ANNO DOM. 1548, 1549. 1. THERE remains vet one act of this parliament, which we have not spoke of; but of a different nature from all the rest: I mean the act for the attainder of the Lord Thomas Seimour—whose tragedy came on but now, though the ground thereof was laid in the former year. The occasion, much like that of the two great ladies in the Roman story, concerning whom it is related by Herodian, FB543 that, when the Emperor Commodus was unmarried, he permitted his sister Lucilla, whom he had bestowed on Pompeianus, a right noble senator, to have a throne erected for her on the public theater, fire to be borne before her when she walked abroad, and to enjoy all other privileges of a Prince’s wife. But when Commodus had married Crispina, a lady of as great a spirit, though of lower birth, Lucilla was to lose her place, and to grow less in reputation than before she was.

This so tormented her proud heart, when she perceived that nothing could be gained by disputing the point, that she never left practicing one mischief on the neck of another, till she had endangered the young Emperor’s life; but utterly destroyed herself, and all those friends whom she had raised to advance her interest. Which tragedy, (the names of the actors being only changed), was now again played over in the court of England. 2. Thomas Lord Seimour, being a man of lofty aims and aspiring thoughts, had married Queen Katharine Parr, the relict of the King deceased; FB544 who, looking on him as the brother of the Lord Protector, and being looked on as Queen dowager in the eye of the court, did not conceive that any lady could be so forgetful of her former dignity as to contend about the place. But therein she found herself deceived; for the Protector’s wife, a woman of most infinite pride, and of a nature so imperious as to know no rule but her own will, would needs conceive herself to be the better woman of the two. For if the one were widow to the King deceased, the other thought herself to stand on the higher ground, in having all advantages of power above her. FB545 3. “For what,” said she within herself, “am not I wife to the Protector, who is King in power, though not in title; a Duke in order and degree; Lord Treasurer, and Earl Marshal, and what else he pleaseth; and one who hath ennobled his highest honors by his late great victory? And did not Henry marry Katharine Parr in his doting days; when he had brought himself to such a condition by his lasts and cruelty that no lady who stood upon her honor would adventure on him? Do not all knees bow before me, and all tongues celebrate my praises, and all hands pay the tribute of obedience to me, and all eyes look upon me as the first in state; through whose hand the principal offices in the court, and chief preferments in the Church, are observed to pass? Have I so long commanded him who commands two kingdoms? And shall I now give place to her who, in her former best estate, was but Latimer’s widow, and is now fain to cast herself for support and countenance into the despised bed of a younger brother? If Mr.

Admiral teach his wife no better manners, I am she that will; and will choose rather to remove them both,—(whether out of the court or out of the world, shall be no great matter)—than be out-shined in my own sphere, and trampled on within the verge of my jurisdiction.” 4. In this impatiency of spirit, she rubs into the head FB546 of the Duke her husband, (over whom she had obtained an absolute mastery), how much he was despised by the Lord Admiral for his mildness and lenity: what secret practices were on foot, in the court and kingdom, to bring him out of credit with all sorts of people: what store of emissaries were employed to cry up the Lord Admiral, as the abler man: and finally, that, if he did not look betimes about him, he would be forthwith dispossessed of his place and power, and see the same conferred on one of his own preferring. This first begat a diffidence in the Duke of his brother’s purposes; which afterwards improved itself to an estranging of affection, and at last into an open breach. But before matters could proceed to the last extremity, the Queen died in child-birth, (which happened September last, 1548), FB547 being delivered of a daughter, who afterwards was christened by the name of Mary. FB548 A lady of a mild and obliging nature, honored by all the court for her even behavior, and one who in this quarrel had been merely passive—rather maintaining what she had, than seeking to invade the place which belonged not to her. 5. And here the breach might have been closed, if the Admiral had not run himself into further dangers by practicing to gain the good affections of the Princess Elizabeth. FB549 He was, (it seems), a man of a strange ambition in the choice of wives, and could not level his affections lower than the bed of a Princess. For an essay whereof he first addressed himself to the Lady Mary, Duchess of Richmond and Somerset, daughter of Thomas Duke of Norfolk, and widow of Duke Henry before mentioned, FB550 the King’s natural brother. But, she being of too high a spirit to descend so low, he next applied himself to the widow Queen, whom he beheld as double jointured—one who had filled her coffers in the late King’s time, and had been gratified with a legacy of four thousand pounds in plate, jewels, and money; which he had means enough to compass, though all other debts and legacies should remain unpaid. And on the other side, she looked on him as one of the peers of the realm, Lord Admiral by office, uncle to the King, and brother to the Lord Protector, with whom she might enjoy all content and happiness which a virtuous lady could desire. And that they might appear in the greater splendor, he took into his hands the episcopal house belonging to the Bishop of Bath and Wells; which, being by him much enlarged and beautified, came afterwards to the possession of the Earls of Arundel: best known of late times by the name of Arundel-house. FB551 And so far all things went on smoothly betwixt him and his brother, though afterwards there was some distrust between them; but this last practice gave such an hot alarm to the Duchess of Somerset, that nothing could content her but his absolute ruin. For what hope could she have of disputing the precedence with any of King Henry’s daughters—who, if they were not married out of the realm, might create many troubles and disturbances in it? Nor was the Lord Protector so insensible of his own condition, as not to fear the utmost danger which the effecting of so great an enterprise might bring upon him: so that the rupture, which before had begun to close, became more open than before,—made wider by the artifices of the Earl of Warwick, who, secretly playing with both hands, exasperated each of them against the other, that so he might be able to destroy them both. 6. The plot being so far carried on, the Admiral was committed to the Tower, on the sixteenth of January, but never called unto his answer, it being thought safer to attaint him by act of parliament, FB552 where power and faction might prevail, than put him over to his peers in a legal way.

