Severity when it looked like Revenge The Queen's gentleness to them All this might have been expected from such a Queen and such Bishops But it shewed a great temper in the whole Nation that such a Man as Bonner had been was suffered to go about in safety and was not made a Sacrifice to the Revenge of those who had lost their near Friends by his means Many things were brought against him and White and some other Bishops upon which the Queen promised to give a Charge to the Visitors whom she was to send over England to enquire into these things and after she had heard their Report she said she would proceed as she saw cause by this means she did not deny justice but gained a little time to take off the Edg that was on Mens Spirits who had been much provoked by the ill usage they had met with from them Heath was a Man of a generous temper and was so well used by the Queen for as he was suffered to live securely at his own House in Surrey so she went thither sometimes to visit him Tonstall and Thirleby lived in Lambeth with Parker with great freedom and ease the one was Learned and good natured the other was a Man of Business but too easy and flexible White and Watson were morose sullen Men to which their Studies as well as their Tempers had disposed them for they were much given to Scholastical Divinity which inclined Men to be Cinical to over-value themselves and despise others Christopherson was a good Grecian and had translated Eusebius and the other Church Historians into Latin but with as little fidelity as may be expected from a Man violently addicted to a Party Bain was learned in the Hebrew which he had professed at Paris in the Reign of Francis the First All these chose to live still in England only Pates Scot and Goldwell went beyond Sea After them went the Lord Morley Sir Francis Englefield Sir Robert Peckham Sir Thomas Shelley and Sir John Gage who it seems desired to live where they might have the free exercise of their Religion And such was the Queen's gentleness that this was not denied them tho such favour had not been shewed in Q. Mary's Reign Feeknam Abbot of Westminster was a charitable and generous Man and lived in great esteem in England Most of the Monks returned to a Secular course of Life but the Nunns went beyond Sea Now the Queen intended to send Injunctions over England A Visitation and Injunctions ordered by the Queen and in the end of June they were prepared There was great difficulty made about one of them the Queen seemed to think the use of Images in Churches might be a means to stir up Devotion and that at least it would draw all People to frequent them the more for the great measure of her Councils was to unite the whole Nation into one way of Religion The Reformed Bishops and Divines opposed this vehemently they put all their Reasons in a long Writing which they gave her concerning it the Preface and Conclusion of which will be found in the Collection Coll. Numb 6. They protested they could not comply with that which as it was against their own Consciences so it would prove a Snare to the Ignorant they had often pressed the Queen in that Matter The Queen inclined to retain Images in Churches which it seems stuck long with her They prayed her not to be offended with that Liberty they took thus to lay their Reasons before her it being a thing which Christian Princes had at all times taken well from their Bishops They desired her to commit that Matter to the Decision of a Synod of Bishops and Divines and not to do such a thing meerly upon some Political Considerations which as it would offend many so it would reflect much on the Reign of her most Godly Brother and on those who had then removed all Images and had given their Lives afterwards for a Testimony to the Truth The substance of their Reasons Reasons brought against it which for their length I have not put in the Collection is That the second Commandment forbids the making of any Images as a resemblance of God And Deut. 27. there was a Curse pronounced on those who made an Image an abomination to the Lord and put it in a secret place which they expounded of some Sacraria in private Houses and Deut. 4. among the Cautions Moses gives to the People of Israel to beware of Idolatry this is one that they do not make an Image for the use of these does naturally degenerate into Idolatry The Jews were so sensible of this after the Captivity that they would die rather than suffer an Image to be put in their Temple The Book of Wisdom calls an Image A Snare for the feet of the Ignorant St. John charged those he writ to to beware of Idols So Tertullian said It was not enough to beware of Idolatry towards them but of the very Images themselves And as Moses had charged the People not to lay a stumbling-block in the way of the Blind so it was a much greater Sin to leave such a Trap for the weak Multitude This was not for Edification since it fed the Superstition of the Weak and Ignorant who would continue in their former dotage upon them and would alienate others from the Publick Worship So that between those that would separate from them if they were continued and the Multitude that would abuse them the number of those that would use them aright would be very inconsiderable The outward splendor of them would be apt to draw the minds of the Worshippers if not to direct Idolatry yet to staring and distraction of Thoughts Both Origen and Arnobius tell us That the Primitive Christians had no Images at all Ireneus accused the Gnosticks for carrying about the Image of Christ St. Austin commends Varro for saying that the old Romans worshipped God more chastly without the use of any Images Epiphanius tore a Veil with an Image on it and Serenus broke Images in Gregory the Great 's Time Valens and Theodosius made a Law against the Painting or Graving of the Image of Christ And the use of Images in the Eastern Churches brought those distractions on that Empire that laid it open to the Invasions of the Mahometans These Reasons prevailed with the Queen to put it into her Injunctions to have all Images removed out of the Church The Injunctions given by King Edward at his first coming to the Crown were all renewed with very little variation To these some things were added of which I shall give account The Heads of the Injunctions It was no where declared neither in the Scriptures nor by the Primitive Church that Priests might not have Wives upon which many in King Edward's Time had married Yet great offence was given by the indecent Marriages that some of them then made To prevent the like Scandals for
in these has left Divines to the freedom of their several Opinions nor did she run on that other Rock of Defining at first so peremptorily the manner of Christs Presence in the Sacrament which divided the German and the Helvetian Churches but in that did also leave a Latitude to Men of different perswasions From this great temper it might have reasonably been expected that we should have continued Vnited at Home and then for things Sacred as well as Civil we had been out of the Danger of what all our Forreign Enemies could have Contrived or done against us But the Enemy while the Watchmen slept sowed his Tares even in this Fruitful Field of which it may be expected I should give some Account here and the rather because I end this Work at the time when those unhappy differences first arose so that I give them no part in this History and yet I have in the search I made seen some things of great Importance which are very little known that give me a clearer light into the beginnings of these Differences than is commonly to be had of which I shall discourse so as becomes one who has not blindly given himself up to any Party and is not afraid to speak the truth even in the most critical matters There were many Learned and Pious Divines in the beginning of Queen Elizabeth's Reign who being driven beyond Sea had observed the New Modells set up in Geneva and other places for the Censuring of Scandalous Persons of mixed Judicatories of the Ministers and Laity and these reflecting on the great loosness of Life which had been universally Complained of in King Edward's time thought such a Platform might be an Effectual way for keeping out a return of the like disorders There were also some few Rites reserved in this Church that had been either used in the Primitive Church or tho brought in of later time yet seemed of excellent use to beget Reverence in Holy Performances which had also this to be said for them that the keeping these still was done in Imitation of what Christ and his Apostles did in Symbolizing with the Jewish Rites to gain the Jews th reby as much as could be so it was Judged necessary to preserve these to let the World see that tho Corruptions were thrown out yet the Reformers did not love to change only for change sake when it was not otherwise needful and this they hoped might draw in many who otherwise would not so easily have forsaken the Roman Commnaion Yet these Divines excepted to those as Complyances with Popery and tho they Professed no great dislike to the Ceremonies themselves or doubt of their Lawfulness yet were they against their Continuance upon that single Account which was indeed the chief reason why they were continued But all this Debate was modestly Managed and without violent Heat or Separation afterwards some of the Queens Courtiers had an eye to the fair Mannours of some of the greater Sees and being otherwise Men of ill Tempers and Lives and probably of no Religion would have perswaded the Queen that nothing could Vnite all the Reformed Churches so effectually as to bring the English Church to the Modell beyond Sea and that it would much Enrich the Crown if she took the Revenues of Bishopricks and Cathedrals into her own Hands This made those on the other hand who laid to Heart the true Interest of the Protestant Religion and therefore endeavoured to preserve this Church in that strong and well Modelled Frame to which it was brought particularly the Lord Burleigh the Wisest States-man of that Age and perhaps of any other study how to Engage the Queen out of Interest to support it and they Demonstrated to her that these New Modells would certainly bring with them a great Abatement of her Prerogative since if the Concerns of Religion came into Popular Hands there would be a Power set up distinct from hers over which she could have no Authority This she perceived well and therefore resolved to Maintain the Antient Government of the Church but by this means it became a matter of Interest and so these differences which might have been more easily reconciled before grew now into formed Factions so that all Expedients were left unattempted which might have made up tâ—â— Breach And it becoming the Interest of some to put it past reconciling this was too easily effected Those of the Division finding they could not carry their main design raised all the Clamours they could against the Churchmen and put in Bills into the Parliament against the abuses of Pluralities Non-residences and the Excesses of the Spiritual Courts But the Queen being possessed with this that the Parliaments medling in these matters tended to the lessening of her Authority of which she was extreamly sensible got all these Bills to be thrown out If the abuses that gave such occasion to the mal-contented to complain had been effectually redressed that Party must have had little to work on but these things furnished them with new Complaints still the Market-Towns being also ill provided for there were Voluntary Contributions made for Lectures in these places The Lecturers were generally Men that overtopped the Incumbents in diligent and Zealous Preaching and they depending on the bounty of the People for their Subsistence were engaged to follow the humours of those who Governed those Voluntary Contributions All these things tended to the encrease of the Party which owed its chief growth to the scandalous Maintenance of the Ministers of great Towns for which reason they were seldom of great Abilities and to the scandals given by the Pluralities and Non-residences of others that were over-provided Yet the Government in Civil matters was so steady all the Queens Reign that they could do no great thing after she once declared her self so openly and resolutely against them But upon King James's coming to the Crown and the divisions that came to be afterwards in Parliaments between the too too often named Parties for the Court and Country and Clergymen being linked to the interests of the Crown all those who in Civil matters Opposed the designs of the Court resolved to cherish those of the Division under the Colour of their being hearty Protestants and that it was the interest of the Reformed Religion to use them well and that all Protestants should Vnite And indeed the differences between them were then so small that if great Art had not been used to keep them asunder they had certainly Vnited of their own accord But the late unhappy Wars engaged those who before only complained of Abuses into a formed separation which still continues to the great danger and disgrace of the Protestant Religion I shall not make any Observations on latter Transactions which fall within all Mens View but it is plain that from the beginning there have been laboured designs to make Tools of the several Parties and to make a great breach between them which lays us now so
chuse And as for our own Persons we shall bestow with all that ever we have to the death where and however it shall please him submitting our selves to his Majesty's Judgment in this Matter and to the execution and doing of that whatsoever either his Majesty or any other Man shall devise to be done better than we have said in this Answer and more for the honour and surety of their Majesties and Common-Wealth of this their Realm Feb. 1. 1577. Number 37. Sir Thomas Pope's Letter concerning the Answer made by the Lady Elizabeth to a proposition of Marriage sent over by the Elected King of Sweden FIrst Ex M. S. D G. Petyt After I had declared to her Grace how well the Queen's Majesty liked of her prudent and honourable Answer made to the same Messenger I then opened unto her Grace the Effect of the said Messengers Credence which after her Grace had heard I said The Queen's Highness had sent me to her Grace not only to declare the same but also to understand how her Grace liked the said Motion Whereunto after a little pause taken her Grace answered in form following Master Pope I require you after my most humble Commendations to the Queen's Majesty to render unto the same like thanks that it pleased her Highness of her Goodness to conceive so well of my Answer made to the same Messenger and here withal of her Princely Consideration with such speed to command you by your Letters to signify the same unto me who before remained wonderfully perplexed fearing that her Majesty might mistake the same for which her Goodness I acknowledg my self bound to honour serve love and obey her Highness during my Life Requiring you also to say unto her Majesty That in the King my Brother's time there was offered me a very honourable Marriage or two and Ambassadors sent to treat with me touching the same whereupon I made my humble Suit unto his Highness as some of Honour yet living can be testimonies that it would like the same to give me leave with his Grace's favour to remain in that Estate I was which of all others best liked me or pleased me And in good Faith I pray you say unto her Highness I am even at this present of the same mind and so intend to continue with her Majesty's favour and assuring her Highness I so well like this Estate as I perswade my self there is not any kind of Life comparable unto it And as concerning my liking the said Motion made by the said Messenger I beseech you say unto her Majesty That to my remembrance I never heard of his Master before this time and that I so well like both the Message and the Messenger as I shall most humbly pray God upon my Knees that from henceforth I never hear of the one nor of the other assure you that if it should eft-soons repair unto me I would forbear to speak to him And were there nothing else to move me to mislike the Motion other than that his Master would attempt the same without making the Queen's Majesty privy thereunto it were cause sufficient And when her Grace had thus ended I was so bold as of my self to say unto her Grace her pardon first required that I thought few or none would believe but that her Grace could be right-well contented to marry so there were some honourable Marriage offered her by the Queen's Highness or her Majesty's Assent Whereunto her Grace answered What I shall do hereafter I know not but I assure you upon my Truth and Fidelity and as God be merciful unto me I am not at this time otherwise minded than I have declared unto you no though I were offered the greatest Prince in all Europe And yet percase the Queen's Majesty may conceive this rather to proceed of a maidenly shamefastness than upon any such certain determination Tho. Pope FINIS A COLLECTION OF RECORDS c. BOOK III. Number 1. The Device for Alteration of Religion in the first Year of Queen Elizabeth offered to Secretary Cecill Question 1. WHen the Queen's Highness may attempt to reduce the Church of England again to the former purity Ex M. SS Nob. D. Grey dc Ruthen and when to begin the Alteration Answer At the next Parliament so that the Dangers be foreseen and Remedies provided for the sooner that Religion is restored God is the more glorified and as we trust will be more merciful unto us and better save and defend her Highness from all Dangers Quest 2. What Dangers may ensue thereof Answ 1. The Bishop of Rome all that he may will be incensed he will Excommunicate the Queen's Highness Interdict the Realm and give it in Prey to all Princes that will enter upon it and stir them up to it by all manner of means 2. The French King will be encouraged more to the War and make his People more ready to fight against us not only as Enemies but as Hereticks He will be in great hope of Aid from hence of them that are discontented with this Alteration looking for Tumults and Discords He will also stay concluding of Peace upon hope of some alteration 3. Scotland also will have the same Causes of boldness and by that way the French King will seem soonest to attempt to annoy us Ireland also will be very difficultly stayed in the Obedience by reason of the Clergy that is so addicted to Rome 4. Many People of our own will be very much discontented especially all such as governed in the late Queen Mary's Time and were chosen theâ—â—to for no other Causes or were then most esteemed for being hot and earnest in that other Religion and now remain unplaced and uncalled to Credit will think themselves discredited and all their Doings defaced and study all the ways they can to maintain their own Doings destroy and despise all this Alteration 5. Bishops and all the Clergy will see their own ruin and in Confession and Preaching and all other means and ways they can will persuade the People from it they will conspire with whomsoever will attempt and pretend to do God a Sacrifice in letting the Alteration though it be with murder of Christian Men and Treason Men which be of the Papists Sect which of late were in a manner all the Judges of the Land the Justices of the Peace chosen out by the late Queen in all the Shires such as were believed to be of that Sect and the more earnest therein the more in estimation These are most like to join and conspire with the Bishops and Clergy Some when the Subsidy shall be granted and Mony levied as it appeareth that necessarily it must be done will be therewith offended and like enough to conspire and arise if they have any heed to stir them to do it or hope of Gain or Spoil 6. Many such as would gladly have Alteration from the Church of Rome when they shall see peradventure that some old Ceremonies be left still
