Cardinal A King of France desired a Dispensation to Marry his Wives Sister The matter was long considered of and debated in the Rota himself being there and bearing a share in the Debate but it was concluded That if any Pope either out of Ignorance or being Corrupted had ever granted such a Dispensation that could be no president or warrant for doing the like any more since the Church ought to be governed by Laws and not by such Examples Antonin and Ioannes de Tabia held the same And one Bacon an English-man who had taught the contrary was censured for it even at Rome and he did retract his Opinion and acknowledged that the Pope could not dispence with the Degrees of Marriage forbidden by the Law of God The Canonists agree also to this both Ioannes Andreas Ioannes de Imola and Abbas Panormitanus assert it saying That the Precepts in Leviticus oblige for ever and therefore cannot be dispenced with And Panormitan says These things are to be observed in Practice because great Princes do often desire Dispensations from Popes Pope Alexander the 3d. would not suffer a Citizen of Pavia to Marry his younger Son to the Widow of his eldest Son though he had Sworn to do it For the Pope said it was against the Law of God therefore it might not be done and he was to repent of his unlawful Oath And for the Power of dispencing even with the Laws of the Church by Popes it was brought in in the latter Ages All the Fathers with one consent believed That the Laws of God could not be dispenced with by the Church for which many places were cited out of St. Cyprian Basil Ambrose Isidore Bernard and Urban Fabian Marcellus and Innocent that were Popes besides an infinite number of latter Writers And also the Popes Zosimus Damasus Leo and Hilarius did freely acknowledge they could not change the Decrees of the Church nor go against the Opinions or Practices of the Fathers And since the Apostles confessed they could do nothing against the truth but for the truth the Pope being Christs Vicar cannot be supposed to have so great a Power as to abrogate the Law of God and though it is acknowledged that he is Vested with a fulness of Power yet the phrase must be restrained to the matter of it which is the Pastoral care of Souls And though there was no Court Superiour to the Popes yet as St. Paul had withstood St. Peter to his face so in all Ages upon several occasions holy Bishops have refused to comply with or submit to Orders sent from Rome when they thought the matter of them unlawful Laurence that Succeeded Austin the Monk in the See of Canterbury having Excommunicated King Edbald for an Incestuous Marriage would not Absolve him till he put away his Wife though the Pope plied him earnestly both by Intreaties and Threatnings to let it alone and Absolve him Dunstan did the like to Count Edwin for an other Incestuous Marriage nor did all the Popes Interposition make him give over They found many other such instances which occurred in the Ecclesiastical History of Bishops proceeding by Censures and other Methods to stop the course of Sin notwithstanding any encouragement the Parties had from Popes And it is certain that every man when he finds himself engaged in any course which is clearly sinful ought presently to forsake it according to the opinion of all Divines And therefore the King upon these Evidences of the unlawfulness of his Marriage ought to abstain from the Queen and the Arch-Bishop of Canterbury with the other Bishops ought to require him to do it otherwise they must proceed to Church Censures Many things were also brought from reason or at least the Maximes of the School Philosophy which passed for true reason in those days to prove Marriage in the degrees forbidden by Moses to be contrary to the Law of Nature and much was alledged out of Profane Authors to show what an abhorrency some Heathen Nations had of Incestuous Marriages And whereas the chief strength of the Arguments for the contrary opinion rested in this That these Laws of Moses were not confirmed by Christ or his Apostles in the New Testament To that they answered That if the Laws about Marriage were Moral as had been proved then there was no need of a particular Confirmation since those Words of our Saviour I came not to destroy the Law but to fulfil it do confirm the whole Moral Law Christ had also expresly asserted the Relation of Affinity saying That man and wife are one Flesh. St. Paul also condemned a Match as Incestuous for Affinity But though it were not expresly set down in the Gospel yet the Traditions of the Church are received with equal Authority to written Verities This the Court of Rome and all the Learned Writers for the Catholick Faith lay down as a Fundamental Truth And without it how could the Seven Sacraments some of which are not mentioned in the New Testament with many other Articles of Catholick Belief be maintained against the Hereticks The Tradition of the Church being so full and formal in this particular must take place And if any Corruptions have been brought in by some Popes within an Age or two which have never had any other Authority from the Decrees of the Church or the Opinions of Learned men they are not to be maintained in opposition to the Evidence that is brought on the other side This I have summed up in as short and Comprehensive words as I could Being the Substance of what I gathered out of the Printed Books and Manuscripts for the Kings cause But the Fidelity of an Historian leads me next to open the arguments that were brought against it by those who wrote on the other side for the Queens cause to prove the validity of the Marriage and the Popes Power of Dispensing with a Marriage in that degree of Affinity I could never by all the search I have made see either MSS. or Printed Books that defended their Cause except Cajetans and Victorias Books that are Printed in their works But from an answer that was written to the Bishop of Rochesters Book and from some other writings on the other side I gather the Substance of their arguments to have been what follows Cardinal Cajetan had by many arguments endeavored to prove that the Prohibitions in Leviticus were not parts of the Moral Law They were not observed before the Law no not by the holy seed Adams Children Married one another Abraham Married his Sister Iacob Married two Sisters Iudah gave his two Sons to Tamar and promised to give her the third for her Husband By the Law of Moses a Dispensation was granted in one case for Marrying the Brothers wife which shows the Law was not Moral otherwise it could not be dispenced with and if Moses dispensed with it why might not the Pope as well do it nor was there any force in the