And, if he were guilty of the crimes which I find charged upon him in the bill of attainder, he could not but deserve as great a punishment as was laid upon him. For in that act he stands condemned for “attempting to get into his custody the person of the King, and the government of the realm: for obtaining many offices, retaining many men into his service: for making great provision for money and victuals: for endeavoring to marry the Lady Elizabeth, the King’s sister, and for persuading the King, in his tender age, to take upon him the rule and order of himself.” FB553 But, parliaments being governed by a fallible spirit, the business still remaineth under such a cloud, that he may seem rather to have fallen a sacrifice to the private malice of a woman than the public justice of the state. For, the bill of attainder passing at the end of the parliament, which was on the fourteenth day of March, he was beheaded at Tower-hill on the sixth day after,—(the warrant for his execution coming under the hand of his own brother,) FB554 —at what time he took it on his death, that he “had never committed or meant any treason against King or kingdom.” FB555 Thus, as it is affirmed of the Emperor Valentinian, that, by causing the right noble AEtius to be put to death, he had cut off his right hand with his left; FB556 so might it be affirmed of the Lord Protector, that, when he signed that unhappy warrant, he had with his right hand robbed himself of his greatest strength. For, as long as the two brothers stood together, they were good support unto one another; but now, the one being taken away, the other proved not substantive enough to stand by himself, but fell into his enemies’ hands within few months after. Comparing them together, we may find the Admiral to be fierce in courage, courtly in fashion, in personage stately, in voice magnificent; FB557 the Duke to be mild, affable, free, and open, more easy to be wrought upon, and no way malicious: the Admiral generally more esteemed amongst the nobles; the Duke honored by the common people: the Lord Protector, to be more desired for a friend; the Lord Admiral, to be more feared for an enemy. Betwixt them both, they might have made one excellent man; if, the defects of each being taken away, the virtues only had remained. 7. The Protector, having thus thrown away the chief prop of his house, hopes to repair that ruin by erecting a magnificent palace. He had been bought out of his purpose for building on the deanery and close of Westminster, and casts his eye upon a piece of ground in the Strand, on which stood three episcopal houses, and one parish-church: the parishchurch dedicated to the Virgin Mary; the houses belonging to the Bishops of Worcester, Litchfield, and Landaff. FB558 All these he takes into his hands,—the owners not daring to oppose, and therefore willingly FB559 consenting to it. Having cleared the place, and projected the intended fabric, the workmen found that more materials would be wanting to go through with it than the demolished church and houses could afford unto them. He thereupon resolves for taking down the parish-church of St.

Margaret’s in Westminster, and turning the parishioners, for the celebrating of all divine offices, into some part of the nave or main body of the abbeychurch, which would be marked out for that purpose. But the workmen had no sooner advanced their scaffolds, when the parishioners gathered together in great multitudes, with bows and arrows, staves and clubs, and other such offensive weapons; which so terrified the workmen, that they ran away in great amazement, and never could be brought again upon that employment. FB560 8. In the next place, he is informed of some superfluous, or rather superstitious, buildings on the noah side of St. Paul’s: that is to say, a goodly cloister, environing a goodly piece of ground, called Pardon Church-yard, with a chapel FB561 in the midst thereof, and beautified with a piece of most curious workmanship, called the Dance of Death; together with a fair charnel-house, on the south side of the church, and a chapel thereunto belonging. FB562 This was conceived to be the safer undertaking, the Bishop then standing on his good behavior, and the Dean and Chapter of that church, (as of all the rest), being no better, in a manner, by reason of the late act of parliament, FB563 than tenant at will of their great landlords. And upon this he sets his workmen, on the tenth of April; takes it all down, converts the stone, timber, lead and iron, to the use of his intended palace, and leaves the bones of the dead bodies to be buried in the fields, FB564 in unhallowed ground. But, all this not sufficing to complete the work, the steeple and most parts of the church of St. John’s of Jerusalem, not far from Smithfield, most beautifully built not long before by Dockwray, a late Prior thereof, was blown up with gunpowder, and all the stone thereof employed to that purpose also. FB565 Such was the ground, and such were the materials, of the Duke’s new palace, called Somersethouse: which either he lived not to finish, or else it must be very strange, that, having pulled down two churches, two chapels, and three episcopal houses,— each of which may be probably supposed, to have had their oratories)—to find materials for this fabric, there should be no room purposely erected for religious offices. 9. According unto this beginning, all the year proceeds; in which there was nothing to be found but troubles and commotions and disquiets, both in Church and state. For about this time there started up a sort of men, who either gave themselves, or had given by others, the name of Gospellers: of whom Bishop Hooper tells us, in the Preface FB566 to his Exposition on the Ten Commandments, that “they be better learned than the Holy Ghost: for they wickedly attribute the cause of punishment and adversity to God’s Providence, which is the cause of no ill, as he himself can do no ill; and of every mischief that is done, they say it is God’s will.” And at the same time, the Anabaptists, who had kept themselves unto themselves in the late King’s time, began to look abroad, and disperse their dotages. For the preventing of which mischief, before it grew unto a head, some of the chiefs of them were convented, on the second of April, in the church of St.

