reign the suppression of the Deanries and Prebends in Cathedrals was designed For neither in the suppression of the Bishopricks of Westminster Glocester or Duresme was there any attempt made to put down the Deanries or Prebendaries in these Places so that I look on this as a groundless conceit among many others that pass concerning this Reign For Thirleby of Westminster there was no cause given to throw him out for he obeyed all the Laws and Injunctions when they came out though he generally opposed them when they were making So to make way for him William Reps the Bishop of Norwich was prevailed with to resign and he was promoted
was at any time questioned about it The two Grounds she went on were that she would follow the ancient and universal way of Worship and not a new invention that lay within the four Seas and that she would continue in that Religion in which her Father had instructed her To this the King sent an Answer telling her That she was a part of this Church and Nation and so must conform her self to the Laws of it that the way of Worship now set up was no other than what was clearly consonant to the pure Word of God and the King 's being young was not to be pretended by her lest she might seem to agree with the late Rebels After this she was sent for to Court and pains was taken to instruct her better But she refused to hear any thing or to enter into any reasonings but said she would still do as she had done And she claimed the Promise that was said to be made to the Emperor But it was told her that it was but temporary and conditional Whereupon the last Summer she was designing to fly out of England and the King of France gave Sir John Mason the English Resident notice that the Regent of Flanders had hired one Scipperus who should Land on the Coast of Essex as if it had been to victual his Ship and was to have conveyed her away Upon this Information order was given to see well to the Coast so the design being discovered nothing could be effected It was certainly a strange advice to carry her away and no less strange in the Kings Ministers to hinder it if there was at that time any design formed to put her by her Succession For if she had been beyond Sea at the Kings death it is not probable that she could have easily come to the Crown The Emperors Ambassador solicited for her violently and said he would presently take leave and protest that they had broken their Faith to his Master who would resent the usage of the Lady Mary as highly as if it were done immediately to himself The Counsellors having no mind to draw a new War on their Heads especially from so victorious a Prince were all inclined to let the matter fall There was also a years Cloath lately sent over to Antwerp and 1500 Cinqtails of Powder with a great deal of Armour bought there for the Kings use was not come over So it was thought by no means advisable to provoke the Emperor while they had such effects in his Ports nor were they very willing to give higher provocations to the next Heir of the Crown Therefore they all advised the King not to do more in that matter at present but to leave the Lady Mary to her discretion who would certainly be made more cautious by what she had met with and would give as little scandal as was possible by her Mass But the King could not be induced to give way to it for he thought the Mass was impious and idolatrous The King is very earnest against it so he would not consent to the continuance of such a sin Upon this the Council ordered Cranmer Ridley and Poinet to discourse about it with him They told him that it was always a sin in a Prince to permit any sin but to give a connivance that is not to punish was not always a sin since sometimes a lesser evil connived at might prevent a greater He was overcome by this yet not so easily but that he burst forth in Tears lamenting his Sisters obstinacy and that he must suffer her to continue in so abominable a way of Worship as he esteemed the Mass So he answered the Emperors Agents that he should send over an Ambassador to clear that matter And Dr. Wotton was dispatched about it who carried over Attestations from all the Council concerning the qualifications of the Promise that had been made and was instructed to press the Emperor not to trouble the King in his Affairs at home in his own Kingdom If the Lady Mary was his Kinswoman she was the Kings Sister and Subject He was also to offer that the King would grant as much liberty for the Mass in his Dominions as the Emperor would grant for the English Service in his Dominions But the Emperor pretended that when her Mother died she left her to his protection which he had granted her and so must take care of her And the Emperor was so exalted with his Successes that he did not easily bear any contradiction But the Council being further offended with her for the project of going beyond Sea and being now less in fear of the Emperor since they had made Peace with France resolved to look more nearly to her And finding that Dr. Mallet and Berkley her Chaplains had said Mass in one of her Houses when she was not in it they ordered them to be proceeded against Upon which in December the last year she writ earnestly to the Council to let it fall By her Letter it appears that Mallet used to be sometimes at his Benefice where it is certain he could officiate no other way but in that prescribed by Law so it seems his Conscience was not very scrupulous The Council writ her a long Answer The Council writ to her of it which being in the Stile of a Church-man seems to have been penned either by Cranmer or Ridley In which Letter they fully clear'd the matter of the Promise then they shewed how express the Law was with which they could not dispense and how ill grounded her Faith as she called it was They asked her what Warrant there was in Scripture that the Prayers should be in an unknown Tongue that Images should be in the Church or that the Sacrament should be offered up for the Dead They told her that in all Questions about Religion St. Austin and the other ancient Doctors appealed to the Scripture and if she would look into these she would soon see the errors of the old Superstition which were supported by false Miracles and lying Stories and not by Scripture or good Authority They exprest themselves in terms full of submission to her but said they were trusted with the execution of the Kings Laws in which they must proceed equally So they required her if the Chaplains were in her House to send them to the Sheriff of Essex But it seems they kept out of the way and so the matter slept till the beginning of May this year that Mâ—llet was found and put in the Tower and convicted of his offence Upon this there passed many Letters between the Council and her she earnestly desiring to have him set at liberty and they as positively refusing to do it In July the Council sent for Rochester Inglefield and Walgrave three of her chief Officers and gave them Instructions to signifie the Kings express pleasure to her to have the new Service in her Family and to give the like charge to her Chaplains and all her
and to be contented with my Death which I am most willing to suffer And let us now joyn in Prayer to the Lord for the preservation of the Kings Majesty unto whom hitherto I have always shewed my self a most faithful and firm Subject I have always been most diligent about his Majesty in his Affairs both at home and abroad and no less diligent in seeking the common Commodity of the whole Realm upon this the People cried out it was most true unto whose Majesty I wish continual health with all felicity and all prosperous success Moreover I do wish unto all his Counsellors the Grace and Favour of God whereby they may rule in all things uprightly with justice unto whom I exhort you all in the Lord to shew your selves obedient as it is your bounden Duty under the pain of condemnation and also most profitable for the preservation and safeguard of the Kings Majesty Moreover for as much as heretofore I have had Affairs with divers Men and hard it is to please every Man therefore if there have been any that have been offended or injured by me I most humbly require and ask him forgiveness but especially Almighty God whom throughout all my Life I have most grievously offended and all other whatsoever they be that have offended me I do with my whole Heart forgive them Then he desired them to be quiet lest their Tumults might trouble him and said Albeit the Spirit be willing and ready the Flesh is frail and wavering and through your quietness I shall be much more quieter Moreover I desire you all to bear me witness that I die here in the Faith of Jesus Christ desiring you to help me with your Prayers that I may persevere constant in the same to my lives end Then Dr. Cox who was with him on the Scaffold His Death put a Paper in his Hand which was a Prayer he had prepared for him He read it on his Knees then he took leave of all about him and undressed himself to be fitted for the Axe In all which there appeared no change in him only his Face was a little rudier than ordinary he continued calling Lord Jesus save me till the Executioner severed his Head from his Body Thus fell the Duke of Somerset a Person of great Vertues And Character eminent for Piety humble and affable in his greatness sincere and candid in all his Transactions He was a better Captain than a Counsellor had been oft successful in his undertakings was always careful of the Poor and the Oppressed and in a word had as many Vertues and as few faults as most great Men especially when they were so unexpectedly advanced have ever had It was generally believed that all this pretended Conspiracy upon which he was condemned was only a forgery For both Palmer and Crane the chief Witnesses were soon after discharged as were also Bartuile and Hamond with all the rest that had been made Prisoners on the pretence of this Plot. And the Duke of Northumberland continued after that in so close a friendship with Palmer that it was generally believed he had been corrupted to betray him And indeed the not bringing the Witnesses into the Court but only the Depositions and the Parties sitting Judges gave great occasion to condemn the Proceedings against him For it was generally thought that all was an Artifice of Palmers who had put the Duke of Somerset in fears of his Life and so got him to gather Men about him for his own preservation and that he afterwards being taken with him seemed through fear to acknowledge all that which he had before contrived This was more confirmed by the death of the other four formerly mentioned who were executed on the 26th of February and did all protest they had never been guilty of any design either against the King or to kill the Lords Vane added That his Blood would make Northumberland's Pillow uneasie to him The People were generally much affected with this Execution and many threw Handkerchiefs into the Duke of Somersets Blood to preserve it in remembrance of him One Lady that met the Duke of Northumberland when he was led through the City in Queen Maries Reign shaking one of these Bloody Handkerchiefs said Behold the Blood of that worthy Man that good Unkle of that excellent King which was shed by thy malicious practise doth now begin apparently to revenge it self on thee Sure it is that Northumberland as having maliciously contrived this was ever after hated by the People But on the other hand great notice was taken that the Duke of Norfolk who with his Son the Earl of Surrey were believed to have fallen in all their misery by the Duke of Somersets means did now out-live him and saw him fall by a Conspiracy of his own Servants as himself and his Son had done The Proceeding against his Brother was also remembred for which many thought the Judgments of God had overtaken him Others blamed him for being too apt to convert things Sacred to his own use and because a great part of his Estate was raised out of the Spoils of many Churches and some late Writers have made an Inference from this upon his not claiming the Benefit of Clergy that he was thus left of God not to plead that Benefit since he had so much invaded the Rights and Revenues of the Church But in this they shewed their ignorance For by the Statute that Felony of which he was found guilty was not to be purged by Clergy Those who pleased themselves in comparing the events in their own times with the Transactions of the former Ages found out many things to make a parallel between the Duke of Somerset and Humphrey the good Duke of Glocester in Henry the 6th's time but I shall leave the Reader in that to his own observation Now was the Duke of Northumberland absolute at Court all Offices being filled with those that were his Associates The Affairs of Germany But here I stop to give a general view of Affairs beyond Sea this year though I have a little transgressed the bounds of it to give an account of the Duke of Somersets Fall all together The Siege of Magdeburg went on in Germany But it was coldly followed by Maurice who had now other designs He had agreed with the French King who was both to give him assistance and to make War on the Emperor at the same time when he should begin Ferdinand was also not unwilling to see his Brothers greatness lessened for he was pressing him not without threatnings to lay down his Dignity as King of the Romans and thought to have established it on his Son All the other Princes of Germany were also oppressed by him so that they were disposed to enter into any alliance for the shaking off of that Yoke Maurice did also send over to try the inclinations of England if they would joyn with him and contribute 400000 Dollars towards the expence of a
War for the preservation of the Protestant Religion and recovering the liberty of Germany The Ambassadors were only sent to try the Kings mind but were not empow'red to conclude any thing They were sent back with a good Answer That the King would most willingly joyn in alliance with them that were of the same Religion with himself but he desired that the matter of Religion might be plainly set down lest under the pretence of that War should be made for other Quarrels He desired them also to communicate their designs with the other Princes and then to send over others more fully empow'red Maurice seeing such Assistances ready for him resolved both to break the Emperors designs and by leading on a new League against him to make himself more acceptable to the Empire and thereby to secure the Electoral Dignity in his Family So after Magdeburg had endured a long Siege he giving a secret intimation to some Men in whom they confided perswaded them about the end of November to surrender to him and then broke up his Army but they fell into the Dominions of several of the Popish Princes and put them under very heavy Contributions This alarumed all the Empire only the Emperor himself by a fatal security did not apprehend it till it came so near him that he was almost ruined before he dreamed of any danger This Year the Transactions of Trent were remarkable Proceedings at Trent The Pope had called the Council to meet there and the first of May this year there was a Session held There was a War now broken out between the Pope and the King of France on this occasion The Pope had a mind to have Parma in his own Hands but that Prince fearing that he would keep it as the Emperor did Placentia and so he should be ruined between them implored the Protection of France and received a French Garrison for his safety Upon this the Pope cited him to Rome declaring him a Traitor if he appeared not and this engaged the Pope in a War with France At first he sent a threatning Message to that King that if he would not restore Parma to him he would take France from him Upon this the King of France protested against the Council of Trent and threatned that he would call a National Council in France The Council was adjourned to the 10th of September In the mean while the Emperor pressed the Germans to go to it So Maurice and the other Princes of the Ausburg Confession ordered their Divines to consider of the matters which they would propose to the Council The Electors of Mentz and Trier went to Trent But the King of France sent the Abbot of Bellosana thither to make a protestation that by reason of the War that the Pope had raised he could not send his Bishops to the Council and that therefore he would not observe their Decrees for they had declared in France that absent Churches were not bound to obey the Decrees of a Council for which many Authorities were cited from the Primitive time But at Trent they proceeded for all this and appointed the Articles about the Eucharist to be first examined and the Presidents recommended to the Divines to handle them according to Scripture Tradition and Ancient Authors and to avoid unprofitable curiosities The Italian Divines did not like this For they said to argue so was but an Act of the memory and was an old and insufficient way and would give great advantage to the Lutherans who were skilled in the Tongues but the School-Learning was a mystical and sublime way in which it was easier to set off or conceal matters as was expedient But this was done to please the Germans And at the sute of the Emperor the matter of Communicating in both kinds was postponed till the German Divines could be heard A safe Conduct was desired by the Germans not only from the Emperor but from the Council For at Constance John Huss and Jerome of Prague were burnt upon this pretence that they had not the Councils safe conduct and therefore when the Council of Basil called for the Bohemians they sent them a safe Conduct besides that which the Emperor gave them So the Princes desired one in the same Form that was granted by those of Basil One was granted by the Council which in many things differed from that of Basil particularly in one Clause that all things should be determined according to the Scriptures which was in that safe Conduct of Basil but was now left out In October an Ambassador from the Elector of Brandenburg came to Trent who was endeavouring to get his Son setled in the Arch-bishoprick of Magdeburg which made him more compliant In his first Address to the Council he spake of the respect his Master had to the Fathers in it without a word of submitting to their Decrees But in the Answer that was made in the Name of the Council it was said they were glad he did submit to them and would obey their Decrees This being afterwards complained of it was said that they answered him according to what he should have said and not according to what he had said But in the mean while the Council published their Decrees about the Eucharist in the first part of which they defined that the way of the Presence could hardly be expressed and yet they called Transubstantiation a fit term for it But this might be well enough defended since that was a thing as hard to be either expressed or understood as any thing they could have thought on They went on next to examine Confession and Penitence And now as the Divines handled the matter they found the gathering Proofs out of Scripture grew endless and trifling for there was not a place in Scripture where I confess was to be found but they drew it in to prove Auricular Confession From that they went on to Extream Unction But then came the Ambassadors of the Duke of Wittenberg another Prince of the Ausburg Confession and shewed their Mandate to the Emperors Ambassadors who desired them to carry it to the Presidents but they refused to do that since it was contrary to the Protestation which the Princes of their Confession had made against a Council in which the Pope should preside On the 25th of November they published the Decree of the necessity of Auricular Confession that so the Priest might thereby know how to proportion the Penance to the sin It was much censured to see it defined that Christ had instituted Confession to a Priest and not shew'd where or how it was instituted And the reason for it about the proportioning the Penance was laughed at since it was known what slight Penances were universally injoyned to expiate the greatest sins But the Ambassadors of Wirtenberg moving that they might have a safe Conduct for their Divines to come and propose their Doctrine The Legate answered that they would not upon any terms enter into any Disputation with
was at the same time accused upon complaint sent from the Arch-bishop of Dublin in Ireland for some high words that he had used But these being examined he was cleared and admitted to his Place among the Knights at the Garter Many others that were obnoxious came in upon this violent prosecution to purchase the favour of Northumberland who was much set on framing a Parliament to his mind and so took those methods which he thought likeliest to work his ends It being ordinary for Men of insolent and boisterous tempers who are generally as abject when they are low as they are puft up with prosperity to measure other People by themselves therefore knowing that the methods of reason and kindness would have no operation on themselves and that height and severity are the only ways to subdue them they use that same way of gaining others which they find most effectual with themselves This Year the King went on in paying his Debts The encrease of Traâ—e reforming the Coin and other ways that might make the Nation great and wealthy And one great Project was undertaken which has been the chief beginning and foundation of the great Riches and strength of Shipping to which this Nation has attained since that time From the days of King Henry the third the free Towns of Germany who had assisted him in his Wars obtained great Priviledges in England they were made a Corporation and lived together in the Still-yard near the Bridge They had in Edward the 4th's time been brought into some trouble for carrying their Priviledges further than their Charter allowed them and so Judgment was given that they had forfeited it but they redeemed themselves out of that by a great Present which they made to the King That which chiefly supported them at Court was that they trading in a Body were not only able to take the Trade out of all other Persons Hands by underselling them but they had always a great stock of Money and so when the Government was in a strait they were ready upon a good Security to lend great Sums and on lesser occasions could obtain the favour of a States-man by the Presents they made him But now Trade was raised much above what it had been and Courts becoming more magnificent than formerly there was a greater consumption particularly of Cloth than had ever been known The discovery of the Indies had raised both Trade and Navigation so that there was a quicker circulation of the Wealth of the World than had been in former Ages Antwerp and Hamburgh lying both conveniently the one in the mouth of the Elb and the other near the mouth of the Rhine which were the two greatest Rivers that fell into those Seas the Merchants of those two Cities at that time had the chief Trade of the World The English began to look on those Easterlings with envy All that was Imported or Exported came for most part in their bottoms all Markets were in their Hands so that Commodities of forreign growth were vented by them in England and the Product of the Kingdom was bought up by them And all the Nation being then set much on Pasture they had much advanced their Manufacture in so much that their own Wooll which had been formerly wrought at Antwerp was now made into Cloth in England which the Still-yard Men obtained leave to carry away At first they Shiped not above eight Cloths in a year after that an hundred then a thousand then six thousand but this last year there was Shipped in their Name 44000 Cloaths and not above 1100 by all others that traded within England The Merchant Adventurers found they could not hold out unless this Company was broke So they put in their complaint against them in the beginning of this year to which the Still-yard Men made answer and they replied Upon this the Council made a Decree that the Charter was broken and so dissolved the Company Those of Hamburg and Lubeck and the Regent of Flanders solicited the Council to have this redressed but in vain for the advantage the Nation was to have by it was too visible to admit of any interposition But the design of Trade being thus set on foot another Project of a higher nature followed it The War was now begun between the Emperor and the King of France And that with the persecution raised in Flanders against all that leaned to the Doctrine of the Protestants made many there think of changing their Seats It was therefore proposed here in England to open a free Trade and to appoint some Mart Towns that should have greater Priviledges and Securities for encouraging Merchants to live in them and should be easier in their Customs than they were any where else Southampton for the Cloth Trade and Hull for the Northern Trade were thought the two fittest Places And for the advantages and disadvantages of this design I find the young King had ballanced the matter exactly for there is a large Paper all written with his own Hand containing what was to be said on both sides But his death and Queen Maries marrying the Prince of Spain put an end to this Project though all the Addresses her Husband made seconding the desires of the Easterlings could never prevail to the setting up of that company again If the Reader would understand this matter more perfectly he may find a great deal of it in the Kings Journal King Edwards Remains Number 4. and in the fourth Paper that follows it where the whole Affair seems to be considered on all hands but Men that know Merchandise more perfectly will judge better of these things Cardan in England This Summer Cardan the great Philosopher of that Age passed thorough England He was brought from Italy on the account of Hamilton Arch-bishop of St. Andrews who was then desperately sick of a Dropsie Cardan cured him of his Disease but being a Man much conversant both in Astrology and Magick as himself professed he told the Arch-bishop that though he had at present saved his Life yet he could not change his fate for he was to die on a Gallows In his going through England he waited on King Edward where he was so entertained by him and observed his extraordinary Parts and Vertues so narrowly that on many occasions he writ afterwards of him with great astonishment as being the most wonderful Person he had ever seen The Affairs of Scotland But the mention of the Scotch Arch-bishops sickness leads me now to the Affairs of Scotland The Queen had passed thorough England from France to Scotland last year In her Passage she was treated by the King with all that respect that one Crowned Head could pay to another The Particulars are in his Journal and need not be recited here When she came home she set herself much to perswade the Governour to lay down the Government that it might be put in her Hands to which he being a soft Man was the more easily
to search into the matter they upon a slight enquiry agreed that the Statute of Edw. the 6th was in force by that Repeal but the Chief Baron and the other Judges searching the matter more carefully found that the Statute had been in effect repealed by the first of Eliz. Ch. 1. where the Act of the 25 Hen. 8. Coke 2. Inst P 684 685. concerning the Election and Jurisdiction of Bishops as formerly they had exercised it was revived so that being in full force the Act of Edw. the 6th that repealed it was thereby repealed To this all the Learned Men of the Law did then agree so that it was not thought so much as necessary to make an explanatory Law about it the thing being indeed so clear that it did not admit of any ambiguity In May this Year the King by his Letters Patents authorized all School-masters to teach a new and fuller Catechisme compiled as is believed by Poinet These are all the Passages in which the Church is concerned this Year The Forreign Negotiations were important For now the ballance began to turn to the French side therefore the Council resolved to mediate a Peace between the French and the Emperor The Emperor had sent over an Ambassador in September last year to desire the King would consider the danger in which Flanders was now by the French Kings having Metz with the other Towns in Lorrain which did in a great measure divide it from the assistance of the Empire and therefore moved that according to the ancient League between England and the House of Burgundy they would enter into a new League with him Upon this occasion the Reader will find how the Secretaries of State bred the King to the understanding of business with relation to the Studies he was then about for Secretary Cecil set down all the Arguments for and against that League with little Notes on the Margent relating to such Topicks from whence he brought them King Edwards Remains Number 5. by which it seems the King was then learning Logick It is the fifth of those Papers after his Journal It was resolved on to send Sir John Morison A Treaty with the Emperor with Instructions to complement the Emperor upon his coming into Flanders and to make an offer of the Kings assistance against the Turks who had made great Depredations that year both in Hungary Italy and Sicily If the Emperor should upon that complain of the French King and say that he had brought in the Turks and should have asked assistance against him he was to move the Emperor to send over an Ambassador to treat about it since he that was then Resident in England was not very acceptable These Instructions which are in the Collection were Signed in September Collection Number 57. but not made use of till January this year And then new Orders were sent to propose the King to be a Mediator between France and the Emperor Upon which the Bishop of Norwich and Sir Phil. Hobbey were sent over to joyn with Sir John Morison and Sir William Pickering and Sir Tho. Chaloner were sent into France In May the Emperor fell sick and the English Ambassadors could learn nothing certainly concerning him but then the Queen of Hungary and the Bishop of Arras treated with them The Bishop of Arras complained that the French had begun the War had taken the Emperors Ships at Barcelona had robbed his Subjects at Sea had stirred up the Princes of Germany against him had taken some of the Towns of the Empire from him while the French Ambassadors were all the while swearing to the Emperor that their Master intended nothing so much as to preserve the Peace so that now although the French were making several Overtures for Peace they could give no credit to any thing that came from them In fine the Queen and Bishop of Arras promised the English Ambassadors to let the Emperor know of the Kings offering himself to mediate and afterwards told them that the Emperor delayed giving answer till he were well enough to do it himself On the 26th of May the Ambassadors writ over that there was a Project sent them out of Germany of an Alliance between the Emperor Ferdinand King of the Romans the King of England and the Princes of the Empire They did not desire that the King should offer to come into it of his own accord but John Frederick of Saxe would move Ferdinand to invite the King into it This way they thought would give least jealousie They hoped the Emperor would easily agree to the Conditions that related to the Peace of Germany since he was now out of all hopes of making himself Master of it The Princes neither loved nor trusted him but loved his Brother and relied much on England But the Emperor having proposed that the Netherlands should be included in the perpetual League of the Empire they would not agree to that unless the Quota's of their Contribution were much changed for these Provinces were like to be the Seats of Wars therefore they would not engage for their defence but upon reciprocal advantages and easie terms When the English Ambassadors in the Court of France desired to know on what terms a Peace might be mediated they found they were much exalted with their success so that as they writ over on the first of May they demanded the restitution of Millan and the Kingdoms of Sicily Naples and Navarre the Sovereignty of Flanders Artois and the Town of Tournay they would also have Siena to be restored to its liberty and Metz Toul and Verdun to continue under the Protection of France These terms the Council thought so unreasonable that though they writ them over as News to their Ambassadors in Flandars yet they charged them not to propose them But the Queen of Hungary asked them what Propositions they had for a Peace knowing already what they were and from thence studied to inflame the Ambassadors since it appeared how little the French regarded their Mediation or the Peace of Christendome when they asked such high and extravagant things upon a little success On the 9th of June the Emperor ordered the Ambassadors to be brought into his Bed-Chamber whither they were carried by the Queen of Hungary He looked pale and lean but his Eyes were lively and his Speech clear They made him a Complement upon his Sickness which he returned with another for their long attendance Upon the matter of their Embassy he said the King of France had begun the War and must likewise begin the Propositions of Peace But he accepted of the Kings Offer very kindly and said They should always find in him great inclinations to a just Peace On the first of July the Council writ to their Ambassadors First assuring them that the King was still alive and they hoped he should recover they told them they did not find that the French would offer any other terms than those formerly made and