to preserve the Catholick Religion both which she promised but performed neither This is said without any Proof and is not at all probable but is an Ornament added to set off the one and blemish the other Queen Mary's Sickness was concealed as much as was possible A week before her Death they were burning Hereticks as busily as ever and by the managing Affairs in the Parliament it appears there was great care taken to conceal the desperate Condition she was in so it is not likely that any such Messages was sent by her to her Sister And thus far have I traced our Author in the History he gives of the Reigns of King Henry the Eighth Edward the Sixth and Queen Mary and have discovered an equal measure of Ignorance and Malice in him but he was the fitter to serve their Ends who employed him and were resolved to believe him how false or improbable soever his Relation might be We see what use they have made of him ever since that Time His Friends were so sensible of the Advantage their Cause received from such a way of Writing that they resolved to continue down the History through Queen Elizabeth's Reign in which we are told Sanders himself made some Progress but that not being done to such a perfection as Rishton and others intended to bring it they undertook it and have written so skilfully after the Copy Sanders had given them that if it is possible they have out-done him in these two particular Excellencies of writing Histories in which he was so great a Master Impudence and Falshood as to Matter of Fact In one thing they had manifestly the better of him that they writing of what fell out in their own Time could not be ignorant of the truth of Things whereas he writing of what was done before he was born or when he was but a Child might have said many things more innocently delivering them as he had them by report But this Excuse cannot fit them who did knowingly and on Design prevaricate so grosly in Matters of Fact A little taste of these I shall give only so far as I have carried down the History of this Queen for to examine all the Faults they have committed would require a new Volume but from the taste I shall give the Reader he will easily know what judgment to pass on the whole work As for the Decency of the Style the first Period gives an Essay of it in which the Author promises such a Description of the Queen's Reign that this Lioness shall be known by her Claws And for his sincerity in writing the whole Preface is one indication of it in which he accuses the Queen for acting against the Laws of Nature and Religion in assuming the Supremacy and represents it so that the Reader must needs think she was the High Priest of England that ordained Bishops and Ministers and performed all other Holy Offices whereas she was so scrupulous in this Point that as she would not be called the Supream Head of this Church so she made it be declared both in one of the Articles of Religion set forth in the beginning of her Reign and afterwards in an Act of Parliament what was the nature of that Supremacy which she assumed making it both a part of the Religion and the Law of the Land By these it was declared that they gave her not the Ministry of God's Word or of the Sacraments but only that Prerogative which was given by God himself in the Scriptures to Godly Princes that they should rule all committed to their charge by God whether they be Ecclesiastical or Temporal and restrain with the Civil Sword the stubborn and evil Doers If Men were not past shame they could not after such an express and publick Declaration put on the confidence of writing as this Author does I shall follow him in some more steps and doubt not not but I shall convince the Reader that he was the fittest Man that could be found to have writ a Continuation of Sanders's History Pag. 255. 1. He says Henry the Second of France in a solemn Assembly did after Queen Mary's Death declare the Queen of Scotland his Daughter-in-Law Queen of England and Ireland This was neither done in a Solemn Assembly nor presently after Queen Mary's Death nor was it done by Henry the Second The Queen of Scotland did by her Uncles Advice assume that Title without any publick Act and it was not done till they understood that Philip was moving for a Dispensation in the Court of Rome for marrying Queen Elizabeth King Henry did only connive at it but neither ordered it nor justified it when the Queen's Ambassador complained of it An Author that is so happy in his first Period as to make three such Mistakes is likely to give us an excellent History Ibid. 2. He says The Arch-Bishop of York and all the other Bishops one only excepted refused to anoint her This was one of the most extraordinary things that ever was in any Government that the Bishops refusing to crown the Queen were not only not punished for it but continued to hold their Bishopricks still and the Arch-Bishop of York was continued a Privy Counsellor many months after this This is none of the Claws of a Lioness but rather a slackness and easiness of Clemency that deserves censure if it had not been that the Queen resolved to begin her Reign with the most signal Acts of Mercy that were possible Pag. 256. 3. He says Cecil and his Friend Bacon raised vast Estates to themselves and involved the Government into vast Difficulties and brought the Queen's Revenue into great or rather inextricable Confusion This may pass among Forreigners and perhaps be believed but we at home that when we wish for happy Times and excellent Counsellors do naturally reflect on the Days of that glorious Queen and her wise Councils will not be much wrought on by it The Revenue was never better managed the Undertakings of the Government were never greater and the Charge was never less This gives a Character of those Ministers beyond all exception Sir Nicholas Bacon never raised himself above that Quality which he brought with him into the Court. And Cecil was not advanced above the lowest Rank of Nobility tho he was in the chief Ministry above thirty Years and though they both left good Estates behind them yet far short of what might have been expected after so long a course in such great and high Employments 4. 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The History of the Powder-Treason with a Vindication of the Proceedings and Matters relating thereunto from the Exceptions made against it and more particularly of late Years by the Author of the Catholick Apology and others To which is added A Parallel betwixt That and the present Plot 1681. 4 to The Counter-Scuffle 4 to Mr. Langford's plain and useful Instructions to raise all sorts of Fruit-Trees that prosper in England in that method and order that every thing is to be done in Together with the best Directions for making Liquors of the several sorts of Fruit 1681. 8o. FINIS
The Second Part OF THE HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION By the Lords Die Lunae 3. Januarij 1680. ORdered by the Lords Spiritual and Temporal in Parliament Assembled That the Thanks of this House be given to Dr. Burnet for the great Service done by him to this Kingdom and the Protestant Religion in writing the History of the Reformation of the Church of England so truly and exactly And that he be desired to proceed in the perfecting what he further intends therein with all convenient speed Jo. Browne Cleric Parliamentorum By the Commons Jovis 23. Die Decemb. 1680. ORdered That the Thanks of This House be given to Dr. Burnet for his Book Intituled The History of the Reformation of the Châ—rch of England Will. Goldesbrough Cleric Dom. Com. Mercurij 5. Die Januarij 1680. ORdered That Dr. Burnet be desired to proceed with and compleat that Good Work by him begun in Writing and Publishing The History of the Reformation of the Church of England Will. Goldesbrough Cler. Dom. Com. THE HISTORY of the REFORMATION of the Church of England The Second Part Printed for Rich Chiswell at the Rose and Crowne in St. Pauls Church yard The Holy Bible THE HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION OF THE Church of England The Second Part. OF THE Progress made in it till the Settlement of it in the beginning OF Q. Elizabeth's Reign By GILBERT BVRNET D. D. LONDON Printed by T. H. for Richard Chiswell at the Rose and Crown in St. Paul's Church-yard MDCLXXXI THE PREFACE THE favourable reception which the former Part of this Work had together with the new Materials that were sent me from Noble and Worthy Hands have encouraged me to prosecute it and to carry down the History of the Reformation of this Church till it was brought to a compleat settlement in the beginning of Queen Elizabeths Reign which I now offer to the World The great zeal of this Age for what was done in that about Religion has made the History of it to be received and read with more than ordinary attention and care and many have expressed their satisfaction in what was formerly published by contributing several Papers of great consequence to what remained and since I found no Part of the first Volume was more universally acceptable than that wherein I was only a Transcriber I mean the Collection of Records and Authentick Papers which I had set down in confirmation of the more remarkable and doubtful parts of the History I continue the same method now I shall repeat nothing here that was in my former Preface But refer the Reader to such things as concern this History in general and my encouragement in the undertaking and prosecution of it to what is there premised to the whole Work and therefore I shall now enlarge on such things as do more particularly relate to this Volume The Papers that were conveyed to me from several Hands are referred to as the occasion to mention them occurs in the History with such acknowledgements as I thought best became this way of writing though far short of the merits of those who furnished me with them But the Store-house from whence I drew the greatest part both of the History and Collection is the often-celebrated Cotton Library out of which by the noble favour of its truly learned Owner Sir John Cotton I gathered all that was necessary for composing this Part together with some few things which had escaped me in my former Search and belong to the First Part and those I have mixed in the Collection added to this Volume upon such occasions as I thought most pertinent But among all the Remains of the last Age that are with great industry and order laid up in that Treasury none pleased me better nor were of more use to me than the Journal of King Edwards Reign written all with his own Hand with some other Papers of his which I have put by themselves in the beginning of the Collection Of these I shall say nothing here having given a full account of them in the History of his Reign to which I refer the Reader I find most of our Writers have taken Parcels out of them and Sir John Heyward has transcribed from them the greatest part of his Book therefore I thought this a thing of such consequence that upon good advice I have published them all faithfully copied from the Originals But as others assisted me towards the perfecting this Part so that learned Divine and most exact Enquirer into Historical Learning Mr. Fulman Rector of Hamton-Meysey in Glocester-shire did most signally oblige me by a Collection of some mistakes I had made in the former Work He had for many years applied his thoughts with a very searching care to the same Subject and so was able to judge more critically of it than other Readers Some of those had escaped me others had not come within my view in some particulars my Vouchers were not good and in others I had mistaken my Authors These I publish at the end of this Volume being neither ashamed to confess my faults nor unwilling to acknowledge from what Hand I received better information My design in writing is to discover Truth and to deliver it down impartially to the next Age so I should think it both a mean and criminal piece of vanity to suppress this discovery of my Errors And though the number and consequence of them had been greater than it is I should rather have submitted to a much severer Penance than have left the World in the mistakes I had led them into yet I was not a little pleased to find that they were neither many nor of importance to the main Parts of the History and were chiefly about Dates or small variations in the order of Time I hope this Part has fewer faults since that worthy Person did pursue his former kindness so far as to review it before-hand and with great judgment to correct such errors as he found in it Those I had formerly fallen into made me more careful in examining even the smallest matters Yet if after all my care and the kind Censures of those who have revised this Work there is any thing left that may require a further Retractation I shall not decline to make it so soon as I see there is need of it being I hope raised above the poor vanity of seeking my own reputation by sacrificing Truth to it Those to whose censure I submitted this whole History in both its Parts were chiefly three great Divines whose Lives are such Examples their Sermons such Instructions their Writings such unanswerable Vindications of our Church and their whole deportment so sutable to their profession that as I reckon my being admitted into some measure of friendship with them among the chief Blessings of my Life so I know nothing can more effectually recommend this Work than to say that it passed with their hearty approbation after they had examined it with that care which their great zeal
may clearly see he would bribe him into no Opinion or Party by false or indirect Arts But since Men are generally so apt to let some easie Notions enter into their Minds which will pre-engage their Affections and for most part those who set themselves to gain Proselites do begin with such Arts it will not be amiss to give the Reader such an account of these as may prepare him against them that so he may with a clearer mind consider what is now to be delivered to him concerning the Reformation of Religion among us I shall begin with that which is most commonly urged that the whole Church being one Body the Changes that were made in Religion did break that Vnity and dissolve the Bond by which the Catholick Church is to be knit together and that therefore the first Reformers began and we still continue a Schisme in the Church In answer to this it is to be considered that the Bishops and Pastors of the Church are obliged to instruct their People in the true Faith of Christ according to the Scriptures The nature of their Function being a Sacred Trust binds them to this they were also at their Consecration engaged to it by a formal Sponsion according to the Questions and Answers that are in the Roman Pontifical to this day Pastors owe it as a Debt to their People to teach them according to the Scriptures They owe a Charity to their Brethren and are to live with them in the terms of Brotherly Love and Friendly Correspondence but if that cannot be had on easier terms than the concealing necessary Truths and the delivering gross errors to those committed to their charge it is certain that they ought not to purchase it at so dear a rate When the Pastors of this Church saw it over-run with errors and corruptions they were obliged by the duty they owed to God and to their People to discover them and to undeceive their misled Flocks It is of great importance to maintain Peace and Vnity but if a Party in the Church does set up some Doctrines and Practises that do much endanger the Salvation of Souls and makes advantages by these so that there is no hope left to gain them by rational and softer Methods then as St. Peter was to be withstood to his Face in a lesser matter much more are those who pretend no higher than to be his Successors to be withstood when the things are of great moment and consequence When Heresies sprung up in the Primitive Church we find the neighbouring Bishops condemned them without staying for the concurrence of other Churches as in the Case of Samosatenus Arius and Pelagius and even when the greatest part of the Church was become Semi-Arian and many great Councils chiefly that at Ariminum consisting of above 800 Bishops as some say had through ignorance and fear complied the Orthodox Bishops did not forbear to instruct those committed to their care according to the true Faith A general concurrence is a thing much to be laboured for but when it cannot be had every Bishop must then do his duty so as to be answerable to the chief Bishop of Souls So that instead of being led away by so slight a prejudice we must turn our Enquiries to this Whether there were really such abuses in the Church as did require a Reformation and whether there was any reason to hope for a more general concurrence in it In the following History the Reader will see what corruptions were found to be both in the Doctrine and Worship of this Church from whence he may infer what need there was of Reformation And it is very plain that they had no reason to expect the concurrence of other Churches for the Council of Trent had already made a great progress and it was very visible that as the Court of Rome governed all things there so they were resolved to admit of no effectual Reformation of any considerable matters but to establish by a more formal decision those errors and abuses that had given so much scandal to the Christian World for so many Ages This being the true state of the Case it is certain that if there were really great corruptions either in Belief or Manners in this Church then the Bishops were bound to reform them since the backwardness of others in their duty could not excuse them from doing theirs when they were clearly convinced of it So that the Reader is to shake off this prejudice and only to examine whether there was really such need of a Reformation since if that be true it is certain the Bishops of this as well as of other Churches were bound to set about it and the faultiness of some could be no excuse to the rest The second Prejudice is That the Reformation was begun and carried on not by the major part of the Bishops and Clergy but by a few selected Bishops and Divines who being supported by the Name of the Kings Authority did frame things as they pleased and by their Interest at Court got them to be Enacted in Parliament and after they had removed such Bishops as opposed them then they procured the Convocation to consent to what was done So that upon the matter the Reformation was the Work of Cranmer with a few more of his Party and not of this Church which never agreed wholly to it till the Bishops were so modelled as to be compliant to the designs of the Court. In short the resolution of this is to be taken from a common Case when the major part of a Church is according to the Conscience of the Supream Civil Magistrate in an Error and the lesser part is in the right The Case is not hard if well understood for in the whole Scripture there is no promise made to the major part of the Pastors of the Church and there being no Divine Promise made about it it is certain that the Nature of Man is such that Truth separated from Interest hath few Votaries but when it is opposite to it it must have a very small Party So that most of those things which needed Reformation being such as added much to the Wealth and Power of the Clergy it had been a wonder indeed if the greater part had not opposed it In thâ—t Case as the smaller part were not to depart from their Sentiments because opposed in them by a more numerous Party that was too deeply concerned in the matter so it was both natural for them and very reasonable to take Sanctuary in the Authority and Protection of the Prince and the Law That Princes have an Authority in things Sacred was so universally agreed to in King Henry's Reign and was made out upon such clear Evidence of Reason and Precedents both in the Jewish State and in the Roman Empire when it turned Christian that this ground was already gained It is the first Law in Justinians Code made by Theodosius when he came to the Empire That all should every