Paul, before the Archbishop of Canterbury and the Bishop of Westminster, Doctor Cox, Almoner to the King, Doctor May, Dean of that church, Doctor Cole, FB567 Dean of the Arches, and one Doctor Smith, afterwards better known by the name of Sir Thomas Smith. And, being convicted of their errors, some of them were dismissed only with an admonition, some sentenced to a recantation, and others condemned to bear their fagots at St. Paul’s cross. FB568 Amongst which last I find one Campheys; who, being suspected to incline too much to their opinions, was condemned to the bearing of a fagot on the Sunday following, (being the next Sunday after Easter,) FB569 Doctor Miles Coverdale, who afterwards was made Bishop of Exeter, then preaching the rehearsal sermon; FB570 which punishment so wrought upon him that he relinquished all his former errors and entered into holy orders, flying the kingdom for the better keeping of a good conscience in the time of Queen Mary, and coming back again with the other exiles after her decease. At what time he published a discourse, in the way of a letter, against the Gospellers above mentioned; in which he proves them to have laid the blame of all sins and wickedness upon God’s divine decree of predestination, by which men were compelled unto it. His discourse answered not long after by John Veron, one of the Prebends of St Paul’s, and Robert Crowley, Parson of St. Giles’s near Cripplegate; but answered with scurrility and reproach enough, according to the humor of the Predestinarians. FB571 10. And now the time draws on for putting the new Liturgy in execution,—framed with such judgment out of the common principles of religion wherein all parties do agree, that even the Catholics might have resorted to the same without scruple or scandal, if faction more than reason did not sway amongst them. At Easter some began to officiate by it; followed by others as soon as books could be provided. But on Whitsunday, FB572 being the day appointed by act of parliament, it was solemnly executed in the cathedral church of St. Paul, by the command of Doctor May, for an example unto all the rest of the churches in London, and consequently of all the kingdom. In most parts whereof, there was at the first a greater forwardness than could be rationally expected; the learned men amongst the Papists conforming to it, because they found it differed little in the main, (no not so much as in the canon of the mass), from the Latin service. And the unlearned had good reason to be pleased therewith, in regard that all divine offices were celebrated in a tongue which they understood; whereby they had means and opportunity to become acquainted with the chief mysteries of their religion, which had been before kept secret from them. But then withal, many of those, both Priests and Bishops, who openly had officiated by it, to avoid the penalty of the law, did celebrate their private masses in such secret places wherein it was not easy to discover their doings. More confidently carried in the church of St. Paul: in many chapels whereof, by the Bishop’s sufferance, the former masses were kept up; that is to say, our Lady’s mass, the Apostles’ mass, etc. performed in Latin, but disguised by the English names of the Apostles’ Communion, and our Lady’s Communion. FB573 Which coming to the knowledge of the Lords of the council, they addressed their letters unto Bonner—dated the twenty-fourth of June, and subscribed by the Lord Protector, the Lord Chancellor Rich, the Earl of Shrewsbury, the Lord St. John, Chief Justice Montague, and Mr. Cecil, made not long after one of the Secretaries of State. Now the tenor of the said letters was as followeth:— “After hearty commendations; having very credible notice, that within that your cathedral church there be as yet the Apostles’ mass, and our Lady’s mass, and other masses of such peculiar names, FB574 under the defense and nomination of our Lady’s Communion and the Apostles’ Communion, used in private chapels, and other remote places of the same, and not in the chancel, contrary to the King’s Majesty’s proceedings: the same being for that misuse displeasing unto God; for the place, Paul’s, in example not tolerable; for the fondness of the name, a scorn to the reverence of the Communion of Christ’s body and blood: we, for the augmentation of God’s glory and honor, and the consonance of his Majesty’s laws, and the avoiding of murmur, have thought good to will and command you that from henceforth no such masses in this manner be in your church any longer used; but that the holy blessed Communion, according to the act of parliament, be administered at the high altar of the church, and in no other places of the same; and only at such time as your high masses were wont to be used, except some number of people desire (for their necessary business) to have a Communion in the morning; and yet the same to be executed at the chancel at FB575 the high altar, as it is appointed in the book of the public service, without cautel, or digression from the common order. And herein you shall not only satisfy our expectation of your conformity in all lawful things, but also avoid the murmur of sundry, that be therewith justly offended.