trusted to outward Ceremonies and their Curates for their own gain encouraged them in it It was observed that the opinion of Clergy-mens being exempted from the secular Judge was ill grounded that Bishops did ordain without due care and Tryal that the Dignified Clergy misapplyed their Revenues did not follow their first Institution and did not reside upon their Benefices And in fine he moves that the four Sacraments which had been left undetermined by the former Articles might be examined the outward signs and actions the promises made upon them and the efficacy that was in them being well considered The second Paper consists of two Resolutions made concerning Confirmation by the Arch-Bishop of Canterbury and Stokesley Bishop of London by which I perceive the way of examining matters by giving out of questions to Bishops and Divines was sooner practised then when I first took notice of it page 286. there are several other Papers concerning Confirmation but these are only Subscribed and the rest do generally follow these two Prelates who were then the heads of two different parties The Arch-Bishop went on this ground that all things were to be tryed by the Scripture but Stokesley and almost the whole Clergy were for receiving the Tradition of the Church as not much inferiour to the Scriptures which he asserts in his Subscription The third Paper was offered to the King by Cranmer to perswade him to proceed to a further Reformation that things might be long and well considered before they were determined that nothing might be declared a part of Gods faith without good proofs from Scripture the departing from which rule had been the occasion of all the Errors that had been in the Church that now men would not be led as they had been but would examine matters that many things were now acknowledged to be truths such as the unlawfulness of the Popes Usurped Power for which many had formerly suffered death Whereupon he desires that some points might be Examined by Scrinture as whether there is a Purgatory whether departed Souls ought to be Invocated whether Tradition ought to be believed whether there be any satisfaction besides the satisfaction of Christ whether free will may dispose it self to grace and whether Images ought to be kissed or used to any other end but as representations of a piece of History In all these he desired the King would suspend his Judgment and in particular that he would not determine against the Lawfulness of the Marriage of the Clergy but would for some time silence both parties He also proposed that this point might by order from the King be examined in the Universities before indifferent Judges that all the Arguments against it might be given to the Defenders twelve days before the publick disputation and he offered that if those who should defend the Lawfulness of Priests Marriage were in the Opinion of indifferent Judges overcome they should willingly suffer death for it but if otherwise all they desired was that in that point the King might leave them in the liberty to which the Word of God left them Ad Page 249. line 18. I have seen a much fuller paper concerning Orders and Ecclesiastical functions which the Reader will find in the Collection signed by Cromwell the two Arch-Bishops and eleven Bishops and twenty Divines and Canonists Declaring that the Power of the Keys and other Church-functions is formally distinct from the Power of the Sword That this Power is not absolute but to be limited by the Rules that are in the Scripture and is ordained only for the edification and good of the Church that this Power ought to be still preserved since it was given by Christ as the mean of reconciling sinners to God Orders were also declared a Sacrament since they consisted of an outward action instituted by Christ and an inward grace conferred with them But that all Inferiour Orders Ianitors Lectors c. were brought into the Church to beautifie and adorn it and were taken from the Temple of the Iews And that in the New Testament there is no mention made but of Deacons or Ministers and Priests or Bishops nor is there belonging to Orders any other Ceremony mentioned in the Scripture but Prayer and Imposition of hands This was signed either in the year 1537 or 1538 since it is Subscribed both by Iohn Hilsey Bishop of Rochester and Edward Fox Bishop of Hereford for the one was consecrated in 1537 and the other dyed in May 1538. On this Paper I will add two remarks the one is that after this I do never find the Inferiour Degrees under a Deacon mentioned in this Church so it seems at this time they were laid aside They were first set up in the Church about the end of the second or the beginning of the third Century in the middle of which we find both Cornelius Bishop of Rome and St. Cyprian mentioning them as Orders that were then established and it seems they were designed as previous steps to the Sacred functions that none might be Ordained to these but such as had been long before separated from a secular state of Life and had given good proofs of themselves in these lower degrees But it turned in the Church of Rome to be only a matter of form and many took the first Tonsure that they might be exempted from the Secular Power and be qualified for Commendams and some other Worldly advantages to which these lower Orders were sufficient by those Rules which the Canonists had brought in Another thing is that both in this Writing and in the Necessary Erudition of a Christian man Bishops and Priests are spoken of as one and the same Office In the Antient Church they knew none of those Subtilties which were found out in the latter Ages It was then thought enough that a Bishop was to be dedicated to his function by a new Imposition of hands and that several Offices could not be performed without Bishops such as Ordination Confirmation c. but they did not refine in these matters so much as to enquire whether Bishops and Priests differed in Order and Office or only in degree But after the Schoolmen fell to examine matters of Divinity with Logical and Unintelligible niceties and the Canonists began to Comment upon the rules of the Ancient Church they studied to make Bishops and Priests seem very near one another so that the difference was but small They did it with different designs The Schoolmen having set up the grand Mystery of Transubstantiation were to exalt the Priestly Office as much as was possible for the turning the Host into God was so great an action that they reckoned there could be no Office higher than that which qualified a man to so mighty a Performance therefore as they changed the form of Ordination from what it was Anciently believed to consist in to a delivering of the Sacred Vessels and held that a Priest had his Orders by that rite and not by
He declared that he died in the Catholick Faith not doubting of any Article of Faith or of any Sacrament of the Church and denied that he had been a Supporter of those who believed ill opinions He confessed he had been seduced but now died in the Catholick Faith and desired them to pray for the King and for the Prince and for himself and then prayed very fervently for the remission of his past sins and admittance into Eternal Glory and having given the Sign the Executioner cut off his Head very barbarously Thus fell that great Minister that was raised meerly upon the strength of his natural parts For as his Extraction was mean so his Education was low All the learning he had was that he had got the new-Testament in Latine by heart His great wisdom and dexterity in business raised him up through several steps till he was become as great as a Subject could be He carryed his greatness with wonderful temper and moderation and fell under the weight of popular Odium rather than Guilt The disorders in the Suppression of Abbeys were generally charged on him Yet when he fell no Bribery nor cheating of the King could be fastned on him though such things came out in swarms on a disgraced Favourite when there is any ground for them By what he spoke at his death he left it much doubted of what Religion he dyed But it is certain he was a Lutheran The term Catholick-Faith used by him in his last speech seemed to make it doubtful but that was then used in England in its true sense in Opposition