they continued still in that mind that they could not be offered by them as Mediators yet they ordered them to impart them unto the Emperor as News and carefully to observe his looks and behaviour upon their opening of every one of them But now the Kings death broke off this Negotiation The Kings sickness together with all his other Affairs He had last year first the Measels and then the Small-Pox of which he was perfectly recovered In his Progress he had been sometimes violent in his Exercises which had cast him into great Colds but these went off and he seemed to be well after it But in the beginning of January this year he was seized with a deep Cough and all Medicines that were used did rather encrease than lessen it upon which a suspition was taken up and spread over all the World so that it is mentioned by most of the Historians of that Age that some lingering Poison had been given him but more than Rumours and some ill-favoured Circumstances I could never discover concerning this He was so ill when the Parliament met that he was not able to go to Westminster but ordered their first meeting and the Sermon to be at White-hall In the time of his sickness Bishop Ridley preached before him and took occasion to run out much on Works of Charity and the obligation that lay on Men of high Condition to be eminent in good Works This touched the King to the quick So that presently after Sermon he sent for the Bishop His care of the Relief of the Poor And after he had commanded him to sit down by him and be covered he resumed most of the Heads of the Sermon and said he looked on himself as chiefly touched by it he desired him as he had already given him the Exhortation in general so to direct him how to do his duty in that Particular The Bishop astonished at this tenderness in so young a Prince burst forth in Tears expressing how much he was overjoyed to see such inclinations in him but told him he must take time to think on it and craved leave to consult with the Lord Major and Court of Aldermen So the King writ by him to them to consult speedily how the Poor should be relieved They considered there were three sorts of Poor such as were so by natural infirmity or folly as impotent Persons and Mad-men or Ideots such as were so by accident as sick or maimed Persons and such as by their idleness did cast themselves into poverty So the King ordered the Gray-friars Church near Newgate with the Revenues belonging to it to be a House for Orphans St. Bartholomews near Smith-field to be an Hospital and gave his own House of Bridewell to be a Place of Correction and Work for such as were wilfully idle He also confirmed and enlarged the Grant for the Hospital of St. Thomas in Southwark which he had erected and endowed in August last And when he set his Hand to these Foundations which was not done before the 26th of June this Year He thanked God that had prolonged his Life till he had finished that design So he was the first Founder of those Houses which by many great Additions since that time have risen to be among the Noblest in Europe He expressed in the whole course of his sickness great submission to the Will of God and seemed glad at the approaches of death only the consideration of Religion and the Church touched him much and upon that account he said he was desirous of Life About the end of May Several Marriages or beginning of June the Duke of Suffolks three Daughters were married The eldest Lady Jane to the Lord Guilford Dudley the fourth Son of the Duke of Northumberland who was the only Son whom he had yet unmarried The second the Lady Katharine to the Earl of Pembroke's eldest Son the Lord Herbert The third the Lady Mary who was crooked to the Kings Groom-Porter Martin Keys The Duke of Northumberland married his two Daughters the eldest to Sir Henry Sidney Son to Sir William Sidney that had been Steward to the King when he was Prince the other was married to the Lord Hastings Son to the Earl of Huntington The People were mightily inflamed against this insolent Duke for it was generally given out that he was sacrificing the King to his own extravagant ambition He seemed little to regard their Censures but attended on the King most constantly and expressed all the care and concern about him that was possible And finding that nothing went so near his Heart as the ruine of Religion which he apprehended would follow upon his death when his Sister Mary should come to the Crown He is perswaded to leave the Crown to the Lady Jane Upon that he and his Party took advantage to propose to him to settle the Crown by his Letters Patents on the Lady Jane Gray How they prevailed with him to pass by his Sister Elizabeth who had been always much in his favour I do not so well understand But the King being wrought over to this the Dutchess of Suffolk who was next in King Henry's Will was ready to devolve her Right on her Daughter even though she should come afterwards to have Sons So on the 11th of June Mountague that was Chief Justice of the Common-Pleas and Baker and Bromley two Judges Which the Judges at first opposed with the Kings Attorney and Solicitor were commanded to come to Council There they found the King with some Privy-Councellors about him The King told them he did now apprehend the danger the Kingdom might be in if upon his death his Sister Mary should succeed who might marry a Stranger and so change the Laws and the Religion of the Realm So he ordered some Articles to be read to them of the way in which he would have the Crown to descend They objected that the Act of Succession being an Act of Parliament could not be taken away by any such device yet the King required them to take the Articles and draw a Book according to them they asked a little time to consider of it So having examined the Statute of the first Year of this Reign concerning Treasons they found that it was Treason not only after the Kings death but even in his Life to change the Succession Secretary Petre in the mean while pressed them to make hast When they came again to the Council they declared they could not do any such thing for it was Treason and all the Lords should be guilty of Treason if they went on in it Upon which the Duke of Northumberland who was not then in the Council-Chamber being advertised of this came in great fury calling Mountague a Traitor and threatned all the Judges so that they thought he would have beaten them But the Judges stood to their Opinion They were again sent for and came with Gosnold added to them on the 15th of June The King was
present and he somewhat sharply asked them Why they had not prepared the Book as he had ordered them They answered That what ever they did would be of no force without a Parliament The King said He intended to have one shortly Then Mountague proposed that it might be delayed till the Parliament met But the King said He would have it first done and then ratified in Parliament and therefore he required them on their Allegiance to go about it and some Counsellors told them if they refused to obey that they were Traitors This put them in a great consternation and old Mountague thinking it could not be Treason what ever they did in this matter while the King lived and at worst that a Pardon under the Great Seal would secure him consented to set about it if he might have a Commission requiring him to do it and a Pardon under the Great Seal when it was done Both these being granted him he was satisfied The other Judges But through fear all yielded except Judge Hales being asked if they would concur did all agree being overcome with fear except Gosnald who still refused to do it But he also being sorely threatned both by the Duke of Northumberland and the Earl of Shrewsbury consented to it the next day So they put the Entail of the Crown in Form of Law and brought it to the Lord Chancellor to put the Seal to it They were all required to set their Hands to it but both Gosnald and Hales refused Yet the former was wrought on to do it but the latter though a most steady and zealous Man for the Reformation would upon no consideration yield to it After that the Lord Chancellor for his Security desired that all the Counsellors might set their Hands to it which was done on the 21st of June by thirty three of them it is like including the Judges in the Number But Cranmer as he came seldom to Council after the Duke of Somersets Fall so he was that day absent on design Cecil in a Relation which he made one write of this Transaction for clearing himself afterwards says That when he had heard Gosnald and Hales declare how much it was against Law he refused to set his Hand to it as a Counsellor and that he only Signed as a Witness to the Kings Subscription But Cranmer still refused to do it after they had all Signed it and said he would never consent to the disinheriting of the Daughters of his late Master Many Consultations were had to perswade him to it Cranmer was very hardly brought to consent to it But he could not be prevailed on till the King himself set on him who used many Arguments from the danger Religion would otherwise be in together with other Perswasions so that by his Reasons or rather Importunities at last he brought him to it But whether he also used that distinction of Cecils that he did it as a Witness and not as a Counsellor I do not know but it seems probable that if that liberty was allowed the one it would not be denied the other The Kings sickness becomes desperate But though the setling this business gave the King great content in his mind yet his Distemper rather encreased than abated so that the Physicians had no hope of his recovery Upon which a confident Woman came and undertook his Cure if he might be put into her Hands This was done and the Physicians were put from him upon this pretence that they having no hopes of his recovery in a desperate Case desperate Remedies were to be used This was said to be the Duke of Northumberlands advice in particular and it encreased the Peoples jealousie of him when they saw the King grow very sensibly worse every day after he came under the Womans care which becoming so plain she was put from him and the Physicians were again sent for and took him into their charge But if they had small hopes before they had none at all now Death thus hastening on him the Duke of Northumberland who knew he had done but half his work except he had the Kings Sisters in his Hands got the Council to write to them in the Kings Name inviting them to come and keep him company in his sickness But as they were on the way on the sixth of July his Spirits and Body were so sunk that he found death approaching and so he composed himself to die in a most devout manner His whole exercise was in short Prayers and Ejaculations The last that he was heard to use was in these words Lord God deliver me out of this miserable and wretched Life His last Prayer 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 Chosens sake send me Life and Health that I may truly serve thee O my Lord God bless my People and save thine Inheritance O Lord God save thy chosen People of England O 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 Seeing some about him he seemed troubled that they were so near and had heard him but with a pleasant countenance he said he had been praying to God And soon after the Pangs of death coming on him he said to Sir Henry Sidney who was holding him in his Arms I am faint Lord have mercy on me and receive my Spirit and so he breathed out his Innocent Soul The Duke of Northumberland according to Cecils Relation intended to have concealed his death for a fortnight but it could not be done His Death and Character Thus died King Edward the sixth that incomparable young Prince He was then in the sixteenth Year of his Age and was counted the wonder of that Time He was not only learned in the Tongues and other Liberal Sciences but knew well the State of his Kingdom He kept a Book in which he writ the Characters that were given him of all the chief Men of the Nation all the Judges Lord-Lieutenants and Justices of the Peace over England in it he had marked down their way of living and their zeal for Religion He had studied the matter of the Mint with the Exchange and value of Money so that he understood it well as appears by his Journal He also understood Fortification and designed well He knew all the Harbours and Ports both of his own Dominions and of France and Scotland and how much Water they had and what was the way of coming in to them He had acquired great knowledge in Forreign Affairs so that he talked with the Ambassadors about them in such a manner that they filled all the World with the highest opinion of him that was possible which appears in most of the Histories of that Age. He had great quickness of apprehension and
being mistrustful of his memory used to take Notes of almost every thing he heard he writ these first in Greek Characters that those about him might not understand them and afterwards writ them out in his Journal He had a Copy brought him of every thing that passed in Council which he put in a Chest and kept the Key of that always himself In a word the natural and acquired perfections of his mind were wonderful but his Vertues and true Piety were yet more extraordinary He was such a Friend to Justice that though he loved his Unkle the Duke of Somerset much yet when he was possessed of a belief of his designing to murder his Fellow-Councellors he was alienated from him and being then but fourteen it was no wonder if that was too easily infused in him His chief Favourite was Barnaby Fitz-Patrick to whom he writ many Letters and Instructions when he sent him to be bred in France In one of his Letters to him he writ That he must not think to live like an Ambassador but like a private Gentleman who was to be advanced as he should deserve it He allowed him to keep but four Servants he charged him to follow the company of Gentlemen rather than of Ladies that he should not be superfluous in his Apparel that he should go to the Campagne and observe well the Conduct of Armies and the Fortification of strong Places and let the King know always when he needed Money and he would supply him All these with many other directions the King writ with his own Hand and at his return to let him see he intended to raise him by degrees he gave him a Pension only of 150 Pound This Fitz-Patrick did afterwards fully answer the opinion this young King had of him He was bred up with him in his Learning and as it is said had been his whipping Boy who according to the Rule of educating our Princes was always to be whipt for the Kings faults He was afterwards made by Queen Elizabeth Baron of Upper Ossory in Ireland which was his Native Country King Edward was tender and compassionate in a high measure so that he was much against the taking away the Lives of Hereticks and therefore said to Cranmer when he perswaded him to Sign the Warrant for the burning of Joan of Kent that he was not willing to do it because he thought that was to send her quick to Hell He expressed great tenderness to the miseries of the Poor in his sickness as hath been already shewn He took particular care of the Sutes of all poor Persons and gave Dr. Cox special charge to see that their Petitions were speedily answered and used oft to consult with him how to get their matters set forward He was an exact keeper of his word and therefore as appears by his Journal was most careful to pay his Debts and to keep his credit knowing that to be the chief Nerve of Government since a Prince that breaks his Faith and loses his Credit has thrown up that which he can never recover and made himself liable to perpetual distrusts and extream contempt He had above all things a great regard to Religion He took Notes of such things as he heard in Sermons which more specially concerned himself and made his measures of all Men by their zeal in that matter This made him so set on bringing over his Sister Mary to the same Perswasions with himself that when he was pressed to give way to her having Mass he said That he would not only hazard the loss of the Emperors friendship but of his Life and all he had in the World rather than consent to what he knew was a sin and he cited some Passages of Scripture that obliged Kings to root out Idolatry by which he said he was bound in Conscience not to consent to her Mass since he believed it was Idolatry and did argue the matter so learnedly with the Bishops that they left him being amazed at his knowledge in Divinity So that Cranmer took Cheek by the Hand upon it and said He had reason all the days of his Life to rejoyce that God had honoured him to breed such a Scholar All Men who saw and observed these qualities in him looked on him as one raised by God for most extraordinary ends and when he died concluded that the sins of England must needs be very great that had provoked God to take from them a Prince under whose Government they were like to have seen such blessed times He was so affable and sweet natured that all had free access to him at all times by which he came to be most universally beloved and all the high things that could be devised were said by the People to express their esteem of him The Fable of the Phoenix pleased most so they made his Mother one Phoenix and him another rising out of her Ashes But graver Men compared him to Josiah and long after his death I find both in Letters and Printed Books they commonly named him Our Josias others called him Edward the Saint A Prince of such qualities so much esteemed and loved could not but be much lamented at his death and this made those of the Reformation abhor the Duke of Northumberland who they suspected had hastened him to such an untimely end which contributed as much as any thing to the establishing of Queen Mary on the Throne for the People reckoned none could be so unworthy to govern as those who had poisoned so worthy a Prince and so kind a Master I find nothing of opening his Body for giving satisfaction about that which brought him to his end though his lying unburied till the eighth of August makes it probable that he was opened But indeed the sins of England did at this time call down from Heaven heavy Curses on the Land They are sadly expressed in a Discourse that Ridley writ soon after under the Title of the Lamentation of England he says Lechery Oppression Pride Covetousness and a hatred and scorn of Religion were generally spread among all People chiefly those of the higher Rank Cranmer and he had been much disliked the former for delivering his Conscience so freely on the Duke of Somersets death and both of them for opposing so much the rapine and spoil of the Goods of the Church which was done without Law or Order Nor could they engage any to take care of relieving the Poor except only Dobbs who was then Lord Major of London These sins were openly preached against by Latimer Lever Bradford and Knox who did it more severely and by others who did it plainly though more softly One of the main causes Ridley gives of all these evils was that many of the Bishops and most of the Clergy being all the while Papists in Heart who had only complied to preserve their Benefices took no care of their Parishes and were rather well pleased that things were ill managed And of this that good Bishop
of vertue and that it was an encouragement for sensual Persons to practise by false allegations that they might be separated from their Wives rather then a Precedent to induce People to live with their Wives in a godly sort thereupon the Act was repealed and declared void and of no effect In this it seems the Arguments that were against it in the House of Commons had so moderated the Stile of it that it was not repealed as an Act sinful in it self but it was only declared that in that particular case the Divorce was unlawfully made for it is reasonable to believe that the Bishops had puâ— in the first draught of the Bill a simple repeal of it and of all such Divorces founded on the indissolubleness of the Marriage Bond. And the Duke of Norfolks Attainder The other Act was about the Duke of Norfolk for declaring his Attainder void The Patentees that had purchased some parts of his Estate from the Crown desired to be heard to plead against it But the Session of the Parliament being near at an end the Duke came down himself to the House of Commons on the 4th of December and desired them earnestly to pass his Bill and said that the difference between him and the Patentees was referred to Arbiters and if they could not agree it he would refer it to the Queen It was long argued after that but in the end it was agreed to It sets forth that the Act by which he was Attainted had no special matter in it but only Treasons in general and a pretence that out of the Parliaments care for the King and his Son the Prince it was necessary to attaint him That the Reasons they pretended were his using Coats of Arms which he and his Ancestors had and might lawfully use It further says That the King died the next night after the Commission was given for passing the Bill and that it did not appear that the King had given his Assent to it That the Commission was not signed by the King's hand but only by his Stamp and that was put to the neather end and not to the upper part of the Bill which shewed it was done in disorder and that it did not appear that these commissioned for it had given the Royal Assent to it Upon which Considerations that pretended Act is declared void and null by the common Laws of the Land And it is further declared That the Law was and ever hath been that the Royal Assent should be given either by the King being present or in his absence by a Commission under the Great Seal signed with his hand and publickly notified to the Lords and Commons The last Act of which I shall give an account was the Confirmation of the Attainders that had been made On the 3d of November Cranmer and others attainted Arch-Bishop Cranmer the Lord Guilford Dudley and the Lady Jane his Wife with two other Sons of the Duke of Northumberland which were all except the Lord Robert who was reserved for greater Fortunes were brought to their Trial. These all confessed their Endictments Only Cranmer appealed to those that judged him how unwillingly he had consented to the exclusion of the Queen that he had not done it till those whose profession it was to know the Law had signed it upon which he submitted himself to the Queen's Mercy But they were all attainted of High-Treason for levying War against the Queen and conspiring to set up another in her room So these Judgments with those that had passed before were now confirmed by Act of Parliament And now Cranmer was legally devested of his Arch-Bishoprick But the See of Canterbury is not declared void which was hereupon void in Law since a Man that is attainted can have no right to any Church-Benefice his Life was also at the Queen's Mercy But it being now designed to restore the Ecclesiastical Exemption and Dignity to what it had been anciently it was resolved that he should be still esteemed Archbishop till he were solemnly degraded according to the Canon Law The Queen was also inclined to give him his Life at this time reckoning that thereby she was acquitted of all the Obligations she had to him and was resolved to have him proceeded against for Heresy that so it might appear she did not act out of revenge or on any personal account So all that followed on this against Cranmer was a Sequestration of all the Fruits of his Arch-Bishoprick himself was still kept in Prison Nor were the other Prisoners proceeded against at this time The Queen was desirous to seem willing to pardon Injuries done against her self but was so heated in the Matters of Religion that she was always inexorable on that Head Having given this Account of Publick Transactions I must relate next what were more secretly carried on but breaking out at this time occasioned the sudden Dissolution of the Parliament Cardinal Dandino The Queen treats about a Reconciliation with Rome that was then the Pope's Legate at the Emperor's Court sent over Commendone afterwards a Cardinal to bring him a certain Account of the Queen's Intentions concerning Religion he gave him in charge to endeavour to speak with her in private and to persuade her to reconcile her Kingdom to the Apostolick See This was to be managed with great secrecy for they did not know whom to trust in so important a Negotiation It seems they neither confided in Gardiner nor in any of the other Bishops Commendone being thus instructed went to Newport where he gave himself out to be the Nephew of a Merchant that was lately dead at London and hired two Servants to whom he was unknown and so he came over unsuspected to London There he was so much a Stranger that he did not know to whom he should address himself By accident he met with one Lee a Servant of the Queen's that had fled beyond Sea during the former Reign and had been then known to him so he trusted him with the Secret of his Business in England He procured him a secret Audience of the Queen in which she freely owned to him her Resolution of reconciling her Kingdom to the See of Rome and so of bringing all things back to the state in which they had been before the Breach made by her Father but she said It was absolutely necessary to manage that Design with great Prudence and Secresy lest in that Confusion of Affairs the discovery of it might much disturb her Government and obstruct her Design She writ by him to the Pope giving him assurance of her filial Obedience and so sent Commendone to Rome She also writ by him to Cardinal Pool and ordered Commendone to move the Pope that he might be sent over with a Legatine Power Yet he that writ that Cardinal's Life insinuates that the Queen had another design in desiring that Pool might be sent over for she ask'd him Whether the Pope might not dispence with the
new Titles Philip and Mary King and Queen of England France Naples Jerusalem and Ireland Princes of Spain and Sicily Defendors of the Faith Arch-Dukes of Austria Dukes of Milan Burgundy and Brabant Counts of Habspurg Flanders and Tirol Spain having always delighted in a long enumeration of pompous Titles It was observed how happy Marriages had been to the Austrian Family who from no extraordinary Beginnings had now in eighty Years time been raised by two Marriages first with the Heir of Burgundy and the Netherlands and then with the Heir of Spain to be the greatest Family in Christendom and the Collateral Family by the Marriage of the Heir of Bohem and Hungary was now the greatest in the Empire And surely if Issue had followed this Marriage the most extraordinary success possible would have seemed to be entailed on them But there was no great appearance of that for as the Queen was now far advanced in Years so she was in no good state of Health a long course of Discontent had corrupted both the health of her Body and the temper of her Mind Nor did the Matter alter much by her Marriage except for the worse The King 's wonderful Gravity and Silence gained nothing upon the English but his Magnificence and Bounty was very acceptable He brought after him a vast Mass of Wealth He brings a great Treasure with him to England seven and twenty Chests of Bullion every Chest being a Yard and some Inches long which were drawn in twenty Carts to the Tower after which came ninety nine Horse and two Carts loaded with coined Gold and Silver This great Wealth was perhaps the Sum that was formerly mentioned which was to be distributed among the English for it is not improbable that though he empowred his Ambassadors and Gardiner to promise great Sums to such as should promote his Marriage yet that he would not part with so much Mony till it was made sure and therefore he ordered this Treasure to be brought after him I mention it here yet it came not into England till October and January following He made his entry into London with great state At his first setling in England he obtained of the Queen Act of Favour done by him that many Prisoners should be set at Liberty among whom the chief were the Arch-Bishop of York and ten Knights with many other Persons of Quality These I suppose had been committed either for Wiat's Rebellion or the Business of the Lady Jane for I do not believe any were discharged that were imprisoned on the account of Religion As for this Arch-Bishop though he went along in the Reformation yet I find nothing that gives any great Character of him I never saw any Letter of his nor do I remember to have seen any honourable mention made of him any where so that he seems to have been a soft and weak Man and except those little Fragments of his Opinions in some Points about the Mass which are in the Collection I know no remains of his Pen. It seems he did at this time comply in Matters of Religion for without that it is not probable that either Philip would have moved for him or that the Queen would have been easily entreated The Intercessions that Philip made for the Lady Elizabeth He preserves the Lady Elizabeth and the Earl of Devonshire did gain him the Hearts of the Nation more than any thing else that he ever did Gardiner was much set against them and studied to bear down the declaration that Wiat had made of their Innocency all that he could but it was made so openly on the Scaffold that it was not possible to suppress it Before in his Examinations Wiat had accused them hoping to have saved himself by so base an Action but he redeemed it all he could at his Death This had broken Gardiner's Design who thought all they did about Religion was but half work unless the Lady Elizabeth were destroyed For he knew that though she complied in many things yet her Education had been wholly under the Reformed and which was more to him who judged all People by their Interest he reckoned that Interest must make her declare against the Papacy since otherwise she was a Bastard if ever she should out-live her Sister Philip opposed this at first upon a generous Account to recommend himself by obtaining such Acts of Favour to be done by the Queen But afterwards when the hopes of Issue failed him by his Marriage he preserved her out of Interest of State for if she had been put out of the way the Queen of Scotland that was to be married to the Dolphin was to succeed which would have made too great an Accession to the French Crown and besides as it afterwards appeared he was not without hopes of persuading her to marry himself if her Sister should die without Issue For the Earl of Devonshire he more easily obtained his freedom though not till some months had passed That Earl being set at liberty finding he was to lie under perpetual Distrusts and that he might be perhaps upon the first Disorder again put into the Tower to which his Stars seemed to condemn him resolved to go beyond Sea but died within a Year after as some say of Poison All this I have laid together though it fell not out all at once that I might give a full account of all the Acts of Grace that Philip did in England He was little beloved by the English But for the rest of his Behaviour it was no way acceptable to the People for as he engaged the Nation in all his Interests so that henceforth during this Reign England had no share in the Consultations of Europe but was blindly led by him which proved fatal to them in the conclusion by the ignominious loss of Calais So his temper and way of deportment seemed most ridiculous and extravagantly formal to the English Genius which naturally loves the mean between the excessive jollity and talkativeness of the French and the sullen staiedness of the Spaniard rather enclining more to the briskness of the one than the superciliousness of the other And indeed his Carriage was such here that the acting him and his Spaniards was one of the great Diversions of Queen Elizabeth's Court. The Hall of the Court was almost continually shut all his Time and none could have access unless it were first demanded with as much formality as Ambassadors use in asking Audience So that most of the Nobility left the Court few staying but the Officers of the Houshold Gardiner magnifies him much in a Sermon Gardiner had now the Government put entirely in his Hands And he to make his Court the better with the new King preached at St. Paul's the 30th of September where after he had inveighed long against the Preachers in King Edward's Time which was the common Subject of all their Sermons he run out much in commendation of the King affirming him to
