ANNO REG. MAR. 1, ANNO DOM. 1553, 1554. 1. THE interposing in behalf of the Lady Jane being disrelished generally in most parts of the kingdom, Mary, the eldest sister of King Edward the Sixth, is proclaimed Queen by the Lords of the Council, assisted by the Lord Mayor of London and such of the nobility as were then resident about the city, on Wednesday the nineteenth day of July, anno 1553. The proclamation published at the Cross in Cheap, with all solemnities accustomed on the like occasions; and entertained with joyful acclamations by all sorts of people, who feared nothing more than the pride and tyranny of the Duke of Northumberland. To carry which news to the Queen at Framlingham, the Earl of Arundel and the Lord Paget are dispatched immediately by the rest of the council, and letters are speedily posted by some private friends to the Duke, at Cambridge. Who, understanding how things went, without expecting any order from the Lords at London, dismissed the remnant of his army, and presently repairing into the Marketplace, proclaimed the Queen, crying “God save Queen Mary” as loud as any, and flinging up his cap for joy, as the others did. Which service he had scarce performed, when Rose, a Pursuivant of Arms, comes to him with instructions from the Lords of the Council, subscribed by the Archbishop of Canterbury, the Lord Chancellor Goodrick, the Lord Treasurer Paulet, the Duke of Suffolk, the Earls of Bedford, Shrewsbury, and Pembroke, the Lord Darcie, Sir Robert Cotton, Sir William Petre and; Sir William Cecil, the two principal Secretaries, Sir John Cheek, tutor to the last King, Sir John Baker, Chancellor of the Tenths and Firstfruits, Sir John Mason, Master of the Requests, R. Bowes, Master of the Rolls: — most of which had formerly subscribed the answer to a letter which came to them from the Princess Mary, on the ninth of July , and were all pardoned for so doing, except Cranmer only. Now the tenor of the said instructions was as followeth: “In the name of our Sovereign Lady Mary the Queen, to be declared to the Duke of Northumberland, and all other his band, of what degree soever they be. “You shall command and charge, in the Queen’s Highness’s name, the said Duke to disarm himself, and to cease all his men of war, and to suffer no part of his army to do any villany, nor any thing contrary to the peace; and himself to forbear his coming to this city until the Queen’s pleasure be expressedly declared unto him. And if he will shew himself like a good quiet subject, we will then continue as we have begun, as humble suitors to our Sovereign Lady the Queen’s Highness, for him and his and for ourselves. And if he do not, we will not fail to spend our lives in subduing of him and his. “Item, Ye shall declare the like matter to the Marquess of Northampton, and all other noblemen and gentlemen, and to all men of war being with any of them. “Item, Ye shall in all places where ye come, notify it — If the Duke of Northumberland do not submit himself to the Queen’s Highness, Queen Mary, he shall be accepted as a traitor. And all we of the nobility, that were Counsellors to the late King, will to the utmost portion of our power persecute him and his to their utter confusion.” 2. The Pursuivant, having communicated his instructions, found none more ready to obey them than the Duke himself, who had before dismissed his forces, and now prepared for his departure from that place, though to what he knew not. But as he was pulling on his boots, he was first stayed by some of the Pensioners, who, being drawn into the action against their wills, resolved to have him in a readiness to bear witness to it; and after taken into custody by Slegg, a Sergeant. The business being in dispute, another packet comes from the Lords of the Council, by which all parties were required to depart to their several dwellings; the benefit whereof the Duke laid claim to for himself, and was accordingly left by them at his own disposal. And so he passed that night in some good assurance that he should fare no worse than the rest of the Council, who had engaged him in the same cause, and by whose order he had undertaken the command of that army. In the meantime, the Earl of Arundel had done his errand to the Queen to so good a purpose that he was presently dispatched with order to seize upon him. Who, coming to Cambridge the next morning, found him preparing for his journey, laid hold upon him, and committed him to the charge of some of the guard. It is reported that the Duke had no sooner seen the Earl of Arundel but he fell down upon his knees, and besought him to be good unto him, humbling himself before him with more abjectedness than formerly he had insulted over him with pride and insolence. By safe but easy journeys he is brought unto the Tower on the 25th day of July, together with the Earl of Warwick, the Earl of Huntington, the Lord Hastings, the Lord Ambrose and the Lord Henry Dudley, two of Northumberland’s younger sons, Sir Andrew Dudley, the Duke’s brother, Sir John Gates and Henry Gates his brother, Sir Thomas Palmer (who formerly had served his turn in the destruction of the Duke of Somerset,) and Dr Sandys, Vice-Chancellor of the University of Cambridge. Followed the next day after by the Marquess of Northampton, Dr Nicholas Ridley, Bishop of London, the Lord Robert Dudley, another of Northumberland’s sons, and Sir Robert Corbet; who, having made their applications to the Queen at Framlingham, found there no better entertainment than if they had been taken in some act of hostility. The 27th day brings in Sir Roger Chomley, Chief Justice of the King’s Bench, and Sir Edward Mountague, Chief Justice of the Common Pleas; the Duke of Suffolk and Sir John Cheek on the morrow after shutting up the arrear. But the Duke of Suffolk stayed not long; for, 8being considered in himself as an easy person, of whom they were to fear no danger, and otherwise no more in fault than the rest of the council, he was released again within three days after , to the great comfort of his daughter, the late Queen Jane, who would have died daily for her father, though but once for herself. 3. But so it fared not with the Duke of Northumberland, a more dangerous person; who, together with John Earl of Warwick, his eldest son, and William Marquess of Northampton, was brought to their trial on the eighth of August, before Thomas Duke of Norfolk, then sitting as Lord High Steward in Westminster-hall. The Duke, being brought unto the bar, humbled himself with great reverence before his peers, professing his faith and allegiance to the Queen; against whom he confessed he had so grievously offended that he intended not to speak any thing in his own defense. But, having been trained up to the study of the laws in his younger days, he desired the judgment of the court in these two points: “First, Whether any man doing any act by authority of the Prince’s Council, and by warrant of the great seal of England, and doing nothing without the same, might be charged with treason for any thing which he might do by warrant thereof. And secondly,” (which pinched then his judges to some purpose) “Whether any such persons as were equally culpable in the crime, and those by whose letters and commandments he was directed in all his doings, might sit as judges, and pass upon his trial as his peers.”

Whereunto it was answered by the court, with advice of the judges — “First, That the great seal which he pretended for his warrant was not the seal of the lawful Queen of the realm, but the seal of an usurper, who had no authority; and therefore could be no warrant to him. And secondly, That if any were as deeply to be touched in the case as himself, yet so long as no attainder was upon record against them, they were looked upon by the law as persons capable of passing upon any trial, and not to be challenged by any in that respect, but only at the Prince’s pleasure.” Which being delivered by the court in point of law, the Duke conceived that it would be to no purpose for him to plead not guilty, and thereupon confessed the indictment, as the other two prisoners also did: they all received judgment in the usual form. On the pronouncing whereof, he besought the Lords to move the Queen that she would be gracious to his sons, who might be able to do good service in the time to come; considering that they went not with him of their own free will, but only in obedience to his commands, who was their father in which, as his desires were granted by the Lords, so the Lords were gratified in them by the Queen; none of his sons being executed (though all condemned) except Guilford only, whose case was different from the others. The like judgment also passed on the morrow after on Sir John Gates, Sir Henry Gates, Sir Andrew Dudley, and Sir Thomas Palmer; who, confessing the indictment also, submitted themselves to the Queen’s mercy without further trial. 4. In that short interval which passed between the sentence and the execution, the Duke was frequently visited by Dr Nicholas Heath, then newly restored unto the see of Worcester. It was another of the requests which he made to the Lords, that some godly and learned man might be licensed by the Queen to repair unto him, for the quiet and satisfaction of his conscience; and she resolved to send him none (as she did to others in like case) but one of her own, under a pretense of doing good unto their souls by gaining them to a right understanding of the faith in Christ.

According to which purpose, Heath bestirs himself with such dexterity, that the Duke, either out of weakness, or hope of life, or that it was indifferent to him in what faith he died, who had shewn so little while he lived, retracted that religion which he had adorned in the time of King Edward and outwardly professed for some years in the reign of King Henry. And hereof he gave public notice when he was on the scaffold, on the 22nd of that month. In the way towards which there passed some words betwixt him and Gates, each laying the blame of the late action on the other; but afterwards mutually forgiving and being forgiven, they died in good charity with one another. Turning himself unto the people, he made a long oration to them touching the quality of his offense and his forepassed life, and then admonished the spectators, “to stand to the religion of their ancestors, rejecting that of later date, which had occasioned all the misery of the foregoing thirty years; and that for prevention for the, future, if they desired to present their souls un-spotted in the sight of God, and were truly affected to their country, they should expel those trumpets of sedition, the preachers of the reformed religion; that for himself, whatever had otherwise been pretended, he professed no other religion than that of his fathers, for testimony whereof he appealed to his good friend and ghostly father, the Lord Bishop of Worcester; and finally, that being blinded with ambition, he had been contented to make wrack of his conscience by temporising, for which he professed himself sincerely repentant, and so acknowledged the justice of his death.” A declaration very unseasonable, whether true or false; as that which rendered him less pitied by the one side, and more scorned by the other. With him died also Gates and Palmer, the rest of the condemned prisoners being first reprieved and afterwards absolutely pardoned. 5. Such was the end of this great person, the first Earl of Warwick and the last Duke of Northumberland of this name and family. By birth he was the eldest son of Sir Edmond Sutton, alias Dudley, who, together with Sir Richard Empson, were the chief instruments and promoters under Henry the Seventh for putting the penal laws in execution, to the great grievance and oppression of all sorts of subjects. For which, and other offenses of a higher nature, they were both sacrificed to the fury of the common people by King Henry the Eighth; which possibly might make him carry a vindicative mind towards that King’s children, and prompt him to the disinheriting of all his progeny. First trained up (as his father had also been before him) in the study of the common laws, which made him cunning enough to pick holes in any man’s estate, and to find ways by which to bring their lives in danger. But, finding that the long sword was of more estimation than the long robe in the time of that King, he put himself forwards on all actions wherein honor was to be acquired. In which he gave such testimony of his judgment and valor, that he gained much on the affections of his Prince, by whom he was created Viscount Lisle, on the 15th of March, anno 1541, installed Knight of the Garter, 1543, and made Lord Admiral of England. Employed in many actions against the Scots, he came off always with success and victory; and having said this, we have said all that was accounted good or commendable in the whole course of his life. Being advanced unto the title of Earl of Warwick by King Edward the Sixth, he thought himself in a capacity of making Queens, as well as Richard Nevil (one of his predecessors in that title) had been of setting up and deposing Kings; and they both perished under the ambition of those proud attempts. Punished as Nevil also was, in having no issue male remaining to preserve his name; for, though he had six sons, all of them living to be men, and all of them to be married men, yet they went all childless to the grave — (I mean as to the having of lawful issue) — as if the curse of Jeconijah had been laid upon them. With him died also the proud title of Duke of Northumberland, never aspired to by the Percies, though men of eminent nobility, and ever since the time of King Henry the First, of the race of Emperors; which family, as well in reference to the merit of their noble ancestors as the intercession of some powerful friends, were afterwards restored to all the titles and honors which belonged to that house, in the persons of Thomas and Henry, grand-children to Henry the fifth Earl thereof, anno 1557. 6. The matters being thus laid together, we must next look back upon the Queen; who, seeing all obstacles removed betwixt her and the crown, dissolved her camp at Framlingham, consisting of fourteen thousand men, and prepared for her journey towards London. Met on the way by the Princess Elizabeth her sister, attended with no fewer than one thousand horse, she made her entrance into London on the third of August — no less magnificent for the pomp and bravery of it than that of any of her predecessors. Taking possession of the Tower, she was first welcomed thither by Thomas, the old Duke of Norfolk, Ann Duchess of Somerset, Edward Lord Courtney, eldest son to the late Marquess of Exeter, and Dr Stephen Gardiner, Bishop of Winchester; all which she lifted from the ground, called them her prisoners, graciously kissed them, and restored them shortly after to their former liberty. Taking the great seal from Dr Goodrick, Bishop of Ely, within two days after, she gave it for the present to the custody of Sir Nicholas Hare, whom she made Master of the Rolls, and afterwards committed it, on the 23rd of the same month, together with the title of Lord Chancellor, on the said Dr Gardiner, then actually restored to the see of Winchester. Having performed the obsequies of her brother on the 9th and 10th, she removes her court unto Whitehall, and there continues till it was within two or three days of her coronation. Which time now drawing near at hand, she passed by water to the Tower on the 27th of September, accompanied by her sister the Princess Elizabeth, and a great train of noble ladies; made her return through the principal streets of the city on the last of the same month, in most stately manner; and the next day proceeded with the like magnificence to the abbey church; where she was met by three silver crosses, and eighty singing men, all in rich and gorgeous copes — (so sudden, a recruit was made of these sacred vestments) — amongst whom went the new Dean of Westminster, Dr Weston, and divers Chaplains of her own, each of them bearing in their hands some ensign or other. After them marched ten Bishops (which were as many as remained of her persuasion) with their mitres, rich copes, and crosier-staves. The sermon was preached by Dr Day, whom she had restored to the see of Chichester, and the solemnity of the coronation celebrated by the new Lord Chancellor; Cranmer, Archbishop of Canterbury, being then committed, and otherwise conceived unworthy of so great an honor. Till this time none more dear to her than her sister Elizabeth, whom she always took with her by the hand wheresoever she went, and seldom dined or supped without her. But this solemnity being passed over, (as if she were now freed from all the fears of a competition), she estranged herself from her in such a manner as shewed that she had formerly desired her company for some byrespects, and not out of natural affection. More grateful unto other persons who deserved well of her, she preferred Henry Ratcliff, Earl of Sussex (Commander General of her Army) to the Society of the Garter, which honor she conferred on his son Thomas after his decease, and to be covered in her presence at all times and places, according to the custom of the grandees in the realm of Spain. Which privilege, not being very frequent in the polity of the realm of England, I find to be recorded in these following words, viz.: “MARY, by the grace of God Queen of England, France, and Ireland, Defender of the Faith, and of the Church of England and Ireland in earth the Supreme Head, to all to whom this present writing shall come sendeth greeting in our Lord everlasting. Know ye that we do give and pardon to our well-beloved and trusty cousin, and one of our privy council, Henry Earl of Sussex and Viscount Fitzwater, Lord Egremond and Burnel, liberty, licence, and pardon to wear his cap, coif, or night-cap, or two of them at his pleasure, as well in our presence as in the presence of any other person or persons within this our realm, or any other place of our dominions whatsoever, during his life; and these our letters shall be his sufficient warrant in this behalf. Given under our sign manual, at our palace of Westminster, 2 Octob. 1 Regni.” 7. With the like royal gratitude, she advanced the Earl of Arundel, who had deserved as well of her in the council as the Earl of Sussex in the camp, to the place or office of Lord Steward; investing him with all those powers and privileges which had been formerly exercised by the Lord Great Master, whom he succeeded in authority, though not in title. Sir Edward Hastings, who came over to her with 4000 men, she first made Master of the Horse and Knight of the Garter, and afterwards Lord Chamberlain of the Household, and Lord Hastings of Louthborough. Sir John Williams, who had done her very good service in Buckingham and Oxford shires, she honored with the title of Lord Williams of Tame; of which more hereafter. Sir Henry Jerningham, who first appeared in Norfolk for her, she preferred to be Captain of her Guard as soon as she came unto the crown; and toward the latter end of her reign, Sir Thomas Tresham was created Lord Prior of the Order of St John of Jerusalem, and consequently, according to the old pretension, the first Baron of England. And as for her domestic servants who had suffered with her, she thought it no unfit decorum that they should in part reign with her also. To which end she preferred Hopton, her old Chaplain, to the see of Norwich, Rochester to be Comptroller of her Household, Inglefield to be Master of the Wards, and Walgrave to be Master of the Wardrobe, — which is sufficient to declare that she was willing to comply with all obligations, and not to be too long in debt to her greatest subjects, but much less to her menial servants. But in regard that all these were considered for their personal merits, not in reference only to their zeal for the catholic cause, she was to shew some act of favor unto those of that party which might create a confidence in them of her good affections. To which end she made choice of Sir John Gage (a man most zealously addicted to the Church of Rome) to be Lord Chamberlain of her Household, when she came first to the Tower, to the great satisfaction of all those of that religion. And that she might in some measure also oblige the rest of her subjects, and make the entrance of her reign the more pleasing to them, her coronation was accompanied with a general pardon, at the least in show. Out of which all prisoners in the Tower [and] such as remained in the Fleet, together with sixty others, being excepted, and the restrictions and provisos, with which it was in all parts clogged, being well observed, there were not many, especially of those whom it most concerned, that could create unto themselves any benefit by it. 8. Thus was the civil state established on a right foundation, and the succession settled most agreeably to the laws of nature, according to the last will and testament of King Henry the Eighth and the laws made in that behalf. But we shall see the pillars of the Church removed, the very foundation of it shaken, and the whole fabric of religion so demolished that scarce one stone thereof did seem to stand upon the other; without regard unto the laws, and contrary to the will and purpose of King Edward the Sixth. At the Queen’s first entrance into London, on the third of August, she discharged Gardiner of the Tower, as she did Bonner of the Marshalsea, and Bishop Tunstal from the King’s Bench within two days after. To make way to whose restitution to their former sees, Bishop Ridley is removed from London, Bishop Poinet from Winchester, and an Act of parliament procured for the restoring of the Church of Durham to all its lands, pre-eminences, and jurisdictions, of which it stood divested by the late Act of dissolution made in the last year of the King deceased. By the like power was Coverdale displaced from the see of Exon, Story from that of Chichester, and Hooper dispossessed of that jurisdiction which he held as the commendatory of the see of Worcester; to which sees Voysie, Day, and Heath were again restored. The like course also followed for the depriving of all Deans, Dignitaries, and Parochial Ministers, who had succeeded into any of those preferments during the reign of the two last Kings, the old incumbents whereof were then found living and able to supply their places. Which though it could not be objected against Dr Cox, either in reference to his Deanery of Christ Church or that of Westminster, (both which he held at the same time), yet being brought unto the Marshalsea, on the 5th of August, he was unjustly spoiled of both, to make room for Dr Richard Marshal in the one, and Dr Hugh Weston in the other. And all this done without so much as any shew of legal process, or the conventing of the persons whom it did concern, or any satisfaction given unto the laws (which in some cases favor possession more than right) so strangely violated. 9. But greater was the havoc which was made amongst them when there was any color or pretense of law; as in the case of having wives, or not conforming to the Queen’s pleasure in all points of religion; considering how forward and pragmatical too many were to run before the laws in the like particular. The Queen was zealous in her way, and by her interess strongly biassed to the Church of Rome. But it concerned her to be wary, and not to press too much at once upon the people, which generally were well affected to the Reformation. Of this she had a stout experiment within very few days after her first entrance into London. For so it happened, that Dr Bourn, Archdeacon of London and one of the Prebendaries of St Paul’s, preaching a sermon at the Cross, on the 13th of August, inveighed in favor of Bishop Bonner, who was present at it, against some proceedings in the time of the late King Edward. Which so incensed the people that suddenly a great tumult arose upon it; some pelting him with stones, others crying out aloud, “Pull him down! pull him down!” and one (who never could be known) flinging a dagger at his head, which after was found sticking in a post of the pulpit. And greater had the mischief been upon this occasion, if Mr Bradford and Mr Rogers, two eminent preachers in the time of King Edward, and of great credit and esteem with the common people, had not endeavored to appease the enraged multitude, and with great difficulty secured the preacher in the school adjoining. By reason of which tumult an order was taken by the Lords of the Council with the Mayor and Aldermen of London, that they, calling the next day following a Common Council of the City, should thereby charge every householder to cause their children and apprentices to keep their own parish churches upon the holy-days, and not to suffer them to attempt any thing to the violating of the common peace. Willing them also to signify to the said assembly the Queen’s determination uttered to them by her Highness, the 12th of August, in the Tower; which was, that albeit her Grace’s conscience was staid in matters of religion, yet she graciously meant not to compel or strain other men’s, otherwise than God should (as she trusted) put into their hearts a persuasion of that truth which she was in, through the opening of his word unto them by godly, virtuous, and learned preachers; that is to say, such preachers only as were to be hereafter licensed by the Queen’s authority. 10. But yet, for fear that these instructions might not edify with the common people, order was taken for preventing the like tumult on the Sunday following; at what time the sermon was preached by Dr Watson, who afterwards was Bishop of Lincoln, but Chaplain only at that time to the Bishop of Winchester. For whose security, not only many of the Lords of the Council — that is to say, the Lord Treasurer, the Lord Privy Seal, the Earl of Bedford, the Earl of Pembroke, the Lords Wentworth and Rich — were severally desired to be there present, but Jerningham, Captain of the Guard, was appointed with two hundred of his stoutest yeomen to stand round about him with their halberts. The Mayor had also taken order that all the Companies in their liveries should be present at it, which was well taken by the Queen. And because the coming of the Guard on the one side affrighted some, and the order of the Lords above mentioned had restrained others from coming to those public sermons, it was commanded by the Lord Mayor, that the ancients of all Companies should give attendance at those sermons for the time to come, lest otherwise the preachers might be discouraged at the sight of so thin an auditory. The safety of those public preachers being thus provided for by the Lords of the Council, their next care was, that nothing should be preached in private churches contrary to the doctrine which was and should be taught at the Cross by them which were appointed to it. Whereupon it was further ordered, that every Alderman in his ward should forthwith send for the curates of every church within their liberties, and warn them not only to forbear preaching themselves, but also not to suffer any other to preach or make any open or solemn reading of scripture in their churches, unless the said preachers were severally licensed by the Queen. To which purpose letters were directed also to the Bishop of Norwich, and possibly to all other Bishops in their several dioceses. But nothing more discovers the true state and temper of the present time than a proclamation published by the Queen, on the 18th of August. The tenor of which is as followeth: “THE QUEEN’ S HIGHNESS, well remembering what great inconvenience and dangers have grown to this her realm in times past, through the diversities of opinions in questions of religion; and hearing also that now of late, sithence the beginning of her most gracious reign, the same contentions be again much revived, through certain false and untrue reports and rumors spread by some [light and] evil-disposed persons, hath thought good to give to understand to all her Highness’s most loving subjects her most gracious pleasure in manner following. “First, her Majesty, being presently, by the only goodness of God, settled in her just possession of the imperial crown of this realm and other dominions thereunto belonging, cannot now hide that religion which God and the world knoweth she hath ever professed from her infancy hitherto. Which as her Majesty is minded to observe and maintain for herself by God’s grace, during her time; so doth her Highness much desire, and would be glad the same were of all her subjects quietly and charitably entertained. “And yet she doth signify unto all her Majesty’s loving subjects, that of her most gracious disposition and clemency, her Highness mindeth not to compel any her said subjects there-unto, until such time as further order by common assent may be taken therein: forbidding nevertheless all her subjects, of all degrees, at their perils, to move seditions, or stir unquietness in her people, by interpreting the laws of this realm after their brains and fantasies, but; quietly to continue for the time, till (as before is said) further order may be taken; and therefore willeth, and straitly chargeth and commandeth, all her [said] good loving subjects to live together in quiet sort and Christian charity, leaving those new-found devilish terms of Papist and Heretic, and such like; and applying their whole care, study and travail, to live in the fear of God, exercising their conversations in such charitable and godly doing, as their lives may indeed express the great hunger and thirst of God’s glory [and holy word], which by rash talk and words many have pretended: and in so doing, they shall best please God, and live without danger of the laws, and maintain the tranquillity of the realm. Whereof as her Highness shall be most glad, so if any man shall rashly presume to make any assemblies of people, or at any public assemblies or otherwise shall go about to stir the people to disorder or disquiet, she mindeth according to her duty to see the same most severely reformed and punished, according to her Highness’s laws. “And furthermore, forasmuch as it is well known that sedition and false rumors have been nourished and maintained in this realm by the subtlety and malice of some evil-disposed persons, which take upon them without sufficient authority to preach and to interpret the word of God after their own brains, in churches and other places, both public and private, and also by playing of interludes, and printing of false fond books, and ballads, rhymes, and other lewd treatises in the English tongue, containing doctrine in matters now in question, and controversies touching the high points and mysteries in Christian religion; which books, ballads, rhymes, and treatises, are chiefly by the printers and stationers set out to sale to her Grace’s subjects of an evil zeal for lucre and covetousness of vile gain: her Highness therefore straitly chargeth and commandeth all and every of her said subjects, of whatsoever state, condition, or degree they be, that none of them presume from henceforth to preach, or by way of reading in churches, or other public or private places, except in schools of the University, to interpret or teach any scriptures, or any manner of points of doctrine concerning religion.

Neither also to print any book, matter, ballad, rhyme, interlude, process or treatise, nor to play any interlude, except they have her Grace’s special licence in writing for the same, upon pain to incur her Highness’s indignation and displeasure.” 11. It cannot be denied but that this proclamation was very cautiously and cunningly penned; — giving encouragement enough to those which had a mind to outrun the law, or otherwise to conform themselves to the Queen’s religion, to follow their own course therein without dread or danger; and yet commanding nothing contrary to the laws established, which might give trouble or offense to the other party. For hereupon many of the people shewed themselves so ready for receiving their old religion, that in many places of the realm, before any law was made for the same, they erected again their altars, and used the mass and Latin service in such sort as was wont to be in King Henry’s time. Which was so well taken by the Queen, that all such as stood upon the laws which were made to the contrary before had a mark of displeasure set upon them. Which being observed by some of the Clergy, they were as forward as the rest, in setting up the pageants of St Katherine and St Nicholas, formerly erected in the chancels, and to set forth their processions (which they celebrated in the Latin tongue)with their old solemnities, contrary to the laws and ordinances of King Edward’s time. All which irregular activities in the priest and people were sheltered under the name of setting forward “the Queen’s proceedings.” And by that name the official of the Archdeacon of Ely gave it in charge amongst the articles of his visitation, that the Churchwardens should present all such as did disturb the Queen’s proceedings, in letting the Latin service, setting up of altars, saying of mass, etc. But more particularly at Cambridge, the Vice-Chancellor challenged one Pierson, on the third of October, for officiating the communion in his own parish church in the English tongue; and on the 26th displaced Dr Madew, Master of Clare Hall, for being married; though they had both as much authority on their side as the laws could give them. In like manner some of the popish party in King’s College (not tarrying the making of any law) on the 28th of the same officiated the divine service in the Latin tongue; and on the 6th of November then next following, a sermon is preached openly at St Michael’s, contrary to the laws in that behalf, not as then repealed. Not altogether so eager on the scent at Oxon as they were at Cambridge, though with more difficulty brought at first to the Reformation. Only it pleased Dr Tresham, one of the Canons of Christ-Church, of the last foundation, to cause the great bell there to be new cast, and christened by the name of Mary; much comforting himself with the melodious sound thereof, when it tolled to mass , which Marshal, the new Dean, by his help and counsel had again restored. 12. But these were only the essays of those alterations which generally were intended in all parts of the Church, as soon as the times were ripe for them and the people fitted to receive them; in order whereunto, it was not thought sufficient to displace the Bishops, and silence the old protestant preachers also, unless they brought them under some exemplary punishment, that others might be terrified from the outward profession of that truth out of which they could not be disputed. Of Ridley’s being brought prisoner to the Tower, and of Cox’s committing to the Marshalsea, we have spoke before. On the 22nd of August letters are sent from the Lords of the Council, commanding Bishop Coverdale and Bishop Hooper to appear before them. By whom (after two or three appearances) committed to their several prisons; the one reserved for the stake, the other sent upon request to the King of Denmark. On the 5th of September the like letters are dispatched to old Bishop Latimer, committed close prisoner to the Tower on the eighth day after; followed the next morning by Archbishop Cranmer, whose story doth require a more particular account; of which more anon. Harley of Hereford (to which he had been consecrated in May foregoing) and Taylor of Lincoln, another of the last of King Edward’s Bishops, were present at the opening of the parliament on the 10th of October; but no sooner was the mass begun (though not then restored by any law) than they left the church. For which the Bishop of Lincoln being first examined, and making profession of his faith, prevented the malice of his enemies by a timely death. And Harley, upon information of his marriage, was presently excluded from the parliamenthouse, and not long after from his bishoprick also. Which being observed by Bishop Barlow of Wells, and Scory of Chichester, they withdrew themselves beyond the seas; followed not long after by Bishop Poinet of Winchester. But Barlow made not so much haste as not to be committed to the Fleet by the Lords of the Council, from whence, upon some satisfaction given to the Lord Chancellor Gardiner by his discreet and moderate answers, he was not long after set at liberty, and so crossed the seas — resolved to trust himself no more to a second hazard, having with so much difficulty escaped the first. How it succeeded with the rest, we shall see hereafter. Upon which smiting of the shepherds, it is not to be wondered at if their flocks were scattered. 13. Now as concerning the Archbishop, the substance of his story is briefly this. He had been a chief instrument in King Henry’s time of setting forward the divorce; and in King Edward’s, of advancing the Reformation.

