two several times that is to say the Sundays next following Easterday and St. Michael the Arch-Angel or on some other Sunday within one month after those Feasts immediately after the Gospel FOrasmuch as it appertaineth to all Christian Men but especially to the Ministers and the Pastors of the Church being Teachers and Instructers of others to be ready to give a Reason of their Faith when they shall be thereunto required I for my part now appointed your Parson Vicar or Curat having before my Eyes the Fear of God and the Testimony of my Conscience do acknowledg for my self and require you to assent to the same I. First That there is but one living and true God of infinite Power Wisdom and Goodness the maker and preserver of all Things And that in Unity of this God-head there be three Persons of one Substance of equal Power and Eternity the Father the Son and the Holy Ghost II. I believe also whatsoever is contained in the Holy Canonical Scriptures In the which Scriptures are contained all things necessary to Salvation by the which also all Errors and Heresies may sufficiently be reproved and convicted and all Doctrine and Articles necessary to Salvation established I do also most firmly believe and confess all the Articles contained in the Three Creeds The Nicene Creed Athanasius Creed and our Common Creed called the Apostles Creed for these do briefly contain the principal Articles of our Faith which are at large set forth in the Holy Scriptures III. I do acknowledg also that Church to be the Spouse of Christ wherein the Word of God is truly taught the Sacraments orderly ministred according to Christ's Institution and the Authority of the Keys duly used And that every such particular Church hath authority to institute to change clean to put away Ceremonies and other Ecclesiastical Rites as they be superfluous or be abused and to constitute other making more to Seemliness to Order or Edification IV. Moreover I confess That it is not lawful for any Man to take upon him any Office or Ministry either Ecclesiastical or Secular but such only as are lawfully thereunto called by their High Authorities according to the Ordinances of this Realm V. Furthermore I do acknowledg the Queen's Majesty's Prerogative and Superiority of Government of all Estates and in all Causes as well Ecclesiastical as Temporal within this Realm and other her Dominions and Countries to be agreable to God's Word and of right to appertain to her Highness in such sort as is in the late Act of Parliament expressed and sithence by her Majesty's Injunctions declared and expounded VI. Moreover touching the Bishop of Rome I do acknowledg and confess that by the Scriptures and Word of God he hath no more Authority than other Bishops have in their Provinces and Diocesses And therefore the Power which he now challengeth that is to be the Supream Head of the Universal Church of Christ and so to be above all Emperors Kings and Princes is an usurped Power contrary to the Scriptures and Word of God and contrary to the Example of the Primitive Church and therefore is for most just Causes taken away and abolished in this Realm VII Furthermore I do grant and confess That the Book of Common Prayer and Administration of the Holy Sacraments set sorth by the Authority of Parliament is agreeable to the Scriptures and that it is Catholick Apostolick and most for the advancing of God's Glory and the edifying of God's People both for that it is in a Tongue that may be understanded of the People and also for the Doctrine and Form of ministration contained in the same VIII And although in the Administration of Baptism there is neither Exorcism Oil Salt Spittle or hallowing of the Water now used and for that they were of late Years abused and esteemed necessary Where they pertain not to the substance and necessity of the Sacrament they be reasonably abolished and yet the Sacrament full and perfectly ministred to all intents and purposes agreeable to the Institution of our Saviour Christ IX Moreover I do not only acknowledg that Privat Masses were never used amongst the Fathers of the Primitive Church I mean publick Ministration and receiving of the Sacrament by the Priest alone without a just number of Communicants according to Christ's saying Take ye and eat ye c. But also that the Doctrine that maintaineth the Mass to be a Propitiatory Sacrifice for the Quick and the Dead and a mean to deliver Souls out of Purgatory is neither agreeable to Christ's Ordinance nor grounded upon Doctrine Apostolick But contrary-wise most ungodly and most injurious to the precious Redemption of our Saviour Christ and his only-sufficient Sacrifice offered once for ever upon the Altar of the Cross X. I am of that mind also That the Holy Communion or Sacrament of the Body and Blood of Christ for the due obedience to Christ's Institution and to express the vertue of the same ought to be ministred unto the People under both kinds And that it is avouched by certain Fathers of the Church to be a plain Sacrilege to rob them of the Mystical Cup for whom Christ hath shed his most precious Blood seeing he himself hath said Drink ye all of this Considering also That in the time of the Ancient Doctors of the Church as Cyprian Hierom Augustine Gelasius and others six hundred Years after Christ and more both the Parts of the Sacrament were ministred to the People Last of all As I do utterly disallow the extolling of Images Reliques and feigned Miracles and also all kind of expressing God Invisible in the form of an Old Man or the Holy Ghost in form of a Dove and all other vain worshipping of God devised by Man's fantasy besides or contrary to the Scriptures As wandering on Pilgrimages setting up of Candles praying upon Beads and such-like Superstition which kind of Works have no promise of Reward in Scripture but contrary-wise Threatnings and Maledictions So I do exhort all Men to the Obedience of God's Law and to the Works of Faith as Charity Mercy Pity Alms devout and fervent Prayer with the affection of the Heart and not with the Mouth only Godly Abstinence and Fasting Chastity Obedience to the Rulers and Superior Powers with such-like Works and godliness of Life commanded by God in his Word which as St. Paul saith hath Promises both of this Life and of the Life to come and are Works only acceptable in God's sight These things above-rehearsed though they be appointed by common Order yet do I without all compulsion with freedom of Mind and Conscience from the bottom of my Heart and upon most sure persuasion acknowledg to be true and agreeable to God's Word And therefore I exhort you all of whom I have Cure heartily and obediently to embrace and receive the same That we all joining together in unity of Spirit Faith and Charity may also at length be joined together in the Kingdom of God and that