to the Novelties of the See of Rome as will afterwards appear on another occasion So that his Profession of the Catholich-Faith was strangely perverted when some from thence Concluded that he dyed in the Communion of the Church of Rome But his praying in English and that only to God through Christ without any of these tricks that were used when those of that Church died shewed he was none of theirs With him the Office of the Kings Vice-gerent in Ecclesiastical affairs died as it rose first in his person and as all the Clergy opposed the seting up a new Officer whose Interest should oblige him to oppose a Reconciliation with Rome so it seems none were fond to succeed in an Office that proved so fatal to him that had first carryed it The King was said to have lamented his death after it was too late but the fall of the new Queen that followed not long after and the miseries which fell also on the Duke of Norfolk and his Family some years after were looked on as the Scourges of Heaven for their cruel prosecution of this unfortunate Minister With his fall the progress of the Reformation which had been by his endeavours so far advanced was quite stopt For all that Cranmer could do after this was to keep the ground they had gained But he could never advance much further And indeed every one expected to see him go next For as one Gostwick Knight for Bedfordshire had named him in the House of Commons as the Supporter and Promoter of all the Heresie that was in England so the Popish party reckoned they had but half done their work by destroying Cromwel and that it was not finished till Cranmer followed him Therefore all possible endeavors were used to make discoveries of the Encouragement which as was believed he gave to the Preachers of the condemned Doctrines And it is very probable that had not the Incontinence of Katherine Howard whom the King declared Queen on the 8th of August broken out not long after he had been Sacrificed the next Session of Parliament But now I return to my proper business to give an account of Church-matters for this year with which these great Changes in Court had so great a Relation that the Reader will excuse the digression about them Upon Cromwels fall Gardiner and those that followed him made no doubt but they should quickly recover what they had lost of late years So their greatest attempt was upon the Translation of the Scriptures The Convocation Books as I have been forced often to lament are lost so that here I cannot stir but as Fuller leads me who assures the World that he Copied out of the Records with his own Pen what he published And yet I doubt he has mistaken himself in the year and that which he calls the Convocation of this year was the Convocation of the year 1542. For he tells us that their 7th Session was the 10th of March. Now in this year the Convocation did not sit down till the 13th of April but that year it sate all March So likewise he tells us of the Bishops of Westminster Glocester and Peterborough bearing a share in this Convocation whereas these were not Consecrated before Winter and could not sit as Bishops in this Synod And besides Thirleby sate at this time in the lower House as was formerly shewn in the Process about Anne of Cleves Marriage So that their attempt against the new Testament belongs to the year 1542. But they were now much better employed though not in the way of Convocation For a select number of them sate by vertue of a Commission from the King confirmed in Parliament Their first work was to draw up a Declaration of the Christian Doctrine for the necessary erudition of a Christian man They thought that to speak of Faith in general ought naturally to go before an Exposition of the Christian Belief and therefore with that they began The Church of Rome that designed to keep her Children in ignorance had made no great account of Faith which they generally taught consisted chiefly in an Implicite Believing whatever the Church proposed without any explicite knowledg of particulars So that a Christian Faith as they had explained it was a Submission to the Church The Reformers finding that this was the Spring of all their other errors and that which gave them colour and Authority did on the other hand set up the strength of their whole Cause on an Explicite believing the truth of the Scriptures because of the Authority of God who had revealed them And said that as the great Subject of the Apostles Preaching was Faith so that which they every-where taught was to read and believe the Scriptures Upon which followed nice Disputing what was that saving Faith by which the Scriptures say we are Iustified They could not say it was barely crediting the Divine Revelation since in that sense the Devils believed Therefore they generally placed it at first in their being assured that they should be saved by Christs dying for them In which their design was to make Holiness and all other Graces necessary requisites in the Composition of Faith though they would not make them formally parts of it For since Christs death has its full vertue and effect upon none but those who are regenerate and live according to his Gospel none
And the corruptions of their Worship and Doctrine were such that a very small proportion of common sense with but an overly looking on the New Testament discovered them Nor had they any other varnish to colour them by but the Authority and Traditions of the Church But when some studious men began to read the Ancient Fathers and Councils though there was then a great mixture of Sophisticated stuff that went under the Ancient names and was joyned to their true works which Criticks have since discovered to be spurious they found a vast difference between the first Five Ages of the Christian Church in which Piety and Learning prevailed and the last Ten Ages in which Ignorance had buried all their former Learning only a little misguided Devotion was retained for Six of these Ages and in the last Four the restless Ambition and Usurpation of the Popes was supported by the seeming holiness of the begging Friers and the false Counterfeits of Learning which were among the Canonists School-men and Casuists So that it was incredible to see how men notwithstanding all the opposition the Princes every-where made to the progress of these reputed new Opinions and the great advantages by which the Church of Rome both held and drew many into their Interests were generally inclined to these Doctrines Those of the Clergy who at first Preached them were of the begging Orders of Friers who having fewer engagements on them from their Interests were freer to discover and follow the truth And the austere Discipline they had been trained under did prepare them to encounter those difficulties that lay in their way And the Laity that had long lookt on their Pastors with an evil eye did receive these Opinions very easily which did both discover the Impostures with which the world had been abused and shewed a plain and simple way to the Kingdom of Heaven by putting the Scriptures into their hands and such other Instructions about Religion as were sincere and genuine The Clergy who at first despised these new Preachers were at length much Allarmed when they saw all people running after them and râ—ceiving their Doctrines As these things did spread much in Germany Switzerland and the Netherlands so their Books came over into England where there was much matter already prepared to be wrought on not only by the