The Queen conceived hereupon such a high displeasure — (it had been malice in another) — against the man, that nothing but his death could appease the same. His death is therefore fully resolved upon by Gardiner, Bonner, and the rest of the popish Prelates. Of which the first had prosecuted the divorce as far as any; and the second was as forward as the best in the Reformation, as long as Cromwell lived to prefer and countenance him. But their standings out and sufferings for it in King Edward’s time were thought sufficient expiations for their former errors, when the good offices which Cranmer had done for her in her father’s time were worn out of memory. Die then he must; but by what law he was to die, proved a knot more difficult than could be speedily untied. It was advised to charge him with high treason, as being privy to the plot of the Duke of Northumberland for excluding the Queen from the succession. But against this it was objected that he was the last of the council who subscribed unto it; and that the council would be wary of making that a capital offense in him, of which they were all equally guilty. In the next place it was propounded to proceed against him in case of heresy, that being the most likely way to content the Pope, whose favor was to be procured by all means imaginable. But the worst was, that the statutes made in the time of King Richard the Second and King Henry the Fourth, for putting heretics to death, had been abrogated in the time of King Henry the Eighth ; as that of the Six Articles, more terrible than either of the other two, had been repealed by the late King Edward the Sixth. No better course, therefore, than to find some occasion for laying him up in some safe prison; and when they had him there, to proceed against him as time and opportunity should administer some fit matter for it. 14. About this time a bruit was raised that Cranmer, to ingratiate himself with the Queen, had promised to celebrate the exequies of the deceased King according to the Romish manner . To clear himself of which reproach he drew up a manifest, declaring in the same that he was ready to maintain the Articles of Religion set forth by his procurement in the time of King Edward, to be consonant to the word of God, the doctrine of the Apostles, and the practice of the best and purest times. These papers, lying in the window in his private chamber, were seen and liked by Bishop Scow, by whom they were transcribed and communicated to many others. Coming at last unto the knowledge of the council, the Archbishop is commanded to appear before them, interrogated about the papers, and prompted by Bishop Heath, who was then amongst them, to let them know whether he were not sorry for it. To which the Archbishop made reply, that, as he did not deny himself to be the author of those papers, so he must needs confess himself to be sorry that they went from him in such sort as they did. “For I had purposed,” saith he, “to set out the manifest in a more large and ample manner; and to have it set upon St Paul’s door, and the doors of all the churches in London, with my own seal affixed unto it.” Upon which stout and honest answer, they thought fit to dismiss him for the present: it being conceived by some of the more moderate spirits, that it would be punishment enough to deprive him only of his bishop-rick, and to assign him a sufficient maintenance upon the exhibiting of a true inventory of his whole estate, with a commandment to keep his house without meddling in matters of religion. But those who better understood the mind of the Queen so ordered it, that on the 14th of September he was sent to the Tower, where he remained prisoner till the 3rd of November. At what time he was arraigned in the Guild-hall of London, together with the Lord Guilford Dudley, the late Queen Jane his wife, and others; all of them being attainted and condemned of treason, as before was said. And he lay under this attaindure till the year next following, when the old statutes for putting heretics to death were revived in parliament. Which having furnished his adversaries with a better ground to proceed upon, to the contentment of the Pope and the Queen together, they waived the prosecuting of that attaindure to an execution, and wholly fixed themselves on the point of heresy. At the hearing whereof he was right well pleased, because the case was not now his own, but Christ’s; not the Queen’s, but the Church’s. 15. The severity of this beginning against the natives gave a sufficient warning to all such strangers who had took sanctuary here in the time of King Edward, to provide betimes for their departure. Amongst whom none more openly aimed at than Peter Martyr, because none of them had given wider wounds than he to the catholic cause. Tresham, a senior Canon of Christ-Church, had held some points against him at his first coming thither; and now he took the benefit of the times, in causing both that house and many others in the University to put some public scorn upon him. Not finding any safety there, he retires to Lambeth, where he was sure of as much safety as that place could give him. A consultation had been held by some of the more fiery spirits for his commitment unto prison . But he came hither (as it was well known) on the public faith, which was not to be violated for the satisfaction of some private persons. It was thought fit therefore to discharge him of all further employment, and to license him to depart in peace, none being more forward to furnish him with all things necessary for his going hence than the new Lord Chancellor; whether in honor to his learning, or out of a desire to send him packing, shall not now be questioned. But less humanity was shewed unto him in his wife, whose body, having been buried in the church of St Frideswide, was afterwards by public order taken out of the grave and buried in a common dunghill. About the same time also such strangers as were gathered together into the church of John a Lasco, not only were necessitated to forbear their meetings, but to dissolve their congregation, and to quit the country. Such a displeasure was conceived against them by those which governed the affairs, that it was no small difficulty for them to get leave for their departure; and glad they were to take the opportunity of two Danish ships, and to put themselves to sea in the beginning of winter, fearing more storms in England than upon the ocean. And so farewell to John a Lasco; it was an ill wind which brought him hither, and worse he could not have for his going back. The like haste make the French Protestants also; and that they might have no pretense for a long stay, command was sent unto the Mayor[s] of Rie and Dover, on the 16th of September, to suffer all French Protestants to cross the seas, except such only whose names should be signified unto them by the French Ambassadors. But notwithstanding these removes, many, both Dutch and French, remained still in the kingdom, some of which being after found in Wiat’s army, occasioned the banishing of all the rest, except denizens and merchants only, by a public edict. At which time many of the English departed also, as well students as others, to the number of 300 or thereabouts; hoping to find that freedom and protection in a foreign country which was denied them in their own. The principal of those which put themselves into this voluntary exile were, Katherine, the last wife of Charles Brandon, Duke of Suffolk, Robert Bertye, Esquire, husband to the Duchess, the Bishops of Winchester and Wells, Sir Richard Morrison, Sir Anthony Cook, and Sir John Cheek, Dr Cox, Dr Sandys and Dr Grindall, and divers others of whom we shall hear more hereafter on another occasion. 16. Of all these things they neither were nor could be ignorant in the court of Rome, to which the death of King Edward had been swiftly posted on the wings of fame. The news of the succession of Queen Mary stayed not long behind — so much more welcome to Pope Julius the Third, who then held that see, because it gave him some assurance of his re-admission into the power and jurisdiction of his predecessors in the realm of England. For what less was to be expected, considering that she was brought up in the catholic religion, interessed in the respects of her mother, and cousin in the first degree unto Charles the Emperor? In the pursuance of which hopes it was resolved that Cardinal Pole should be sent Legate into England, who, being of the royal blood, a man of eminent learning and exemplary life, was looked on as the fittest instrument to reduce that kingdom. The Cardinal, well knowing that he stood attainted by the laws of the land, and that the name of Henry was still preserved in estimation amongst the people, thought it not safe to venture thither before he fully understood the state of things. He therefore secretly dispatcheth Commendonius, a right trusty minister, by whom he writes a private letter to the Queen; in which, commending first her perseverance in religion in the time of her troubles, he exhorteth her to a continuance in it in the days of her happiness. He commended also to her the salvation of the souls of her people, and the restitution of the true worship of God. Commendonius, having diligently informed himself of all particulars, found means of speaking with the Queen; by whom he understood not only her own good affections to the see apostolic, but that she was resolved to use her best endeavors for re-establishing the religion of the Church of Rome in all her kingdoms. Which being made known unto the Cardinal, he puts himself into the voyage. The news whereof being brought to Charles (who had his own design apart from that of the Pope) he signified by Dandino, the Pope’s Nuncio with him, that an apostolic Legate could not be sent into England as affairs then stood, either with safety to himself or honor to the Church of Rome; and therefore that he might do well to defer the journey till the English might be brought to a better temper. 17. But the Queen, knowing nothing of this stop, and being full of expectation of the Cardinal’s coming, had called a parliament, to begin on the 10th of October. In which she made it her first act to take away all statutes passed by the two last Kings, wherein certain offenses had been made high treason, and others brought within the compass of a proemunire.

And this she did especially for Pole’s security, that neither he by exercising his authority, nor the Clergy by submitting to it, might be entangled in the like snares in which Cardinal Wolsey and the whole Clergy of his time had before been caught. It was designed also to rescind all former statutes which had been made by the said two Kings against the jurisdiction of the Pope, the doctrine and religion of the Church of Rome, and to reduce all matters ecclesiastical to the same estate in which they stood in the beginning of the reign of the King her father. But this was looked upon by others as too great an enterprise to be attempted by a woman, especially in a green estate, and amongst people sensible of those many benefits which they enjoyed by shaking off their former vassalage to a foreign power. It was advised, therefore, to proceed no further at the present than to repeal all Acts and statutes which had been made in derogation to the doctrine of the Church of Rome in the time of her brother; which being passed in his minority, when all affairs were carried by faction and strong hand, contrary to the judgment of the best and soundest part of the Clergy and laity, might give a just pretense for their abrogation till all particulars might be considered and debated in a lawful synod. According to which temperament the point was carried, and the Act passed no higher than for “repealing certain statutes of the time of King Edward;” by which one blow she felled down all which had been done in the Reformation in seven years before. 18. For by this Act they took away all former statutes for administering the communion in both kinds; for establishing the first and second Liturgy; for confirming the new ordinal or form of consecrating Archbishops and Bishops, etc.; for abrogating certain fasts and festivals which had been formerly observed; for authorising the marriage of Priests and legitimation of their children; not to say any thing of that statute (as not worth the naming) for making Bishops by the King’s letters patents, and exercising their episcopal jurisdiction in the King’s name only. So that, upon the matter, not only all things were reduced to the same estate in which they stood at Edward’s coming to the crown, but all those Bishops and Priests which had married by authority of the former statutes were made uncanonical, and consequently obnoxious to a deprivation. So that for want of canonical ordination on the one side, and under color of uncanonical marriages on the other, we shall presently find such a general remove amongst the Bishops and Clergy as is not any where to be paralleled in so short a time. And because some affronts had been lately offered to such Priests as had been forward in setting up the mass in their several churches, and that no small danger was incurred by Dr Bourn above mentioned, for a sermon preached at St Paul’s Cross; an Act was passed for the preventing of the like for the time to come, entitled “An Act against offenders of Preachers and other Ministers in the Church.” Which two Acts were no sooner passed, but they were seconded by the Queen with two proclamations on the 5th of December. By one of which it was declared, that all statutes made in the time of the late King Edward, which concerned religion, were repealed by parliament; and therefore that the mass should be said as formerly, to begin on the 20th of that month: and by the other it was commanded, that no manner of person from thenceforth should dare to disturb the Priests in saying mass, or executing any other divine office, under the pains and penalties therein contained. According unto which appointment the mass was publicly officiated in all parts of the kingdom, and so continued during the reign of this Queen, without interruption. 19. There also passed another Act, wherein it was enacted that the marriage between King Henry the Eighth and Queen Katherine his first wife should be definitively, dearly and absolutely declared, deemed, adjudged to be and stand with God’s laws, and his most holy word, and to be accepted, reputed, and taken of good effect and validity to all intents and purposes whatsoever; that the decree or sentence of divorce heretofore passed between the said King Henry the Eighth and the said Queen, by Thomas Cranmer, Archbishop of Canterbury, should be deemed, taken and reputed to be void and null; with a repeal of all such statutes or Acts of parliament in which the Queen had been declared to be illegitimate. The making of which Act, as it did much conduce to the establishment of the Queen’s estate, so did it tacitly and implicitly acknowledge the supremacy to be in the Pope of Rome, which could not be attained explicitly and in terms express, as affairs then stood. For since the marriage neither was nor could be reputed valid but by the dispensation of Pope Julius the Second, the declaration of the goodness and validity of it did consequently infer the Pope’s authority, from which that dispensation issued. And therefore it was well observed by the author of the History of the Council of Trent, that it seemed ridiculous in the English nobility to oppose the restitution of the Pope’s supremacy, when it was propounded to them by the Queen in the following session — considering that the yielding to this demand was virtually contained in their assent to the marriage. There also passed another Act, in which there was a clause for the invalidating of all such commissions as had been granted in the time of the late Queen Jane; and one in confirmation of the attainders of the late Duke of Northumberland, Thomas Archbishop of Canterbury, etc. Which shews that there was somewhat in the said proceedings not so clear in law but that there seemed a necessity of calling in the legislative power to confirm the same, for the indemnity of those who had acted in them. 20. Together with this parliament the Queen was pleased to summon a convocation, to the end that all matters of religion might be first debated and concluded in a synodical way, before they were offered to the consideration of the other assembly. In the writ of which summons she retained the title of Supreme Head on earth of the Church of England, etc.; the want whereof in those of the present parliament occasioned a dispute amongst some of the members, whether they might lawfully proceed or not in such public businesses as were to be propounded to them in that session. Archbishop Cranmer had been before imprisoned in the Tower of London, and was detained there all the time of this convocation, so that he could not do that service to God and the Church which his place required.

This took for a sufficient ground to transfer the presidentship of the convocation upon Bonner, of London, privileged in respect of his see to preside in all such provincial synods which were either held during the vacancy of the see of Canterbury, or in the necessary absence of the Metropolitan. The lower house of the Clergy also was fitted with a Prolocutor of the same affections; Dr Hugh Weston, then newly substituted Dean of Westminster in the place of Cox, being elected to that office. On Wednesday, the 18th of October, it was signified by the Prolocutor that it was the Queen’s pleasure that they of the house should debate of matters of religion, and proceed to the making of such constitutions as should be found necessary in that case. But there was no equality in number between the parties, and reason was of no authority where the major part had formerly resolved upon the points. So partially had the elections been returned from the several dioceses, that we find none of King Edward’s Clergy amongst the clerks; and such an alteration had been made in the Deans and dignitaries, that we find but six of that rank neither to have suffrage in it, that is to say, James Haddon, Dean of Exeter; Walter Philips, Dean of Rochester; John Philpot, Archdeacon of Winchester; John Elmer, Archdeacon of Stow, in the diocese of Lincoln; Richard Cheny, Archdeacon of Hereford. One more I find, but without any name in the “Acts and Mon.,” who joined himself to the other five in the disputation. Nor would the Prolocutor admit of more, though earnestly desired by Philpot that some of the divines which had the passing of the Book of Articles in King Edward’s time might be associated with them in the defense thereof. Which motion he the rather made, because one of the points proposed by the Prolocutor related to a catechism set forth in the said King’s time, intituled to the said convocation in the year 1552. Of which it was to be inquired whether or no it was the work of that convocation. But that matter being passed lightly over, the main point in debate concerned the manner of Christ’s presence in the blessed Sacrament. It was not denied by Philpot and the rest of the protestant party that Christ was present in his Sacrament, rightly ministered according to his institution; but only that he was not present after the gross and carnal manner which they of the popish party had before subscribed to. Six days the disputation lasted, but to little purpose; for on the one side it was said by Weston and his associates that their adversaries were sufficiently confuted, and all their arguments fully answered; and on the other side it was affirmed by the divines of King Edward’s time, that neither any satisfaction had been given to their arguments, nor that any right judgment could be made in the points disputed, where the adverse party sat as judges in their own concernments. Many cheeks had been given by Weston to the six divines, but especially to the Archdeacon of Winchester; and there was much disorder otherwise in the disputation (though certain great Lords were present at it) which hindered it from producing any good effect: so that, being weary at the last of their own confusions, it was thought fit to put an end to the dispute. Which Weston did accordingly in these following words — “It is not,” saith he, “the Queen’s pleasure that we should spend any longer time in these debates, and ye are well enough already. For you,” saith he, “have the word, and we have the sword.” So powerful is the truth — that many times it will find some means to vent itself when we least intend it, and sometimes also when we most labor to suppress it. 21. The parliament and convocation had thus concluded on the point, and little question would be made but that such Bishops as disliked the alterations in the time of King Edward will be sufficiently active in advancing the results of both. But Bonner will not stay long: he is resolved to go along with the parliament, if not before it. For after the ending of the Evensong on St Katherine’s day, before the consultations of the parliament had been confirmed by the royal assent, he caused the quire of St Paul’s to go about the steeple, singing with lights after the old custom. And on St Andrew’s day next following he began the procession in Latin himself, with many parsons and curates and the whole quire, together with the Lord Mayor and divers of the Aldermen, the Prebendaries of the church attired in their old gray amises (as they used to call them); in which manner they continued it for three days after. In setting up the mass with all the pomps and rites thereof at the time appointed, it is not to be thought that he could be backward who shewed himself so forward in the rest of his actings. And therefore it can be no news to hear that, on the 14th of January, he restored the solemn Sundays-procession about the church, with the Mayor and Aldermen in their cloaks; the Preacher taking his benediction in the midst of the church, according to the ancient custom; or that he should send out his mandates to all Parsons and Curates within his diocese, for taking the names of all such as would not come the Lent following to auricular confession, and receive at Easter: or, finally, that he should issue out the like commands to all Priests and Curates which lived within the compass of his jurisdiction, for the abolishing of such paintings and sentences of holy Scripture as had been pencilled on the church-walls in King Edward’s days. He, knew full well, that as the actions of the mother church would easily become exemplary to the rest of the city, so the proceedings of that city and the parts about it would in time give the law to the rest of the kingdom; and that there was no speedier way to advance a general conformity over all the kingdom, than to take beginning at the head, from whence both sense and motion is derived to the rest of the body. Which makes it seem the greater wonder that he should be so backward in advancing images (if at the least his actings in that kind have not been misplaced) as not to go about it till the year next following; unless it were that he began to be so wise as to stay until the Queen’s affairs were better settled. But no sooner was her marriage past, when we find him at it. For having by that time prepared a fair and large image of our Savior, which they called the Rood, he caused it to be laid along upon the pavement of St Paul’s quire, and all the doors of the church to be kept close shut, whilst he, together with the Prebendaries, sung and said divers prayers by it. Which done, they anointed it with oil in divers places, and after the anointing of it, crept unto it and kissed it, and after weighed it up, and set it in its accustomed place; the whole quire in the mean time singing Te Deum, and the bells publishing their joy at the end of the pageant. After which a command is given to Dr Story (who was then Chancellor of his diocese, and afterwards a most active instrument in all his butcheries) to visit every parish-church in London and Middlesex, to see their rood-lofts repaired, and the image of the crucifix with Mary and John to be placed on them. 22. But it is time that we return to the former parliament; during the sitting whereof the Queen had been desired to marry, and three husbands had been nominated, of several qualities, that she might please herself in the choice of one: that is to say, Edward Lord Courtney, whom she had lately restored to the title of Earl of Devon; Reginald Pole, a Cardinal of the Church of Rome, descended from George Duke of Clarence; and Philip, the eldest son of Charles the Emperor. It is affirmed that she had carried some good affections to the Earl of Devonshire ever since she first saw him in the Tower, as being of a lovely personage and royal extraction, the grandson of a daughter of King Edward the Fourth; but he, being sounded afar off, had declined the matter. Concerning which there goes a story, that the young Earl petitioning her for leave to travel, she advised him to marry and stay at home, assuring him that no lady in the land, how high soever, would refuse to accept him for an husband. By which words, though she pointed out herself unto him, as plainly as might either stand with the modesty or majesty of a maiden Queen, yet the young gentleman, not daring to look so high as a crown, or being better affected to the person of the Princess Elizabeth, desired the Queen to give him leave to marry her sister. Which gave the Queen so much displeasure that she looked with an evil eye upon them both for ever after; — upon the Earl for not accepting that love which she Seemed to offer, and on her sister as her rival in the Earl’s affections. It was supposed also that she might have some inclinations to Cardinal Pole, as having been brought up with him in the house of his mother, the late Countess of Salisbury. But against him it was objected that he began to grow in years, and was so given to his book that he seemed fitter for a cowl than to wear a crown; that he had few dependences at home, and fewer alliances abroad; and that the Queen’s affairs did require a man both stout and active, well backed with friends, and able at all points to carry on the great concernments of the kingdom. And then what fitter husband could be found out for her than Philip Prince of Spain? a Prince in the verdure of his years, and eldest son to the most mighty Emperor Charles the Fifth; by whom, the Netherlands being laid to England, and both secured by the assistance and power of Spain, this nation might be rendered more considerable both by sea and land than any people in the world. 23. To this last match the Queen was carefully solicited by the Bishop of Winchester, who neither loved the person of Pole nor desired his company, for fear of growing less in power and reputation by coming under the command of a Cardinal Legate. To which end he encouraged Charles the Emperor to go on with this marriage for his son; not without some secret intimation of his advice for not suffering Pole to come into England (if he were suffered to come at all) till the treaty was concluded, and the match agreed on. According whereunto, the Lord Lamoralle Earl of Edgmond, Charles Earl of Lalain, and John d’Mount Morency, Earl of Horn, arrived in England as Ambassadors from the Emperor. In the beginning of January they began to treat upon the marriage, which they found so well prepared before their coming that in short time it was accorded upon these conditions. — “1. That it should be lawful for Philip to assume the title of all the kingdoms and provinces belonging to his wife, and should be joint Governor with her over those kingdoms; the privileges and customs thereof always preserved inviolate, and the full and free distribution of bishopricks, benefices, favors and offices, always remaining entire in the Queen. 2. That the Queen should also carry the titles of all those realms into which Philip either then was or should be afterwards invested. 3. That if the Queen survived Philip, sixty thousand pounds per annum should be assigned to her for her jointure, as had been formerly assigned to the Lady Margaret, sister to King Edward the Fourth, and wife to Charles Duke of Burgundy. 4. That the issue begotten by this marriage should succeed in all the Queen’s dominions, as also in the dukedom and county of Burgundy, and all those provinces in the Netherlands of which the Emperor was possessed. 5. That if none but daughters should proceed from this marriage, the eldest should succeed in all the said provinces of the Netherlands; provided that by the counsel and consent of Charles (the son of Philip, by Mary of Portugal his first wife) she should make choice of a husband out of England or the Netherlands; or otherwise to be deprived of her right in the succession in the said estates, and Charles to be invested in them; and in that case convenient portions to be made for her and the rest of the daughters. 6. And finally, That if the said Charles should depart this life without lawful issue, that then the heir surviving of this marriage, though female only, should succeed in all the kingdoms of Spain, together with all the dominions and estates of Italy thereunto belonging.” Conditions fair and large enough, and more to the advantage of the realm of England than the crown of Spain. 24. But so it was not understood by the generality of the people of England, many of which, out of a restless disposition, or otherwise desirous to restore the reformed religion, had caused it to be noised abroad that the Spaniards were by this accord to become the absolute Lords of all the kingdom; that they were to have the managing of all affairs; and that, abolishing all the ancient laws of the realm, they would impose upon the land a most intolerable yoke of servitude, as a conquered nation. Which either being certainly known or probably suspected by the Queen and the Council, it was thought fit that the Lord Chancellor should make a true and perfect declaration of all points of the agreement, not only in the Presence Chamber to such lords and gentlemen as were at that time about the court and the city of London, but also to the Lord Mayor and Aldermen, and certain of the chief commoners of that City, purposely sent for to the court upon that occasion: which services he performed on the 14th and and 15th days of January. And having summarily reported all the articles of the Capitulation, he shewed unto them how much they were bound to thank God “That such a noble, worthy, and famous Prince would vouchsafe so to humble himself, as in this marriage to take upon him rather as a subject than otherwise: considering that the Queen and her Council were to rule and govern all things as they did before; and that none of the Spaniards or other strangers were to be of the Council, nor to have the custody of any castles, forts, etc., nor to have any office in the Queen’s house, or elsewhere throughout the kingdom. In which respect it was the Queen’s request to the Lords and gentlemen, that for her sake they would most lovingly receive the said Prince with joy and honor; and to the Lord Mayor and citizens, That they would behave themselves to be good subjects with all humility and rejoicing.” 25. Which declaration notwithstanding, the subjects were not easily satisfied in those fears and jealousies which cunningly had been infused into them by some popular spirits, who greedily affected a change of government, and to that end sowed divers other discontents amongst the people. To some they secretly complained, that the Queen had broken her promise to the Suffolk men, in suppressing the religion settled by King Edward the Sixth; to others, that the marriage with the Prince of Spain was but the introduction to a second vassalage to the Popes of Rome.