Queen Mary discharged him The same Censures with the same Justifications belong both to this and Bonners Business so I shall repeat nothing that was formerly said He had taken a Commission as well as Bonner to hold his Bishoprick only during the Kings Pleasure so they both had the less reason to complain which way soever the Royal Pleasure was signified to them Eight days after on the 26th of April Poinet was translated from Rochester to Winchester and had 2000 Marks a Year in Lands assigned him out of that wealthy Bishoprick for his Subsistence Dr. Story was made Bishop of Rochester Veysey Bishop of Exeter did also resign pretending extream old Age but he had reserved 485 l. a year in Pension for himself during Life out of the Lands of the Bishoprick and almost all the rest he had basely alienated taking care only of himself and ruining his Successors Miles Coverdale was made Bishop of Exeter So that now the Bishopricks were generally filled with Men well affected to the Reformation Hooper is consecrated upon his Conformity The business of Hooper was now also setled He was to be attired in the Vestments that were prescribed when he was consecrated and when he preached before the King or in his Cathedral or in any publick Place but he was dispens'd with upon other occasions On these Conditions he was consecrated in March for the Writ for doing it bears date the 7th of that Month. So now the Bishops being generally addicted to the purity of Religion most of this Year was spent in preparing Articles which should contain the Doctrine of the Church of England Many thought they should have begun first of all with those But Cranmer upon good Reasons was of another mind though much pressed by Bucer about it Till the Order of Bishops was brought to such a Model that the far greater part of them would agree to it it was much fitter to let that design go on slowly than to set out a Profession of their Belief to which so great a part of the chief Pactors might be obstinathly averse The corruptions that were most important were those in the Worship by which Men in their immediate Addresses to God were necessarily involved in unlawful compliances and these seemed to require a more speedy Reformation But for speculative Points there was not so pressing a necessity to have them all explained since in these Men might with less prejudice be left to a freedom in their Opinions It seemed also advisable to open and ventilate matters in publick Disputations and Books written about them for some years before they should go too hastily to determine them lest if they went too fast in that Affair it would not be so decent to make alterations afterwards nor could the Clergy be of a sudden brought to change their old Opinions Therefore upon all these Considerations that Work was delayed till this Year in which they set about it and finished it before the Convocation met in the next February In what Method they proceeded for the compiling of these Articles whether they were given out to several Bishops and Divines to deliver their Opinions concerning them as was done formerly or not it is not certain I have found it often said that they were framed by Cranmer and Ridley which I think more probable and that they were by them sent about to others to correct or add to them as they saw cause Collection Number 55. They are in the Collection with the differences between these and those set out in Queen Elizabeths time marked on the Margent The Articles of Religion are prepared They began with the Assertion of the Blessed Trinity the Incarnation of the Eternal Word and Christs descent into Hell grounding this last on these Words of St. Peter of his Preaching to the Spirits that were in Prison The next Article was about Christs Resurrection The fifth about the Scriptures containing all things necessary to Salvation so that nothing was to be held an Article of Faith that could not be proved from thence The sixth That the Old Testament was to be kept still The 7th for the receiving the three Creeds the Apostles the Nicen and Athanasius Creed in which they went according to the received Opinion that Athanasius was the Author of that Creed which is now found not to have been compiled till near three Ages after him The 8th makes Original Sin to be the corruption of the nature of all Men descending from Adam by which they had fallen from Original Righteousness and were by nature given to evil but they defined nothing about the derivation of guilt from Adams sin The 9th for the necessity of prevailing Grace without which we have no free Will to do things acceptable to God The 10th about Divine Grace which changeth a Man and yet puts no force on his Will The 11th That Men are justified by Faith only as was declared in the Homily The 12th That Works done before Grace are not without sin The 13th Against all Works of Supererogation The 14th That all Men Christ only excepted are guilty of sin The 15th That Men who have received Grace may sin afterwards and rise again by Repentance The 16th That the blaspheming against the Holy Ghost is when Men out of malice and obstinately rail against Gods Word though they are convinced of it yet persecuting it which is unpardonable The 17th That Predestination is Gods free Election of those whom he afterwards justifies which though it be matter of great comfort to such as consider it aright yet it is a dangerous thing for curious and carnal Men to prie into and it being a Secret Men are to be governed by Gods revealed Will they added not a word of Reprobation The 18th That only the Name of Christ and not the Law or Light of Nature can save Men. The 19th That all Men are bound to keep the Moral Law The 20th That the Church is a Congregation of Faithful Men who have the Word of God Preached and the Sacraments rightly Administred and that the Church of Rome as well as other particular Churches have erred in matters of Faith The 21st That the Church is only the Witness and Keeper of the Word of God but cannot appoint any thing contrary to it nor declare any Articles of Faith without Warrant from it The 22d That General Councils may not be gathered without the consent of Princes that they may erre and have erred in matters of Faith and that their Decrees in matters of Salvation have strength only as they are taken out of the Scriptures The 23d That the Doctrines of Purgatory Pardons Worshiping of Images and Relicks and Invocation of Saints are without any Warrant and contrary to the Scriptures The 24th That none may Preach or Minister the Sacraments without he be lawfully called by Men who have lawful Authority The 25th That all things should be spoken in the Church in a Vulgar Tongue The 26th That there