And so we bid your Lordship farewell,” etc. FB576 11. These commands being brought to Bonner, he commits the execution of them to the Dean and Chapter; FB577 not willing to engage himself too far upon either side, till he had seen the issue of such commotions as were then raised in many parts of the kingdom on another occasion. Some lords and gentlemen, who were possessed of abbey-lands, had caused many enclosures to be made of the waste grounds in their several manors; which they conceived to be, (as indeed it was), a great advantage to themselves, and no less profitable to the kingdom. Only some poor and indigent people were offended at it, in being thereby abridged of some liberty which before they had in raising to themselves some inconsiderable profit from the grounds enclosed. FB578 The Lord Protector had then lost himself in the love of the vulgar, by his severe, if not unnatural, proceedings against his brother; and somewhat must be done for his restoring to their good opinions, though to the prejudice of the public. Upon this ground he caused a proclamation to be published in the beginning of May; commanding, that they who had enclosed any lands, accustomed to be common, should upon a certain pain, before a day signed, lay them open again. FB579 Which so encouraged the rude commons, in many parts of the realm, that, without expecting the time limited by the proclamation, they gathered together in a riotous and tumultuous manner, pulled up the pales, flung down the banks, and filled the ditches, laying all open as before. For which, some of them had been set upon and slain in Wiltshire, by Sir William Herbert; others suppressed by force of arms, conducted by the Lord Gray of Wilton, as were those in Oxfordshire; and some again reduced to more moderate and sober courses by the persuasion of the lords and gentlemen, as in Kent and Sussex. FB580 But the most dangerous commotions, which held so long as to entitle them to the name of rebellions, were those of Devonshire and Norfolk;—places remote from one another, but such as seemed to have communicated counsels for carrying on of the design. FB581 12. The first of these in course of time, was that of Devonshire,—began, (as those in other places), under pretense of throwing open the enclosures, but shortly found to have been chiefly raised in maintenance of their old religion. FB582 On Whit-sun-Monday, June the tenth, being next day after the first exercising of the public Liturgy, some few of the parishioners of Samford Courtney compelled their parish priest, who is supposed to have invited them to that compulsion, to let them have the Latin mass, as in former times. These,—being seconded by some others, and finding that many of the better sort were more like to engage in this quarrel than in the other,—prevailed with those which before had declared only against enclosures, to pretend religion for the cause of their coming together. And that being done, they were first headed by Humphrey Arundel, Esquire, commander of St. Michael’s Mount, and some other gentlemen, which so increased the reputation of the cause, that in short time they had made up a body of ten thousand men. Of this commotion there was but little notice taken at the first beginning, when it might easily have been crushed; the Lord Protector not being very forward to suppress those risings, which seemed to have been made by some encouragement from his proclamations. In which respect, and that his good fortune now began to fail him, when the mischief did appear with a face of danger, and could not otherwise be redressed but by force of arms,—instead of putting himself into the head of an army, the Lord Russell is sent down with some slender forces, to give a stop to their proceedings. But—whether it were that he had any secret instructions to drill FB583 on the time, or that he had more of the statesman than the soldier in him, or that he had not strength enough to encounter the enemy,—he kept himself aloof, as if he had been sent to look on at a distance, without approaching near the danger. FB584 13. The rebels in the mean time, increasing as much in confidence as they did in numbers, sent their demands unto the King. Amongst which, one more specially concerned the Liturgy, which therefore I have singled out of all the rest, with the King’s answer thereunto, in the words that follow. It was demanded by the rebels, that, “forasmuch as we constantly believe, that after the priest hath spoken the words of consecration, being at mass, there celebrating and consecrating the same, there is very really the body and blood of our Savior Jesus Christ, God and man; and that no substance of bread and wine remaineth after, but the very selfsame body that was born of the Virgin Mary, and was given upon the cross for our redemption: therefore we will have mass celebrated as it was in times past, without any man communicating with the priests; forasmuch as many, presuming unworthily to receive the same, put no difference between the Lord’s body and other kind of meat; some saying that it is bread both before and after; some saying that it is profitable to no man except he receive it, with many other abused terms.” 14. To which demand of theirs the King thus answered, viz. that “For the mass, I assure you, no small study nor travail hath been spent by all the learned Clergy therein, and, to avoid all contention, it is brought even to the very use as Christ left it, as the Apostles used it, as the holy fathers delivered it; indeed somewhat altered from that to which the Popes of Rome, for their lucre, had brought it. And although (saith he) ye may hear the contrary from some popish evil men, yet our Majesty, which for our honor may not be blemished and stained, assureth you that they deceive, abuse you, and blow these opinions into your heads, to finish their own purpose.” FB585 15. But this answer giving no content, they marched with all their forces to the siege of Exeter; carrying before them in their march, (as the Jews did the ark of God, in the times of old), the pix, or consecrated host, borne under a canopy, with crosses, banners, candlesticks, holy bread and holy water, etc. But the walls of Exeter fell not down before this false ark, as Dagon did before the true. For the citizens were no less gallantly resolved to make good the town, than the rebels were desperately bent to force it.

To which resolution of the citizens, the natural defenses of the city—(being round in form, situate on a rising hill, and environed with a good old wall,)—gave not more encouragement than some insolent speeches of the rebels, boasting that they would shortly measure the silks and satins therein by the length of their bows. For forty days the siege continued, and was then seasonably raised: the rebels not being able to take it sooner, for want of ordinance; and the citizens not able to have held it longer, for want of victuals, if they had not been succored when they were. One fortunate skirmish the Lord Russell had with the daring rebels about the passing of a bridge, at which he slew six hundred of them, which gave the citizens the more courage to hold it out. FB586 But the coming of the Lord Gray, with some companies of Almain horse, seconded by three hundred Italian shot under the command of Baptista Spinoli, put an end to the business. For, joining with the Lord Russell’s forces, they gave such a strong charge upon the enemy, that they first beat them out of their works, and then compelled them, with great slaughter, to raise their siege. Blessed with the like success in some following fights, the Lord Russell entereth the city on the sixth of August; where he was joyfully received by the half-starved citizens: whose loyalty the King rewarded with an increase of their privileges, and giving to their corporation the manor of Exilond. FB587 The sixth of August, since that time, is observed amongst them for an annual feast, in perpetual gratitude to Almighty God for their deliverance from the rebels; with far more reason than many such annual feasts have been lately instituted in some towns and cities, for not being gained unto their King. But, though the sword of war was sheathed, there remained work enough for the sword of justice, in executing many of the rebels, for a terror to others. Arundel and the rest of the chiefs were sent to London, there to receive the recompense of their deserts; most of the rascal rabble executed by martial law; and the Vicar of St. Thomas, one of the principal incendiaries, hanged on the top of his own tower, apparelled in his popish weeds, with his beads at his girdle. FB588 16. The Norfolk rebels brake not out till the twentieth of June; beginning first at a place called Ailborough, FB589 but not considerable, either for strength or number, till the sixth of July; when mightily increased by Ket, a tanner of Windham, FB590 who took unto himself the conducting of them.

These men pretended only against enclosures: and, if religion was at all regarded by them, it was rather kept for a reserve than suffered to appear in the front of the battle. But, when their numbers were so vastly multiplied as to amount to twenty thousand, nothing would serve them, but the suppression of the gentry, the placing of new counselors about the King, and somewhat also to be done in favor of the old religion. Concerning which they thus remonstrate to the King, or the people rather:—First, viz. “that the free-born commonalty was oppressed by a small number of gentry; who glutted themselves with pleasure, whilst the poor commons, wasted with daily labor, did, like pack-horses, live in extreme slavery.

Secondly, that holy rites, established by antiquity, were abolished, new ones authorized, and a new form of religion obtruded, to the subjecting of their souls to those horrid pains which no death could terminate. And therefore, thirdly, that it was necessary for them to go in person to the King, to place new counselors about him during his minority; removing those who, ruling as they list, confounded things sacred and profane, and regarded nothing but the enriching of themselves with the public treasure, that they might riot it amidst these public calamities.” FB591 17. Finding no satisfactory answer to these proud demands, they march directly towards Norwich, and possess themselves of Moushold-hill: which gave them not only a large prospect over, but a full command upon, that city; which they entered and re-entered as they pleased. For what could a weak city do in opposition to so great a multitude? being neither strong by art nor nature, and therefore not in a capacity to make any resistance.