Sometimes they pitied the calamity of the Lady Jane, not only forcibly deposed, but barbarously condemned to a cruel death; and sometimes magnified the eminent virtues of the Princess Elizabeth, as the only blessing of the kingdom; and by those articles prepared the people in most places for the act of rebellion. af347 And that it might succeed the better, nothing must be pretended but the preservation and defence of their civil liberties, which they knew was generally like to take both with Papists and Protestants; but so that they had many engines to draw such others to the side as either were considerable for power or quality. The Duke of Suffolk was hooked in, upon the promise of re-establishing his daughter in the royal throne; the Carews and other gentlemen of Devonshire, upon assurance of marrying the Lord Courthey to the Princess Elizabeth, and setting the crown upon their heads; and all they that wished well to the Reformation, upon the like hopes of restoring that religion which had been settled by the care and piety of the good King Edward, but now suppressed, contrary to all faith and promise, by the Queen and her ministers. By means of which suggestions and subtle practices the contagion was so generally diffused over all the kingdom, that, if it had not accidentally af348 broke out before the time appointed by them, it was conceived by many wise and knowing men that the danger might have proved far greater, the disease, incurable. 26. For so it happened that the Carews, conceiving that the deferring of the execution of the plot thus laid might prove destructive to that cause, or otherwise fatally thrust on by their own ill destiny, began to levy men in Cornwall; which could not be so closely carried but that their purpose was discovered, and the chief of them forced to fly the kingdom. The news whereof gave such an alarm to the confederates, that they shewed themselves in several places before the people were prepared and made ready for them. Insomuch that the Duke of Suffolk, together with the Lord Thomas Gray and the Lord Leonard Gray, having made proclamation in divers places on the 25th of that month against the Queen’s intended marriage with the Prince of Spain, and finding that the people came not in so fast unto them as they did expect, were forced to dismiss their slender company, and shift for themselves, upon the first news that the Earl of Huntington was coming toward them with three hundred horse. An action very unfortunate to himself and to all his family; for, first, the Queen finding that she was to expect no peace or quiet as long as the Lady Jane was suffered to remain alive, caused her and the Lord Guilford Dudley to be openly executed on the 12th of February then next following. His daughter Katherine, formerly married to Henry Lord Herbert, eldest son to the Earl of Pembroke, (but the marriage by reason of her tender years not coming unto a consummation by carnal knowledge) was by him repudiated and east off, and a marriage presently made betwixt him and another Katherine, a daughter of George Earl of Shrewsbury. His brothers John and Thomas committed prisoners to the Tower; of which two, Thomas suffered death about two months after. And for himself, being compelled to hide his head in the house of one Underwood, whom he had preferred unto the keeping of one of his parks, he was by him most basely and treacherously betrayed to the said Earl of Huntington, on the 11th of February. Arraigned on the 17th of the same month, and beheaded on the twenty-third. 27. Nor fared it better with the rest, though they of Kent, conducted by Sir Thomas Wyat (the chief contriver of the plot), were suddenly grown considerable for their number, and quickly formidable for their power. The news of whose rising being swiftly posted to the court, the Duke of Norfolk was appointed to go against him, attended with few more than the Queen’s ordinary guards, and followed by 500 Londoners, newly raised and sent by water to Gravesend under the charge of Captain Alexander Bret. With which few forces he intended to assault the rebels, who had put themselves into Rochester Castle and fortified the bridge with some pieces of cannon. But being ready to fall on, Bret with his Londoners fell off to Wyat, and so necessitated the old Duke to return to London in great haste, accompanied by the Earl of Arundel and Sir Henry Jerningham with some few of their horse, leaving their foot, eight pieces of cannon, and all their ammunition belonging to them, in the power of the enemy. This brings the Queen to the Guildhall in London on the first of February, where she finds the Lord Mayor, the Aldermen, and many of the chief citizens in their several liveries. To whom she signified, “That she never did intend to marry but on such conditions as in the judgment of her Council should be found honorable to the realm and profitable to her subjects; that therefore they should give no credit to those many calumnies which Wyat and his accomplices, according to the guise of rebels, had purposely dispersed to defame both her and her government; but rather that they should contribute their best assistance for the suppressing of those who contrary to their duty were in arms against her.” And though she had as good as she brought, — that is to say fair promises for her gracious words — yet, understanding that many in the city held correspondence with the Kentish rebels, she appointed the Lord William Howard (whom afterward she created Lord Howard of Effingham) to be Lieutenant of the city, and Pembroke General of the field. The event shewed that she followed that counsel which proved best for her preservation; for had she trusted to the city, she had been betrayed. 28. Encouraged with this success, and confident of a strong party amongst the Londoners, on the third day of February he entereth Southwark, where he and his were finely feasted by the people. But when he hoped to have found the way open to the rest of the city, he found the drawbridge to be cut down, the bridge-gate to be shut, and the ordinance of the Tower bent against him, by the appointment and direction of the Lord Lieutenant. Two days he trifled out in Southwark to no purpose at all, more than the sacking of Winchester House and the defacing of the Bishop’s library there, unless it were to leave a document to posterity that God infatuates the counsels of those wretched men who traitorously take arms against their Princes. And, having liberally bestowed these two days upon the Queen, the better to enable her to provide for her safety, he wheels about on Sunday the sixth of the same month to Kingston Bridge. And though the bridge was broken down before his coming, and that the opposite shore was guarded by two hundred men, yet did he use such diligence that he removed away those forces, repaired the bridge, passed over both his men and cannon, and might in all probability have surprised both the court and city in the dead of the night, if the same spirit of infatuation had not rested on him. For, having marched beyond Brainford in the way towards London, without giving or taking the alarm, it happened that one of his great pieces was dismounted by the breach of its wheels. In the mending and mounting whereof he obstinately wasted so much time, notwithstanding all the persuasions which his friends could make unto him, that many of his men slipped from him, and some gave notice to the court, not only of his near approach, but also what his purpose was, and what had hindered him from putting it in execution. On this advertisement the Earl of Pembroke arms, and draws out his men to attend the motion of the rebels, who about ten of the clock came to Charing Cross, and without falling on the court, (which was then in very great amazement) turn up the Strand to Temple Bar, and so toward Ludgate, the Earl of Pembroke following and cutting him off in the arrear upon every turn. Coming to London, (when it was too late for his intendments,) he found the gates fast shut against him, and the Lord William Howard in as great a readiness to oppose him there as when he was before in Southwark. So that, being hemmed in on both sides without hope of relief, he yields himself to Sir Morris Berkley, is carried prisoner to the court, from thence committed to the Tower, arraigned at Westminster on the fifteenth of March, and executed on the eleventh of April, having first heard that no fewer than fifty of his accomplices were hanged in London, and Bret with twenty-two more in several places of Kent. 29. It cannot be denied but that the restitution of the reformed religion was the matter principally aimed at in their rebellion, though nothing but the match with Spain appeared on the outside of it. Which appears plainly by a book writ by Christopher Goodman (associated with John Knox, for setting up presbytery and rebellion in the Kirk of Scotland), in which he takes upon him to shew “How far superior magistrates ought to be obeyed.” For, having filled almost every chapter of it with railing speeches against the Queen, and stirring up the people to rebel against her, he falleth amongst the rest upon this expression, viz. “Wyat did but his duty, and it was but the duty of all others that profess the gospel to have risen with him for maintenance of the same. His cause was just, and they were all traitors that took not part with him. O noble Wyat! Thou art now with God, and those worthy men that died in that happy enterprise.” But this book was written at Geneva, where Calvin reigned: to whom no pamphlet could be more agreeable than such as did reproach this Queen; whom in his Comment upon Amos he entituleth by the name of Proserpine, and saith that she exceeded in her cruelties all the devils in hell. Much more it is to be admired that Dr John Poinet, the late Bishop of Winchester, should be of counsel in the plot, or put himself into their camp, and attend them to the place where the carriage brake. Where, when he could not work on Wyat to desist from that unprofitable labor in remounting the cannon, he counselled Vauhan, Bret, and others, to shift for themselves, took leave of his more secret friends, told them that he would pray for their good success, and so departed and took ship for Germany, where he after died. 30. The fortunate suppressing of these insurrections secured the Queen from any fear of the like dangers for the present. And thereupon it was advised to make use of the opportunity for putting the Church into a posture, when the spirits of the opposite party were so crushed and broken that no resistance could be looked for. Articles therefore are sent into every diocese, and letters writ unto the several and respective Bishops on the third of March, to see them carefully and speedily put in execution.

The tenor of which Articles was as followeth: (1) “THAT every Bishop and his officers, with all other having ecclesiastical jurisdiction, shall with all speed and diligence, and all manner of ways to them possible, put in execution all such canons and ecclesiastical laws heretofore in the time of King Henry the Eighth used within this realm of England and the dominions of the same, not being directly and expressly contrary to the laws and statutes of this realm. (2) That no Bishop or any his officer or other person hereafter in any of their ecclesiastical writings, in process or other extrajudicial acts, do use to put in this clause or sentence, Regia authoritate fulcitus. (3) That no Bishop nor any his officer or other person do hereafter exact or demand in the admission of any person to any ecclesiastical promotion, order, or office, any oath touching the primacy or succession, as of late [in] few years past hath been accustomed and used. (4) That every Bishop and his officers, with all other persons [aforesaid], have a vigilant eye, and use special diligence and foresight, that no person be admitted or received to any ecclesiastical function, benefice, or office, being a sacramen-tary, infected or defamed with any notable kind of heresy, or other great crime; and that the said Bishop do stay and cause to be stayed, as much as lieth in him, that benefices and ecclesiastical promotions do not notably decay or take hindrance by passing or confirming unreasonable leases. (5) That every Bishop and all other persons aforesaid do diligently travail for the repressing of heresies and notable crimes, especially in the Clergy, duly correcting and punishing the same. (6) That every Bishop and all other persons aforesaid do likewise travail for the condemning and repressing of corrupt and naughty opinions, unlawful books, ballads, and other pernicious and hurtful devices, engendering hatred and discord amongst the people. And that Schoolmasters, Teachers, and Preachers, do exercise and use their offices and duties, without teaching, preaching, or setting forth any evil and corrupt doctrine, and that doing the contrary they may be by the Bishop and his said officers punished and removed. (7) That every Bishop and all other persons aforesaid, proceeding summarily and with all celerity and speed, may and shall deprive or declare deprived, and remove according to their learning and discretion, all such persons from their benefices and ecclesiastical promotions, who contrary to the state of their order, and the laudable custom of the Church, have married and used women as their wives, or otherwise notably and slanderously disordered or abused themselves, sequestering also, during the said process, the fruits and profits of the said benefices and ecclesiastical promotions. (8) That the said Bishop and other persons aforesaid do use more lenity and clemency with such as have married whose wives be dead, than with others whose women do yet remain alive. And likewise such Priests as with the consent of their wives or women openly in the presence of the Bishop do profess to abstain, to be used more favorable. In which case, after the penance effectually done, the Bishop according to his discretion and wisdom may, upon just consideration, receive and admit them again to their former administrations, so it be not in the same place, appointing them such a portion to live upon, to be paid out of their benefice whereof they be deprived, by the discretion of the said Bishop or his officer, as he shall think may be spared of the same benefice. (9) That every Bishop and other person aforesaid do foresee that they suffer not any religious man, having solemnly professed chastity, to continue with his woman or wife, but that all such persons, after deprivation of their benefice or ecclesiastical promotion, be also divorced every one from his said woman, and due punishment otherwise taken for the offense therein. (10) Item, That every Bishop and all other persons aforesaid do take order and direction with the parishioners of every benefice where Priests do want, to repair to the next parish for Divine Service, or to appoint for a convenient time, till other better provision may be made, one Curate to serve alternis vicibus in divers parishes, and to allot the said Curate for his labor some part of the benefice which he so serveth. (11) That all and all manner of processions in the Church be used, frequented, and continued after the old order of the Church, in the Latin tongue. (12) That all such Holy Days and Fasting Days be observed and kept as were observed and kept in the latter time of King Henry the Eighth. (13) That the laudable and honest Ceremonies which were wont to be used, frequented, and observed in the Church, he hereafter frequented, used, and observed; and that children be christened by the Priest and confirmed by the Bishop as heretofore hath been accustomed and used. (14) Touching such persons as were heretofore promoted to any Orders after the new sort and fashion of Orders, considering they were not ordered in very deed, the Bishop of the diocese, finding otherwise sufficiency and ability in those men, may supply that thing which wanted in them before, [and] then according to his discretion admit them to minister. (15) That by the Bishop of the diocese an uniform doctrine be set forth, by Homilies or otherwise, for the good instruction and teaching of all people. And that the said Bishop and other persons aforesaid do compel the parishioners to come to their several churches, and there devoutly to hear Divine Service, as of reason they ought. (16) That they examine all Schoolmasters and Teachers of children, and finding them suspect in any wise, to remove them, and place Catholic men in their rooms, with a special commandment to instruct their children so as they may be able to answer the Priest at the Mass, and so help the Priest to mass, as hath been accustomed. (17) That the said Bishops and all other the persons aforesaid have such regard, respect, and consideration of and for the setting forth of the premises, with all kind of virtue, godly living, and good example, with repressing also and keeping under of vice and unthriftiness, as they and every of them may be seen to favor the restitution of true religion, and also to make an honest account and reckoning of their office and cure, to the honor of God, our good contentation, and profit of this our realm and the dominions of the same.” 31. The, generality of the people, not being well pleased before with the Queen’s proceedings, were startled more than ever at the noise of these Articles; none more exasperated than those whose either hands or hearts had been joined with Wyat. But not being able to prevail by open army, a new device is found out to befool the people, and bring them to a misconceit of the present government. A young maid called Elizabeth Crofts, about the age of eighteen years, was tutored to counterfeit certain speeches in the wall of a house not far from Aldersgate, where she was heard of many but seen of none, and, that her voice might be conceived to have somewhat in it more than ordinary, a strange whistle was devised for her, out of which her words proceeded in such a tone as seemed to have nothing mortal in it. And thereupon it was affirmed by some of the people (great multitudes whereof resorted daily to the place) that it was an angel, or at least a voice from heaven; by others, that it could be nothing but the Holy Ghost; but generally she passed by the name of the Spirit in the wall.

For the interpreting of whose words there wanted not some of the confederates, who mingled themselves by turns amongst the rest of the people, and, taking on them to expound what the spirit said, delivered many dangerous and seditious words against the Queen, her marriage with the Prince of Spain, the Mass, Confession, and the like. The practice was first set on foot on the 14th of March, which was within ten days after the publishing of the Articles, and for a while it went on fortunately enough, according to the purpose of the chief contrivers. But the abuse being searched into, and the plot discovered, the wench was ordered to stand upon a scaffold near St Paul’s Cross on the 15th of July, there to abide during the time of the Sermon, and that being done, to make a public declaration of that lewd imposture. Let not the Papists be from henceforth charged with Elizabeth Barton, whom they called the Holy Maid of Kent; since now the Zuinglian Gospellers (for I cannot but consider this as a plot of theirs) have raised up their Elizabeth Crofts, whom they called the Spirit in the wall, to draw aside the people from their due allegiance. 32. Wyat’s rebellion being quenched, and the realm in a condition capable of holding a parliament, the Queen convenes the Lords and Commons on the second of April; in which session the Queen’s marriage with the Prince of Spain, being offered unto consideration, was finally concluded and agreed unto upon these conditions, that is to say, — “That Philip should not advance any to any public office or dignity in England, but such as were natives of the realm, and the Queen’s subjects. That he should admit of a set number of English in his household, whom he should use respectively, and not suffer them to be injured by foreigners. That he should not transport the Queen out of England, but at her entreaty, nor any of the issue begotten by her, who should have their education in this realm, and should not be suffered but upon necessity and good reason to go out of the same, nor then neither but with the consent of the English. That, the Queen deceasing without children, Philip should not make any claim to the kingdom, but should leave it freely to him to whom of right it should belong. That he should not change any thing in the laws either public or private, nor the immunities and customs of the realm, but should be bound by oath to confirm and keep them. That he should not transport any jewels, nor any part of the wardrobe, nor alienate any of the revenues of the crown. That he should preserve our shipping, ordnance and munition, and keep the castles, forts, and block-houses in good repair, and well manned.

Lastly, That this match should not any way derogate from the league lately concluded between the Queen and the King of France, but that the peace between the English and the French should remain firm and inviolate.” 33. For the clearer carrying on this great business, and to encourage them for the performance of such further services as her occasions might require, the Queen was pleased to increase the number of her Barons. In pursuance whereof, she advanced the Lord William Howard, cousin german to Thomas Duke of Norfolk, to the title of Lord Howard of Effingham, on the eleventh of March, and elected him into the Order of the Garter within few months after; whose son called Charles, being Lord Admiral of England, and of no small renown for his success at the Isle of Gades, was by Queen Elizabeth created Earl of Nottingham, anno 1589. Next to him followed Sir John Williams, created Lord Williams of Tame on the fifth of April; who, dying without issue male, left his estate (though not his honors) betwixt two daughters; the eldest of whom, called Margaret, was married to Sir Henry Norris, whom Queen Elizabeth created Lord Norris of Ricot, in reference perhaps to his father’s suffering in the cause of her mother; from whom descended Francis Lord Norris, advanced by King James to the honors of Viscount Tame and Earl of Berkshire, by letters patents bearing date in January, anno 1620. After him, on the 7th of April, comes Sir Edward North, created Baron of Chartlege, in the county of Cambridge, who, having been Chancellor of the Court of Augmentations in the time of King Henry, and raised himself a fair estate by the fall of abbeys, was by the King made one of his executors, and nominated to be one of the great Council of estate in his son’s minority. Sir John Bruges brings up the rear, who, being descended from Sir John Chandois, a right noble Banneret, and from the Bottelers, Lords of Sudley, was made Lord Chandois of Sudley on the 8th of April; which goodly manor he had lately purchased of the crown, to which it was escheated on the death of Sir Thomas Seimour, anno 1549. The title still enjoyed, though but little else, by the seventh Lord of this name and family; most of the lands being dismembered from the house by the unparalleled imprudence (to give it no worse name) of his elder brother. 34. Some Bishops I find consecrated about this time also, to make the stronger party for the Queen in the House of Peers; — no more Sees actually voided at that time to make room for others, though many in a fair way to it; of which more hereafter. Hooper of Glocester, commanded to attend the Lords of the Council on the twenty-second of August, and committed prisoner not long after, was outed of his bishoprick immediately on the ending of the Parliament; in which all consecrations were declared to be void and null which had been made according to the ordinal of King Edward the Sixth. Into whose place succeeded James Brooks, Doctor in Divinity, sometimes Fellow of Corpus Christi and Master of Baliol College in Oxon; employed not long after as a delegate from the Pope of Rome in the proceedings against the Archbishop of Canterbury, whom he condemned to the stake. To Taylor (of whose death we have spoken before) succeeded Dr John White in the See of Lincoln; — first Schoolmaster and after Warden of the College near Winchester, to the Episcopal See whereof we shall find him translated anno 1556. The church of Rochester had been void ever since the removal of Dr Scory to the See of Chichester; not suffered to return to his former bishopric, though despoiled of the later: but it was now thought good to fill it, and Maurice Griffin, who for some years had been the Archdeacon, is consecrated Bishop of it on the first of April. One suffrage more was gained by the repealing of an Act of Parliament made in the last session of King Edward, for dissolving the Bishopric of Durham ; till which time Doctor Cuthbert Tunstall, though restored to his liberty, and possibly to a good part also of his churches patrimony, had neither suffrage as a Peer in the House of Parliament, nor could act any thing as a Bishop in his own jurisdiction. And with these consecrations and creations I conclude this year.

ANNO REGNI MAR. 2.

ANNO DOM. 1554, 1555. 1. THE next begins with the arrival of the Prince of Spain, wafted to England with a fleet of one hundred and sixty sail of ships, twenty of which were English, purposely sent to be his convoy, in regard of the wars not then expired betwixt the French and the Spaniards. Landing at Southampton on the 19th of July (on which day of the month in the year foregoing the Queen had been solemnly proclaimed in London) he went to Winchester with his whole retinue on the 24th, where he was received by the Queen with a gallant train of lords and ladies. Solemnly married the next day, being the festival of St James, (the supposed tutelary saint of the Spanish nation) by the Bishop of Winchester; at what time the Queen had passed the eight and thirtieth year of her age, and the Prince was but newly entered on his twenty-seventh. As soon as the marriage rites were celebrated, Higueroa, the Emperor’s Embassador, presented to the King a donation of the kingdoms of Naples and Cicily, which the Emperor his father had resigned unto him. Which presently was signified, and the titles of the King and Queen proclaimed by sound of trumpet in this following style — “Philip and Mary by the grace of God King and Queen of England, France, Naples, Jerusalem, Ireland, Defenders of the Faith; Princes of Spain and Cicily, Archdukes of Austria, Dukes of Millain, Burgundy, and Brabant, Counts of Ausperge, Flanders, and Tirroll, etc.” At the proclaiming of which style, (which was performed in French, Latin, and English) the King and Queen shewed themselves hand in hand, with two swords borne before them, for the greater state, or in regard of their distinct capacities in the public government. From Winchester they removed to Basing, and so to Windsor, where Philip on the 5th of August was installed Knight of the Garter, into the fellowship whereof he had been chosen the year before. From thence the court removed to Richmond by land, and so by water to Suffolk Place in the Borough of Southwark, and on the 12th of the same month made a magnificent passage through the principal streets of the City of London, with all the pomps accustomed at a coronation. The triumphs of which enter tainment had continued longer, if the court had not put on mourning for the death of the old Duke of Norfolk, who left this life at Framlingham Castle in the month of September, to the great sorrow of the Queen, who entirely loved him. 2. Philip, thus gloriously received, endeavored to shew his grandeur, to make the English sensible of the benefits which they were to partake of by this marriage, and to ingratiate himself with the nobility and people in all generous ways. To which end he caused great quantity of bullion to be brought into England, loaded in twenty carts, carrying amongst them twenty-seven chests, each chest containing a yard and some inches in length, conducted to the Tower on the second of October by certain Spaniards and Englishmen of his Majesty’s guard. And on the 29th of January then next following, ninety-nine horses and two carts, laden with treasures of gold and silver brought out of Spain, was conveyed through the city to the Tower of London under the conduct of Sir Thomas Gresham, the Queen’s merchant, and others. He prevailed also with the Queen for discharge of such prisoners as stood committed in the Tower, either for matter of religion, or on the account of Wyat’s rebellion, or for engaging in the practice of the Duke of Northumberland. And, being gratified therein according unto his desire, the Lord Chancellor, the Bishop of Ely, and certain others of the council were sent unto the Tower on the 18th of January, to see the same put in execution; which was accordingly performed, to the great joy of the prisoners, amongst which were the Archbishop of York, ten Knights, and many other persons of name and quality. But nothing did him greater honor amongst the English than the great pains he took for procuring the enlargement of the Earl of Devonshire and the. Princess Elizabeth, committed formerly on a suspicion of having had a hand in Wyat’s rebellion, though Wyat honestly disavowed it at the time of his death. It was about the feast of Easter that the Earl was brought unto the court, where having obtained the leave to travel for which before he had petitioned in vain, he passed the seas, crossed France, and came into Italy; but he found the air of Italy was as much too hot for him as that of England was too cold, dying at Padua in the year 1556 — the eleventh and last Earl of Devonshire of that noble family. About ten days after his enlargement followed that of the Princess Elizabeth, whose coming to the court, her entertainment with the Queen, and what else followed thereupon, we shall see hereafter. 3. But we have run ourselves too far upon these occasions, and therefore must look back again on that which followed more immediately on the King’s reception; the celebrating of whose marriage opened a fair way for the Cardinal’s coming, so long expected by the Queen and delayed by the Emperor: by whom retarded for a while when he was in Italy, and openly detained at Dilling, a town in Germany, as he was upon his way towards England. From thence he writes his letters of expostulation, representing to the Emperor the great scandal which must needs be given to the Church’s enemies, in detaining a Cardinal Legate, commissioned by his Holiness for the peace of Christendom and the regaining of a kingdom. Which notwithstanding, there he stayed till the articles of the marriage were agreed on by the Queen’s Commissioners, and is then suffered to advance as far as Brussels, upon condition that he should not pass over into England till the consummation of the marriage. The interim he spends in managing a treaty of peace betwixt the Emperor and the French; which sorted to no other effect but only to the setting forth of his dexterity in all public businesses. And now, the marriage being past, the Emperor is desired to give him leave to come for England; and Pole is called upon by letters from the King and Queen to make haste unto them, that they might have his presence and assistance in the following parliament; and in the mean time that they might advise upon such particulars as were to be agreed on for the honor and advantage of the see apostolic. Upon the Emperor’s dismission he repairs to Calais, but was detained by cross winds till the 24th of November; at which time we shall find the parliament sitting, and much of the business dispatched to his hand in in which he was to have been advised with. 4. The business then to be dispatched was of no small moment, — no less than the restoring of the Popes to the supremacy of which they had been dispossessed in the time of King Henry. For smoothing the way to which great work, it was thought necessary to fill up all episcopal sees which either death or deprivation had of late made vacant. Holgate, Archbishop of York, had been committed to the Tower on the 4th of October, anno 1553, from whence released upon Philip’s intercession on the 18th of January: marriage and heresy are his crimes, for which deprived during the time of his imprisonment. Doctor Nicholas Heath succeeded him in the see of York; and leaves the bishoprick of Worcester to Doctor Richard Pates, who had been nominated by King Henry the Eighth, anno 1534. and, having spent the intervening twenty years in the court of Rome, returned a true servant to the Pope, every way fitted and instructed to advance that See. Goodrick of Ely left his life on the 10th of April, leaving that bishoprick to Doctor Thomas Thurlby, Bishop of Norwich, (one that knew how to stand his ground in the strongest tempest); and Doctor John Hopton, heretofore Chaplain and Comptroller of Queen Mary’s household, when but Princess only, is made Bishop of Norwich. Barlow of Wells, having abandoned that dignity which he could not hold, had for his successor Doctor Gilbert Bourn, Archdeacon of London, and brother of Sir John Bourn, principal Secretary of Estate — sufficiently recompensed by this preferment for the great danger which he had incurred the year before, when the dagger was thrown at him as he preached in St Paul’s churchyard. Harley of Hereford is succeeded by Purefew (otherwise called Wharton) of St Asaph; who had so miserably wasted the patrimony of the Church in the time of King Edward that it was hardly worth the keeping. For the same sins of Protestantism and marriage, old Bush of Bristow and Bird of Chester (the two first Bishops of those Sees) were deprived also: the first succeeded to by Holiman, once a monk of Reading; the last by Cotes, sometimes Fellow of Magdalen and afterwards Master of Baliol College in Oxon.

Finally, in the place of Doctor Richard Sampson, Bishop of Coventry and Lichfield, who left this life on the 25th of September, Doctor Radolph Bayne, who had been Hebrew Reader in Paris in the time of King Francis, was consecrated Bishop of that church; a man of better parts but of a more inflexible temper than his predecessor. 5. And now the parliament begins, opened upon the 11th of November, and closed on the 16th of January then next following. It had been offered to consideration in the former session, that all acts made against the Pope in the reign of King Henry might be declared null and void, for the better encouragement of the Cardinal to come amongst us. But the Queen had neither eloquence enough to persuade, nor power enough to awe the parliament to that concession. Nothing more hindered the design than general fear that, if the Popes were once restored to their former power, the Church might challenge restitution of her former possessions; do but secure them from that fear, then Pope and Cardinals might come and welcome. And to secure them from that fear, they had not only the promise of the King and Queen, but some assurance underhand from the Cardinal Legate, Who knew right well that the church-lands had been so chopped and changed by the two last Kings as not to be restored without the manifest ruin of many of the nobility and most of the gentry who were invested in the same. Secured on both sides, they proceed according to the King’s desires, and pass a general Act for the repealing of all statutes which had been made against the power and jurisdiction of the Popes of Rome. But first they are to be intreated to it by the Legate himself; for the opening a way to whose reception, they prepared a bill by which he was to be discharged of the attaindure which had passed upon him in the year 1539, restored in blood, and rendered capable of enjoying all those rights and privileges which formerly he stood possessed of in this kingdom. For the passing of which bill into Act, the King and Queen vouchsafed their presence, as soon as it was fitted and prepared for them, not staying till the end of the session as at other times, because the business might not suffer such a long delay. 6. It was upon the 24th of November that the Cardinal came first to London, and had his lodgings in or near the court, till Lambeth-house could be made ready to receive him. Having reposed himself for a day or two, the Lords and Commons are required to attend their Majesties at the court, where the Cardinal, in a very grave and eloquent speech, first, gave them thanks for being restored unto his country; in recompense whereof he told them that he was come to restore them to the country and court of heaven, from which, by their departing from the Church, they had been estranged. He therefore earnestly exhorts them to acknowledge their errors, and cheerfully to receive that benefit which Christ was ready by his Vicar to extend unto them. His speech is said to have been long and artificial, but it concluded to this purpose — that he had the keys to open them a way into the Church, which they had shut against themselves by making so many laws to the dishonor and reproach of the see apostolic; on the revoking of which laws, they should find him ready to make use of his keys, in opening the doors of the Church unto them. It was concluded hereupon by both houses of parliament, that a petition should be made in the name of the kingdom, wherein should be declared how sorry they were that they had withdrawn their obedience from the apostolic see, and consenting to the statutes made against it; promising to do their best endeavor hereafter that the said laws and statutes should be repealed; and beseeching the King and Queen to intercede for them with his Holiness, that they may be absolved from the crimes and censures, and be received as penitent children into the bosom of the Church . 7. These things being thus resolved upon, both houses are called again to the court on St Andrew’s day; where, being assembled in the presence of the King and Queen, they were asked by the Lord Chancellor Gardiner, whether they were pleased that pardon should be demanded of the Legate, and whether they would return to the unity of the Church, and obedience of the Pope, supreme head thereof. To which when some cried yea, and the rest said nothing, their silence was taken for consent; and so the petition was presented to their Majesties in the name of the parliament. Which being publicly read, they arose, with a purpose to have moved the Cardinal in it; who, meeting their desires, declared his readiness in giving them that satisfaction which they would have craved. And, having caused the authority given him by the Pope to be publicly read, he shewed how acceptable the repentance of a sinner was in the sight of God, and that the very angels in heaven rejoiced at the conversion of this kingdom .