Ridley and Latimer could send to one another yet it was not easy for them to send to him without giving Mony to their Keepers In one of Ridley's Letters to Cranmer he said he heard they intended to carry down Rogers Crome and Bradford to Cambridg and to make such a Triumph there as he had lately made of them at Oxford He trusted the day of their deliverance out of all their Miseries and of their entrance into perpetual Rest and perpetual Joy and Felicity drew nigh He prayed God to strengthen them with the mighty Spirit of his Grace He desired Cranmer to pray for him as he also did for Cranmer As for the Letters which these and the other Prisoners writ in their Imprisonment Fox gathered the Originals from all People that had them and Sir Walter Mildmay the Founder of Emanuel College procured them from him and put them into the Library of that College where I saw them but they are all printed by Fox so that the Reader who desires to see them may find them in his Acts and Monuments Of them all Ridley writ with the greatest connexion and force both in the Matter and in the way of Expression The Prisoners in London set out in writing their Reasons against disputing by word of mouth This being now over there was great boasting among all the Popish Party as if the Champions of the Reformation had been foiled The Prisoners in London hearing they intended to insult over them as they had done over those at Oxford set out a Paper to which the late Bishops of Exeter St. Davids and Glocester with Taylor Philpot Bradford Crome Sanders Rogers and Lawrence set their Hands on the 8th of May. The substance of it was That they being Prisoners neither as Rebels Traitors nor Transgressors of any Law but meerly for their Conscience to God and his Truth hearing it was intended to carry them to Cambridg to dispute declared they would not dispute but in Writing except it were before the Queen and her Council or before either of the Houses of Parliament and that for these Reasons 1. It was clear that the Determinations of the Universities were already made they were their open Enemies and had already condemned their Cause before they had heard it which was contrary both to the Word of God and the Determinations they had made in King Edward's Time 2. They saw the Prelats and Clergy were seeking neither to find out the Truth nor to do them good otherwise they would have heard them when they might have declared their Consciences without hazard but that they sought only their destruction and their own glory 3. They saw that those who were to be the Judges of these Disputes were their inveterate Enemies and by what passed in the Convocation House last Year and lately at Oxford they saw how they must expect to be used 4. They had been kept long Prisoners some nine or ten months without Books or Papers or convenient places of study 5. They knew they should not be heard to speak their minds fully but should be stopt as their Judges pleased 6. They could not have the nomination of their Notaries who would be so chosen that they would write and publish what their Enemies had a mind to Therefore they would not engage in publick Disputes except by Writing but they would give a Summary of their Faith for which they would be ready to offer up their Lives to the Halter or the Fire as God should appoint They declared That they believed the Scriptures to be the true Word of God and the Judg of all Controversies in the Matters of Religion and that the Church is to be obeyed as long as she follows this Word That they believed the Apostles Creed and those Creeds set out by the Councils of Nice Constantinople Ephesus and Chalcedon and by the first and fourth Councils of Toledo and the Symboles of Athanasius Ireneus Tertullian and Damasus That they believed Justification by Faith which Faith was not only an Opinion but a certain persuasion wrought by the Holy Ghost which did illuminate the Mind and suppled the Heart to submit it self unfeignedly to God That they acknowledged an Inherent Righteousness yet Justification and the Pardon of Sins they believed came only by Christ's Righteousness imputed to them They thought the Worship of God ought to be in a Tongue understood by the People that Christ only and not the Saints were to be prayed to that immediately after Death the Souls pass either to the State of the Blessed or of the Damned without any Purgatory between that Baptism and the Lord's Supper are the Sacraments of Christ which ought to be administred according to his Institution and therefore they condemned the denying the Chalice Transubstantiation the Adoration or the Sacrifice of the Mass and asserted the lawfulness of Marriage to every Rank of Men. These things they declared they were ready to defend as they often had before offered and concluded charging all People to enter into no Rebellion against the Queen but to obey her in all Points except where her Commands were contrary to the Law of God In the end of this Month the Lady Elizabeth was taken out of the Tower and put into the Custody of the Lord Williams who waited on her to Woodstock and treated her with great civility and all the respect due to her Quality but this not being so acceptable to those who governed she was put under the Charge of Sir Hen. Benefield by whom she was more roughly handled On the 20th of July Prince Philip landed at Southampton Prince Philip Lands When he set foot to Land first he presently drew his Sword and carried it a good way naked in his Hand Whether this was one of the Forms of his Country I know not but it was interpreted as an Omen that he intended to Rule England with the Sword though others said it shewed he intended to draw his Sword in defence of the Nation The Mayor of Southampton brought him the Keys of the Town an expression of Duty always paid to our Princes he took them from him and gave them back without speaking a word or expressing by any sign that he was pleased with it His stiffness amazed the English who use to be treated by their Kings with great sweetness on such occasions and so much gravity in so young a Man was not understood but was look'd on as a sign of vast pride and moroseness The Queen met him at Winchester And is married to the Queen where on the 25th of July Gardiner married them in the Cathedral the King being then in the 27th and the Queen in the 38th Year of her Age. They were presented from the Emperor by his Ambassador with a resignation of his Titular Kingdom of Jerusalem and his more valuable one of Naples which were Pledges of that total resignation that followed not long after So on the 27th of July they were proclaimed by their