run so fast that the Bishops themselves were forced to moderate their Heats They all understood how much the Queen was set upon having the Church raised as high as could be and saw there was nothing so effectual to recommend any to her Favour as to move high in these Matters And though their Motions were thought too violent and rejected yet their Affections were thereby discovered so that they knew they should be looked on as Men deeply engaged in these Interests An Act declaring Treasons After this the Bill of Treasons was brought in This was also argued for some days in the House of Commons but at last agreed to By it any who denied the King's Right to the Title of the Crown with the Queen's or endeavoured to put him from it together with them that did several other Offences were to forfeit all their Goods and to be imprisoned during Life and Clergy Men were to be deprived by their Ordinaries In these cases the second Offence was to be Treason But if any should compass the King's Death and utter it by any overt Deed during his Marriage to the Queen the first Offence of this kind should be Treason It was also enacted that the Parliament having petitioned the King that if the Queen died with any Issue he would take on him the Government of them till they came of Age to which he had assented therefore if the Queen died before her Children came to be of Age the Government of the Kingdom should be in the King's Hands if it were a Son till he were eighteen or if a Daughter till she was fifteen Years of Age And in all that time the conspiring his Death was to be Treason The Witnesses were to be brought before the Parties and none was to be tried for any words but within six months after they were spoken Another against seditious words Another Act passed upon a Report made of some Heretical Preachers who had as was informed prayed in their Conventicles that God would turn the Queen's Heart from Idolatry to the true Faith or else shorten her days and take her quickly out of the way All therefore that so prayed for taking away the Queen's Life were to be judged Traitors but if they shewed themselves penitent for such Prayers they were not to be condemned of Treason but put to any Corporal Punishment other than Death at the Judges Discretion This was passed in great haste for it was thrice read in the House of Lords and passed on the 16th of January in which the Parliament was Dissolved There was another Act past against those that spread Lying Reports of any Noblemen Judges or great Officers that such as spread them should be imprisoned till they brought their Authors according to former Acts. If any spread such Reports of the King and Queen they were to be set on a Pillory and pay 100 l. or have their Ears cut off and be three months Prisoners and they were to pay 100 Merks and suffer one months Imprisonment though they had Authors for them if they reported them maliciously But if their Reports tended to the stirring of any Insurrection they were to lose their right Hands and upon a second Offence to suffer Imprisonment during their Lives but they were to be proceeded against within three months after the words so spoken All the Bills being ended the Parliament was dissolved on the 16th of January to Gardiner's Gardiner is in great esteem no small joy He had now performed all that he had undertaken to the Queen or the Emperor Upon which he had the Reputation that he was formerly in of a great Statesman and a dextrous manager of Affairs much confirmed and raised since he had brought about in so small a time so great a change where the Interests of those who consented to it seemed to lead them another wav To those who had apprehended the Tyranny of Rome he had said That as our former Kings had always kept it under in a great measure so there was less danger of that now since they saw that all Princes had agreed to preserve their own Rights entire against the Pope's Pretensions He shewed them that therefore all the Old Laws against Provisions from Rome were still kept in force And so upon Cardinal Pool's being called over there was a Commission sent him under the Great Seal bearing date the 10th of November authorising him to exercise his Legatine Power in England By this he shewed them that no Legat should ever come into England to execute any Power till his Faculties were seen and approved by the Queen Others thought this was but a vain Imagination for if the Papacy were once fully established and People again brought under the old Superstition of esteeming the Popes Christ's Vicars and the infallible Heads of the Church it would not be possible to retain the People in their Obedience since all the assistance that the Princes of Christendom of this time had from their Subjects in their Wars with the Popes flowed chiefly from this that they generally did no more submit implicitly to their Priests But if once that blind Obedience were restored it would be easy for the Priests by their privat dealings in Confession to overturn Governments as they pleased But that which stuck most was That the Church Lands were Great fear about the Church-Lands by the Cannon Law so indissolubly annexed to the Church that they could not be separated from it To this it was answered that they should secure it by a Law at Rome and should confirm all the Alienations that had been made both by consent of the Clergy and by the Pope's Authority committed to the Legat. Yet even that did not satisfy many who found some Laws in the Canon so strict that the Pope himself could not dispence with them If the Legate did it the Pope might refuse to confirm it and then it was nothing and what one Pope did another often recalled So it was said that this Confirmation was but an Artifice to make it pass the more easily Besides all observed that in the Cardinal's Confirmation of those Lands there was a charge given to all to be afraid of the Judgments of God that fell on Belshazar for using the Holy Vessels which was to pardon the thing and yet to call it a Sacrilege for which they might look for the Vengeance of God So that the Cardinal did at the same time both bind and loose and it was plain both by that Clause and the Repeal of the Statute of Mortmain that it was designed to possess People with the Opinion of the Sin of retaining Church-Lands It was thought this Confirmation was rather an Indemnity and Permission to keep them than a declaring the Possessors had any lawful Title to them So that when Men were near Death and could no longer enjoy those Lands themselves it was not to be doubted but the Terrors of Sacrilege and the Punishments due to it with
their pleasure He had sworn to the Cardinals before he was chosen that he would make but four Cardinals in two Years but he created seven within one half Year and would not hear the Consistory argue against it 1556. or remember him of his Promise but said his Power was absolute and could not be limited One of these Cardinals was Gropper the Dean of Colen a man of great Learning and Vertues but inconstant and fearful as was shewn in the former Book he refused to accept of that Dignity so generally sought after in their Church and was more esteemed for rejecting it than others were that had by their Ambition aspired to it In the end of this year and the beginning of the next a memorable thing fell out of which if I give a large account I do not fear to be much censured by the Reader for it especially since it is not impertinent to this work the King and Queen being so much concerned in it It was Charles the 5ths Charles the 5th's Resignation laying down first some of his hereditary Dominions in October this year and the rest with the Empire not long after He had now enjoyed the one forty years and the other thirty six He was much disabled by the Gout which had held him almost constantly for several years he had been in the greatest Fatigues that ever any Prince had undergone ever since the 17th year of his age he had gone nine times into Germany six times into Spain seven times into Italy four times into France had been ten times in the Netherlands had made two Expeditions into Africk and been twice in England and had crossed the Seas eleven times He had not only been a Conquerer in all his Warrs but had taken a Pope a King of France and some Princes of Germany Prisoners besides a vast accession of Wealth and Empire from the West Indies But he now growing out of love with the Pomp and Greatness of the World began to have more serious thoughts of another Life which were much encreased in him by the answer one of his Captains gave him when he desired Leave to retire and being asked the reason said that between the affairs of the World and the hour of death there ought to be some interval He found his for tune turned his Designs in Germany were blasted In the Siege of Mets he saw he could no more command Triumphs to wait on him for though his Army consisted of 100000 Men yet he was forced to raise his Siege with the loss of 40000 Men and though his Wars had been this year more sucessful both in Italy and Flanders yet he thought he was too old to deal with the King of France It was thought his Son set this forward who had left England in discontent being weary both of His Queen and of holding a titular Crown only in her Right being excluded from the Government All these things concurring made the Emperor in a solemn Assembly at Brussels on the 25th of October in the presence of his Son and Maximilian King of Boheme and of the Duke of Savoy and his two Sisters the Queens Dowagers of France and Hungary with a vast number of others of lower quality first give his Son the Golden Fleece and so resign the headship of that Order to him and then the Dukedomes of Burgundy and Brabant and the other Provinces of the Netherlands Two months after that he resigned all his other Hereditary Dominions and the next year he sent a Resignation of the Empire to the Diet who thereupon did choose his Brother Ferdinand Emperor to which the Pope made great exceptions for he said the Resignation ought to have been only to him and that being made as it was it was null and upon that he would not acknowledge the new Emperor Charles staid sometime in Flanders in a private House For he left all his Palaces and had but little company about him It is said that when Seld his Brother's Secretary being sent to him was leaving him once late at night all the Candles on the Stairs being burnt out and none waiting to light him down the late Emperor would needs carry the Candle down after him the other as may be well imagined being much confounded at it the Emperor told him He was now a private Man and his Servants knowing there was nothing now to be had by attending did not wait carefully He bad him tell his Brother what a change he had seen in him and how vain a thing the attendance of Courtiers was since he was so soon forsaken by his own Servants He reserved but 100000 Crowns a year for his own use and sixty Servants But at his coming into Spain he found even that small Pension was not readily payed at which he was observed to be much displeased He retired to a place in the Confines of Castile and Portugal which he had observed in his Hunting to be fit for a retreat by reason of the pleasantness of the Situation and the temperatness of the Air and there he had ordered a little Appartment of seven Rooms fourteen foot square to be built for him He kept only twelve servants about himself and sent the rest to stay in the neighbouring Towns He gave himself at first much to mechanical Curiosities and had great varieties of Clocks and some other motions which surprised the ignorant Monks who were afraid they were the performances of Magick especially his Machines of Birds of wood that did fly out and come back and the representations of Armies that by Springs engaged and fought He also designed that great work of carrying the Tago up a Hill near Toledo which was afterwards done at a vast charge He gave himself to Gardening and used to Graft and Imp with his own hand and keeping but one Horse rid abroad some times attended only by one Footman The making of Clocks was not then so perfect as it is since so that he could never bring his Clocks to strike in the same minute and he used upon that to say he saw the Folly of endeavouring to bring all Men to be of the same mind in Religion since he could not bring Machines to agree exactly He set himself also much to study and in the second year of his retirement went oftener to the Chappel and â—o the Sacrament than he had done at first He used also to Discipline himself with a Cord which after his death having some marks of the severity he had put himself to was laid up among his Sons chiefest Rarities But amidst all this it was believed he became in most points to be of the belief of the Protestants before he died and as his Confessor was burnt afterwards for Heresie so Miranda the Arch-Aishop of Toledo who used to come often to him was upon the same suspitions kept long in Prison Near the end of two years at the Aniversary of his Mothers Funeral who had died but a few years before having
accidents that struck terror in them In July Thunder broke near Nottingham with such violence that it beat down two little Towns with all the Houses and Churches in them the Bells were carried a good way from the Steeples and the Lead that covered the Churches was cast 400 Foot from them strangely wreathed The River of Trent as it is apt upon Deluges of Rain to swell and over-run the Country so it broke out this Year with extraordinary violence many Trees were plucked up by the Roots and with it there was such a Wind that carried several Men and Children a great way and dashed them against Trees or Houses so that they died Hail-stones fell that were fifteen Inches about in other Places and which was much more terrible a contagious intermitting Feaver not unlike the Plague raged every where so that three parts of four of the whole Nation were infected with it So many Priests died of it that in many Places there were none to be had for the performing of the Offices Many Bishops died also of it so that there were many vacancies made by the Hand of Heaven against Queen Elizabeth came to the Crown and it spreading most violently in August there were not Men enough in many Counties to reap the Harvest so that much Corn was lost All these Symptoms concurred to encrease the aversion the People had to the Government which made the Queen very willing to consent to a Treaty of Peace that was opened at Cambray in October to which she sent the Earl of Arundel the Bishop of Ely and Dr. Wotton as her Plenipotentiaries A Treaty of Peace between England France and Spain The occasion of the Peace was from a meeting that the Bishop of Arras had with the Cardinal of Lorrain at Peronne in which he proposed to him how much Philip was troubled at the continuance of the War their Forces being so much engaged in it that they could make no resistance to the Turk and the mean while Heresie encreasing and spreading in their own Dominions while they were so taken up that they could not look carefully to their Affairs at home but must connive at many things therefore he pressed the Cardinal to perswade the King of France to an Accommodation The Cardinal was easily induced to this since besides his own zeal for Religion he saw that he might thereby bear down the Constables greatness whose Friends chiefly his two Nephews the Admiral and Dandelot who went then among the best Captains in France were both suspect of being Protestants upon which the latter was shortly after put in Prison so he used all his endeavours to draw the King to consent to it in which he had the less opposition since the Court was now filled with his Dependants and his four Brothers who had got all the great Officers of France into their Hands and the Constable and Admiral being Prisoners there was none to oppose their Councils The King thinking that by the recovery of Calais and the Places about it he had gained enough to ballance the loss of St. Quintin was very willing to hearken to a Treaty and he was in an ill state to continue the War being much weakned both by the loss he suffered last Year and the blow that he received in July last The Battel of Graveling the Marshal de Thermes being enclosed by the Count of Egmont near Graveling where the French Army being set on by the Count and galled with the English Ordnance from their Ships that lay near the Land was defeated 5000 killed the Marshal and the other chief Officers being taken Prisoners These losses made him sensible that his Affairs were in so ill a condition that he could not gain much by the War The Number of the Protestants growing in France The Cardinal was the more earnest to bring on a Peace because the Protestants did not only encrease in their Numbers but they came so openly to avow their Religion that in the publick Walks without the Suburbs of St. Germain they began to sing Davids Psalms in French Verse The newness of the thing amused many the devotion of it wrought on others the Musick drew in the rest so that the Multitudes that used to divert themselves in those Fields in stead of their ordinary sports did now nothing for many nights but go about singing Psalms and that which made it more remarkable was that the King and Queen of Navarre came and joyned with them That King besides the Honour of a Crowned Head with the small part of that Kingdom that was yet left in their Hands was the first Prince of the Blood He was a soft and weak Man but his Queen in whose right he had that Title was one of the most extraordinary Women that any Age hath produced both for knowledge far above her Sex for a great judgment in Affairs an Heroical Greatness of Mind and all other Vertues joyned to a high measure of Devotion and true Piety all which except the last she derived to her Son Henry the Great When the King of France heard of this Psalmody he made an Edict against it and ordered the doers of it to be punished but the Numbers of them and the respect to those Crowned Heads made the business to go no further On the 24th of April was the Dolphin married to the Queen of Scotland The Dolphin marries the Queen of Scotland Four Cardinals Bourbon Lorrain Chastilion and Bertrand with many of the Princes of the Blood and the other great Men of France and the Commissioners sent from Scotland were present But scarce any thing adorned it more than the Epithalamium written upon it by Buchanan which was accounted one of the perfectest Pieces of Latin Poetry After the Marriage was over the Scotch Commissioners were desired to offer the Dolphin the Ensigns of the Regality of Scotland and to acknowledge him their King but they excused themselves since that was beyond their Commission which only empow'red them to treat concerning the Articles of the Marriage and to carry an account back to those that sent them Then it was desired that they would promote the business at their return to their Country but some of them had expressed their aversion to those Propositions so plainly that it was believed they were poisoned by the Brethren of the House of Guise Four of them died in France the Bishop of Orkney and the Earls of Rothes and Cassils and the Lord Fleeming The Prior of St. Andrews was also very sick and though he recovered at that time yet he had never any perfect health after it When the other four returned into Scotland a Convention of the Estates was called to consult about the Propositions they brought This Assembly consists of all those Members that make up a Parliament who were then the Bishops and Abbots and Priors A Convention of Estates in Scotland who made the first Estate the Noblemen that were the second Estate and the
endeavouring to propagate the True Religion with the right way of worshipping God in all her Dominions therefore she intending to have a General Visitation of her whole Kingdom impowred them or any two of them to examine the true State of all the Churches in the Northern Parts to suspend or deprive such Clergy-men as were unworthy and to put others into their Places to proceed against such as were obstinate by Imprisonment Church-Censure or any other legal way They were to reserve Pensions for such as would not continue in their Benefices but quitted them by Resignation and to examine the condition of all that were Imprisoned on the account of Religion and to discharge them and to restore all such to their Benefices as had been unlawfully turned out in the late Times This was the first High Commission that was given out that for the Province of Canterbury was without doubt of the same nature The prudence of reserving Pensions for such Priests as were turned out was much applauded since thereby they were kept from extream want which might have set them on to do mischief and by the Pension which was granted them upon their good Behaviour they were kept under some awe which would not have been otherwise That which was chiefly condemned in these Commissions was the Queen's giving the Visitors Authority to proceed by Ecclesiastical Censures which seemed a great stretch of her Supremacy but it was thought that the Queen might do that as well as the Lay-Chancellors did it in the Ecclesiastical Courts So that one Abuse was the excuse for another These Visiters having made Report to the Queen of the Obedience given to the Laws and her Injunctions it was found that of 9400 Benificed Men in England there were no more but fourteen Bishops six Abbots twelve Deans twelve Arch-Deacons fifteen Heads of Colledges fifty Prebendaries and eighty Rectors of Parishes that had left their Benefices upon the account of Religion So compliant were the Papists generally And indeed the Bishops after this time had the same apprehension of the danger into which Religion was brought by the juglings of the greatest part of the Clergy who retained their affections to the old Superstition that those in King Edward's time had So that if Queen Elizabeth had not lived so long as she did till all that Generation â—as dead and a new Set of Men better educated and principled were gro n up and put in their rooms and if a Prince of another Religion â— d succeeded before that time they had probably turned about again â—o the old Superstitions as nimbly as they had done before in Queen Mary's days That which supported the superstitious Party in King Edward's time most was that many great Bishops did secretly favour and encourage them Therefore it was now resolved to look well to the filling of the vacant Sees It has been said before that Parker Parker's unwillingness to accept of the Canterbury was sent for to London by the Queen's Order and the Archbishoprick of Canterbury was offered him he was upon that cast into such a perplexity of mind that he was out of measure grieved at it As soon as he was returned home he writ a Letter to the Lord-Keeper which with all the other Letters that passed in this matter I have put into the Collection Coll. Numb 8. He professed he never had less joy of a Journey to London and was never more glad to get from it than upon his last being there He said It was necessary to fill that See with a Man that was neither Arrogant Faint-hearted nor Covetous an Arrogant Man would perhaps divide from his Brethren in Doctrine whereas the whole strength of the Church depended on their Unity but if their should be Heart-burnings among them and the private quarrels that had been beyond Sea should be brought home the Peace of the Church would be lost and the Success of all their Design would be blasted and if a fainthearted Man were put in it would raise the Spirits of all their Adversaries A Covetous Man was good for nothing He knew his own unfitness both of Body and Mind so well that though he should be sorry to offend him and Secretary Cecil whom he honoured above all Men in the World and more sorry to displease the Queen yet he must above all things avoid God's Indignation and not enter into a station into which he knew he could not carry himself so as to answer it either to God or the World for his Administration And if he must go to Prison for his obstinate untowardness with which it seems they had threatned him he would suffer it rather with a quiet conscience than accept of an Imployment which he could not discharge He said he intended by God's Grace never to be of that Order neither higher nor lower He knew what he was capable of he was poor and not able to enter on such a station he had a Rupture which made him that he could not stir much therefore he desired some place in the University where he might wear out his Life tolerably He knew he could not answer their Expectation which made him so importunate not to be raised so high He said he had great apprehensions of Differences like to fall out among themselves which would be a pleasant diversion to those of the Church of Rome He saw some Men were Men still even after all their teaching in the School of Affliction He protested he did not seek his own private gain or ease he had but two or three years more of life before him and did not intend to heap up for his Children This he writ the first of March The business of the Parliament made this Motion to be laid aside till that was dissolved and then on the 17th of May the L. Keeper wrote to him concerning it He told him that he saw by a Resolution taken that day in the Queen's Presence that it would be very hard for his Friends to get him delivered from that Charge For his own part if he knew a Man to whom the Characters in his Letter did agree better than to himself he should be for preferring of such a one but knowing no such he must be still for him On the 19th after that the Lord Keeper and Secretary Cecil signed a Letter in the Queen's Name requiring him to come up and after that they sent a second Command to him to come to Court on the 28th of the Month. He came up but again excused himself Yet at last being so often pressed he writ to the Queen her self protesting that extream Necessity forced him to trouble her both out of Conscience to God and regard to her Service he knew his great unworthiness for so high a Function therefore as on his Knees he humbly besought her to discharge him of that Office which did require a Man of more Learning Virtue and Experience then he perfectly knew was in himself He lamented his
the Government in his own Name but put it into the hands of his Mother the Cardinal of Lorrain and the Duke of Guise The Constable was put from the Court the Princes of the Blood were not regarded but all things were carried by the Cardinal and his Brother between whom and the Queen-Mother there arose great misunderstandings which proved fatal to the Queen of Scotland for she being much engaged with her Uncles and having an Ascendant over her Husband did so divide him from his Mother that before he died she had only the shadow of the Government This she remembred ever after against her Daughter-in-Law and took no care of her afterwards in all her Miseries But the Prince of Conde with the Admiral and many others resolving to have the Government in their Hands engaged some Lawyers to examine the point of the King's Majority These writ several Books on that Subject to prove that two and twenty was the soonest that any King had been ever held to be of Age to assume the Government and that no Strangers nor Women might be admitted to it by the Law of France but that it belonged to the Princes of the Blood during the King's Minority who were to manage it by the Advice of the Courts of Parliament and the three Estates So that the Design now concerted between these great Lords to take the King out of their hands who disposed of him was grounded on their Laws Yet as this Design was laying all over France Papists and Protestants concurring in it it was discovered by a Protestant who thought himself bound in Conscience to reveal it Upon this the Prince of Conde and many others were seized on and had not the King's Death in the beginning of December 1560 saved him the Prince himself and all the Heads of that Party had suffered for it But upon his Death Charles the Ninth that succeeded him being but eleven Years Old the King of Navarre was declared Regent and the Queen Mother who then hated the Cardinal of Lorrain united her self to him and the Constable and drew the weak Regent into her Interests Upon this some Lawyers examining the Power of the Regents found that the other Princes of the Blood were to have their share of the Government with him and that he might be checkt by the Courts of Parliament and was subject to an Assembly of the three Estates In July the next Year there was a severe Edict passed against the Protestants to put down all their Meetings and banish all their Preachers The Execution of it was put into the hands of the Bishops but the greater part of the Nation would not bear it So in January thereafter another Edict passed in a great Assembly of the Princes of the Blood the Privy Counsellors and eight Courts of Parliament for the free exercise of that Religion requiring the Magistrates to punish those who should hinder or disturb their Meetings Soon after this the Duke of Guise and his Brother reconciled themselves to the Queen Mother and resolved to break that Edict This was begun by the Duke of Vassy where a Meeting of the Protestants being gathered his Servants disturbed them they began with reproachful Words from these it went to Blows and throwing of Stones and by one of them the Duke was wounded for which his Men took a severe Revenge for they killed sixty of them and wounded two hundred sparing neither Age now Sex After this the Edict was every-where broken Many Lawyers were of Opinion that the Regent could not do it and that the People might lawfully follow the next Prince of the Blood in defence of the Edict Upon this his Brother the Prince of Conde gathered an Army In the beginning of the War the King of Navarre was killed at the Siege of Roan so that by the Law the Prince of Conde ought to have succeeded him in the Regency and thus the Wars that followed after this could not be called Rebellion since the Protestants had the Law and the first Prince of the Blood of their side to whom the Government did of right belong Thus began the Civil Wars of France which lasted above thirty Years in all which time the Queen of England by the Assistance she sent them sometimes of Men but for the most part of Mony and Ammunition did support the Protestant Interest with no great Charge to her self And by that she was not only secured from all the Mischief which so powerful a Neighbour could do her but had almost the half of that Kingdom depending on her The Wars of the Netherlands The State of the Netherlands afforded the like Advantages in those Provinces where the King of Spain finding the Proceedings of the Bishops were not effectual for the Extirpation of Heresy their Sees being so large intended to have founded more Bishopricks and to have set up the Courts of Inquisition in those Parts and apprehending some opposition from the Natives he kept Garrisons of Spaniards among them with many other things contrary to the Laetus Introâ—â—us that had been agreed to when he was received to be their Prince The People finding all Terms broken with them and that by that Agreement they were disengaged from their Obedience if he broke those Conditions did shake off his Yoke Upon which followed the Civil Wars of the Netherlands that lasted likewise above thirty Years To them the Queen gave assistance at first more secretly but afterwards more openly and as both they and the French Protestants were assisted with Men out of Germany which were generally led by the brave but seldom fortunate Casimir Brother to the Elector Palatine so the mony that payed them was for most part furnished from England And thus was Queen Elizabeth the Arbiter of all the Neighbouring parts of Christendom She at Home brought the Coin to a true Standard Navigation prospered Trade spread both in the Northern Seas to Arch-Angel and to the East and West Indies and in her long Wars with Spain she was always Victorious That great Armada set out with such assurance of Conquest was what by the Hand of Heaven in a Storm what by the unweildiness of their Ships and the nimbleness of Ours so shattered and sunk that the few remainders of it returned with irrecoverable shame and loss to Spain again She reigned in the Affections of her People and was admired for her Knowledg Vertues and Wisdom by all the World She always ordered her Councils so that all her Parliaments were ever ready to comply with them for in every thing she followed the true Interest of the Nation She never asked Subsidies but when the necessity was visible and when the Occasions that made her demand any vanished she discharged them She was admired even in Rome it self where Sixtus the Fifth used to speak of her and the King of Navarre Vita de Sisto 5. as the only Princess that understood what it was to Govern and profanely wished he might enjoy her