open to our common Enemy And it looks like a sad forerunner of Ruin when we cannot after so long Experience of the mischievous Effects of these Contests learn to be so wise as to avoid the running on those Rocks on which our Fathers did so unforutnately split but on the contrary many steer as steadily towards them as if they were the only safe Harbours where they may securely weather every Storm But being now to lead the Reader into so agreeable a Prospect as I hope the Reformation of the Church will be to him I will hold him yet a little longer before I open it and desire him for his better preparation to it to reflect on the nature of Religion in general and of the Christian in particular That Religion is chiefly designed for perfecting the nature of Man for improving his Faculties governing his Actions and securing the Peace of every Mans Conscience and of the societies of Mankind in common is a truth so plain that without further arguing about it all will agree to it Every part of Religion is then to be Judged by its Relation to the main ends of it And since the Christian Doctrine was revealed from Heaven as the most perfect and proper way that ever was for the advancing the good of Mankind nothing can be a part of this holy Faith but what is proportioned to the end for which it was designed And all the additions that have been made to it since it was first delivered to the World are justly to be suspected especially where it is manifest at first view that they were intended to serve carnal and secular ends What can be reasonably supposed in the Papacy where the Popes are chosen by such intrigues either of the two Crowns the Nephews of the former Pope or the craft of some aspiring men to entitle them to Infallibility or Vniversal Jurisdiction What can we think of redeeming souls out of Purgatory or preserving them from it by tricks or some mean Pageantry but that it is a foul piece of Merchandise What is to be said of Implicit Obedience the Priestly Dominion over Consciences the keeping the Scriptures out of the peoples hands and the Worship of God in a strange Tongue but that these are so many Arts to hoodwink the world and to deliver it up into the hands of the ambitious Clergy What can we think of the superstition and idolatry of Images and all the other pomp of the Roman Worship but that by these things the People are to be kept up in a gross notion of Religion as a splendid business and that the Priests have a trick of saving them if they will but take care to humour them and leave that matter wholly in their hands And to sum up all what can we think of that constellation of Prodigies in the Sacrament of the Altar as they pretend to explain it and all really to no purpose but that it is an art to bring the World by whole sale to renounce their reason and sense and to have a most wonderful veneration for a sort of men who can with a word perform the most astonishing thing that ever was I should grow too large for a Preface if I would pursue this Argument as far as it will go But if on the other hand we reflect on the true ends of this holy Religion we must needs be convinced that we need go no where else out of this Church to find them but are compleatly instructed in all parts of it and furnished with all the helps to advance us to that which is indeed the end of our faith the salvation of our souls Here we have the Rules of holy Obedience and the Methods of Repentance and Reconciliation for past sins clearly set before us we believe all that Doctrine which Christ and his Apostles delivered and the Primitive Church received we have the comfort of all those Sacraments which Christ instituted and in the same manner that he appointed them All the helps to devotion that the Gospel offers are in every ones hand So what can it be that should so extravagantly seduce any who have been bred up in a Church so well constituted unless a blind superstition in their temper or a desire to get heaven in some easier method than Christ has appointed do strangely impose on their understandings or corrupt their minds Indeed the thing is so unaccountable that it looks like a curse from heaven on those who are given up to it for their other sins for an ordinary measure of Infatuation cannot carry any one so far in folly And it may be laid down for a certain Maxim that such as leave us have never had a true and well formed Notion of Religion or of Christianity in its main and chief Design but take things in parcels and without examining them suffer themselves to be carried away by some prejudices which only darken weaker Judgments But if it is an high and unaccountable folly for any to forsake our Communion and go over to those of Rome it is at the same time an unexcusable weakness in others who seem full of zeal against Popery and yet upon some inconsiderable Objections do depart from the unity of this Body and form separated Assemblies and Communions though they cannot object any thing material either to our Doctrine or Worship But the most astonishing part of the wonder is that in such differences there should be so little mutual forbearance or gentleness to be found and that these should raise such heats as if the substance of Religion were concerned in them This is of God and is a stroke from Heaven on both sides for their other sins We of the Church Communion have trusted too much to the supports we receive from the Law we have done our duties too slightly and have minded the Care of Souls too little therefore God to punish and awaken us has suffered so many of our People to be wrested out of our hands and those of the Separation have been too forward to Blood and War and thereby have drawn much guilt on themselves and have been too compliant with the Leaders of their several Factions or rather apt to out-run them It is plain God is offended with us all and therefore we are punished with this fatal blindness not to see at this time the things that belong to our peace And this leads me to Reflections of another sort with which I shall conclude this Preface which I have now drawn out to a greater length than at first I intended It is apparent the Wrath of God hangs over our heads and is ready to break out upon us The Symptoms of our ill condition are as sad as they are visible and one of the worst is that each sort and Party is very ready to throw the guilt of it off themselves and cast it on others with whom they are displeased But no man says What have I done The Clergy accuse the Laity and the Laity
not applied to these Images So in King Henry's time that temper was found that such Images as had been abused to Superstition should be removed and for other Images external Worship such as kneeling censing and praying before them was kept up but the People were to be taught that these were not at all intended to the Image but to that which was represented by it And upon this there was much subtle arguing Among Cranmers Papers I have seen several Arguments for a moderate use of Images But to all these they opposed the second Commandment as plainly forbidding all visible Objects of Adoration together with what was in the Scriptures against the Idolatry of the Heathens and what the Fathers had written against the Gentiles And they added that how excusable soever that practice might have been in such dark and barbarous Ages in which the People knew little more of Divine Matters than what they learned from their Images yet the horrible abuses that followed on the bringing them into Churches made it necessary now to throw them all out It was notorious that the People every where doted on them and gave them Divine Honour Nor did the Clergy who were generally too guilty themselves of such abuses teach them how to distinguish aright and the Acts of Worship that were allowed were such that beside the scandal such Worship had in it and the danger of drawing People into Idolatry it was in it self inexcusable to offer up such external parts of Religious Adoration to Gold or Silver Wood or Stone So Cranmer and others being resolved to purge the Church of this abuse got the worst part of the Sentence that some had designed against the Curate and Church-wardens to be mitigated into a Reprimend and as it is entred in the Council Books In respect of their submission and of some other Reasons which did mitigate their offence These were Cranmers Arguments against Images they did pardon their Imprisonment which was at first determined and ordered them to provide a Crucifix or at least some painting of it till one were ready and to beware of such rashness for the future But no mention is made of the other Images The carriage of the Council in this matter discovering the inclinations of the greatest part of them Many begin to pull down Images and Dr. Ridley having in his Lent-Sermon preached against the Superstition that was generally had to Images and Holy Water it raised a great heat over England So that Gardiner hearing that on May-day the People of Portsmouth had removed and broken the Images of Christ and the Saints writ about it with great warmth to one Captain Vaughan that waited on the Protector and was then at Portsmouth He desired to know whether he should send one to preach against it though he thought that was the casting Precious Stones to Hogs or worse than Hogs as were these Lollards He said that Luther had set out a Book against those who removed Images At which Gardiner is much offended and himself had seen them still in the Lutheran Churches and he thought the removing Images was on design to subvert Religion and the state of the World he argues for them from the Kings Image on the Seal Caesars Image on the Coin brought to Christ the Kings Arms carried by the Heralds he condemns false Images but for those that were against true Images he thought they were possest with the Devil Vaughan sent his Letter to the Protector with one from Gardiner to himself who finding the reasoning in it not so strong but that it might be answered wrote to him himself That he allowed of his zeal against Innovations The Protector writ to him about it The Letters are in Fox's Acts and Monuments but that there were other things that needed to be looked to as much Great difference there was between the Civil respect due to the Kings Arms and the Worship given to Images There had been a time in which the abuse of the Scriptures was thought a good reason to take them from the People yea and to burn them though he looked on them as more sacred than Images which if they stood meerly as Remembrancers he thought the hurt was not great but it was known that for the most part it was otherwise and upon abuse the Brazen Serpent was broken though made at Gods Commandment and it being pretended that they were the Books of the People he thought the Bible a much more intelligible and useful Book There were some too rash and others too obstinate The Magistrate was to steer a middle Course between them not considering the Antiquity of things so much as what was good and expedient Gardiner writ again to the Protector complaining of Bale and others who published Books to the dishonour of the late King and that all were running after Novelties and often inculcates it that things should be kept in the state they were in till the King were of Age and in his Letters reflects both on the Archbishop of Canterbury and the Bishop of Duresme for consenting to such things Gardiner writ to Ridley who had preached against Images But finding his Letters had no effect on the Protector he wrote to Ridley That by the Law of Moses we were no more bound not to have Images than not to eat Blood-Puddings Image and Idol might have been used promiscuously in former times as King and Tyrant were yet there was a great difference between these according to the Notions we now have He cites Pope Gregory who was against both adoring and breaking them and says the Worship is not given to the Image so there is no Idolatry but to him represented by it and as the sound of Speech did by the Ear beget Notions in us so he did not see but the sight of an Image might stir up devotion He confessed there had been abuses as there is in every thing that is in Mens Hands he thinks Imagery and Graving to be of as good use for instruction as Writing or Printing and because Ridley had also preached against the Superstition of Holy Water to drive away Devils he added That a Vertue might be in Water as well as in Christs Garment St. Peters Shadow or Elisha's Staff Pope Marcellus ordered Equitius to use it and the late King used to bless Cramp-Rings both of Gold and Silver which were much esteemed every where and when he was abroad they were often desired from him This Gift he hoped the young King would not neglect He believed the Invocation of the Name of God might give such a Vertue to Holy Water as well as to the Water of Baptism For Ridley's Answer to this I never saw it so these things must here pass without any Reply though it is very probable an ordinary Reader will with a very small measure of common Sense and Learning see how they might have been answered The thing most remarkable here is about these Cramp-Rings which King Henry
appealed in that to the Testimony of Sense as Infallible And St. Austin giving Rules concerning Figurative Speeches in Scripture one is this that they must be taken Figuratively where in the literal sense the thing were a Crime which he applies to these Words of eating Christs Flesh and drinking his Blood But that on which they put the stress of the whole cause as to the Doctrine of the Fathers was the reasoning that they used against the Eutychians who said that Christs Body and Humane Nature was swallowed up by his Divinity The Eutychians arguing from the Eucharists being called Christs Body and Blood in which they said Christs Presence did convert the Substance of the Bread and Wine into his own Flesh and Blood so in like manner said they his Godhead had converted the Manhood into it self Against this Gelasius Bishop of Rome and Theodoret one of the learnedest Fathers of his Age argue in plain words That the Substance of the Bread and Wine remained as it was formerly in its own Nature and Form and from their Opinion of the Presence of Christs Body in it without converting the Elements they turned the Argument to shew how the Divine and Humane Nature can be together in Christ without the ones being changed by the other Peter Martyr had brought over with him the Copy of a Letter of St. Chrysostomes which he found in a MS. at Florence written to the same purpose and on the same Argument which was the more remarkable because that Chrysostome had said higher things in his Sermons and Commentaries concerning Christs being present in the Sacrament than any of all the Fathers but it appeared by this Letter that those high Expressions were no other than Rhetorical Figures of Speech to beget a great reverence to this Institution and from hence it was reasonable to judge that such were the like Expressions in other Fathers and that they were nevertheless of Chrysostomes mind touching the Presence of Christ in this Sacrament That Epistle of his does lie still unpublished though a very learned Man now in France has procured a Copy of it but those of that Church know the consequence that the printing of it would have and so it seems are resolved to suppress it if they can From all these things it was plain that though the Fathers believed there was an extraordinary Vertue in the Sacrament and an unaccountable Presence of Christ in it yet they thought not of Transubstantiation nor any thing like it But when darkness and ignorance crept into the Church the People were apt to believe any thing that was incredible and were willing enough to support such Opinions as turned Religion into external Pageantry The Priests also knowing little of the Scriptures and being only or chiefly conversant in those Writings of the Ancients that had highly extolled the Sacrament came generally to take up the Opinion of the Corporal Presence and being soon apprehensive of the great esteem it would bring to them cherished it much In the 9th Century Bertram Rabanus Maurus Amalarius Alcuinus and Joannes Scotus all writ against it nor were any of them censured or condemned for these Opinions It was plainly and strongly contradicted by some Homilies that were in the Saxon Tongue in which not a few of Bertrams words occur particularly in that which was to be read in the Churches on Easter day But in the 11th or 12th Century it came to be universally received as indeed any thing would have been that much advanced the Dignity of Priesthood And it was farther advanced by Pope Innocent the third and so established in the fourth Council of Lateran That same Council in which the rooting out of Hereticks and the Popes Power of deposing Heretical Princes and giving their Dominions to others were also decreed But there was another curious Remark made of the Progress of this Opinion When the Doctrine of the Corporal Presence was first received in the Western Church they believed that the whole Loaf was turned into one entire Body of Jesus Christ so that in the distribution one had an Eye a Nose or an Ear another a Tooth a Finger or a Toe a third a Collop or a piece of Tripe and this was supported by pretended Miracles suited to that Opinion for sometimes the Host was said to bleed Parts of it were also said to be turned to pieces of Flesh This continued to be the Doctrine of the Church of Rome for near 300 Years It appears clearly in the Renunciation which they made Berengarius swear But when the School-men began to form the Tenets of that Church by more artificial and subtil Rules as they thought it an ungentle way of treating Christ to be thus mangling his Body and eating it up in Gobbets so the Maximes they set up about the Extension of matter and of the manner of Spirits filling a space made them think of a more decent way of explaining this Prodigious Mystery They taught that Christ was so in the Host and Chalice that there was one entire Body in every crumb and drop so that the Body was no more broken but upon every breaking of the Host a new whole Body flew off from the other parts which yet remained an entire Body notwithstanding that diminution And then the former Miracles being contrary to this conceit were laid aside and new ones invented fitted for this Explanation by which Christs Body was believed present after the manner of a Spirit It was given out that he sometimes appeared as a Child all in Raies upon the Host sometimes with Angels about him or sometimes in his Mothers Arms. And that the Senses might give as little contradiction as was possible instead of a Loaf they blessed then only Wafers which are such a shadow of Bread as might more easily agree with their Doctrine of the accidents of Bread being only present and least a larger measure of Wine might have encouraged the People to have thought it was Wine still by the sensible effects of it that came also to be denied them This was the Substance of the Arguments that were in those Writings But an Opinion that had been so generally received was not of a sudden to be altered Therefore they went on slowly in discussing it and thereby did the better dispose the People to receive what they intended afterwards to establish concerning it And this was the state of Religion for this Year At this time there were many Anabaptists in several parts of England They were generally Germans Proceedings against Anabaptists whom the Revolutions there had forced to change their Seats Upon Luthers first preaching in Germany there arose many who building on some of his Principles carried things much further than he did The chief Foundation he laid down was That the Scripture was to be the only Rule of Christians Upon this many argued that the Mysteries of the Trinity and Christs Incarnation and Sufferings of the Fall of Man and the Aids of Grace were indeed
loved to hear the Gospel but had not amended their Lives upon it for which God had now after many years forbearance brought them under a severe scourge and intimated his apprehensions of some signal stroke from Heaven upon the Nation if they did not repent Exeter besieged The Rebels in Devon-shire went and besieged Exeter where the Citizens resisted them with great courage they set fire to the Gates of the City which those within fed with much Fuel for hindering their entry till they had raised a Rampart within the Gates and when the Rebels came to enter the Fire being spent they killed many of them The Rebels also wrought a Mine but the Citizens Countermined and pour'd in so much Water as spoiled their Powder So finding they could do nothing by force they resolved to lie about the Town reckoning that the want of Provision would make it soon yield The Lord Russel having but a small Force with him stayed a while for some Supplies which Sir William Herbert was to bring him from Bristol But being afraid that the Rebels should inclose him he marched back from Honnington where he lay and finding they had taken a Bridge behind him he beat them from it killing 600 of them without any loss on his side By this he understood their strength and saw they could not stand a brisk Charge nor rally when once in disorder So the Lord Gray and Spinola that commanded some Germans joyning him he returned to raise the Siege of Exeter which was much straitned for want of Victuals The Rebels had now shut up the City twelve days they within had eat their Horses and endured extream Famine but resolved to perish rather than fall into the Hands of those Savages for the Rebels were indeed no better They had block'd up the Ways and left 2000 Men to keep a Bridge which the Kings Forces were to pass But the Lord Russel broke thorough them and killed about 1000 of them upon that the Rebels raised the Siege and retired to Lanceston The Lord Russel gave the Citizens of Exeter great thanks in the Kings Name for their Fidelity and Courage and pursued the Rebels But is relieved and the Rebels defeated by the Lord Russel who were now going off in Parties and were killed in great numbers Some of their Heads as Arundel and the Major of Bodmyne Temson and Barret two Priests with six or seven more were taken and hanged And so this Rebellion was happily subdued in the West about the beginning of August to the great Honour of the Lord Russel who with a very small Force had saved Exeter and dispersed the Rebels Army with little or no loss at all But the Marquess of Northampton was not so successful in Norfolk He carried about 1100 Men with him but did not observe the Orders given him and so marched on to Norwich The Rebels were glad of an occasion to engage with him and fell in upon him the next day with great fury and the Town not being strong he was forced to quit it but lost 100 of his Men in that Action among whom was the Lord Sheffield who was much lamented The Rebels took about 30 Prisoners with which they were much lifted up This being understood at Court the Earl of Warwick was sent against them Warwick disperses the Rebels at Norfolk with 6000 Foot and 1500 Horse that were prepared for an Expedition to Scotland He came to Norwich but was scarce able to defend it for the Rebels fell often in upon him neither was he well assured of the Town But he cut off their Provisions so that the Rebels having wasted all the Country about them were forced to remove And then he followed them with his Horse They turned upon him but he quickly routed them and killed 2000 of them and took Ket their Captain with his Brother and a great many more Ket was hanged in Chains at Norwich next January The Rebels in York-shire had not become very numerous not being above 3000 in all but hearing of the defeating of those in other Parts they accepted of the offer of Pardon that was sent them only some few of the chief Ringleaders continued to make new stirs and were taken and hanged in York the September following When these Commotions were thus over the Protector pressed that there might be a general and free Pardon speedily proclaimed for quieting the Country and giving their Affairs a reputation abroad This was much opposed by many of the Council who thought it better to accomplish their several ends by keeping the People under the lash than by so profuse a Mercy But the Protector was resolved on it judging the state of Affairs required it A general Pardon So he gave out a general Pardon of all that had been done before the 21st of August excepting only those few whom they had in their hands and resolved to make publick Examples Thus was England delivered from one of the most threatning Storms that at any time had broke out in it in which deliverance the great prudence and temper of the Protector seems to have had no small share Of this whole Matter Advertisement was given to the Forreign Ministers in a Letter which will be found in the Collection Collection Number 36. There was this Year a Visitation of the University of Cambridge Ridley was appointed to be one of the Visitors A Visitation at Cambridge and to preach at the opening of it he thereupon writ to May Dean of St. Pauls to let him know what was to be done at it that so his Sermon might be adjusted to their business He received answer That it was only to remove some superstitious Practises and Rites and to make such Statutes as should be found needful But when he went to Cambridge he saw the Instructions went further They were required to procure a resignation of some Colledges and to unite them with others and to convert some Fellowships appointed for encouraging the Study of Divinity to the Study of the Civil Law In particular Clare-Hall was to be suppressed But the Master and Fellows would not resign and after two days labouring to perswade them them to it they absolutely refused to do it Upon this Ridley said he could not with a good Conscience go on any further in that matter the Church was already so robbed and stript that it seemed there was a design laid down by some to drive out all Civility Learning and Religion out of the Nation therefore he declared he would not concurre in such things and desired leave to be gone The other Visitors complained of him to the Protector that he had so troubled them with his barking so indecently did they express that strictness of Conscience in him that they could not go on in the Kings Service and because Clare-hall was then full of Northern People they imputed his unwillingness to suppress that House to his partial affection to his Country-men for he was born in