Number 55. Articles agreed upon by the Bishops and other Learned Men in the Convocation held at London in the Year 1552. for the avoiding diversities of Opinions and stablishing Consent touching true Religion Published by the King's Authority With Marginal Notes of the differences between these and those set out by Queen Elizabeth Anno 1562. I. Of Faith in the Holy Ghost THere is but one living and true God everlasting without Body Parts or Passions of infinite Power Wisdom and Goodness the Maker and Preserver of all things both visible and invisible And in the unity of this God-head there are three Persons of one Substance Power and Eternity the Father the Son and the Holy Ghost II. The Word of God made very Man The Son which is the Word of the Father The Son which is the Word of the Father begotten from everlasting of the Father the very and eternal God of one Substance with the Father took Man's Nature in the Womb of the blessed Virgin c. took Man's Nature in the Womb of the blessed Virgin of her Substance So that two whole and perfect Natures that is to say the God-head and Manhood were join'd together in one Person never to be divided whereof is one Christ very God and very Man who truly suffered was crucified dead and buried to reconcile his Father to us and to be a Sacrifice not only for Original Guilt but also for Actual Sins of Men. III. Of the going down of Christ into Hell As Christ died for us and was buried so also is it to be believed that he went down into Hell * These words were left out For his Body lay in the Grave till his Resurrection but his Soul being separate from his Body remained with the Spirits which were detained in Prison that is to say in Hell and there preached unto them as witnesseth that place of Peter IV. The Resurrection of Christ Christ did truly rise again from Death and took again his Body with Flesh Bones and all things appertaining to the perfection of Man's Nature wherewith he ascended into Heaven and there sitteth till he return to judg all Men at the last day Of the Holy Ghost The Holy Ghost proceeding from the Father and the Son is of one Substance Majesty and Glory with the Father and the Son very and eternal God V. The Doctrine of the Holy Scripture is sufficient to Salvation Holy Scripture containeth all things necessary to Salvation so that whatsoever is not read therein nor may be proved thereby is not to be required of any Man that it should be believed as an Article of the Faith or be thought necessary or requisite to Salvation In the name of the Holy Scripture we do understand those Canonical Books of the Old and New Testament of whose Authority was never any doubt in the Church that is to say Genesis Exodus Leviticus Numbers Deuteronomy Joshua Judges Ruth 1st of Samuel 2d of Samuel c. And the other Books as Hierom saith the Church doth read for example of Life and instruction of Manners but yet doth it not apply them to establish any Doctrine such are these following The 3d of Esdras the 4th of Esdras the Book of Tobias the Book of Judeth the rest of the Book of Hester the Book of Wisdom c. All the Books of the New Testament as they are commonly received we do receive and account them Canonical Holy Scripture containeth all things necessary to Salvation so that whatsoever is not read therein nor may be proved thereby although sometimes it may be admitted by God's faithful People as pious and conducing unto order and decency yet is not to be required of any Man that it should be believed as an Article of the Faith or be thought requisite or necessary to Salvation VI. The Old Testament is not to be rejected The Old Testament is not to be rejected as if it were contrary to the New but to be retained Forasmuch as in the Old Testament as in the New everlasting Life is offered to Mankind by Christ who is the only Mediator betwixt God and Man being both God and Man Wherefore they are not to be heard who feign that the old Fathers did look only for transitory Promises Although the Law given from God by Moses as touching Ceremonies and Rites do not bind Christian Men nor the Civil Precepts thereof ought of necessity to be received in any Common-wealth yet notwithstanding no Christian Man whatsoever is free from the obedience of the Commandments which are called Moral VII The three Creeds The three Creeds Nice Creed Athanasius Creed and that which is commonly called the Apostles Creed ought throughly to be received * And believed for they may be proved by most certain Warrants of the Holy Scripture VIII Original Sin Original Sin standeth not in the following of Adam as the Pelagians do vainly talk * Left out and at this day is affirmed by the Anabaptists but it is the fault and corruption of every Man that naturally is ingendred of the Off-spring of Adam whereby Man is very far gone from Original Righteousness and is of his own nature inclined to evil so that the Flesh lusteth always contrary to the Spirit and therefore in every Person born into this World it deserveth God's Wrath and Damnation And this Infection of Nature doth remain yea in them that are regenerated whereby the lust of the Flesh called in Greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which some do expound the Wisdom some Sensuality some the Affection some the desire of the Flesh is not subject to the Law of God And although there is no condemnation for them that believe and are baptized yet the Apostle doth confess that Concupiscense and Lust hath of it self the nature of Sin IX Of Free-will The condition of Man after the Fall of Adam is such that he cannot turn and prepare himself by his own natural strength and good Works to Faith and calling upon God Wherefore we have no power to do good Works pleasant and acceptable unto God c. We have no power to do good Works pleasant and acceptable to God without the Grace of God by Christ preventing us that we may have a good will and working with us when we have that good will X. Of Grace The Grace of Christ or the Holy Ghost which is given by him doth take from Man the heart of Stone and giveth him a heart of Flesh And though it rendereth us willing to do those good Works which before we were unwilling to do and unwilling to do those evil Works which before we did yet is no violence offered by it to the will of Man so that no Man when he hath sinned can excuse himself as if he had sinned against his will or upon constraint and therefore that he ought not to be accused or condemned upon that account XI Of the Justification of Man Justification by Faith only in Jesus Christ