Which said, they all kneeled upon their knees, and imploring the mercy of God, received absolution for themselves and the rest of the kingdom; which absolution was pronounced in these following words: — “Our Lord Jesus Christ, which with his most precious blood hath redeemed and washed us from all our sins and iniquities, that he might purchase unto himself a glorious spouse, without spot or wrinkle; and whom the Father hath appointed Head over all his Church, — He by his mercy absolve you. And we by apostolic authority, given unto us by the most holy Lord Pope Julius the third, his vicegerent here on earth, do absolve and deliver you and every of you, with the whole realm and the dominions thereof, from all heresy and schism, and from all and every judgment, censure, and pain, for that cause incurred. And also we do restore you again unto the unity of our mother the holy Church, as in our letters more plainly it shall appear; in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost.” 8. Which words of his being seconded with a loud Amen by such as were present, he concluded the day’s work with a solemn procession to the chapel, for rendering prayers and thanks to Almighty God. And because this great work was wrought on St Andrew’s day, the Cardinal procured a decree or canon to be made in the convocation of the Bishops and Clergy, that from thenceforth the feast of St Andrew should be kept in the Church of England for a majus duplex, as the rituals call it, and celebrated with as much solemnity as any other in the year. It was thought fit also that the actions of the day should be communicated on the Sunday following, being the second of December, at St Paul’s cross, in the hearing of the Lord Mayor, Aldermen, and the rest of the city. According to which appointment, the Cardinal went from Lambeth by water, and, landing at St Paul’s wharf, from thence proceeded to the church, with a cross, two pillars, and two pole-axes of silver borne before him. Received by the Lord Chancellor with a solemn procession, they tarried till the King came from Westminster; immediately upon whose coming the Lord Chancellor went into the pulpit, and preached upon those words of St Paul, Romans 13:Fratres scientes quia hora est jam nos de somno surgere, etc. In which sermon he declared what had been done on the Friday before, in the submission which was made to the Pope by the Lords and Commons in the name of themselves and the whole kingdom, and the absolution granted to them by the Cardinal in the name of the Pope . Which done, and prayers being made for the whole estate of the Catholic Church, the company was for that time dismissed. And on the Thursday after, being the feast of St Nicholas day, the Bishops and Clergy, then assembled in their convocation, presented themselves before the Cardinal at Lambeth, and, kneeling reverently on their knees, they obtained pardon for all their perjuries, schisms, and heresies: from which a formal absolution was pronounced also, that so all sorts of people might partake of the Pope’s benediction, and thereby testify their obedience and submission to him. The news whereof being speedily posted over to the Pope, he caused not only many solemn processions to be made in Rome and most parts of Italy, but proclaimed a jubilee to be held on the 24th of December then next coming.

For the anticipating of which solemnity he alleged this reason — that it became him to imitate the father of the prodigal child; and, having received his lost son, not only to express a domestical joy, but to invite all others to partake thereof. 9. During this parliament was held a convocation also, as before was intimated, Bonner continuing president of it, and Henry Cole, Archdeacon of Ely, admitted to the office of Prolocutor. They knew well how the cards were played, and that the Cardinal was to be entreated not to insist on the restoring of church-lands, — rather to confirm the lords and gentry in their present possessions. And to that end, a petition is prepared to be presented in the name of the convocation to both their Majesties, that they would please to intercede with the Cardinal in it. Which petition being not easy to be met withal, and never printed heretofore, is here subjoined, according to the tenor and effect thereof in the Latin tongue. “WE the Bishops and Clergy of the province of Canterbury, assembled in convocation during the sitting of this parliament, according to the ancient custom, with all due reverence and humility do make known to your Majesties, that, though we are appointed to take upon us the care and charge of all those churches in which we are placed as Bishops, Deans, Archdeacons, Parsons, or Vicars, as also of the souls therein committed to us, together with all goods, rights and privileges, thereunto belonging, according to the true intent and meaning of the canons made in that behalf; and that in this respect we are bound to use all lawful means for the recovery of those goods, rights, privileges, and jurisdictions which have been lost in the late desperate and pernicious schism, and to regain the same unto the Church, as in her first and right estate; yet notwithstanding, having took mature deliberation of the whole matter amongst ourselves, we cannot but ingenuously confess, that we know well how difficult a thing, if not impossible, it is, to recover the said goods unto their churches, in regard of the manifold unavoidable contracts, sales, and alienations, which have been made about the same; and that if any such thing should be attempted, it would not only redound to the disturbance of the public peace, but be a means that the unity of the Catholic Church, which by the goodness of your Majesties had been so happily begun, could not obtain its desired effect, without very great difficulty. Wherefore, preferring the public good and quiet of the kingdom before our own private commodities, and the salvation of so many souls, redeemed with the precious blood of Christ, before any earthly things whatsoever, and not seeking our own, but the things of Jesus Christ, — we do most earnestly and most humbly beseech your Majesties, that you would graciously vouchsafe to intercede in our behalf with the most reverend father in God, the Lord Cardinal Pole, Legate a latere from his Holiness, our most serene Lord Pope Julius the Third, as well to your most excellent Majesties as to the whole realm of England, that he would please to settle and confirm the said goods of the Church, either in whole or in part, as he thinks most fit, on the present occupants thereof, according to the powers and faculties committed to him by the said most serene Lord the Pope; thereby preferring the public good before the private, the peace and tranquillity of the realm before suits and troubles, and the salvation of souls before earthly treasures. And for our parts, we do both now and for all times coming give consent to all and every thing which by the said Lord Legate shall in this case be finally ordained and concluded on; humbly beseeching your Majesties, that you would graciously vouchsafe to persuade the said Lord Cardinal in our behalf, not to shew himself in the premises too strict and difficult. And we do further humbly beseech your Majesties, that you would please, according to your wonted goodness, to take such course that our ecclesiastical rights, liberties, and jurisdictions, which have been taken from us by the iniquity of the former times, and without which we are not able to discharge our common duties, either in the exercise of the pastoral office or the cure of souls committed to our trust and care, may be again restored unto us, and be perpetually preserved inviolable both to us and our Churches; and that all laws which have been made to the prejudice of this our jurisdiction, and other ecclesiastical liberties, or otherwise have proved to the hindrance of it, may be repealed, to the honor of God, as also to the temporal and spiritual profit, not only of your said most excellent Majesties, but of all the realm; giving ourselves assured hope, that your most excellent Majesties, according to your singular piety to Almighty God [and] for so many and great benefits received from him, will not be wanting to the necessities of the kingdom, and the occasions of the Churches having cure of souls, but that you would consider and provide as need shall be, for the peace thereof.” 10. Which petition, being thus drawn up, was humbly offered to the Legate, in the name of the whole convocation, by the Lord Chancellor, (who was present at the making of it) the Prolocutor, and six others of the lower house. And it may very well be thought to be welcome to him, in regard it gave him some good color for not touching on so harsh a string as the restoring of church-lands. Concerning which he was not ignorant that a message had been sent to the Pope in the name of the parliament, to desire a confirmation of the sale of the lands belonging to abbeys, chantries, etc., or otherwise to let him know that nothing could be granted in his behalf. And it is probable that they received some fair promises to that effect, in regard that on the new-year’s day then next following the Act for restoring the Pope’s supremacy was passed in both houses of parliament, and could not but be entertained for one of the most welcome new-year’s gifts which ever had been given to a Pope of Rome. What the Pope did in retribution, we are told by Sleidan; in whom we find that he confirmed all those Bishops in their several sees which were of Catholic persuasions, and had been consecrated in the time of the schism, as also that he established such new bishopricks which were erected in the time of King Henry the Eighth, and made good all such marriages as otherwise might be subject unto dispute. He adds a confirmation also, (which I somewhat doubt) of the abbey-lands, and telleth that all this was ratified by the bull of Pope Paul the Fourth. He dispensed also, by the hand of the Cardinal, with irregularity in several persons, confirmed the ordination and institution of Clergymen in their callings and benefices, legitimated the children of forbidden marriages, and ratified the processes and sentences in matters ecclesiastical. Which general favors notwithstanding, every Bishop in particular, (except only the Bishop of Landaff), most humbly sought and obtained pardon of the Pope for their former error, not thinking themselves to be sufficiently secured by any general dispensation, how large soever. And so the whole matter being transacted to the content of all parties (the poor Protestants excepted only), on Friday the twenty-fifth of January, being the feast of the Conversion of Saint Paul, there was a general and solemn procession throughout London, to give God thanks for their conversion to the Catholic Church. Wherein (to set out their glorious pomp) were ninety crosses, one hundred sixty Priests and Clerks, each of them attired in his cope; and after them eight Bishops in their pontificalibus, followed by Bonner, carrying the popish pix under a canopy, and attended by the Lord Mayor and companies in their several liveries. Which solemn procession being ended, they all returned into the church of St Paul, where the King and Cardinal, together with all the rest, heard mass; and the next day the parliament and convocation were dissolved. 11. Nothing now rested but the sending of a solemn embassy, in the name of the King and kingdom, to the court of Rome, for testifying their submission to his Holiness and receiving his apostolical benediction. To which employment were designed Sir Anthony Brown, who on the second of September had been created Viscount Montacute, in regard of his descent from Sir John Nevil, whom King Edward the Fourth advanced unto the title of Marquess Montacute, as being the second son of Richard Nevil Earl of Salisbury, and Alice his wife, daughter and heir of Thomas Montacute, the last and most renowned Earl of Salisbury of that name and family. With whom was joined in commission, as another Embassador extraordinary, Dr Thomas Thurlby, Bishop of Ely, together with Sir Edward Karn, appointed to reside as ordinary in the papal court. On the eighteenth day of February they began their journey, but found so great an alteration when they came to Rome, that Pope Julius was not only dead, but that Marcellus, who succeeded him, was deceased also; so that the honor and felicity of this address from the King of England devolved on Cardinal Caraffa, (no great friend of Pole’s), who took unto himself the name of Paul the Fourth; on the first day of whose papacy it chanced that the three Embassadors came first to Rome. It was in the first consistory also after his inauguration, that the Embassadors were brought before him; where, prostrating themselves at the Pope’s feet, they in the name of the kingdom acknowledged the faults committed, relating them all in particular, (for so the Pope was pleased to have it), confessing that they had been ungrateful for so many benefits received from the Church, and humbly craving pardon for it. The pardon was not only granted, and the Embassadors lovingly embraced, but, as an overplus, the Pope was pleased to honor their Majesties with the title of Kings of Ireland. Which title he conferred upon them by the authority which the Popes pretend to have from God in erecting and subverting kingdoms. He knew right well that Ireland had been erected into a kingdom by King Henry the Eighth, and that both Edward the Sixth and the Queen now reigning had always used the title of Kings of Ireland in the style imperial; but he conceived himself not bound to take notice of it, or to relinquish any privilege which had been exercised in that kind by his predecessors. And thereupon he found out this temperament, — that is to say, to dissemble his knowledge of that which had been done by Henry, and of himself to erect the island into a kingdom; that so the world might be induced to believe, that the Queen rather used that title as indulged by the Pope, than as assumed by her father. And this he did according to a secret mystery of government in the Church of Rome, in giving that which they could not take from the possessor; as on the other side some Kings, to avoid contentions, have received of them their own proper goods, as gifts; and others have dissembled the knowledge of the gift, and the pretense of the giver. 12. These things being thus dispatched in public, the Pope had many private discourses with the Embassadors, in which he found fault that the church-goods were not wholly restored — saying that by no means it was to be tolerated, and that it was necessary to render all, even to a farthing.

He added, that the things which belong to God could never be applied to human uses, and that he who withholdeth the least part of them was in continual state of damnation; that if he had power to grant them, he would do it most readily, for the fatherly affection which he bare unto them, and for the experience which he had of their filial obedience; but that his authority was not so large as to profane things dedicated to Almighty God; and therefore he would have the people of England be assured, that these church-lands would be an anathema, or an accursed thing, which by the just revenge of God would keep the kingdom in perpetual infelicity. And of this he charged the Embassadors to write immediately, not speaking it once or twice only, but repeating itupon all occasions. He also told them that the Peter-pence ought to be paid as soon as might be, and that according to the custom he would send a collector for that purpose, — letting them know that himself had exercised that charge in England, for three years together, and that he was much edified by seeing the forwardness of the people in that contribution. The discourse upon which particular he closed with this, that they could not hope that St Peter would open to them the gates of heaven, as long as they usurped his goods on earth. To all which talk the Embassadors could not choose but give a hearing, and knew that they should get no more at their coming home. 13. At their departure out of England, they left the Queen in an opinion of her being with child, and doubted not but that they should congratulate her safe delivery when they came to render an account of their employment; but it proved the contrary. The Queen about three months after her marriage began to find strong hopes, not only that she had conceived, but also that she was far gone with child. Notice whereof was sent by letters to Bonner from the Lords of the Council, by which he was required to cause Te Deum to be sung in all the churches of his diocese, with continual prayers to be made for the Queen’s safe delivery. And for example to the rest, these commands were executed first on the 28th of November, Dr Chadsey, one of the Prebends of Paul’s, preaching at the cross in the presence of the Bishop of London and nine other Bishops, the Lord Mayor and Aldermen attending in their scarlet robes, and many of the principal citizens in their several liveries. Which opinion gathering greater strength with the Queen and belief with the people, it was enacted by the Lords and Commons, then sitting in parliament, “That if it should happen to the Queen otherwise than well in the time of her travail, that then the King should have the politic government, order, and administration of this realm, during the tender years of her Majesty’s issue, together with the rule, order, education and government of the said issue. Which charge as he was pleased to undergo at their humble suit, so they were altogether as forward to confer it on him; not doubting but that during the time of such government he would by all ways and means study, travail, and employ himself to advance the weal both public and private of this realm, and dominions thereunto belonging, according to the trust reposed in him, with no less good-will and affection than if his Highness had been naturally born amongst us.” Set forms of prayers were also made for her safe delivery, and one particularly by Weston, the Prolocutor of the first Convocation; in which it was prayed, “That she might in due season bring forth a child, in body beautiful and comely, in mind noble and valiant. So that she forgetting the trouble, might with joy laud and praise,” etc.

Great preparations were also made of all things necessary against the time of her delivery, which was supposed would fall out about Whitsuntide, in the month of June, even to the procuring of midwives, nurses, rockers, and the cradle too. And so far the hopes thereof were entertained, that on a sudden rumor of her being delivered the bells were rung and bonfires made in most parts of London. The like solemnities were used at Antwerp, by discharging all the ordnance in the English ships; for which the mariners were gratified by the Queen Regent with one hundred pistolets. In which, as all of them seemed to have a spice of madness in them, so none was altogether so wild as the curate of St Ann’s near Aldersgate, who took upon him after the end of the procession to describe the proportion of the child, how fair, how beautiful, and great a Prince it was, the like whereof had never been seen. 14. But so it happened, that notwithstanding all these triumphs, it proved in fine that the Queen neither was with child at the present, nor had any hopes of being so for the time to come. By some it was conceived that this report was raised upon policy only, to hold her up in the affection of her husband and the love of her subjects; by others, that she had been troubled with a timpany, which not only made her belly swell, but by the windiness of the disease possessed her with a fancy of her being quick. And some again have left in writing, that, having had the misfortune of a false conception, which bred in her a fleshy and informed substance, by the physicians called a Mola, the continual increase thereof, and the agitation it made in her, occasioned her to believe what she most desired, and to report what she believed. But this informed lump being taken from her, with no small difficulty, did not only turn her supposed joy to shame and sorrow, but made much game amongst some of the Zuinglian gospellers, (for I cannot think, that any true English Protestant could make sport thereat); who were so far from desiring that the Queen should have any issue to succeed in the throne, that they prayed God by shortening her days to deprive her of it. Insomuch that one Rose, the minister to a private congregation in Bow church-yard, did use to pray, “that God would either turn her heart from idolatry, or else shorten her days.” On which occasion, and some others of the like ill nature, an Act was made in the said Parliament for punishing of traiterous words against the Queen; in which it was enacted, That the said prayers, and all others of the like mischievous quality, should be interpreted to be high treason against the Queen. The like exorbitances I find too frequent in this Queen’s reign; to which some men were so transported by a furious zeal, that a gun was shot at one Doctor Pendleton, as he preached at St Paul’s Cross on Sunday the 10th of June, anno 1554, the pellet whereof went very near him; but the gunner was not to be heard of. Which occasioned the Queen to publish a Proclamation within few days after, prohibiting the shooting of hand-guns and the bearing of weapons. Before which time, that is to say, on the 8th of April, some of them had caused a cat to be hanged upon a gallows near the Cross in Cheapside, with her head shorn, the likeness of a vestment cast upon her, and her two fore-feet tied together, holding between them a piece of paper in the form of a wafer. Which, tending so apparently to the disgrace of the religion then by law established, was shewed the same day, being Sunday, at St Paul’s Cross, by the said Doctor Pendleton; which possibly might be the sole reason of the mischief so desperately intended to him. 15. Such were the madnesses of those people; but the orthodox and sober Protestant[s] shall be brought to a reckoning, and forced to pay dearly for the follies of those men, which it was not in their powers to hinder. The governors of the Church exasperated by these provocations, and the Queen charging Wyatt’s rebellion on the Protestant party, she both agreed on the reviving of some ancient statutes made in the time of King Richard the Second, King Henry the Fourth, and King Henry the Fifth, for the severe punishment of obstinate heretics, even to death itself. Which Act being passed, the three great Bishops of the time were not alike minded for putting it in execution. The Lord Cardinal was clearly of opinion, that they should rest themselves contented with the restitution of their own religion; that the said three statutes should be held forth for a terror only, but that no open persecution should be raised upon them; — following therein, as he affirmed, the counsel sent unto the Queen by Charles the Emperor, at her first coming to the Crown; by whom she was advised to create no trouble unto any man for matter of conscience, but to be warned unto the contrary by his example, who, by endeavoring to compel others to his own religion, had tired and spent himself in vain, and purchased nothing by it but his own dishonor. But the Lord Chancellor Gardiner could not like of this; to whom it seemed to be all one never to have revived the said three statutes as not to see them put in execution. That some blood should be drawn in case of refractoriness and an incorrigible non-conformity, he conceived most necessary. But he would have the axe laid only to the root of the tree, — the principal supporters of the heretics to be taken away, whether they were of the ecclesiastical hierarchy, or the lay-nobility; and some of the more pragmatical preachers to be cut off also; the rest of the people to be spared, as they who merely did depend on the power of the other. Let but the shepherds be once smitten, and the whole flock will presently be scattered, without further trouble. 16. “Well then,” said Bonner to himself, “I see the honor of this work is reserved for me, who neither fear the Emperor’s frowns nor the people’s curses.” Which having said, (as if he had been pumping for a resolution) he took his times so to make it known unto the other two, that he perceived they were as willing as himself to have the Catholic religion entertained in all parts of the kingdom, though neither of them seemed desirous to act any thing in it, or take the envy on himself; that he was well enough pleased with that reservedness, hoping they did not mean it for a precedent unto him or others who had a mind to shew their zeal and forwardness in the Catholic cause. “Have I not seen,” saith he, “that the heretics themselves have broke the ice, in putting one of their own number — (I think they called him by the name of Servetus) — to a cruel death? Could it be thought no crime in them to take that more severe course against one of their brethren, for holding any contrary doctrine from that which they had publicly agreed amongst them? And can they be so silly, or so partial rather, as to reckon it for a crime in us, if we proceed against them with the like severity, and punish them by the most extreme rigour of their own example? I plainly see, that neither you, my Lord Cardinal, nor you, my Lord Chancellor, have any answer to return to my present argument, — which is sufficient to encourage me to proceed upon it. I cannot act canonically against any of them but such as live within the compass of my jurisdiction, in which I shall desire no help nor countenance from either of you. But as for such as live in the diocese of Canterbury, or that of Winchester, or otherwise not within my reach, in what place soever, let them be sent for up by order from the Lords of the Council, committed to the Tower, the Fleet, or any other prison within my diocese. And when I have them in my clutches, let God do so and more to Bonner, if they scape his fingers.” 17. The persecution thus resolved on, home goes the bloody executioner, armed with as much power as the law could give him, and backed by the authority of so great a King, taking some other of the Bishops to him, convents before him certain of the preachers of King Edward’s time, who formerly had been committed to several prisons; of whom it was demanded, whether they would stand to their former doctrines, or accept the Queen’s pardon and recant? To which it was generally and stoutly answered, That they would stand unto their doctrines. Hereupon followed that inquisition for blood which raged in London and more or less was exercised in most parts of the kingdom. The first that led the way was Mr John Rogers, a right learned man, and a great companion of that Tyndal by whom the Bible was translated into English in the time of King Henry: after whose martyrdom, not daring to return into his own country, he retired to Wittemberge in the Dukedom of Saxony, where he remained till King Edward’s coming to the Crown, and was by Bishop Ridley preferred to the Lecture of St Paul’s, and made one of the Prebendaries. Nothing the better liked of for his patron’s sake, he was convented and condemned, and publicly burnt in Smithfield on the 4th of February. On the 9th day of which month another fire was kindled at Glocester for the burning of Mr John Hooper, the late Bishop thereof, of whom sufficient hath been spoke in another place; condemned amongst the rest at London, but appointed to be burnt in Glocester, as the place in which he most had sinned by sowing the seeds of false doctrine amongst the people. The news whereof being brought unto him, he rejoiced exceedingly, in regard of that excellent opportunity which was thereby offered for giving testimony by his death to the truth of that doctrine which had so oft sounded in their ears, and now should be confirmed by the sight of their eyes. The warrant for whose burning was in these words following, as I find it in the famous library of Sir Robert Cotton. “WHEREAS John Hooper, who of late was called Bishop of Worcester and Glocester, is by due order of the laws ecclesiastical condemned and judged for a most obstinate, false, detestable heretic, and committed to our secular power to be burned, according to the wholesome and good laws of our realm in that case provided; forasmuch as in those cities and the dioceses thereof he hath in times past preached and taught most pestilent heresies and doctrine to our subjects there: — We have therefore given order, that the said Hooper, who yet persisteth obstinate, and hath refused mercy when it was graciously offered, shall be put to execution in the said city of Glocester, for the example and terror of others, such as he hath there seduced and mis-taught, and because he hath done most harm there. And will that you, calling [un] to you some of reputation, dwelling in the shire, such as you think best, shall repair unto our said city, and be at the said execution, assisting our Mayor and Sheriffs of the same city in this behalf. And forasmuch [also] as the said Hooper is, as heretics [be], a vain-glorious person, and delighted in his tongue, to persuade such as he hath seduced to persist in the miserable opinions that he hath sown amongst them, our pleasure is therefore, and we. require you to take order, that the said Hooper be neither at the time of his execution, nor in going to the place there [of], suffered to speak at large, but thither to be led quietly and in silence, for eschewing of further infection and such inconveniency as may otherwise ensue in this part. Whereof fail ye not, as ye tender our pleasure, etc.” 18. The like course was also taken with Bishop Farrar; but that I do not find him restrained from speaking his mind unto the people, as the other was. A man of an implausible nature, which rendered him the less agreeable to either side; cast into prison by the Protestant, and brought out to his death and martyrdom by the Popish party. Being found in prison at the death of King Edward, he might have fared as well as any of his rank and order, who had no hand in the interposing for Queen Jane, if he had governed himself with that discretion, and given such fair and moderate answers, as any man in his condition might have honestly done. But, being called before Bishop Gardiner, he behaved himself so proudly, and gave such offense, that he was sent back again to prison and after condemned for an obstinate heretic. But for the sentence of his condemnation he was sent into his own diocese, there to receive it at the hand of Morgan, who had supplanted and succeeded him in the see of St David’s. Which cruel wretch, having already took possession, could conceive no way safer for his future establishment than by imbruing his hands in the blood of this learned prelate, and to make sure with him for ever claiming a restitution or coming in by a remitter to his former estate; in reference whereunto he passed sentence on him, caused him to be delivered to the civil magistrate, not desisting till he had brought him to the stake on the third of March — more glad to see him mounting unto heaven in a fiery chariot than once Elisha was on the like translation of the prophet Elijah. I shall say nothing in this place of the death and martyrdom of Dr Rowland Taylor, rector of Hadley in the county of Hartford, and there also burned, February 9. Or of John Cardmaker, Chancellor of the Church of Wells, who suffered the like death in London on the last of May. Or of Laurence Sanders, an excellent preacher, martyred at Coventry, where he had spent the greatest part of his ministry; who suffered in the same month also, but three weeks sooner than the other. Or of John Bradford, a right holy man and diligent preacher, condemned by Bonner, and brought unto the stake in Smithfield on the first of July; though he had deserved better of that bloody butcher, (but that no courtesy can oblige a cruel and ungrateful person) in saving the life of Doctor Bourn his chaplain, as before was shewed. Or, finally, of any of the rest of the noble army of the martyrs who fought the Lord’s battles in those times; only I shall insist on three of the principal leaders, and take a short view of the rest in the general muster.

ANNO REGNI MAR. 3.

ANNO DOM. 1555, 1556. 1. BEING resolved to waive the writing of a martyrology, which is done already to my hand in the Acts and Monuments, I shall insist only upon three of the most eminent rank, that is to say, Archbishop Cranmer, Bishop Latimer, and Bishop Ridley — men of renown, never to be forgotten in the Church of England. Of whom there hath so much been said in the course of this History, that nothing need be added more than the course of their sufferings. Committed to the Tower by several warrants and at several times, they were at once dis charged from the Tower of London on the 10th of April anno 1554, removed from thence to Windsor, and at last to Oxon, where they were to combat for their lives. A combat not unlike to that of St Paul at Ephesus, where he is said to “fight with beasts after the manner of men;” the disputation being managed so tumultuously with shouts and outcries, and so dis orderly, without rule or modesty, as might make it no un-proper parallel to St Paul’s encounter. The persons against whom they were to enter the lists were culled out of the ablest men of both Universities, commissionated to dispute, and authorized to sit as judges. And then what was to be expected by the three respondents, but that their opposites must have the better of the day, who could not be supposed to have so little care of their own reputation as to pass sentence on them selves? Out of the University of Oxon were selected Dr Weston, Prolocutor of the Convocation then in being, Dr Tresham, Dr Cole, Dr Oylthorp, Dr Pie, Mr Harpsfield, and Mr Fecknam; with whom were joined by the Lord Chancellor Gardiner, (who had the nomination of them) Dr Young, Vice-Chancellor of Cambridge, Dr Glyn, Dr Seaton, Dr Watson, Dr Sedgewick, and Dr Atkinson, of the same University. 2. The questions upon which the disputants were to try their fortune related to the Sacrament of the blessed Eucharist, and were these that follow. 1. “Whether the natural body and blood of Christ be really in the Sacrament, after the words spoken by the priest, or no? 2. Whether in the Sacrament, after the words of consecration, any other substance do remain than the substance of the body and blood of Christ? 3. Whether [in] the mass be a sacrifice propitiatory for the sins of the quick and the dead?”