the Bishoprick of Duresme Upon this the Protector writ a chiding Letter to him To it he writ an Answer so sutable to what became a Bishop who would put all things to hazard rather than do any thing against his Conscience that I thought it might do no small right to his Memory to put it with the Answer which the Protector writ to him in the Collection Collection Numb 59 60. These with many more I found among his Majesties Papers of State in that Repository of them commonly called the Paper-Office To which I had a free access by a Warrant which was procured to me from the King by the Right Honourable the Earl of Sunderland one of the Principal Secretaries of State who very cheerfully and generously expressed his readiness to assist me in any thing that might compleat the History of our Reformation That Office was first set up by the care of the Earl of Salisbury when he was Secretary of State in King James's time which though it is a copious and certain Repertory for those that are to write our History ever since the Papers of State were laid up there yet for the former times it contains only such Papers as that great Minister could then gather together so that it is not so compleat in the Transactions that fall within the time of which I writ There was also a settlement made of the Controversie concerning the Greek Tongue A contest about pronouncing the Greek There had been in King Henry's time a great Contest raised concerning the Pronunciation of the Greek Vowels That Tongue was but lately come to any perfection in England and so no wonder the Greek was pronounced like English with the same sound and apertures of the Mouth To this Mr. Cheek then Reader of that Tongue in Cambridge opposed himself and taught other Rules of Pronunciation Gardiner was it seems so afraid of every Innovation though ever so much in the right that he contended stifly to have the old Pronunciation retained and Cheek persisting in his Opinion was either put from the Chair or willingly left it to avoid the Indignation of so great and so spiteful a Man as Gardiner was who was then Chancellor of the University Cheek wrote a Book in vindication of his way of pronouncing Greek of which this must be said That it is very strange to see how he could write with so much Learning and Judgment on so bare a Subject Redmayn Poinet and other learned Men were of his side yet more covertly but Sir Tho. Smith now Secretary of State writ three Books on the same Argument and did so evidently confirm Cheeks Opinion that the Dispute was now laid aside and the true way of pronouncing the Greek took place the rather because Gardiner was in disgrace and Cheek and Smith were in such Power and Authority So great an Influence had the Interests of Men in supporting the most speculative and indifferent things Soon after this Bonner fell into new troubles Bonner falls into trouble he continued to oppose every thing as long as it was safe for him to do it while it was under debate and so kept his Interest with the Papists but he complied so obediently with all the Laws and Orders of Council that it was not easie to find any matter against him He executed every Order that was sent him so readily that there was not so much as ground for any Complaint yet it was known he was in his Heart against every thing they did and that he cherished all that were of a contrary mind The Council being informed that upon the Commotions that were in England many in London withdrew from the Service and Communion and frequented Masses which was laid to his charge as being negligent in the execution of the Kings Laws and Injunctions they writ to him on the 23d of July to see to the correcting of these things and that he should give good example himself Upon which on the 26th following he sent about a Charge to execute the Order in this Letter which he said he was most willing and desirous to do Yet it was still observed that whatsoever obedience he gave it was against his Heart And therefore he was called before the Council the 11th of August Injunctions are given him There a Writing was deliver'd to him complaining of his remissness and particularly that whereas he was wont formerly on all high Festivals to officiate himself yet he had seldom or never done it since the New Service was set out as also that Adultery was openly practised in his Diocess which he took no care according to his Pastoral Office to restrain or punish therefore he was strictly charged to see these things reformed He was also ordered to preach on Sunday come three weeks at St. Pauls Cross and that he should preach there once a quarter for the future and be present at every Sermon made there except he were sick that he should officiate at St. Pauls at every high Festival such as were formerly called Majus duplex and give the Communion that he should proceed against all who did not frequent the Common-Prayer nor receive the Sacrament once a year or did go to Mass that he should search out and punish Adulterers that he should take care of the reparation of Churches and paying Tythes in his Diocess and should keep his residence in his House in London As to his Sermon he was required to preach against Rebellion setting out the hainousness of it he was also to shew what was true Religion and that external Ceremonies were nothing in themselves but that in the use of them Men ought to obey the Magistrate and joyn true devotion to them and that the King was no less King and the People no less bound to obey when he was in Minority than when he was of full Age. In his Sermon he did not set forth the King Power under Age as he had been required to do On the first of September being the day appointed for him to preach there was a great Assembly gathered to hear him He touched upon the Points that were enjoyned him excepting that about the Kings Age of which he said not one word But since the manner of Christs Presence in the Sacrament was a thing which he might yet safely speak of he spent most of his Sermon on the asserting the Corporal Presence which he did with many sharp reflections on those who were of another mind There were present among others William Latimer and John Hooper soon after Bishop of Glocester who came and informed against him that as he had wholly omitted that about the Kings Age so he had touched the other Points but slightly and did say many other things which tended to stir up disorder and dissention Upon this there was a Commission issued out to Cranmer and Ridley with the two Secretaries of State Rot. Pat. 11. Par. 3. Reg. and Dr. May Dean of St. Pauls to
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
are two Sacraments which are not bare Tokens of our Profession but effectual Signs of Gods good Will to us which strengthen our Faith yet not by vertue only of the Work wrought but in those who receive them worthily The 27th That the vertue of these does not depend on the Minster of them The 28th That by Baptism we are the adopted Sons of God and that Infant Baptism is to be commended and in any ways to be retained The 29th That the Lords Supper is not a bare Token of love among Christians but is the Communion of the Body and Blood of Christ that the Doctrine of Transubstantiation is contrary to Scripture and hath given occasion to much Superstition that a Body being only in one place and Christs Body being in Heaven therefore there cannot be a real and bodily Presence of his Flesh and Blood in it and that this Sacrament is not to be kept carried about lifted up nor worshiped The 30th That there is no other Propitiatory Sacrifice but that which Christ offered on the Cross The 31st That the Clergy are not by Gods command obliged to abstain from Marriage The 32d That Persons rightly excommunicated are to be looked on as Heathens till they are by Penance reconciled and received by a Judge competent The 33d It is not necessary that Ceremonies should be the same at all times but such as refuse to obey lawful Ceremonies ought to be openly reproved as offending against Law and Order giving scandal to the weak The 34th That the Homilies are godly and wholesom and ought to be read The 35th That the Book of Common-Prayer is not repugnant but agreeable to the Gospel and ought to be received by all The 36th That the King is Supream Head under Christ that the Bishop of Rome hath no Jurisdiction in England that the Civil Magistrate is to be obeyed for Conscience sake that Men may be put to death for great offences and that it is lawful for Christians to make War The 37th That there is not to be a community of all Mens Goods but yet every Man ought to give to the Poor according to his ability The 38th That though rash swearing is condemned yet such as are required by the Magistrate may take an Oath The 39th That the Resurrection is not already past but at the last day Men shall rise with the same Bodies they now have The 40th That departed Souls do not die nor sleep with their Bodies and continue without sense till the last day The 41st That the Fable of the Millenaries is contrary to Scripture and a Jewish dotage The last condemned those who believe that the damned after some time of suffering shall be saved Thus was the Doctrine of the Church cast into a short and plain Form in which they took care both to establish the positive Articles of Religion and to cut off the errors formerly introduced in the time of Popery or of late broached by the Anabaptists and Enthusiasts of Germany avoiding the niceties of School-men or the peremptoriness of the Writers of Controversie leaving in matters that are more justly controvertible a liberty to Divines to follow their private Opinions without thereby disturbing the Peace of the Church There was in the Ancient Church a great simplicity in their Creeds and the Exposition of the Doctrine But afterwards upon the breaking out of the Arrian and other Heresies concerning the Person of Jesus Christ as the Orthodox Fathers were put to find out new Terms to drive the Hereticks out of the equivocal use of these formerly received so they too soon grew to love niceties and to explain Mysteries with Similies and other subtilties which they invented and Councils afterwards were very liberal in their Anathematismes against any who did not agree in all Points to their Terms or ways of Explanation And though the Council of Ephesus decreed That there should be no Additions made to the Creed they understood that not of the whole Belief of Christians but only of the Creed it self and did also load the Christian Doctrine with many Curiosities But though they had exceeded much yet the School-men getting the management of the Doctrine spun their Thread much finer and did easily procure Condemnations either by Papal Bulls or the Decrees of such Councils as met in these times of all that differed from them in the least matter Upon the progress of the Reformation the German Writers particularly Osiander Illiricus and Amstorfius grew too peremptory and not only condemned the Helvetian Churches for differing from them in the manner of Christs Presence in the Sacrament but were severe to one another for lesser Punctilio's and were at this time exercising the patience of the great and learned Melancton because he thought that in things of their own Nature indifferent they ought to have complied with the Emperor This made those in England resolve on composing these Articles with great temper in many such Points Only one Notion that has been since taken up by some seems not to have been then thought of which is That these were rather Articles of Peace than of Belief so that the subscribing was rather a Compromise not to teach any Doctrine contrary to them than a Declaration that they believed according to them There appears no reason for this conceit no such thing being then declared so that those who subscribed did either believe them to be true or else they did grosly prevaricate The next Business in which the Reformers were employed this Year Some Corrections made in the Common-Prayer-Book was the correcting the Common-Prayer-Book and the making some Additions with the changing of such Particulars as had been retained only for a time The most considerable Additions were That in the daily Service they prepared a short but most simple and grave Form of a general Confession of sins in the use of which they intended that those who made this Confession should not content themselves with a bare recital of the Words but should joyn with them in their Hearts a particular Confession of their private sins to God To this was added a General Absolution or Pronouncing in the Name of God the pardon of sin to all those who did truly repent and unfeignedly believe the Gospel For they judged that if the People did seriously practise this it would keep up in their thoughts frequent reflections on their sins and it was thought that the pronouncing a Pardon upon these Conditions might have a better effect on the People than that absolute and unqualified Pardon which their Priests were wont to give in Confession By which Absolution in times of Popery the People were made to believe that their sins were thereupon certainly forgiven than which nothing could be invented that would harden them into a more fatal security when they thought a full Pardon could be so readily purchased But now they heard the terms on which they could only expect it every day promulgated to them The other
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
business which himself had so violently and servilely promoted The falsehood of that pretence of corrupting Vniversities has been shewn in the former Volumn but it was all they had now to say The laying it all upon Cranmer was as high a pitch of malice and impudence as could be devised for as Gardiner had been setting it on long before Cranmer was known to King Henry so he had been joyned with him in the Commission and had given his assent to the Sentence which Cranmer gave Nor was the Divorce grounded meerly upon Cranmers understanding of the Scriptures but upon the fullest and most studied Arguments that had perhaps been in any Age brought together in one particular case and both Houses of Convocation had condemned the Mariage before his sentence But because in the right of his See he was Legate to the Pope therefore to make the Sentence stronger it went only in his name though he had but a small share in it compared to what Gardiner had By this Act there was also a second Illegittimation brought on the Lady Elizabeth The Queens carries severely to the Lady Elizabeth to whom hitherto the Queen had been very kind using her on all occasions with the tenderness of a Sister but from this time forwards she handled her more severely It was perhaps occasioned by this Act since before they stood both equally illegittimated but now the Act that legitimated the Queen making her most certainly a Bastard in Law the Queen might think it now too much to use her as she had done formerly Others suggest a more secret reason of this distast The new Earl of Devonshire was much in the Queens favour so that it was thought she had some inclinations to marry him but he either not presuming so high or really having an aversion to her and an inclination to her Sister who of that moderate share of beauty that was between them had much the better of her and was nineteen years younger made his Addresses with more than ordinary concern to the Lady Elizabeth and this did bring them both in trouble as shall be afterwards shewn The next Bill that was sent from the Lords to the Commons The Laws made by King Edward repealed was for the repealing King Edward's Laws about Religion It was sent down on the 31st of October and argued six days in the House of Commons but in the end it was carried and sent back to the Lords The Preamble of it sets forth the great disorders that had fallen out in the Nation by the changes that had been made in Religion from that which their Fore-fathers had left them by the Authority of the Catholick Church thereupon all the Laws that had been made in King Edwards time about Religion were now repealed and it was Enacted that from the 20th of December next there should be no other Form of Divine Service but what had been used in the last year King of Henry the 8th leaving it free to all till that day to use either the Books appointed by King Edward or the old ones at their pleasure Another Act was passed which the Commons sent up to the Lords An Act against the affronting Priests against all those who by any overt Act should molest or disquiet any Preacher because of his Office or for any Sermon that he might have Preached or should any way disturb them when they were in any part of the Divine Offices that either had been in the last year of King Henry or should be afterwards set forth by the Queen or should break or abuse the holy Sacrament or break Altars Crucifixes or Crosses those that did any of these things should be presented to the Justices of Peace and be by them put in Prison where they should lye three Months or till they were penitent for their Offences and if any rescued them they should be liable to the same punishment But to this a Proviso was added by the Lords that this Act should no way derogate from the Authority of the Ecclesiastiâ—â—l Laws and Courts who might likewise proceed upon such Offences and a Certificate from the Ordinaries that such Offenders were punished by them being brought to the Justices of Peace they were to proceed no further or if the Justices made a Certificate that they had punished them according to Law the Ordinary might not punish them a second time But the Commons were now so heated that they sent up another Bill to the Lords against those who came not to Church nor to Sacraments after the old Service should be again set up the inflicting of the Punishments in these cases being left to the Ecclesiastical Courts This fell in the House of Lords not so much from any opposition that was made as that they were afraid of allarming the Nation too much by many severe Laws at once An Act against unlawful Assemblies Another Law was made for securing the publick Peace against unlawful and rebellious Assemblies that if any to the number of twelve or above should meet to alter any thing of Religion established by Law and being required by any having the Queens Authority to disperse themselves should continue after that an hour together it should be Felony or if that number met to break Hedges or Parks to destroy Deer or Fish c. and did not disperse upon Proclamation it should be Felony or if any by ringing of Bells Drums or firing of Beacons gathered the People together and did the things before mentioned it was Felony if the Wives or Servants of Persons so gathered caried Meat Money or Weapons to them it should be Felony and if any above the number of two and within twelve should meet for these ends they should suffer a years imprisonment empowering the Sheriffs or Justices to gather the Country for the resistance of Persons so offending with Penalties on all between eighteen and sixty that being required to come out against them should refuse to do it When this Act was known the People then saw clearly how they had been deceived by the former Act that seemed so favourable repealing all Acts of new Treasons and Felonies since there was so soon after it an Act passed that renewed one of the severest Laws of the last Reign in which so many things that might flow from sudden heats were made Felonies and a great many new and severe Proviso's were added to it The Queens discharge of the Subsidy was confirmed by another Act. The Marquess of Northampton's 2d Marriage is annulled There followed two private Acts which occasioned more Debate than the publick ones had done The one was the repeal of the Act that had confirmed the Marquess of Northamptons Marriage It was much argued in the House of Commons and on the 28th of November it was agreed to It contains that the Act of confirming the Divorce and the second Marriage was procured more upon untrue surmises and private respects than for any publick good and increase