prejudices they had conceived against the corrupt Clergy but by the Opinions of the Lollards which had been now in England since the days of Wickliff for about 150 years Between which Opinions and the Doctrines of the Reformers there was great Affinity and therefore to give the better vent to the Books that came out of Germany many of them were translated into the English-Tongue and were very much read and applauded This quickned the proceedings against the Lollards and the enquiry became so severe that great numbers were brought into the Toils of the Bishops and their Commissaries If a man had spoken but a light word against any of the Constitutions of the Church he was seized on by the Bishop's Officers and if any taught their Children the Lord's Prayer the Ten Commandments and the Apostle's Creed in the Vulgar Tongue that was crime enough to bring them to the Stake As it did Six men and a woman at Coventry in the Passion-week 1519. being the 4 th of April Longland Bishop of Lincoln was very cruel to all that were suspected of Heresie in his Diocess several of them abjured and some were Burnt But all that did not produce what they designed by it The Clergy did not correct their own faults and their cruelty was looked on as an evidence of Guilt and of a weak Cause so that the method they took wrought only on peoples fears and made them more cautious and reserved but did not at all remove the Cause nor work either on their reasons or affections Upon all this the King to get himself a name and to have a lasting Interest with the Clergy thought it not enough to assist them with his Authority but would needs turn their Champion and write against Luther in defence of the Seven Sacraments This Book was magnified by the Clergy as the most Learned Work that ever the Sun saw and he was compared to King Solomon and to all the Christian Emperours that had ever been And it was the chief subject of flattery for many years besides the glorious Title of Defender of the Faith which the Pope bestowed on him for it And it must be acknowledged that considering the Age and that it was the Work of a King it did deserve some Commendation But Luther was not at all daunted at it but rather valued himself upon it that so great a King had entred the lists with him and answered his Book And he replied not without a large mixture of Acrimony for which he was generally blamed as forgetting that great respect that is due to the Persons of Soveraign Princes But all would not do These Opinions still gained more footing and William Tindal made a Translation of the New Testament in English to which he added some short Glosses This was printed in Antwerp and sent over into England in the year 1526. Against which there was a Prohibition published by every Bishop in his Diocess Bearing that some of Luthers followers had erroneously Translated the New Testament and had corrupted the Word of God both by a false Translation and by Heretical Glosses Therefore they required all Incumbents to charge all within their Parishes that had any of these to bring them in to the Vicar-General within 30 days after that premonition under the pains of Excommunication and incurring the suspition of Heresie There were also many other Books Prohibited at that time most of them written by Tindal And Sir Thomas More who was a man celebrated for Vertue and Learning undertook the answering of some of those but before he went about it he would needs have the Bishops Licence for keeping and reading them He wrote according to the way of the Age with much bitterness and though he had been no Friend to the Monks and a great declaimer against the Ignorance of the Clergy and had been ill used by the Cardinal yet he was one of the bitterest Enemies of the new Preachers not without great cruelty when he came into Power though he was otherwise a very good-natured man So violently did the Roman Clergy hurry all their Friends into those excesses of Fire and Sword When the Party became so considerable that it was known there were Societies of them not only in London but in both the Universities then the Cardinal was constrained to act His contempt of the Clergy was looked on as that which gave encouragement to the Hereticks When reports were brought to Court of a company that were in Cambridge Bilney Latimer and others that read and propagated Luther's Book and Opinions some Bishops moved in the year 1523. that there might be a Visitation appointed
Bullam fatis concessit re integra causa si quae fuit cessavit Sed producitur aliud Breve tenoris tam efficacis ut istas Objectiones non admittat Sed manet nihilominus eorum sententia qui Pontificem non posse dispensare affirmant secundum quos nec Breve nec Bulla consistit deinde Breve falsum esse pro falso judicari deberi multis rationibus convincitur denique falsum cum sit tamen prioris Bullae errores corrigat illam opinionem merito confirmet ne prior Dispensatio efficax videatur vel eorum judicio qui hoc Matrimonium defendere studuerunt viz. qui veris allegationibus diffisi ad falsas confictas Dispensationes vitia objecta removentes confugere coacti sunt Ista si singula minus sufficiant saltem collata obtineant persuadeant licere Illa vero opinio multis persuasa Pontificem viz. non potuisse dispensare ut sola infirmet Dispensationem non petitur sed habet nihilominus aliquid considerationis quanquam enim refellatur a quibusdam reprobetur manet tamen scripta atque adeo testimonio ipsius Pontificis comprobata Perpendatur deinde causa suggestionis veritas si mendacium intervenisse apparet quod est notorium illam Dispensationem adversariorum factis in novi Brevis fabricatione tacite reprobari quis non videt ex his causis licere ut sententia Divortii proferatur Postremo expedit ut id pronuntietur quod in omnium sententias consentiat Reprobatio autem Dispensationis cum omnibus convenit opinionibus sive quia Authoritas abfuit sive quia non recte interposita dicatur Approbatio vero cum istis dissentit omnibus Expedit ut firma sit inconcussa Regni Successio quae contra has opiniones confirmari non potest Expedit ut conscientia Serenissimi Regis his scrupulis impedita turbata expedita tranquilla reddatur Breviter expedit votis Serenissimi Regis satisfieri qui pro genuinis innatis suis virtutibus non nisi optima cupit modo etiam optimo votorum suorum compotem effici laborat si non virtutem spectaret caetera nihil haberent difficultatis sed omnium virtutum cogitationem quandam esse animadvertens suum justitiae decorum quod temperantia est quaerit ut justum justo modo obtineat assequatur Itaque expedit ne auxilium denegetur vel differatur ei qui id juste implorat To my loving Friends Master Stephen Gardiner Doctor of both Laws Sir Francis Brian and Sir Gregory Cassalis Knights and Mr. Peter Vannes Secretary to the King's Highness for the Latin Tongue His Graces Orators Residents in the Court of Rome XXII The second part of a long Dispatch of the Cardinals concerning the Divorce An Original AN other part of your Charge consisteth in expedition of the King 's great and weighty Cause of Matrimony whereupon depend so many high Consequences as for no earthly Cause to suffer or tolerate tract or delay in what case soever the Pope's Holiness be of amendment or danger of life nor as is aforesaid oweth to be by his Holiness preteromitted whether the same be in the state of Recovery or in any doubt or despair thereof for one assured and principal fundamental and ground is to be regarded whereupon