to that See vacant as his Patent has it by the free resignation of William the former Bishop And the same day being the first of April Ridley was made Bishop of London and Westminster Both were according to the common Form to be Bishops durante vita naturali during Life Proceedings against Gardiner The See of Winchester had been two years as good as vacant by the long imprisonment of Gardiner who had been now above two years in the Tower When the Book of Common-Prayer was set out the Lord St. John and Secretary Petre were sent with it to him to know of him whether he would conform himself to it or not and they gave him great hopes that if he would submit the Protector would sue to the King for mercy to him He answered That he did not know himself guilty of any thing that needed mercy so he desired to be tried for what had been objected to him according to Law For the Book he did not think that while he was a Prisoner he was bound to give his Opinion about such things it might be thought he did it against his Conscience to obtain his liberty but if he were out of Prison he should either obey it or be liable to punishment according to Law Upon the Duke of Somersets Fall the Lord Treasurer the Earl of Warwick Sir William Herbert and Secretary Petre were sent to him Fox says this was on the 9th of July but there must be an error in that for Gardiner in his Answer says That upon the Duke of Somersets coming to the Tower he looked to have been let out within two days and had made his farewel Feast but when these were with him a Month or thereabout had passed so it must have been in November the former year They brought him a Paper to which they desired he would set his Hand It contained first a Preface which was an acknowledgment of former faults for which he had been justly punished There were also divers Articles contained in it Some Articles are sent to him which were touching the Kings Supremacy his Power of appointing or dispencing with Holy-days and Fasts that the Book of Common-Prayer set out by the King and Parliament was a most Christian and Godly Book to be allowed of by all Bishops and Pastors in England and that he should both in Sermons and Discourses commend it to be observed that the Kings Power was compleat now when under Age and that all owed Obedience to him now as much as if he were thirty or forty years old that the six Articles were justly abrogated and that the King had full Authority to correct and reform what was amiss in the Church both in England and Ireland He only excepted to the Preface and offered to Sign all the Articles but would have had the Preface left out They bid him rather write on the Margent his Exceptions to it so he writ that he could not with a good Conscience agree to the Preface and with that Exception he set his Hand to the whole Paper The Lords used him with great kindness Which he Signed with some Exceptions and gave him hope that his troubles should be quickly ended Herbert and Petre came to him some time after that but how soon is not so clear and pressed him to make the acknowledgment without exception he refused it and said he would never defame himself for when he had done it he was not sure but it might be made use of against him as a Confession Two or three days after that Ridley was sent to him together with the other two and they brought him new Articles In this Paper the acknowledgment was more general than in the former It was said here in the Preface that he had been suspected of not approving the Kings Proceedings and being appointed to preach had not done it as he ought to have done and so deserved the Kings displeasure for which he was sorry The Articles related to the Popes Supremacy New Articles sent to him the suppression of Abbies and Chantries Pilgrimages Masses Images the adoring the Sacrament the Communion in both kinds the abolishing the old Books and bringing in the new Book of Service and that for ordaining of Priests and Bishops the compleatness of the Scripture and the use of it in the Vulgar Tongue the lawfulness of Clergy-mens Marriage and to Erasmus's Paraphrase that it had been on good considerations ordered to be set up in Churches He read all these and said he desired first to be discharged of his imprisonment and then he would freely answer them all so as to stand by it and suffer if he did amiss but he would trouble himself with no more Articles while he remained in Prison since he desired not to be delivered out of his troubles in the way of Mercy but of Justice After that he was brought before the Council and the Lords told him they sate by a special Commission to judge him and so required him to subscribe the Articles that had been sent to him He prayed them earnestly to put him to a Trial for the grounds of his Imprisonment and when that was over he would clearly answer them in all other things but he did not think he could subscribe all the Articles after one sort some of them being about Laws already made which he could not qualifie others of them being matters of Learning in which he might use more freedom In conclusion he desired leave to take them with him and he would consider how to answer them But they required him to subscribe them all without any qualification But he refusing to Sign them which he refused to do Upon this the Fruits of his Bishoprick were sequestred and he was required to conform himself to their Orders within three Months upon pain of deprivation and the liberty he had of walking in some open Galleries Was hardly used when the Duke of Norfolk was not in them was taken from him and he was again shut up in his Chamber All this was much censured as being contrary to the liberties of English-men and the Forms of all legal Proceedings It was thought very hard to put a Man in Prison upon a complaint against him and without any further enquiry into it after two years durance to put Articles to him And they which spoke freely said it savoured too much of the Inquisition But the Canon Law not being rectified and the King being in the Popes room there were some things gathered from the Canon Law and the way of proceeding ex officio which rather excused than justified this hard measure he met with The sequel of this business shall be related in its proper place Latimers advice to the King concerning his Marriage This Lent old Latimer preached before the King The discourse of the Kings marrying a Daughter of France had alarum'd all the Reformers who rather enclined to a Daughter of Ferdinand King of the Romans To a