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
and Queen and be obedient to their Superiors both Spiritual and Temporal according to their duties It is plain this was so contrived that they might have Signed it without either prevaricating or dissembling their Opinions for it is not said That they were to be subject to the Church of Rome but to the Church of Christ and they were to be obedient to their Superiors according to their duties which was a good reserve for their Consciences I stand the longer on this that it may appear how willing the Cardinal was to accept of any shew of submission from them and to stop Bonners rage Upon this they were set at liberty But Bonner got three Men and two Women presented to him in London in January and after he had allowed them a little more time than he had granted others they standing still firm to their Faith were burnt at Smithfield on the 12th of April After that White the new Bishop of Winchester condemned three who were burnt on the third of May in Southwark one of these Stephen Gratwick being of the Diocess of Chichester appealed from him to his own Ordinary whether he expected more favour from him or did it only to gain time I know not but they brought in a Counterfeit who was pretended to be the Bishop of Chichester as Fox has printed it from the account written with the Man 's own Hand and so condemned him On the seventh of May three were burnt a Bristol On the 18th of June two Men and five Women were burnt at Maidston and on the 19th three Men and four Women were burnt at Canterbury fourteen being thus in two days destroyed by Thornton and Harpsfield in which it may seem strange that the Cardinal had less influence to stop the Proceedings in his own Diocess than in London but he was now under the Popes disgrace as shall be afterwards shewn On the 22d of June six Men and four Women were burnt at Lewis in Sussex condemned by White for Christopherson Bishop Elect of Chichester was not yet consecrated On the 13th of July two were burnt at Norwich On the second of August ten were burnt at Colchester six in the Morning and four in the Afternoon they were some of those who had been formerly discharged by the Cardinals Orders but the Priests in the Country complained that the mercy shewed to them had occasioned great disorders among them Hereticks and the favourers of them growing insolent upon it and those who searched after them being disheartned so now Bonner being under no more restraints from the Cardinal new Complaints being made that they came not to Church condemned them upon their Answers to the Articles which he objected to them At this time one George Eagle a Taylor who used to go about from place to place and to meet with those who stood for the Reformation where he prayed and discoursed with them about Religion and from his indefatigable diligence was nicknamed Trudge-over was taken near Colchester and was condemned of Treason for gathering the Queens Subjects together though it was not proved that he had ever stirred them up to Rebellion but did it only as himself always protested to encourage them to continue stedfast in the Faith he suffered as a Traitor On the fifth of August one was burnt at Norwich and on the 20th a Man and a Woman more were burnt at Rochester One was also burnt at Litchfield in August but the day is not named The same Month a Complaint was brought to the Council of the Magistrates of Bristol that they came seldom to the Sermons at the Cathedral so that the Dean and Chapter used to go to their Houses in Procession with their Cross carried before them and to fetch them from thence upon which a Letter was written to them requiring them to conform themselves more willingly to the Orders of the Church to frequent the Sermons and go thither of their own accord On the 17th of September three Men and one Woman were burnt at Islington near London and on the same day two Women were burnt at Colchester On the 20th a Man was burnt at Northampton and in the same Month one was burnt at Laxefield in Suffolk On the 23d a Woman was burnt at Norwich There were seventeen burnt in the Diocess of Chichester about this time one was a Priest thirteen were Lay-men and three Women but the day is not marked On the 18th of November three were burnt in Smithfield On the 12d of December John Rough a Scotchman was burnt whose suffering was on this occasion On the 12th of December there was a private Meeting of such as continued to Worship God according to the Service set out by King Edward at Islington where he was to have administred the Sacrament according to the Order of that Book The new Inquisitors had corrupted one of this Congregation to betray his Brethren so that they were apprehended as they were going to the Communion But Rough being a Stranger it was considered by the Council whether he should be tried as a Native He had a Benefice in York-shire in King Edwards days so it was resolved and signified to the Bishop of London that he should be proceeded against as a Subject Thereupon Bonner objected to him his condemning the Doctrine of the Church and setting out the Heresies of Cranmer and Ridley concerning the Sacrament and his using the Service set out by King Edward that he had lived much with those who for their Heresies had fled beyond Sea that he had spoken reproachfully of the Pope and Cardinals saying That when he was at Rome he had seen a Bull of the Popes that licensed Stews and a Cardinal riding openly with his Whore with him with several other Articles The greatest part of them he confessed and thereupon he with a Woman that was one of the Congregation was burnt in Smithfield And thus ended the Burnings this Year seventy nine in all being burnt These severities against the Hereticks made the Queen shew less pity to the Lord Stourton The Lord Stourton hanged for Murder than perhaps might have been otherwise expected He had been all King Edwards time a most zealous Papist and did constantly dissent in Parliament from the Laws then made about Religion But he had the former Year murdered one Argall and his Son with whom he had been long at variance and after he had knock'd them down with Clubs and cut their Throats he buried them fifteen Foot under ground thinking thereby to conceal the Fact but it breaking out both he and four of his Servants were taken and indicted for it He was found guilty of Felony and condemned to be hanged with his Servants in Wilt-shire where the Murder was committed On the sixth of March they were hanged at Salisbury All the difference that was made in their Deaths being only thus That whereas his Servants were hanged in common Halters one of Silk was bestowed on their Lord. It seemed an indecent thing
this Reign it was the force of Truth and my abhorrence of their barbarous Cruelties that led me to it more than my being of a contrary Perswasion to them It is certain that Pool's method of correcting the manners of the Clergy and being gentle to the Reformed would in all appearance have been much more fatal to the progress of the Reformation that was set forward by nothing more than by the severities shewed to those that differed from them and the indulgence of the Bishops to the vices of their own Party Yet Pool had a vast superstition to the See of Rome and though his being at the Council of Trent had opened his Eyes to many things which he had not observed before yet he still retained his great submission to that See and thought it impossible to maintain the Order and Unity of the Church but by holding Communion with it which carried him in opposition to many apprehensions himself had of some Theological Points still to support the Interests of the Papacy His neglect of the offer of it when it was made to him shewed this flowed from no aspirings of his own but purely from his judgment so that what mistakes soever his Education and Heats with King Henry and the disasters of his Family might have involved him in it cannot be denied that he was a Man of as great Probity and Vertue as most of the Age if not all of that Church in which he lived The Queens Character For the Queen her self her Character has appeared so manifestly in her Reign that I need make no further description of her She was a Woman of a strict and innocent Life that allowed her self few of the diversions with which Courts abound She was bred to Learning and understood the Latin Tongue well but what further knowledge she had does not appear to me She was constant at her Devotions and was as much addicted to the Interests and Humours of the Clergy as they could have wished her She had great resentments of her own ill usage in her Fathers and Brothers times which made her be easily induced to take her revenge though she coloured it with her zeal against Heresie She did not much mind any other Affairs but those of the Church so that if she could have extirpated Heresie she seemed to regard all other things very little and being given up to follow the Dictates of Rome with a nice scrupulosity of Conscience it was no wonder she went on in these designs very vigorously For as the Pope was ever calling on all Princes that were under his obedience to set up the Courts of Inquisition so the fourth General Council of Lateran to which with the other General Councils she payed no less reverence than to the Scriptures charged Catholick Princes to extirpate all Hereticks out of their Dominions such as were slack must be required to do it by their Bishops and if that prevailed not they were to be excommunicated by them and if they continued negligent and under that Censure a year they were to be deprived by the Pope and their Dominions to be given to others who should take more care to extirpate Heresie The Pope had also in February this Year published a Constitution to which he had made all the Cardinals set their Hands confirming all former Decrees and Canons against Hereticks declaring that all Prelates Princes Kings and Emperors that had fallen into Heresie should be understood to be deprived of their Dominions without any further Sentence and that any Catholicks who would take the Forfeiture should have a good Title to all that they invaded and seized The Bishops besides the other Canons binding them to proceed against Hereticks were by the Words of the Oath of Obedience which they swore to the Pope at their Consecration engaged to oppose and persecute the Hereticks with all their might so that their giving severe Counsels and the Queens following them flowed mainly from the Principles of their Religion in which the sowrness of her temper made it the more easie to perswade her to a Compliance to those courses to which her inclination led her without any such Motives To conclude her death was as little lamented as any of all our Princes ever was the Popish Clergy being almost the only Mourners that were among her own People Thus lived and died Mary Queen of England by Inheritance and of Spain by Marriage The END of the Second BOOK Vol 2d. Pag 373. EFFIGIES ELIZABETHAE REGINAE ANGLIAE ETC. R. White sculp HONI SOIT QVI MAL Y PENSE Nata Grenvici 1533 Sept. 7. Sorori Successit in Regno 1558. Nov 17. Obijt 1602 3 Mar 24 Anno Aetatis 70. Printed for Richard Chiswell at the Rose and Crowne in St. Pauls Church yard BOOK III. OF THE SETTLEMENT OF THE REFORMATION OF RELIGION In the beginning of Queen Elizabeth's Reign QUEEN Maries Death was conceal'd for some hours What the secret Consultations were upon it is not known 1558. Queen Elizabeth succeeds but the Issue of them appeared about nine a Clock Then the Lord Chancellor went to the House of Lords and first imparted to them the News of the Queens Death which as it struck the Bishops with no small fear so those Counsellors who had been severe in their advices about her Sister did apprehend she might remember it against them Yet they all agreed to proclaim her Queen and by the Zeal they expressed for her coming to the Crown intended to ballance the Errors they had formerly been led to rather in compliance to the late Queens resentments than out of any ill will they bore her self They sent for the House of Commons and the Lord Chancellor signified to them the Queens Death which he said would have been a much more sorrowful loss to them if they had not such a Successor that was the next and indisputed Heir to the Crown Elizabeth of whose Right and Title none could make any question therefore they intended to proclaim her Queen and desired their Concurrence This was Ecchoed with many and long repeated Cries God save Queen Elizabeth Long and happily may She Reign The Parliament being declared to be dissolved by the late Queens death And proclaimed Queen the Lords proclaimed Elizabeth Queen and went into London where it was again done by the Lord Major and received every where with such excessive Joy that there was no sign of sorrow expressed for the death of Queen Mary but what the Priests shewed who in so publick and universal a Joy were forced to betake themselves to secret Groans since they durst not vent them in publick Never did any before her come to the Throne with so many good Wishes and Acclamations which the horror of the Cruelties and the reflection of the Disasters of the former Reign drew from the People who now hoped to see better Times And comes to London The Queen was then at Hatfield where having received the news of her Sisters
on the Dead or cast the burthen of it wholly upon her Sister But she assured them if ever she married she would make such a Choice as should be to the satisfaction and good of her People She did not know what credit she might yet have with them but she knew well she deserved to have it for she was resolved never to deceive them Her People were to her in stead of Children and she reckoned her self married to them by her Coronation They would not want a Successor when she died and for her part she should be well contented that the Marble should tell Posterity HERE LIES A QUEEN THAT REIGNED SO LONG AND LIVED AND DIED A VIRGIN She took their Address in good part and desired them to carry back her hearty thanks for the care the Commons had of her The Journals of the House of Lords are imperfect so that we find nothing in them of this matter yet it appears that they likewise had it before them for the Journals of the House of Commons have it marked that on the fifteenth of February there was a Message sent from the Lords desiring that a Committee of thirty Commoners might meet with twelve Lords to consider what should be the Authority of the Person whom the Queen should marry The Committee was appointed to treat concerning it but it seems the Queen desired them to turn to other things that were more pressing for I find nothing after this entred in the Journals of this Parliament concerning it On the ninth of February the Lords past a Bill for the Recognizing of the Queens Title to the Crown They recognize her Title to the Crown It had been considered whether as Queen Mary had procured a former Repeal of her Mothers Divorce and of the Acts that passed upon it declaring her Illegitimate the like should be done now The Lord Keeper said The Crown purged all defects and it was needless to look back to a thing which would at least cast a reproach on her Father the enquiring into such things too anxiously would rather prejudice than advance her Title So he advised that there should be an Act passed in general words asserting the lawfulness of her descent and her Right to the Crown rather than any special Repeal Queen Mary and her Council were careless of King Henry's Honour but it became her rather to conceal than expose his Weakness This being thought both Wise and Pious Council the Act was conceived in general Words That they did assuredly believe and declare that by the Laws of God and of the Realm she was their lawful Queen and that she was rightly lineally and lawfully descended from the Royal Blood and that the Crown did without all doubt or ambiguity belong to her and the Heirs to be lawfully begotten of her Body after her and that they as representing the Three Estates of the Realm did declare and assert her Title which they would defend with their Lives and Fortunes This was thought to be very wise Council for if they had gone to repeal the Sentence of Divorce which passed upon her Mothers acknowledging a Precontract they must have set forth the force that was on her when she made that Confession and that as it was a great dishonour to her Father so it would have raised discourses likewise to her Mothers prejudice which must have rather weakned than strengthened her Title And as has been formerly observed this seems to be the true reason why in all her Reign there was no Apology printed for her Mother There was another Act passed for the restoring of her in Blood to her Mother by which she was qualified as a private Subject to succeed either to her Grand-fathers Estate or to any others by that Blood But for the matters of Religion the Commons began The Acts that were passed concerning Religion and on the fifteenth of February brought in a Bill for the English Service and concerning the Ministers of the Church On the 21st a Bill was read for annexing the Supremacy to the Crown again and on the 17th of March another Bill was brought in confirming the Laws made about Religion in King Edwards time and on the 21st another was brought in That the Queen should have the Nomination of the Bishops as it had been in King Edwards time The Bill for the Supremacy was past by the Lords on the 18th of March the Archbishop of York the Earl of Shrewsbury the Viscount Mountacute and the Bishops of London Winchester Worcester Landaffe Coventry and Litchfield Exeter Chester and Carlisle and the Abbot of Westminster dissenting But afterwards the Commons annexed many other Bills to it as that about the Queens making Bishops not according to the Act made in King Edwards time but by the old way of Elections as it was Enacted in the 25th Year of her Fathers Reign with several Provisoes which passed in the House of Lords with the same dissent By it all the Acts past in the Reign of King Henry for the abolishing of the Popes Power are again revived and the Acts in Queen Maries time to the contrary are repealed There was also a Repeal of the Act made by her for proceeding against Hereticks They revived the Act made in the first Parliament of King Edward against those that spoke irreverently of the Sacrament and against private Masses and for Communion in both kinds And declared the Authority of Visiting Correcting and Reforming all things in the Church to be for ever annexed to the Crown which the Queen and her Successors might by her Letters Patents depute to any Persons to exercise in her Name All Bishops and other Ecclesiastieal Persons and all in any Civil Imployment were required to swear that they acknowledged the Queen to be the Supream Governour in all Causes as well Ecclesiastical as Temporal within her Dominions that they renounced all Forreign Power and Jurisdiction and should bear the Queen Faith and true Allegiance Whosoever should refuse to swear it was to forfeit any Office he had either in Church or State and to be from thenceforth disabled to hold any Imployment during Life And if within a Month after the end of that Session of Parliament any should either by discourse or in writing set forth the Authority of any Forreign Power or do any thing for the advancement of it they were to forfeit all their Goods and Chattels and if they had not Goods to the value of twenty Pounds they were to be Imprisoned a whole year and for the second offence they were to incur the Pains of a Praemunire and the third offence in that kind was made Treason To this a Proviso was added That such Persons as should be Commissioned by the Queen to Reform and Order Ecclesiastical Matters should judge nothing to be Heresie but what had been already so Judged by the Authority of the Canonical Scriptures or by the first four General Councils or by any other General Council in which such Doctrines