the King's Highness doth plant and build his Acts and Cogitations in this behalf which is from the reasonable favour and justice being the things from the which the Pope's Holiness in prosperis nec adversis may lawfully and honestly digress and when the plainness of his Cause is well considered with the manifest Presumptions Arguments and Suspitions both of the insufficiency of the Bull and falsity of the Brief such as may lead any Man of reason or intendment well to perceive and know that no sufficiency or assured truth can be therein How may the Pope's Holiness ex aequo justo refuse or deny to any Christian Man much less to a Prince of so high merits and in a Cause whereupon depend so many consequences to his Holiness well known for a vain respect of any Person or by excuse of any Sickness justifie colour or defend any manner refusal tract or delay used in declaration of the truth in so great a Matter which neither for the infinite conveniences that thereby might ensue admitteth or suffereth to be delaied nor by other than himself his Act or Authority may lawfully be declared And well may his Holiness know That to none it appertaineth more to look unto the justness of the King's desire in this behalf than to his Highness his self whose Interest whose Cause with the same of his Realm and Succession resteth herein for if his Grace were minded or would intend to do a thing inique or injust there were no need to recurr unto the Pope's Holiness for doing thereof But because his Highness and his Council who best know the whole of this Matter and to whose part it belongeth most profoundly to weigh and ponder every thing concerning the same be well assured of the truth of the Matter needing none other thing but for observance of his Duty towards God and his Church to have the same Truth also approbate and declared by him to whom the doing thereof appertaineth his Grace therefore seeing an untruth alleadged and that so craftily as by undue and perverse ways the same without good reason adhibited may for a season bring things into confusion doth communicate unto the Pope's Holiness presumptions and evidences enough and sufficient to inform the Conscience of his Holiness of the very truth which then if his Holiness will not see but either for affection fear or other private cause will hearken to every dilatory and vain allegation of such as led upon undue grounds would colour the Truth What doth his Holiness less therein than under a right vain colour expresly deny and refuse the said Justice which to be done either in health or sickness in a matter of so great moment is in no wise tolerable But for the same reasons that be before mentioned is the thing whether the Pope's Holiness be in hope or despair of life without further tract to be absolved and determined for if Almighty God grant his Holiness life this Act is and always shall be able to bear it self and is meet to be an Example a President and a Law in all like Cases emerging the Circumstances and Specialities of the same in every part concurring as they do in this nor can the Emperor make exceptions at the same when he best knowing percase the untruth shall see the grounds and occasions that of necessity and meer Justice have enforced and constrained the Pope's Holiness thereunto which he could not refuse to do unless he would openly and manifestly commit express injury and notorious injustice For be it that the Pope's Holiness hearkning to the said frivolous and vain Allegations would refuse to declare the Law
you so much the more to accelerate as ye know how necessary it is that all diligence and expedition be used in that Matter And so ye all to handle and endeavour your selves there for the time of your demor as ye may do the most benefit and advantage that may be to the speedy furtherance of the said Cause And forasmuch as at the dispatch of your said last Letters ye had not opened unto the Pope's Holiness the last and uttermost Device here conceived and to you written in my Letters sent by the said Alexander but that ye intended as soon as ye might have time and access to set forth the same wherein it is to be trusted since that thing could by no colour or respect to the Emperor be reasonably denied ye have before this time done some good and brought unto perfection I therefore remitting you to such Instructions as ye received at that time advertise you that the King's mind and pleasure is ye do your best to attain the Ampliation of the said Commission after such form as is to you in the said last Letters and Instructions prescribed which if ye cannot in every thing bring to pass at the least to obtain as much to the King's purpose and the benefit of the Cause as ye can wherein all good policy and dexterity is to be used and the Pope's Holiness by all perswasions to be induced thereunto shewing unto the same how ye have received Letters from the King's Highness and me responsives to such as ye wrote of the Dates before rehearsed whereby ye be advertised that the King's Highness perceiving the Pope's strange demeanour in this his great and weighty Cause with the little respect that his Holiness hath either to the importance thereof or to do unto his Holiness at this his great necessity gratuity and pleasure not only cannot be a little sorry and heavy to see himself frustrate of the future hope and expectation that his Grace had to have found the Pope's Holiness a most loving fast near and kind Father and assured Friend ready and glad to have done for his Grace that which of his Power Ordinary or Absolute he might have done in this thing which so near toucheth the King's Conscience Health Succession Realm and Subjects But also marvelleth highly That his Holiness both in Matters of Peace Truce in this the King's Cause and in all other hath more respect to please and content him of whom he hath received most displeasures and who studieth nothing more than the detriment of the See than his Holiness hath either to do that which a good common Father for the well of the Church Himself and all Christendom is bounden and oweth to do or also that which every thing well pondered it were both of Congruence Right Truth Equity Wisdom and conveniency for to do Thinking verily that his Highness deserved to be far otherwise entreated and that not at his most need in things nearest touching his Grace and where the same had his chief and principal confidence thus to have his just and reasonable Petitions rejected and totally to be converted to the arbitre of his Enemy which is not the way to win acquire and conserve Friends to the Pope's Holiness and See Apostolick nor that which a good and indifferent Vicar of Jesus Christ and common Father unto all Princes oweth and is bound to observe Nevertheless ye shall say the King's Highness who always hath shewed and largely comprobate himself a most devout Son unto the See Apostolick must and will take patience and shall pray to God to put in the Pope's mind a more direct and vertuous intent so to proceed in his acts and doing as he may be found a very Father upright indifferent loving and kind and not thus for partial respect fear or other inordinate Affection or cause to degenerate from his best Children showing himself unto them as a Step-Father nor the King's Highness ye shall say can persuade unto himself that the Pope's Holiness is of that nature and disposition that he will so totally fail his Grace in this Matter of so high importance but that by one good