and the Lord Protector and all the Lords sat at Boards in the Hall beneath and the Lord Marshal's Deputy for my Lord of Somerset was Lord Marshal rode about the Hall to make room then came in Sir John Dimock Champion and made his Challenge and so the King drank to him and he had the Cup. At night the King returned to his Palace at Westminster where there was Justs and Barriers and afterward Order was taken for all his Servants being with his Father and being with the Prince and the Ordinary and Unordinary were appointed In the mean season Sir Andrew Dudley Brother to my Lord of Warwick being in the Paunsie met with the Lion a principal Ship of Scotland which thought to take the Paunsie without resistance but the Paunsie approached her and she shot but at length they came very near and then the Paunsie shooting off all one side burst all the overlop of the Lion and all her Tackling and at length boarded her and took her but in the return by negligence she was lost at Harwich-Haven with almost all her Men. In the month of * Should be March May died the French King called Francis and his Son called Henry was proclaimed King There came also out of Scotland an Ambassador but brought nothing to pass and an Army was prepared to go into Scotland Certain Injunctions were set forth which took away divers Ceremonies and Commissions sent to take down Images and certain Homilies were set forth to be read in the Church Dr. Smith of Oxford recanted at Pauls certain Opinions of the Mess and that Christ was not according to the Order of Melchisedeck The Lord Seimour of Sudley married the Queen whose name was Katherine with which Marriage the Lord Protector was much offended There was great preparation made to go into Scotland and the Lord Protector the Earl of Warwick the Lord Dacres the Lord Gray and Mr. Brian went with a great number of Nobles and Gentlemen to Barwick where the first day after his coming he mustered all his Company which were to the number of 13000 Footmen and 5000 Horsemen The next day he marched on into Scotland and so passed the Pease then he burnt two Castles in Scotland and so passed a streight of a Bridg where 300 Scots Light-Horsemen set upon him behind him who were discomfited So he passed to Musselburgh where the first day after he came he went up to the Hill and saw the Scots thinking them as they were indeed at least 36000 Men and my Lord of Warwick was almost taken chasing the Earl of Huntley by an Ambush but he was rescued by one Bertivell with twelve Hagbuttiers on Horseback and the Ambush ran away The 10th day of September the Lord Protector thought to get the Hill which the Scots seeing passed the Bridg over the River of Musselburgh and strove for the higher Ground and almost got it but our Horsemen set upon them who although they stayed them yet were put to flight and gathered together again by the Duke of Somerset Lord Protector and the Earl of Warwick and were ready to give a new Onset The Scots being amazed with this fled theirwayes some to Edinburgh some to the Sea and some to Dalkeith and there were slain 10000 of them but of Englishmen 51 Horsemen which were almost all Gentlemen and but one Footman Prisoners were taken the Lord Huntley Chancellor of Scotland and divers other Gentlemen and slain of Lairds 1000. And Mr. Brian Sadler and Vane were made Bannerets After this Battel Broughtie-craig was given to the Englishmen and Hume and Roxburgh and Heymouth which were Fortified and Captains were put in them and the Lord of Somerset rewarded with 500 l. Lands In the mean season Stephen Gardiner Bishop of Winchester was for not receiving the Injunctions committed to Ward There was also a Parliament called wherein all Chaunteries were granted to the King and an extream Law made for Vagabonds and divers other things Also the Scots besieged Broughty-craig which was defended against them all by Sir Andrew Dudley Knight and oftentimes their Ordnance was taken and marred YEAR II. A Triumph was where six Gentlemen did challenge all Comers at Barriers Justs and Tournay and also that they would keep a Fortress with thirty with them against an hundred or under which was done at Greenwich Sir Edward Bellingam being sent into Ireland Deputy and Sir Anthony St. Leiger revoked he took O-Canor and O-Mor bringing the Lords that rebelled into subjection and O-Canor and O-Mor leaving their Lordships had apiece an 100 l. Pension The Scots besieged the Town of Haddington where the Captain Mr. Willford every day made issues upon them and slew divers of them The thing was very weak but for the Men who did very manfully Oftentimes Mr. Holcroft and Mr. Palmer did Victual it by force passing through the Enemies and at last the Rhinegrave unawares set upon Mr. Palmer which was there with near a thousand and five hundred Horsemen and discomfited him taking him Mr. Bowes Warden of the West-Marches and divers other to the number of 400 and slew a few Upon St. Peter's day the Bishop of Winchester was committed to the Tower Then they made divers brags and they had the like made to them Then went the Earl of Shrewsbury General of the Army with 22000 Men and burnt divers Towns and Fortresses which the Frenchmen and Scots hearing levied their Siege in the month of September in the levying of which there came one to Tiberio who as then was in Haddington and setting forth the weakness of the Town told him That all Honour was due to the Defenders and none to the Assailers so the Siege being levied the Earl of Shrewsbury entred it and victualled and reinforced it After his departing by night there came into the Outer Court at Haddington 2000 Men armed taking the Townsmen in their Shirts who yet defended them with the help of the Watch and at length with Ordnance issued out upon them and slew a marvellous number bearing divers Assaults and at length drove them home and kept the Town safe A Parliament was called where an Uniform Order of Prayer was institute before made by a number of Bishops and learned Men gathered together in Windsor There was granted a Subsidy and there was a notable Disputation of the Sacrament in the Parliament-House Also the Lord Sudley Admiral of England was condemned to Death and died in March ensuing Sir Thomas Sharington was also condemned for making false Coin which he himself confessed Divers also were put in the Tower YEAR III. Hume-Castle was taken by Night and Treason by the Scots Mr. Willford in a Skirmish was left of his Men sore hurt and taken There was a Skirmish at Broughty-craig wherein Mr. Lutterell Captain after Mr. Dudley did burn certain Villages and took Monsieur de Toge Prisoner The Frenchmen by night assaulted Boulingberg and were manfully repulsed after they had made Faggots with Pitch Tar Tallow Rosin
the North and Mr. Herbert President of Wales and the one had granted to him 1000 Marks Land the other 500 and Lord Warwick 100 Horsemen at the King's Charge 9. Licences signed for the whole Council and certain of the Privy Chamber to keep among them 2340 Retainers 10. My Lord Somerset taken into the Council Guidotti the beginner of the talk for Peace recompensed with Knightdom 1000 Crowns Reward 1000 Crowns Pension and his Son with 250 Crowns Pension Certain Prisoners for light Matters dismissed agreed for delivery of French Prisoners taken in the Wars Peter Vane sent Ambassador to Venice Letters directed to certain Irish Nobles to take a blind Legat coming from the Pope calling himself Bishop of Armagh Commissions for the delivery of Bulloin Lauder and Dunglass 6. The Flemings Men of War would have passed our Ships without vailing Bonet which they seeing shot at them and drove them at length to vail Bonet and so depart 11. Monsieur Trimaul Monsieur Vicedam de Char and Monsieur Henaudie came to Dover the rest tarried at Calais till they had leave 13. Order taken that whosoever had Benefices given them should preach before the King in or out of Lent and every Sunday there should be a Sermon 16. The three Hostages aforesaid came to London being met at Debtford by the Lord Gray of Wilton Lord Bray with divers other Gentlemen to the number of 20 and Servingmen an 100 and so brought into the City and lodged there and kept Houses every Man by himself 18. Mr. Sidney and Mr. Nevel made Gentlemen of the Privy Chamber Commission given to the Lord Cobham Deputy of Calais William Petre chief Secretary and Sir John Mason French Secretary to see the French King take his Oath with certain Instruction and that Sir John Mason should be Ambassador Leigier Commission to Sir John Davies and Sir VVilliam Sharington to receive the first Paiment and deliver the Quittance 19. Sir John Mason taken into the Privy Council and VVilliam Thomas made Clerk of the same Whereas the Emperors Ambassador desired leave by Letters Patents that my Lady Mary might have Mass it was denied him And where he said we broke the League with him by making Peace with Scotland it was answered That the French King and not I did comprehend them saving that I might not invade them without occasion 10. Lauther being besieged of the Scots the Captain hearing that the Peace was Proclaimed in England delivered it as the Peace did will him taking Sureties that all the Bargains of the Peace should be kept 18. Monsieur de Guise died 20. Order taken for the Chamber that three of the Outer Privy-Chamber Gentlemen should always be here and two lie in the Palace and fill the Room of one of the four Knights that the Squires should be diligent in their Office and five Grooms should be always present of which one to watch in the Bed-Chamber 21. The Marquess de Means the Duke de Anguien and the Constable's Son arrived at Dover 23. Monsieur Trimoville and the Vicedam of Chartres and Monsieur Henaudy came to the Court and saw the Order of the Garter and the Knights with their Sovereign receive the Communion 24. Certain Articles touching a streighter Amity in Merchandize sent to the King of Sweeden being these First If the King of Sweden sent Bullion he should have our Commodities and pay no Toll Secondly He should bring Bullion to none other Prince Thirdly If he brought Ozymus and Steel and Copper c. he should have our Commodities and pay Custom as an Englishman Fourthly If he brought any other he should have free entercourse paying Custom as a Stranger c. It was answered to the Duke of Brunswick that whereas he offered Service with 10000 Men of his Land that the War was ended and for the Marriage of my Lady Mary to him there was talk for her Marriage with the Infant of Portugal which being determined he should have answer 25. Lord Clinton Captain of Bulloin having sent away before all his Men saving 1800 and all his Ordnance saving that the Treaty did reserve issued out of the Town with these 1800 delivering it to Monsieur Chastilion receiving of him the six Hostages English an Acquittance for delivery of the Town and safe Conduct to come to Calais whither when he came he placed 1800 in the Emperors Frontiers 27. The Marquess du Means Count d' Anguien and the Constable's Son were received at Black-Heath by my Lord of Rutland my Lord Gray of Wilton my Lord Bray my Lord Lisle and divers Gentlemen with all the Pensionaries to the number of an hundred beside a great number of Servingmen It was granted that my Lord of Somerset should have all his moveable Goods and Leases except those that be already given The King of Sweden's Ambassador departed home to his Master 29. The Count d' Anguien Brother to the Duke of Vendosme and next Heir to the Crown after the King's Children the Marquess de Means Brother to the Scotch Queen and Monsieur Montmorency the Constable's Son came to the Court where they were received with much Musick at Dinner 26. Certain were taken that went about to have an Insurrection in Kent upon May day following and the Priest who was the chief Worker ran away into Essex where he was laid for 30. Dunglass was delivered as the Treaty did require May. 2. Joan Bocher otherways called Joan of Kent was burnt for holding That Christ was not Incarnate of the Virgin Mary being condemned the Year before but kept in hope of Conversion and the 30th of April the Bishop of London and the Bishop of Ely were to perswade her but she withstood them and reviled the Preacher that preached at her Death The first payment was payed at Calais and received by Sir Thomas Dennis and Mr. Sharington 4. The Lord Clinton before Captain of Bollein came to Court where after Thanks he was made Admiral of England upon the Surrender of the Earl of Warwick's Patent He was also taken into the Privy-Council and promised further Reward The Captain also and Officers of the Town were promised Rewards Monsieur de Brisay passed also by the Court to Scotland where at Greenwich he came to the King telling him That the French King would see that if he lacked any Commodity that he had he would give it him and likewise would the Constable of France who then bore all the Swing 5. The Marquess de Means departed to Scotland with Monsieur de Brisay to acquaint the Queen of the death of the Duke of Guise 6. The Master of Ayrskin and Monsieur Morret's Brother came out of Scotland for the Acceptation of the Peace who after had Passport to go into France 7. The Council drew a Book for ever Shire who should be Lieutenants in them and who should tarry with Me but the Lieutenants were appointed to tarry till Chastilions Sarcy and Boucherels coming and then to depart 9. Proclamation was made That
Men was but for his own defence He did not determine to kill the Duke of Northumberland the Marquess c. but spoke of it and determined after the contrary and yet seemed to confess he went about their Death The Lords went together The Duke of Northumberland would not agree that any searching of his Death should be Treason So the Lords acquitted him of High-Treason and condemned him of Treason Fellonious and so he was adjudged to be hang'd He gave thanks to the Lords for their open Trial and cried Mercy of the Duke of Northumberland the Marquess of Northampton and the Earl of Pembrook for his ill-meaning against them and made suit for his Life Wife Children Servants and Debts and so departed without the Ax of the Tower The People knowing not the Matter shouted half a dozen of times so loud that from the Hall-Door it was heard at Charing-Cross plainly and rumours went that he was quit of all 2. The Peace concluded by the Lord Marquess was ratified by Me before the Ambassadour and delivered to him Signed and Sealed 3. The Duke told certain Lords that were in the Tower that he had hired Bertivill to kill them which thing Bertivill examined on confessed and so did Hammond that he knew of it 4. I saw the Musters of the new Band-men of Arms 100 of my Lord Treasurers 100 of Northumberland 100 Northampton 50 Huntingtoun 50 Rutland 120 of Pembrook 50 Darcy 50 Cobham 100 Sir Thomas Cheyney and 180 of the Pensioners and their Bands with the old Men of Arms all well-armed Men some with Feathers Staves and Pensils of their Colours some with Sleeves and half-Coats some with Bards and Staves c. The Horses all fair and great the worst would not have been given for less than 20 l. there was none under fourteen handfull and an half the most part and almost all Horses with their Guider going before them They passed twice about St. James's Field and compassed it round and so departed 15. Then were certain Devices for Laws delivered to my Learned Council to Pen as by a Schedule appeareth 18. It was appointed I should have six Chaplains ordinary of which two ever to be present and four always absent in preaching one Year two in Wales two in Lancashire and Darby next Year two in the Marches of Scotland two in Yorkshire the third Year two in Devonshire two in Hampshire fourth Year two in Norfolk and Essex and two in Kent and Sussex c. These six to be Bill Harle Perne Grindall Bradford * The other name dasht 20. The Bishop of Duresme was for concealment of Treason written to him and not disclosed at all till the Party did open him committed to the Tower 21. Richard Lord Rich Chancellor of England considering his sickness did deliver his Seal to the Lord-Treasurer the Lord great Master and the Lord Chamberlain sent to him for that purpose during the time of his sickness and chiefly of the Parliament 5. The Lord Admiral came to the French King and after was sent to the Queen and so conveied to his Chamber 6. The Lord Admiral christned the French King's Child and called him by the King's commandment Edward Alexander All that day there was Musick Dancing and Playing with Triumph in the Court but the Lord Admiral was sick of a double Quartane yet he presented Barnabe to the French King who took him to his Chamber 7. The Treaty was delivered to the Lord Admiral and the French King read it in open Audience at Mass with Ratification of it The Lord Admiral took his leave of the French King and returned to Paris very sick The same day the French King shewed the Lord Admiral Letters that came from Parma how the French Men had gotten two Castles of the Imperialists and in the defence of the one the Prince of Macedonia was slain on the Walls and was buried with triumph at Parma 22. The Great Seal of England delivered to the Bishop of Ely to be Keeper thereof during the Lord Rich's sickness The Band of 100 Men of Arms which my Lord of Somerset of late had appointed to the Duke of Suffolk 23. Removing to Greenwich 24. I began to keep Holy this Christmass and continued till Twelve-tide 26. Sir Anthony St. Legier for Matters laid against him by the Bishop of Dublin was banished my Chamber till he had made answer and had the Articles delivered him 28. The Lord Admiral came to Greenwich 30. Commission was made out to the Bishop of Ely the Lord Privy-Seal Sir John Gates Sir William Petre Sir Robert Bowes and Sir Walter Mildmay for calling in my Debts January 1. Orders were taken with the Chandlers of London for selling their Tallow-Candles which before some denied to do and some were punished with Imprisonment 3. The Challenge that was made in the last Month was fulfilled The Challengers were Sir Henry Sidney Sir Henry Nevel Sir Henry Gates Defendants The Lord Williams The Lord Fitzwater The Lord Ambrose The Lord Roberts The Lord Fitzwarren Sir George Howard Sir William Stafford Sir John Parrat Mr. Norice Mr. Digby Mr. Warcop Mr. Courtney Mr. Knolls The Lord Bray Mr. Paston Mr. Cary. Sir Anthony Brown Mr. Drury These in all ran six Courses a-piece at Tilt against the Challengers and accomplished their Courses right-well and so departed again 5. There were sent to Guisnes Sir Richard Cotton and Mr. Bray to take view of Calais Guisnes and the Marches and with the advice of the Captain and Engineers to devise some amendment and thereupon to make me Certificate and upon mine Answer to go further to the Matter 4. It was appointed that if Mr. Stanhop left Hull then that I should no more be charged therewith but that the Town should take it and should have 40 l. a Year for the repairing of the Castle 2. I received Letters out of Ireland which appear in the Secretary's Hand and thereupon the Earldom of Thowmount was by Me given from O-Brians Heirs whose Father was dead and had it for term of Life to Donnas Baron of Ebrecan and his Heirs Males 3. Also Letters were written of Thanks to the Earls of Desmond and Clanrikard and to the Baron of Dunganan 3. The Emperor's Ambassador moved me several times that my Sister Mary might have Mass which with no little reasoning with him was denied him 6. The foresaid Challengers came into the Tournay and the foresaid Defendants entred in after with two more with them Mr. Terill and Mr. Robert Hopton and fought right-well and so the Challenge was accomplished The same Night was first of a Play after a Talk between one that was called Riches and the other Youth whether of them was better After some pretty Reasoning there came in six Champions of either side On Youth's side came My Lord Fitzwater My Lord Ambrose Sir Anthony Brown Sir William Cobham Mr. Cary. Mr. Warcop On Riches side My Lord Fitzwarren Sir Robert Stafford Mr. Courtney Digby Hopton Hungerford All
for his Furnishment besides his Diet and Barnabe 800. 20. The Countess of Pembrook died 18. The Merchant-Adventurers put in their Replication to the Stiliards Answer 23. A Decree was made by the Board that upon knowledg and information of their Charters they had found First That they were no sufficient Corporation 2. That their Number Names and Nation was unknown 3. That when they had forfeited their Liberties King Edward the 4th did restore them on this condition That they should colour no Strangers Goods which they had done Also that whereas in the beginning they shipped not past 8 Clothes after 100 after 1000 after that 6000 now in their Name was shipped 44000 Clothes in one Year and but 1100 of all other Strangers For these Considerations sentence was given That they had forfeited their Liberties and were in like case with other Strangers 28. There came Ambassadors from Hamburgh and Lubeck to speak on the behalf of the Stiliard Merchants 29. A Flemming would have searched the Falcon for Frenchmen the Falcon turned shot off boarded the Fleming and took him Paiment was made of 63500 l. Flemish to the Foulcare all saving 6000 l. which he borrowed in French Crowns by Sir Philip Hobbey March 2. The Lord of Burgaveny was committed to Ward for striking the Earl of Oxford in the Chamber of presence The Answer for the Ambassadours of the Stiliard was committed to the Lord Chancellor the two Secretaries Sir Robert Bowes Sir John Baker Judge Montague Griffith Sollicitor Gosnald Goodrick and Brooks 3. It was agreed for better dispatch of things certain of the Council with others joined with them should over-look the Penal Laws and put certain of them in execution Others should answer Suitors Others should oversee my Revenues and the Order of them also the superfluous Paiments heretofore made Others should have Commission for taking away superfluous Bullwarks First Order was given for defence of the Merchants to send four Barques and two Pinaces to the Sea 4. The Earl of Westmoreland the Lord Wharton the Lord Coniers Sir Tho. Palmer and Sir Tho. Chaloner were appointed in Commission to meet with the Scotch Ambassadors for equal division of the Ground that was called the Debatable 6. The French Ambassador declared to the Duke of Northumberland how the French King had sent him a Letter of Credit for his Ambassadry After delivery made of the Letter he declared how Duke Maurice of Saxony the Duke of Mecklenburgh the Marquess of Brandenburgh the Count of Mansfield and divers other Princes of Germany made a League with his Master Offensive and Defensive the French to go to Strasburg with 30000 Footmen and 8000 Horsemen the Almains to meet with them there the 25th of this month with 15000 Footmen and 5000 Horsemen Also the City of Strasburg had promised them Victual and declared how the French would send me Ambassadors to have Me into the same League Also that the Marquess of Brandenburg and Count of Mansfield had been privately conveied to the French King's Presence and were again departed to leavy Men and he thought by this time they were in the Field 10. He declared the same thing to Me in the same manner 9. It was consulted touching the Marts and it was agreed that it was most necessary to have a Mart in England for the enriching of the same to make it the more famous and to be less in other Mens danger and to make all things better cheap and more plentiful The time was thought good to have it now because of the Wars between the French King and the Emperor The Places were the meetest Hull for the East parts Southampton for the South Parts of England as appeareth by two Bills in my Study London also was thought no ill place but it was appointed to begin with the other two 11. The Bills put up to the Parliament were over-seen and certain of them were for this time thought meet to pass and to be read other of them for avoiding tediousness to be omitted and no more Bills to be taken 15. Those that were appointed Commissioners for the Requests or for the execution of Penal Laws or for overseeing of the Courts received their Commissions at my Hand 18. It was appointed that for the paiment of 14000 l. in the end of April there should be made an Anticipation of the Subsidy of London and of the Lords of my Council which should go near to pay the same with good Provision 20. The French Ambassador brought me a Letter of Credit from his Master and thereupon delivered me the Articles of the League betwixt the Germans and him desiring Me to take part of the same League which Articles I have also in my Study 23. The Merchants of England having been long staied departed in all about 60 Sail the Woolfleet and all to Antwerp They were countermanded because of the Mart but it was too late 24. Forsomuch as the Exchange was stayed by the Emperor to Lions the Merchants of Antwerp were sore afraid and that the Mart could not be without Exchange liberty was given to the Merchants to exchange and rechange Mony for Mony 26. Henry Dudley was sent to the Sea with four Ships and two Barks for defence of the Merchants which were daily before robbed who as soon as he came to the Sea took two Pirats Ships and brought them to Dover 28. I did deny after a sort the Request to enter into War as appeareth by the Copy of my Answer in the Study 29. To the intent the Ambassador might more plainly understand My meaning I sent Mr. Hobbey and Mr. Mason to him to declare him mine intent more amply 31. The Commissioners for the Debatable of the Scotch side did deny to meet except a certain Castle or Pile might be first razed whereupon Letters were sent to stay our Commissioners from the Meeting till they had further word 10. Duke Maurice mustered at Artnstat in Saxony all his own Men and left Duke August the Duke of Anhault and the Count of Mansfield for defence of his Country chiefly for fear of the Bohemians The Young Lansgrave Reiffenberg and others mustered in Hassen 14. The Marquess Albert of Brandenburg mustered his Men two leagues from Erdfort and after entered the same receiving of the Citizens a Gift of 20000 Florins and he borrowed of them 60000 Florins and so came to Steinfurt where Duke Maurice and all the German Princes were assembled April 2. I fell sick of the Measels and Small Pox. 4. Duke Maurice with his Army came to Augusta which Town was at the first yielded to him and delivered into his Hands where he did change certain Officers restored their Preachers and made the Town more free 5. The Constable with the French Army came to Metz which was within two days yielded to him where he found great provision of Victuals and that he determined to make the Staple of Victual for his Journey 8. He came to a Fort wherein was an Abbey called
Stewardships during Leases for 21 Years Forfeits under 40 l. Receiverships Woodwardships Surveyorships c. during pleasure Instalments of days for Debts To those Gentlemen that have well-served Fee-Farms to them and their Heirs Males of their Body paying their Rent and discharging the Annuities due to all Officers touching the same Keeping of Houses and Parks ordinary Offices as Yeomen of the Crown the Houshold Offices c. June 2. Sir John Williams who was committed to the Fleet for disobeying a Commandment given to him for not paying any Pensions without not making my Council privy upon his submission was delivered out of Prison 4. Beamont Master of the Rolls did confess his Offences who in his Office of Wards had bought Land with my Mony had lent it and kept it from Me to the value of 9000 l. and above more than this twelve month and 11000 in Obligations how he being Judg in the Chancery between the Duke of Suffolk and the Lady Powis took her Tittle and went about to get it into his Hands paying a Sum of Mony and letting her have a Farm of a Manour of his and caused an Indenture to be made falsly with the old Duke's counterfeit Hand to it by which he gave these Lands to the Lady Powis and went about to make twelve Men perjured Also how he had concealed the Felony of his Man to the Sum of 200 l. which he stole from him taking the Mony into his own hand again For these Considerations he surrendered into my Hands all his Offices Lands and Goods moveable and unmoveable toward the paiment of this Debt and of the Fines due to these particular Faults by him done 6. The Lord Paget Chancellor of the Dutchy confessed how he without Commission did sell away my Lands and great Timber-Woods how he had taken great Fines of my Lands to his said particular Profit and Advantage never turning any to my Use or Commodity how he made Leases in Reversion for more than 21 Years For these Crimes and other-like recited before he surrendred his Office and submitted himself to those Fines that I or my Council would appoint to be levied of his Goods and Lands 7. Whaley Receiver of York-shire confessed how he lent my Mony upon Gain and Lucre how he paied one Years Revenue over with the Arrearages of the last how he bought mine own Land with my own Mony how in his Accompts he had made many false Suggestions how at the time of the fall of Mony he borrowed divers Sums of Mony and had allowance for it after by which he gained 500 l. at one crying down the whole Sum being 2000 l. and above For these and such-like Considerations he surrendred his Office and submitted to Fines which I or my Council should assign him to be levied of his Goods and Lands 8. The Lords of the Council sat at Guild-hall in London where in the presence of a thousand People they declared to the Mayor and Brethren their sloathfulness in suffering unreasonable prices of Things and to Craftsmen their willfulness c. telling them That if upon this Admonition they did not amend I was wholly determined to call in their Liberties as confiscate and to appoint Officers that should look to them 10. It was appointed that the Lord Gray of Wilton should be pardoned of his Offences and delivered out of the Tower Whereas Sir Philip Hobbey should have gone to Calais with Sir Richard Cotton and William Barnes Auditor it was appointed Sir Anthony St. Legier Sir Richard Cotton and Sir Thomas Mildmay should go thither carrying with them 10000 l. to be received out of the Exchequer Whereas it was agreed that there should be a Pay now made to Ireland of 5000 l. and then the Mony to be cried down it was appointed that 3000 weight which I had in the Tower should be carried thither and coined at 3 Denar fine and that incontinent the Coin should be cried down 12. Because Pirry tarried here for the Bullion William Williams Essay-Master was put in his place to view the Mines with Mr. Brabazon or him whom the Deputy should appoint 13. Banester and Crane the one for his large Confession the other because little Matter appeared against him were delivered out of the Tower 16. The Lord Paget was brought into Star-Chamber and there declared effectuously his submission by word of Mouth and delivered it in writing Beaumont who had before made his Confession in writing began to deny it again but after being called before my Council he did confess it again and there acknowledged a Fine of his Land and signed an Obligation in surrender of all his Goods 17. Monsieur de Couriers took his leave 2. The French King won the Castle of Robdemac Certain Horsemen of the Regents came and set upon the French King's Baggage and slew divers of the Carriers but at length with some loss of the Frenchmen they were compelled to retire The French King won Mount St. Ann. 4. The French King came to Deuvillars which was a strong Town and besieged it making three Breaches 12. The Town was yielded to him with the Captain He found in it 2500 Footmen 200 Horsemen 63 great Brass-pieces 300 Hagbuts of Croke much Victual and much Ammunition as he did write to his Ambassador 19. It was appointed that the Bishop of Durham's Matter should stay till the end of the Progress 20. Beaumont in the Star-Chamber confessed after a little sticking upon the Matter his Faults to which he had put to his Hand 22. It was agreed that the Bands of Men of Arms appointed to Mr. Sidney Mr. Vicechamberlain Mr. Hobbey and Mr. Sadler should not be furnished but left off 25. It was agreed that none of my Council should move Me in any Suit of Land for Forfeits above 20 l. for Reversion of Leases or other extraordinary Suits till the State of my Revenues were further known 15. The French King came to a Town standing upon the River of Mosa called Yvoire which gave him many hot Skirmishes 18. The French King began his Battery to the Walls 14. The Townsmen of Mountmedy gave a hot Skirmish to the French and slew Monsieur de Toge's Brother and many other Gentlemen of the Camp 12. The Prince of Salerno who had been with the French King to treat with him touching the Matter of Naples was dispatched in Post with this Answer That the French King would aid him with 13000 Footmen and 1500 Horsemen in the French Wages to recover and conquer the Kingdom of Naples and he should marry as some said the French King's Sister Madam Margaret The Cause why this Prince rebelled against the Emperor was partly the uncourteous handling of the Viceroy of Naples partly Ambition The Flemings made an Invasion into Champaign in so much that the Dolphin had almost been taken and the Queen lying at Chalons sent some of her Stuff toward Paris Also another Company took the Town of Guise and spoiled the Country 22. Monsieur