were declared to be Heresies by the express and plain Words of Scripture All other Points not so decided were to be judged by the Parliament with the assent of the Clergy in their Convocation This Act was in many things short of the Authority that King Henry had claimed and the severity of the Laws he had made The Title of Supream Head was left out of the Oath This was done to mitigate the Opposition of the Popish Party but besides the Queen her self had a scruple about it which was put in her Head by one Lever a famous Preacher among those of the Reformation of which Sands afterwards Bishop of Worcester complained to Parker in a Letter that is in the Collection Collection Number 2. There was no other punishment inflicted on those that denied the Queens Supremacy but the loss of their Goods and such as refused to take the Oath did only lose their Imployments whereas to refuse the Oath in King Henry's time brought them into a Praemunire and to deny the Supremacy was Treason The Bishops oppose the Queens Supremacy But against this Bill the Bishops made Speeches in the House of Lords I have seen a Speech of this kind was said to have been made by Arch-bishop Heath but it must be forgery put out in his Name for he is made to speak of the Supremacy as a new and unheard of thing which he who had sworn it so oft in King Henry's and King Edwards times could not have the face to say The rest of the Bishops opposed it the rather because they had lately declared so high for the Pope that it had been very indecent for them to have revolted so soon The Bishop of Duresme came not to this Parliament There were some hopes of gaining him to concur in the Reformation for in the Warrant the Queen afterwards gave to some for Consecrating the new Bishops he is first named and I have seen a Letter of Secretary Cecils to Parker that gives him some hope that Tonstal would joyn with them He had been offended with the Cruelties of the late Reign and though the resentments he had of his ill usage in the end of King Edwards time had made him at first concur more heartily to the restoring of Popery yet he soon fell off and declared his dislike of those violent Courses and neither did he nor Heath bring any in trouble within their Diocesses upon the account of Religion though it is hardly credible that there was no occasion for their being severe if they had been otherwise enclined to it The Bishop of Ely was also absent at the passing of this Act for though he would not consent to it yet he had done all that was prescribed by it so often before that it seems he thought it more decent to be absent than either to consent to it or to oppose it The Power that was added for the Queens Commissionating some to Execute her Supremacy gave the Rise to that Court which was commonly called the High Commission Court The beginning of the High Commission and was to be in the room of a single Person to whom with the Title of Lord Vice-gerent King Henry did delegate his Authority It seems the Clergy-men with whom the Queen consulted at this time thought this too much to be put in one Mans Hand and therefore resolved to have it shared to more Persons of whom a great many would certainly be Church-men so that they should not be altogether kept under by the hard Hands of the Laity who having groaned long under the Tyranny of an Ecclesiastical Yoke seemed now disposed to revenge themselves by bringing the Clergy as much under them for so Extreams do commonly rise from one another The Popish Clergy were now every where beginning to declaim against Innovation and Heresie Harpsfield had in a Sermon at Canterbury in February stirred the People much to Sedition and the Members belonging to that Cathedral had openly said that Religion should not nor could not be altered The Council also heard that the Prebendaries there had bought up many Arms so a Letter was written to Sir Thomas Smith to examine that matter Harpsfield was not put in Prison but received only a Rebuke There came also complaints from many other Places of many Seditious Sermons So the Queen following the Precedent her Sister had set her did in the beginning of March forbid all Preaching except by such as had a Licence under the Great Seal But lest the Clergy might now in the Convocation set out Orders in opposition to what the Queen was about to do she sent and required them under the Pains of a Praemunire to make no Canons Yet Harpsfield that was Prolocutor with the rest of the lower House made an Address to the upper House to be by them presented to the Queen for the discharge of their Consciences They reduced the Particulars into five Articles 1. That Christ was corporally present in the Sacrament 2. That there was no other Substance there but his Body and Blood 3. That in the Mass there was a Propitiatory Sacrifice for the Dead and the Living 4. That St. Peter and his lawful Successors had the Power of feeding and governing the Church 5. That the Power of treating about Doctrine the Sacraments and the Order of Divine Worship belonged only to the Pastors of the Church These they had sent to the two Universities from whence they were returned with the Hands of the greatest part in them to the first four but it seems they thought it not fit to sign the last For now the Queen had resolved to have a publick Conference about Religion in the Abby-Church of Westminster The Arch-bishop of York was continued still to be of the Council so the Conference being proposed to him he after he had Communicated it to his Brethren accepted of it though with some unwillingness It was appointed that there should be nine of a side who should confer about these three Points 1. Whether it was not against the Word of God and the Custom of the Ancient Church to use a Tongue unknown to the People in the Common-Prayers and the Administration of the Sacraments 2. Whether every Church had not Authority to appoint change and take away Ceremonies and Ecclesiastical Rites so the same were done to edification 3. Whether it could be proved by the Word of God that in the Mass there was a Propitiatory Sacrifice for the Dead and the Living All was ordered to be done in Writing The Bishops as being actually in Office were to read their Papers first upon the first Point and the Reformed were to read theirs next and then they were to exchange their Papers without any discourse concerning them for the avoiding of jangling The next day they were to read their Papers upon the second and after that upon the third Head and then they were to answer one anothers Papers The Nine on both sides were the Bishops of Winchester
had been left out in his second Liturgy as favouring the Corporal Presence too much and in stead of them these words were ordered to be used in the distribution of that Sacrament Take and eat this in remembrance that Christ died for thee and feed on him in thy Heart by Faith with Thanksgiving and Drink this in remembrance that Christs Blood was shed for thee and be thankful They now joyned both these in one Some of the Collects were also a little altered and thus was the Book presented to the House But for the Book of Ordination it was not in express terms named in the Act which gave an occasion afterwards to question the lawfulness of the Ordinations made by that Book But by this Act the Book that was set out by King Edward and confirmed by Parliament in the fifth Year of his Reign was again authorized by Law and the Repeal of it in Queen Maries time was made void So the Book of Ordinations being in that Act added to the Book of Common-Prayer it was now legally in force again as was afterwards declared in Parliament upon a Question that was raised about it by Bonner The Bill that was put in on the 15th of February concerning the new Service being laid aside a new one was framed and sent up by the Commons on the 18th of April and debated in the House of Lords Debates about the Act of Ueiformity Heath made a long Speech against it rather Elegant than Learned He enlarged much on the several Changes which had been made in King Edward's time he said that both Cranmer and Ridley changed their Opinions in the matter of Christ's presence he called Ridley the most notably learned Man that was of that way These Changes he imputed to their departing from the Standard of the Catholick Church he complained much of the robbing of Churches the breaking of Images and the Stage-Plays made in mockery of the Catholick Religion Upon all these Reasons he was against the Bill The Bishop of Chester spake also to it He said the Bill was against both Faith and Charity that Points once defined were not to be brought again into question nor were Acts of Parliament Foundations for a Churches Belief he enlarged on the Antiquity of their Forms and said it was an insolent thing to pretend that our Fathers had lived in Ignorance The Prophets oftentimes directed the Israelites to ask of their Fathers Matters of Religion could not be understood by the Laity It was of great consequence to have their Faith well grounded Jeroboam made Israel to Sin when he set up a new way of Worship and not only the Orthodox but even the Arrian Emperours ordered that points of Faith should be examined in Councils Gallio by the light of Nature knew that a Civil Judge ought not to meddle with matters of Religion In the Service-Book that was then before them they had no Sacrifice for their Sins nor were they to adore Christ in the Host and for these reasons he could not agree to it but if any thought he spoke this because of his own concern or pittied him for what he might suffer by it he would say in the words of our Saviour Weep not for me Weep for your selves After him spake Fecknam Abbot of Westminster He proposed three Rules by which they should judge of Religion it 's Antiquity its constancy to it self the influence it had on the Civil Government he said the old Religion began in the time of King Lucius according to Gildas the Book now proposed was not used before the two last years of King Edward the one was always the same the other was changed every second year as appeared in the point of the Presence of Christ in the Sacrament there had been great Order and Obedience in Queen Maries Reign but now every where great Insolences were committed by the People with some very indecent Prophanations of the most holy things he recommended to them in St. Austines words the adhering to the Catholick Church the very name Catholick which Hereticks had not the confidence to assume shewed their Authority The Consent of the whole Church in all Ages with the perpetual Succession of Pastors in St. Peter's Chair ought to weigh more with them than a few new Preachers who had distracted both Germany and England of late Thus I have given the substance of their Speeches being all that I have seen of that side I have seen none at all on the other side tho it is not probable but some were made in defence of the Service as well as these were against it But upon this Occasion I shall set down the substance of the second Paper which the Reformed Divines had prepared on the second point for the Conference about the Authority of every particular Church to change or take away Ceremonies I do not put it in the Collection because I have not that which the Papists prepared in Opposition to it But the heads of this Paper were as followeth Arguments for the Changes made in the Service It is clear by the Epistles which St. Paul writ to the Corinthians and other Churches that every Church has Power in it self to order the Forms of their Worship and the administration of the Sacraments among them so as might best tend to Order Edification and Peace The like Power had also the seven Angels of the Churches to whom St. John writ And for the first three Ages there was no General Meeting of the Church in Synods but in those times the neighbouring Pastors and Bishops by mutual advice rather than Authority ordered their affairs and when Heresies sprung up they condemned them without staying for a General Determination of the whole Church There were also great differences among them in their Customs as about observing Lent and Easter Ceremonies grew too soon to a great number When Errors or Abuses appeared private Bishops reformed their own Diocesses So those who came in the room of Arrian Bishops even when that Heresie was spread over all the East and the See of Rome it self was defiled with it yet reformed their own Churches Ambrose finding the custom of Feasting in Churches on the Anniversaries of the Martyrs gave occasion to great Scandals took it away Even in Queen Maries time many of the old Superstitions of Pilgrimages and Reliques which had been abolish'd in King Henry's time were not then taken up again from which they argued that if some things might be altered why not more So that if there was good reason to make any Changes it could not be doubted but that as Hezekiah and Josiah had made by their own power so the Queen might make Reformations which were not so much the setting up of new things as the restoring of the state of Religion to what it was anciently which had been brought in by consent of Parliament and Convocation in King Edward's time The Rules they offer'd in this Paper about Ceremonies were that
of every Section the initial Letters of his Name that had translated it were printed as W. E. E. W. for Will. Exon and Edwin Wigorn and so in the rest In what Year this was first printed I am not so well assured For I have not seen the first Impression of it but I believe it was in the Year 1561 or soon after it for the Almanack prefixed for the Moveable Feasts begins with that Year As for the Canons and Rules of the Church Goverment they were not so soon prepared There came out some in the Year 1571 and more in the Year 1597 and a far larger Collection of them in the first Year of King James's Reign But this Matter has yet wanted its chief force for Penitentiary Canons have not been set up and the Government of the Church is not yet brought into the Hands of Church-men So that in this Point the Reformation of the Church wants some part of its finishing in the Government and Discipline of it Thus did Queen Elizabeth again recover the Reformation of Religion and it might have been expected The Beginnings of the Divisions of this Church that under such moderate and wise Councils things should have been carried with that Temper that this Church should have united in its endeavours to support it self and become the Bulwark of the Reformation and the Terror of Rome But that Blessing was by the Sins of the Nation the Passions of some the Interests of others and the Weakness of the greatest part in a great measure denied us The Heats that had been raised beyond Sea were not quite forgotten and as some Sparks had been kindled about Clergy-mens Habits in K. Edward's Reign so though Hooper and Ridley had buried that Difference in their Ashes it broke out again concerning the Vestments of the Inferior Clergy Other things were also much contested Some were for setting up Ecclesiastical Courts in every Parish for the exercising of Discipline against scandalous Persons others thought this might degenerate into Faction These lesser Differences were craftily managed by some who intended to improve them so far that they might have the Church-Lands divided among them and they carried these Heats further in Queen Elizabeth's Reign then one would imagine that considers the temper of that Government But since that still by many Degrees and many Accidents in the Civil Government they are now grown to that height that though considering the Grounds on which they have been and still are maintained they appear to be of no great force or moment Yet if the Animosities and Heats that are raised by them are well examined there is scarce any probable hopes left of composing those Differences unless our Law-givers do vigorously apply themselves to it The Reformation in Scotland Having giving this Account of the Establishment of the Reformation here in England under Queen Elizabeth I have in some sort discharged my self of the Design of my Engagement in this Work but since the Settlement of Religion in Scotland was made the same Year I shall next give some account of that which I do with the more assurance having met with several important things relating to it in Melvill's Memoires that are in none of the printed Books When the Treaty began for a Peace between the two Crowns of France and Spain the secret Reason of making it was to root out Heresy so much was expressed in the Preamble to it that to extirpate Heresy to have a General Council called and the Church fully Reformed both from Errors and Abuses those Princes had entred into a firm Peace The Cardinal of Lorrain writ to his Sister the Queen Regent of Scotland that now since they were making Peace they were resolved to purge the World of Heresy He also writ to the Arch-Bishop of St. Andrews to the same Effect The Queen Regent was much confounded at this She was now forced to break her Faith with those who had served her Interests hitherto and to whom she had often promised that they should not be troubled for their Consciences The danger was also very great from their Combination since the Queen of England would certainly assist them both because the Religion was the same in both Countries and because by dividing that Kingdom she would secure the North of England from the mischief Scotland could do it if moved and set on to it by France But the Bishops in Scotland shutting their Eyes upon all Dangers resolved by some signal Instance to strike a Terror into the People The Arch-Bishop of St. Andrews having gathered a meeting of many Bishops Abbots and Divines brought before them one Walter Mill an old decrepit Priest who had long given over saying Mass and had preached in several places of the Country They had in vain dealt with him to recant Mils Mâ—rtyrdom so now he was brought to his Trial. They objected Articles to him about his asserting the lawfulness of Priests Marriages denying the Seven Sacraments saying the Mass was Idolatry denying the Presence of Christ's Flesh and Blood in the Sacrament and condemning the Office of Bishops speaking against Pilgrimages and teaching privately in Houses To these he answered beyond all their Expectation for he was so old and infirm that they thought he could say nothing He said He esteemed Marriage a blessed Bond and free for all Men to enter into it and that it was much better for Priests to marry than to vow Chastity and not keep it as they generally did He said He knew no Sacraments but Baptism and the Lord's Supper the rest he left to them He said The Priests sole communicating was as if a Lord should invite many to Dinner and ring a Bell for them to come but when they came should turn his back on them and eat all himself He said That Christ was only spiritually in the Sacrament and that there was no other Sacrifice but that which he offered on the Cross He held That they were Bishops indeed who did the Work of a Bishop and not they who sought only their sensual Pleasures and neither regarded the Word of God nor their Flocks He knew Pilgrimages had been much abused and great Uncleanness was committed under the colour of going to them but there was no ground for them in Scripture Upon these Answers he was required to Recant but he said he knew he was to die once and what they intended to do with him he wished they would do it soon Upon this he was declared an obstinate Heretick But the Country was so alienated from them that they could not find a Man to burn him and he that had the Jurisdiction in that Regality refused to execute the Sentence Yet at last one of the Arch-Bishops Servants was gotten to undertake it but in the whole Town they could find none that would sell them a Cord to tie him to the Stake so they were forced to put it off till the next day and then since none other could be had
removed and the Penalty of the refusal thereof turned only to disablement to take any Promotion or to exercise any Charge and yet of liberty to be reinvested therein if any Man should accept thereof during his Life But after when Pius Quintus excommunicated her Majesty and the Bulls of Excommunication were published in London whereby her Majesty was in a sort proscribed and that thereupon as upon a principal Motive or Preparative followed the Rebellion in the North yet because the ill Humours of the Realm were by that Rebellion partly purged and that she feared at that time no Foreign Invasion and much less the Attempt of any within the Realm not back'd by some potent Power and Succour from without she contented her self to make a Law against that special case of bringing in and publishing of any Bulls or the like Instruments Whereunto was added a Prohibition upon pain not of Treason but of an inferior degree of Punishment against the bringing of the Agnus Dei's and such other Merchandice of Rome as are well known not to be any essential part of the Romanish Religion but only to be used in practice as Love-Tokens to inchant and bewitch the peoples Affections from their Allegiance to their Natural Soveraign In all other Points her Majesty continued her former Lenity but when about the 20th Year of her Reign she had discovered in the King of Spain an intention to Invade her Dominions and that a principal part of the Plot was to prepare a Party within the Realm that might adhere to the Forreigner and that the Seminaries began to blossom and to send forth daily Priests and professed Men who should by Vow taken at Shrift reconcile her Subjects from their Obedience yea and bind many of them to attempt against her Majesty's Sacred Person and that by the Poison which they spread the Humours of most Papists were altered and that they were no more Papists in Conscience and of Softness but Papists in Faction Then were there new Laws made for the punishment of such as should submit themselves to such Reconcilements or Renunciation of Obedience And because it was a Treason carried in the Clouds and in wonderful secrecy and come seldom to light and that there was no presuspicion thereof so great as the Recusancy to come to Divine Service because it was set down by their Decrees that to come to Church before Reconciliation was to live in Schism but to come to Church after Reconcilement was absolutely heretical and damnable Therefore there were added Laws containing Punishment pecuniary videlicet such as might not enforce Consciences but to enfeeble and impoverish the means of those about whom it resteth indifferent and ambiguous whether they were reconciled or not and when notwithstanding all this Provision the Poison was dispersed so secretly as that there was no means to stay it but by restraining the Merchants that brought it in Then lastly There was added a Law whereby such seditious Priests of new Erection were exiled and those that were at that time within the Land shipped over and so commanded to keep hence upon pain of Treason This hath been the proceeding though intermingled not only with sundry Examples of her Majesty's Grace towards such as in her Wisdom she knew to be Papists in Conscience and not Faction and Singularity but also