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
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
new Doctrines It is true he had never enquired into all the other Tenets of the Church of Rome and so did not differ from them about the presence of Christ in the Sacrament and some other things But when men durst speak freely there were several persons that witnessed the Constancy and sincerity of Bilney in these his last Conflicts and among the rest Matthew Parker afterwards Arch-Bishop of Canterbury was an eye-witness of his sufferings which from his relation were published afterwards he took his death patiently and constantly and in the little time that was allowed him to live after his Sentence he was observed to be chearful and the poor Victuals that were brought him Bread and Ale he eat up heartily of which when one took notice he said he must keep up that ruinous Cottage till it fell and often repeated that passage in Isaiah When thou walk'st through the fire thou shall not be burnt and putting his finger in the flame of the Candle he told those about him that he well knew what a pain burning was but that it should only consume the Stubble of his Body and that his Soul should be purged by it When the day of Execution came being the 10th of November as he was led out he said to one that exhorted him to be patient and constant that as the Mariners endured the tossing of the Waves hoping to arrive at their desired Port so though he was now entring into a storm yet he hop'd he should soon arrive at the Haven and desired their Prayers When he came to the Stake he repeated the Creed to show the People that he dyed in the Faith of the Apostles then he put up his Prayers to God with great show's of inward devotion which ended he repeated the 143 Psalm and paus'd on these words of it Enter not into Iudgment with thy Servant for in thy sight shall no man living be justified with deep recollection and when Doctor Warner that accompanied him to the Stake took leave of him with many tears Bilney with a chearful countenance exhorted him to feed his flock that at his Lords coming he might find him so doing Many of the begging Friars desired him to declare to the people that they had not procured his death for that was got among them and they feared the people would give them no more Alms so he desired the Spectators not to be the worse to these men for his sake for they had not procur'd his death Then the fire was set to and his Body consum'd to ashes Thus it appears both what Opinion the people had of him and in what charity he dyed even towards his enemies doing them good for evil but this though it perhaps struck terror in weaker minds yet it no less encourag'd others to endure patiently all the severities that were us'd to draw them from this Doctrine Soon after one Richard Byfield suffered he was a Monk of St. Edmundsbury and had been instructed by Doctor Barnes who gave him some Books which being discovered he was put in Prison but through fear abjured yet afterward he left the Monastery and came to London He went oft over to Antwerp and brought in forbidden Books which being smell'd out he was seized on and examined about these Books he justified them and said he thought they were good and profitable and did openly exclaim against the dissolute lives of the Clergy so being judged Heretick he was burnt in Smithfield the 11th of November In December one Iohn Tewksbury a Shop-keeper in London who had formerly abjured was also taken and tryed in Sr. Thomas Mores house at Chelsey where Sentence was given against him by Stokesley Bishop of London for Tonstall was translated the former year to Duresm and was burnt in Smithfield There were also three Burnt at York this year two men and one woman These proceedings were complain'd of in the following Session of Parliament as was formerly told and the Ecclesiastical Courts being found both Arbitrary and Cruel the House of Commons desired a redress of that from the King but nothing was done about it till Three years after that the new Act against Hereticks was made as was already told The Clergy were not much moved at the address which the House of Commons made and therefore went on in their extreme Courses and to strike a Terror in the Gentry they resolved to make an Example of one Iames Bainham a Gentleman of the Temple he was carryed to the Lord Chancellors House where much pains was taken to perswade him to discover such as he knew in the Temple who favour'd the new Opinions but fair means not prevailing More made him be whipt in his own presence and after that sent him to the Tower where he look't on and saw him put to the Rack Yet it seems nothing could be drawn from him that might be made use of to any other persons hurt yet he himself afterwards overcome with fear abjured and did penance but had no quiet in his Conscience till he went publickly to Church with a New Testament in his hand and confess'd with many tears that he had denyed God and prayed the people not to do as he had done and said that he felt an Hell in his own Conscience for what he had done So he was soon after carryed to the Toâ—er for now the Bishops to avoid the Imputation of using men cruelly in their Prisons did put Hereticks in the Kings Prisons he was charged for having said That Thomas a Becket was a Murderer and damned in Hell if he did not repent and for speaking contemptously of praying to Saints and saying that the Sacrament of the Altar was only Christs Mystical Body and that his Body was not chew'd with the Teeth but received by Faith So he was judged an obstinate and relaps'd Heretick and was burnt in Smithfield about the end of April 1532. There were also some others burnt a little before this time of whom a particular account could not be recovered by Fox with all his Industry But with Bainham Mores persecution ended for soon after he laid down the great Seal which set the poor Preachers at ease Crome and Latimer were brought before the Convocation and accus'd of Heresie They both Subscribed the Articles offered to them That there was a Purgatory That the Souls in it were profited by Masses said for them That the Saints are now in Heaven and as Mediators pray for us That men ought to pray to them and honour them That Pilgrimages were Pious and Meritorious That men who vowed Chastity might not Marry without the Popes Dispensation That the Keys of binding and loosing were given to St. Peter and to his Successors though their lives were bad and not at all to the Laity That men merited by Prayers Fasting and other good Works That Priests prohibited by the Bishop should not preach till they were purged and restored That the Seven Sacraments