de Tallie was sent to raise the Arrierbands and Legionars of Picardy and Champaign to recover Guise and invade Flanders 27. Removing to Hampton-Court 30. It was appointed that the Statds should have this Answer That those Clothes which they had bought to carry over to the Sum of 2000 Clothes and odd should be carried at their old Custom so they were carried within six weeks and likewise all Commodities they brought in till our Lady-day in Term next in all other Points the old Decree to stand till by a further communication the Matter should be ended and concluded The Lord Paget was licensed to tarry at London and there-abouts till Michaelmass because he had no Provision in his Country 26. Certain of the Heraulds Lancaster and Portcullis were committed to Ward for counterfeiting Clarencieux Seal to get Mony by giving of Arms. 23. The French King having received divers Skirmishes of the Townsmen and chiefly two in the one they slew the French Light-horse lying in a Village by the Town in the other they entred into the Camp and pulled down Tents which two Skirmishes were given by the Count of Mansfield Governour of the Town And the Duke of Luxemburg and his 300 Light-horse understanding by the Treason of four Priests the weakest part of the Town so affrighted the Townsmen and the Flemish Souldiers that they by threatnings compelled their Captain the Count that he yielded himself and the Gentlemen Prisoners the Common-Souldiers to depart with white Wands in their Hands The Town was well Fortified Victualled and Furnished 24. The Town of Mountmedy yielded to the French King which before had given a hot Skirmish July 4. Sir John Gates Vicechamberlain was made Chancellor of the Dutchy 7. Removing to Oatlands 5. The Emperor's Ambassador delivered the Regent's Letter being of this effect That whereas I was bound by a Treaty with the Emperor made Anno Dom. 1542 at Dotrecht That if any Man did Invade the two Counties I should help him with 5000 Footmen or 700 Crowns a day during four months and make War with him within a month after the Request made and now the French King had invaded Luxemburg desiring my Men to follow the Effect of the Treaty 7. The Names of the Commissioners was added and made more both in the Debts the surveying of the Courts the Penal Laws c. and because my Lord Chamberlain my Lord Privy-Seal Mr. Vice-chamberlain and Mr. Secretary Petre went with me this Progress 8. It was appointed that 50 pound weight of Gold should be coined after the new Standard to carry about this Progress which maketh 150 l. Sterling 9. The Chancellor of the Augmentation was willed to surcease his Commission given him the third Year of our Reign 3. Monsieur de Bossy Grand Escuyer to the Emperor was made General of the Army in the Low-Countries and Monsieur de Prat over the Horsemen 10. It was appointed here that if the Emperor's Ambassador did move any more for Help or Aid this Answer should be sent him by two of my Council That this Progress-time my Council was dispersed I would move by their Advise and he must tarry till the Matter were concluded and their Opinions heard Also I had committed the Treaty to be considered by divers learned Men c. And if another time he would press Me then answer to be made That I trusted the Emperor would not wish Me in these young Years having felt them so long to enter into them How I had Amity sworn with the French King which I could not well break and therefore if the Emperor thought it so meet I would be a Mean for a Peace between them but not otherwise And if he did press the Treaty lastly to conclude That the Treaty did not bind Me which my Father had made being against the profit of my Realm and Country and to desire a new Treaty to be made between Me and the Emperor in the last Wars He answered That he marvelled what We meant for we are bound quoth the Emperor and not You. Also the Emperor had refused to fulfil it divers times both in not letting pass Horses Armour Ammunition c. which were provided by Me for the Wars As also in not sending Aid upon the Forraging of the Low-Country of Calais 12. A Letter was written to Sir Peter Meutas Captain of the Isle of Jersey both to command him that Divine Service may there be used as in England and also that he take heed to the Church-Plate that it be not stollen away but kept safe till further Order be taken 9. The French King came to the Town Aveins in Hainault where after he had viewed the Town he left it and besieged a Pile called Tirlokbut the Bailiff of the Town perceiving his departure gave the Onset on his Rereward with 2000 Footmen and 500 Horsemen and slew 500 Frenchmen After this and the winning of certain Holds of little force the French King returned into France and divided his Army into divers good Towns to rest them because divers were sick of the Flux and such other Diseases meaning shortly to increase his Power and so to go forward with his Enterprise 12. Frederick Duke of Saxony was released from his Imprisonment and sent by the Emperor into his own Country to the great rejoicing of all the Protestants 5. The Emperor declared That he would none of these Articles to which Duke Maurice agreed and the King of the Romans also The Copy of them remaineth with the Secretary Cecil Marquess Albert of Brandenburg did great harm in the Country of Franconia burnt all Towns and Villages about Norimberg and compelled them to pay to the Princes of his League 200000 Dollars ten of the fairest pieces of Ordnance and 150 Kintalls of Powder After that he went to Frankfort to distress certain Souldiers gathered there for the Emperor 15. Removing to Guilford 20. Removing to Petworth 23. The Answer was made to the Emperor's Ambassador touching the Aid he required by Mr. Wotton and Mr. Hobbey according to the first Article supra 24. Because the number of Bands that went with Me this Progress made the Train great it was thought good they should be sent home save only 150 which were pickt out of all the Bands This was because the Train was thought to be near 4000 Horse which were enough to eat up the Country for there was little Meadow nor Hay all the way as I went 25. Removing to Londre Sir Anthony Brown's House 27. Removing to Halvenaker 30. Whereas it had been before devised that the New Fort of Barwick should be made with four Bulwarks and for making of two of them the Wall of the Town should be left open on the Enemies side a great way together which thing had been both dangerous and chargeable it was agreed the Wall should stand and two Slaughter-houses to be made upon it to scour the outer Courtins a great Rampier to be made within the Wall a great Ditch within that
another To the fifth Point 1. The Emperor is at this time so driven to his Shifts that neither he shall be able to attend the stay of Mony from coming to the Mart neither if he were able to attend could I think do it now the Flemings being put in such fear as they be of the loss of all they have 2. The Flemings and the Spaniards which be under him can hardlier be without us than we without them and therefore they would hardly be brought to forbear our Traffique To the sixth Point 1. It were good the Stiliard-men were for this time gently answered and that it were seen whether by any gentle offer of some part of their Liberties again they might be brought to ship their Wares to the Mart. The Frenchmen also I think would easily be brought to come hither having now none other Traffique but hither these two Nations would suffice to begin a Mart for the first part To the seventh Point 1. It is not the ability of the English Merchants only that maketh the Mart but it is the resort of other Nations to some one place when they do exchange their Commodities one with another for the bargaining will be as well amongst the Strangers themselves the Spaniards with the Almains the Italians with Flemings the Venetians with the Danes c. as other Nations will bargain with Us. 2. The Merchants of London of Bristol and other places will come thither for the Mart time and traffique 3. The Merchants will make shift enough for their Lodging 4. There may be some of these Clothes that shall go hereafter be bought with my Mony and so carried to Southampton to be there uttered To the eighth Point 1. Bruges where the Mart was before stood not on the River of Rhine nor Antwerp doth not neither stand on that River 2. Frankfort Mart may well stand for a Fair in Almain although Southampton serve for all Nations that lie on the Sea-side for few of those come to Frankfort Mart. Windsor Sept. 23. Sexto Edwardo Sexti 1552. Number 5. The Method in which the Council represented Matters of State to the King An Original Written by Sir William Cecil Secretary of State Questions 1. Whether the King's Majesty shall enter into the Aid of the Emperor Answ He shall A Pacto 1. THe King is bound by the Treaty and if he will be helped by that Treaty he must do the Reciproque A periculo vitando 2. If he do not Aid the Emperor is like to Ruin and consequently the House of Burgundy come to the French Possession which is perilous to England and herein the greatness of the French King is dreadful Religio Christiana 3. The French King bringeth the Turk into Christendom and therefore that exploit to be staied Periculum violati pacti 4. If the Emperor for Extremity should agree now with the French then our Peril were double greater 1. The Emperor's Offence for lack of Aid 2. The French King's Enterprises towards us and in this Peace the Bishop of Rome's devotion towards us Pro Repub. Patria 5. Merchants be so evil used that both for the loss of Goods and Honour some Remedy must be sought Pericula consequentia 6. The French King 's Proceedings be suspicious to the Realm by breaking and burning of our Ships which be the old strength of this Isle Declaration of Stuckley's Tale. Answer He shall not Difficile quasi impossibile 1. The Aid is to be chargeable for the Cost and almost to be executed is impossible Solitudo in periculis 2. If the Emperor should die in this Confederacy we should be left alone in the War Amicorum suspitio vitanda 3. It may be the German Protestants might be more offended with this Conjunction with the Emperor doubting their own Causes Sperandum bene ab amicis 4. The Amity with France is to be hoped will amend and continue and the Commissioners coming may perchance restore Corrolarium of a mean way Judicium 1. So to help the Emperor as we may also join with other Christian Princes and conspire against the French King as a common Enemy to Christendom Reasons for the Common Conjunction 1. The cause is common Auxilia communia and therefore there will be more Parties to it 2. It shall avoid the chargeable entry into Aid with the Emperor Sumptus vitandi according to the Treaties 3. If the Emperor should die or break off Amicorum copia yet it is most likely some of the other Princes and Parties will remain so as the King's Majesty shall not be alone 4. The Friendship shall much advance the King 's other Causes in Christendom Dignitas causae 5. It shall be most honourable to break with the French King for this common Quarrel of Christendom Pro fide Religione Reasons against this Conjunction 1. The Treaty must be with so many Parties Inter multos nihil secretum that it can neither be speedily or secretly concluded 2. If the Matter be revealed and nothing concluded Amicitiae irritatae then consider the French King's Offence and so may he at his leasure be provoked to practise the like Conjunction against England with all the Papists Conclusion 1. The Treaty to be made with the Emperor The King's Hand and by the Emperor's means with other Princes 2. The Emperor's Acceptation to be understanded before we treat any thing against the French King Number 6. A Method for the Proceedings in the Council written with King Edward's Hand The Names of the whole Council The Bishop of Canterbury The Bp of Ely Lord Chancellor The Lord Treasurer The Duke of Northumberland The Lord Privy-Seal The Duke of Suffolk The Marquess of Northampton The Earl oâ— Shrewsbury The Earl of Westmoreâ—â—nd The Earl of Huntington The Earl of Pembrâ—â—k The Viscount Hereford The Lord Admiral The Lord Chamberlain The Lord Cobham The Lord Rich. Mr. Comptroller Mr. Treasurer Mr. Vicechamberlain Mr. Secretary Petre. Mr. Secretary Cecil Sir Philip Hobbey Sir Robert Bowes Sir John Gage Sir John Mason Mr. Ralph Sadler Sir John Baker Judg Broomley Judg Montague Mr. Wotton Mr. North. Those that be now called in Commission The Bishop of London The Bishop of Norwich Sir Thomas Wroth. Sir Richard Cotton Sir Walter Mildmay Mr. Sollicitor Mr. Gosnold Mr. Cook Mr. Lucas The Counsellors above-named to be thus divided into several Commissions and Charges First For hearing of those Suits which were wont to be brought to the whole Board The Lord Privy-Seal The Lord Chamberlain The Bishop of London The Lord Cobham Mr. Hobbey Sir John Mason Sir Ralph Sadler Mr. Wotton Mr. Cook Masters of Requests Mr. Lucas Masters of Requests Those Persons to hear the Suits to answer the Parties to make Certificate what Suits they think meet to be granted and upon answer received of their Certificate received to dispatch the Parties Also
or Persons therefore or in that behalf and without any offence of or against our Laws Statutes Proclamations or other whatsoever Ordinances and without incurring therefore into any Dammages Penalty Forfeit Loss or any other Encumbrance Trouble or Vexation of his or any of their Bodies Lands Tenements Goods or Chattels or of his or their or any their Heirs Successors Assigns Executors or Administrators And therefore we Will and Command not only all and every our Judges Justices Serjeants Attornies Sollicitors Sheriffs Escheators Bailiffs and all other our Officers Ministers and Subjects that now be or hereafter shall be in no wise to Impeach Appeal Arrest Trouble Vex Injure or Molest in our Name or otherwise Our said Uncle or our said Counsellors or any of them or any other Person for any Cause Matter Deed Thing or Things which he or they or any of them have done or shall do execute or cause to be executed or done as aforesaid But also We require and nevertheless straitly Charge and Command by these Presents all and every our Officers Ministers and Subjects of what Estate Degree or Condition soever he or they be or shall be to be obedient aiding attendant and assisting to Our said Uncle and Counsellors and to every of them as behoveth for the execution of this Charge and Commission given and committed unto Our said Uncle and Council as aforesaid as they tender our Favour and their own Weals and as they will answer unto Us at their uttermost Perils for the contrary In Witness whereof We have caused these our Letters to be made Patents Witness our Self at Westminster the 13th day of March in the first Year of our Reign E. Somerset T. Cantuarien W. St. John J. Russell W. Northamp T. Cheynie William Paget Anthony Brown Number 7. The King's Letter to the Arch-Bishop of York concerning the Visitation then intended EDwardus sextus Dei Gratia Angliae Franciae Hiberniae Rex Cotton Libr. Titus B. 2. Fidei Defensor ac in terra Ecclesiae Anglicanae Hiberniae supremum Caput Reverendissimo in Christo Patri ac praedilecto Consiliario nostro Roberto permissione divina Eboracen Archiepisc Angliae Primati Metropolitano salutem Quum nos suprema Authoritate nostra Regia omnia singula loca Ecclesiastica clerumque populum infra per totum nostrum Angliae Regnum constituta propediem visitare statuerimus Vobis tenore praesentium stricte inhibemus atque mandamus per vos Suffraganeis vestris confratribus Episcopis ac per illos suis Archidiaconis ac aliis quibuscunque jurisdictionem Ecclesiasticam exercentibus tam exemptis quam non exemptis infra vestram Provinciam Eboracens ubilibet constitutis sic inhibere volumus atque praecipimus quatenus nec vos nec quisquam eorum Ecclesias aut alia loca praedicta Clerumve aut populum visitare aut ea quae sunt jurisdictionis exercere seu quicquam aliud in praejudicium dictae nostrae Visitationis generalis quovismodo attemptare presumat sive presumant sub poena contemptus donec quousque licentiam facultatem vobis eis in ea parte largiend impertiend fore duxerimus Et quia non solum internam animorum subditorum nostrorum pacem verum etiam externam eorum concordiam multiplicibus opinionum procellis ex contentione dissentione contraversiis concionatorum exortis multum corruptam violatam ac misere divulsam esse cernimus Idcirco nobis admodum necessarium visum est ad sedandas componendas hujusmodi opinionum varietates quatenus inhibeatis seu inhiberi faciatis omnibus singulis Episcopis nec alibi quam in Ecclesiis suis Cathedralibus aliis Personis Ecclesiasticis quibuscunque ne in alio loco quam in suis Ecclesiis Collegiatis sive Parochialibus in quibus intitulati sunt predicent aut subditis nostris quovismodo concionandi munus exerceant nisi ex gratia nostra speciali ad id postea licentiati fuerint sub nostrae indignationis paena In cujus rei testimonium Sigillum nostrum quo ad causas Ecclesiasticas utimur praesentibus apponi mandavimus E. Somerset T. Seimour T. Cantuarien W. St. John Will. Petre Secretary J. Russell John Barker John Gage Dat. quarto die mensis Maii Anno Dom. 1547. Regni nostri Anno primo Number 8. The Form of bidding Prayer before the Reformation The Bedes on the Sunday Out of the Festival printed An. 1509. YE shall kneel down on your Knees and lift up your Hearts making your Prayers to Almighty God for the good State and Peace of all-holy Church that God maintain save and keep it For our Holy Father the Pope with all his true College of Cardinals that God for his Mercy them maintain and keep in the right Belief and it hold and increase and all Misbelief and Heresy be less and destroy'd Also ye shall pray for the Holy Land and for the Holy Cross that Jesus Christ died on for the redemption of Man's Souls that it may come into the power of Christian Men the more to be honoured for our Prayers Also ye shall pray for all Arch-Bishops and Bishops and especially for the Arch-Bishop of Canterbury our Metropolitane and for the Bishop of N. our Diocesan that God of his Mercy give to them Grace so to govern and rule Holy Church that it may be to the Honour and Worship of him and Salvation of our Souls Also ye shall pray for Abbots Priors Monks Canons Friers and for all Men and Women of Religion in what Order Estate or Degree that they stand in from the highest Estate unto the lowest Degree Also ye shall pray for all them that have Charge and Cure of Christian Mens Souls as Curats and Parsons Vicars Priests and Clarks and in especial for the Parson and Curat of this Church and for all the Priests and Minsters that serve therein or have served therein and for all them that have taken any Order that Almighty God give them Grace of continuance well for to keep and observe it to the honour and health of their Souls Also ye shall pray for the Unity and Peace of all Christian Realms and in especial for the good Estate Peace and Tranquility of this Realm of England for our Liege Lord the King that God for his great Mercy send him Grace so to Govern and Rule this Realm that God be pleased and worshipped and to the Profit and Salvation of this Land Also ye shall pray for our Liege Lady the Queen my Lord Prince and all the noble Progeny of them for all Dukes Earls Barons Knights and Esquires and other Lords of the King's Council which have any Rule and Governance in this Land that God give them Grace so to Council Rule and Govern that God be pleased the Land defended and to the profit and Salvation of all the Realm Also ye shall pray for the Peace both on Land and on the Water that God grant Love and Charity
contention hath arisen and daily ariseth and more and more increaseth about the execution of the same some Men being so superstitious or rather willful as they would by their good-wills retain all such Images still although they have been most manifestly abused and in some places also the Images which by the said Injunctions were taken down be now restored and set up again and almost in every place is contention for Images whether they have been abused or not And whiles these Men go about on both sides contentiously to obtain their Minds contending whether this or that Image hath been offered unto kissed censed or otherwise abused Parties have in some places been taken in such sort as further inconvenience is very like to ensue if Remedy be not provided in time Considering therefore that almost in no places of the Realm is any sure quietness but where all Images be wholly taken away and pulled down already to the intent that all Contention in every part of the Realm for this Matter may be clearly taken away and that the lively Images of Christ should not contend for the dead Images which be things not necessary and without which the Churches of Christ continued most Godly many Years We have thought good to signify unto you That his Highness Pleasure with advice and consent of us the Lord Protector and the rest of the Council is That immediately upon the sight hereof with as convenient diligence as you may you shall not only give order that all the Images remaining in any Church or Chappel within your Diocess be removed and taken away but also by your Letters signify unto the rest of the Bishops within your Province this his Highness Pleasure for the like Order to be given by them and every of them within their several Diocess and in the execution hereof We require both you and the rest of the said Bishops to use such foresight as the same may be quietly done with as good satisfaction of the People as may be Thus fare your good Lordship well From Somerset House the 21 of February 1547. Your Lordships assured Friends E. Somerset Jo. Russel Henricus Arundel T. Seymor Anthony Wingfield William Paget Number 24. The Copy of a Letter sent to all those Preachers which the King's Majesty hath licensed to Preach from the Lord Protector 's Grace and other of the King's Majesty's most honourable Council the 13th day of May in the Second Year of the Reign of our Sovereign Lord King Edward the Sixth AFter our right hearty Commendations as well for the Conservation of the quietness and good order of the King's Majesty's Subjects as that they should not by evil and unlearned Preachers be brought unto Superstition Error or evil Doctrine or otherwise be made stubborn and disobedient to the King's Majesty's Godly Proceedings his Highness by our Advice hath thought good to inhibit all manner of Preachers who have not such License as in the same Proclamation is allowed to preach or stir the People in open and common preachings of Sermons by any means that the devout and godly Homilies might the better in the mean while sink into his Subjects Hearts and be learned the sooner the People not being tossed to and fro with seditious and contentious Preaching while every Man according to his Zeal some better some worse goeth about to set out his own Phantasie and to draw the People to his Opinion Nevertheless it is not his Majesty's Mind hereby clearly to extinct the lively Teaching of the Word of God by Sermons made after such sort as for the time the Holy Ghost shall put into the Preacher's Mind but that rash contentious hot and undiscreet Preachers should be stopped and that they only which be chosen and elect be discreet and sober Men should occupy that place which was made for Edification and not for Destruction for the Honour of God and Peace and Quietness of Conscience to be set forward not for private Glory to be advanced to appease to teach to instruct the People with Humility and Patience not to make them contentious and proud to instil into them their Duty to their Heads and Rulers Obedience to Laws and Orders appointed by the Superiors who have Rule of God not that every Man should run before their Heads hath appointed them what to do and that every Man should chuse his own way in Religion The which thing yet being done of some Men and they being rather provoked thereto by certain Preachers than dehorted from it it was necessary to set a stay therein And yet forasmuch as we have a great confidence and trust in you that you will not only Preach truly and sincerely the Word of God but also will use circumspection and moderation in your Preaching and such Godly Wisdom as shall be necessary and most convenient for the Time and Place We have sent unto you the King's Majesty's License to Preach but yet with this Exhortation and Admonishment That in no wise you do stir and provoke the People to any Alteration or Innovation other than is already set forth by the King's Majesty's Injunctions Homilies and Proclamations but contrariwise That you do in all your Sermons exhort Men to that which is at this time more necessary that is to the emendation of their own Lives to the observance of the Commandments of God to Humility Patience and Obedience to their Heads and Rulers comforting the Weak and teaching them the right way and to flee all old Erroneous Superstitions as the Confidence in Pardons Pilgrimages Beads Religious Images and other such of the Bishop of Rome's Traditions and Superstitions with his usurped Power the which things be here in this Realm most justly abolished and straitly rebuking those who of an arrogancy and proud hastiness will take upon them to run before they be sent to go before the Rulers to alter and change things in Religion without Authority teaching them to expect and tarry the time which God hath ordained to the revealing of all Truth and not to seek so long blindly and hidlings after it till they bring all Orders into contempt It is not a private Man's Duty to alter Ceremonies to innovate Orders in the Church nor yet it is not a Preachers part to bring that into contempt and hatred which the Prince doth either allow or is content to suffer The King's Highness by our Advice as a Prince most earnestly given to the true knowledg of God and to bring up his People therein doth not cease to labour and travel by all godly means that his Realm might be brought and kept in a most Godly and Christian Order who only may and ought to do it Why should a private Man or a Preacher take this Royal and Kingly Office upon him and not rather as his Duty is obediently follow himself and teach likewise others to follow and observe that which is commanded What is abolished taken away reformed and commanded it is easy to see by the Acts
receive their worthy Reward the which is the thing we most desire to spare as much as may be the effusion of Blood and that namely of our own Nation In York-shire a Commotion was attempted the Week last past but the Gentlemen were so soon upon them and so forwardly that it was streight suppressed and with weeping Eyes the rest upon their Knees they wholly together desired the Gentlemen to obtain their Pardons the which the King's Majesty hath so granted unto them as may stand with his Highness Honour So that for the Inner Parts thanks be to the Almighty God the Case standeth in good Points The Causes and Pretences of these Uproars and Risings are divers and uncertain and so full of variety almost in every Camp as they call them that it is hard to write what it is as ye know is like to be of People without Head and Rule and that would have that they wot not what Some crieth pluck down Inclosures and Parks some for their Commons others pretend the Religion a number would Rule another while and direct things as Gentlemen have done and indeed all have conceived a wonderful hate against Gentlemen and taketh them all as their Enemies The Ruffians among them and the Souldiers which be the chief Doers look for spoil So that it seemeth no other thing but a Plague and a Fury amongst the vilest and worst sort of Men for except only Devonshire and Cornwall and they not past two or three in all other Places not one Gentleman or Man of Reputation was ever amongst them but against their Wills and as Prisoners In Norfolk Gentlemen and all Servingmen for their sakes are as ill handled as may be but this Broil is well asswaged and in a manner at a point shortly to be fully ended with the Grace of God On the other part of the Seas we have not so good News for the French King taking now his time and occasions of this Rebellion within the Realm is come unto Bullingnois with a great number of Horse-men and Foot-men himself in Person And as we are advertised of the Letters of the 24th of this present from Ambletue or Newhaven the Almain Camp or Almain Hill a piece appertaining to the said Ambletue was that day delivered to the French by traiterous consent of the Camp their variance falling out or feigned between the Captain and the Souldiers so that they are now besieged very near and in a manner round Howbeit they write that they trust the piece it self of Newhaven will be well enough defended God assisting them who be in as good and stout a courage as any Men may be and as desirous to win Honour and give a good account of their Charge Thus we bid you heartily farewel August 24. 1549. Number 37. A Letter of Bonner 's after he was deprived An Original The first part of this Letter is the recommending the Bearer that they might find a good Marriage for him The Pears were so well accepted in every place where I had so many Thanks for my Distribution that I intend by God's Grace to send down to you your Frail again to have an eching either of more Pears or else of Puddings c. ye do know what c. doth mean by that Italian Proverb Dio me guarda da furia di villani da Conscientia di preti da chi odi due messe nel giorno da quasibuglie di medici da c. di notarii da chi jura per la Conscientia mia I do not write to Sir John Burne nor to my Lady for any thing their Conscience is not over-large and the like is in Mr. Hornvale and also my old Acquaintance John Badger But if amongst you I have no Puddings then must I say as Messer our Priest of the Hospital said to his mad Horse in our last journey to Hostia Al diavolo al diavolo aitutti diavolli Our Lord preserve you and all yours with desire to be recommended to all Festo omnium Sanctorum in the Marshalsea To my dear beloved Friend the Worshipful Richard Lechmore Your loving and assured old Acquaintance Edmond Bonner Number 38. Letters and Instructions touching Proceedings with the Emperor to Sir William Paget Knight of the Order sent to the Emperor 1549. FIrst He shall communicate his Instructions Cotton Libr. Galba B. 12. and the cause of his coming with Sir Philip Hobbey Ambassador Resident with the Emperor and accompanied with him at his access to the said Emperor shall deliver his Letters of Credit and for his Credit shall utter his Charge as followeth First He shall declare what good Will we have to the continuance of the Amity and the encrease of the same by such means as may be devised on either Party and how the Reciproque hath been promised on their behalf Item To the intent they may as well perceive our forwardness therein as also the World see the same take effect indeed he is sent to shew what We have thought upon for this purpose and also if they be of a like forwardness to hear again what they think meet in that behalf and upon this Conference either to conclude upon both Our Devices or such one of them as shall be thought best for both Parties Item We think good that the Treaty already made between the Emperor and the King's Majesty of famous memory deceased be made perpetual that is to say confirmed by the Prince and the Countries on both sides whose Commodity depend upon the same Treaty Item Before the Confirmation the Treaty to be revised by him and the Ambassador and certain other to be appointed by the Emperor to the intent it may appear whether we have both one understanding of the words of the Treatise Item Where the debating to and from of the Amity with his Ambassador here occasion hath risen to talk of Marriage between the Infant of Portugal and the Lady Mary to which thing we perceive the Emperor hath sithence been made privy and that in case the Emperor mind to treat further of that Matter he shall say he hath commission to hear and conclude thereof Item To declare the State of our Affairs in Scotland at this time and forasmuch as the Scots have been very much aided with Victuals Ammunitions and other Necessaries from his Dominions by reason whereof they are more stiff and unwilling to come to Reason the said Comptroller declaring this Consideration shall do whâ—t he may to â—â—ocure that not only all safe Conducts granted by the Emperor or the Regent may be cassed but also his consent that if any his Subjects traffique into Scotland being common Enemies if they be taken beyond Barwick thitherward it may be lawful for our Men to take their Goods as forfeit Item To declare our proceedings with France at this time and of our sending Commissioners upon the French Motion who shall not conclude any thing prejudicial to the Amity or Treaties already passed or now to be passed
it What say you quoth I how do you understand this Article It should seem yes quoth d' Arras but we will speak with the Emperor in it and bring you an answer The words be plain quoth I and cannot be avoided Then in the seventh Article where it is said That the Prince requiring for his Aid Mony instead of Men must if the Invasion made by the Enemy cease restore the Mony again which remaineth And afterwards says That though the Invasion cease yet if he will follow the Enemy he may use the Aid for the time appointed in the Treaty saying in generality eo casu subsidiis auxiliaribus c. I asked Whether in those general words they mean not the Mony as well as the Men Wherupon they seemed to doubt and took a Note thereof to know the Emperor's Pleasure in the same In the ninth Article where it is treated for redress of Injuries done by one Subject to the other there we fell into a brawl of half an hour upon a Question that I moved viz. When they took Justice to be denied And their Answer was That we used none at all And here at length I fell into their manner of Arresting of one whole Nation upon a Knave Mariner's Complaint And he What Thieves our Nation was upon the Sea and Lawless People and that they never proceed to such Extremities but when their Subjects had been in England and Justice was denied That hath never been seen quoth I but if any of your Subjects think himself grieved streight he runneth to Monsieur le Protecteur and he by and by setting all the King's Affairs apart must attend to the Affairs of Monsieur le Mariniure or else home runneth he with open cry That he cannot have Justice in England and you streight believe and thereupon cometh these often Blusters And do you think it reason that Monsieur G. or you should attend to every private Man's Complaint you should then have a goodly Office No you send them to the ordinary Justices and so let that take place and way as it will but you will never impeach your self more with the Matter And reason quoth he but the Cause is not alike with you in England for there quoth he all things come to the Lord Protector 's Hand there is none other Judg or Justice used or cared for in the Realm no and his Letters sometimes not esteemed and that our Subjects fear full often and therefore of force they must resort to Monsieur Protecteur And this is not true quoth I and that Monsieur Hobbey knoweth my Lord Protector nor none of the Privy-Council meddle with no private Matters whosoever it be but only meddle with Matters of State leaving all other things to the ordinary course of Justice except only many times to gratify your Ambassador and to shew himself glad to nourish the Amity he troubleth himself with the Complaints of your Subjects which by St. Mary by my advice he shall do no more seeing it is so little considered but shall refer them to the common Justice Whither is that quoth he To the Admiralty quoth I. Marry a goodly Justice quoth he for so shall the poor Man's Cause be tried before his Adversary And why not tried in our Admiralty quoth I as well as in yours Nay quoth he both be naught indeed they were very ordinary Courts at the beginning of the redress of Matters upon the Sea but now they feel the sweet of the Gain such as they care little for Justice And here as well for relief of poor Men spoiled and robbed upon the Seas as to avoid Arrests and such other troublesome Proceedings on either side we fell to devising and came to this Point If the Princes for their parts upon their advertisement to the Emperor and we to your Grace shall like it that Commission sufficient be given by the Emperor to two of his Privy-Council to hear and determine by their discretion summary de pleno all Complaints by the King's Subjects here for criminal Causes upon the Sea and the King's Majesty to do the like to two of his Privy-Council for the Complaints in like case of the Emperor's Subjects And this was all was passed in open Conference saying That in the Discourse for the Confirmation in the Treaty by the Prince and their Countries as they seemed to shew the Emperor's readiness but yet not so resolved that the Prince should confirm the Treaty and that further any other thing should be done that he might reasonably do to declare his good Will to the entertainment and augmentation of his Amity and Affection to the King's Majesty So he alleaged divers Reasons why the Emperor should not seek to his Subjects to confirm his Treaties with Forreign Princes We alleaged the Example of the King and the French King in times past and what was said in that Case at C. _____ in the presence of himself de C. _____ and Chap. _____ Whereunto he answered That the State of France was more restrained than the Emperor's and that the French King could give no piece of his Patrimony nor bind his Country without the consent of his Parliament at Paris and the three Estates but he thought the King of England to have a greater Prerogative and the Emperor he was sure had a greater Prerogative and so had all his Ancestors and therefore would be loath now to put himself so far in their danger They were he said fifteen or sixteen Parliaments and if a thing should be proposed unto them whereof they had never heard the like before they would not only muse much at the Matter but they would have also the scanning of it and what would come of it the Emperor could not tell peradventure dash the Matter and so prejudice his Prerogative with them Yet now where he and his Ancestors do and have always passed Treaties with other Princes and bind their Subjects thereby without making them privy thereto it would by this means come to pass that from henceforth their Subjects would look to be privy to every Treaty which were not convenient marry for the Prince which shall succeed to confirm the Treaty he thought the Emperor could not take it but reasonable and doubted not to bring a good Answer in the same So as we see for this Point it will come to the confirmation of the King and the Prince and upon any condition or interpretation of the Treaty to them also wherein we intend to go forwards for so our Instruction beareth us unless that before the conclusion and shutting up of the Matter we hear from your Grace to the contrary The things being thus far passed and our open Talk at a Point and they ready to depart Monsieur d' Arras taking occasion as it seemed to stay because of the Rain took me aside and asked me if I would command him any other Service I answered No Service but Friendship and the continuance of his good Will to the King's