of these is in French It is a Collection of many Passages out of the Old Testament against Idolatry and the worshiping of Images which he dedicated to his Unkle being then Protector the Original under his own hand lies in Trinity Colledge in Cambridge from whence I copied the Preface and the Conclusion which are printed in the Collection after his Journal Ridley visits his Diocess There was nothing else done of moment this Year in relation to the Church save the Visitation made of the Diocess of London by Ridley their new Bishop But the exact time of it is not set down in the Register It was according to King Edwards Journal some time before the 26th of June for he writes that on that day Sir Jo. Yates the high Sheriff of Essex was sent down with Letters to see the Bishop of Londons Injunctions performed which touched the plucking down of Superaltaries Altars and such like Ceremonies and Abuses so that the Visitation must have been about the beginning of June The Articles of it are in Bishop Sparrows Collection They are concerning the Doctrines and Lives and Labours and Charities of the Clergy viz. Whether they spake in favour of the Bishop of Rome or against the use of the Scripture or against the Book of Common-Prayer Whether they stirred up Sedition or sold the Communion or Trentals or used private Masses any where Whether any Anabaptists or others used private Conventicles with different Opinions and Forms from these established Whether there were any that said the wickedness of the Minister took away the effect of the Sacraments or denied Repentance to such as sinned after Baptism Other Questions were about Baptisms and Marriages Whether the Curates did visit the Sick and bury the Dead and expound the Catechisme at least some part of it once in six weeks Whether any observed abrogated Holy-days or the Rites that were now put down Collection Number 52. To these he added some Injunctions which are in the Collection Most of them relate to the old Superstitions which some of the Priests were still inclinable to practise and for which they had been gently if at all reproved by Bonner Such were washing their Hands at the Altar holding up the Bread licking the Chalice blessing their Eyes with the Patten or Sudary and many other Relicks of the Mass The Ministers were also required to charge the People oft to give Alms and to come oft to the Communion and to carry themselves reverently at Church But that which was most new was that there having been great Contests about the Form of the Lords Board whether it should be made as an Altar or as a Table He orders all Altars to be turned to Tables for the Communion Therefore since the Form of a Table was more like to turn the People from the Superstition of the Popish Mass and to the right use of the Lords Supper he exhorted the Curates and Church-wardens to have it in the fashion of a Table decently covered and to place it in such part of the Quire or Chancel as should be most meet so that the Ministers and Communicants should be separated from the rest of the People and that they should put down all By-Altars There are many Passages among Ancient Writers that shew their Communion-Tables were of Wood and that they were so made as Tables that those who fled into Churches for Sanctuary did hide themselves under them The Name Altar came to be given to these generally because they accounted the Eucharist a Sacrifice of Praise as also a Commemorative Sacrifice of the Oblation which Christ made of himself on the Cross From hence it was that the Communion-Table was called also an Altar But now it came to be considered whether as these terms had been on good reason brought in to the Church when there was no thought of the corruptions that followed so if it was not fit since they did still support the belief of an expiatory Sacrifice in the Mass and the opinion of Transubstantiation and were always but Figurative Forms of Speech to change them and to do that more effectually to change the Form and Place of them Some have fondly thought that Ridley gave this Injunction after the Letter which the Council writ to him in the end of November following But as there was no fit time to begin a Visitation after that time this year so the Stile of the Injunctions shews they were given before the Letter The Injunction only exhorts the Curates to do it which Ridley could not have done in such soft words after the Council had required and commanded him to do it So it appears that the Injunctions were given only by his Episcopal Power And that afterwards the same matter being brought before the Council who were inform'd that in many Places there had been Contests about it some being for keeping to their old Custom and others being set on a change the Council thought fit to send their Letter concerning it to Ridley in the beginning of November following The Letter sets out that Altars were taken away in divers Places upon good and godly considerations but still continued in other Places by whiâ—h there rose much contention among the Kings Subjects therefore for avoiding that they did charge and command him to give substantial order through all his Diocess for removing all Altars and setting up Tables every where for the Communion to be administred in some convenient part of the Chancel And that these Orders might be the better received there were Reasons sent with the Letters which he was to cause discreet Preachers to declare in such Places as he thought fit and that himself should set them out in his own Cathedral if conveniently he could The Reasons were to remove the People from the superstitious Opinions of the Popish Mass and because a Table was a more proper Name than an Altar for that on which the Sacrament was laid And whereas in the Book of Common-Prayer these terms are promiscuously used it is done without prescribing any thing about the Form of them so that the changing the one into the other did not alter any part of the Liturgy It was observed that Altars were erected for the Sacrifices under the Law which ceasing they were also to cease and that Christ had instituted the Sacrament not at an Altar but at a Table And it had been ordered by the Preface to the Book of Common-Prayer that if any doubt arose about any part of it the determining of it should be referred to the Bishop of the Diocess Upon these Reasons therefore was this change ordered to be made all over England which was universally executed this year There began this year a Practice which might seem in itself not only innocent but good Sermons on working days forbidden of preaching Sermons and Lectures on the week days to which there was great running from neighbouring Parishes This as it begat emulation in the Clergy so it was