mean or other his Holiness will perfectly comprobate the intire love that always the same hath shewed to bear towards his Highness wherein ye shall desire him now to declare by his Acts the uttermost of his intent and disposition so as ye Mr. Stevins and Mr. Brian who be revoked home do not return with void hands or bring with you things of such meagerness or little substance as shall be to no purpose And thus by these or like words seconding to the same effect which as the time shall require and as he shall have cause ye by your Wisdoms can qualifie and devise It is not to be doubted but that the Pope's Holiness perceiving how the Kings Highness taketh this Matter and that two of you shall now return will in expedition of the said Ampliation of the Commission and other things requisite strain himself to do unto the King's Highness as much gratuity and pleasure as may be for the better attaining whereof ye shall also shew how heavy and sorry I with my Lord Legate Campegius be to see this manner of proceeding and the large promises which he and I so often have made unto the King's Highness of the Pope's fast and assured mind to do all that his Holiness etiam ex plenitudine potestatis might do thus to be disappointed most humbly beseeching his Holiness on my behalf by his high Wisdom to consider what a Prince this is the infinite and excellent gratitudes which the same hath exhibited to the Pope's Person in particular and to the See Apostolick in the general the magnitude and importance of this Cause with the Consequences that may follow by the good or ill entreating of the King's Highness in the same wherein ye shall say I have so largely written so plainly for my discharge declared the truth unto his Holiness and so humbly reverently and devoutly made intercession that more can I not add or accumulate thereunto but only pray unto God that the same may be perceived understood and taken as the exigence of the Case and the merits of this Noble Prince doth require trusting always and with fervent desire from day to day abiding to hear from his said Holiness some such thing as I shall now be able constantly to justifie and defend the great things which I and my said Lord Legate have said and attested on his Holiness behalf This with all other such matter as may serve to the purpose ye shall extend as well as ye can and by that means get and attain as much to your purpose for the corroboration and surety of all things to be done here as is possible leaving to speak any more or also to take or admit any rescripts for exhibition of the Brief advocation of the Cause or other of the former degrees seeing that all which shall or can be
before God and Man not only to execute worthy punishment on me as an unlawful Wife but to follow your Affection already setled on that Party for whose sake I am now as I am whose Name I could some good while since have pointed unto your Grace being not ignorant of my suspicion therein But if you have already determined of me and that not only my Death but an infamous slander must bring you the enjoying of your desired happiness then I desire of God that he will pardon your great sin therein and likewise mine Enemies the Instruments thereof and that he will not call you to a strict account for your unprincely and cruel usage of me at his General Judgment-Seat where both you and my self must shortly appear and in whose Judgment I doubt not whatsoever the World may think of me mine Innocence shall be openly known and sufficiently cleared My last and only request shall be That my self may only bear the burthen of your Grace's displeasure and that it may not touch the innocent Souls of those poor Gentlemen who as I understand are likewise in strait Imprisonment for my sake If ever I have found favour in your sight if ever the Name of Ann Boleyn hath been pleasing in your ears then let me obtain this request and I will so leave to trouble your Grace any further with mine earnest Prayers to the Trinity to have your Grace in his good keeping and to direct you in all your Actions From my doleful Prison in the Tower this 6 th of May. Your most Loyal and ever Faithful Wife Ann Boleyn V. The Iudgment of the Convocation concerning General-Councils Published by the L. Herbert from the Original AS concerning General-Councils like-as we taught by long experience do perfectly know that there never was nor is any thing devised invented or instituted by our Fore-Fathers more expedient or more necessary for the establishment of our Faith for the extirpation of Heresies and the abolishing of Sects and Schisms and finally for the reducing of Christ's People unto one perfect unity and concord in his Religion than by the having of General-Councils So that the same be lawfully had and congregated in Spiritu Sancto and be also conform and agreeable as well concerning the surety and indifferency of the Places as all other Points requisite and necessary for the same unto that wholsome and godly Institution and usage for the which they were at first devised and used in the Primitive Church Even so on the other side taught by like experience we esteem repute and judg That there is ne can be any thing in the World more pestilent and pernicious to the Common-weal of Christendom or whereby the Truth of God's Word hath in times past or hereafter may be sooner defaced or subverted or whereof hath and may ensue more contention more discord and other devilish effects than when such General Councils have or shall be assembled not christianly nor charitably but for and upon private malice and ambition or other worldly and carnal Respects and Considerations according to the saying of Gregory Nazianzenus in his Epistle to one Procopius wherein he writeth this Sentence following Sic sentio si verum scribendum est omnes Conventus Episcoporum fugiendos esse quia nullius Synodi finem vidi bonum neque habentem magis solutionem malorum quam incrementum Nam cupiditates contentionum gloria sed ne putes me odiosum ista scribentem vincunt rationem That is to say I think this if I should write truly That all General Councils be to be eschewed for I never saw that they produced any good End or Effect nor that any Provision or Remedy but rather increase of Mischiefs proceeded of them For the desire of maintenance of Men's Opinions and ambition of Glory but reckon not that I write this of malice hath always in them overcomed reason Wherefore we think that Christian Princes especially and above all things ought and must with all their wills power and diligence foresee and provide Ne Sanctissima hac in parte majorum Instituta ad improbissimos ambitionis aut malitiae effectus explendos diversissimo suo fine sceleratissimo pervertantur Neve ad alium praetextum possint valere longe diversum effectum orbi producere quam Sanctissima rei facies praeâ—â—se ferat That is to say Least the most noble wholsome Institutions of our Elders in this behalf be perverted to a most contrary and most wicked end and effect that is to say to fulfil and satisfy the wicked affections of Men's Ambition and Malice or lest they might prevail for any other colour or bring forth any other effect than their most vertuous and laudable countenance doth outwardly to the World shew or pretend And first of all we think that they ought principally to consider who hath the Authority to call together a General Council Secondly Whether the Causes alledged be so weighty and so urgent that necessarily they require a General