Majesty's Affairs whereunto he making large Offers I began to enter with him how much your Grace and all the rest reposed themselves in the friendship of the Emperor and the good Ministry of his Father and him to the furtherance of the King's Majesty's Affairs to whom as in that behalf they shewed themselves great Friends so did they like good Servants to their Master for the prosperous success of the Affairs of the one served the turn of the other and the contrary Whereupon I discoursed largely as far as my poor Capacity would extend how necessary it was for the Emperor to aid and assist us in all things so as we are not oppressed by force or driven for want of Friendship to take such ways to keep us in quiet as both we our selves would be loath and our Friends should afterwards have peradventure cause to forethink I repeated first how we entred the Wars for your sake for the King might have made his Bargain honourable with France which no Man knew better than I how long we have endured the War and how long alone how favourable they are to our common Enemies the Scots how ungentle the French be to us and by indirect means think to consume us to make the Emperor the weaker I recited the practices of the French with the Turk with the Pope with the Germans with Denmark his Aid of the Scots and all upon intent to impeach the Emperor when he seeth time or at the least attending a good hour upon hope of the Emperor's Death the weaker that we be the easilier shall he do it if we forgoe any our Pieces on this side we must needs be the weaker and that so we had rather do than alone to keep War against Scotland and France Wherefore if they will both provide for their own Strength and give us courage to keep still that which we have the Emperor must be content to take * This is a Cipher and stands I suppose for Bulloign 13 into defence as well as other places comprehended in the Treaty which I said we meant not but upon a reasonable Reciproque What Reciproqe quoth he roundly Thereupon advise you reasonably quoth I. O quoth he I cannot see how the Emperor can honourably make a true Treaty for that Point without offence of his Treaty with France and we mean to proceed directly and plain with all Men quoth he Why quoth I we may bring you justly by and by with us if we will advertise you as I did even now put my Case Yea if your Case be true quoth he but herein we will charge your Honours and Consciences whether the Fact be so or no for your Grace shall understand that I talked in the Matter so suspiciously as though such an Invasion had been made and that you would require common Enmity In fine Sir after many Motions and Perswasions and long Discourses used on my behalf to induce them to take 13 into defence His refuge was only That they would fain learn how they might honestly answer the French albeit I shewed him some forms of Answers which he seemed not to lâ—ke yet in the end I said He was a great Doctor and as he had put the Doubt so he was learned sufficiently if he listed to assoil the same He said he would open these Matters to the Emperor and trusted to bring me such an Answer as I should have reason to be satisfied and so departed whereof as soon as we have knowledg your Grace shall be advertised accordingly And thus we beseech God to send your Grace well to do all your Proceedings Number 40. A Letter from Sir William Paget and Sir Philip Hobbey concerning their Negotiation with the Emperor's Ministers An Original IT may like your Grace be advertised That yesterday at Afternoon Cotton Libr. Galba B. 12. Monsieur d' Arras accompanied with two Presidents of the Council St. Maurice and Viglius came unto the Lodging of me the Comptroller and after some words of Office passed on either part d' Arras began to set forth the cause of their coming saying That the Emperor having at good length considered and debated the things proponed and communed of between us since my coming hither had sent them to report unto me his final Answer and Resolution to the same And first quoth he to your Case That at our being together for the revisitation of the Treaty ye put forth upon the sixth Article for the common Enmity in case of Invasion his Majesty museth much what ye should mean thereby for seeing the Case is not in ure he thinketh that doubting of his Friendship ye go about by these means to grope and feel his Mind which ye need not do he having hitherto shewed himself ready in all things to shew the King his good Brother pleasure and to observe the Treaty in all Points to the uttermost and if this Case should happen to come in ure then will he not fail to do whatsoever the Treaty bindeth him unto till when he can make no other answer therein As to your Question moved upon the sixth Article of the Treaty viz. Whether Mony be not meant as well as Men by these words Subsidiis Auxiliaribus His Majesty taketh the words to be plain enough and thinketh they cannot be otherwise interpreted than to be meant as well for Mony as Men for so doth he understand them Unto the Order that was communed upon for the Administration of Justice on both sides for matter of Spoil or Piracy upon the Sea his Majesty having weighed what is best to be done therein further he hath good cause first to complain of the over many Spoils that your Men have made on his poor Subjects and the small Justice that hath been hitherto ministred unto them herein whereof he hath continual Complaints and therefore he thinketh it were meeter e're ever any further Order shall be concluded upon that his Subjects were first recompenced of these wrongs they have sustained and the Matter brought to some equality and his People put in as much good case as yours are for I assure you quoth he the Wrongs our Men have sustained are many among the rest a poor Jeweler having gotten a safe conduct of the King that dead is to bring into England certain Jewels because after he had the King's Hand and Seal to the License he had not the same sealed also with the Great Seal of England his Jewels were taken from him and he being not present although it were so named in the Sentence condemned to lose them by the order of your Law contrary to all Equity and Justice Which seemeth strange that the King's Hand and Seal should appear to be sufficient for a greater Matter than this The Treaties also provide That the Subjects of the one Prince may frankly without impediment traffique and occupy into the other Princes Country but to shadow the Matter with all one I cannot tell who hath been agreed withal and so
the poor Man and his Heirs put from their Right which his Majesty wisheth to be considered And albeit he thinketh that the King your Master being under Age cannot himself by the order of the Law conclude upon any thing now in his Minority that shall be of due force and strength able to bind him and his Country when he shall come to his perfect Age. Yet taking that his Tutors being authorised thereto by the common Assent of your Parliament may go through and conclude upon these or like things in his Name his Majesty thinketh it will do well when his Subjects shall be recompenced of the Wrongs they have hitherto sustained that some order be devised for the administration of Justice hereafter in like Cases As touching the Confirmation of the Treaty considering that the same was first made between the Emperor and King Henry the Eighth and not ratified by the King your Master since his Father's Death his Majesty thinketh that he hath most cause to require the same Wherefore because as I told you even now he thinketh that these things the King himself should conclude upon during his Minority cannot be of sufficient force if his Tutors shall be by the Authority of your Parliament enabled thereto his Majesty is content the Treaty be confirmed by them in the King's Name and by the Prince of Spain in such form as shall be thought best for both Parties As to the comprehension of Bulloign ye must know that we have a Treaty with France as well as with you which the Emperor cannot without some touch of his Honour break without just Grounds And albeit his Majesty would be loath to see the King his good Brother forgoe either that Peece or any other Jot of his Right yet can he not enter this Defence unless he would break with France out of hand which in respect of his other Affairs he cannot yet do howbeit he will gladly assist his good Brother in any other thing the best he may and will not fail to shew him all the Pleasure he can with regard to his Honour but with Bulloign he cannot meddle at this time And here he staying Is this the Emperor's resolute and full Answer Monsieur d' Arras quoth I. Yea quoth he wherewith he prayeth the King his good Brother to rest satisfied and take it in good part Albeit quoth I I have no Commission to make any Reply thereto because it was not known to your Grace what the Emperor's Resolution should be yet in the way of talk I will be bold to say my mind herein We have Monsieur d' Arras quoth I always esteemed the Emperor's Friendship and desired the observation of the Treaties and the entertainment of the Amity as a thing necessary and common to both the Parties for the better establishment whereof and that now and in this time some good Fruit to the benefit of both might appear to the World to follow of the same I was sent hither which was the chiefest cause of my coming And because that the Amity between both Princes might be the firmer and that all Doubts being taken away no cause of Quarrel shall be left we thought best to put you in mind of the Confirmation and Revisitation of the Treaty to the intent that by the one the World might see an establishment of our Friendship by our deed and that by the other one of us might understand another and consider whether any thing were to be added for the Commodity of both Parties which I suppose standeth you as much upon to desire as it doth us And whereas ye say that the King's Majesty because he is under Age cannot conclude or go through with any thing that shall be of sufficient force I must needs tell you plainly That ye touch his Majesty's Honour over-near herein for we think that the Majesty of a King is of such efficacy that he hath even the same Authority and full Power at the first hour of his Birth that he hath thirty Years after And what your Laws are I know not but sure I am that by our Laws whatsoever is done by the King in his Minority or by his Ministers in his Name is of no less force and strength than if it had been done in time of his full Age and Years if once the Great Seal of his Realm have passed there is no Remedy but needs must he stand thereto Marry let the Ministers take heed what they do and look that they may be able to discharge themselves towards him of their Doings if he shall require account of them when he cometh to Age for it is they must answer him but he must needs stand to whatsoever they have counselled him to agree unto during his Minority And to prove that our Laws giveth him the same Authority now that he shall have when he cometh to his perfect Age if any Man either for instruction of Learning or any other Cause should presume to lay hands on or touch his Majesty in way of correction he should by Law be taken for a Traitor And if the Matter were as ye take it we should then be in a strange and evil case for neither might we conclude Peace League or Treaty nor make Laws or Statutes during the King's Minority that should be of sufficient force to bind him and his to the observation of the same But ye mistake the Matter much and therefore if the Emperor mind to proceed to this Confirmation he may or otherwise do as it shall please him And as touching my Case quoth I ye must understand I did not move it without some just ground for remembring that all your Commissioners and all ours being together at Vtrecht for the Esclarcisement of the Treaty although the words of the Treaty were plain enough and could receive none other interpretation than was there plainly written yet would ye needs understand the Article for common Enmity in case of Invasion after your own minds And whereas by the words of the Treaty no mention is made of any number and therefore with howsoever few in number the Invasion be made ought the Invaders to be taken for common Enemies Your Commissioners did nevertheless interpret the Matter at their pleasure and would needs prescribe a number of 8000 Men under which number of Invasion were made the Treaties in this case should not stand to any force And like-as ye put a doubt here where none was to be found so thought I ye might do in other things were they never so plain and that moved me to put this case to see whether ye understood this Point as ye ought to do after the literal sense and partly to know your minds therein because perhaps the Matter hath been already in ure This I say was the occasion why I put further this Question and not for any mistrust of the Emperor's Friendship whom I must confess we have always found our Well-willer and so we doubt not he will continue and
therefore I need not grope his mind herein neither did I mean any such thing hereby As to your Answer to the order of Justice I see not that the Emperor hath so much cause to complain of lack of Justice in his Subjects Cases as ye seem to set forth for hitherto there hath not any Man complained in our Country and required Justice unto whom the same hath been denied And although some Man abiding the order of our Law or having had some Sentence that pleased him not hath complained hither of delay or lack of Justice ye must not therefore by and by judg that he saith true or that there is not uprightness or equity used in our Country for we have there as ye have here and else-where Ministers that are wise and well-learned in our Law and Men of honesty and good Conscience who deal and proceed justly as the order of the Law leadeth them without respect to favour or friendship to any Man And as for the Jewellers Case that ye moved ye must understand that as ye have Laws here in your Country for the direction of your Common-Wealth so have we also in ours whereby amongst the rest we do forbid for good respect the bringing in or transporting forth of certain Things without the King 's safe conduct or License And although as ye alleadged before the Treaty giveth liberty to the Subjects of either Prince to traffique into the others Country it is not for all that meant hereby that they shall not be bound to observe the Law and Order of the Country whereunto they Traffique for this liberty is only granted for the security of their Persons to go and come without impeachment and maketh them not for all that Lawless And whereas further it is provided by our Law that in certain things to be granted by the King the same Grant must pass under the Great Seal Then if any of those things pass under any other Seal they be not of due force until they have also passed the Great Seal of England wherefore if the Jeweller either by negligence or covetousness of himself or of those he put in trust did not observe this Order but thereto contrary for sparing a little Cost did presume to bring in his Jewels before his License came to the Great Seal me thinketh neither he nor any other can have just cause to say that he was wronged if according to our Laws he were sentenced to lose the same and yet after he was thus condemned more to gratify the Emperor than for that I took it to be so reasonable I my self was a Suitor to my Lord Protector 's Grace for some Recompence to be made to the Jeweller's Wife whom we knew and none other to be Party for she followed the Suit she presented the Petitions in her Name were they made and finally she and none others was by the Emperor's Ambassador commended unto us I have seen the Sentence quoth he and do mislike nothing so much therein as that the Man is condemned and named to have been present at the time of his Condemnation when indeed he was dead a good while before He was present quoth I in the Person of his Wife who was his Procurator and represented himself and I know that those before whom this Matter passed are Men both Learned and of good Conscience and such as would not have done herein any thing against Right and Order of Law The Sentences that are given in our Country by the Justices and Ministers they are just and true and therefore neither can we nor will we revoke them for any Man's pleasure after they have once passed the Higher Court from whence there is no further appellation no more than you will here call back such final Order as hath been in any case taken by your High Court of Brabant And the cause why we for our part misliked not this order of Justice was for the better establishment of the Amity and to avoid the continual Arrests that are made on our poor Men to the end also that this sort of Suiters might be the sooner dispatched without troubling either my Lord Protector in England or you here when you are busied in other Affairs of more importance And as concerning the Comprehension of Bulloign in good Faith because we thought that if the same should happen to be taken from the King's Majesty by force as I trust it shall not the loss should be common and touch the Emperor almost as near as us We thought good for the better security thereof to move this Comprehension which we take to be as necessary for the Emperor as us And though we are not so wise and well seen in your things as your selves are yet do we look towards you and guess of your Affairs afar off and perhaps do somewhat understand the state of the same whereof I could say more than I now intend But ye say this is the Emperor's Resolution herein We take it as an Answer and shall do accordingly Marry whereas you stick so much upon your Honour in breaking your Treaties with the French I remember Monsieur Granvela your Father at my being with him did not let to say That he had his Sleeve full of Quarrels against the French whensoever the Emperor list to break with them Yea so have we indeed quoth he but the time is not yet come we must temporize our things in this case as the rest of our Affairs lead us Ye say well quoth I ye have reason to regard chiefly the well-guiding of your own things and yet me thinketh some respect ought to be given to Friends But seeing this is your Answer I will reply no more thereto Yet one thing Monsieur d' Arras quoth I I moved to your Father which ye make no mention of and I would gladly know your mind in which is the granting of safe Conducts to the common Enemy which the Treaty by plain and express words forbideth either Prince to do Indeed Monsieur Ambassadeur quoth he the words of the Treaty are as ye say plain enough and yet the Matter were very strait if it should be taken in such extremity for hereafter in time of War ye might happen to have need of Wood Canvas or Wine and we of the like and other necessaries and if in such Cases the Princes should not have Prerogative to grant safe Conducts it shall be a great inconvenience and a thing not hereafter seen howbeit the Emperor for his part will not I think stick much hereupon but observe the plain meaning of the Treaty Nevertheless I cannot say any thing expresly on his behalf herein because Monsieur Granvela spake nothing thereof And yet did we move him of it quoth I and he bad us grant none and the Emperor for his part would not grant any No more hath he done quoth he sithence his coming into this Country nor intendeth not hereafter He needeth not quoth I for those that have been
given out before are sufficient for a great while Nay that they are not quoth he for the longest was granted but for a Year and now are they expired and whereas a while sithence one presuming upon his safe Conduct came into this Country to Traffiqe because the time thereof was expired he was taken and imprisoned The said d' Arras after this talk touched further unto me two Points which the Emperor he said desireth may be reformed The first was Our Merchants contrary to our Entercourse do enhaunce the prices of their Woolls and will not sell at such prices as they are bound by the Entercourse wherewith the Merchants here do find themselves agrieved and therefore the Emperor desireth some order may be taken herein Whereunto I answered that I understood not the Matters and yet I supposed our Men did not this but upon some grounds and just occasion by reason of other breach of Order on their parts here Howbeit I shewed him I would inform your Grace thereof and doubted not but if any thing were amiss on our parts it shall be reformed accordingly looking for the semblable on their behalf The other he said was That our Men have of late begun to build a Bulwark which standeth half on the King's Majesty's Ground and half on the Emperor's Territory And although Monsieur de Rue have viewed the same and perceiving the Emperor to be wronged thereby hath required our Folks to proceed no further therein yet cease they not to build still which the Emperor marvelleth much at and thinks we would not take it well that he should attempt the like Fortification upon the King's Territory and therefore requireth that some Redress may be given in time therein I answered That I knew not of this thing howbeit as I went homeward I would inform my self of the case and make report thereof to your Grace who I doubted not would take such order therein as should stand with Reason And here Monsieur d' Arras setting forth with many good words the Emperor's Amity towards the King and his readiness to shew his Majesty's Pleasure in all things that he conveniently may and that in case we proceed to any further Treaty with France he doubted not but we would have regard to them according to our Treaties and that also if we grew to any Peace with the Scots seeing that his Majesty is entred in Enmity chiefly for our sake whereby his Subjects have been sundry ways endangered he trusteth he will have consideration to see that convenient Recompence be made to them by the Scots e're ever we go through with any conclusion the rather because the Scots have and cease not still to offer besides a large Recompence very great Conditions if his Majesty would fall to any Peace with them which chiefly for our sakes he hath and will refuse to do We answered hereunto generally That the King's Majesty in such case we doubted not would have due respect to the Emperor's Amity and proceed herein as appertaineth This was the substance of their cold Answer as your Grace may see of small effect although interlaced with plenty of good words which we also thought best to use towards them and requite them with the like And thus after I had required of d' Arras a time to take my leave of the Emperor and his promise to procure the same as shortly as he might we departed And thus we beseech God to send your Grace as well to do as we do wish From Bruges July 24. William Paget Philip Hobbey Number 41. The Council's Letter to the King against the Protector An Original MOst high and mighty Prince our most gracious Soveraign Lord. Cotton Libr. Titus B. 2. It may please your Majesty to be advertised That having heard such Message as it pleased your Majesty to send unto us by your Highness Secretary Sir William Petre like as it was much to our grief and discomfort to understand that upon untrue Informations your Majesty seemed to have some doubt of our Fidelites so do we upon our knees most humbly beseech your Majesty to think that as we have always served the King's Majesty your most noble Father and your Highness likewise faithfully and truly so do we mind always to continue your Majesty's true Servants to the effusion of our Blood and loss of our Lives And for the security of your most Royal Person 's safeguard and preservation of your Realms and Dominions have at this time consulted together and for none other cause we take God to witness We have heretofore by all good and gentle means attempted to have had your Highness Uncle the Duke of Somerset to have governed your Majesty's Affairs by the advice of us and the rest of your Councellors but finding him so much given to his own Will that he always refused to hear Reason and therewith doing sundry such things as were and be most dangerous both to your most Royal Person and to your whole Realm we thought yet again to have gently and quietly spoke with him in these things had he not gathered Force about him in such sort as we might easily perceive him earnestly bent to the maintenance of his old wilful and troublous doings For redress whereof and none other cause we do presently remain here ready to live and die your true Servants And the Assembly of almost all your Council being now here we have for the better Service of your Majesty caused your Secretary to remain here with us most humbly beseeching your Grace to think in your Heart that the only preservation of your Person and your Estate for the discharge of our Duties enforceth us to devise how to deliver your Grace from the peril your Highness standeth in and no other respect for whatsoever is or shall be said to your Higness no earthly thing could have moved us to have seemed to stand as a Party but your only preservation which your Majesty shall hereafter perceive and we doubt not repute us for your most faithful Servants and Councellors as our doings shall never deserve the contrary as God knoweth to whom we shall daily pray for your Majesty's preservation and with our Bodies defend your Person and Estate as long as Life shall endure R. Rich Canc. W. Saint John W. Northampton J. Warwick Arundel F. Shrewsbury Thomas Southampton T. Cheyne William Petre Secretary Edward North. John Gage R. Sadler Nicholas Wotton Edward Montague Richard Southwell Number 42. Articles offered by me the Lord Protector to the King's Majesty in the presence of his Highness Council and others his Majesty's Lords and Gentlemen at Windsor to be declared on my behalf to the Lords and the rest of his Highness Council remaining at London Cotton Libr. Caligula B. 7 FIrst That I do not nor did not mean to apprehend any of them or otherwise to disturb or molest them but hearing tell of their such Meetings and Assemblies and gathering of Horsemen and other Powers out of several
Countries not being privy of the Causes thereof to avoid further inconveniences and danger which might ensue to your Majesty's Person which by many Rumors certain Intelligences and sundry Messages was declared imminent unto your Highness and to me the Lord Protector was forced to seek this Defence as I at the first beginning declared unto your Highness Secondly That this Force and Power which here is assembled about your Majesty at this present is to do none of them which be there at London or else-where either in Person or Goods any damage or hurt but to defend only if any violence should be attempted against your Highness As for any contention and strife betwixt me the Lord Protector and the Council there I do not refuse to come to any reasonable end and conclusion that should be for the preservation of your Majesty and tranquillity of the Realm if they will send any two of them with Commission on their behalfs to conclude and make a good end betwixt us And I most humbly beseech your Majesty to appoint any two of such as be here about your Majesty to join with the same and whatsoever those four or three of them shall determine I do and shall wholly and fully submit my self thereunto And that for more confirmation if it shall be so thought good to the said Persons their Agreement and Conclusion to be established and ratified by Parliament or any other Order that shall be devised And I beseech your Majesty that at my humble suit and by the advice of me and other of your Council here for the better proceedings herein and to take away all Doubts and Fears that might arise to grant to them four or any such two of them which they shall send for the purpose above-said free passage for themselves and with each of them twenty of their Servants to safely come tarry here and return at their pleasure And I most humbly beseech your Majesty that this Bill signed with your Majesty's Hands and ours may be a sufficient Warrant therefore Given and exhibited at the Castle of Windsor Octob. 8. 1549. Number 43. Letters sent from the Lords at London to the King's Majesty MOst high and mighty Prince our most gracious Soveraign Lord Ex Libro Concilii we have received by Mr. Hobbey your Majesty's most gracious Letters of the 8th of this Instant and heard such further Matter as it pleased your Majesty to will to be declared by him And sorry we be that your Majesty should have these occasions to be troubled especially in this kind of Matter the beginning and only occasion whereof as we be well able to prove to your Majesty hath proceeded of the Duke of Somerset It is much discomfort to us all to understand that your Royal Person should be touched with any care of Mind and most of all it grieveth us that it should be perswaded your Majesty that we have not that care that beseemeth us of the pacifying of these Uproars and conservation of your Majesty's Common-Wealth and State from Danger wherein whatsoever is informed your Highness we humbly beseech your Majesty to think we be as careful as any Men living may be and do not nor we trust shall not forget the Benefits received of your Majesty's most noble Father nor any of our bounden Duties of Allegiance the consideration and the special care whereof forced us to consult seriously and to join in this sort which thing if we had not presently followed not only your most Royal Person whom Almighty God long preserve but this your whole Estate being already much touched and in great towardness of ruin was most like to come in short time to most imminent danger and peril the Causes whereof as we do all well know and can prove to have proceeded from the said Duke So if we should not earnestly provide for the same we should not be able to answer to your Majesty hereafter for not doing our Duties therein therefore do we nothing doubt but your Majesty of your great clemency and good nature will not think that all and every of us being the whole state of your Privy-Council one or two excepted should be led in these things by private Affections or would presume to write to your Majesty that whereof we were not most assured and much more we trust that your Highness of your goodness will without any jealousie or suspition think that most expedient both for your own most Royal Person and all your Subjects that by the Body of your Council may be thought expedient to whom and to no one Man your Highness most grave Father appointed by his last Will and Testament the Care of your Majesty and all your most weighty Affairs We cannot therefore but think our selves much wronged that your said most Royal Person is in this sort by the Duke only detained and shut up from us to all our great heaviness and the great fear of all other your Majesty's true Subjects and wonder of all the World sooner may one Man intend ill than a multitude of us who we take God to witness to be a thousand times more careful of Your Highness surety than for all our own Lives We trust also that of Your Majesty's good Nature You will not think that wilfulness which Your whole Council doth or shall agree upon for Your Majesty's Surety and Benefit where the more agreeable we be the better Opinion we trust Your Majesty will conceive of us and our doings It comforteth us much to see the great appearance of Your Majesty's natural clemency even in these Your young Years and the assured hope which we have thereof encourageth us to be perswaded that You both do and will conceive good Opinion of us and all our doings and that Your Majesty is and so will continue our gracious good Lord with whom as we trust we never deserve willingly to be called in the standing of any Judgment with Your Majesty For the end of this Matter touching the Duke of Somerset if he have that respect to Your Majesty's Surety that he pretendeth if he have that consideration of his Duty to God that his Promise and Oath requireth if he have that remembrance of the performance of Your Majesty's Father's Will that to the effect of a good Executor appertaineth if he have the reverence to Your Law that a good Subject ought to have Let him first quietly suffer us Your Majesty's most humble Servants and true Counsellors to be restored to Your Majesty's presence let him as becometh a true Subject submit himself to Your Majesty's Council and the order of Your Highness Laws let the Forces assembled be sent away and then may we do our Duties in giving our attendance upon Your Majesty and after consult there with Your Majesty more freely for such order as may be thought most meet for Your Grace's Surety By these means Your Majesty's Subjects may be at quiet and all occasions of stir taken away And if the said