War for the preservation of the Protestant Religion and recovering the liberty of Germany The Ambassadors were only sent to try the Kings mind but were not empow'red to conclude any thing They were sent back with a good Answer That the King would most willingly joyn in alliance with them that were of the same Religion with himself but he desired that the matter of Religion might be plainly set down lest under the pretence of that War should be made for other Quarrels He desired them also to communicate their designs with the other Princes and then to send over others more fully empow'red Maurice seeing such Assistances ready for him resolved both to break the Emperors designs and by leading on a new League against him to make himself more acceptable to the Empire and thereby to secure the Electoral Dignity in his Family So after Magdeburg had endured a long Siege he giving a secret intimation to some Men in whom they confided perswaded them about the end of November to surrender to him and then broke up his Army but they fell into the Dominions of several of the Popish Princes and put them under very heavy Contributions This alarumed all the Empire only the Emperor himself by a fatal security did not apprehend it till it came so near him that he was almost ruined before he dreamed of any danger This Year the Transactions of Trent were remarkable Proceedings at Trent The Pope had called the Council to meet there and the first of May this year there was a Session held There was a War now broken out between the Pope and the King of France on this occasion The Pope had a mind to have Parma in his own Hands but that Prince fearing that he would keep it as the Emperor did Placentia and so he should be ruined between them implored the Protection of France and received a French Garrison for his safety Upon this the Pope cited him to Rome declaring him a Traitor if he appeared not and this engaged the Pope in a War with France At first he sent a threatning Message to that King that if he would not restore Parma to him he would take France from him Upon this the King of France protested against the Council of Trent and threatned that he would call a National Council in France The Council was adjourned to the 10th of September In the mean while the Emperor pressed the Germans to go to it So Maurice and the other Princes of the Ausburg Confession ordered their Divines to consider of the matters which they would propose to the Council The Electors of Mentz and Trier went to Trent But the King of France sent the Abbot of Bellosana thither to make a protestation that by reason of the War that the Pope had raised he could not send his Bishops to the Council and that therefore he would not observe their Decrees for they had declared in France that absent Churches were not bound to obey the Decrees of a Council for which many Authorities were cited from the Primitive time But at Trent they proceeded for all this and appointed the Articles about the Eucharist to be first examined and the Presidents recommended to the Divines to handle them according to Scripture Tradition and Ancient Authors and to avoid unprofitable curiosities The Italian Divines did not like this For they said to argue so was but an Act of the memory and was an old and insufficient way and would give great advantage to the Lutherans who were skilled in the Tongues but the School-Learning was a mystical and sublime way in which it was easier to set off or conceal matters as was expedient But this was done to please the Germans And at the sute of the Emperor the matter of Communicating in both kinds was postponed till the German Divines could be heard A safe Conduct was desired by the Germans not only from the Emperor but from the Council For at Constance John Huss and Jerome of Prague were burnt upon this pretence that they had not the Councils safe conduct and therefore when the Council of Basil called for the Bohemians they sent them a safe Conduct besides that which the Emperor gave them So the Princes desired one in the same Form that was granted by those of Basil One was granted by the Council which in many things differed from that of Basil particularly in one Clause that all things should be determined according to the Scriptures which was in that safe Conduct of Basil but was now left out In October an Ambassador from the Elector of Brandenburg came to Trent who was endeavouring to get his Son setled in the Arch-bishoprick of Magdeburg which made him more compliant In his first Address to the Council he spake of the respect his Master had to the Fathers in it without a word of submitting to their Decrees But in the Answer that was made in the Name of the Council it was said they were glad he did submit to them and would obey their Decrees This being afterwards complained of it was said that they answered him according to what he should have said and not according to what he had said But in the mean while the Council published their Decrees about the Eucharist in the first part of which they defined that the way of the Presence could hardly be expressed and yet they called Transubstantiation a fit term for it But this might be well enough defended since that was a thing as hard to be either expressed or understood as any thing they could have thought on They went on next to examine Confession and Penitence And now as the Divines handled the matter they found the gathering Proofs out of Scripture grew endless and trifling for there was not a place in Scripture where I confess was to be found but they drew it in to prove Auricular Confession From that they went on to Extream Unction But then came the Ambassadors of the Duke of Wittenberg another Prince of the Ausburg Confession and shewed their Mandate to the Emperors Ambassadors who desired them to carry it to the Presidents but they refused to do that since it was contrary to the Protestation which the Princes of their Confession had made against a Council in which the Pope should preside On the 25th of November they published the Decree of the necessity of Auricular Confession that so the Priest might thereby know how to proportion the Penance to the sin It was much censured to see it defined that Christ had instituted Confession to a Priest and not shew'd where or how it was instituted And the reason for it about the proportioning the Penance was laughed at since it was known what slight Penances were universally injoyned to expiate the greatest sins But the Ambassadors of Wirtenberg moving that they might have a safe Conduct for their Divines to come and propose their Doctrine The Legate answered that they would not upon any terms enter into any Disputation with