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
laid the Murder on the Officers that had the charge of that Prison and by other proofs they found the Bishops Sumner and the Bell-ringer guilty of it and by the deposition of the Sumner himself it did appear that the Chancellour and he and the Bell-ringer did Murder him and then hang him up But as the Inquest proceeded in this Trial the Bishop began a new Process against the dead body of Richard Hunne for other points of Heresie and several Articles were gathered out of Wickliff's Preface to the Bible with which he was charged And his having the Book in his Possession being taken for good evidence he was judged an Heretick and his body delivered to the Secular Power When judgment was given the Bishops of Duresme and Lincoln with many Doctors both of Divinity and the Canon-Law sate with the Bishop of London so that it was lookt on as an Act of the whole Clergy and done by common consent On the 20th of December his body was burnt at Smithfield But this produced an effect very different from what was expected for it was hoped that he being found an Heretick no body should appear for him any more whereas on the contrary it occasioned a great out-cry the man having lived in very good reputation among his Neighbours so that after that day the City of London was never well affected to the Popish Clergy but inclined to follow any body who spoke against them and every one lookt on it as a Cause of common concern All exclaimed against the Cruelty of their Clergy that for a mans suing a Clerke according to law he should be long and hardly used in a severe imprisonment and at last cruelly murdered and all this laid on himself to defame him and ruin his family And then to burn that body which they had so handled was thought such a complication of Cruelties as few Barbarians had ever been guilty of The Bishop finding that the Inquest went on and the whole matter was discovered used all possible endeavours to stop their proceedings and they were often brought before the Kings Council where it was pretended that all proceeded from Malice and Heresie The Cardinal laboured to procure an order to forbid their going any further but the thing was both so foul and so evident that it could not be done and that opposition made it more generally believed In the Parliament there was a Bill sent up to the Lords by the Commons for restoring Hunne's Children which was passed and had the Royal assent to it but another Bill being brought in about this Murther it occasioned great heats among them The Bishop of London said that Hunne had hanged himself that the Inquest were false perjured Caitiffs and if they proceeded further he could not keep his house for Hereticks so that the Bill which was sent up by the Commons was but once read in the House of Lords for the power of the Clergy was great there But the Trial went on and both the Bishops Chancellour and the Summer were endicted as Principals in the Murder The Convocation that was then sitting finding so great a stir made and that all their liberties were now struck at resolved to call Doctor Standish to an Account for what he had said and argued in that matter so he being summoned before them some Articles were objected to him by word of mouth concerning the judging of Clerks in Civil Courts and the day following they being put in writing the Bill was delivered to him and a day assigned for him to make answer The Doctor perceiving their intention and judging it would go hard with him if he were tryed before them went and claimed the Kings Protection from this trouble that he was now brought in for discharging his duty as the Kings Spiritual Counsel But the Clergy made their excuse to the King that they were not to question him for any thing he had said as the Kings Counsel but for some Lectures he read at St Pauls and elswhere contrary to the Law of God and Liberties of the holy Church which they were bound to maintain and desired the Kings Assistance according to his Coronation Oath and as he would not incur the Censures of the holy Church On the other hand the Temporal Lords and Judges with the concurrence of the House of Commons addressed to the King to maintain the Temporal Jurisdiction according to his Coronation Oath and to protect Standish from the Malice of his enemies This put the King in great perplexity for he had no mind to lose any part of his Temporal Jurisdiction and on the other hand was no less apprehensive of the dangerous effects that might follow on a breach with the Clergy So he called for Doctor Veysey then Dean of his Chappel and afterwards Bishop of Exeter and charged him upon his Allegiance to declare the truth to him in that matter which after some study he did and said upon his Faith Conscience and Allegiance he did think that the convening of Clerks before the secular Judg which had been always practised in England might well consist with the Law of God and the true Liberties of the holy