Council nor can otherwise be remedied Thirdly Who ought to be Judges in the General Council Fourthly What order of proceeding is to be observed in the same and how the Opinions or Judgments of the Fathers are to be consulted or asked Fifthly What Doctrines are to be allowed or defended with diverse other things which in General Councils ought of reason and equity to be observed And as unto the first Point We think that neither the Bishop of Rome nor any one Prince of what estate degree or preheminence soever he be may by his own Authority call indite or summon any General Council without the express consent assent and agreement of the residue of Christian Princes and especially such as have within their own Realms and Seigniories Imperium merum that is to say of such as have the whole intire and supream Government and Authority over all their Subjects without knowledging or recognizing of any other supream Power or Authority And this to be true we be induced to think by many and sundry as well Examples as great Reasons and Authority The which forasmuch as it should be over-long and tedious to express here particularly we have thought good to omit the same for this present And in witness that this is our plain and determinate Sentence Opinion and Judgment touching the Premisses we the Prelates and Clergy under-written being congregate together in the Convocation of the Province of Canterbury and representing the whole Clergy of the same here to these Presents subscribed our Names the 20 th of Iuly in the Year of our Lord 1536. 28. Hen. 8. Signed by Thomas Cromwel Thomas Cantuariensis Iohannes London with 13 Bishops and of Abbots Priors Arch-Deacons Deans Proctors Clerks and other Ministers 49. VI. Instructions for the King's Commissioners for a new survey and aâ— Inventory to be made of all the Demesnes Lands Goods and Chattels appertaining to any House of Religion of Monks Cannons and Nuns within their Commission according
after him 111. He tells many Reasons why the King had a mind to put away Ann of Cleve But in this as in other things he betrays a profound ignorance of that time for every Body knew that the King from the first time he saw her disliked her and that he never consummated the Marriage This is a Subject not fit to be long dwelt on but if any will compare the account I give of this Matter from the Records with Sander's Tale they will see that he wrote at random and did not so much as know publick Transactions 112. He says The King had promised to the Emperor That he would no longer continue in the Smalcaldick League but Cromwel counterfeited the King's Hand to a new confirmation of it which coming to the Emperor's knowledg he challenged the King of it and sent him over a Copy of it upon which the King disowned it and cast it on Cromwel and that this was the cause of his fall This I believe is one of Sander's dreams there is not one word of it in Cromwel's Attainder nor do I find the least shadow of this in some Original Letters which he wrote to the King for his Pardon in which he answers many of the things laid to his Charge Nor is it likely he would adventure on so bold a thing with such a King nor could the Emperor have that Writing in his power as long as the King lived for it is not to be imagined how he could come by it till he had taken the Duke of Saxony Prisoner which was after this King's death 113. He says When Cromwel was put to death the King proceeded to the Divorce of Ann of Cleve The Divorce was judged by the Convocation eight days before Cromwel's death and confirmed in Parliament which was dissolved before he suffered 114. He says The King sent to her to tell her he had a mind to be separated from her and tho he could proceed more severely against her since he knew she was an Heretick yet for her Families sake he left it to her self to devise any reason for their Divorce upon which she came next day to the Senate which may be either the King's Council or the Parliament and confessed she had been married to another before she was married to the King and thereupon by the Authority of Parliament he was divorced and within eight days married Katharine Howard There are but six gross Errors in this Period 1. The King sent not any message to her nor came there any answer from her till the Sentence of Divorce was quite passed 2. In the Original Letter which those he sent to her wrote to him from Richmond it appears that they used no threatnings to her but barely told her what was done to which she acquiesced 3. She never came from Richmond in all that Process and so made no such declaration in the Senate 4. She did not say that she was married to another but only that she had been contracted to the Prince of Lorrain when she was under Age. 5. The Parliament did not dissolve the Marriage but only confirmed the Sentence of the Convocation 6. The King did not marry Katharine Howard before the 8 th of August and the Divorce was judged the 10 th of Iuly a month wanting two days 115. He says The King had consummated the Marriage for seven months together There were but six months between his Marriage and the Divorce and in all that while as they bedded but seldom so there were very clear Evidences brought that it was not consummated 116. He says The King sent the Bishop of Winchester and Sir Henry Knevet to the Diet of the Empire who were ordered to propose to the Emperor That the King might be again reconciled to the See of Rome to which he adds his Conscience did drive him but since the King would not confess his past Crimes nor do penance for them nor restore the Goods of the Church it came to nothing This is another Ornament of the Fable to shew the Poet's wit but is as void of Truth as any passage in Plantus or Terence is For the King was all his life so intractable in that Point that the Popish Party had no other way to maintain their Interest with him but to comply not without affectation in that Matter and when an Information was given against Gardiner for his holding some correspondence with the Pope's Legate at the Diet he got the Man who had innocently discovered it to be put in Prison and said it was a Plot against him to ruin him which he needed not be so sollicitous about if his Instructions from the King had allowed him to enter on such a Treaty 117. He runs out in a long digression upon the King 's assuming the Title of King of Ireland to shew that the Kings of England only hold Ireland by the Pope's Donation In this Sanders shews his Art he being to carry the Standard of Rebellion in that Kingdom to blast the King 's Right to it He acknowledges the Crown of England had the Dominion of Ireland with the Title of Lord of Ireland about 400 years And certainly if so long a possession does not give a good Title and a prescription against all other Pretenders most of the Royal Families in Christendom will be to seek for their Rights But he says It was given by the Pope to King Henry the Second and yet he confesses that he had conquered some parts of it before that Grant was sent him by Hadrian the Fourth Certainly King Henry the Second had as good a right to take it as Pope Hadrian had to give it nor was the King's accepting the Pope's Donation any prejudice to his Title for things extorted or allowed upon a publick Error can have no force when that is openly discovered If then the Superstition of those Ages made that the Pope's Donation was a great help to any Pretender it was no wonder that Kings made use of it but it were a wonder indeed if they should acknowledg it after the Trick is known and seen by all 118. After this and a Satyr against Queen Elizabeth for assuming the Title Defender of the Faith and a long enumeration of the exactions in the last years of this Reign in which tho there is Matter enough for severe complaints yet many of the Particulars he mentions are without any proof and must rest on the Author's credit which by this time the Reader will acknowledg is not very great Another long discourse of some length follows of the misfortunes of the Duke of Norfolk and of all that served the King in his Divorce and in the following Actions of his Life from which he infers that these were effects of a Curâ—e from Heaven upon all that he did and on all those that assisted him But as the Inference is bad so he forgot to mention those Noble Families that were raised in