Which having been propounded in the convocation at Cambridge, and there concluded in such manner as had been generally maintained in the schools at Rome, the Vice-Chancellor and the rest of the disputants which came from thence could have no power to determine otherwise in the points, when they should come to sit as judges. Nor is it to be thought but that as well the Cambridge as the Oxon disputants came well prepared, studied and versed in those arguments on which they intended to insist; having withal the helps of books and of personal conference, together with all other advantages which might flatter them with the hopes of an easy victory. But on the other side, the three defendants had but two days of preparation allotted to them, — debarred of all access unto one another, not suffered to enjoy the use of their own books and papers, and kept in such uncomfortable places as were but little different from the common dungeons. But out they must to try their fortune, there being no other choice left them but to fight or yield; and, which made most to the advantage of the other side, they were to try their for tune single, each of them destinated to a several day, so that they could not contribute to the assistance of one another, if their occasions had required it. Cranmer begins on the 16th of April, Ridley succeeds upon the next, and Latimer brings up the arrear on the morrow after; each man an army in himself, and to encounter with an army, as the cause was managed. 3. At the first meeting, when the questions were to be propounded and disputed on, Weston, by reason of his place, entertains the auditory with a short oration, wherein he was to lay before them the cause of their assembling at that place and time. But such was his ill luck as to stumble at that very threshold, and to conclude against himself in the very first opening of the disputation, which he is said to have begun in these following words — Convenistis bodie, fratres, profligaturi detestandam illam Haresin de veritate corpotis Christi in Sacramento , etc. — That is to say, “Ye are assembled hither, brethren, this day, to confound that detestable heresy of the verity of the body of Christ in the Sacrament ,” etc. Which gross mistake occasioned no small shame in some, but more laughter in many. It was observed of him also, that during the whole time of the disputation he had always a cup of wine or some other strong liquor standing by him, and that, having once the pot in his hand when an argument was urged by one of the disputants which he very well liked of, he cried aloud to him, Urge hoc, urge hoc, nam hoc facit pro nobis . Which being applied by some of the spectators to his pot of drink, occasioned more sport and merriment than his first mistake. But let them laugh that win, as the proverb hath it; and Weston is resolved to win the race, whosoever runs best. The tumult and disorder of this disputation hath been touched before, and may be seen at large, with all the arguments and answers of either side, in the Acts and Mon. Suffice it in this place to know, that, having severally made good their appointed days, they were all called together on Friday the 20th of that month, Weston then sitting with the rest in the nature of judges. By whom they were demanded, whether they would subscribe or not? which when they had severally refused to do, their sentence was pronounced by the prolocutor in the name of the rest; in which they were declared to be no members of the Church, and that therefore they, their patrons and followers, were condemned as heretics. In the reading whereof they were again severally asked whether they would turn or not; to which they severally answered, “Read on in God’s name,” for they were resolved not to turn. And so the sentence being pronounced, they were returned again to their several prisons, there to expect what execution would ensue upon it. 4. And execution there was none to ensue upon it, till the end of the Session of Parliament then next following, because till then there was no law in force for putting heretics to death as in former times. During which interval they exercised themselves in their private studies, or in some godly meditations, writing consolatory letters unto such of their friends as were reduced by the iniquity of the times to the like extremity; amongst which as they understood their dear brother Mr John Hooper, Bishop of Glocester, to have been marked out for the slaughter, so that intelligence revived in Bishop Ridley’s thoughts the remembrance of that controversy which had been between them concerning the episcopal habit in the time of King Edward. There is no question to be made but that they had forgotten and forgiven that quarrel long before; yet Ridley did not think he had done enough, if he left not to the world some testimony of their mutual charity, as well as their consent in doctrine, such as might witness to the world, that they maintained “the spirit of unity in the bond of peace.” Concerning which he writes to him in this manner following, viz. — “But now my dear brother, forasmuch as I understand by your books, which I have but superficially seen, that we throughly agree, and wholly consent together in those things which are the grounds and substantial points of our religion, against the which the world so furiously rageth in these our days, howsoever in times past in certain by-matters and circumstances of religion, your wisdom and my simplicity (I must confess) have a little jarred, each of us following the abundance of his own spirit; — now I say be assured, that even with my whole heart, God is my witness, in the bowels of Christ I love you in the truth, and for the truth’s sake which abideth in us, as I am persuaded, and by the grace of God shall abide in us for evermore. And because the world, as I perceive, brother, ceaseth not to play his pageant, and busily conspireth against Christ our Savior, with all possible force and power, exalting high things against the knowledge of God: let us join hands together in Christ, and if we cannot overthrow, yet to our power, and as much as in us lieth, let us shake those high altitudes, not with carnal, but with spiritual weapons; and withal, brother, let us prepare ourselves to the day of [our] dissolution, by the which, after the short time of this bodily affliction, by the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, we shall triumph together with Him, in eternal glory.” 5. Comforted with reciprocal letters of this holy nature, they both prepared themselves for death, in which Hooper had the honor to lead the way, as being more in Bonner’s eye when the Act passed for reviving the Statutes before mentioned in the case of Heresy. But Hooper having led the way, and many other godly and religious men following the same track which he had made, it came at last unto the turn of these reverend Prelates to pass through the same red sea to the Land of Promise. In order whereunto, a commission is directed from the Pope to Dr James Brooks, Bishop of Glocester, by which he is authorized, as subdelegate to his Holiness, to proceed in the cause of Thomas Cranmer, Archbishop of Canterbury. The like commission is directed to Dr Martin and Dr Story, to attend the business as delegated thereunto by the King and Queen; before whom convented in St Mary’s Church on the 12th of September, he did his reverence to the two Doctors, as Commissioners for the King and Queen, but could not be persuaded to shew any respect to the Bishop of Glocester, because commissionated by the Pope. He had before abjured the Pope’s supremacy in the time of King Henry, and would not now submit unto it in the reign of Queen Mary, desiring the Bishop not to interpret it an affront to his person, to whom otherwise he should gladly pay all due regards, had he appeared in any other capacity than the Pope’s Commissioner. Not being able to remove him from that resolution, they propounded to him certain articles concerning his having been twice married, his denial of the Pope’s supremacy, his judgment in the point of the blessed Sacrament, his having been declared an heretic by the late Prolocutor and the rest of the Commissioners there assembled. To all which articles he so answered as to deny nothing of the charge in matter of fact, but only to stand upon his justification in point of doctrine. The whole proceding being summed up, he is cited to appear before the Pope within eighty days; to which he said that he was most willing so to do, if the King and Queen would please to send him. And so he was returned to the prison from whence he came, and there kept safe enough from making any journey to Rome, remaining in safe custody till he was brought out to suffer death; of which more hereafter. 6. On the twenty-eighth of the same month comes out another commission from the Cardinal Legate, directed to John White, Bishop of Lincoln, James Brooks, Bishop of Glocester, and John Holyman, Bishop of Bristow, or any two of them; enabling them to proceed to the degradation of the other two Bishops, if they retracted not those doctrines for holding which they had been formerly declared to be heretics. But they courageously adhering to their first opinions, and other wise expressing as little reverence to the substitutes of the Cardinal Legate as Cranmer had done to the commissioners of the Pope, the sentence was pronounced upon them to this effect: that is to say, “That forasmuch as the said Nicholas Ridley and Hugh Latimer did affirm, maintain, and stubbornly defend certain opinions and heresies, contrary to the word of God and the received faith of the Church; — as first, 1. In denying the true and natural body of Christ and his natural blood to be in the Sacrament of the altar; 2. In affirming the substance of bread and wine to remain after the words of the consecration; and 3. In denying the mass to be a lively sacrifice of the Church for the quick and the dead; — and by no means could be reduced from the same: that therefore they, the said John of Lincoln, James of Glocester, and John of Bristol, did adjudge and condemn them, the said N. Ridley and H. Latimer, as heretics, both by word and deed to be degraded from the degree of a Bishop, from priesthood, and all other ecclesiastical orders; declaring them moreover to be no members of the Church, and therefore to be committed to the secular power, to receive due punishment according to the tenor of the temporal laws.” According to which sentence they were both degraded on the fifteenth of October, and brought unto the stake in the town-ditch over against Baliol College on the morrow after; where with great constancy and courage they endured that death to which they had been precondemned before they were heard. Cranmer was prisoner at that time in the north-gate of the city, called Bocardo, from the top whereof he beheld that most doleful spectacle; and, casting himself upon his knees, he humbly beseeched the Lord to endue them with a sufficient strength of faith and hope; which he also desired for himself, whensoever he should act his part on that bloody theatre. 7. But he must stay the Pope’s leisure before he was to be brought on the stage again. The Queen had been acquainted with such discourses as had passed betwixt the Pope and her Embassadors, when they were at Rome; and she appeared desirous to have gratified him in his demands. But the King’s absence — who set sail for Calais on the fourth of September, and the next morning took his journey to the Emperor’s Court, which was then at Bruxels, — rendered the matter not so feasible as it might have been if he had continued in the kingdom. For, having called a Parliament to begin on the twenty-first of October, she caused many of the Lords to be dealt withal touching the passing of an Act for the restoring of all such lands as had belonged unto the Church and were devolved upon the Crown, and from the Crown into the hands of private persons, by the fall of monasteries and other re ligious houses, or by any other ways or means whatsoever. But such a general averseness was found amongst them, that she was advised to desist from that unprofitable undertaking. Certain it is, that many who were cordially affected to the Queen’s religion, were very much startled at the noise of this restitution, insomuch that some of them are said to have clapped their hands upon their swords, affirming, not without some oaths, that they would never part with their abbey-lands as long as they were able to wear a sword by their sides. Which being signified to the Queen, it seemed good to her to let fall that suit for the present, and to give them good example for the time to come, by passing an Act for releasing the Clergy from the payment of first-fruits and tenths, which had been formerly vested in the Crown in the reign of her father. Against which when it was objected by some of the Lords of the Council, that the state of her kingdoms and Crown Imperial could not be so honorably maintained as in former times, if such a considerable part of the revenue were dismembered from it — she is said to have returned this an swer, That she preferred the salvation of her soul before ten such kingdoms. She procured another Act to be passed also, which very much redounded to the benefit of the two Universities, inhibiting all purveyors from taking up any provisions for the use of the Court within five miles of Oxon or Cambridge; by means whereof those markets were more plentifully served with all sorts of provisions than in former times, and at more reasonable rates than otherwise they could have been without that restraint. In her first Parliament, the better to endear herself to the common subject, she had released a subsidy which was due unto her by an Act of Parliament made in the time of King Edward VI. And now, to make her some amends, they gave her a subsidy of four shillings in the pound for lands, and two shillings and eight-pence in the pound for goods. In the drawing up of which Act, an oath which had been formerly prescribed to all manner of persons, for giving in a just account of their estates, was omitted wholly; which made the subsidy sink beneath expectation. But the Queen came unto the Crown by the love of the people, and was to do nothing to the hazard of their affections, which she held it by. 8. At the same time was held a Convocation also; for summoning whereof a writ was issued in the name of the King and Queen to the Dean and Chapter of the Metropolitan Church of Canterbury, the See being then vacant by the attaindure of Archbishop Cranmer. Bonner presides in it as before; Boxhall, then Warden of Winchester, preacheth, (though not in the capacity) at the opening of it, and Doctor John Christopherson, Dean of Norwich, is chosen Prolocutor for the House of the Clergy. But the chief business done therein was the granting of a subsidy of six shillings in the pound, to be paid out of all their ecclesiastical promotions in three years then following. Nor was it without reason that they were induced to so large a grant. The Queen had actually restored unto them their first-fruits and tenths, though at that time the Crown was not in such a plentiful condition as to part with such an annual income. And she had promised also (as appears by the records of the Convocation) to render back unto the Church all such impropriations, tithes, and portion of tithes, as were still remaining in the Crown. For the disposing of which grant to the best advantage, the Cardinal Legate, at the Queen’s desire, had conceived an instrument, which was then offered to the consideration of the Prolocutor and the rest of the Clergy. It was proposed also by the Bishop of Ely, that some certain learned men might be chosen out of the house, to review all the ancient Canons, to fit them to the present state of the Church, and, where they found anything defective in them, to supply that defect, by making such new Canons and Constitutions, as, being approved of by the Lords, should be made obligatory to the Clergy, and the rest of the kingdom. This was well moved, and served to entertain the time; but I find nothing in pursuance of it. 9. But on the other side, the Prolocutor, bringing up the bill of the subsidies in the end of October, propounds three points unto their lordships, which much conduced to the establishment and advantage of the prejudiced Clergy. The first was, That all such of the Clergy as, building on the common report that the tenths and first-fruits were to be released in the following Parliament, had made no composition for the same with her Majesty’s officers, might be discharged from the penalty inflicted by the laws in that behalf. The second, That their lordships would be pleased to intercede with the Lord Cardinal Legate for settling and confirming them in their present benefices by some special Bull. The third, That by their lordships, means an Act may be obtained in the present Parliament, for the repealing of the statute by which the citizens of London, which refused to make payment of their tithes, were to be ordered at the discretion of the Lord Mayor of that city; and that from thenceforth all such censures as concerned tithes might be heard and determined by the Ordinary, as in other places. To all which propositions the bishops cheerfully consented, and so adjourned the Convocation from St. Paul’s to Westminster, that they might have the better opportunity of consulting the Lord Cardinal in the business. Of whom it was no hard matter to obtain the second, and by his power to secure the Clergy in the first; but as for the removal of the cognizance of the London tithes from the Lord Mayor unto the bishops, there was nothing done, that statute still remaining as before it did, to the continual impoverishing and vexation of the city Clergy.

Nothing else memorable in this Convocation but the coming in of the two new bishops which had never voted there before. Purefew, the Bishop of St Asaph, being translated unto Hereford in the former year, had made such havock of the patrimony of the Church of St Asaph, that it lay void above a twelve month before any became suitor for it. But being a bishoprick, though impoverished, and consequently a step to some richer preferment, it was desired and accepted by Mr Thomas Goldwel, a right zealous Romanist, consecrated Bishop hereof in the beginning of October, anno 1555, not many days before the opening of the Parliament and Convocation. And, being Bishop here, he procured many indulgences and other graces from the Pope then being, for all such persons of each sex as went on pilgrimage, or for health, to St Winifred’s Well. The like havock had been made of the lands and patrimony of the Church of Bangor by Buckley, the present Bishop of it, preferred unto the See anno 1541, and continuing on it till this year; who, not content to alienate the lands and weaken the estate thereof; resolved to rob it of its bells, for fear perhaps of having any knell rung out at the Church’s funeral. And, not content to sell the bells, which were five in number, he would needs satisfy himself with seeing them conveyed on ship-board, and had scarce given himself that satisfaction but he was presently struck blind, and so continued from that time to the day of his death. To whom succeeded Doctor William Glyn, a Cambridge man, but one of the disputants at Oxford, who received his episcopal consecration (if I guess aright) on the same day with Bishop Goldwel. 10. And now it will be time to look back on Cranmer, whom we left under a citation to the Court of Rome, without which nothing could be done: for by an ancient privilege no judgment could be past upon the person of a Metropolitan before the Pope have taken cognizance of the cause; and eighty days had seemingly been given to Cranmer for making his appearance in the Court of Rome. And though the Pope knew well enough as well the Archbishop’s readiness to appear before him, if he were at liberty, as the impossibility of making any such appearance as the case then stood; yet at the end of the said eighty days he is pronounced by the Pope to be contumacious, and for his contumacy to be degraded, excommunicated, and finally delivered over to the secular magistrate. According unto which decree, a second commission is directed to Edmond Bonner, Bishop of London, and Thomas Thurlby, Bishop of Ely, to proceed to the degradation of the said Archbishop: in which commission it was said with most horrible falsehood, that all things had been indifferently examined in the Court of Rome, — that is to say, as well the articles laid unto his charge as the answers which he made unto them, to gether with the allegations, witnesses, and defences, made or produced by the counsel on either side, — so that nothing had been wanting which was necessary to his just defence. According to which supposition, the said two Bishops, being commanded to proceed against him, caused him to be degraded on the 14th of February, notwithstanding that he appealed from the Pope and them to a General Council, and caused the said appeal to be drawn and offered in due form of law. During the interval between his degradation and the time of his death, great pains was taken by some learned men in the University to persuade him to a retractation of his former opinions; in which unhappy undertaking no man prevailed so far as a Spanish friar, by whom it was suggested to him how acceptable it would be to the King and Queen, how pleasing to the Lords, who most dearly loved him, and how gainful to himself, in regard both of his soul and his temporal being; assuring him (or at least putting him in good hope) that he should not only have his life, but be restored again to his ancient dignity, and that there should be nothing in the realm which the Queen would not easily grant him, whether it pleased him to make choice of riches and honors, or otherwise [he] should desire the sweet retirements of a private life, without the charge and trouble of a public ministry; and all this to be compassed with out putting himself to any more pains than the subscribing of his name to a piece of paper, which was made ready for his hand. 11. By these temptations, and many others of the like alluring and deceitful nature, he suffered himself to be prevailed upon so far as to sign the writing, in which were briefly comprehended the chief points of doctrine defended in the Church of Rome, and by him formerly condemned both in public and private The obtaining whereof occasioned great joy amongst the Papists, and no less sorrow and astonishment in the hearts of those who cordially were affected to the Reformation. But all this could not save him from being made a sacrifice to revenge and avarice. The Queen had still a vindicative spirit against him, for the injury which she conceived had been done to her mother; and the Cardinal, who hitherto had enjoyed the profits of the See of Canterbury as an usufructuary, was alto gether as solicitous for getting a right and title to them as the sole proprietary. No way to pacify the one and satisfy the desires of the other, but by bringing him (when he least looked for it) to the fatal stake. And to the fatal stake they brought him on the 21st of March, when he had for some time flattered himself in a conceit, like the King of Amalek, that “the bitterness of death was past.” Finding the contrary, he first retracts his retractation, and after punisheth that hand which had subscribed it, by holding it forth into the flame, and suffering it to be consumed before the rest of his body had felt the fire. The residue of his body being burnt to ashes, his heart was found entire and untouched in the midst of the cinders; which possibly may serve as a witness for him, that his heart stood fast unto the truth, though with his hand he had subscribed some popish errors: which, whether it were done out of human frailty, on the hope of life, or out of a desire to gain the more time for finishing his book against Bishop Gardiner, which he alleged for himself in a letter to one of his friends — certain it is that it had too much in it of a sinful compliance, so much as might have blasted both his fame and memory to all times succeeding, if he had not taken off the scandal and expiated the offense in so brave a manner. And thus he died, leaving an excellent example to all posterity, as well of man’s infirmity in so strange a fall, as of God’s infinite grace and mercy, by which he was enabled to recover his former standing. 12. These goodly cedars of the forest being thus cut down, it was not to be hoped that any favor could be shown to the shrubs and underwoods, which were grubbed up and felled with out any distinction, as well the young sapling as the decayed and withered tree; but more in some parts than in others, according to the sharpness of the tools and the edge of the woodman. The waste so great in no place as in Bonner’s Walk, who seemed to be resolved, that whatsoever could not serve for timber (toward the building or re-edifying of the papal palace) should be marked for fuel.

No fewer than two hundred are reported to have been burnt within three years by this cruel and unmerciful tyrant, without discrimination of sex or age; his fury reaching from John Fetty, a lad of eight years old, by him scourged to death, even to Hugh Laverock, a cripple sixty- eight years old, whom he caused to be burned. The most eminent of all which number was Mr John Philpot, Archdeacon of Winchester, who, though of Gardiner’s diocese, was condemned by Bonner, — Gardiner being well enough contented to find out the game, and leave it to be followed by that bloody hunter. His rage not slackened by the interposing of Alphonso, a Spanish friar, inveighing sharply, in a sermon before the King, against the savage and unprofitable cruelty of the English Bishops; but, as it seems, he measured all the rest by that London tyrant, though in most other places they were far more moderate. He that came nearest to him was Dr John Christopherson, Bishop of Chichester, who is recorded to have burnt no less than ten in one fire at Lewis, and seventeen others at several times in sundry places But still the nearer London, the more the heat; insomuch that Harpsfield, Archdeacon of Canterbury, and Thornton, the Suffragan of Dover, are said to have poured out blood like water; as was also done by Griffin of Rochester, and Downing, Chancellor of Norwich, (though somewhat further off from the scene of cruelty), in their several dioceses. Which character I find of Bishop Bayne, of Coventry and Lichfield; the gentle birth and breeding of Mrs Joyce Lewis not being too high for him to reach at, nor the poor condition of Joan Waste, a blind woman in Darby, too low for him to stoop to; whom he condemned unto the fire, as he did many faithful ministers and others of the masculine sex. 13. But on the other side, in all the province of York I find none brought unto the stake but George Marsh of Chester, condemned thereto by Bishop Cotes and not much more to have been done in the four Welsh dioceses; in which, beside the burning of Bishop Farrar at Carmarthen by Bishop Morgan, and of Rawlins White at Cardiff by Bishop Kitching, no extraordinary cruelty seems to have been acted. In the dioceses of Exeter, Wells, Peterborough, and Lincoln (though this last the greatest in the kingdom) I find mention but of one apiece; of two in that of Ely, and of no more than three apiece at Bristol and Salisbury. In those of Oxon, Glocester, Worcester, and Hereford, I find none at all; which made those countries look like the land of Goshen, where there was nothing but fair weather when there was so much thunder and lightning in the rest of A Egypt. Nor were these storms and tempests in other places of a short continuance, but held on more or less till the death of the Queen, as appeareth by those five persons which were burnt at Canterbury on the 10th of November, 1558 being but one full week before the day of her own dissolution. The difference was, that these poor wretches were consumed by the rage of fire, whereas she was carried out of the world in a deluge of water; falling into a dropsy in the time of her supposed childing, of which she was never perfectly cured till she came to her grave. Nor were these all that suffered in the fury of this persecution. For besides those that suffered martyrdom in the sight of the world, many are thought to have been made away in prison; but many more, to the number of some scores or hundreds, supposed to have been killed by starving, stinks, and other barbarous usages in their several jails. To which if we should add a catalogue of all those who fled the kingdom, and put themselves into a voluntary exile, amounting to the number of 800 or thereabouts, I suppose it may be well concluded, that, though many persecutions have lasted longer, yet none since Dioclesian’s time ever raged so terribly. So terribly it raged in one particular, that no persecution of the ten can afford a parallel.

Katherine Gouches, a poor widow of St Peter’s Port, in the Isle of Guernsey, was noted to be much absent from the church, and her two daughters guilty of the same neglect. Upon this they were presented before Jaques Amy, then Dean of the island, who, finding in them that they held opinions contrary to those then allowed about the sacrament of the altar, pronounced them heretics, and condemned them to the fire. The poor women on the one side pleaded for themselves, that that doctrine had been taught them in the time of King Edward; but if the Queen was otherwise disposed, they were content to be of her religion. This was fair, but this would not serve; for by the Dean they were delivered to Eli’er Gosling, the then bailiff, and by him unto the fire, July the 8th, 1556. One of the daughters (Perotine Massey she was called) was at that time great with child; her husband, a minister, being in those dangerous times fled the island. In the middle of the flames and anguish of her torments, her belly brake in sunder, and her child, a goodly boy, fell down into the fire, but was presently snatched up by one W. House, one of the bystanders. Upon the noise of this strange accident, the cruel bailiff returned command, that the poor infant must be cast again into the flames; which was accordingly performed; and so that pretty babe was born a martyr, and added to the number of the holy Innocents. A cruelty not paralleled in any story, not heard of amongst the nations. But such was the pleasure of the magistrate, as once in the massacre of the younger Maximinus, viz. That not any issue should be left of an heretic parent . 14. But to go back again to Cranmer, — it is to be observed, that, as his death opened the way for Pole to the See of Canterbury, so it was respited the longer out of a politic design to exclude him from it. That Gardiner loved him not hath been said before, and he knew well that Cardinal Caraffa (now Pope Paul the Fourth) loved him less than he. This put him first upon an hope that the Pope might be prevailed with to revoke the Cardinal (who had before been under a suspicion in the court of Rome of having somewhat of the Lutheran in him) and to bestow the Cardinal’s cap, together with the Legantine power, upon himself, who doubted not of sitting in the chair of Canterbury if he gained the rest. Upon which ground he is supposed to have hindered all proceedings against the three Oxon martyrs from the ending of the Parliament on the 26th of January till the 12th of September then next following, the Pope not sending out any commission in all that interval, with out which Cranmer was not to be brought to a condemnation. But at last, not knowing how much these procrastinations might offend the King, and perhaps pressed unto it by Karn, the Queen’s Embassador, he found himself under a necessity to dispatch the commission, though he proceeded not to the execution of any part of the sentence till more than ten weeks after the eighty days which had been given for his appearance in the court of Rome. 15. During which time death puts an end to Gardiner’s projects, who left his life at Whitehall on the 12th of November. From whence conveyed by water to his house in Southwark, his body was first lapped in lead, kept for a season in the church of St Mary Over-rhe, and afterwards solemnly inferred under a fair and goodly monument in his Cathedral. The custody of the Great Seal, together with the title of Lord Chancellor, was upon New-year’s day conferred on Dr Nicholas Heath, Archbishop of York, a man of great prudence and moderation; but the revenues of the bishoprick were appropriated to the use of the Cardinal Legate, who purposed to have held it in commendam with the See of Canterbury, to which he received consecration on the very next Sunday after Cranmer’s death. But Dr John White, Bishop of Lincoln, having been born at Winchester, and educated in that school, of which he was afterwards chief master, and finally warden of that College, ambitiously affected a translation thither. And so far he prevailed by his friends at court, that, on the promise of an annual pension of 1000 pounds to the use of the Cardinal, he was permitted to enjoy the title with the rest of the profits. Which I have mentioned in this place, though this transaction was not made, nor his translation actually performed, till the year next following No other alteration made amongst the Bishops of this time, but that Voysie of Exon dies in some part of the year, 1555, and Dr James Turbervile succeeds him in the beginning of the year, 1556. A man well-born and well-befriended, by means whereof he recovered some lands unto his See which had been alienated from it by his predecessor; and amongst others, the rich and goodly manor of Crediton or Kirton, in the county of Devon, (in former time the episcopal seat of the Bishop of Exon,) though afterwards again dismembered from it in the time of Queen Elizabeth, by Bishop Cotton. 16. It is now time to take into consideration the affairs of State, — nothing the better cemented by the blood of so many martyrs, or jointed any whit the stronger by the secret animosities and emulations between the Lord Chancellor and the Cardinal Legate. Though Wyat’s party was so far suppressed as not to shew itself visibly in open action, yet such as formerly had declared for it or wished well unto it had many secret writings against the Queen, every day growing more and more in dislike of her Government, by reason of so many butcheries as were continually committed under her authority. Upon which ground, as they had formerly instructed Elizabeth Crofts to act the spirit in the wall, so afterwards they trained up one William Cunstable, alias Featherstone, to take upon himself the name of King Edward, whom he was said to have resembled both in age and personage. And this they did in imitation of the like practice used in the time of King Henry the Sixth by Richard Plantagenet, Duke of York, who, when he had a mind to claim his title to the Crown, in regard of his descent by the house of Mortimer from Lionel of Antwerp Duke of Clarence, he caused one Jack Cade (a fellow altogether as obscure as this) to take upon himself the name of Mortimer, that he might see how well the people stood affected unto his pretensions by the discovery which might be made thereof on this false alarum. And though this Featherstone had been taken and publicly whipped for it in May last past, and there upon banished into the North, where he had been born, yet the confederates resolved to try their fortune with him in a second adventure. The design was to raise the people under color of King Edward’s being alive, and at the same time to rob the Exchequer, wherein they knew by some intelligence or other that 50,000 pounds in good Spanish money had been lately lodged. Few persons of any quality appeared in it, — not thinking fit to shew themselves in any new practice against the Queen, till made prosperous by some good success. The chief whom I find mentioned to be privy to it were Henry Peckam, the son of that Sir Edmond Peckam who had been caterer of the household to King Henry VIII., one of the Throgmortons, and Sir Anthony Kingston. But the first part of the plot miscarried by the apprehending of Featherstone, who was arraigned and executed on the 13th of March; and the last part thereof discovered on the 28th by one of the company. On which discoveries, Sir Anthony Kingston, being sent for, died upon the way; the said Throgmorton, with one Udal, were executed at Tyburn on the 28th of April; one Stanton on the 29th of May; Rossey, Dedike, and Bedell, on the 8th of June; Peckam and Daniel, at the Tower-hill, on the 8th of July. Andrew Duchesne makes the Lord Gray and one of the Howards to have a hand in this conspiracy; and possible enough it is that some of greater eminence than any of those before remembered might be of counsel in the practice, though they kept them selves out of sight as much as they could, till they found how it would succeed amongst the people. 17. In this unquiet condition we must leave England for a time, and look on the estate of the English churches on the other side of the sea. That many of the English Protestants had forsook the kingdom, to the number of eight hundred, as well students as others, hath been said before; who, having put themselves into several cities, partly in Germany and partly among the Switzers and their confederates, kept up the face and form of an English Church in each of their several congregations. Their principal retiring places amongst the last were Arrow, Zurick, and Geneva; and in the first, the cities of Embden, Stralsburge, and Franckfort. In Franckfort they enjoyed the greatest privileges, and therefore resorted thither in the greatest numbers; which made them the more apt unto schisms and factions. At their first coming to that place, which was on the 27th of June, anno 1554, by the power and favor of John Glauberge, one of the Senators of that city, they were permitted to have the use of one of their churches, which had before been granted to such French exiles as had repaired thither on the like occasion; yet so that the French were still to hold their right; the English to have the use of it one day, and the French another, and on the Lord’s day so to divide the hours between them that the one might be no hinderance unto the other. It hath been said also that there was another condition imposed upon them, of being conform unto the French in doctrine and ceremonies. Which condition, if it were imposed by the magistrates, not sought by themselves, must needs be very agreeable to the temper and complexion of their principal leaders; who, being for the most part of the Zuinglian Gospellers at their going hence, became the great promoters of the Puritan faction at their coming home. The names of Whittingham, Williams, Goodman, Wood, and Sutton, who appeared in the head of this congregation, declare sufficiently of what principles and strain they were, how willing they would be to lay aside the face of an English Church, and frame themselves to any Liturgy but their own. 18. On July the 14th they first obtained a grant of their Church, and on the 29th took possession of it. The interval they spent in altering and disfiguring the English Liturgy, of which they left nothing but the reading of the Psalms and chapters. Those comfortable interlocutories between the Minister and the people were no longer used, as savouring, in their opinion, of some disorder in the course of the ministration; the Litany and the Surplice they cast aside, as having too much in them of the Church of Rome; the Confession they had altered so as they conceived most agreeable to their present condition; and for the hymns which intervened between the chapters and the Creed, they changed them for such Psalms in the English metre as had been made by Sternhold and Hopkins in the time of King Edward. The Psalm being done, the preacher goes into the pulpit, in which the minister prayed for the assistance of God’s Spirit, and so proceeded to the Sermon. Which done, another prayer was made for all orders and estates of men, but more particularly for the welfare of the Church of England; composed in imitation of the prayer for the Church militant here on earth, but ending (as that did not) with the Paternoster.