and effect And because it is not to be doubted but that before the receipt of these my Letters ye having former Instructions shall have far entred your Devices in this Matter wherein the King's Grace trusteth ye do lose no time or opportunity that possibly may be had I shall therefore briefly and compendiously touch such this things as the King's Highness would ye should substantially note in this behalf One is That albeit ye both before and also now know the King's mind and desire herein as is aforesaid taking that for your Foundation yet nevertheless forasmuch as it appeareth by your said Letters and otherwise that the Cardinal de Medicis whose preferment if this may not be had both the King's Grace and I tendereth above all other mindeth to experiment what may be done for himself great policy and dexterity is in your Labours and Communications to be used so that ye may first by great ensearch and enquiry perfectly understand as nigh as may be the Disposition Mind Affection and Inclination as well of the said Cardinal de Medicis as of all the residue if it be possible which thing well known well ponder'd and consider'd ye shall thereby have a great light to the residue of your Business wherein always ye must so order your selves that the Matter appearing unto you much doubtful and uncertain your particular practices the desired Intent peradventure failing shall not be cause of displeasure or unkindness to be noted by any that may be elected and for your introduction herein the King's Grace sendeth unto you at this time two Commissions under his great Seal the one couch'd under general words without making mention of any particular Person and in the other his Highness hath made mention of me by special Name Besides that ye shall receive herewith two Letters from his Grace to the College of Cardinals with the Copies of the same the one in special recommendation of me and the other in favour of the Cardinal de Medicis beside such other particular Letters in my recommendation to certain Cardinals and other as by the Copies of them herewith enclosed ye shall now perceive After the receipt thereof if the Cardinals before that time shall not be entred into the Conclave ye taking your Commodity as by your Wisdom shall be thought most expedient shall deliver unto the Cardinal de Medicis the King's Letters and mine to him addressed shewing unto him with as good words and manner as ye can that for his great Virtue Wisdom Experience and other commendable Merits with the entire love and favour which the King's Grace and I bear unto him thinking and reputing him most meet and able to aspire unto the Papal Dignity before all other Ye have Commandment Commission and Instruction specially and most tenderly to recommend him unto the whole College of Cardinals having also the King 's and my Letters to them in his favour upon which Declaration ye shall perceive his Answer to be made unto you in that behalf whereupon and by knowledg of the Disposition of the Residue ye may perceive how to govern your selves in the delivery of the rest of your said Letters for in case it may evidently appear unto you that any of the Cardinals to whom the King's Letters be directed have firmly establish'd their minds upon the said Cardinal de Medices the more circumspection is to be used with any such in the delivery to him of the King's Letters and overture of the secretness of your minds touching me considering that if the King's Intent might in no wise take effect for me his Grace would before all other advance and further the said Cardinal de Medicis Nevertheless if either by his Answer to be made unto you or by other good knowledg ye shall perceive that he hath so many Enemies herein that of likelihood he cannot attain the same ye may be the more bold to feel his mind how he is inclin'd towards me saying as indeed the King's Grace hath written unto him That in case he should fail thereof the King's Highness would insist as much as to his Grace were possible for me which ye may say were in manner one thing considering that both the Cardinal de Medices and I bear one mind zeal and study to the Weal and Quiet of Christendom the Increase and Surety of Italy the Benefit and Advancement of the Emperor's and the King's Majesty's Causes and I being Pope he in a manner whom I above all Men love trust and esteem were Pope being sure to have every thing according to his mind and desire and as much Honour to be put unto him his Friends and Family as might be devised in such wise That by these and other good words and demonstrations ye may make him sure as I think he be that failing for himself he with all his Friends do their best for me and seeing no likelihood for him ye may then right-well proceed to your particular labour and practices for me delivering the King's Letters both to the College of Cardinals and to the other apart as ye shall see the case then to require and solliciting them by secret labours alleadging and declaring unto them my poor Qualities and how I having so great experience of the Causes of Christendom with the entire Favour which the Emperor and the King's Grace bear unto me the knowledg also and deep Acquaintance of other Princes and of their great Affairs the studious mind that I have ever been in both to the Surety and Weal of Italy and also to the Quiet and Tranquility of Christendom not lacking thanked be God either Substance or Liberality to look largely upon my Friends besides the sundry great Promotions which by election of me should be vacant to be disposed unto such of the said Cardinals as by their true and fast Friendship had deserved the same the loving Familiarity also which they should find in me and that of my Nature I am not in great disposed to rigour or austereness but can be contented thanked be God frankly pleasantly and courteously to participate dispose and bestow such things as I have or shall come to my disposition not having any such Faction Family or Kinsman to whom I might shew any partiality in bestowing the Promotions and Goods of the Church and which is highest to be regarded that is likely and in manner sure that by my means not only Italy shall be put in perfect surety for ever but also a final rest peace and quiet now most necessary established betwixt all Christian Princes whereupon the greatest and most notable Expedition might be made against the Infidels that hath been heard of many Years For the King's Highness in that case would be contented and hath fully promised God willing to come in Person when God shall send time unto Rome whither also I should not doubt to bring many more of the Christian Princes being determined if God should send me such Grace to expone mine own Person in
two several times that is to say the Sundays next following Easterday and St. Michael the Arch-Angel or on some other Sunday within one month after those Feasts immediately after the Gospel FOrasmuch as it appertaineth to all Christian Men but especially to the Ministers and the Pastors of the Church being Teachers and Instructers of others to be ready to give a Reason of their Faith when they shall be thereunto required I for my part now appointed your Parson Vicar or Curat having before my Eyes the Fear of God and the Testimony of my Conscience do acknowledg for my self and require you to assent to the same I. First That there is but one living and true God of infinite Power Wisdom and Goodness the maker and preserver of all Things And that in Unity of this God-head there be three Persons of one Substance of equal Power and Eternity the Father the Son and the Holy Ghost II. I believe also whatsoever is contained in the Holy Canonical Scriptures In the which Scriptures are contained all things necessary to Salvation by the which also all Errors and Heresies may sufficiently be reproved and convicted and all Doctrine and Articles necessary to Salvation established I do also most firmly believe and confess all the Articles contained in the Three Creeds The Nicene Creed Athanasius Creed and our Common Creed called the Apostles Creed for these do briefly contain the principal Articles of our Faith which are at large set forth in the Holy Scriptures III. I do acknowledg also that Church to be the Spouse of Christ wherein the Word of God is truly taught the Sacraments orderly ministred according to Christ's Institution and the Authority of the Keys duly used And that every such particular Church hath authority to institute to change clean to put away Ceremonies and other Ecclesiastical Rites as they be superfluous or be abused and to constitute other making more to Seemliness to Order or Edification IV. Moreover I confess That it is not lawful for any Man to take upon him any Office or Ministry either Ecclesiastical or Secular but such only as are lawfully thereunto called by their High Authorities according to the Ordinances of this Realm V. Furthermore I do acknowledg the Queen's Majesty's Prerogative and Superiority of Government of all Estates and in all Causes as well Ecclesiastical as Temporal within this Realm and other her Dominions and Countries to be agreable to God's Word and of right to appertain to her Highness in such sort as is in the late Act of Parliament expressed and sithence by her Majesty's Injunctions declared and expounded VI. Moreover touching the Bishop of Rome I do acknowledg and confess that by the Scriptures and Word of God he hath no more Authority than other Bishops have in their Provinces and Diocesses And therefore the Power which he now challengeth that is to be the Supream Head of the Universal Church of Christ and so to be above all Emperors Kings and Princes is an usurped Power contrary to the Scriptures and Word of God and contrary to the Example of the Primitive Church and therefore is for most just Causes taken away and abolished in this Realm VII Furthermore I do grant and confess That the Book of Common Prayer and Administration of the Holy Sacraments set sorth by the Authority of Parliament is agreeable to the Scriptures and that it is Catholick Apostolick and most for the advancing of God's Glory and the edifying of God's People both for that it is in a Tongue that may be understanded of the People and also for the Doctrine and Form of ministration contained in the same VIII And although in the Administration of Baptism there is neither Exorcism Oil Salt Spittle or hallowing of the Water now used and for that they were of late Years abused and esteemed necessary Where they pertain not to the substance and necessity of the Sacrament they be reasonably abolished and yet the Sacrament full and perfectly ministred to all intents and purposes agreeable to the Institution of our Saviour Christ IX Moreover I do not only acknowledg that Privat Masses were never used amongst the Fathers of the Primitive Church I mean publick Ministration and receiving of the Sacrament by the Priest alone without a just number of Communicants according to Christ's saying Take ye and eat ye c. But also that the Doctrine that maintaineth the Mass to be a Propitiatory Sacrifice for the Quick and the Dead and a mean to deliver Souls out of Purgatory is neither agreeable to Christ's Ordinance nor grounded upon Doctrine Apostolick But contrary-wise most ungodly and most injurious to the precious Redemption of our Saviour Christ and his only-sufficient Sacrifice offered once for ever upon the Altar of the Cross X. I am of that mind also That the Holy Communion or Sacrament of the Body and Blood of Christ for the due obedience to Christ's Institution and to express the vertue of the same ought to be ministred unto the People under both kinds And that it is avouched by certain Fathers of the Church to be a plain Sacrilege to rob them of the Mystical Cup for whom Christ hath shed his most precious Blood seeing he himself hath said Drink ye all of this Considering also That in the time of the Ancient Doctors of the Church as Cyprian Hierom Augustine Gelasius and others six hundred Years after Christ and more both the Parts of the Sacrament were ministred to the People Last of all As I do utterly disallow the extolling of Images Reliques and feigned Miracles and also all kind of expressing God Invisible in the form of an Old Man or the Holy Ghost in form of a Dove and all other vain worshipping of God devised by Man's fantasy besides or contrary to the Scriptures As wandering on Pilgrimages setting up of Candles praying upon Beads and such-like Superstition which kind of Works have no promise of Reward in Scripture but contrary-wise Threatnings and Maledictions So I do exhort all Men to the Obedience of God's Law and to the Works of Faith as Charity Mercy Pity Alms devout and fervent Prayer with the affection of the Heart and not with the Mouth only Godly Abstinence and Fasting Chastity Obedience to the Rulers and Superior Powers with such-like Works and godliness of Life commanded by God in his Word which as St. Paul saith hath Promises both of this Life and of the Life to come and are Works only acceptable in God's sight These things above-rehearsed though they be appointed by common Order yet do I without all compulsion with freedom of Mind and Conscience from the bottom of my Heart and upon most sure persuasion acknowledg to be true and agreeable to God's Word And therefore I exhort you all of whom I have Cure heartily and obediently to embrace and receive the same That we all joining together in unity of Spirit Faith and Charity may also at length be joined together in the Kingdom of God and that
is thought and of these I must confess my self to your Lordship to be one And God is my Judg whether it be for any other respect in this World but that I suppose and verily believe it may prove best for her Majesty 's own quietness during her time And here I must before open to your Lordship indeed her Majesty's true State she presently stands in which though it may be granted the former Advice the better way yet how hardly it layeth in her Power to go thorow withal you shall easily judg For it must be confessed That by the taking into her protection the King and the Faction she must enter into a War for it And as the least War being admitted cannot be maintained without great Charge so such a War may grow France or Spain setting in foot as may cause it to be an intollerable War Then being a War it must be Treasure that must maintain it That she hath Treasure to continue any time in War surely my Lord I cannot see it And as your Lordship doth see the present Relief for Mony we trust upon which either failing us or it rising no more than I see it like to be not able long to last Where is there further hope of help hereafter For my own part I see none If it be so then my Lord that her Majesty's present estate is such as I tell you which I am sure is true How shall this Counsel stand with security by taking a Party to enter into a War when we are no way able to maintain it for if we enter into it once and be driven either for Lack or any other way to shrink what is like to follow of the Matter your Lordship can well consider the best is we must be sorry for that we have done and per-chance seek to make a-mends where we neither would nor should This is touching the present State we stand in Besides we are to remember what already we have done how many ways even now together the Realm hath been universally burdened First For the keeping of new bands after the furnishing of Armour and therein how continually the Charge sooner hath grown than Subsidies payed And lastly the marvellous charge in most Countries against the late Rebellion with this Loan of Mony now on the neck of it Whether this State doth require further cause of imposition or no I refer to your Lordship And whether entring into a further Charge than her Majesty hath presently wherewithal to bear it will force such a Matter or no I refer to wiser to judg And now my Lord I will shew you such Reasons as move me to think as I do In Worldly Causes Men must be governed by Worldly Policies and yet so to frame them as God the Author of all be chiefly regarded From him we have received Laws under which all Mens Policies and Devices ought to be Subject and through his Ordinance the Princes on the Earth have Authority to give Laws by which also all Princes have the Obedience of the People And though in some Points I shall deal like a Worldly Man for my Prince yet I hope I shall not forget that I am a Christian nor my Duty to God Our Question is this Whether it be meeter for our Soveraign to maintain the young King of Scotland and his Authority or upon Composition restore the Queen of Scots into her Kingdom again To restore her simply we are not of Opinion for so I must confess a great over-sight and doubt no better Success than those that do Object most Perils thereby to ensue But if there be any Assurances in this World to be given or any Provision by Worldly Policy to be had then my Lord I do not see but Ways and Means may be used with the Queen of Scots whereby her Majesty may be at quiet and yet delivered of her present great Charge It is granted and feared of all sides that the cause of any trouble or danger to her Majesty is the Title the Queen of Scotland pretends to the Crown of this Realm The Danger we fear should happen by her is not for that she is Queen of Scotland but that other the great Princes of Christendom do favour her so much as in respect of her Religion they will in all Causes assist her and specially by the colour of her Title seem justly to aid and relieve her and the more lawfully take her and her Causes into their Protection Then is the Title granted to be the chief Cause of danger to our Soveraign If it be so Whether doth the setting up the Son in the Mothers Place from whence his Title must be claimed take away her Title in the Opinion of those Princes or no notwithstanding she remain Prisoner It appeareth plainly No for there is continual Labour and means made from the greatest Princes our Neighbours to the Queen's Majesty for restoring the Queen of Scotland to her Estate and Government otherwise they protest open Relief and Aid for her Then though her Majesty do maintain the young King in his present Estate yet it appears that other Princes will do the contrary And having any advantage how far they will proceed Men may suspect And so we must conceive that as long as this Difference shall continue by the maintaining of these two so long shall the same Cause remain to the trouble and danger of the Queen's Majesty And now to avoid this whilst she lives What better Mean is there to take this Cause away but by her own consent to renounce and release all such Interest or Title as she claimeth either presently or hereafter during the Life of her Majesty and the Heirs of her Body Albeit here may two Questions be moved First Whether the Scots Queen will renounce her Title or no Secondly If she will do so What Assurance may she give for the performance thereof To the first It is most certain she hath and presently doth offer wholly and frankly to release and renounce all manner of Claims and Titles whatsoever they be to the Crown of this Realm during her Majesty's Life and the Heirs of her Body And for the second She doth likewise offer all manner of Security and Assurances that her Majesty can devise and is in that Queen 's possible Power to do she excepteth none Then must we consider what may be Assurances for here is the difficulty For that Objections be that Princes never hold Promises longer than for their own Commodity and what Security soever they put in they may break if they will All this may be granted but yet that we must grant also that Princes do daily Treat and deal one with another and of necessity are forced to trust to such Bonds and Assurances as they contract by And as there is no such Surety to be had in Worldly Matters but all are subject to many Casualties yet we see such Devices made even among Princes as doth tie them to perform that which
that Board did only give directions according to the order that had been formerly agreed on 12. He says On the 3d of April they disputed Ibid. but there was nothing done with Order or Justice the time was spent in Declamations while the profane Judg directed all things at his pleasure so that it came to nothing It is true the Order was broken But it had been unkindly done of our Author to tell by whom The Papists refused the first day to give their Reasons in writing as had been agreed on before and as was accordingly done by the Reformed and upon the second day they refused to proceed unless contrary to what had been concluded the Reformed should read their Papers first So the Disputation broke up it appearing evidently that the one side were not afraid of a publick Hearing but that the other were The Conclusion I Pursue these Calumnies no further because I cannot offer a Confutation of them without a larger digression since I break off my History in the second Year of this Reign so that I cannot refer the Reader to those more copious Accounts given by me as I have done in the former Remarques where a short hint was sufficient And I do not judg it worth the while to enter into such a full search of these Matters as a Confutation would require only to expose Rishton These Evidences which I have given of his Ignorance and Injustice will satisfy impartial Readers and I am out of hopes of convincing those that are so wedded to an Interest that they are resolved to believe all that is said of their side how improbable soever it may appear or how slenderly soever it may be proved And now I hope the Reformation of this Church appears in its true Colours and the Calumnies by which its Adversaries have endeavoured so long to disgrace it are so evidently confuted that they will be no more supported by their own side nor so tamely assented to by any that in their Hearts may perhaps love the Reformation and yet are too easily prevailed on to drink in the Prejudices that are raised by the confidence with which those Slanders have been vented Now the Matter is better understood and tho at this distance and after the rasure of Records made in Queen Mary's Reign it must be acknowledged that there are many things either quite past over or so defectively related by me that this Work wants that perfection which were to be desired Yet notwithstanding all these disadvantages besides the faults of style Method or way of Expression which may be more justly put to my account tho having done it in the best manner I could I have little to answer for but the presumption of undertaking a Design too high for me to perform with that Life and Perfection that such a Subject required and even in that I rather submitted to the Authority of others who engaged me in it than vainly fancied my self able to accomplish it but after all those Allowances that are necessary of which there can none be more sensible than my self I am not out of hope but this Work may have some good effect on such as shall read it impartially and with candor and that those who are already of our Church shall be induced to like it the better when they see what the beginnings of our Reformation were and those who are not of our Communion may the more easily be brought into it when they see by what Steps and upon what Reasons the Changes were made and if this Success follows my poor Endeavours I shall think my Time and Pains have been well employed I am apprehensive enough of the Faults I may be guilty of but I shall now give the Reader such an assurance of my readiness to correct them as soon as I am convinced of them that I hope if any thing occurs to any that deserves censure they will communicate it first to my self and if I do not upon better information retract what I have written then I shall allow them to make it publick in what manner they please And it may be presumed I will not be for the future unwilling to do this by the following account of the Mistakes which I made in the former Part communicated to me by Mr. Fulman of whom I made mention in the Preface With these I conclude this Work Some Mistakes in the First Part of this History communicated to me by Mr. William Fulman Rector of Hampton Meysey in Glocestershire LOrd Almoner It is questionable whether the Almoner was then called Lord Page 7. line 10. from bottom and more questionable whether Wolsey were then Almoner when he was thus recommended to the King's Favour for Polidore Virgil who lived in England at that time or very near it says he was Chaplain to King Henry the 7th and now made Almoner to King Henry the 8th being before that time Dean of Lincoln made so 2 Feb. 1508. installed by Proxy 25 March 1509. and personally 21 August 1511. and so only he is stiled in the University Register 12 April 1510. when he was made Batchelor of Divinity These Numbers seem questionable P. 8. Margent the Temporalities of Lincoln are said to be restored 4 March 5 Regni i. e. 1513 4 but then it was done before his Consecration which Godwin says was the 26th of March that Year But this might be to give him a right to the mean Profits by restoring the Temporalities before Lady-day though he was not consecrated till the 26th before November there should be 6 added for on that day was he translated to York And whereas it is said he had the Bishopprick of Winchester May 4. 20 Regni i. e. 1528. this must be a mistake for Fox's Register reaches to the 9th of Septemb. that Year so perhaps it was 4 March 20 Regni i. e. in March 1528 9. But I took all these Dates from the Rolls and I must add one thing that I have often seen cause to question the exactness of the Clerks in the enroling of Dates though it seems a presumption to question the Authority of a Record Here and in several other places as pag. 35 36 134 208 321 P. 10. l. 16. from bottom it is supposed That the next Heir of the Crown was Prince of Wales The Heir apparent of the Crown is indeed Prince but is not Prince of Wales strictly speaking unless he has it given him by a Creation And it is said That there is nothing on Record to prove that any of K. Henry's Children were ever created Prince of Wales There are indeed some hints of the Lady Mary's being stiled Princess of Waies for when a Family was appointed for her 1525. Veysey Bishop of Exeter her Tutor was made President of Wales She also is said to have kept her House at Ludlow and Leland says That Teken-hill an House in those Parts built for Prince Arthur was repaired for her And Tho. Linacre dedicates his
to that See vacant as his Patent has it by the free resignation of William the former Bishop And the same day being the first of April Ridley was made Bishop of London and Westminster Both were according to the common Form to be Bishops durante vita naturali during Life Proceedings against Gardiner The See of Winchester had been two years as good as vacant by the long imprisonment of Gardiner who had been now above two years in the Tower When the Book of Common-Prayer was set out the Lord St. John and Secretary Petre were sent with it to him to know of him whether he would conform himself to it or not and they gave him great hopes that if he would submit the Protector would sue to the King for mercy to him He answered That he did not know himself guilty of any thing that needed mercy so he desired to be tried for what had been objected to him according to Law For the Book he did not think that while he was a Prisoner he was bound to give his Opinion about such things it might be thought he did it against his Conscience to obtain his liberty but if he were out of Prison he should either obey it or be liable to punishment according to Law Upon the Duke of Somersets Fall the Lord Treasurer the Earl of Warwick Sir William Herbert and Secretary Petre were sent to him Fox says this was on the 9th of July but there must be an error in that for Gardiner in his Answer says That upon the Duke of Somersets coming to the Tower he looked to have been let out within two days and had made his farewel Feast but when these were with him a Month or thereabout had passed so it must have been in November the former year They brought him a Paper to which they desired he would set his Hand It contained first a Preface which was an acknowledgment of former faults for which he had been justly punished There were also divers Articles contained in it Some Articles are sent to him which were touching the Kings Supremacy his Power of appointing or dispencing with Holy-days and Fasts that the Book of Common-Prayer set out by the King and Parliament was a most Christian and Godly Book to be allowed of by all Bishops and Pastors in England and that he should both in Sermons and Discourses commend it to be observed that the Kings Power was compleat now when under Age and that all owed Obedience to him now as much as if he were thirty or forty years old that the six Articles were justly abrogated and that the King had full Authority to correct and reform what was amiss in the Church both in England and Ireland He only excepted to the Preface and offered to Sign all the Articles but would have had the Preface left out They bid him rather write on the Margent his Exceptions to it so he writ that he could not with a good Conscience agree to the Preface and with that Exception he set his Hand to the whole Paper The Lords used him with great kindness Which he Signed with some Exceptions and gave him hope that his troubles should be quickly ended Herbert and Petre came to him some time after that but how soon is not so clear and pressed him to make the acknowledgment without exception he refused it and said he would never defame himself for when he had done it he was not sure but it might be made use of against him as a Confession Two or three days after that Ridley was sent to him together with the other two and they brought him new Articles In this Paper the acknowledgment was more general than in the former It was said here in the Preface that he had been suspected of not approving the Kings Proceedings and being appointed to preach had not done it as he ought to have done and so deserved the Kings displeasure for which he was sorry The Articles related to the Popes Supremacy New Articles sent to him the suppression of Abbies and Chantries Pilgrimages Masses Images the adoring the Sacrament the Communion in both kinds the abolishing the old Books and bringing in the new Book of Service and that for ordaining of Priests and Bishops the compleatness of the Scripture and the use of it in the Vulgar Tongue the lawfulness of Clergy-mens Marriage and to Erasmus's Paraphrase that it had been on good considerations ordered to be set up in Churches He read all these and said he desired first to be discharged of his imprisonment and then he would freely answer them all so as to stand by it and suffer if he did amiss but he would trouble himself with no more Articles while he remained in Prison since he desired not to be delivered out of his troubles in the way of Mercy but of Justice After that he was brought before the Council and the Lords told him they sate by a special Commission to judge him and so required him to subscribe the Articles that had been sent to him He prayed them earnestly to put him to a Trial for the grounds of his Imprisonment and when that was over he would clearly answer them in all other things but he did not think he could subscribe all the Articles after one sort some of them being about Laws already made which he could not qualifie others of them being matters of Learning in which he might use more freedom In conclusion he desired leave to take them with him and he would consider how to answer them But they required him to subscribe them all without any qualification But he refusing to Sign them which he refused to do Upon this the Fruits of his Bishoprick were sequestred and he was required to conform himself to their Orders within three Months upon pain of deprivation and the liberty he had of walking in some open Galleries Was hardly used when the Duke of Norfolk was not in them was taken from him and he was again shut up in his Chamber All this was much censured as being contrary to the liberties of English-men and the Forms of all legal Proceedings It was thought very hard to put a Man in Prison upon a complaint against him and without any further enquiry into it after two years durance to put Articles to him And they which spoke freely said it savoured too much of the Inquisition But the Canon Law not being rectified and the King being in the Popes room there were some things gathered from the Canon Law and the way of proceeding ex officio which rather excused than justified this hard measure he met with The sequel of this business shall be related in its proper place Latimers advice to the King concerning his Marriage This Lent old Latimer preached before the King The discourse of the Kings marrying a Daughter of France had alarum'd all the Reformers who rather enclined to a Daughter of Ferdinand King of the Romans To a