Church This gave the King great satisfaction so he commanded all the Judges and his Council both Spiritual and Temporal and some of both Houses to meet at Black-Friers and to hear the matter argued The Bill against Doctor Standish was read which consisted of Six Articles that were objected to him First That he had said that the lower Orders were not sacred Secondly That the Exemption of Clerks was not founded on a divine Right Thirdly That the Laity might coerce Clerks when the Prelates did not their duty Fourthly That no positive Ecclesiastical Law binds any but those who receive it Fifthly That the Study of the Canon-Law was needless Sixthly That of the whole Volume of the Decretum so much as a man could hold in his fist and no more did oblige Christians To these Doctor Standish answered that for those things exprest in the Third the Fifth and the Sixth Articles he had never taught them as for his asserting them at any time in discourse as he did not remember it so he did not much care whether he had done it or not To the First he said Lesser Orders in one sense are sacred and in another they are not sacred For the Second and Fourth he confessed he had taught them and was ready to justifie them It was objected by the Clergy that as by the Law of God no man could judge his Father it being contrary to that Commandment Honour thy Father So Church-men being Spiritual Fathers they could not be judged by the Laity who were their Children To which he answered that as that only concluded in favour of Priests those in Inferiour Orders not being Fathers so it was a mistake to say a Judge might not sit upon his Natural Father for the Judge was by another Relation above his Natural Father and though
Order to another By whom And for what Cause What Mortmains they had And whether their Founders were sufficiently Authorized to make such Donations Upon what suggestions and for what Causes they were exempted from their Diocesans Their Local Statutes were also to be seen and examined The Election of their Head was to be enquired into The Rule of every House was to be considered How many professed And how many Novices were in it And at what time the Novices Professed Whether they knew their Rule and observed it Chiefly the three Vows of Poverty Chastity and Obedience Whether any of them kept any money without the Masters knowledge Whether they kept company with women within or without the Monastery Or if there were any back-doors by which women came within the precinct Whether they had any boys lying by them Whether they observed the Rules of Silence Fasting Abstinence and Hair-shirts Or by what warrant they were dispenced with in any of these Whether they did Eat Sleep wear their Habit and stay within the Monastery according to their Rules Whether the Master was too cruel or too remiss And whether he used the Brethren without partiality or malice Whether any of the Brethren were incorrigible Whether the Master made his accompts faithfully once a year Whether all the other Officers made their accompts truely And whether the whole Revenues of the House were imployed according to the intention of the Founders Whether the Fabrick was kept up and the Plate and Furniture were carefully preserved Whether the Covent-Seal and the Writings of the House were well kept And whether Leases were made by the Master to his Kindred and Friends to the damage of the House Whether Hospitality was kept and whether at the receiving of Novices any money or reward was demanded or promised What care was taken to instruct the Novices Whether any had entred into the House in hope to be once the Master of it Whether in giving Presentations to Livings the Master had reserved a Pension out of them Or what sort of Bargains he made concerning them An account was to be taken of all the Parsonages and Vicarages belonging to every House and how these Benefices were disposed of and how the Cure was served All these things were to be inquired after in the Houses of Monks or Friars And in the Visitation of Nunneries they were to Search Whether the House had a good Enclosure and if the Doors and Windows were kept shut so that no man could enter at inconvenient hours Whether any men conversed with the Sisters alone without the Abbesses leave Whether any Sister was forced to profess either by her Kindred or by the Abbess Whether they went out of their precinct without leave And whether they wore their Habit then What employment they had out of the times of Divine Service What familiarity they had with Religious men Whether they wrote Love-Letters Or sent and received Tokens or Presents Whether the Confessor was a discreet and learned man and of good reputation And how oft a year the Sisters did Confess and Communicate They were also to visit all Collegiate Churches Hospitals and Cathedrals and the Order of the Knights of Ierusalem But if this Copy be compleat they were only to view their Writings and Papers to see what could be gathered out of them about the Reformation of Monastical Orders And as they were to visit according to these Instructions so they were to give some Injunctions in the Kings Name That they should endeavour all that in them lay that the Act of the Kings Succession should be observed where it is said that they had under their Hands and Seals confirmed it This showes that all the Religious Houses of England had acknowledged it and they should teach the people that the Kings Power was Supreme on Earth under God and that the Bishop of Rome's Power was Usurped by Craft and Policy and by his ill Canons and Decretals which had been long tolerated by the Prince but was now justly taken away The Abbot and Brethren were declared to be absolved from any Oath they had Sworn to the Pope or to any Forreign Potentate and the Satutes of any Order that did bind them to a Forreign