After which (most extremely out of order) followed the rehearsal of the Articles of the Christian Faith, another Psalm, and finally the dismission of the people, with “The Peace of God.” This was the form devised for that congregation; for the imposing whereof on all the rest of the English churches they did then use their best endeavors, and for obtruding which on the whole Church of England they raised such tumults and commotions in the following times. Growing in love with this fair babe of their own begetting, they write their letters, of the second of August, to such of the English as remained at Stralsburge and Zurick, inviting them to repair to Franckfort, and unite them selves unto that Church which had been there erected with the leave of the magistrate. But they had heard in both places of those alterations which had been made at Franckfort in the form of God’s public service, and thereupon refused to accept of the invitation, though it seemed to promise them some advantages by the commodious situation of that city in respect of England, the great resort of strangers thither at the yearly marts, plenty of books, and other helps in the way of study which were not to be found in the other two cities. from Stralsburge modestly, from Zurick resolutely, but from both it was plainly signified, that they resolved to maintain the order of the Church of England. The like letter had been writ to the English at Embden, of which congregation Doctor Scory, the late Bishop of Chichester, was the superintendent; and we may readily believe that they received the like repulse from his Church at Embden as they had from Gryndal, Sandys, and Haddon, or who had the constituting of the Church at Stralsburge; or from Horn, Chambers, Parkhurst, and other of the students which remained at Zurick. 19. The noise of this new Church at Franckfort occasioned Knox, who after proved the great incendiary of the realm and Church of Scotland, to leave his sanctuary in Geneva, in hope to make a better market for himself in that congregation. He had not long before published a seditious pamphlet entitled “The First Blast of the Trumpet,” in which he bitterly inveighed against the government of women, aiming there especially at the three Queen Maries, that is to say, Mary Queen of England, Mary Queen of Scots, and Mary of Lorrain, Queen Regent of Scotland. By which seditious pamphlet, he had made not only his own country too hot for him, but could assure himself of no safety in France or England. To Geneva therefore he retires, and from thence removes to Franckfort, as the fitter scene for his intendments, hoping to get as great a name in this new plantation as Calvin had gotten in the old. It was about the end of September that he came to Franckfort, where he took the charge of that Church upon him, Whittingham and the rest submitting unto his Apostleship.

This gave a new dissatisfaction to the English at Stralsburge and Zurick, who knew the spirit of the man, and feared the dangerous consequents and effects thereof. Nor was the condition of affairs much bettered by the coming of Whitehead, (who afterwards refused the Archbishoprick of Canterbury,) though far the more moderate of the two. New letters are reciprocated between Franckfort and Zurick; — from Franckfort on the 15th of November, in open defiance as it were to the English Liturgy; from Zurick on the 28th, in defense thereof, and of their constancy and resolution for adhering to it. The breach growing every day more wide than other, Gryndal and Chambers came from Stralsburge to atone the difference; by whom it was proposed unto them, That, the substance of the English Liturgy being retained, there might be a forbearance of some ceremonies and offices in it. But Knox and Whittingham were as much bent against the substance of the book, as against any of the circumstantials and extrinsicals which belonged unto it. So that, no good effect following on this interposition, the agents of the Church of Stralsburge return back to their brethren, who by their letters of the 13th of December, expostulate in vain about it. 20. In these distractions, some of the Franckfort schismatics desire that all divine offices might be executed according to the order of the Church of Geneva; which Knox would by no means yield unto, thinking himself as able to make a rule for his own congregation as any Calvin of them all.

But, that the mouths of those of Stralsburge and Zurick might be stopped forever, he is content to make so much use of him as by the authority of his judgment to disgrace that Liturgy which those of Zurick did contend for.

He knew well how he had bestirred himself in quarrelling the first Liturgy of King Edward the Sixth, and nothing doubteth but that the second (though reviewed on his importunity) would give him as little satisfaction as the other did. To this intent, the order of the English Liturgy is drawn up in Latin, transmitted to him by Knox and Whittingham, by his infallible judgment to stand or fall. The oracle returns this answer on the 31st of January, (In Liturgia Anglicana, qualem mihi describitis, multas video tolerabiles ineptias ), That in the book of England, as by them described, he had observed many tolerable fooleries. Which last words being somewhat ambiguous, as all oracles are, he explicates himself by telling them, “That there wanted much of that purity which was to be desired in it; that it contained many relics of the dregs of popery; that, being there was no manifest impiety in it, it had been tolerated for a season, because at first it could not otherwise be admitted: but howsoever, though it was lawful to begin with such beggarly rudiments, yet it behoved the learned, grave, and godly ministers of Christ to endeavor further, and set forth something more refined from filth and rustiness.” This, being sent for his determinate sentence unto Knox and Whittingham, was of such prevalency with all the rest of that party, that such who formerly did approve did afterwards as much dislike the English Liturgy; and those who at the first had conceived only a dislike, grew afterwards into an open detestation of it.

Those who before had been desirous that the order of Geneva should be entertained, had now drawn Knox and Whittingham unto them, — Mr John Fox (the author of the Acts and Monuments) contributing his approbation amongst the rest. But in the end, to give content to such as remained affected to the former Liturgy, it was agreed upon that a mixed form, consisting partly of the order of Geneva and partly of the book of England, should be digested, and received till the 1st of April; consideration in the mean time to be had of some other course, which should be permanent and obliging for the time to come. 21. In this condition of affairs, Dr Richard Cox, the late Dean of Christ- Church and Westminster, first schoolmaster, and after Almoner, to King Edward the Sixth, putteth himself into Franckfort, March 13, accompanied with many English exiles, whom the cause of religion had necessitated to forsake their country. Being a man of great learning, of great authority in the Church, and one that had a principal hand in drawing up the Liturgy by law established, he could with no patience endure those innovations in it, or rather that rejection of it, which he found amongst them. He thereupon first begins to answer the minister, contrary to the order there agreed on, and the next Sunday after causeth one of his company to go into, the pulpit and read the Litany. Against which doings of his Knox in a sermon the same day inveigheth most bitterly, affirm ing many things in the book of England not only to be imperfect, but superstitious. For the which he is not only rebuked by Cox, but forbidden to preach. Wherewith Whittingham being much offended, deals with some of the magistrates, from whom he procureth an order of the 22nd of March, requiring that the English should conform themselves to the rules of the French. Knox had not long before published a seditious pamphlet, entitled, “An Admonition to Christians,” contain ing the substance of some sermons by him preached in England, in one of which he affirmed the Emperor to be “no less an enemy to Christ than the tyrant Nero.” For this and several other passages of the like dangerous nature he is accused by Cox for treason against the Emperor; the senate made acquainted with it, and Knox commanded thereupon to depart the city; who makes his farewell sermon on the 25th of March, and retires himself unto Geneva. Following his blow, Cox gets an order of the senate by the means of another of the Glawberges, by which Whittingham and the rest of his faction were commanded to receive the book of England. Against which order Whittingham for a time opposeth, encouraged therein by Goodman, who for the love of Knox (with whom afterwards he associated in all his practices) had left the grave society of those of Stralsburge to join himself unto the sectaries of Franckfort. But finding Cox to be too strong for them in the senate, both they and all the rest who refused conform ity resolved to betake themselves to some other place, as they shortly did. 22. Cox, thus made master of the field, begins to put the congregation into such order as might preserve the face and reputation of an English Church.

He procures Whitehead to be chosen for the principal pastor, appoints two ministers for elders, and four deacons for assistants to him, recommends master Robert Horn (whom he had drawn from Zurick thither) to be Hebrew-reader, Mullings to read the Greek lecture, Trahern the lecture in Divinity, and Chambers to be treasurer for the contributions which were sent in from time to time by many godly and well-affected persons, both Dutch and English, for the use of that Church. Having thus settled all things answerable to his own desires, he gives an account thereof to Calvin, subscribed by fourteen of the chief men in that congregation, partly excusing themselves that they had proceeded so far without his consent, and partly rejoicing that they had drawn the greatest part of that Church to their own opinions. Calvin returns his answer on the last of May, which puts his party there on another project, that is to say, to have the whole business referred to some arbitrators, equally chosen on both sides.

But Cox was already in possession, great in esteem with the chief magistrates of the city, and would by no means yield to refer that point which had already been determined to his advantage. With these debates the time is taken up till the end of August, at what time Whittingham and the rest of the faction take their leave of Franckfort; Fox with some few others go to Basil, but the main body to Geneva, as their mother-city, where they make choice of Knox and Goodman for their constant preachers; under which ministry they reject the whole frame and fabric of the Reformation made in England, conform themselves wholly to the fashions of the Church of Geneva, and therewith entertain also the Calvinian doctrines, to the discredit of the state of the Church of England in King Edward’s time, the great grief of the martyrs and other godly men in the reign of Queen Mary, and to the raising of most unquenchable combustions in all parts of the Church under Queen Elizabeth. 23. It was not long after the settling of the Liturgy before Whitehead left the ministry of the English congregation, which Cox obtained for Mr Horn, whom he knew to be a man both of courage and constancy. And, that being done, he left the congregation, and so withdraws himself to Stralsburge, there to enjoy the company of Peter Martyr, with whom he was intimately acquainted while he lived in Christ-Church. By his departure, a new gap is opened to another dissension. Some words had passed at a supper, intended rather for increase of charity than the breach of friendship, betwixt Horn and Ashley; — Horn the chief pastor of the flock, and Ashley a gentleman of good note in the lay part of it. Some three days after, being the 16th of January Ashley is cited to appear at the house of one of the elders, to answer for some words which he had spoken in contempt of the ministry. But from the elders he appeals to the congregation, amongst whom he prevails so far that they send a message by two of their company to the pastor and elders, requiring them to proceed no further in the cause. Horn, being backed by Chambers, the public treasurer, excepts against this message, as decreed at a private conventicle, not by the general suffrages of the congregation, and thereupon resolves to stand to that authority which formerly had been conferred on him and the rest of the elders by the rules of their discipline.

Ashley and his adherents, on the other side, declare their former private meeting not to be a conventicle, protest against the pastor and elders, as an adverse party, and therefore not in a capacity to sit as judges in the present case, and set themselves upon the making of a book of discipline, for the curbing the exorbitant power (for such they thought it) of the pastor and elders. The pastor and elders thereupon forsake their offices, and on the 5th of February, being the next day of public meeting, take place amongst the rest as private persons. The congregation full, but the pulpit empty, which put the rest upon a humor of electing others to take the public charge upon them. The noise of these disorders awakes the magistrates, who command Horn and Chambers to forbear the congregation until further order, and, afterwards restoring them to their former authority by public edict, were contradicted in it by Ashley’s party, who, having got some power into their hands, were resolved to keep it. 24. In the mean time a book of discipline had been drown, and tendered to the congregation on the 14th of February. According to the rules whereof the supreme power in all ecclesiastical causes was put into the hands of the congregations, and the disposing of the public monies committed to the trust of certain officers, by the name of Deacons. This makes the breach wider than before — Horn and his party laboring to retain the old, the other to establish the new discipline of their own devising. The magistrates, not able to agree the difference, dispatch their letters unto Stralsburge of the 3rd of April, desiring Dr Cox and Dr Sandys, together with Robert Bertie, Esq. to undertake the closing of the present rupture. To their arbitrement each party is content to submit the controversy, but differ in conclusion in the terms of their reference.

Much talk and no small scandal groweth upon these divisions, not made the less by the pen-combats between Horn and White head. In the end, a form of reconciliation is drawn up by some of the English, who more endeavored the peace of the Church than the interess of either party. But those who stood for the new discipline, being grown the stronger, refused to submit themselves to any establishment by which the power of the diffusive body of the congregation might be called in question.

Whereupon Horn and Chambers depart to Stralsburge, from whence Chambers writ his letters to them of the 20th of June, and after of the 30th of June, but to no effect. They had before proceeded to the election of some new ministers, March the 22nd. Against which though Horn and his opposed, yet they concluded it for the present on the 29th; and now they mean to stand unto the conclusion, let Horn and Chambers go or tarry, as best pleased themselves. Such were the troubles and disorders in the Church of Franckfort, — occasioned first by a dislike of the public Liturgy, before which they preferred the nakedness and simplicity of the French and Genevian Churches, and afterwards continued by the opposition made by the general body of the congregation against such as were appointed to be pastors and rulers over them. Hence the beginning of the Puritan faction, against the rites and ceremonies of the Church; that of the Presbyterians, against the Bishops, or episcopal government; and finally, that also of the Independents, against the superintendency of the pastors and elders. The terrible effects whereof will appear hereafter, if God shall give me means and opportunity to carry on the history of those disturbances which have been raised by the Puritans or Presbyterians against the orders of this Church and the peace of Christendom. 25.

But sorrows seldom go alone. The aberrations from the government and form of worship established in the Church of England drew on an alteration also in point of doctrine. Such of the English as had retired into Geneva employ themselves in setting out a new translation of the Bible in the English tongue, which afterwards they published with certain marginal notes upon it, — most of them profitable for the understanding of the text, but so that some were heterodox in point of doctrine, some dangerous and seditious in reference to the civil magistrate, and some as scandalous in respect of episcopal government. From this time the Calvinian doctrine of pre- destination began to be dispersed in English pamphlets, as the only necessary, orthodox, and saving truth. Knox publisheth a book, “Against an adversary of God’s predestination,” wherein it is declared, That “whatsoever the Ethnics and ignorant did attribute to fortune, by Christians is to be assigned to God’s heavenly providence; that we ought to judge nothing to come of fortune, but that all cometh by the determinate counsel of God; and finally, that it would be displeasing unto God, if we should esteem any thing to proceed from any other; and that we do not only behold him as the principal cause of all things, but also the author, appointing all things to the one or the other by his only counsel.” After comes out a book, first written in French and afterwards by some of them translated into English, which they called “A brief Declaration of the Table of Predestination,” in which it is put down for a principal aphorism, that, in like manner “as God hath appointed the end, it is necessary also, that God should appoint the causes leading to the same end;” but more particularly, that “by virtue of God’s will all things are done; yea, even those things which are evil and execrable.” In another book, entituled “Against a privy Papist,” it is maintained, more agreeably to Calvin’s doctrine, that “all evil springeth of God’s ordinance, and that God’s predestination was the cause of Adam’s fall, and of all wickednesses.” And in a fourth book, published by Robert Crowley, who afterwards was Rector of the church of St Giles’s near Cripplegate, entituled “The Confutation of Thirteen Articles,” etc. it is said expressly, “That Adam being so perfect a creature that there was in him no lust to sin, and yet so weak, that of himself he was not able to withstand the assault of the subtil serpent — that therefore there can be no remedy but that the only cause of his fall must needs be the predestination of God.” In which book it is also said, “That the most wicked persons that have been were of God appointed to be even as wicked as they were;” and finally, “that if God do predestinate man to do things rashly, and without any deliberation, he shall not deliberate at all, but run headlong upon it, be it good or evil.” By which defenders of the absolute decree of reprobation, as God is made to be the author of sin, either in plain terms or undeniable consequence; so from the same men, and the Genevian pamphlets by them dispersed, our English Calvinists have borrowed all their grounds and principles on which they build the absolute and irrespective decree of predestination, contrary to the doctrine publicly maintained and taught in the time of King Edward. ANNO REGNI MAR. 4, ANNO DOM. 1556, 1557. 1. IT is now time that we set sail again for England, which I we left flaming with the fire of persecution, and the whole body of the state not a little inflamed with a spirit of treason and sedition; — the last ill spirit well allayed by the execution of the chief conspirators; the other fire not quenched by the blood of the martyrs, which rather served as oil to nourish than as water to extinguish the outrageousness of it. But the Queen hoped to salve the matter on her part by some works of piety, as the restoring of such church-lands as were in the Crown for the endowment of some new convents of Monks and Friars. But first she thought it necessary to communicate her purpose unto some of the Council, and therefore calling to her the Lord Treasurer Paulet, Inglefield Master of the Wards, Rochester Comptroller of her household, and master Secretary Petre, who seemed to be most concerned in it by their several places, she is said to have spoken to them in these following words: — 2. “You are here of our Council, and we have willed you to be called to us, to the intent you might hear of me my conscience, and the resolution of my mind, concerning the lands and possessions, as well of monasteries, as of other churches whatsoever, being now presently in my possession. First, I do consider that the said lands were taken away from the churches aforesaid in time of schism, and that by unlawful means, such as are contrary both to the law of God and of the Church; for the which cause my conscience doth not suffer me to detain them. And therefore I here expressly refuse either to claim or [to] retain the said lands for mine, but with all my heart freely and willingly, without all paction or condition, here and before God, I do surrender and relinquish the said lands and possessions or inheritances whatsoever, and do renounce the same, with this mind and purpose, that order and disposition thereof may be taken, as shall seem best liking to our most holy lord the Pope, or else his Legate, the Lord Cardinal, to the honor of God, and wealth of this our realm. And albeit you may object to me again, that considering the state of my kingdom, and the dignity thereof, my Crown imperial cannot be honorably maintained and furnished without the possessions aforesaid; yet notwithstanding” (and so she had affirmed before, when she was bent upon the restitution of the tenths and first fruits) “I set more by the salvation of my soul than by ten such kingdoms; and therefore the said possessions I utterly refuse here to hold after that sort and title, and give most hearty thanks to Almighty God, which hath given me an husband likewise minded, with no less good affection in this behalf than I am myself. Wherefore I charge and command that my Chancellor (with whom I have conferred my mind in this matter before) and you four tomorrow do resort together to the most reverend Lord Legate, and do signify to him the premises in my name; and give your attendance upon him, for the more full declaration of the state of my kingdom, and of the aforesaid possessions, accordingly as you yourselves do understand the matter, and can inform him in the same.” 3. Upon this opening of her mind, the Lords perceived it would be to no purpose to persuade the contrary, and therefore thought it requisite to direct some course wherein she might satisfy her desires to her own great honor, and yet not alienate too much at once of the public patrimony. The Abbey of Westminster had been founded in a convent of Benedictines, or Black Monks, by King Edward the Confessor; valued at the suppression by King Henry the Eighth at the yearly sum of 3977 pounds, in good old rents, anno 1539. At what time having taken to himself the best and greatest part of the lands thereof, he founded with the rest a Collegiate Church, consisting of a Dean and secular Canons; Benson, the last Abbot, being made the first Dean of this new erection. To Benson succeeded Dr Cox, and to him was substituted Dr Weston, in the first of this Queen.

And, being preferred unto the place by her special favor, ‘twas conceived to be no hard matter to persuade him to make a surrendry of his church into the hands of the Queen, that so it might return to its former nature, and be erected into a convent of Benedictines, without any charge unto the Crown. And this they thought would be the easier brought to pass, because, by the preferment of Dr Owen Oglethorp to the See of Carlisle, the deanery of Windsor would be void; which was considered as a sufficient compensation, if bestowed on Weston, for his surrendry of the other. But they found a greater difficulty in it than was first imagined, Weston appearing very backward in conforming to the Queen’s desires, partly out of a dislike which he had of the project (he being one that never liked the profession of Monkery), and partly out of an affection which he had to the place, seated so opportunely for the Court and all public businesses. But at last he yielded to that importunity which he was not able to resist; and thereby gained so much displeasure from the Cardinal Legate, that before the end of the next year, anno 1557, he was outed of his deanery of Windsor, and all his other ecclesiastical promotions, upon an information of his being taken in the act of adultery; which otherwise perhaps might have been pardoned or connived at in him, as in many others. But willing or unwilling, he had first surrendered the church of Westminster, which the Queen stocked with a new convent of Benedictines, consisting of an Abbot and fourteen monks; which, with their officers, were as many as the lands then left unto it could well maintain. And for the first Abbot, she made choice of Dr John Fecknam, a learned, grave, and moderate man, whom she had formerly made Dean of St Paul’s, in the place of Dr William May, and now made choice of Dr Henry Cole, Archdeacon of Ely, and Prolocutor of the Convocation, anno 1555, to succeed him in it. 4. It was upon the 21st of November that the new Abbot and his monks entered on the possession of their ancient convent, which they held not fully out three years, when it was once again dissolved by Act of Parliament; of which more hereafter. Which fate befell the rest of her foundations also; two of which cost her little more than this at Westminster. A convent of Observants (being a reformed order of Franciscan Friars) had been founded by King Henry the Seventh near the Manor of Greenwich, and was the first which felt the fury of King Henry the Eighth, by reason of some open opposition made by some of the Friars in favor of Queen Katherine, the mother of the Queen now reigning. Which moved her in a pious gratitude to re-edify that ruined house, and to restore as many as could be found of that order to their old habitations; making up their corporation with some new Observants, to a competent number. She gathered together also a new convent of Dominicans, or Black Friars, for whom she provided an house in Smithfield, in the City of London, fitting the same with all conveniences both for divine offices and other necessary uses. And having done this, she was at no more charges with either of them; for both the Observants and Dominicans, being begging Friars, might be resembled not unfitly to a swarm of bees, which, being provided of an hive, are left to make their combs and raise themselves a livelihood by their natural industry. 5. But so she went not off in her other foundations, which were to be provided of some proportional endowment out of the revenues of the Crown towards their support. At Sion, near Brentford, in the county of Middlesex, there had been anciently a house of religious women, nuns of the order of St Bridget, — dissolved, as were all the rest, by King Henry the Eighth; most of the old ones dead, and the younger married. Yet out of such of the old nuns as remained alive, and the addition of some others, who were willing to embrace that course of life, a competent number was made up for a new plantation; but seated as before at Sion, which the Queen repaired, and laid unto it a sufficient estate in lands for their future maintenance. Which house, being afterwards dissolved also by Queen Elizabeth, came first to the possession of Sir Thomas Perrot, who gave it to his wife, the Lady Dorothy, one of the daughters of Walter Devereux, Earl of Essex; by whom, being after married to Henry Lord Percy, Earl of Northumberland, it was left for a retiring house to that noble family, who do still enjoy it. At Sheen, on the other side of the water, there had been anciently another religious house, not far from a mansion of the King’s, to which they much resorted till the building of Richmond. This house she stocked with a new convent of Carthusians (corruptly called the Charter-House Monks), which she endowed with a revenue great enough to maintain that order, which professed more abstemiousness in diet and sparingness of expense in all other things than any others which embraced a monastical life. And the next year, having closed up the west end of the quire or chancel of the church of St John’s, near Smithfield, (which was all the Protector Somerset had left standing of it), she restored the same to the Hospitalry of Knights of St John, to whom it formerly belonged, — assigning a liberal endowment to it for their more honorable subsistence.