Under a large oak, on the top of this hill, (since FB592 called the Oak of Reformation), Ket keeps his courts, of chancery, King’s-bench, etc.— forcing the neighboring gentry to submit to his lawless ordinances, and committing many huge enormities, under pretense of rectifying some abuses. The King sends out his gracious pardon; which the proud rebels entertain with contempt and scorn. Whereupon it was resolved, that the Marquess of Northampton should be sent against them, accompanied with the Lords Sheffield and Wentworth and divers gentlemen of note, assisted by a band of Italians under the command of Mala-testa, an experienced soldier. The Marquess was an excellent courtier, but one more skilled in leading a measure than a march: so that, being beaten out of Norwich, (into which he had peaceably been admitted), with loss of some persons of principal quality, and the firing of a great part of the city, he returns ingloriously to London. FB593 18. Yet all this while the Lord Protector was so far from putting himself upon the action, that he suffered his most dangerous enemy, the Earl of Warwick, FB594 to go against them, with such forces as had been purposely provided for the war of Scotland. Who, finding the city open for him, entertained the rebels with divers skirmishes, in most of which he had the better; which put them to a resolution of forsaking the hill, and trying their fortune in a battle, in a place called Dussing-dale, where they maintained a bloody fight, but at the last were broken by the Earl’s good conduct, and the valiant loyalty of his forces. Two thousand of the rebels are reported to have been slain in the fight and chase, FB595 the residue of them scattered over all the country, the principals of them taken, and deservedly executed:

Robert Ket hanged on Norwich castle; William, his brother, on the top of Windham steeple; nine of his chief followers, on as many boughs of the oak where Ket held his courts. Which great deliverance was celebrated in that city by a public thanksgiving on the twenty-seventh of August, and hath been since perpetuated annually on that day, to these present times. FB596 The like rising happened about this time in Yorkshire, begun by Dale and Ombler, two seditious persons, and with them it ended; for being taken in a skirmish, before their number had amounted to three thousand men, they were brought to York, where they were executed, with some others, on the twenty-first of September, then next following. FB597 19. The breaking out of these rebellions, but most especially that of Devonshire, quickened the Lords of the Council to a sharper course against all those whom they suspected not to favor the King’s proceedings, nor to advance the execution of the public Liturgy: amongst whom none was more distrusted than Bonner of London; concerning whom it was informed, that, by his negligence, not only many people within his diocese were very forgetful of their duty to God in frequenting the divine service, then by law established, but divers others, utterly despising the same, did in secret places often frequent the popish mass. For this he is commanded to attend the Lords of the Council on the eleventh of August; FB598 by whom he was informed of such complaints as were made against him, and so dismissed with certain private injunctions to be observed by him for the time to come. FB599 And for a further trim to be made of his zeal and loyalty—(if it were not rather for a snare to entrap him in)—he was commanded to preach against the rebels, at St. Paul’s Cross, on the first of September, and there to shew the unlawfulness of taking arms on pretense of religion. But on the contrary, he not only touched not upon any thing which was enjoined him by the council, but spent the most part of his sermon in maintenance of the gross, carnal, and papistical presence of Christ’s body and blood in the most blessed Sacrament of the altar. FB600 Complaints whereof being made by William Latimer, parson of St.

Laurence Poultney, and John Hooper, sometimes a Cistercian Monk, FB601 a commission is issued out to the Archbishop of Canterbury, the Bishops of Rochester and Peterborough, Sir Thomas Smith, and Doctor May: FB602 before whom he was convented at Lambeth, on the tenth of the month; where, after many shifts on his part, and much patience on theirs, FB603 he is taken pro confesso, on the twenty-third, and in the beginning of October FB604 deprived of his Bishopric. To whom succeeded Doctor Nicholas Ridley, Bishop of Rochester, a learned, stout, and resolute prelate, as by the sequel will appear;—not actually translated till the twelfth of April, in the year next following, and added not long after to the Lords of the Council. 20. The necessary execution of so many rebels, and this seasonable severity against Bishop Bonner, did much facilitate the King’s proceedings in the Reformation; as certainly the opposition to authority, when it is suppressed, both makes the subject and the Prince more absolute.

Howsoever, to make sure work of it, there passed an act FB605 of parliament in the following session, (which also took beginning on the fourth of November), for taking down such images as were still remaining in the churches; as also for the bringing in of all antiphonaries, missals, breviaries, offices, horaries, primers, and processionals, with other books of false and superstitious worship. The tenor of which act was signified to the subject by the King’s proclamations, FB606 and seconded by the missives of Archbishop Cranmer to the suffragan Bishops, FB607 requiring them to see it put in execution with all care and diligence. Which so secured the Church on that side, that there was no further opposition against the Liturgy by the Romish party during the rest of this King’s reign. For what can any workman do when he wants his tools? or how could they advance the service of the Church of Rome, when the books by which they should officiate it were thus taken from them? 21. But then there started up another faction, as dangerous to the Church, as opposite to the public Liturgy, and as destructive of the rules of the Reformation, then by law established, as were those of Rome. The Archbishop, and the rest of the prelates which cooperated with him in the work, having so far proceeded in abolishing many superstitions which before were used, resolved in the next place to go forwards with a reformation in a point of doctrine. In order whereunto Melancthon’s coming was expected the year before, FB608 but he came not then. And therefore letters were directed by the Archbishop of Canterbury to Martin Bucer FB609 and Peter Martyr, two great and eminent divines, but more addicted to the Zuinglian than the Lutheran doctrines in the point of the Sacrament. Martyr accordingly came over in the end of November, FB610 and, having spent time with the Archbishop in his house at Lambeth, was dispatched to Oxford, where he was made the King’s Professor for Divinity, and about two years after made Canon of Christ Church. In his first lectures he is said by Sanders (if he may be credited)—to have declared himself so much a Zuinglian in that point as to give great offense to Cranmer and the rest of the Bishops; but afterwards, upon notice of it, to have been more moderate, and to conform his judgment to the sense of those learned prelates: FB611 which whether it be true or not, certain it is that his readings were so much disliked by some of that University, that a public disputation was shortly had betwixt him and some of those who disliked his doings: in which he publicly maintained these two propositions—1. “That the substance of the bread and wine was not changed;” and 2. “That the body and blood of Christ was not carnally and bodily in the bread and wine, but united to the same sacramentally.” FB612 And for the better governing of the disputation, it was appointed by the King, that Doctor Cox, Chancellor of that University, assisted by one Mr.