with extraordinary mitigation towards the Offenders in the highest Degree committed by Law if they would but protest that if in case this Realm should be invaded with a Forreign Army by the Pope's Authority for the Catholick Cause as they tearm it they would take part with her Majesty and not adhere to her Enemies For the other Party which have been offensive to the State though in another Degree which named themselves Reformers and we commonly call Puritans this hath been the proceeding towards them A great while when they enveighed against such Abuses in the Church as Pluralities Non-residence and the like their Zeal was not condemned only their Violence was sometime censured When they refused the use of some Ceremonies and Rites as Superstitious they were tolerated with much connivancy and gentleness yea when they called in question the superiority of Bishops and pretended to a Democracy into the Church yet their Propositions were here considered and by contrary Writings debated and discussed Yet all this while it was perceived that their Course was dangerous and very popular as because Papistry was odious theretofore it was ever in their Mouths that they sought to purge the Church from the Reliques of Papistry a thing acceptable to the people who love ever to run from one extream to another Because multitude of Rogues and Poverty was an Eye-sore and a dislike to every Man therefore they put into the peoples head that if Discipline were planted there should be no Vagabonds nor Beggars a thing very plausible and in like manner they promised the people many of the impossible Wonders of their Discipline besides they opened to the people a way to Government by their Consistory and Presbytery a thing though in consequence no less prejudicial to the Liberties of private Men than to the Soveraignty of Princes yet in first shew very popular Nevertheless this except it were in some few that entred into extream contempt was born with because they pretended in dutiful manner to make Propositions and to leave it to the Providence of God and the Authority of the Magistrate But now of late Years when there issued from them that affirmed the consent of the Magistrate was not to be attended when under pretence of a Confession to avoid Slander and Imputations they combined themselves by Classes and Subscriptions when they descended into that vile and base means of defacing the Government of the Church by ridiculous Pasquills when they begun to make many Subjects in doubt to take Oaths which is one of the Fundamental parts of Justice in this Land and in all Places when they began both to vaunt of their strength and number of their Partizans and Followers and to use Cominations that their Cause would prevaile though Uproar and Violence then it appeared to be no more Zeal no more Conscience but meer Faction and Division And therefore though the State were compelled to hold somewhat a harder hand to restrain them than before yet was it with as great moderation as the Peace of the State or Church could permit And therefore Sir to conclude consider uprightly of these Matters and you shall see her Majesty is no more a Temporizer in Religion It is not the Success Abroad nor the Change of Servants here at Home can alter her only as the things themselves alter she applyed her Religious Wisdom to Methods correspondent unto them still retaining the two Rules before mentioned in dealing tenderly with Consciences and yet in discovering Faction from Conscience and Softness from Singularity Farewel Your loving Friend F. Walsingham THUS I have prosecuted what I at first undertook the Progress of the
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
that the said Clergy according to the Tenour of the King 's Writ and the Ancient Laws and Customs of this Noble Realm might have their Room and Place and be associated with the Commons in the Nether House of this present Parliament as Members of the Common-Wealth and the King 's most humble Subjects And if this may not be permitted and granted unto them that then no Statutes nor Laws concerning the Christian Religion or which shall concern especially the Persons Possessions Rooms Livings Jurisdictions Goods or Chattels of the said Clergy may pass nor be enacted the said Clergy not being made privy thereunto and their Answers and Reasons not heard The said Clergy do most humbly beseech an Answer and Declaration to be made unto them what the said most Reverend Father in God and all other the Bishops have done in this their humble Suit and Request to the end that the said Clergy if need be may chuse of themselves such able and discreet Persons which shall effectually follow the same Suit in the Name of them all And whereas in a Statute ordained and established by Authority of Parliament at Westminster in the 25th Year of the Reign of the most excellent Prince King Henry the 8th The Clergy of this Realm submitting themselves to the King's Highness did knowledg and confess according to the Truth That the Convocations of the same Clergy have been and ought to be assembled by the King 's Writ and did promise farther in Verbo Sacerdotii that they never from thenceforth would presume to attempt alledg claim or put in use or enact promulge or execute any new Canons Constitutions Ordinances Provincials or other or by whatsoever other Name they shall be called in the Convocation unless the King 's most Royal Assent and License may to them be had to make promulge and execute the same And his Majesty to give his most Royal Assent and Authority in that behalf upon pain of every one of the Clergy doing the contrary and being thereof Convict to suffer Imprisonment and make Fine at the King 's Will. And that no Canons Constitutions or Ordinances shall be made or put in execution within this Realm by Authority of the Convocation of the Clergy which shall be repugnant to the King's Prerogative Royal or the Customs Laws or Statutes of this Realm which Statute is eft-soons renewed and established in the 27th Year of the Reign of the most noble King as by the Tenour of both Statutes more at large will appear The said Clergy being presently assembled in Convocation by Authority of the King 's Writ do desire that the King's Majesty's License in writing may be for them obtained and granted according to the effect of the said Statutes authorising them to attempt entreat and commune of such Matters and therein freely to give their Consents which otherwise they may not do upon pain and peril premised Also the said Clergy desireth that such Matters as concerneth Religion which be disputable may be quietly and in good order reasoned and disputed among them in this House whereby the Verities of such Matters shall the better appear and the Doubts being opened and resolutely discussed Men may be fully perswaded with the quietness of their Consciences and the time well spent Number 18. A Paper offered to Q. Elizabeth and afterwards to K. James concerning the Inferior Clergies being brought to the House of Commons Reasons to induce her Majesty that Deans Arch-Deacons and some other of her grave and wise Clergie may be admitted into the Lower House of Parliament 1. IN former Times when Causes Ecclesiastical were either not at all Ex M.S. Dr. Borlace or else very rarely treated of in that Assembly the Clergy were thought Men most meet to consult and determine of the Civil Affairs of this Realm 2. The Supream Authority in Church Causes is not newly granted but reunited and restored to the Crown and an Order is by Law already established how all Abuses in the Church are to be reformed so as no cause concerning Religion may be handled in that House without her Majesty's special leave but with the manifest impeaching of her Prerogative Royal and contempt of the said Order 3. If it shall please her Highness to give way to this Course that Church-Matters be there debated and in part concluded How much more necessary is it now than it was in former Times that some of the Clergy should be there present at the same * In the same Paper written over to be presented to K. James this Article is thus varied It is thought the Clergie falling into a Premunire and so not in the King's Protection it did afterwards please the King to pardon them but not to restore them So began this Separation as far forth as can be collected then the Wisdom of a great Politician meeting with the Ambition of as great a Prelat wrought the continuance of the said Separation under this pretence That it should be most for the Honour of him and his Clergie to be still by themselves in two Assemblies of Convocation answerable in proportion to the two Houses of Parliament There are many other inconsiderable Amendments made by Bishop Ravis 's own hand It doth not appear why they were excluded but as it is thought either the King offended with some of them did so grievously punish the whole Body or else the Ambition of one of them meeting with the subtilty of an undermining Politick did occasion this causeless Separation 5. They are yet to this day called by several Writs directed into their several Diocesses under the Great Seal to assist the Prince in that High Court of Parliament 6. Though the Clergy and the Universities be not the worst Members of this Common-Wealth yet in that respect they are of all other in worst condition for in that Assembly every Shire hath their Knights and every incorporate Town their Burgesses only the Clergy and the Universities are excluded 7. The Wisdom and Justice of this Realm doth intend That no Subject should be bound to that Law whereunto he himself after a sort hath not yielded his Consent but the Clergy and the Universities may now be concluded by Law without their Consent without their just Defence without their Privity 8. The many Motions made so prejudicial to the State and being of the Clergy and Universities followed now with so great eagerness in that House would then be utterly silenced or soon repressed with the sober and sufficient Answers of the Clergy present 9. It would much repair the Reputation and Credit of the Clergy which now is exposed to great contumely and contempt as generally abroad in this Land so particularly in that House And whoso is religious and wise may observe That the Contempt of the Clergy is the high way to Atheism and all Prophaneness Men are Flesh and not Spirit led by ordinary outward Means and not usually overwrought by extraordinary Inspirations and therefore do easily
serveth 11. Item That all and all manner of Processions of the Church be used frequented and continued after the old Order of the Church in the Latin Tongue 12. Item That all such Holy-days and Fasting-days be observed and kept as was observed and kept in the late time of King Henry the Eighth 13. Item That the laudable and honest Ceremonies which were wont to be used frequented and observed in the Church be also hereafter frequented used and observed 14. Item That Children be Christened by the Priest and confirmed by the Bishops as heretofore hath been accustomed and used 15. Item Touching such Persons as were heretofore promoted to any Orders after the new sort and fashion of Orders considering they were not ordered in very deed the Bishop of the Diocess finding otherwise sufficiency and ability in those Men may supply that thing which wanted in them before and then according to his discretion admit them to minister 16. Item That by the Bishop of the Diocess an Uniform Doctrine be set forth by Homilies or otherwise for the good instruction and teaching of all People and that the said Bishop and other Persons aforesaid do compel the Parishoners to come to their several Churches and there devoutly to hear Divine Service as of reason they ought 17. Item That they examine all School-masters and Teachers of Children and finding them suspect in any ways to remove them and place Catholick Men in their Rooms with a special Commandment to instruct their Children so as they may be able to answer the Priest at the Mass and so help the Priest to Mass as hath been accustomed 18. Item That the said Bishop and all Persons aforesaid have such regard respect and consideration of and for the setting forth of the Premises with all kind of Vertue godly Living and good Example with repressing also and keeping under of Vice and Unthriftiness as they and every each of them may be seen to favour the Restitution of true Religion and also to make an honest account and reckoning of their Office and Cure to the Honour of God our good contentation and the profit of this Realm and Dominions of the same Number 11. A Commission to turn out some of the Reformed Bishops Rot. pat prim Mariae pars septim REgina Dei Gratia c. perdilectis fidelibus Consiliariis suis Stephano Winton Episcopo summo suo Angliae Cancellario Cudberto Dunelmen Episcopo necnon Reverend dilectis sibi in Christo Edmund London Episcopo Roberto Assaven Episcopo Georgio Cicestren Episcopo Antonio Landaven Episcopo salutem Quia omne animi vitium tanto conspectius in se crimen habet quanto qui peccat major habetur quoniam certis indubitatis testimoniis una cum facti notoreitate fama publica referente luculenter intelleximus manifesto comperimus Robertum Archiepiscopum Ebor. Robertum Meneven Joan. Cestren Paulum Bristolen Episcopos aut certe pro talibus se gerentes Dei animarum suarum salutis immemores valde gravia enormia dudum commisisse perpetrasse scelera atque peccata inter caetera quod dolenter certe magna cum amaritudine animae nostrae proferimus post expressam professionem castitatis expresse rite legittime emissam cum quibusdam mulieribus nuptias de facto cum de jure non deberent in Dei contemptum animarum suarum peccatum manifestum necnon in grave omnium ordinum tam Clericorum quam Laicorum scandalum Denique caeterorum Omnium Christi fidelium perniciosissium exemplum contraxisse cum illis tanquam cum Uxoribus cohabitasse Ne igitur tantum scelus remaneat impunitum ac multos alios pertrahat in ruinam vobis tenore praesentium committimus mandamus quatenus vos omnes aut tres saltem vestrum qui praesentes Literas Commissionales duxerint exequend dictos Archiepiscopum Ebor. Episc Meneven Episc Cestren Episc Bristollen diebus horis locis vestro aut trium vestrum arbitrio eligend assignand ad comparend coram vobis ceu tribus vestrum vocetis aut vocari faciatis vocend aut vocari faciant tres vestrū ceu saltem Si ita vobis aut tribus vestrum videatur eosdem Archiep. Episc praedict adeatis aut tres vestrum adeant negotio illis summarie de plano sine ullo strepitu figura judicii exposito declarato si per summariam examinationem discussionem negotii per vos aut tres vestrum fiendam eundem Archiep. Episc praedictos sic contraxisse aut fecisse constiterit eosdem a dignitatibus suis praedictis cum suis juribus pertinen Universis omnino ammoveatis deprivetis perpetuo excludatis ceu tres vestrum sic amoveant deprivent perpetuo excludant poenitentiam salutarem congruam pro modo culpae vestro aut trium vestrum arbitrio imponend eisdem injungentes caeteraque in praedictis cum eorum incidentibus emergentiis annexis connexis quibuscunque facientes quae necessaria fuerint ceu quomodolibet opportuna Quae omnia singula faciend expediend finiend Nos tam Autoritate nostra Ordinaria quam absoluta ex mero motu certaque scientia nostra vobis tribus vestrum potestatem Autoritatem licentiam concedimus impertimur per praesentes cum cujuslibet coercionis castigationis severitate potestate in contrarium facientes non obstant quibuscunque In cujus rei c. Apud Westm 16. die Martii Number 12. Another Commission to turn out the rest of them MARY by the Grace of God c. To the Right Reverend Fathers in God our Right trusty and right well-beloved Counsellors Stephen Bishop of Winchester our Chancellor of England Cuthbert Bishop of Duresm Edmond Bishop of London Robert Bishop of St. Asaph George Bishop of Chichester our Almoner and Anthony Bishop of Landaff Greeting Whereas John Tailour Doctor of Divinity naming himself Bishop of Lincoln John Hooper naming himself Bishop of Worcester and Glocester John Harley Bishop of Hereford having these said several pretended Bishopricks given to them by the Letter Patents of Our late deceased Brother King Edward the Sixth to have and to hold the same during their good behaviours with the express Clause quamdiu se bene gesserint have sithence as hath been credibly brought to Our knowledg both by Preaching Teaching and setting forth of Erroneous Doctrine and also by inordinate Life and Conversation contrary both to the Laws of Almighty God and Use of the Universal Christian Church declared themselves very unworthy of that Vocation and Dignity in the Church We minding to have these several Cases duly heard and considered and thereupon such Order taken with them as may stand with Justice and the Laws have for the special trust We have conceived of your Wisdoms Learning and Integrity of Life appointed you four three or two of you to be our Commissioners in this behalf giving unto
as you shall be sure of my poor daily prayer for other pleasure can I not do you And thus the Blessed Trinity both bodily and ghostly long preserve and prosper you I pray you pardon me that I write not unto you of mine own hand for verily I am compelled to forbear writing for a while by reason of this Disease of mine whereof the chief occasion is grown as it is thought by the stooping and leaning on my Breast that I have used in writing And thus eft-soons I beseech our Lord long to preserve you Number 22. Directions of Queen Mary to her Council touching the Reformation of the Church out of her own Original Ex M. S. D G. Petyte FIrst That such as had Commission to talk with my Lord Cardinal at his first coming touching the Goods of the Church should have recourse unto him at the least once in a week not only for putting these Matters in execution as much as may be before the Parliament but also to understand of him which way might be best to bring to good effect those Matters that have been begun concerning Religion both touching good Preaching I wish that may supply and overcome the evil Preaching in time past and also to make a sure Provision that no evil Books shall either be printed bought or sold without just punishment Therefore I think it should be well done that the Universities and Churches of this Realm should be visited by such Persons as my Lord Cardinal with the rest of you may be well assured to be worthy and sufficient Persons to make a true and just account thereof remitting the choice of them to him and you Touching punishment of Hereticks me thinketh it ought to be done without rashness not leaving in the mean while to do Justice to such as by Learning would seem to deceive the simple and the rest so to be used that the People might well perceive them not to be condemned without just occasion whereby they shall both understand the Truth and beware to do the like And especially in London I would wish none to be burnt without some of the Councils presence and both there and every-where good Sermons at the same I verily believe that many Benefices should not be in one Man's hand but after such sort as every Priest might look to his own Charge and remain resident there whereby they should have but one Bond to discharge towards God Whereas now they have many which I take to be the cause that in most part of this Realm there is over-much want of good Preachers and such as should with their Doctrine overcome the evil diligence of the abused Preachers in the time of Schism not only by their Preaching but also by their good Example without which in mine Opinion their Sermons shall not so much profit as I wish And like-as their good Example on their behalf shall undoubtedly do much good so I account my self bound on my behalf also to shew such example in encouraging and maintaining those Persons well-doing their Duty not forgetting in the mean while to correct and punish them which do contrary that it may be evident to all this Realm how I discharge my Conscience therein and minister true Justice in so doing Number 23. Injunctions by Hugh Latimer Bishop of Worcester to the Prior and Convent of St. Mary House in Worcester 1537. Hugh by the goodness of God Bishop of Worcester wisheth to his Brethren the Prior and Convent aforesaid Grace Mercy Peace and true knowledg of God's Word from God our Father and our Lord Jesus Christ Forasmuch as in this my Visitation L. 3 us Reg. Prior. Convent Wigorn. I evidently perceive the Ignorance and Negligence of divers Religious Persons in this Monastery to be intollerable and not to be suffered for that thereby doth reign Idolatry and many kinds of Superstitions and other Enormities And considering withal that our Soveraign Lord the King for some part of Remedy of the same hath granted by his most gracious License that the Scripture of God may be read in English of all his obedient Subjects I therefore willing your Reformation in most favourable manner to your least displeasur do heartily require you all and every one of you and also in God's behalf command the same according as your Duty is to obey me as God's Minister and the Kings in all my lawful and honest Commandments that you observe and keep inviolably all these Injunctions following under pain of the Law FIrst Forasmuch as I perceive that some of you neither have observed the King's Injunctions nor yet have them with you as willing to observe them therefore ye shall from henceforth both have and observe diligently and faithfully as well special commandments of Preaching as other Injunctions given in his Graces Visitation Item That the Prior shall provide of the Monasteries charge a whole Bible in English to be laid fast chained in some open place either in their Church or Cloister Item That every Religious Person have at the least a New Testament in English by the Feast of the Nativity of our Lord next ensuing Item Whensoever there shall be any Preaching in your Monastery that all manner of Singing and other Ceremonies be utterly laid aside in his preaching time and all other Service shortned as need shall be and all Religious Persons quietly to hearken to the Preaching Item That ye have a Lecture of Scripture read every day in English amongst you save Holy-days Item That every Religious Person be at every Lecture from the beginning to the ending except they have a necessary Lett allowed them by the Prior. Item That every Religious House have a Layman to their Steward for all former Businesses Item That you have a continual Schoolmaster sufficiently learned to teach your Grammer Item That no Religious Person discourage any manner of Lay-man or Woman or any other from the reading of any good Book either in Latin or English Item That the Prior have at his Dinner or Supper every day a Chapter read from the beginning of the Scripture to the end and that in English wheresoever he be in any of his own Places and to have edifying communication of the same Item That the Covent sit together four to one Mess and to eat together in common and to have Scripture read in likewise and have communication thereof and after their Dinner or Supper their Reliques and Fragments to be distributed to the poor People Item That the Covent and Prior provide Distributions to be ministred in every Parish whereas ye be Parsons and Proprietaries and according to the King's Injunctions in that behalf Item That all these my Injunctions be read every month once in the Chapter House before all the Brethren Number 24. A Letter of Ann Boleyn's to Gardner Ex Chartophylac Regio Mr. Stephens I thank you for my Letter wherein I perceive the willing and faithful Mind that you have to do me pleasure not doubting