Over whom she placed Sir Thomas Tresham for the first Lord Prior, — a gentleman of an ancient family, and one that had deserved exceeding well of her in defense of her claim against Queen Jane: who on the 30th of November, 1557, received the order of the Cross at Westminster, and took possession of his place; which having scarce warmed, he was taken from it by the stroke of death, and left it by the Queen to be disposed of to Sir Richard Shellie, the last Great Master of that Order in the realm of England. 6. But this expiring with the rest, within two years after, there remained nothing of all Queen Mary’s foundations but her new Hospital in the Savoy. An hospital had formerly been founded in that house by her grandfather, King Henry the Seventh, for the relief of such pilgrims as either went on their devotions to the shrine of St Thomas Becket of Canterbury, or any other eminent shrine or saint in those parts of the kingdom. On a suggestion made to King Edward the Sixth, that it served only for a receptacle of vagrant persons, it was surrendered to him in the last year of his reign by the master and brethren of the same; out of the lands whereof he assigned the yearly rent. of seven hundred marks for the maintenance of his new working-house of Bridewell, which he had given for ever to the Lord Mayor and City of London, (as hath been signified before in the life of that King) together with all the beds, bedding, and other furniture which were found in this hospital. And though this grant bare date on the 26th of June, in the last year of his reign, anno 1553, yet the Lord Mayor and Aldermen entered not on the possession of it till the month of February now last past, anno 1555. But having took possession of it, and so much of the land of this hospital being settled on it, the hospital in the Savoy could not be restored to its first condition but by a new endowment from such other lands belonging to religious houses which were remaining in the Crown. But the Queen was so resolved upon it, that she might add some works of charity unto those of piety, or else in honor of her grandfather, whose foundation she restored at Greenwich also, — the hospital was again refounded on the third of November, and a convenient yearly rent allotted to the master and brethren for the entertainment of the poor, according to the tenor and effect of the first institution. Which prince-like act so wrought upon the maids of honor and other ladies of the Court, that, for the better attaining of the Queen’s good grace, they furnished the same at their own costs with new beds, bedding, and other necessary furniture, in a very ample manner. In which condition it continueth to this very day, the mastership of the hospital being looked on as a good preferment for any well deserving man about the Court; but for the most part given to some of their Majesties’ chaplains, for the encouragement of learning and the reward of their service. 7. How fax the Queen’s example, seconded by the ladies about the court, countenanced by the King, and earnestly insisted on by the Pope then being, might have prevailed on the nobility and gentry for doing the like, either in restoring their church-lands, or assigning some part of them to the like foundations, it is hard to say; most probable it is that if the Queen had lived some few years longer, either for love to her, or for fear of gaining the King’s displeasure, (who was now grown too great to be disputed with, if the point were questioned) or otherwise out of an unwillingness to incur the Pope’s curse and the Church’s censures, there might have been very much done that way, though not all at once. For so it was, that Philip having passed over to Calais in the month of September, anno 1555, and the next day departing to the Emperor’s court, which was then at Brussels, there he found his father in a resolution of resigning to him all his dominions and estates, except the empire, (or the bare title, rather, of it) which was to be surrendered to his brother Ferdinand: not that he had not a design to settle the imperial dignity on his successors in the realm of Spain, for the better attaining of the universal monarchy which he was said to have aspired to over all the West, but that he had been crossed in it by Maximilian, the eldest son of his brother Ferdinand, who succeeded to his father in it, and left the same hereditary in a manner to the princes of the house of Austria of the German race. For Charles, grown weary of the world, broken with wars, and desirous to apply himself to divine meditations, resolved to discharge himself of all civil employments, and spend the remainder of his life in the Monastery of St Justus, situate among the mountains of Extremadura, a province of the realm of Castile. In pursuance whereof, having called before him the principal of the nobility and great men of his several kingdoms and estates, he made a resignation of all his hereditary dominions to King Philip his son, on the 25th of October, anno 1555, having then scarce attained to the fifty-fifth year of his life, to the great admiration of all the world. After which act, he found himself so abandoned by all his followers, that, sitting up late at night in conference with Seldius, his brother’s Embassador, he had not a servant within call to light the gentleman down stairs. Which being observed by the Emperor, he took the candle into his hands, and would needs in his own person perform that office; and having brought him to the top of the stairs, he said unto him, “Remember, Seldius, that thou hast known the Emperor Charles, whom thou hast seen in the head of so many armies, reduced to such a low estate as to perform the office of an ordinary servant to his brother’s minister.” Such was the greatness to which Philip had attained at the present time, when the Queen was most intent on these new foundations. 8. As for the Pope, he had published a Bull in print at the same time also, in which he threatened excommunication to all manner of persons without exception as kept any church-lands unto themselves; as also to all princes, noblemen and magistrates, as did not forthwith put the same in execution. Which, though it did not much edify at the present in the realm of England, yet it found more obedience and conformity in that of Ireland; in which a Parliament being called toward the end of this year, (that is to say in the month of June, anno 1557,) there passed a Statute for repealing all Acts, Articles, and Provisions made against the See Apostolic, since the 20th year of King Henry the Eighth, and for abolishing of several ecclesiastical possessions conveyed to the laity, as also for the extinguishment of first-fruits and twentieth parts (no more than the yearly payment of the twentieth part having been laid by Act of Parliament on the Irish Clergy): in the first and last clause whereof as they followed the example of the realm of England, so possibly they might have given a dangerous example to it in the other point, if, by the Queen’s death following shortly after, as well King Philip as the Pope had not lost all their A power and influence on the English nation; by means whereof there was no farther progress in the restitution of the abbey-lands, no more reedifying of the old religious houses, and no intention for the founding of any new. Such as most cordially were affected to the interest of the Pope of Rome, and otherwise were very perfect at their Ave Maria, might love their Pater noster well, but their penny better. 9. Thus have we seen how zealously the Queen proceeded or in her way towards the re-establishing of the Papal greatness. Let us next look on the proceedings of the Cardinal Legate, not as a legate a latere from the Pope of Rome, but as legatus natus, a Metropolitan or Archbishop of the Church of England. As Cardinal Legate he had been never forward in the shedding of blood, declaring many ways his averseness from the severity which he saw divers of the English Bishops, but especially the Butcher of London, were so bent upon. And when he came to act as Metropolitan, he was very sparing in that kind, as far as his own person was concerned therein; though not to be excused from suffering the under officers of his diocese to be too prodigal of the blood of their Christian brethren. He had been formerly suspected for a favorer of the Lutheran doctrines, when he lived at Rome, and acted for the Pope as one of his Legates in the Council of Trent. Gardiner and Bonner, and the rest of the sons of thunder, who called for nothing less than fire (though not from heaven), were willing to give out that he brought the same affections into England also; and therefore somewhat must be done to keep up his authority and reputation both at home and abroad. To which end, he inserteth some particulars amongst the printed Articles of his Visitation, to witness for him to the world that he had as great a care for suppressing the growth of heresy as any Prelate in the kingdom, who would be thought more zealous, because more tyrannical; of which sort are the 14th and 15 th Articles which concerned the Clergy, that is to say, “Whether any of them do teach or preach erroneous doctrine, contrary to the Catholic faith, and the unity of the Church; and whether any of them do say the divine Service, or do minister the Sacraments, in the English tongue, contrary to the usual order of the Church?” Of which sort also were the first of those touching the Laity, viz. “Whether any manner of persons, of what estate, degree, or condition soever they be, do hold, maintain, or affirm any heresies, errors, and erroneous opinions, contrary to the Laws Ecclesiastical, and the unity of the Catholic Church?” Which general Article was after branched into such particulars as concerned the carnal presence of Christ in the Sacrament, the reverent esteem thereof, the despising of any of the Sacramentals, and the decrying of auricular confession by word or practice.

And somewhat also of this sort was the 17th Article, by which it was inquired, “Whether any of the Priests or Clergy, that had been married under the pretense of lawful matrimony, and since reconciled, do privily resort to their pretended wives, or that the said women do privily resort to them?” Nothing material or considerable in all the rest, but what hath been in use and practice by all the Archbishops, Bishops, and other ecclesiastical judges in the Church of England, since the first and best times of Queen ]Elizabeth; all of them seeming to have took their pattern from this reverend prelate’s, and to have precedented themselves by the articles of his Visitation. In two points only he appeared to be somewhat singular, and therefore found no followers in the times succeeding; the first whereof was, the registering of the names of the Godfathers and Godmothers, as well as of the child baptized; which why it should be laid aside I can see no reason, the rubric of the Church allowing none to perform that office before they have received the holy Communion. The second was, an inquiry whether the Parsons, Vicars, and Curates were diligent in teaching the midwives how to christen children in time of necessity, according to the Canons of the Church; which seemed sufficiently necessary to be put in practice, as long as baptism was permitted to midwives or any other persons not in holy orders. 10. But though he seemed more favorable than any of the rest of the bishops towards those which were living, he was content to exercise the utmost of his power upon those that were dead; nor was he without hope, that, by the punishment and disgrace of those which were not sensible of either, he might be thought to manifest his greatest zeal towards the maintenance of the doctrines of the Church of Rome, as if he had inflicted the like censures on them when they were alive. This prompts him to a visitation of the University of Cambridge, — partly to rectify the Statutes of it, which in many points were thought to stand in need of a reformation; but principally to exercise some more than ordinary rigor on the dead bodies of Martin Bucer and Paulus Fagins. Of these, the first, having been the public Reader in Divinity, in the time of King Edward, was solemnly interred in the Church of St Mary’s; the other, having been Hebrew Reader at the same time also, was buried in the Church of St Michael. In order to this visitation, he delegates one Ormanete, an Italian, honored with the title of the Pope’s Datary, Doctor Cuthbert Scot, then newly consecrated Bishop of Chester, Doctor Watson, Master of St John’s College and Lord Elect of Lincoln, and Doctor Christopherson, Master of Trinity College and Dean of Norwich, Lord Elect of Chichester, and Doctor Henry Cole, Provost of Eaton College and Dean of St Paul’s. With these were joined as Commissioners, Doctor Andrew Pern, Master of Peterhouse and Vice-Chancellor, some Doctors of Divinity, Sir James Diet, then the Recorder of the town, and certain others, in the name of the King and Queen. It must be some great business doubtless, that must require so many hands, and exercise the wits of so many persons, — bishops, deans, doctors in divinity, canonists, common lawyers, knights, and gentlemen.

But what the business was, and how little it required such preparations, we are next to see. 11. The Cardinal’s Commissioners came to Cambridge on the 9th of January, where they found the rest ready to receive them, and the next day they interdicted the two Churches above mentioned, for daring to entertain the dead bodies of such desperate heretics. I pretermit the eloquent speech made by Stoaks, the University Orator, the answer thereunto by Scot, then Bishop of Chester, the Latin sermon preached by Peacock against sects and heretics, together with the solemn mass with which this weighty business was to take beginning. Which preparations being past over, a petition is presented to the Cardinal’s delegates, in the name of the Vice-Chancellor and Heads of the University, for taking up the bodies of the said Martin Bucer and Paulus Fagius, to the end that some legal proceedings might be had against them, to the terror of others, in regard of those many dangerous and heretical doe.-trines by them formerly taught. The petition being granted, and the dead bodies condemned to be taken out of their graves, a public citation is set up at St Mary’s Church, the marketplace, and the common schools, requiring the said Martin Bucer and Paulus Fagins, or any other in their names or in their behalf, to appear before the Lords Commissioners on Monday the 15th of that month, to answer to such articles as then and there should be objected against them. But the dead bones not being able to come unless they were carried, and nobody daring to appear as their proctor or advocate, they might have been taken pro confessis, but that the court was willing to proceed by witnesses; and to that end they took the depositions of several persons touching the doctrine taught by the said two heretics; and then upon mature deliberation they condemned them of heresy, ordered them to be taken out of their graves, degraded from all holy Orders, and delivered to the secular magistrate. Of all this an account is given to the Cardinal Legate, who is desired to take some course that the ordinary writ (de comburendo Hoeretico) for the burning of heretics might be taken out, and sent unto the Mayor of Cambridge; without which nothing could be done in order to the execution of the rest of the sentence. The writ accordingly comes down, and Saturday the sixth day of February is appointed for the burning of the two dead bodies; which, being taken out of their graves and laid in their coffins on men’s shoulders, are carried to the market-place, with a guard of men well armed and weaponed for fear of making an escape; chained unto several posts, as if still alive, the wood and fire put to them, and their bodies burned, together with as many of their books as could be gotten, which were cast into the same flames also. 12. And because one University should not mock the other, the like cruelty was also exercised upon the dead body of Peter Martyr’s wife at Oxford, — a godly, grave, and sober matron while she lived, and to the poor people there exceeding charitable. It was supposed that Oxon stood as much in need of a visitation as Cambridge did. A commission is therefore granted by the Cardinal Legate to Doctor James Brooks, Bishop of Glocester, Ormanete, the Pope’s Datary, Cole and Wright, Doctors of the Civil Law, etc., to rectify such things as they found amiss in that University, or in any College of the same. It was given them also in charge amongst other things, that they should take the body of this good woman out of her grave, into which she had been laid, anno 1552, and to consume the same with fire, not doubting but, she was of the same religion which her husband had professed before. But when the Commissioners came to execute that part of their business, they could find no witness to depose any thing for certain touching her religion; such as were brought before them agreeing generally in this answer, That they did not understand her language, and therefore could not tell of what religion she was. It was therefore signified to the Cardinal, that for want of legal evidence against her they could not lawfully proceed in burning her body, as they had done the bodies of 13ueer and Fagius, against whom there was evidence enough to be found in their writings, besides that which was given in from the mouths of witnesses. The Cardinal thereupon gives order to Doctor Marshal, Dean of Christ Church, to take up her body (which had been buried near to that of St Frideswide), and to lay it out of Christian burial; who very readily obeyed, took up the bones of that virtuous woman, and most profanely buried them in a common dunghill. But long they lay not in that place; for Queen Elizabeth, coming to the Crown within two years after, gave order that this body should be decently inferred, as became the quality of her person and the reverence due unto her husband; as also that Bucer and Fagius should in the other University be publicly restored to their former honors. In obedience unto whose commands, the body of the one is taken out of the dunghill, and laid into the grave of St Frideswide, — their bones so intermingled with one another, that there could be no fear of offering the like inhumanity to them for the tithe to come. And, that the like honor might be done to Bucer and Fagins, a solemn commemoration of them was held at Cambridge; the sermon preached by Mr. James Pilkington, who not long after was preferred to the See of Durham; the panegyric made by Ackworth, Orator of that University, who spared no part of a good orator in setting forth their due praises and deserved commendations. 13. But we must now look back again’ on the reign of. Queen Mary; in which we find little more to do than the magnificent reception of Osep Napes, Embassador from the great Duke of Muscovy, upon this occasion: — The English merchants, at the solicitation of Sebastian Cabot, had furnished out some ships for the discovery of a North-East passage towards the rich countries of Cathai and China; in which they made so good a progress, that they attained as far as the port of St Nicholas, one of the principal port-towns of the empire of Russia, and laid the first foundation of a wealthy trade with that mighty empire. For their encouragement therein, the privileges of the Easterlings, commonly called the Merchants of the Steelyard, (who before had managed all the trade of the North East parts), were seized by King Edward the Sixth, and the way thereby laid open to the merchant-adventurers to increase their shipping with their wealth. For the continuance of which trade betwixt the nations, the emperor John Basiliwits sends his Embassador above named, embarked in one of the English ships, under the conduct and government of Richard Chancellor, the most expert pilot of that age. But so it happened, that the rest of the ships being scattered by a strong tempest on the coast of Norway, the ship which carried the Embassador was wrecked upon the coast of Scotland; the lading for the most part lost, amounting to twenty thousand pounds and upwards, besides many rich presents sent from the Russian Emperor to the King and Queen. The Embassador with much ado was preserved from drowning, but the pilot lost, who, by laboring to preserve the life of the other, neglected the best opportunity to save his own. The news whereof being brought to the merchants of London, (who by this time were grown into a Company of 140,) they procured letters from the King to the Regent of Scotland for the courteous entertainment of the said Embassador, and the restoring of such goods as had escaped the wreck; and, having furnished him with money and all other necessaries, caused him to be conducted towards the court. 14. Taking his leave of Scotland on the 14th of February, he is brought by easy journeys within twelve miles of London, — honorably entertained in all places as he passed along, and there received by fourscore of the Russian merchants in their chains of gold. Furnished with gold, velvet, silk, and all other things, he is by the whole company of the Russian merchants magnificently brought into London on the last of that month; met on the way by the Lord Viscount Montacute, attended with a gallant train of three hundred horse, at the Queen’s command, and received at Smithfield-bars by the Lord Mayor and Aldermen in their scarlet robes. Conducted to his lodgings in Fan-Church street, he was there presented in the Queen’s name with a piece of cloth of tissue, two pieces of cloth of gold, one whereof was raised with crimson velvet, with many other pieces of the like rich making; which very thankfully he received. Abiding at his lodging till the King’s coming back from Flanders, which was not till the 21st of March, he was brought upon our Lady-day by water to the court at Westminster.

Received at his landing by six Lords, he was by them brought into a chamber, where he found the Lords Chancellor, Treasurer, Privy Seal, Admiral, Bishop of Ely, and other Councilors; who, having exchanged salutations with him, attended him to the King and Queen, sitting under a rich canopy or cloth of state in the great hall there. Having presented his letters of credence, expressed himself unto their Majesties in a short oration, which was interpreted to them both in English and Spanish, and presented them with two timber of sables, which with much diligence had been recovered out of the wreck, he was by them remitted to his lodging with the like solemnity. Attended shortly after by the Bishop of Ely and Mr Secretary Petre; who, after much communication and several treaties, settled at last a friendly intercourse and commerce betwixt the nations; the articles whereof, engrossed in parchment, were afterwards presented to him, ratified and confirmed by the Great Seal of England. On the 23rd of April he was brought again into the court, where, having seen the pomps and orders of St George’s feast, the service of the royal chapel, and the magnificent procession of the Knights of-the Garter, he takes his leave of the King and Queen, is re-conveyed unto his lodging, and on the 3rd of May embarks for Russia, accompanied with four good ships well fraught with merchandise most proper for the trade of that country to which they were bound. The costly presents sent by him from the King and Queen to the Russian Emperor, and those bestowed upon himself, I leave to be reported by him at his coming home, and the relation of John Stow in his Annals of England, fol. 630. Nor had I dwelt so long upon these particulars, but to set forth the ancient splendor and magnificence of the state of England, from which we have so miserably departed in these latter times. 15. Worse entertainment found an agent from the French King at his coming hither, because he came on a worse errand. Stafford, an English gentleman of a noble family, having engaged himself in some of the former enterprises against this Queen, and finding no good fortune in them, retired with divers others to the court of France; from whence they endeavored many times to create some dangers to this realm, by scattering and dispersing divers scandalous pamphlets and seditious papers, tending to the apparent defamation of the King and Queen. And having got some credit by these practices amongst the ministers of that King, he undertakes to seize upon some fortress or port town of England, and put the same into the hands of the French. In prosecution of which plot, accompanied with some English rebels, and divers French adventurers intermingled with them, he seizeth on the strong castle of Scarborough, in the county of York. From thence he published a most traitorous and seditious manifest, in which he traitorously affirmed the Queen neither to be the rightful Queen of this realm, nor to be worthy of the title, affirming that the King had brought into this realm the number of twelve thousand Spaniards, who had possessed themselves of twelve of the best holds in all the kingdom; upbraiding the Queen with her misgovernment, and taking to himself the title of Protector of the realm of England. But the Queen being secretly advertised of the whole design, by the diligence of Dr Nicholas Wotton, Dean of Canterbury, who was then Embassador in that court, order was taken with the Earl of Westmorland and other noble men of those parts to watch the coasts, and have a care unto the safety of those Northern provinces. By whom he was so closely watched and so well attended, that, having put himself into that castle on the 24th, he was pulled out of it again on the last of April; from thence brought prisoner unto London, condemned of treason, executed on the Tower Hill, May 28, and on the morrow after three of his accomplices were hanged at Tyburn, cut down, and quartered. 16. But, as it was an ill-wind which blows nobody good, so this French treason, so destructive to the chief conspirators, redounded to the great benefit and advantage of Philip. He had for three years borne the title of King of England, without reaping any profit and commodity by it. But being now engaged in war with King Henry III., though in pursuit rather of his father’s quarrels than any new ones of his own, he takes this opportunity to move the Queen to declare herself against the French, and to assist him in his war against that King, for the good of her kingdoms. It was not possible for the Queen to separate her interest from that of her husband without hazarding some great unkindness, if not a manifest breach, between them. She therefore yields to his desire, and by her Proclamation of the 7th of June, chargeth that King in having an hand not only in the secret practices of the Duke of Northumberland, but also in the open rebellion of Wyat and his confederates. She also laid unto his charge, that Dudley, Ashton, and some other malcontents of England were entertained in the house of his Embassadors, where they contrived many treasons and conspiracies against her and her kingdom; that, flying into France, they were not only entertained in the Court of that King, but relieved with pensions. Finally, that he had aided and encouraged Stafford with shipping, men, money, and munition, to invade her realm, — thereby if it were possible, to dispossess her of her Crown. She therefore gives notice to her subjects that they should forbear all traffic and commerce with the realm of France; from which she had received so many injuries as could admit no reparation but by open war. And that she might not seem to threaten what she never intended, she causeth an army to be raised, consisting of one thousand horse, four thou sand foot, and two thousand pioneers, which she puts under the command of the Earl of Pembroke, and so dispatcheth them for Flanders, to which they came about the middle of July. King Philip had gone before on the sixth of that month, and all things here were followed with such care and diligence that the army stayed not long behind; but what they did, falls not within the compass of this present year. 17. All which remains to be remembered in this present year relates unto such changes and alterations as were made amongst the Governors of the Church and the Peers of the realm. It hath been signified before that White of Lincoln had prevailed by his friends in Court to be translated unto Winchester, as the place of his nativity and education. To whom succeeded Dr Thomas Watson, Master of St John’s College in Cambridge and Dean of Durham, elected to the See of Lincoln before Christmas last, and acting by that name and in that capacity against the dead body of Martin Bucer. To Day of Chichester, who deceased on the second of August, in the beginning of this year, succeeded Dr John Christopherson, a right learned man, Master of Trinity College in Cambridge and Dean of Norwich, — elected about the same time when the other was, and acting as he did against Bucer and Fagins; as also did Dr Cuthbert Scot, who at that time was actually invested in the See of Chester, upon the death of Dr Cotes, the preceding Bishop. And finally, in the place of Aldrick, Bishop of Carlisle, who died on the fifth of March, 1555, Dr Owen Oglethorp, President of Magdalen College in Oxon and Dean of Windsor, receives consecration to that See in that first part of this year; but the particular day and time thereof I have nowhere found. Within the compass of this year (that is to say, the fourth year of the reign of this Queen) died two other Bishops, Salcot or Capon, Bishop of Salisbury, and Chambers, the first Bishop of Peterborough; to the first of which there was no successor actually consecrated or confirmed, for the reasons to be showed anon, in the reign of this Queen. But to the other succeeded Dr David Pool, Doctor of both laws, Dean of the Arches, Chancellor to the Bishop of Lichfield, and Archdeacon of Derby; elected before the end of this year, but not consecrated till the fifteenth of August in the beginning of the next. 18. Some alterations happened also amongst the Peers of the realm, in the creation of one, and the destruction of another. A rebellion had been raised in the North upon the first suppression of religious houses, anno 1536; in which Sir Thomas Percy, second son to Henry, the fifth Earl of Northumberland of that name and family, was thought to be a principal stickler, and for the same was publicly arraigned, condemned, and executed. By Eleanor his wife, one of the daughters and heirs of Sir Guiscard Harebottle, he was the father of Thomas and Henry, who hitherto had suffered under his attaindure: but now it pleased Queen Mary to reflect on their father’s sufferings and the cause thereof; which moved her not only to restore them to their blood and honors, but also to so much of the lands of the Percies as were remaining in the Crown. In pursuance whereof she advanced Thomas, the elder brother, on the last of April, to the style, title, and degree of Earl of Northumberland, . the remainder to his brother Henry, in case the said Thomas should depart this life without issue male.

By virtue of which entail the said Henry afterwards succeeded him in his lands and honors, notwithstanding that he was attainted, condemned, and executed for high treason in the time of Queen Elizabeth, anno 1572. 19. Not many weeks before the restitution of which noble family, that of the Lord Sturton was in no small danger of a final destruction; . a family first advanced to the state of a Baron in the person of Sir John Sturton, created Lord Sturton in the twenty-sixth of King Henry VI., and now upon the point of expiring in the person of Charles Lord Sturton, condemned and executed with four of his servants on the sixth of March, for the murder of one Argal and his son, with whom he had been long at variance. It was his first hope that the murder might not be discovered, and for that cause had buried ‘the dead bodies fifteen foot under ground; his second, that by reason of his zeal to the Popish religion, it might be no hard matter to procure a pardon. But the murder was too foul to be capable of any such favor, so that he was not only adjudged to die, but condemned to be hanged. It is reported of Marcus Antonius, that, having vanquished Artavasdes, King of Armenia, he led him bound in chains to Rome, but, for his greater honor, and to distinguish him from the rest of the prisoners, in chains of gold: and such an honor was vouchsafed to this noble murderer, in not being hanged, as his servants and accomplices were, in a halter of hemp, but in one of silk. And with this fact the family might have expired, if the Queen, having satisfied justice by his execution, had not consulted with her mercy for the restoring of his next heir both in blood and honor.

ANNO REGNI MAR. 5, ANNO DOM. 1557, 1558. 1. WE must begin this year with the success of those forces which were sent under the command of the Earl of Pembroke to the aid of Philip; who, having made up an army of thirty-five thousand foot and twelve thousand horse, besides the forces out of England, sat down before St Quintin, the chief town of Piccardy; called by the Romans Augusta Veromanduorum, and took this new name from St Quintin, the supposed tutelary saint and patron of it; — a town of principal importance to his future aims, as being one of the keys of France on that side of the kingdom, and opening a fair way even to Paris itself. For the raising of which siege, the French King sends a puissant army under the command of the Duke of Montmorancy, then Lord High Constable of France, accompanied with the flower of the French nobility. On the 10th day of August the battles join, in which the French were vanquished and their army routed: the Constable himself, the Prince of Mantua, the Dukes of Montpensier and Longuaville, with six others of the prime nobility, and many others of less note, being taken prisoners; the Duke of Anguien, the Viscount Turin, four persons of honorable rank, most of the foot captains, and of the common soldiers to the number of 2500, slain upon the place. The news whereof struck such a terror in King Henry II., that he was upon the point of forsaking Paris and retiring into Languedock, or some other remote part of his dominions; in the suddenness of which surprise he dispatched his couriers for recalling the Duke of Guise out of Italy, whom he had sent thither at the Pope’s instigation with a right puissant army for the conquest of Naples. But Philip, knowing better how to enjoy than to use his victory, continued his siege before St Quintin, which he stormed on the 18th of that month, the Lord Henry Dudley, one of the younger sons of the Duke of Northumberland (who lost his life in the assault) together with Sir Edward Windsor, being the first that scaled the walls and advanced their victorious colors on the top thereof. After which gallant piece of service, the English, finding some neglect at the hands of Philip, humbly desire to be dismissed into their country; which for fear of some further inconvenience was indulged unto them. By which dismiss]on of the English (as Thuanus and others have observed) King Philip was not able with all his Spaniards to perform any action of importance in the rest of the war. 2. But the English shall pay dearly for this victory, which the Spaniard bought with no greater loss than the lives of fifty of his men. The English at that time were possessed of the town of Calais, with many other pieces and forts about, as Guisness, Hamne, Ardres, etc., together with the whole territory called the County Oye; the town by Caesar called Portus Iccius, situate on the mouth or entrance of the English Channel, opposite to Dover, one of the five principal havens in those parts of England, from which distant not above twenty-five miles: — a town much aimed at for that reason by King Edward the Third, who, after a siege of somewhat more than eleven months, became master of it anno 1347; by whom first made a colony of the English nation, and after one of the staple towns for the sale of wool. Kept with great care by his successors, who, as long as they had it in their possession, were said to carry the keys of France at their girdle; esteemed by Philip de Comines for the goodliest captainship in the world; and therefore trusted unto none but persons of most eminent rank both for courage and honor. A town which for more than 200 years had been such an eye-sore to the French, and such a thorn in their sides, that Monsieur de Cordes, a nobleman who lived in the reign of King Lewis the Eleventh, was wont to say that he could be content to lie seven years in hell, upon condition that this town were regained from the English. But the French shall have it now at an easier rate: the Queen had broke the peace with France, and sent a considerable body of forces to the aid of Philip, but took no care to fortify and make good this place; as if the same garrison which had kept it in a time of peace had been sufficient to maintain it also in a time of war. 3. For so it happened that Francis of Lorain, Duke of Guise, one of the best soldiers of that age, being called back with all his forces from the war of Italy, and not well pleased with the loss of that opportunity which seemed to have been offered to him for the conquest of Naples, resolved of doing somewhat answerable unto expectation, as well for his own honor as the good of his country. He had long fixed his eyes on Calais, and was informed by Senarpont, governor of Bulloign, and by consequence a near neighbor to it, that the town was neither so well fortified nor so strongly garrisoned but that it might be taken without any great difficulty. For confirmation whereof, Monsieur d’ Strozzie, one of the Marshals of France, under the favor of a disguise, takes a view of the place, and hearteneth on the Duke with the feasibility of the undertaking. Philip, who either had intelligence of the French designs, or otherwise rationally supposing what was like to follow in the course of war, had often advised the Queen to have a care of that piece, and freely offered his assistance for defense thereof. But the English, — over-wisely jealous lest Philip had a practice on it, it lying commodiously for his adjoining Netherlands, — neglected both his advice and proffer. Nay, so extremely careless were the Council of England in looking to the preservation and defense of this place, that, when the Duke sate down before it, there was not above 500 soldiers, and but two hundred fighting men amongst the townsmen, although the whole number of inhabitants amounted to 4200 persons. On New-year’s day the Duke of Guise sate down before it, and on Twelfth-day had it surrendered up unto him by the Lord Deputy Wentworth, who had the chief command and government of it. The noise of the thundering cannon, heard as far as Antwerp, could not but rouse the drowsy English to bethink themselves of some relief to be sent t to Calais; and they accordingly provided both ships and men to perform that service. But the winds were all the while so strong and so cross against them, that, before the English ships could get out of their havens, the French were masters of the town.