Morrison, a right learned man, should preside as judges,—(or moderators, as we call them): by whom it was declared in the open schools, that Martyr had the upper hand, and had sufficiently answered all arguments which were brought against him. But Chadsey, the chief of the opponents, and the rest of those who disputed with him, acknowledged no such satisfaction to be given unto them; their FB613 party noising it abroad, (according to the fate of such disputations), that they had the victory. FB614 22. But Bucer not coming over at the same time also, he was more earnestly invited by Peter Alexander, FB615 the Archbishop’s secretary, whose letters bear date March 24; FB616 which so prevailed with him at the last, that in June we find him here at Canterbury, from whence he writes to Peter Martyr, who was then at Oxford. And being here, he receives letters from Calvin, by which he was advised to take heed of his old fault—(for a fault he thought it)—which was, to run a moderate course in his reformations. FB617 The first thing that he did at his coming hither, (as he saith himself), was to make himself acquainted with the English Liturgy; translated for him into Latin by Alexander Alesius, FB618 a learned Scot, and generally well approved of by him, as to the main frame and body of it, though not well satisfied perhaps in some of the particular branches. Of this he gives account to Calvin, and desires some letters from him to the Lord Protector, (with whom Calvin had already begun to tamper), that he might find the greater favor when he came before him, which was not till the tumults of the time were composed and quieted. Having received a courteous entertainment from the Lord Protector, and being right heartily welcomed by Archbishop Cranmer, he is sent to take the chair at Cambridge. Where his first readings gave no such distaste to the learned academics, as to put him to the necessity of challenging the dissentients to a disputation: though in the ordinary form a disputation was there held at his first coming thither, concerning the sufficiency of holy scripture, the fallibility of the Church, and the true nature of justification. FB619 But long he had not held the place, when he left this life, deceasing on the nineteenth of January, 1550, FB620 according to the computation of the Church of England, to the great loss and grief of that University. By the chiefest heads whereof, and most of the members of that body, he was attended to his grave with all due solemnity: of which more hereafter. 23. But so it was, that the account which he had given to Calvin of the English Liturgy, and his desiring of a letter from him to the Lord Protector, proved the occasions of much trouble to the Church and the orders of it.

For Calvin, not forgetting the repulse he found at the hands of Cranmer when he first offered his assistance, FB621 had screwed himself into the favor of the Lord Protector, and, thinking nothing to be well done which either was not done by him or by his direction—(as appears by his letters to all Princes which did but cast an eye towards a Reformation)—must needs be meddling in such matters as belonged not to him. He therefore writes a very long letter to the Lord Protector, FB622 in which, approving well enough of set forms of prayer, FB623 he descends more particularly to the English Liturgy; in canvassing whereof, he there excepted against commemoration of the dead, FB624 (which he acknowledgeth however to be very ancient), as also against chrism and extreme unction FB625 —(the last of which being rather allowed of than required by the rules of that book):