Subjection were abrogated and ordered to be razed out of their Books That no Monk should go out of the precinct nor any woman enter within it without leave from the King or the Visitor and that there should be no entry to it but one Some Rules were given about their Meals and a Chapter of the Old or New Testament was ordered to be read at every one The Abbots Table was to be served with common Meats and not with delicate and strange Dishes and either he or one of the Seniors were to be always there to entertain strangers Some other Rules follow about the distribution of their Alms their accommodation in Health and Sickness One or two of every House was to be kept at the University that when they were well Instructed they might come and teach others And every day there was to be a Lecture of Divinity for a whole hour The Brethren must all be well employed The Abbot or Head was every day to explain some part of the Rule and apply it according to Christ's Law and to shew them that their Ceremonies were but Elements introductory to true Christianity and that Religion consisted not in Habits or in such like Rites but in cleanness of Heart pureness of Living unfeigned Faith Brotherly Charity and true honouring of God in Spirit and Truth That therefore they must not rest in their Ceremonies but ascend by them to true Religion Other Rules are added about the Revenues of the House and against Wastes and that none be entred into their House nor admitted under twenty four years of Age. Every Priest in the House was to say Mass daily and in it to pray for the King and Queen If any brake any of these Injunctions he was to be denounced to the King or his Visitor-general The Visitor had also Authority to punish any whom he should find guilty of any Crime and to bring the Visitor-general such of their Books and Writings as he thought fit But before I give an account of this Visitation I presume it will not be ingrateful to the Reader to offer him some short view of the Rise and Progress of Monastick Orders in England and of the state they were in at this time What the Ancient British Monks were or by what Rule they were Governed whether it was from the Eastern Churches that this Constitution was brought into Britain and was either suited to the Rule of St. Anthony St. Pachon or St. Basil or whether they had it from France where Sulpitius tells us St. Martin set up Monasteries must be left to conjecture But from the little that remains of them we find they were very numerous and were obedient to the Bishop of Caerleon as all the Monks of the
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
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
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
likewise delivered as hereafter ensueth Com. Glocester Teuksbury late Monastery Surrendred to the use of the King's Majesty and of his Heirs and Successors for ever made bearing date under the Covent-Seal of the same late Monastery the 9 th day of Ianuary in the 31 year of the Reign of our most dread victorious Sovereign Lord King Henry the Eighth and the said day and year clearly dissolved and suppressed The clear yearly value of all the Possessions belonging to said late Monastery As well Spiritual as Temporal over and besides 136 l. 8 s. 1 d. in Fees Annuities and Custodies granted to divers Persons by Letters Pattents under the Covent-Seal of the said late Monastery for term of their lives l. s. d. 1595 15 06 Pensions assigned to the late Religious dispatched that is to say to  l. s. d.  Iohn Wich late Abbot there 266 13 04 551 06 08 Iohn Beley late Prior there 16 00 00 I. Bromesgrove late Prior of Delehurst 13 06 08 Robert Circester Prior of St. Iames 13 06 08 Will. Didcote Prior of Cranborne 10 00 00 Robert Cheltenhem B. D. 10 00 00 Two Monks 8 l. a piece 16 00 00 One Monk 07 00 00 27 Monks 6 l. 13 s. 4 d. each 180 00 00 And so remains clear l. s. d. 1044 08 10 Records and Evidences Belonging to the late Monastery Remains in the Treasury there under the Custody of Iohn Whittington Kt. the Keys whereof being delivered to Richard Paulet Receiver Houses and Buildings assigned to remain undefaced The Lodging called the Newark leading from the Gate to the late Abbots Lodging with Buttery Pantry Cellar Kitching Larder and Pastry thereto adjoining The late Abbot's Lodging the Hostery the great Gate entring into the Court with the Lodging over the same the Abbot's Stable Bakehouse Brewhouse and Slaughterhouse the Almry Barn Derryhouse the great Barn next Aven the Maltinghouse with the Garnees in the same the Oxhouse in the Barton the Barton-gate and the Lodging over the same Committed to the custody of Iohn Whittington Knight Deemed to be superfluous The Church with Chappels Cloister Chapter-house Misericord the two Dormitories the Infirmary with Chappels and Lodgings within the same the Work-hay with another House adjoining to the same the Covent-Kitching the Library the old Hosteory the Chamberers Lodging the new-Hall the old Parlor adjoining to the Abbot's Lodging the Cellarers Lodging the Poultry-house the Gardner the Almary and all other Houses and Lodgings not above reserved Committed as above-said Leads remaining upon The Quire Iles and Chappels annext the Cloister Chapter-houser Frater St. Michaels Chappel Halls Fermory and Gate-house esteemed to 180 Foder Bells remaining In the Steeple there are eight poize by estimation 14600 weight Jewels reserved to the use of the King's Majesty Miters garnished with gilt rugged Pearls and counterfeit Stones 2. Plate of Silver reserved to the same use Silver gilt 329 ounces Silver parrel gilt 605 ounces Silver white 497 ounces 1431. Ornaments reserved to the said use One Cope of Silver Tissue with one Clesible and one Tunicle of the same one Cope of Gold Tissue with one Cles and two Tunicles of the same  Sum