Sacraments may in no wise be suffered to perish or to be abolished according to the saying of St. Paul Quomodo credent in eum de quo non audiâ—runt quomodo autem audient sine praedicante quomodo autem praedicabunt nisi missi fuerunt sicut scriptum est quam speciosâ— super montes pedes Evangelizantium pacem annunciantium bona Thirdly because the said Power and Office or Function hath annexed unto it assured promises of excellent and inestimable things for thereby is conferred and given the Holy Ghost with all his graces and finally our justification and everlasting life according to the saying of St. Paul Non me pâ—det Evangelii Iesu Christi potentia siquidem est Dei ad salutem omni credenti that is to say I am not ashamed of the room and Office which I have given unto me by Christ to preach his Gospel for it is the Power of God that is to say the elect Organ or instrument ordained by God and endued with such vertue and efficacy that it is able to give and Minister effectually everlasting Life unto all those that will believe and obey unto the same Item That this Office this Power and Authority was committed and given by Christ and his Apostles unto certain persons only that is to say unto Priests or Bishops whom they did elect call and admit thereunto by their Prayer and Imposition of their hands Secondly We will that all Bishops and Preachers shall instruct and teach our people committed unto their Spiritual charge that the Sacrament of Order may worthily be called a Sacrament because it is a holy Rite or ceremony instituted by Christ and his Apostles in the New Testament and doth consist of two parts like as the other Sacraments of the Church do that is to say of a spiritual and an invisible grace and also of an outward and a visible Sign The invisible gift or grace conferred in this Sacrament is nothing else but the Power the Office and the Authority before mentioned the visible and outward Sign is the Prayer and Imposition of the Bishops hands upon the person which receiveth the said gift or grace And to the intent the Church of Christ should never be destituted of such Ministers as should have and execute the said power of the keys it was also Ordained and commanded by the Apostles that the same Sacrament should be applyed and ministred by the Bishop from time to time unto such other persons as had the qualities which the Apostles very diligently descryve as it appeareth evidently in the third Chap. of the first Epistle of St. Paul to Tim. and his Epistle unto Titus And surely this is the whole vertue and efficacy and the cause also of the institution of this Sacrament as it is found in the New Testament for albeit the Holy Fathers of the Church which succeeded the Apostles minding to beautifie and ornate the Church of Christ with all those things which were commendable in the Temple of the Iews did devise not only certain other ceremonies than be before rehearsed as Tonsures Rasures Unctions and such other observances to be used in the administration of the said Sacraments but did also institute certain inferiour orders or degreâ—s as Ianitors Lectors Exorcists Acolits and Subdeacons and deputed to every one of those certain Offices to Execute in the Church wherein they followed undoubtedly the example and rites used in the Old Testament yet the truth is that in the New Testament there is no mention made of any degrees or distinctions in Orders but only of Deacons or Ministers and of Priests or Bishops nor there is any word spoken of any other ceremony used in the conferring of this Sacrament but only of Prayer and the Imposition of the Bishops hands Thomas Cromwell T. Cantuarien Edwardus Ebor. Ioannes London Cuthbertus Dunelmensis Ioannes Lincoln Ioannes Bathoniens Thomas Elien Ioannes Bangor Nicolaus Sarum Edwardus Hereforden Hugo Wygorn Ioannes Roffen Rich. Cicestr Richardus Wolman Ioannes Bell. Willielmus Clyffe Robertus Aldridge Gilfridus Downes Ioannes Skip Cuthbertus Marshall Marmaduke Waldeby Robertus Oking Nicolaus Heyth Rodolphus Bradford Richardus Smith Simon Matthew Ioannes Prynn Gulielmus Buckmastre Willielmus Maye Nicolaus Wotton Ricardus Cox Ioannes Redman Thomas Robertson Thomas Baret Ioannes Nase Ioannes Barbar Some other hands there are that cannot be Read Sacrae Theologiae Iuris Ecclesiastici Civilis Professores VI. A Letter of Melanthons to perswade the King to a further Reformation An Original S. D. Serenissime Inclyte Rex Etsi audieramus Romanum Episcopum omnibus artificiis incendere Caesaris Caroli Regis Gallici animos adversus Britannos Germanos tamen quia spero Deum haec pericula gubernaturum esse defensurum tranquillitatem tuam scripsi in alteris literis de Ecclesiarum emendatione quam si tempora sinent rogo ut Regia Majestas tua suscipiat Postea adjeci hanc Epistolam non impudentia sed optimo studio amore cum Ecclesiarum cum Regiae Majestatis tuae incitatus quare per Christum obtestor Regiam Majestatem tuam ut meam libertatem boni consulat Saepe cogito Britannicae Ecclesiae primordia caeteras laudes hinc enim propagata est doctrina Christiana in magnam Germaniae Galliae partem imo Britannicae Ecclesiae beneficium fuit quod primum Romanae Provinciae liberatae sunt persecutione Haec primum nobis Imperatorem pium Constantinum dedit magna haec gloria est vestri nominis Nunc quoque Regia Majestas tua primum heroica magnitudine animi ostendit se veritati patrocinaturum esse excussit Romani Episcopi tyrannidem quare veterem puritatem Ecclesiae vestrae maxime optarim restitui integram Sed animadverto istic esse quosdam qui veteres abusus ortos aut confirmatos a Romano Episcopo adhuc mordicus tenent Mirum est autem Autore abusuum ejecto ipsa tamen venena retineri qua in re illud etiam periculi est quod illi ipsi aut eorum imitatores aliquando revocaturi potestatem Romani Episcopi videntur si populus hunc putavit esse Magistrum Ecclesiarum incurrunt enim ritus in oculos admonent de autore ut Solonis memoria cum legibus Athenis propagata jucunda fuit Gaudebam igitur in Edicto recens istic proposito de Religione promitti publicam deliberationem emendationem de Ecclesiarum ritibus legibus eaque sententia mitigavit Decreti acerbitatem quanquam enim laudo pietatem quod errores prohibentur qui pugnant cum doctrina Catholicae Ecclesiae quam nos profitemur tamen doleo ad eas causas adjectum esse articulum in quo praecipitur omnium rituum usitatorum caelibatus observatio Primum enim multi transferent Edicti Autoritatem ad stabiliendos abusus Missae Deinde in universum confirmatur pertinacia eorum qui Doctrinae nostrae sunt iniquiores debilitantur studia piorum Augustinus