Marriage with her it is no wonder they all wished well for both Ferdinand and his Son Maximilian were looked upon as Princes that in their Hearts loved the Reformation and the Son was not only the best Prince but accounted one of the best Men of the Age. But Latimer in his Sermon advised the King to marry in the Lord and to take care that Marriages might not be made only as bargains which was a thing too frequently done and occasioned so much Whoredom and Divorcing in the Nation He run out in a sad lamentation of the vices of the time the vanity of Women the luxury and irregularity of Men he complain'd that many were Gospellers for love of the Abbey and Chantry Lands he pressed that the discipline of the Church and the excommunicating of scandalous Persons might be again set up he advised the King to beware of seeking his pleasure too much and to keep none about him who would serve him in it he said he was so old that he believed he would never appear there more and therefore he discharged his Conscience freely he complained the Kings Debts were not paid and yet his Officers lived high made great Purchases and built Palaces he prayed them all to be good to the King and not to defraud the poor Trades-men that wrought for his Stores who were ill payed This I set down not so much to give an account of that Sermon as of the state of the Court and Nation which he so freely discoursed of Hooper is made Bishop of Glocester Wakeman that had been Abbot of Tewksbury and was after made Bishop of Glocester died in December last year and on the third of July this year Hooper was by Letters Patents appointed to be his Successor Upon which there followed a Contest that has since had such fatal consequences that of it we may say with St. James How great a matter hath a little fire kindled It has been already shewn that the Vestments used in Divine Service were appointed to be retained in this Church but Hooper refused to be consecrated in the Episcopal Vestments The grounds he went on were But refuses to wear the Episcopal Vestments That they were humane Inventions brought in by Tradition or Custom not sutable to the simplicity of the Christian Religion that all such Ceremonies were condemned by St. Paul as beggerly Elements that these Vestments had been invented chiefly for celebrating the Mass with much pomp and had been consecrated for that effect therefore he desired to be excused from the use of them Cranmer and Ridley on the other hand alledged that Traditions in matters of Faith were justly rejected but in matters of Rites and Ceremonies Custom was oft a good Argument for the continuance of that which had been long used Upon this a great Dispute rises Those Places of St. Paul did only relate to the observance of the Jewish Ceremonies which some in the Apostles times pleaded were still to be retained upon the Authority of their first Institution by Moses so this implying that the Messias was not yet come in whom all these had their accomplishment the Apostles did condemn the use of them on any such account though when the bare observing them without the opinion of any such necessity in them was likely to gain the Jews they both used Circumcision and purified themselves in the Temple If then they who had such absolute Authority in those matters did condescend so far to the weakness of the Jews it was much more becoming Subjects to give obedience to Laws in things indifferent And the abuse that had been formerly was no better reason to take away the use of these Vestments than it was to throw down Churches and take away the Bells because the one had been consecrated and the other baptized with many superstitious Ceremonies Therefore they required Hooper to conform himself to the Law Cranmer who to his other excellent qualities had joyned a singular modesty and distrust of himself writ about this difference to Bucer reducing it to these two plain Questions Whether it was lawful and free from any sin against God for the Ministers of the Church of England to use those Garments in which they did then officiate since they were required to do it by the Magistrates command And whether he that affirmed that it was unlawful or on that account refused to use those Vestments did not sin against God calling that unclean which God had sanctified and the Magistrate required since he thereby disturbed the publick order of the Kingdom To this Bucer writ a large Answer on the 8th of December this Year Bucers Opinion concerning them He thought that those who used these Garments ought to declare they did not retain them as parts of Moses Law but as things commanded by the Law of the Land he thought every Creature of God was good and no former abuse could make it so ill that it might not be retained and since these Garments had been used by the Ancient Fathers before Popery and might still be of good use to the weak when well understood and help to maintain the Ministerial Dignity and to shew that the Church did not of any lightness change old Customs he thought the retaining them was expedient that so the People might by seeing these Vestments consider of the candor and purity that became them and in this sense he thought to the Pure all things were pure and so the Apostles complied in many things with the Jews Upon the whole matter he thought they sinned who refused to obey the Laws in that particular But he added That since these Garments were abused by some to superstition and by others to be matter of contention he wished they were taken away and a more compleat Reformation established he also prayed that a stop might be put to the spoiling of Churches and that Ecclesiastical Discipline against offenders might be set up for said he unless these manifest and horrid Sacriledges be put down and the compleat Kingdom of Christ be received so that we all submit to his Yoke how intolerably shall the wrath of God break out on this Kingdom The Scriptures sets many such Examples before our Eyes and Germany offers a most dreadful prospect of what England might look for He writ also to Hooper upon the same Argument He wished the Garments were removed by Law but argued fully for the use of them till then he lamented the great corruptions that were among the Clergy and wished that all good Men would unite their strength against these and then lesser abuses would be more easily redressed He also answered Hoopers Objections on the Principles formerly laid down Peter Martyr was also writ to and as he writ to Bucer he was fully of his mind and approved of all he had writ about it And P. Martyrs And he added these words which I shall set down in his own terms copied from the Original Letter Quae
It was long argued at first and at the passing the Bill it was again argued but at last the Commons agreed to it The Preamble of it is a long Accusation of the Duke of Somerset for involving the King in Wars wasting his Treasure engaging him in much Debt embasing the Coin and having given occasion to a most terrible Rebellion In fine considering the great Debt the King was left in by his Father the loss he put himself to in the reforming the Coin and they finding his temper to be set wholly on the good of his Subjects and not on enriching himself therefore they give him two Tenths and two Fifteenths with one Subsidy for two years Whether the debate in the House of Commons was against the Subsidies in this Act or against the Preamble cannot be certainly known but it is probable the Debate at the engrossing the Bill was about the Preamble which the Duke of Northumberland and his Party were the more earnestly set on to let the King see how acceptable they were and how hateful the Duke of Somerset had been The Clergy did also for an expression of their affection and duty give the King six Shillings in the Pound of their Benefices There was also a Bill sent down from the Lords That none might hold any Spiritual Promotion unless he were either Priest or Deacon But after the third reading it was cast out The reason of it was because many Noblemen and Gentlemens Sons had Prebends given them on this pretence that they intended to fit themselves by Study for entring into Orders but they kept these and never advanced in their Studies upon which the Bishops prevailed to have the Bill agreed to by the Lords but could carry it no further Another Act passed for the suppressing the Bishoprick of Duresme The Bishoprick of Duresme suppressed and two new ones appon ed. which is so strangely mis-represented by those who never read more than the Title of it that I shall therefore give a more full account of it It is set forth in the Preamble That that Bishoprick being then void of a Prelate so that the Gift thereof was in the Kings pleasure and the compass of it being so large extending to so many Shires so far distant that it could not be sufficiently served by one Bishop and since the King according to his godly disposition was desirous to have Gods Holy Word preached in these Parts which were wild and barbarous for lack of good Preaching and good Learning therefore he intended to have two Bishopricks for that Diocess the one at Duresme which should have 2000 Marks Revenue and another at Newcastle which should have 1000 Marks Revenue and also to Found a Cathedral Church at Newcastle with a Deanry and Chapter out of the Revenues of the Bishoprick therefore the Bishoprick of Duresme is utterly extinguished and dissolved and Authority is given for Letters Patents to erect the two new Bishopricks together with the Deanry and Chapter at Newcastle with a Proviso that the Rights of the Deanry Chapter and Cathedral of Duresme should suffer nothing by this Act. When this Bill is considered that dissolution that was designed by it will not appear to be so sacrilegious a thing as some Writers have represented it For whosoever understands the value of old Rents especially such as these were near the Marches of an Enemy where the Service of the Tenants in the War made their Lands be set at very low rates will know that 3000 Marks of Rent being reserved besides the endowing of the Cathedral which could hardly be done under another thousand Marks there could not be so great a Prey of that Bishoprick as has been imagined Ridley as himself writes in one of his Letters was named to be Bishop of Duresme being one of the Natives of that Country but the thing never took effect For in May and no sooner was the Temporalty of the Bishoprick turned into a County-Palatine and given to the Duke of Northumberland But the Kings sickness and soon after his death made that and all the rest of these designs prove abortive How Tonstall was deprived I cannot understand It was for misprision of Treason and done by Secular Men. For Cranmer refused to meddle in it I have seen the Commission given by Queen Mary to some Delegates to examine it in which it is said That the Sentence was given only by Lay-men and that Tonstal being kept Prisoner long in the Tower was brought to his Trial in which he had neither Counsel assigned him nor convenient time given him for clearing himself and that after divers Protestations they had notwithstanding his Appeal deprived him of his Bishoprick He was not only turned out but kept Prisoner till Queen Mary set him at liberty At the end of this Parliament the King granted a free Pardon concerning which this is only remarkable That whereas it goes for a Maxime that the Acts of Pardon must be passed without changing any thing in them the Commons when they sent up this Act of Pardon to the Lords desired that some words might be amended in it but it is not clear what was done for that same day the Acts were passed and the Parliament was dissolved In it the Duke of Northumberland had carried this Point That the Nation made a publick Declaration of their dislike of the Duke of Somersets Proceedings which was the more necessary because the King had let fall words concerning his death by which he seemed to reflect on it with some concern and look'd on it as Northumberlands deed But the Act had passed with such difficulty that either the Duke did not think the Parliament well enough disposed for him or else he resolved totally to vary from the Measures of the Duke of Somerset who continued the same Parliament long whereas this that was opened on the first was dissolved on the last day of March. A Visitation for the Plate in the Churches Visitors were soon after appointed to examine what Church-plate Jewels and other Furniture was in all Cathedrals and Churches and to compare their account with the Inventories made in former Visitations and to see what was embezeled and how it was done And because the King was resolved to have Churches and Chappels furnished with that that was comely and convenient for the Administration of the Sacraments they were to give one or two Chalices of Silver or more to every Church Chappel or Cathedral as their discretions should direct them and to distribute comely Furniture for the Communion-Table and for Surplices and to sell the rest of the Linen and give it to the Poor and to sell Copes and Altar-Cloaths and deliver all the rest of the Plate and Jewels to the Kings Treasurer Sir Edm. Pecham This is spitefully urged by one of our Writers who would have his Reader infer from it that the King was ill principled as to the matters of the Church because when this Order was given by
him he was now in the 16th Year of his Age. But if all Princes should be thus judged by all Instructions that pass under their Hands they would be more severely censured than there is cause And for the particular matter that is charged on the Memory of this young Prince which as it was represented to him was only a calling for the superfluous Plate and other Goods that lay in Churches more for pomp than for use though the applying of it to common uses except upon extream necessities is not a thing that can be justified yet it deserved not so severe a censure especially the Instructions being Signed by the King in his sickness in which it is not likely that he minded Affairs of that kind much but set his Hand easily to such Papers as the Council prepared for him These Instructions were directed in the Copy that I have perused Instructions for the President of the North. to the Earl of Shrewsbury Lord President of the North upon which occasion I shall here make mention of that which I know not certainly in what Year to place namely the Instructions that were given to that Earl when he was made President of the North. And I mention them the rather because there have been since that time some Contests about that Office and the Court belonging to it There was by his Instructions a Council to be assistant to him whereof some of the Members were at large and not bound to attendance others were not to leave him without licence from him and he was in all things to have a negative Voice in it For the other Particulars I refer the Reader to the Copy which he will find in the Collection Collection Number 56. One Instruction among them belongs to Religion that he and the other Councellors when there was at any time Assemblies of People before them should perswade them to be obedient chiefly to the Laws about Religion and especially concerning the Service set forth in their own Mother-Tongue There was also a particular charge given them concerning the abolished Power of the Bishop of Rome whose abuses they were by continual inculcation so to beat into the minds of the People that they might well apprehend them and might see that those things were said to them from their Hearts and not from their Tongues only for Forms sake They were also to satisfie them about the abrogation of many Holy-days appointed by the same Bishop who endeavoured to perswade the World that he could make Saints at his pleasure which by leading the People to idleness gave occasion to many vices and inconveniences These Instructions were given after the Peace was made with Scotland otherwise there must have been a great deal in them relating to that War but the Critical time of them I do not know This Year Harly was made Bishop of Hereford instead of Skip who died the last Year And he being the last of those who were made so by Letters Patents The Form of the Bishops Letters Patents I shall give the Reader some satisfaction concerning that way of making Bishops The Patents began with the mention of the vacancy of the See by death or removal upon which the King being informed of the good qualifications of such a one appoints him to be Bishop during his natural Life or so long as he shall behave himself well giving him power to ordain and deprive Ministers to confer Benefices judge about Wills name Officials and Commissaries exercise Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction visit the Clergy inflict Censures and punish scandalous Persons and to do all the other parts of the Episcopal Function that were found by the Word of God to be committed to Bishops all which they were to execute and do in the Kings Name and Authority After that in the same Patent follows the restitution of the Temporalties The day after a Certificate in a Writ called a Significavit was to be made of this under the Great Seal to the Arch-bishop with a Charge to consecrate him The first that had his Bishoprick by the Kings Patents was Barlow that was removed from St. Davids to Bath and Wells They bear date the third of February in the second Year of the Kings Reign and so Ferrar Bishop of St. Davids was not the first as some have imagined for he was made Bishop the first of August that Year This Ferrar was a rash indiscreet Man and drew upon himself the dislike of the Prebendaries of St. Davids He was made Bishop upon the Duke of Somersets favour to him But last Year many Articles were objected to him some as if he had incurred a Praemunire for acting in his Courts not in the Kings but his own Name and some for neglecting his Charge and some little indecencies were objected to him as going strangely habited travelling on foot whistling impertinently with many other things which if true shewed in him much weakness and folly The heaviest Articles he denied yet he was kept in Prison and Commissioners were sent into Wales to examine Witnesses who took many Depositions against him He lay in Prison till Queen Maries time and then he was kept in on the account of his Belief But his suffering afterwards for his Conscience when Morgan who had been his chief Accuser before on those other Articles being then made his Judge condemned him for Heresie and made room for himself to be Bishop by burning him did much turn Peoples Censures from him upon his Successor By these Letters Patents it is clear that the Episcopal Function was acknowledged to be of Divine appointment and that the Person was no other way named by the King than as Lay-Patrons present to Livings only the Bishop was legally authorized in such a part of the Kings Dominions to execute that Function which was to be derived to him by Imposition of Hands Therefore here was no pretence for denying that such Persons were true Bishops and for saying as some have done that they were not from Christ but from the King Upon this occasion it will not be improper to represent to the Reader how this matter stands according to Law at this day which is the more necessary because some superficial Writers have either mis-understood or mis-represented it The Act that authorized those Letters Patents and required the Bishops to hold their Courts in the Kings Name was repealed both by the 1 Mar. Chap. 2. and 1 and 2 Phil. and Mary Chap. 8. The latter of these that repealed only a part of it was repealed by the 1 Eliz. Chap. 1. and the former by the 1 Jac. Chap. 25. So some have argued that since those Statutes which repealed this Act of Edward the 6th 1. Par. Chap. 2. are since repealed that it stands now in full force This seems to have some colour in it and so it was brought in question in Parliament in the fourth year of King James and great debate being made about it the King appointed the two Chief Justices
be as wise sober gentle and temperate as any Prince that ever was in England and if he did not prove so he was content that all his Hearers should esteem him an impudent Lyar. The State of the Court continued in this posture till the next Parliament But great Discontents did now appear every-where The severe Executions after the last rising the Marriage with Spain and the overturning of Religion concurred to alienate the Nation from the Government This appeared no where more confidently than in Norfolk where the People reflecting on their Services thought they might have the more leave to speak There were some malicious Rumours spread that the Queen was with Child before the King came over This was so much resented at Court that the Queen writ a Letter to the Justices there which is in the Collection to enquire into those false Reports and to look to all that spread false News in the County Coll. Numb 14. The Earl of Sussex upon this examined a great many but could make nothing out of it It flowed from the officiousness of Hopton the new Bishop of Norwich who thought to express his Zeal to the Queen whose Chaplain he had long been by sending up the Tales of the Country to the Council Table not considering how much it was below the Dignity of the Government to look after all vain Reports Bonner's Carriage in his Visitation This Summer the Bishops went their Visitations to see every thing executed according to the Queen's Injunctions Bonner went his with the rest He had ordered his Chaplains to draw a Book of Homilies with an Exposition of the Christian Religion He says in his Preface to it that he and his Chaplains had compiled it but it is likely he had only the Name of it and that his Chaplains composed it Yet the greatest and indeed the best part of it was made to their hands for it was taken out of the Institution of a Christian Man set out by King Henry only varied in those Points in which it differed from what they were now about to set up So that concerning the Pope's Power since it was not yet established he says nothing for or against it The Articles upon which he made his Visitation will be found in the Collection Coll. Numb 15. and by these we may judg of all the other Visitations over England In the Preface he protests he had not made his Articles out of any secret grudg or displeasure to any but meerly for the discharge of his Conscience towards God and the World The Articles were Whether the Clergy did so behave themselves in Living Teaching and Doing that in the judgment of indifferent Men they seemed to seek the Honour of God of the Church and of the King and Queen Whether they had been Married or were taken for Married and whether they were Divorced and did no more come at their Wives or whether they did defend their Marriages Whether they did reside keep Hospitality provide a Curat in their absence And whether they did devoutly celebrate the Service and use Processions Whether they were suspect of Heresy Whether they did haunt Ale-houses and Taverns Bowling-Allies or suspect Houses Whether they favoured or kept company with any suspect of Heresy Whether any Priest lived in the Parish that absented himself from Church Whether these kept any privat Conventicles Whether any of the Clergy was Vicious blasphemed God or his Saints or was guilty of Simony Whether they exhorted the People to Peace and Obedience Whether they admited any to the Sacrament that was suspect of Heresy or was of an ill Conversation an Oppressor or Evil-Doer Whether they admitted any to preach that were not licensed or refused such as were Whether they did officiate in English Whether they did use the Sacraments aright Whether they visited the Sick and administred the Sacraments to them Whether they did marry any without asking the Banes three Sundays Whether they observed the Fasts and Holy-Days Whether they went in their Habits and Tonsures Whether those that were ordained schismatically did officiate without being admitted by the Ordinary Whether they set Leases for many Years of their Benefices Whether they followed Merchandise or Usury Whether they carried Swords or Daggers in Times or Places not convenient Whether they did once every quarter expound to the People in the Vulgar Tongue the Apostles Creed Ten Commandments the Two Commandments of Christ for loving God and our Neighbour the Seven Works of Mercy Seven deadly Sins Seven principal Vertues and the Seven Sacraments These were the most considerable Heads on which he visited One thing is remarkable that it appears both by these No Reordination of those ordained in King Edwards Time and the Queen's Injunctions that they did not pretend to re-ordain those that had been ordained by the New Book in King Edward's Time but to reconcile them and add those things that were wanting which were the Anointing and giving the Priestly Vestments with other Rites of the Roman Pontifical In this Point of re-ordaining such as were ordained in Heresy or Schism the Church of Rome has not gone by any steady Rule For though they account the Greek Church to be guilty both of Heresy and Schism they receive their Priests without a New Ordination Yet after the time of the Contests between Pope Nicolaus and Photius and much more after the outragious heats at Rome between Sergius and Formosus in which the dead Bodies of the former Popes were raised and dragged about the Streets by their Successors they annulled the Ordinations which they pretended were made irregularly Afterwards again upon the great Schism between the Popes of Rome and Avignon they did neither annul nor renew the Orders that had been given But now in England though they only supplied at this time the Defects which they said were in their former Ordination yet afterwards wheâ— they proceeded to burn them that were in Orders they went upon the old Maxim That Orders given in Schism were not valid 〈◊〉 they did not esteem Hooper nor Ridley Bishops and therefore only dâ—grâ—ded them from Priesthood though they had been ordained by their own Forms saving only the Oath to the Pope but for those who were ordained by the new Book they did not at all degrade them supposing noâ—â—hey had no true Orders by it Bonner in his Visitation took great care to see all things were every where done according to the old Rules which was the main thing intended other Points being put in for form When he came to Hadham he prevented the Doctor who did not expect him so soon by two hours so that there was no ringing of Bells which put him in no small disorder And that was much encreased when he went into the Church and found neither the Sacrament hanging up nor a Rood set up thereupon he fell a railing swearing most intemperately calling the Priest an Heretick a Knave with many other such goodly words The
Rudiments of Grammar to her by the Title of Princess of Cornwal and Wales Besides the Letter of Pope Leo's declaring K. Henry P. 19. l. 26. Defender of the Faith there was a more pompous one sent over by P. Clement the 7th March 5. 1523 4 which as is supposed granted that Title to his Successors whereas the first Grant seems to have been only Personal P. 22. l. 2. No wonder there was no Seal to that Grant of King Edgars for Seals were little used in England before the Conquest Ibid. l. 10. The Monks were not then setled in half the Cathedrals in England their chief Seats were in the Rich Abbeys that were scarce subject to the Bishops Ibid. Marg. April 1524 was not the 14th Year of the King's Reign as it is put on the Margent but the 15th P. 44. l. 5. from bottom The Lord Piercy was in the Cardinal's Family rather in a way of Education not unusual in those Times than of Service P. 47. l. 12. from bottom The General of the Observants in Spain seems an improper expression for the Generals have the government of the whole Order every-where yet I find him so called in some Originals see Coll. pag. 22 23. whether it was done improperly or whether that Order was then only in Spain I cannot determine P. 56. l. 19. How far the Cardinal had carried the Foundation at Ipswich it is not known but it is certain he did never finish what he had designed at Oxford But in this I went according to the Letters Patents by which it appears he had then done his part and had set off both Lands and Mony for these Foundations P. 69. l. 16. from bottom Campegio's Son is by Hall none of his Flatterers said to have been born in Wedlock i. e. before he took Orders This is also confirmed by Gauricus Genitur 24. who says he had by his Wife three Sons and two Daughters P. 77. l. 18. Campegio might take upon him to direct the Process as being sent Express from Rome or to avoid the imputation that might have been cast on the Proceedings if Wolsey had done it but he was not the ancienter Cardinal for Wolsey was made alone Sept. 7. 1515. and Campegio with many more was advanced July 1. 1517. P. 81. l. 32. The Lord Herbert says the King gave him only the use of Richmond which is more probable P. 82. l. 6. The Cardinal died Novemb. 29. as most Writers agree so it is wrong set in the History the 28 and in the Picture 26 for 29. P. 85. l. 21. This Book is in the end of it said to be printed 1530 in April but it seems an Error for 1531 for the Censures of the Universities which are printed in and mentioned in several places of it do all bear date after that April except those made by these of Oxford and Orleans from bottom P. 86. What is said concerning the Author of the Antiquities of Oxford has been much complained of by him I find he has Authorities for what he said but they are from Authors whose Manuscripts he perused who are of no better Credit than Sanders himself such as Harpsfield and others of the like Credit And I am satisfied that he had no other Design in what he writ but to set down things as he found them in the Authors whom he made use of Calvin's Epistle seems not to belong to this Case for besides that P. 92. he was then but 21 and tho he was a Doctor of the Law and had often preached before he was 24 for then he set out Seneca de Clementia with Notes on it Yet this was too soon to think he could have been consulted in so great a Case That Epistle seems to relate to a Prince who was desirous of such a Marriage and not of dissolving it though it is indeed strange that in treating of that Question he should make no mention of so famous a case as that of King Henry which had made so much noise in the World The Letter dated the 8th of Decemb. P. 110. l. 22. should have been mentioned immediately after that of the 5th being but three days after it and the Appeal that followed should have been set down after it It were also fit to publish the Appeal it self for the power of Appealing was a Point much contraverted Pope Pius the 2d condemned it 1549 yet it was used by the Venetians 1509 and by the University of Paris March 27. 1517. Pool as Dean of Exeter P. 113. l. 4. is said to be have been one of the Lower House of Convocation which doth not agree with the Conjecture p. 129. that the Deans at that time sat in the Upper House of Convocation These sent by the King to Rome came thither in February P. 120. l. 8. not in March and the Articles they put in were 27 not 28 as it is there said These with other small Circumstances appear from a Book then printed of these Disputes If Cranmer was present at Ann Boleyn's Marriage P. 126. l. 11. which was certainly in Novemb. Warham having died in August before he could not have delayed his coming to England six months Antiq. Brit. says he followed the Emperor to Spain but Sleiden says that the Emperor went no further than Mantua this Year and sailed to Spain in March following and Cranmer would not go then with him for he was consecrated not on the 13th of March which is an Error but on the 30th of March. The order in which these Books were published is not observed P. 137. l. 10. they were thus printed 1. De vera differentia Regiae Potestatis Ecclesiasticae written by Edw. Fox Bishop of Hereford 1534. 2. De vera Obedientia by Stephen Gardiner 1535. set out with Bonner's Preface before it in Jan. 1536. 3. The Institution of a Christian Man 1537. which was afterwards reduced into another Form under another Title viz. A Necessary Doctrine and Erudition for any Christian Man 1540. But there was another put out before all these De potestate Christianorum Regum in suis Ecclesiis contra Pontificis Tyrannidem and the distinction there made between the Bishop's Book and the King's Book seems not well applied It is more probable that the Institution of a Christian Man set out by the Bishops was called their Book and that being afterwards put in another Method and set out by the King's Authority it was called his Book P. 150. l. 19. Bocking is called a Canon of Christs-Church in Canterbury But there were then no Canons in that Church they were all Monks P. 158. l. 6. The Bishops Suffragans were before common in England some Abbots or rich Clergy-Men procuring under Forreign or perhaps feigned Titles that Dignity and so performing some parts of the Episcopal Function in large or neglected Diocesses so the Abbot or Prior of Tame was one