of all the Ornaments Goods and Chattels belonging to the said late Monastery Sold by the said Commissioners as in a particular Book of Sales thereof made ready to be shewed as more at large may appear l. s. d. 194 08 00 Payments To the late Religious Servants dispatcht To 38 late Religious Persons of the said late Monastery of the King's Mat. reward 80 13 04 To an 144 late Servants of the said late Monastery for their Wages and Liveries 75 10 00 Payments For debts owing by the said late Monastery To divers Persons for Victuals and Necessaries of them had to the use of the said Monastery with 10 l. paied to the late Abbot there for and in full paiment of 124 l. 5 s. 4 d. by him to be paid to certain Creditors of the said late Monastery by Covenants made with the aforesaid Commissioners 18 12 00 And so remains clear 19 12 08 Then follows a List of some small Debts owing to and by the said Monastery Then follows a List of the Livings in their Gift Com. Glocest. Four Parsonages and 10 Vicarages Com. Wigorn. Two Parsonages and 2 Vicarages Com. Warwic Two Parsonages Com. Will. Bristol Five Parsonages and 1 Vicarage Com. Wilts 00 2 Vicar Com. Oxon. One Pars. and 2 Vicar Com. Dors. Four Pars. and 2 Vicar Com. Sommers Three Pars. Com. Devon 00 1 Vicar Com. Corub 00 2 Vicar Com. Glamorg and Morgan 00 5 Vicar In all 21 Parsonages and 27 Vicarages IV. Queen Boleyn's last letter to King Henry SIR YOur Grace's displeasure and my Imprisonment are things so strange unto me as what to write or what to excuse I am altogether ignorant Whereas you send unto me willing me to confess a Truth and so obtain your favour by such an one whom you know to be mine ancient professed Enemy I no sooner received this Message by him than I rightly conceived your meaning and as if as you say confessing a Truth indeed may procure my safety I shall with all willingness and duty perform your Command But let not your Grace ever imagine that your poor Wife will ever be brought to acknowledg a Fault where not so much as a thought thereof preceded And to speak a Truth never Prince had Wife more loyal in all duty and in all true affection than you have ever found in Ann Boleyn with which Name and Place I could willingly have contented my self if God and your Grace's pleasure had been so pleased Neither did I at any time so far forget my self in my Exaltation or received Queenship but that I always looked for such an alteration as now I find for the ground of my preferment being on no surer Foundation than your Grace's Fancy the least alteration I knew was fit and sufficient to draw that Fancy to some other Subject You have chosen me from a low estate to be your Queen and Companion far beyond my desert or desire If then you found me worthy of such honour Good your Grace let not any light Fancy or bad counsel of mine Enemies withdraw your Princely Favour from me neither let that Stain that unworthy stain of a disloyal heart towards your good Grace ever cast so foul a blot on your most dutiful Wife and the Infant-Princess your Daughter Try me good King but let me have a lawful Trial and let not my sworn Enemies sit as my Accusers and Judges yea let me receive an open Trial for my Truth shall fear no open shame then shall you see either mine innocency cleared your suspicion and Conscience satisfied the ignominy and slander of the World stopped or my Guilt openly declared So that whatsoever God or you may determine of me your Grace may be freed from an open censure and mine Offence being so lawfully proved your Grace is at liberty both
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
Witness what I said unto him after your Grace came from Rochester yea and after your Grace's Marriage And also now of late sithence Whitsuntide and I doubt not but many and divers of my Lords of your Council both before your Marriage and sithence have right-well perceived that your Majesty hath not been well pleased with your Marriage And as I shall answer to God I never thought your Grace content after you had once seen her at Rochester And this is all that I know most gracious and most merciful Sovereign Lord beseeching Almighty God who ever hath in all your Causes counselled preserved opened maintained relieved and defended your Highness So he will now vouchsafe to counsel you preserve you maintain you remedy you relieve and defend you as may be most to your Honour with Prosperity Health and Comfort of your Hearts desire For the which and for the long Life and prosperous Reign of your most Royal Majesty I shall during my Life and whiles I am here pray to Almighty God that he of his most abundant Goodness will help aid and comfort you after your continuance of Nestor's Years that that most noble Imp the Princes Grace your most dear Son may succeed you to Reign long prosperously and feliciously to God's pleasure beseeching most humbly your Grace to pardon this my rude writing and to consider that I a most woful Prisoner ready to take the Death when it shall please God and your Majesty and yet the frail flesh inciteth me continually to call to your Grace for Mercy and Grace for mine Offences and thus Christ save preserve and keep you Written at the Tower this Wednesday the last of Iune with the heavy Heart and trembling hand of your Highness's most heavy and most miserable Prisoner and poor Slave Thomas Cromwell Most Gracious Prince I cry for Mercy Mercy Mercy XVIII The King 's own Declaration concerning it An Original FIrst I depose and declare That this hereafter written is meerly the verity intended upon none sinister affection nor yet upon none hatred nor displeasure and herein I take God to witness Now to the Matter I say and affirm That when the first communication was had with me for the Marriage of the Lady Ann of Cleves I was glad to hearken to it trusting to have some assured Friend