moreover We will and Command all and singular Justices of Peace Mayors Sheriffs Bailiffs Constables and all other our Officers Ministers and faithful Subjects to be aiding helping and assisting to you at your commandment in the due execution hereof as they tender Our Pleasure and will answer to the Costs at their utmost Perils And We Will and Grant That these Our Letters Patents shall be a sufficient Warrant and Discharge for you and any of you against Us Our Heirs and Successors and all and every other Person or Persons whatsoever they be of for or concerning the Premises or any parcel thereof or for the execution of this Our Commission or any part thereof In Witness whereof We have caused these Our Letters to be made Patents and to continue and endure for one whole Year next coming after the Date hereof Witness our Self at Wistminster the 8th day of February the third and fourth Years of Our Reign Number 33. A Letter writ by the Council expressing their Jealousies of the Lady Elizabeth An Original Cotton Libr. Titus B. 2. Mr. Pope after our very hearty Commendations ye shall understand That amongst divers other devilish Practices attempted from time to time by Dudly Aston and other Traitors in France for the disturbance of the Quiet of the Realm they have now lately sent over one Cleyberdo who if I the Lord Chancellor be not deceived in the Man was whilst I was President in Wales indicted of a Burglary and should have been if he had not escaped by the means of certain his Complices who took him from the Sheriffs Man as well for the said Burglary as for divers other notable Robberies and other Offences made sure enough from attempting this Enterprize now This Man being sent by the foresaid Traitors into the extream parts of Essex and Suffolk where naming himself to be Earl of Devonshire he hath by spreading abroad of slanderous Letters Proclamations abused the Lady Elizabeth's Graces Name pronouncing thereby as much as in him lay to stir the King 's and Queen's Majesties Subjects in those parts to Rebellion as by the Copies of the said Letters and Proclamations which we send unto you herewith may at better length appear unto you And albeit the People there have shewed themselves so true and obedient Subjects as immediately upon the understanding of this Enterprize they did of themselves and without any Commandment apprehend as many of the Attempters of this devilish Practice as they could come by whereby their good-will and truth to the King and Queen's Majesties doth well appear Yet because this Matter is spread already abroad and that peradventure many Constructions and Discourses will be made thereof we have thought meet to signify the whole Circumstances of the Cause unto you to be by you opened unto the Lady Elizabeth's Grace at such time as ye shall think convenient to the end it may appear unto her how little these Men stick by falshood and untruth to compass their Purpose not letting for that intent to abuse the Name of her Grace or any others which their Devises nevertheless are God be thanked by his Goodness discovered from time to time to their Majesties preservance and confusion of their Enemies And so bid you heartily well to fare From Eltham the 30th of July 1556. Your Loving Friends Nichol. Eborac Canc. Arundel Thomas Ely R. Rochester Henry Jernegam Number 34. A Letter from Sir Edward Carne concerning the suspension of Cardinal Pool's Legatine Power An Original PLeaseth it your most Excellent Majesties Ex Chartophylac Regio according as I advertised your Highness in my Letters of the 8th of this So I have informed all the Cardinals that be here of the Congregation of the Inquisition as the most Reverend Lord Cardinal Morone advised me informing them of the good Proceedings and Reformations made by the most Reverend Lord Cardinal's Grace there as well in Clero as in Populo not only in things pertaining ad cultum Dei but also in other pertaining to the Common-Weal of Christ's Church in such sort as Christ's Religion doth so prosper there that there is good hope all things should come to their perfection in time And for that purpose his Grace had called there a Synod of the Clergy of the Realm where many good Ordinances for the maintenance of the Premises been past already and many ready in hand for to pass and not fully ended nor perfected which should be staid in case the Legacy should be there-hence revoked which might turn to the great danger and dammage of many in that your Majesty's Realm in case due Reformation throughout and perfectly were not made Therefore I desired them that when the Matter were moved amongst them so to weigh it as such a good beginning that through your Majesty's Goodness hath been there be not brought by their doings here into no worse terms then your Majesties with no little pain hath always travelled to bring it unto Adding besides divers Cases that daily might fall which could not be holpen without the Authority of this See And that Men newly reduced to the Unity of the Church would rather stand in their naughty Doings whose Examples might be noisome to many than repair hither for any help But having the Legate there would gladly seek help at his hands being present amongst them And likewise for reduction of your Majesty's Realm of Ireland to the Unity of the Church which whether it were past or no I doubted and ended throughly And if it were yet were it most expedient that there should be Reformation as well in Clero as in Populo which could not well be in case the Legacy continue not there This is the effect of the Points that I informed them upon who all thought it most expedient that the Legacy should continue there and would not fail to stay as much as might lie in them for these Considerations above rehearsed and thought being of such importance that if my Lord's Grace were not there already it were most expedient that he should be sent thither rather than to be revoked and hereof as well Cardinal Morone as all the other would needs I should move his Holiness Whereupon the 12th of this I went to the Pope himself upon pretence to give him thanks for the Provision of the Church of Chichester and of the most gracious and honourable Report that he made in the Consistory the same time of your Highness my Soveraign Lady the Queen where his Holiness declared so much Goodness and Vertue of your Majesty that he and this See could not he said shew so much favour to any of yours as the same required As undoubtedly as far as I could hear he doth whensoever he hath occasion to speak of your Majesty so reverently as more could not be who prevented me and said that he was glad that I was come unto him and trusted that God had sent me thither for there had been with him the day before
for it but the Author's word and Poets must make Circumstances as well as more signal Contrivances to set off their Fables But there was no occasion for Bucer's saying this since he never declared against the Corporal Presence but was for taking up that Controversy in some general Expressions So it was not suitable to his Opinion in that Matter for him to talk so loosely of the Scriptures And is it credible that a Story of this nature should not have been published in Queen Mary's Time and been made use of when he was condemned for an Heretick and his Body raised and burnt But our Author perhaps did not think of that 15. He says Pag. 191. Peter Martyr was a while in suspence concerning the Eucharist and stayed till he should see what the Parliament should appoint in that Matter P. Martyr argued and read in the Chair against the Corporal Presence four Years before the Parliament medled with it For the second Common-Prayer Book which contained the first publick Declaration that the Parliament made in this Matter was enacted in the fifth Year of King Edward and Peter Martyr from his first coming to England had appeared against it 16. He said The first Parliament under King Edward Pag. 193. appointed a new Form to be used in ordaining Priests and Bishops who till that time had been Ordained according to the Old Rites save only that they did not swear Obedience to the Pope This is a further Evidence of our Author's care in searching the printed Statutes since what was done in the Fifth Year of this Reign he represents as done in the First His Design in this was clear he had a mind to possess all his own Party with an Opinion that the Orders given in this Church were of no force and therefore he thought it a decent piece of his Poem to set down this Change as done so early since if he had mentioned it in its proper place he knew not how to deny the validity of the Orders that were given the first four Years of this Reign which continued to be conferred according to the old Forms 17. He says The Parliament did also at the same time Ibid. confirm a new Book of Common-Prayer and of the Administration of the Sacraments This is of a piece with the former for the Act confirming the Common-Prayer Book which is also among the Printed Statutes passed not in this Session of Parliament but in a second Session a Year after this These are Indications sufficient to shew what an Historian Sanders was that did not so much as read the Publick Acts of the Time concerning which he writ 18. He says They ordered all Images to be removed Ibid. and sent some lewd Men over England for that effect who either brake or burnt the Images of our Saviour the Blessed Virgin and the Saints therein declaring against whom they made War and they ordered the King's Arms three Leopards and three Lillies with the Supporters a Dog and a Serpent to be set in the place where the Cross of Christ stood thereby owning that they were no longer to worship Jesus Christ whose Images they broke but the King whose Arms they set up in the room of those Images In this Period there is an equal mixture of Falshood and Malice 1. The Parliament did not order the removal of Images It was done by the King's Visitors before the Parliament sat 2. The total removal of Images was not done the first Year only those Images that were abused to Superstition were taken down and a Year after the total removal followed 3. They took care that this should be done regularly not by the Visitors who only carried the King's Injunctions about it but by the Curats themselves 4. They did not order the King's Arms to be put in the place where the Cross had stood It grew indeed to be a custom to set them up in all Churches thereby expressing that they acknowledged the King's Authority reached even to their Churches but there was no Order made about it 5. I leave him to the Correction of the Heraulds for saying the King's Arms are Three Leopards when every Body knows they are three Lions and a Lion not a Dog is one Supporter and the other is a Dragon not a Serpent 6. By their setting up the King's Arms and not his Picture it is plain they had no thought of worshipping their King but did only acknowledg his Authority 7. It was no less clear that they had no design against the Worship due to Jesus Christ nor that inferiour respect due to the Blessed Virgin and Saints but intended only to wean the People from that which at best was but Pageantry but as it was practised was manifest Idolatry And the painting on the Walls of the Churches the Ten Commandments the Creed the Lord's Prayer with many other passages of Scripture that were of most general use shewed they intended only to cleanse their Churches from those mixtures of Heathenism that had been brought into the Christian Religion Pag. 193. 19. He says They took away the Sacrifice of the Body and Blood of Christ that they might thereby give some colour to the converting of the Sacred Vessels to the King's use They took away no part of the Institution of Christ for they set it down in the Act past about it and recited all the words of the first Institution of the Sacrament they only condemned private Masses as contrary to Christ's Institution They did not convert the Holy Vessels to the King's use nor were they taken out of the Churches till five Years after this that the Necessities of the Government either real or pretended were alleged to excuse the taking away the superfluous Plate that was in Churches But this was not done by Act of Parliament but by Commissioners empowred by the King who were ordered to leave in every Church such Vessels as were necessary for the Administration of the Sacraments Ibid. 20. He says The Parliament ordered the Prayers to be in the Vulgar Tongue and upon that he infers that the Irish the Welsh and the Cornish-men were now in a much worse condition than before since they understood no English so that the Worship was to them in a Tongue more unknown than it had formerly been The Parliament made no such Order at this Time the Book of Common Prayer was set out first by the King's Authority and ratified by the subsequent Session of Parliament There was also a Design which though it was then accomplished yet it was done afterwards of translating the Liturgy into these Tongues but still the English was much more understood by all sorts of Men among them than the Latin had been 21. He says The Office of the Communion Pag. 194. appointed by this Parliament differed very little from the Mass save that it was in English The Error of the Parliaments appointing the new Offices runs through all he says on this
Coll. p. 148. Such was Robert King Abbot of Oseney after Bishop of Oxford and Thom. Cornish a Residentiary of Wells who by the name of Thomas Episcopus Tinensis did confer Orders and performed other Episcopal Functions for Fox while he was Bishop of Exeter from 1487 to 1492. and afterwards when he was Bishop of Wells as appears by both those Registers he died in the Year 1513. Of this I could give more Instances if it were necessary P. 203. l. 5 6. It is said some were judged to be Hanged and others to be Beheaded But this being a Case of Treason the Judgments must have been the same tho executed in different ways by order from the King This I copied from Judg Spelman's Common-Place Book P. 203. l. 21. The Original Declaration should have been set down but I thought that not necessary for the L. Herbert has published it only he forgot to add the Subscription to it which I ought to have mentioned in its proper place but it escaped me and therefore I do it here P. 226. l. 24. Andre ' Thevet a French Franciscan who writ some Years after this an Universal Cosmography says Lib. 16. cap. 5. That he was assured by divers English Gentlemen that Mark Smeton at his Death among his other Sins repented in particular of the wrong he had done the Queen in destroying her by a false Accusation And tho Thuanus makes him an Author of no Credit yet there is no reason to suspect him in this Particular for Writers seldom lye against their Interest and the Franciscan Order had suffered so much for their adhering to Queen Katherine's Interests in opposition to Ann Boleyn that it is not likely one of that Order would have strained a Point to tell an honourable Story of her This was made use of in Queen Elizabeth's Time to vindicate her Memory see Saravia Tract cont Bezam cap. 2. versus finem P. 220. l. 4 5 The King's Protestation was not published till about eight or nine months after that was obtained which you there mention which was the 20th of July 1536. And in the Protestation mention is made of the putting off the Council from May to Novemb. 1537. which came out in April or May that Year And in April 1538. the King set out another Protestation against a Bull for the Council at Vincenza which is not mentioned in the History Pool lived at Padua long before this time and not after it as Antiq. P. 221. l. 10. Brit. from whom it is vouched has it but that Society of Learned Men was now removed to Rome whither Pool seems to have gone to them No wonder Chester was not here mentioned P. 263. l. 7. since it was erected before And so it might well be tho the Charter for the present Foundation bears date after for the former might be surrendered and cancelled probably because of some mention made in it of the Pope's Bull of which you speak p. 121. Fox adds another Passage of that Discourse between Cromwel and the Duke of Norfolk which perhaps offended him much P. 265. l. 17. from bottom that he was never so far in love with Wolsey as to have waited on him to Rome as he understood the Duke of Norfolk would have done Coventry and Litchfield were never two different Bishopricks P. 228. l. 23. but two different Seats of the same See which had sometimes a third at Chester This was no designed interview P. 272. l. 1. but Charles hearing of the Tumult at Ghent went from Spain to Flanders through France as his nearest way and was met by Francis at Loches in Berry and not at Paris Cromwel was then Dean of Wells P. 279. l. 20. and that was the reason of the Proviso Hall and L. Herbert say This was on the 25th P. 280. l. 5. which you put on the 24th of June He in that place belongs to the King named before P. 297. so it should have been expressed that it is Bonner that is here meant It was not necessary to restore the Lord Cromwel in Blood P. 312. l. 12. for he was made a Baron when his Father was made an Earl so that his Blood was not corrupted by his Fathers Attaindor Interludes were not then brought in first to Churches P. 318. l. 8. but had been used in the Times of Popery the greatest part of their Religion being placed in outward Shews so that these did well enough agree with it and such Representations are yet in use sometimes in the Roman Church so that by which they had formerly entertained the People was now turned on themselves Fox sets down a Confession of Anne Askews P. 342. l. 1. perhaps Ascough was her right Name for so is the Name of the Family in Lincolnshire written in which she her self relates this Passage of the Lord Chancellors racking her with his own hands so there is no reason to question the truth of it and Parsons who detracts as much from Fox's Credit as he can does not question this particular P. 344. l. 10. The Story concerning Cranmer must belong to the former Year for Butts that bore a share in it died on the 17th of Novemb. 1545 as appears by the Inscription on his Tomb-stone in Fulham Church So this Passage being after the Duke of Suffolk's Death which was in August that Year this must be placed between August and Novemb. 1545. P. 346. l. 6. The Earl of Surrey had not lived long a Widower for his youngest Son afterwards Earl of Northampton is said to have been at nurse at his Father's Death P. 355. l. 17. from bottom The Year of Sir Tho. More 's Birth is not certain by Erasmus his Reckoning it was in the Year 1479 if not higher others say it was 1480 and others 1484. P. 359. l. 30. William Peyto Thuanus calls him William and says he was Loci Ignobilis but his true Name by which he was made Cardinal was Peter whether he was so Christened or assumed it only when he became a Friar is not certain He was descended from an Ancient and Eminent Family in Warwick-shire yet remaining P. 204. l. 14. from bottom And not many of these Here seems to be a word or more wanting It is wanting in the Original but it should have been supplied by a conjecture on the Margent Armed seems to be the word that agrees best to the sense FINIS Errata in the former Volume that are not marked in the Table of them PAge 10. line 17 from bottom for 18 of June read 28. P. 22. l. 11. fr. bott f. Frediswood r. Frideswoide P. 26. l. 24. f. Sartre r. Sautre l. 29. f. it as like r. it is like P. 27. l. 12. fr. bott f. 1611 r. 1511. P. 41. l. 25. for Dorchester r. Dorset P. 47. l. 24. f. Puccy r. Pucci P. 59. l. 18. f. great r. got P. 72. l. 11. f. Simpson r.