FB626 which said, he maketh it his advice, that all these ceremonies should be abrogated, and that withal he should go forwards to reform the Church without fear or wit, without regard of peace at home or correspondence abroad: such considerations being only to be had in civil matters, but not in matters of the Church; wherein not any thing is to be exacted, which is not warranted by the word, and in the managing whereof there is not any thing more distasteful in the eyes of God than worldly wisdom, FB627 either in moderating, cutting off, or going backwards, but merely as we are directed by his will revealed. 24. In the next place, he gives a touch on the book of Homilies, FB628 which Bucer, (as it appears by his epistle to the Church of England), FB629 had right well approved of. These very faintly he permits for a season only; but by no means allows of them for a long continuance, or to be looked on as a rule of the Church, or constantly to serve for the instruction of the people: and thereby gave the hint to the Zuinglian Gospellers, who ever since almost have declaimed against them. 25. And whereas some disputes had grown by his setting on, or the pragmatic humor of some agents which he had amongst us, about the ceremonies of the Church, then by law established, he must needs trouble the Protector in that business also. To whom he writes to this effect, that the Papists would grow insolenter every day than other, unless the differences were composed about the ceremonies. FB630 But how?—not by reducing the opponents to conformity, but by encouraging them rather in their opposition: which cannot but appear most plainly to be all he aimed at by soliciting the Duke of Somerset in behalf of Hooper, who was then fallen into some troubles upon that; of which more hereafter. 26. Now in the heat of these employments, both in Church and state, the French and Scots lay hold on the opportunity for the recovering of some forts and pieces of consequence, which had been taken from them by the English in the former war. The last year Bulloign siege was attempted by some of the French, in hope to take it by surprise, and were courageously repulsed by the English garrison. But now they are resolved to go more openly to work, and therefore send an herald to defy the King, according to the noble manner of those times, in proclaiming war before they entered into action against one another. The herald did his office on the eighth of August, and presently the French, with a considerable army, invade the territory of Bulloign. In less than three weeks they possess themselves of Blackness, Hamiltue, and Newhaven, with all the ordnance, ammunition, and victuals in them. Few of the soldiers escaped with life, but only the governor of Newhaven, (a bastard son of the Lord Sturton’s,) who was believed to have betrayed that fort unto them, because he did put himself immediately into the service of the French. FB631 But they sped worse in their designs by sea than they did by land: for, giving themselves no small hopes in those broken times for taking in the islands of Guernsey and Jersey, they made toward them with a great number of galleys: but they were so manfully encountered with the King’s navy, which lay then hovering on those coasts, that, with the loss of a thousand men, and great spoil of their galleys, they were forced to retire into France, and desist from their purpose. FB632 Nor were the Scots, in the mean time, negligent in preparing for their own defense; against whom some considerable forces had been prepared in the beginning of this summer, but most unhappily diverted: though very fortunately employed for the relief of Exeter and the taking of Norwich. So that,—no succors being sent for the relief of those garrisons which then remained unto the English,—the Scots, about the middle of November following, courageously assault the strong fort of Bouticrage, FB633 take it by storm, put all soldiers to the sword, except the captain; and him they spared, not out of any pity or humane compassion, but because they would not lose the hope of so great a benefit as they expected for his ransom. Nothing now left unto the English, of all their late purchases and acquists in Scotland, but the strong fort of Aymouth and the town of Roxborough. FB634 27. The loss of so many pieces in France, one after another, was very sad news to all the court but the Earl of Warwick, who purposely had delayed the sending of such forces as were prepared against the French, that the forts above mentioned might be lost; that, upon the loss thereof, he might project the ruin of the Lord Protector. He had long cast an envious eye at his power and greatness, and looked upon himself as a man of other parts, both for camp and council; fitter in all respects to protect the kingdom than he that did enjoy the title. He looked upon him also as a man exposed to the blows of fortune, in being so fatally deprived of his greatest strength by the death of his brother; after which he had little left unto him, but the worst half of himself: feared by the Lords, and not so well beloved by the common people as he had been formerly. There goes a story, that Earl God-wine, having treacherously slain Prince Alfred, the brother of Edward the Confessor, was afterwards present with the King, when his cup-bearer, stumbling with one foot, recovered himself by the help of the other. “One brother helps another,” said Earl Godwine merrily: “And so,” replied the King as tartly, “my brother might have been useful unto me, if you had pleased to spare his life, for my present comfort.” FB635 The like might have been said to Earl Dudley of Warwick—that, if he had not lent an helping hand to the death of the Admiral, he could not so easily have tripped up the heels of the Lord Protector. Having before so luckily taken in the outworks, he now resolves to plant his battery for the fort itself. To which end he begins to muster up his strengths and make ready his forces, knowing which way to work upon the Lords of the court; many of which began to stagger in their good affections, and some openly to declare themselves the Protector’s enemies. And he so well applied himself to their several humors, that, in short time after his return from Norfolk with success and honor, he had drawn unto his side the Lord Chancellor Rich; Lord St.