by it I much doubting that time both the Emperor France and the Bishop of Rome and also because I heard so much both of her excellent Beauty and vertuous Conditions But when I saw her at Rochester the first time that ever I saw her it rejoiced my heart that I had kept me free from making any Pact or Bond before with her till I saw her my self for then I adsure you I liked her so ill and so far contrary to that she was praised that I was woe that ever she came into England and deliberated with my self that if it were possible to find means to break off I would never enter Yoke with her Of which misliking both the great Master the Admiral that now is and the Master of the Horses can and will here record Then after my repair to Greenwich the next day after I think and doubt not but that the Lord of Essex well examined can and will or hath declared what I then said to him in that case not doubting but since he is a Person which knoweth himself condemned to die by Act of Parliament will not damn his Soul but truly declare the Truth not only at that time spoken by me but also continually till the day of Marriage and also many times after whereby my lack of consent I doubt not doth or shall well appear And also lack enough of the Will and Power to consummate the same wherein both he my Physicians the Lord Privy Seal that now is Hennage and Denny can and I doubt not will testify according to truth which is That I never for love to the Woman consented to marry nor yet if she brought Maiden-head with her took any from her by true Carnal Copulation This is my brief true and perfect Declaration XIX The Iudgment of the Convocation for annulling of the Marriage with Ann of Cleve TEnor vero Literarum Testimonialum hujusmodi sequitur est talis Excellentissimo in Christo Principi c. Thomas Cantuarien Edwardus Eboracen Archiepiscopi caeterique Episcopi reliquus vestri Regni Angliae clerus Autoritate Literarum Commissionalium Vestrae Majestatis Congregati ac Synodum universalem repraesentantes cum obsequio reverentia honore debitis salutem foelicitatem Cum nos humillimi Majestatis Vestrae devotissimi subditi Convocati Congregati sumus virtute Commissionis Vestrae magno sigillo Vestro sigillat dat 6 Julii Anno foelicissimi Regni Vestri tricesimo secundo quam accepimus in haec quae sequitur verba Henricus Octavus Dei Gratia Angliae c. Archiepiscopis Cantuarien Eborac ac caeteris Regni nostri Angliae Episcopis Decanis Archidiaconis universo Clero salutem Egerunt apud nos Regni nostri proceres populus ut cum nuper quaedam emerserint quae ut illi putant ad nos Regnique nostri successionem pertineant inter quae praecipua est causa conditio Matrimonii quod cum Illustri Nobili Foemina Domina Anna Clevensi propter externam quidem conjugii speciem perplexum alioqui etiam multis ac variis modis ambiguum videtur Nos ad ejusdem Matrimonii disquisitionem ita procedere dignaremur ut opinionem Vestram qui in Ecclesia nostra Anglicana scientiam Verbi Dei Doctrinam profitemini exquiramus vobisque discutiendum Autoritatem ita demandemus ut si animis Vestris fuerit persuasum Matrimonium cum praefata Domina Anna minime consistere aut cohaerere debere nos ad Matrimonium contrahend cum alia liberos esse Vestro Patrum ac reliquae deinde Ecclesiae suffragio pronuncietur confirmetur Nos autem qui Vestrum in reliquis Ecclesiae hujus Anglicanae negotiis gravioribus quae Ecclesiasticam Oeconomiam Religionem spectant judicium amplecti solemus ad veritatis explicandae testimonium omnino necessarium rati sumus Causae hujusmodi Matrimonialis seriem circumstantias vobis exponi communicari curare ut quod vos per Dei Leges licere decreveritis id demum totius Ecclesiae nostrae Autoritate innixi licite facere exequi audeamus Vos itaque Convocari in Synodum Universalem nostra Autoritate convenire volentes vobis conjunctim divisim committimus atque mandamus ut inspecta hujus negotii veritate ac solum Deum prae oculis habentes quod verum quod justum quod honestum quod sanctum est id nobis de communi Concilio scripto annuncio renuncietis de communi consensu licere definiatis Nempe hoc unum a vobis nostro jure postulamus ut tanquam fida proba Ecclesiae membra causae huic
his time and have continued since in great honour as the Seimours from whom the Dukes of Somerset are descended the Paulets from whom the Marquess of Winchester derives the Russels Wriothslies Herberts Riches and Cromwells from whom the Earls of Bedford Southampton Pembroke Essex and Ardglass have descended and the Browns the Petres the Pagets the Norths and the Mountagues from whom the Vice-Count Mountague the Barons Petre Paget North and Mountague are descended These Families have now flourished in great Wealth and Honour an Age and a half and only one of them has and that but very lately determined in the Male Line but the Illustrious Female Branches of it are intermixed with other Noble Families So that the Observation is false and the Inference is weak 119. He says When the King found his strength declining he had again some thoughts of reconciling himself to the Church of Rome which when it was proposed to one of the Bishops he made a flattering answer But Gardiner moved that a Parliament might be called for doing it and that the King for the quiet of his own Conscience would vow to do it of which God would accept in that extremity when more was not possible to be done But some of his Courtiers coming about him who were very apprehensive of such a Reconciliation lest they should have been made restore the Goods of the Church diverted the King from it And from this our Author infers that what the King had done was against his Conscience and that so he sinned the Sin against the Holy Ghost I shall not examine this Theological definition of the Sin against the Holy Ghost for my quarrel is not at present with his Divinity