the Church till they met in a Convocation yet they soon after prepared them And for the present they agreed on a short Profession of their Doctrine which all Incumbents were obliged to read and publish to their People This will be found in the Collection Coll. Num. 11. copied from it as it was then printed In the Articles made in King Edward's Reign which I have put in the Collection the Reader will find on the Margent the differences between those and these marked In the third Article the explanation of Christ's descent to Hell was left out In that about the Scriptures they now added an enumeration of the Canonical and Apocryphal Books declaring that some Lessons were read out of the latter for the Instruction of the People but not for the confirmation of the Doctrine About the Authority of the Church they now added That the Church had power to decree Rites and Ceremonies and had Authority in Controversies of Faith but still subordinate to the Scripture In the Article about the Lord's Supper there is a great deal left out for instead of that large refutation of the Corporal Presence from the impossibility of a Bodies being in more places at once from whence it follows that since Christ's Body is in Heaven the Faithful ought not to believe or profess a Real or Corporal Presence of it in the Sacrament In the new Articles it is said That the Body of Christ is given and received after a Spiritual manner and the means by which it is received is Faith But in the Original Copy of these Articles M.SS. C. Cor. Christ Cant. which I have seen subscribed by the hands of all that sat in either House of Convocation there is a further addition made The Articles were subscribed with that Precaution which was requisite in a matter of such consequence for before the Subscriptions there is set down the number of the Pages and of the Lines in every Page of the Book to which they set their hands In that Article of the Eucharist these words are added Christus in Coelum ascendens corpori suo immortalitatem dedit naturam non abstulit Humanae enim naturae veritatem juxta scripturas perpetuo retinet quam in uno definito loco esse non in multa vel omnia simul loca diffundi oportet Quum igitur Chistus in Coelum sublatus ibi usque ad finem Soeculi sit permansurus atque inde non aliunde ut loquitur Augustinus venturus sit ad judicandum vivos mortuos non debet quisquam fidelium Carnis ejus Sanguinis realem corporalem ut loquuntur praesentiam in Eucharistia vel credere vel profiteri In English thus Christ An Explanation of Christ's Presence in the Sacrament when he ascended into Heaven made his Body Immortal but took not from it the nature of a Body For still it retains according to the Scriptures the verity of a humane Body which must be always in one definite place and cannot be spread into many or all places at once Since then Christ being carried up to Heaven is to remain there to the end of the World and is to come from thence and from no place else as says St. Austin to judg the Quick and the Dead None of the Faithful ought to believe or profess the real or as they call it the corporal Presence of his Flesh and Blood in the Eucharist But this in the Original is dasht over with minium yet so that it is still legible â—uâ— 't is suppresseâ— The Secret of it was this The Queen and her Council studied as hath been already shewn to unite all into the Communion of the Church and it was alleaged that such an express definition against a Real Presence might drive from the Church many who were still of that Perswasion and therefore it was thought to be enough to condemn Transubstantiation and to say that Christ was present after a Spiritual manner and received by Faith to say more as it was judged superfluous so it might occasion Division Upon this these words were by common consent left out And in the next Convocation the Articles were subscribed without them of which I have also seen the Original This shews that the Doctrine of the Church subscribed by the whole Convocation was at that time contrary to the belief of a Real or Corporal Presence in the Sacrament only it was not thought necessary or expedient to publish it Though from this silence which flowed not from their Opinion but the Wisdom of that Time in leaving a Liberty for different Speculations as to the manner of the Presence some have since inferred that the chief Pastors of this Church did then disapprove of the Definition made in King Edward's Time and that they were for a Real Presence For the Translating of the Bible it was divided into many Parcels The Pentateuch was committed to William Alley Bishop of Exeter The Books from that to the second of Samuel were given to Richard Davis who was made Bishop of St. Davids when Young was removed to York All from Samuel to the second Book of Chronicles was assigned to Edwin Sandys then Bishop of Worcester From thence to the end of Job to one whose Name is marked A. P. C. The Book of the Psalms was given to Thomas Bentham Bishop of Coventry and Litchfield The Proverbs to one who is marked A. P. The Song of Solomon to one Marked A. P. E. All from thence to the Lamentations of Jeremy was given to Robert Horn Bishop of Winchester Ezekiel and Daniel to Bentham From thence to Malachi to Grindal Bishop of London The Apocripha to the Book of Wisdom was given to Barlow Bishop of Chichester and the rest of it to Parkhurst Bishop of Norwich The Gospels Acts and Epistle to the Romans were given to Richard Cox Bishop of Ely The Epistles to the Corinthians to one marked G. G. I know not to whom the rest of the New Testament was assigned All these Allotments I gather from the Bible it self as it was afterwards set out by Parker What Method they followed in this Work I cannot discover unless the Rules afterwards given in King James his Time when the Translation was revived Coll. Num. 10. were copied from what was now done which Rules for the curiosity of the thing I shall put in the Collection as I copied it from B. Ravis's Paper They were given with that care that such a matter required There were many Companies appointed for every parcel of the Scripture and every one of a Company was to translate the whole Parcel then they were to compare these together and when any Company had finished their Part they were to communicate it to the other Companies So it is like that at this Time those several Bishops that had undertaken the Translation did associate to themselves Companies with whose assistance they perfected it afterwards and when it was set out at the end