John, Lord Great Master; the Marquess of Northampton; the Earl of Arundel, Lord Chamberlain; the Earl of Southampton; Sir Thomas Cheney, Treasurer of the Household; Sir John Gage, Constable of the Tower; Sir William Petre, Secretary; Sir Edward Mountague, Chief Justice of the Common Pleas; Sir Edward North, Sir Ralph Sadlier, Sir John Baker, Sir Edward Wotton, Doctor Wotton, and Sir Richard Southwell. Of which some shewed themselves against him upon former grudges, as the Earl of Southampton; FB636 some, out of hope to share those offices amongst them which he had engrossed unto himself; many, because they loved to follow the strongest side; few, in regard of any benefit which was like to redound by it to the commonwealth; the greatest part complaining, that they had not their equal dividend, when the lands of chantries, free chapels, etc. were given up for a prey to the greater courtiers: but all of them disguising their private ends under pretense of doing service to the public. 28. The combination being thus made, and the Lords of the defection convented together at Ely-house in Holborn, where the Earl then dwelt, they sent for the Lord Mayor and Aldermen to come before them. To whom it is declared by the Lord Chancellor Rich, (a man of Somerset’s own preferring), in a long oration, FB637 in what dangers the kingdom was involved by the misgovernment and practices of the Lord Protector: against whom he objected also many misdemeanors,—some frivolous, some false, and many of them of such a nature as either were to be condemned in themselves, or forgiven in him. For in that speech he charged him, amongst other things, with the loss of the King’s pieces in France and Scotland, the sowing of dissension betwixt the nobility and the commons, embezzling the treasures of the King, and inverting the public stock of the kingdom to his private use. It was objected also, that he was wholly acted by the will of his wife, and therefore no fit man to command a kingdom: that he had interrupted the ordinary course of justice, by keeping a court of requests in his own house, in which he many times determined of men’s freeholds: that he had demolished many consecrated places and episcopal houses, to erect a palace for himself, spending one hundred pounds per diem in superfluous buildings: that by taking to himself the title of Duke of Somerset, FB638 he declared plainly his aspiring to the crown of this realm: and finally, having so unnaturally labored the death of his brother, he was no longer to be trusted with the life of the King. And thereupon he desires, or conjures them rather, to join themselves unto the Lords, who aimed at nothing in their counsels but the safety of the King, the honor of the kingdom, and the preservation of the people in peace and happiness. But these designs could not so closely be contrived as not to come unto the knowledge of the Lord Protector, who then remained at Hampton-court, with the rest of the Lords, who seemed to continue firm unto him. And on the same day on which this meeting was at London, (being the sixth day of October), he causeth proclamation to be made at the court-gates, and afterwards in other places near adjoining, requiring all sorts of persons to come in for the defense of the King’s person: whom he conveyed the same night unto Windsor castle, with a strength of five hundred men, or thereabouts—too many for a guard, and too few for an army. From thence he writes his letters FB639 to the Earl of Warwick, to the rest of the Lords, as also to the Lord Mayor and the city of London, of whom he demanded a supply of a thousand men for the present service of the King. But that proud city, seldom true to the royal interess, FB640 and secretly obsequious to every popular pretender, seemed more inclinable to gratify the Lords in the like demands, than to comply with his desires. The news hereof being brought unto him, and finding that Mr. Secretary Petre, whom he had sent with a secret message to the Lords in London, returned not back unto the court, he presently flung up the cards: either for want of courage to play out the game, or rather choosing willingly to lose the set than venture the whole stock of the kingdom on it. So that, upon the first coming of some of the opposite Lords to Windsor, he puts himself into their hands: by whom, on the fourteenth day of the same month, he is brought to London, and committed prisoner to the Tower; pitied the less, even by those that loved him, because he had so tamely betrayed himself. FB641 29. The Duke of Somerset, no longer to be called Protector, being thus laid up, a parliament beginneth, (as the other two had done before), on the fourth of November. In which there passed two acts of especial consequence,—(besides the act for removing all images out of the church, and calling in all books of false and superstitious worship, before remembered,) FB642 —to the concernments of religion. The first declared to this effect—that “such form and manner of making and consecrating Archbishops and Bishops, Priests, Deacons, and other Ministers of the Church, as by six prelates, and six other learned men of this realm, learned in God’s law, by the King to be appointed and assigned, or by the most number of them, shall be devised for that purpose, and set forth under the great seal, before the first of April next coming, shall be lawfully exercised and used, and no other.” The number of the Bishops and the learned men which are appointed by this act, assure me that the King made choice of the very same whom he had formerly employed in composing the Liturgy; FB643 the Bishop of Chichester being left out, by reason of his refractoriness in not subscribing to the same. FB644 And they accordingly applied themselves unto the work, following therein the rules of the primitive Church, as they are rather recapitulated than ordained in the fourth Council of Carthage, anno 401: FB645 which, though but national in itself, was generally both approved and received, as to the form of consecrating Bishops and inferior Ministers, in all the Churches of the West. Which book, being finished, FB646 was made use of without further authority till the year 1552; at what time, being added to the second Liturgy, it was approved of and confirmed, as a part thereof, by act of parliament, anno Edward VI cap. 1. And of this book it is we find mention in the 36th Article of Queen Elizabeth’s time, FB647 in which it is declared—that “whosoever were consecrated and ordered according to the rites thereof, should be reputed and adjudged to be lawfully consecrated, and rightly ordered.” Which declaration of the Church was afterwards made good by act of parliament, in the eighth year of that Queen: in which the said Ordinal, of the third of King Edward the Sixth, is confirmed and ratified.

FB648 30. The other of the said two acts was, “For enabling the King to nominate eight Bishops, and as many temporal Lords, and sixteen members of the lower house of parliament, FB649 for reviewing all such canons and constitutions as remained in force by virtue of the statute made in the twenty-fifth year of the late King Henry, FB650 and fitting them for the use of the Church in all times succeeding.” According to which act, the King directed a commission to Archbishop Cranmer, and the rest of the persons whom he thought fit to nominate to that employment, and afterwards appointed a sub-committee of eight persons to prepare the work, and make it ready for the rest, that it might be dispatched with the more expedition: which said eight persons were, the Archbishop of Canterbury; Doctor Thomas Goodrick, Bishop of Ely; Doctor Richard Cox, the King’s Almoner; and Peter Martyr, Doctor in Divinity; William May, and Rowland Taylour, Doctors of the Law; John Lucas, and Richard Goodrick, Esquires. By whom the work was undertaken and digested, FB651 fashioned according to the method of the Roman Decretals, and called by the name of Reformatio Legum Ecclesiasticarum, etc. But not being commissionated hereunto till the 11th of November in the year 1551, FB652 they either wanted time to communicate it to the chief commissioners, by whom it was to be presented to the King, or found the King encumbered with more weighty matters than to attend the perusal of it. And so the King dying (as he did) before he had given life unto it by his royal signature, the design miscarried:—never thought fit to be resumed in the following times, by any of those who had the government of the Church, or were concerned in the honor and safety of it. FB653 31. There also passed another act, in order to the peace of the commonwealth, but especially procured by the agents of the Duke of Somerset—the better to secure him from all attempts and practices for the times ensuing, by which his life might be illegally endangered. The purport of which act was, to make it “high treason for any twelve persons, or above, assembled together, to [attempt to] FB654 kill or imprison any of the King’s council, or alter any laws, or continue together the space of an hour, being commanded to return by any Justice of the Peace, Mayor, Sheriff, etc.” Which act, intended by his friends for his preservation, was afterwards made use of by his enemies, for the only means of his destruction—deferred a while, but still resolved upon, when occasion served. It was not long before Earl Dudley might perceive that he had served other men’s turns against the Duke, as well as his own: and that, having served their turns therein, he found no forwardness in them for raising him unto the place. They were all willing enough to unhorse the Duke; but had no mind that such a rank rider as the Earl should get into the saddle. Besides, he was not to be told that there was nothing to be charged against the Duke which could touch his life; that so many men of different humors were not like to hold long in a plot together, now their turns were served; that the Duke’s friends could not be so dull as not to see the emptiness of the practice which was forged against him; nor the King so forgetful of his uncle, when the truth was known, as not to raise him up again to his former height. It therefore would be fittest for his ends and purposes to close up the breach, to set the Duke at liberty from his imprisonment, but so to order the affair that the benefit should be acknowledged to proceed from himself alone. But first, the Duke must so acknowledge his offenses, that his adversaries might come off with honor.