but with his History tho it were easy to shew that he is alike at both But for this story it is a pure dream for not only there is no evidence for it nor did Gardiner in the Reign of Queen Mary ever own any such thing tho it had been then much for the credit of their Cause especially he being often upbraided with his compliances to this King for which the mention of his repentance had furnished him with a good answer But as the Tale is told the Fiction appears too plainly for a Parliament was actually sitting during the King's sickness which was dissolved by his Death and no such Proposition was made in it The King on the contrary destroyed the chief hopes of the Popish Party which were founded on the Duke of Norfolk's greatness by the Attainder which was passed a day before he died And yet Sanders makes this discourse to have been between the King and Gardiner after his fall and his Sons death between which and the King's Death there were only nine days but besides all this Gardiner had lost the King's favour a considerable time before his death 120. He says The King that he might not seem never to have done any good Work in his whole life as he was dying founded Christ's Church Hospital in London which was all the restitution he ever made for the Monasteries and Churches he had robbed and spoiled If it had not already appeared in many Instances that our Author had as little shame as honesty here is a sufficient proof of it I will not undertake to justify the King as if he had done what he ought to have done in his new Foundations But it is the height of impudence to deny things that all England knows He founded six Bishopricks he endowed Deans and Prebendaries with all the other Offices belonging to a Cathedral in fourteen several Sees Canterbury Winchester Duresme Ely Norwich Rochester Worcester and Carlisle together with Westminster Chester Oxford Glocester Peterborough and Bristol where he endowed Bishopricks likewise He founded many Grammar-Schools as Burton Canterbury Coventry Worcester c. He founded and endowed Trinity Colledg in Cambridg which is one of the noblest Foundations in Christendom He also founded Professors in both Universities for Greek Hebrew Law Physick and Divinity What censure then deserves our Author for saying that the Hospital of Christ's-Church was all the restitution he ever made of the Church-Lands 121. He gives a Character of the King which sutes very well with his History his malice in it being extravagantly ridiculous Among other things he says The King promoted always learned Bishops Cranmer only being excepted whom he advanced to serve his Lusts. Cranmer was a Man of greater Learning than any that ever sate in that See before him as appears in every thing that he writ Tonstal was a learned Man and Gardiner was much esteemed for Learning yet if any will compare Cranmer's Books of the Sacrament with those the other two writ on the same Subject there is so great a difference between the learning and solidity of the one and the other that no Man of common ingenuity can read them but he must confess it 122. He says When the King found himself expiring he called for a Boul of White Wine and said to one that was near him We have lost all and was often heard repeating Monks Monks and so he died This was to make the Fable end as it had gone on and it is forged without any authority or appearance of truth The manner of his death was already told so it needs not be repeated 123. He says The King by his Will appointed the Crown to go to his righteous Heirs after his three Children and commanded his Son to be bred a true Catholick but his Will was changed and another was forged by which the Line of Scotland was excluded and they bred his Son an Heretick There was no such Will ever heard of and in all the Debates that were managed in Queen Elizabeth's Reign about the Succession those that pleaded for the Scotish Line never alleadged this which had it been true did put an end to the whole Controversie It was indeed said that the Will which was given out as the King's Will was not signed by his Hand nor sealed by his Order but it was never pretended that there was any other Will so this is one of our Author's Forgeries The Conclusion THus I have traced him in this History and hope I have said much more than was necessary to prove him a Writer of no credit and that his Book ought to have no Authority since he was not only a stranger to the Publick Transactions Printed Statutes and the other Authentick Registers of that time but was a bold and impudent Asserter of the grossest and most malicious Lies that ever were contrived I have not examined all the Errors of his Chronology for there is scarce any thing told in its right order and due place nor have I insisted on all the passages he tells without any proof or appearance of truth for as I could only deny these without any other evidence but what was negative so there are so many of them that I must have transcribed the greatest part of
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