Some greater difficulty found the Duke in the taking of the castle of Guisness, where the Lord Gray, a valiant and expert soldier, had the chief command. But at length the accessories followed the same fortune with the principal; both Guisness and Hamne and all the other pieces in the county of Oye being reduced under the power of the French within few days after. 4. There now remained nothing to the crown of England of all its ancient rights in France, but the Islands of Guernsey and Jersey, Sark and Aldernay, all lying on the coast of Normandy, of which Dukedom heretofore accounted members. Held by the English ever since the time of the Norman Conquest, they have been many times attempted by the French, but without success; never so much in danger of being lost as they were at this present. Some of the French had well observed, that the island of Sark (an island of six miles in compass) enjoyed the benefit of a safe and commodious haven, but without any to defend it. but a few poor hermits whom the privacy and solitariness of the place had invited thither. The island round begirt with rocks, lying aloft above the sea, and having only one strait passage or ascent unto it, scarce capable of two abreast. Of this island the French easily possessed themselves, dislodged the hermits, fortify the upper part of the ascent with some pieces of ordnance, and settle a small garrison in it to defend the haven. But long they had not nested there, when by a gentleman of the Netherlands, one of the subjects of King Philip, it was thus regained: — The Flemish gentleman with a small bark came to anchor in the road, and, pretending the death of his merchant, besought the French that they might bury him in the chapel of that island, offering a present to them of such commodities as they had aboard. To this request the French were easily entreated, upon condition that they should not come to shore with any weapon, no not so much as a pen-knife. This leave obtained, the Flemings rowed unto the shore with a coffin in their skiff, for that use purposely provided, and manned with swords and arcubusses.

Upon their landing, and a search so strict and narrow that it was impossible to hide a pen-knife, they were permitted to draw their coffin up the rocks, — some of the French rowing back unto the ship to fetch the present, where they were soon made fast enough and laid in hold. The Flemings in the mean time which were on the ]and had carried their coffin into the chapel, and, having taken thence their weapons, gave an alarum unto the French, who, taken thus upon the sudden, and seeing no hopes of succor from their fellows, yielded themselves, and abandoned the possession of that place. A stratagem to be equaled, if not preferred, unto any of the ancients, either Greeks or Romans, did not that fatal folly, reprehended once by Tacitus, still reign amongst us, that we extol the former days and contemn the present. 5. The loss of this island gave a new alarum to the Council of England, who thereupon resolved to set out a right puissant navy, as well for the securing of the rest of the islands, as to make some impression on the main of France. It was not till the month of April that they entered into consultation about this business; and so exceeding tedious were they in their preparation, that the month of July was well spent before they were ready to weigh anchor. During which time the French had notice of their purpose, and, understanding that they had an aim on Brest in Bretaign, they took more care in fortifying it against the English than the English did for Calais against the French. It was about the middle of July that the Lord Admiral Clynton set sail for France, with a fleet of one hundred and forty ships, whereof thirty Flemish. Finding no hopes of doing any good on Brest, bends his course for Conquer, an open sea-town of that province; at this place he lands his men, takes and sacks the town, burns it together with the abbey, and, having wasted all the country round about, returned with safety to his ships. ]But the Flemish, somewhat more greedy on the spoil, and negligent in observing martial discipline, are valiantly encountered by a nobleman of that country, and sent back fewer by five hundred than they came on shore. This was the sum of what the English did this year in order to the recovery of the honor which they lost at Calais; and possibly they might think they had done enough in the spoil of Bretaign to satisfy for the loss of a town in Piccardy: whereas in truth the waste which they had made in Bretaign might be compared to the cutting off a man’s hair, which will grow again; the loss of Calais, to the dismembering of an arm or leg, never to be again united to the rest of the body. 6. Either by reason of these wars, or that men were not then so prompt to suits in law, the lawyers found but little work in Westminster-hall, insomuch that at the King’s Bench bar there attended but one man of law, called Foster, and but one Serjeant only, called Bouloise of the Common- Pleas, — both having little more to do than to look about them, and the judges not much more to do than the lawyers had: but certainly that great leisure which the lawyers found for doing nothing proceeded rather from the noise of the wars, in which the voice of the law cannot easily be heard, than from the quietness and disposition of the times, in which the number both of suits and pleaders had been much increased; as may be gathered from the words of Heiwood, the old epigrammatist, and one much made of by the Queen, who, being told of the great number of lawyers, and that the number of them would impoverish the whole profession, made answer, “No, for that always the more spaniels there were in the field, the more was the game.” Not so much elbow-room in the hall, though possibly not much more business for them, in the term next following, by reason of the Parliament, which began on the 20th of January, and held on till the 7th of March; in which I find no Act which concerned Religion, nor any thing which had relation to the Clergy, more than the confirmation of the grant of subsidies. It was a military time, and the Acts had something in them of that temper also; that is to say, — an Act proportioning what number of horse, arms, and weapons every man should be charged withal in his several station, cap. 2; an Act for the due taking and observing of musters, cap. 3; that accessories in murder, and such as were found guilty of divers felonies, should not have their Clergy, cap. 4; for the quiet behavior of such Frenchmen as had purchased the privilege of being denizens, cap. 6; and finally, for granting a subsidy and fifteen by the temporality towards the defense of the realm, and carrying on the war against those of France.

Nothing else memorable in this session, but that Fecknam, the new Abbot of Westminster, and Tresham, the new Prior of St John’s of Jerusalem, took place amongst the lords in the House of Peers. 7. At the Convocation then holden for the province of Canterbury, Harpsfield, Archdeacon of London, is chosen and admitted Prolocutor for the House of the Clergy. Which done, the Cardinal Archbishop offers it to the consideration of the Bishops and Clergy, that some course might be thought upon for the recovery of Calais, then lately taken by the French.

Which whether it were done to spur on the Parliament, or to show their good affections to the public service, is not much material, considering that I find nothing acted in pursuance of it. As little was there done in order to another of his propositions, touching the reviewing and accommodating of the Statutes of the new foundations, though a reference thereof was made to the Bishops of Lincoln, Chester, and Peterborough, together with the Deans of Canterbury, Worcester, and Winchester. Some desires also were agreed on to be presented to the Prelate Cardinal in the name of the Clergy, as namely, “1. That request may be made to the Queen’s Majesty, that no Parson, Vicar or Curate, be pressed by any captain to go to the wars. 2. That where two benefices, being contiguous, are so small that they are not able to find a Priest, the Bishop of the Diocese may give them in commendam to some one man, to serve them alternis vicibus. 3. That the parishioners which have chapels of ease, and yet want priests to serve the cure, may be compelled to come to the parish Churches, until some curate may be gotten to serve the same. And 4. That every Bishop may be authorized by the Pope to give orders extra tempera proescripta, that is to say, as well at any other times as on the Sundays after the four Ember weeks.” And finally, taking into consideration the great necessities of the State, and- preparation of the enemies, they granted first unto the Queen a subsidy of eight shillings in the pound, to be paid in four years, beginning after the last payment of the former grant; and because the laity at that time had charged themselves with horse and armor for defense of the realm, the clergy also did the like, according to their several orders and abilities.

For the imposing whereof upon the rest of the clergy they had no recourse at all unto the midwifery of an Act of Parliament, but acted the whole business in their own synodical way, without contradiction. 8. But the main business of this year in reference to the concernments of holy Church related to the Cardinal Legate; against whom the Pope had borne an inveterate grudge, sharpened by the suggestions of Bishop Gardiner, as before was signified. Being of himself a rigorous man, and one that was extremely wedded to his own opinion, he had so passionately espoused the quarrel of the French against the Spaniards, that he intended to divest Philip of the realm of Naples, and to confer it on the French. For this cause Francis Duke of Guise with a puissant army is drawn into Italy for the subduing of that kingdom, but suddenly recalled again, upon the routing of the French before St Quintin, wherein the English forces had appeared so serviceable. Which gave the Pope so much displeasure, that he resolved to let his greatest enemies feel the dint of his spirit. But not daring, upon second thoughts, to fall foul with the Queen, he turned his fury against Pole, by whose persuasion it was thought that the Queen had broke her league with France, to take part with her husband. In which humor he deprives him of the legantine power, confers the same on Friar Peitow, an Englishman by birth, but of good descent, whom he designs also to the See of Salisbury, then vacant by the death of Capon. Karn, the Queen’s agent with the Pope, advertiseth her Majesty of these secret practices, which the Queen concealing from the Cardinal endeavoreth by all fair and gentle means to mitigate the Pope’s displeasure, and confirm the Cardinal in the place and power which he then enjoyed. But the Pope not a man to be easily altered. Pole in the mean time, understanding how things went at Rome, laid by the cross of his legation, and prudently abstaineth from the exercise of his Bulls and Faculties. Peitow, the new Cardinal Legate, puts himself on the way to England; when the Queen, taking to herself some part of her father’s spirit, commands him at his utmost peril not to adventure to set foot upon English ground; to which he readily inclined, as being more affected unto Cardinal Pole than desirous to show himself the servant of another man’s passion. In the end, partly by the Queen’s mediation, the intercession of Ormanete, the good successes of the French in the taking of Calais, but principally by the death of Peitow, in the April following, the rupture was made up again, and Pole confirmed in the possession of his former powers. 9. The fear of running the like hazard for the time to come made him appear more willing to connive at his under-officers, in shedding the blood of many godly and religious persons, than otherwise he would have been.

Whereupon followed the burning of ten men in the Diocese of Canterbury, on the 15th of January, whereof two suffered at Ashford, two at Rie, and the other six in his own metropolitan city; and possibly the better to prepare the Pope towards the atonement, the Queen was moved to issue her commission of the month of February, directed to the Bishop of Ely, the Lords Windsor, North, and seventeen others, by which the said commissioners, or any three or more of them, were empowered “to inquire of all and singular heretical opinions, lollardies, heretical and seditious books, concealments, contempts, conspiracies, and all false tales, rumors, seditious or slanderous words, etc.: as also seize into their hands all manner of heretical and seditious books, letters, and writings, wheresoever they or any of them should be found, as well in printers’ houses and shops as elsewhere; willing them and every of them to search for the same in all places according to their discretion: and finally, to inquire after all such persons as obstinately do refuse to receive the blessed sacrament of the altar, to hear mass, or come to their parish-churches, and all such as refuse to go on procession, to take holy bread or holy water, or otherwise misuse themselves in any Church or hallowed place, etc.” The party so offending to be proceeded against according to the ecclesiastical laws, or otherwise by fine or imprisonment, as to them seemed best. 10. But the commissioners being many in number, persons of honor and employment for the most part of them, there was little or nothing done in pursuance of it, especially as to the searching after prohibited books; the number whereof increasing every day more and more, a proclamation was set forth on the 6th of June, to hinder the continual spreading of so great a mischief. Which proclamation was as followeth, viz. “Whereas divers books filled with heresy, sedition, and treason, have of late been daily brought into this realm out of foreign countries and places beyond the seas, and some covertly printed within this realm, and east abroad in sundry parts thereof; whereby not only God is dishonored, but also encouragement given to disobey lawful princes and governors: the King and Queen’s Majesties, for redress hereof, do by their present proclamation declare and publish to all their subjects, that whosoever shall after the proclamation hereof be found to have any of the said wicked and seditious books, or finding them do not forthwith burn the same, without showing or reading the same to any other persons, shall in that ease be reputed and taken for a rebel, and shall without further delay be executed for that offense, according to the order of martial law.” Which proclamation though it were very smart and quick, yet there was somewhat of more mercy in it than in another which came out in the very stone month, at the burning of seven persons in Smithfield, — published both at Newgate, where they were imprisoned, and at the stake where they were to suffer; whereby it was straitly charged and commanded, “That no man should either pray for or speak to them, or once say, God help them.” A cruelty more odious than that of Domitian or any of the greatest tyrants of the elder time, in hindering all intercourse of speech upon some jealousy and distrusts of State between man and man. 11. Which proclamation notwithstanding, Bentham, the Minister of one of the London congregations, seeing the fire set to them, turning his eyes unto the people, cried and said, “We know they are the people of God, and therefore we cannot choose but wish well to them, and say, God strengthen them;” and so boldly he said, “Almighty God, for Christ’s sake strengthen them.” With that all the people with one consent cried “Amen, Amen;” the noise whereof was so great, and the criers so many, that the officers knew not whom to seize on, or with whom they were to begin their accusation. And though peradventure it may seem to have somewhat of a miracle in it, that the Protestants should have a congregation under Bonner’s nose; yet so it was, that the godly people of that time were so little terrified with the continual thoughts of that bloody butcher, that they maintained their constant meetings for religious offices, even in London itself; in one of which congregations, that namely whereof Bentham was at this time minister, there assembled seldom under forty, many times 100, and sometimes 200, but more or less as it stood most with their conveniency and safety. The ministers of which successively were — Mr. Edward Scambler, after Bishop of Peter-borough, Mr. Thomas Foule, of whom I find nothing but the name, Mr. John Rough, a Scot by nation, convented and condemned by Bonner, and suffering for the testimony of a good conscience, December 20. After whom followed Mr. Augustine Bernher, a moderate and learned man; and finally, Mr. Thomas Bentham before mentioned, who continued in that charge till the death of Queen Mary, and was by Queen Elizabeth preferred to the see of Lichfield, anno 1559. By the encouragement and constant preaching of which pious men, the Protestant party did not only stand to their former principle, but were resolved to suffer whatsoever could be laid upon them, rather than forfeit a good conscience or betray the cause. They had not all the opportunity of such holy meetings, but they met frequently enough in smaller companies, to animate and comfort one another in those great extremities. 12. Nor sped the Queen much better in her proclamation of the sixth of June, concerning the suppression of prohibited books; but, notwithstanding all the care of her Inquisitors, many good books of true Christian consolation and good Protestant doctrine did either find some press in London, or were sent over to their brethren by such learned men as had retired themselves to their several sanctuaries, their places of retreat, which not improperly may be called their cities of refuge, which we have seen already: amongst which I find none but Embden in the Lutheran countries; the rigid professors of which Churches abominated nothing more than an English Protestant, because they concurred not with them in the monstrous doctrine of ubiquity and their device of consubstantiation. Insomuch that Peter Martyr telleth us of a friend of his in the Dukedom of Saxony, that he was generally hated by the rest of the countrymen, for being hospitable to some few of the English nation who had been forced to abandon their native soil. And it is further signified by Ph. Melancthon with no small dislike, in an epistle of this year, that many of those rigid Lutherans could find no other name but “the devil’s martyrs” for such as suffered death in England in defense of religion; so that they seemed to act the part of Diotrephes in Saint John, not only “prating against us with malicious words, and refusing to receive the brethren” in the day of their trouble, but “forbidding” and condemning “them that would.” But John a Lasco and his company had been lately there, where they spoke so reproachfully of Luther, the Augustan Confession, the rites and ceremonies of their churches, as rendered them incapable of any better entertainment than they found amongst them. And by the behavior of these men, coming then from England, the rigid Lutherans passed their judgment on the Church itself, and consequently on all those who suffered in defense thereof. For stopping the course of which uncharitable censures, it was thought fit by some of the divines in Embden that Archbishop Cranmer’s book about the sacrament should be translated into Latin, and forthwith published in print; which was done accordingly. Some of the Lutherans had given out on the former ground, that the. English had deservedly suffered the greatest hardships both at home and abroad, because they writ and spoke less reverently of the blessed sacrament; and it was hoped that by the publishing of this book they would find the contrary. The like course taken also at Geneva by the English exiles, by publishing in the Latin tongue a discourse writ by Bishop Ridley on the selfsame argument, to the end it might appear unto all the world how much their brethren had been wronged in these odious calumnies. ANNO REGNI MAR. 6, ANNO DOM. 1558. FB106 1. BUT in the midst of all these sorrows I see some hope of comfort coming by the death of Queen Mary, whose reign, polluted with the blood of so many martyrs, unfortunate by the frequent insurrections, and made inglorious by the loss of the town of Calais, was only commendable in the brevity or shortness of it. For now, to bring it to an end, a dangerous and contagious fever began to rage in most parts of the land, insomuch that, if the whole realm had been divided into four parts, three parts of the four would have been found infected with it. So furiously it raged in the month of August that no former plague or pestilence was thought to have destroyed a greater number, so that divers places were left void of justices and men of worth to govern the kingdom. At which time died also so many priests that a great number of parish-churches in divers places were unserved, and no curates could be gotten for money; much corn was also lost in the field, for want of laborers and workmen to get it in: both which together seemed to threaten not only a spiritual but a temporal famine: though God so ordered it, that by the death of so many of the present clergy a door was opened for the preaching of sounder doctrine, with far less envy and displeasure from all sorts of people than it had been otherwise. Nor were the heats of the disease abated by the coldness of the winter, or the malignity of it mitigated by medicinal courses. It took away the physicians as well as the patients, two of the Queen’s doctors dying of it not long before her; and spared not more the prelate than it did the priest, insomuch that within less than the space of a twelvemonth almost the one half of the English bishops had made void their sees; which, with the death of so many of the priests in several places, did much facilitate the way to that Reformation which soon after followed. 2. This terrible disease, together with the sad effects which followed on it, and the Queen’s death, which came along with it, though not caused by it, may seem to have been prognosticated or foretold by a dreadful tempest of thunder, happening on the 11th of July, near the town of Nottingham; which tempest, as it came through two towns, beat down all the houses and churches; the bells were cast to the outside of the churchyard, and some sheets of lead four hundred foot into the field, writhen like a pair of gloves. The river of Trent running between which two towns, the water with the mud in the bottom was carried a quarter of a mile and cast against the trees; the trees plucked up by the roots, and from thence cast twelve-score paces; also a child was taken forth of a man’s hand, and by the fury of it carried an hundred foot, two spear’s length from the ground, and so fell down, broke its arm, and died. Five or six men thereabouts were slain, and neither flesh nor skin perished; at what time also there fell some hailstones that were fifteen inches about, etc. But neither that terrible disease nor this terrible tempest, nor any other public sign of God’s displeasure, abated any thing of the fury of the persecution, till he was pleased to put an end unto it by the death of the Queen. It was upon the 10th day of November that no fewer than five at once were burned at Canterbury, — the Cardinal and the Queen both lying on the bed of sickness, and both dying within seven days after. It had been prayed or prophesied by those five martyrs when they were at the stake, that they might be the last who should suffer death in that manner, or on that occasion; and by God’s mercy so it proved, they being the last which suffered death under the severity of this persecution. 3. Which persecution, and the carriage of the papists in it, is thus described by Bishop Jewel: — “You have” (saith he) “imprisoned your brethren, you have stripped them naked, you have scourged them with rods, you have burnt their hands and arms with flaming torches, you have famished them, you have drowned them, summoned them being dead to appear before you out of their graves, you have ripped up their buried carcasses, burnt them, and thrown them out upon the dunghill, you took a poor babe falling from its mother’s womb, and in most cruel and barbarous manner threw it into the fire.” By all which several ways and means, the martyrs in all parts of the kingdom amounted to the number of two hundred seventyseven persons of all sorts and sexes; but more particularly there are said to have perished in these flames five bishops, twenty one divines, eight gentlemen, eighty four artificers, one hundred husbandmen, servants, and laborers, twenty six wives, twenty widows, nine virgins, two boys, and two infants; the one springing out of his mother’s womb as she was at the stake, and most unmercifully flung into the fire in the very birth. Sixtyfour more in those furious times were presented for their faith, whereof seven were whipped, sixteen perished in prison, twelve buried in dunghills, and many more lay in captivity, condemned, which were delivered by the opportune death of Queen Mary and the most auspicious entrance of Queen Elizabeth, whose gracious government blotted out the remembrance of all former sufferings; the different conditions of whose reigns, with the former two, may seem to have somewhat in them of those appearances which were presented to Elijah in the Book of Kings, in the first Book and nineteenth Chapter, wherein we find it written, “That a great and strong wind rent the mountains, and brake in pieces the reeks before the Lord; but the Lord was not in the wind: and after the wind an earthquake; but the Lord was not in the earthquake: and after the earthquake a fire; but the Lord was not in the fire: and” finally “after the fire, a still small voice,” in which the Lord spoke unto his prophet. So in like manner it may be feared that God was neither in that great and terrible wind which threw down so many monasteries and religious houses in the reign of King Henry; nor in that earthquake which did so often shake the very foundations of the state in the time of King Edward; nor in the fire in which so many godly and religious persons were consumed to ashes in the days of Queen Mary; but that he showed himself in that “still small voice” which breathed so much comfort to the souls of his people, in the most gracious and fortunate government of a virgin Queen. 4. For now it pleased God to hearken to the cry of those his saints which lay under the altar, and called upon him for an end of those calamities to which their dear brethren were exposed. The Queen had inclined unto a dropsy ever since the time of her supposed being with child; which inclination appeared in her more and more, when her swelling fell from the right place to her lower parts, increasing irrecoverably in despite of physic, till at last it brought her to her death. But there are divers other causes which are supposed to have contributed their concurrence in it. Philip, upon the resignation of his father’s kingdoms and estates, had many necessary occasions to be out of the kingdom, and yet she thought that he made more occasions than he needed to be absent from her. This brought her first into a fancy that he cared not for her, which drew her by degrees into a fixed and settled melancholy, — confirmed, if not increased, by a secret whisper that Philip entertained some wandering loves when he was in Flanders. Her glasses could not so much flatter as not to tell her that she had her father’s features with her mother’s complexion; and she was well enough able to inform herself that the severity of her humor had no great charms in it; so that on the point she wanted many of those natural and acquired attractions which might have served to invite or reward affection. Fixed on this melancholy pin, the death of Charles the Emperor, which happened on the 21st of September, comes to help it forward; a prince upon whose countenance and support she had much depended, both when she was in disgrace with her father, and out of favor with her brother. But that which came nearest to her heart was the loss of Calais, — first lost for want of giving credit to the intelligence which had been sent her by her husband; and secondly by the loss of that opportunity which might have been taken to regain it. Monsieur d’ Termes, who was made governor of the town, had drained it of the greatest part of the garrison, to join with some other forces for the taking of some towns in Flanders; but in a battle fought near Graveling, on the 13th of July, he lost not only his own liberty, but more than five thousand of his men; the fortune of the day falling so heavily on the soldiers of Calais that few of them escaped with life. So that if the Queen’s navy, which had done great service in the fight, had showed itself before the town, and Count Egmond, who commanded the Flemings, had sate down with his victorious army to the landward of it, it might have been recovered in as few days as it had been lost. 5. This opportunity being neglected, she gave herself some hopes of a restitution upon an agreement then in treaty between France and Spain.

But when all other matters were accorded between those crowns, and that nothing else was wanting to compose all differences but the restoring of this town, the French were absolutely resolved to hold it, and the Spaniards could in honor make no peace without it. So the whole treaty, and the deceitful hopes which she built upon it, came at last to nothing. And, though she had somewhat eased herself not long before, by attainting the Lord Wentworth and certain others for their cowardly quitting of the place which they could not hold; yet that served only like a cup of strong waters for the present qualm, without removing the just cause of the present distemper. And it increased so plainly in her, that when some of her visitants, not knowing the cause of her discomforts, applied their several cordials to revive her spirits, she told, them in plain terms that they were mistaken in the nature of her disease; and that, if she were to be dissected after her death, they would find Calais next her heart. Thus between jealousy, shame, and sorrow, taking the growth of her infirmity amongst the rest, she became past the help of physic. In which extremity she began to entertain some thoughts of putting her sister Elizabeth beside the crown, and settling the sue-cession of it on her cousin the Queen of Scots; and she had done it, (at the least as much as in her was), if some of the council had not told her, That neither the Act of the Succession, nor the last will and testament of King Henry the Eighth, which was built upon it, could otherwise be repealed than by the general consent of the Lords and Commons assembled in Parliament. So that, being altogether out of hope of having her will upon her sister, of recovering Calais, of enjoying the company of her husband, and reigning in the good affection of her injured subjects, she gave herself over to those sorrows which put an end to her life on the 17th of November, some few hours before day, when she had reigned five years and four months, wanting two days only. Her death accompanied within few hours after by that of the Lord Cardinal Legate; ushered in by the decease of Purefew, alias Wharton, Bishop of Hereford, and Holyman the new Bishop of Bristow, and Glyn of Bangor; and followed within two or three months after by Hopton Bishop of Norwich, and Brooks of Gloucester: as if it had been necessary in point of state that so great a Princess should not die without some of her Bishops going before, and some coming after. Her funeral solemnized at Westminster with a mass of requiem, in the wonted form, on the 13th of December then next following, and her body inferred on the north side of the Chapel of King Henry the Seventh, her beloved grandfather. 6. I shall not trouble myself with giving any other character of this Queen than what may be gathered from her story; much less in descanting on that which is made by others, who have heaped upon her many gracious praiseworthy qualities, of which whether she were mistress or not, I dispute not now. She was indeed a great benefactress to the clergy, in releasing them of their tenths and first-fruits; but she lost nothing by the bargain. The clergy paid her back again in their bills of subsidies, which, growing into an annual payment for seven years together, and every subsidy amounting to a double tenth, conduced as visibly to the constant filling of the exchequer as the payment of the tenths and first-fruits had done before. That which went clearly out of her purse without retribution was the re-edifying and endowment of some few religious houses, mentioned in their proper place. She also built the public schools in the university of Oxon, for which commemorated in the list of their benefactors: which, being decayed in tract of time, and of no beautiful structure when they were at the best, were taken down about the year 1612; in place whereof, but on a larger extent of ground, was raised that goodly and magnificent fabric which we now behold. And though she had no followers in her first foundations, yet by the last she gave encouragement to two worthy gentlemen to add two new colleges in Oxon to the former number. Sir Thomas Pope, one of the visitors of abbeys and other religious houses in the time of King Henry, had got into his hands a small college in Oxon, long before founded by the Bishop and Prior of Durham, to serve for a nursery of novices to that greater monastery.