is said that we shall at the day of Judgment receive according to what we have done in the body that there was no state of Purgatory beyond this life For the places brought out of the Old Testament he shewed they could not be meant of Purgatory since according to the Doctrine of the School-men there was no going to Purgatory before Christ. For the places in the New Testament he appealed to More 's great Friend Erasmus whose Exposition of these places differed much from his Glosses That place in the Epistle to the Corinthians about the fire that was to try every mans work he said was plainly Allegorical and since the Foundation the building of Gold Silver and precious Stones of Wood Hay and Stubble were Figuratively taken there was no reason to take the fire in a literal sense therefore by fire was to be understood the Persecution then near at hand called in other places the fiery trial For the Ancient Doctors he shewed that in the fourth Century St. Ambrose Ierome and St. Austin the three great Doctors of that Age did not believe it and cited several passages out of their Writings It is true St. Austin went further than the rest for though in some passages he delivered his Opinion against it yet in other places he spake of it more doubtfully as a thing that might be enquired into but that it could not be certainly known and indeed before Gregory the Greats time it was not received in the Church and then the Benedictine Monks were beginning to spread and grow numerous and they to draw advantages from it told many stories of Visions and Dreams to possess the world with the belief of it then the trade grew so profitable that ever since it was kept up and improved and what succeeded so well with one Society and Order to enrich themselves much by it was an encouragement to others to follow their tract in the same way of traffick This Book was generally well received and the Clergy were so offended at the Author that they resolved to make him feel a real fire whenever he was catched for endeavoring to put out their imaginary one That from which More and others took greatest advantage was that the new preachers prevailed only on simple Tradsemen and women and other illiterate persons but to this the others answered That the Pharisees made the same objection to the followers of Christ who were Fisher-men women and rude Mechanicks but Christ told them that to the poor the Gospel was preached and when the Philosophers and Jews objected that to the Apostles They said Gods glory did the more appear since not many rich wise or noble were called but the poor and despised were chosen that men who had much to lose had not that simplicity of mind nor that disingagement from worldly things that was a necessary disposition to fit them for a Doctrine which was like to bring much trouble and persecution on them Thus I have opened some of these things which were at that time disputed by the pen in which opposition new things were still started and examined But this was too feeble a weapon for the defence of the Clergy therefore they sought out sharper tools So there were many brought into the Bishops Courts some for teaching their Children the Lords Prayer in English some for reading the forbidden Books some for harbouring the Preachers some for speaking against Pilgrimages or the worshipping and adorning of Images some for not observing the Church Fasts some for not coming to Confession and the Sacrament and some for speaking against the Vices of the Clergy Most of these were simple and illiterate men and the terrour of the Bishops Courts and Prisons and of a Faggot in the end wrought so much on their fears and weakness that they generally abjured and were dismissed But in the end of the year 1530. one Thomas Hitton who had been Curate of Maidston and had left that place going oft to Antwerp he bringing over some of the Books that were printed there was taken at Gravesend and brought before Warham and Fisher who after he had suffered much by a long and cruel Imprisonment condemned him to be Burnt The most eminent person that suffered about this time was Thomas Bilney of whose Abjuration an account was given in the first Book he after that went to Cambridge and was much troubled in his Conscience for what he had done so that the rest of that Society at Cambridge were in great apprehensions of some violent effect which that desperation might produce and sometimes watched him whole nights This continued about a year but at length his mind was more quieted and he resolved to expiate his Abjuration by as publick and solemn a Confession of the Truth and to prepare himself the better both to defend and suffer for the Doctrines which he had formerly through fear denyed he followed his Studies for two years And when he found himself well fortified in this resolution he took leave of his Friends at Cambridge and went to his own Countrey of Norfolk to whom he thought he owed his first endeavours He preached up and down the Countrey confessing his former sin of denying the Faith and taught the people to beware of Idolatry or trusting to Pilgrimages to the Cowle of St. Francis to the Prayers of Saints or to Images but exhorted them to stay at home to give much Alms to believe in Jesus Christ and to offer up their hearts wills and minds to him in the Sacrament This being noised about he was seized on by the Bishops Officers and put in Prison at Norwich and the Writ was sent for to burn him as a Relapse he being first condemned and degraded from his Priesthood while he was in Prison the Friars came oft about him to perswade him to recant again and it was given out that he did read a Bill of Abjuration More not being satisfied to have sent the Writ for his burning studied also to defame him publishing this to the World yet in that he was certainly abused for if he had signed any such Paper it had been put in the Bishops Register as all things of that nature were but no such writing was ever shewn only some said they heard him read it and others who denyed there was any such thing being questioned for it submitted and confessed their fault But at such a time it was no strange thing if a ly of that nature was vented with so much Authority that men were afraid to contradict it and when a man is a close Prisoner those who only have access to him may spread what report of him they please and when once such a thing is said they never want officious vouchers to ly and swear for it But since nothing was ever show'd under his hand it is clear there was no truth in these reports which were spread about to take away the honour of Martyrdom from the