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C8BSM«<- -••»M6S

f ' ^ ^

CEITICAL AND HISTOBICAL

REYIBW

OF

FOX'S BOOK OF MARTYRS.

SHEWING THK

INACCURACIES, FALSEHOODS, AND MISREPRESENTATIONS

WORK OF DECEPTIO:

li(^

VdiWim (BmMu %uktm.

i

VOLUME IL

LONDON:

PUBLISHED BY M. ANDREWS,

DUKE STREET, LITTLE BRITAIN.

1853.

Digitized by LjOOQ iC

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CONTENTS.

Page.

Abbeys privileged 247

Acts of Penecutions in Scotland 399

Alfred the Great; his Laws 3d

Altars turned to Tables 482

Amusements abolished 497

Assassination Plot ' . 650

Aogustin, St, comes to England 5

Bartow, William, character of, 574

Beaton, Cardinal, murder of, 356

Bible, Widcliffe's Translation of the, .... 04

Bird, John, character ef, 574

Biihops di^laced by Mary 573

Boleyn, Anne ....... 134, 169, 193

Eiecutlonoi; . . ' . . . . 218

Bomier, BiAop, . 587

Boulogne lost 470

Bnmet's character of Reformers ..... 423

Bush, Paul, character of, 674

Buchanan, George, character of, 382 '

Catholicism introduced into England .... 5

Cstholic Religion, efficacy of, 10

R»-established 577v,

Catharine, Queen, marriage of, 131

Trial of, ....... 144

Speech of, . . . ^ . • . ib.

Celibacy of Clergy . 17

Christian Saxons, character of, .... . . 9

Churches stripped 438

Cleves, Anne o^ 809

Cobham, Eleanor, Duchess of Gloucester • . . 91

Constance, Council of, ....... Ill

Collier on the Monasteries 256

Confocation, debates of the, 270

ConsdeDce, liberty of, granted by Mary .... 545

Conilrmation defended by the Fathers . . • • 452

Conversion of England 1'

Courtney oonspii-es against Mary ..... 559

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It CONTEITTB.

Page.

Covenant, Scotch, 392

Cranmer 156,192,198,217,309,829

Holds the Doctrine of Divine Right . . 408

Ecclesiastical code 457

Cromwell, account of, 326,205,309

Cross, sign of the, defended by the Fathers . . . 446

Damley, Henry, blown up d8i^

Dissolution of Religious Establishments .... 43*2

Divisions among the Reformers 479

Divorce, observations on, 152

Doctrines disputed . 278

Dttgdale's account of the destruction of the Monasteries . . 234 Edward YI., proceedings of, 397

Prayer of, . 504

Elizabeth, Queen, a persecutor of conscience . . . 549 Conspires against Mary . . . .571

England, deplorable state of, 486

Extreme Unction defended by the Fathers .... 454

Excommunication 483

Fasting enacted by Parliament . 449

Farrar, Robert, character of, ..... . . . 574

Fire of London 629

Fisher, Bishop, 206

Speech of, in Convocation .... 272 Forgery peculiar to the Reformation . . . » 390

Foreign troops introduced > - . 442

Gardiner, Bishop, 5o9;5aE7

Gates, Sir John, speech of, at execution 587

Gregory the Great meditates the conversion of England. . . 4

Gregory VII. and Henry VI . . 27

Grey, Lady Jane, proclaimed Queen . . > -.> 580

Gunpowder Plot ^ ^ 6:^

Hseretico comburendo 591

Heretics burnt by Cranmer ■ ., . 473

Henry Vin., scruples of, 133

Speech of, ....... HO

. . Marries Anne Boleyn 169

Character of, 334

Funeral of, * 407

Holgate, character of, 573

Iconoclasts, the, 401

Insurrections of the people 464

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COHTBnTg.

Ingelbnrga and Philip of France Inndvations, supposed, in religion

Irish Massacre

Jtim, king of England, surrenders his crown Kett's insnrrection in Norfolk Knox, John, character of, •

LangtODy Cardinal, ....

Libraries destroyed .... Ldngard on Catharine's marriage liturgy. Reformed, set forth Lollards, persecution of the, Lather, progress of the doctrine of^ Martyrdoms, pretended. Marriage of clergy legalized Muy, Queen, accession of, ...

Crowned . . .

Described by Burnet

Vindicated ...

Marriage of.

Terms of treaty of marriage.

Entry into London

Character of,

Resigns the Church property • Described by Mr. firewer . MtLTj, Queen of Scots, treatment of, . Monasteries, destruction of, Ho^Q^^ir Thomas, . tturray. Earl, character of, Northumberland, duke of, sent against Mary

. Arrested and beheaded OfdcasUe, Sir John, confession of, Outrages of the Reformers iHigan Saxons, character of, • Parr, Catharine, marriage of, \ . People, discontent of the, i^ierseeution not a part of Catholicism Origin of, in Mary's reign J ' At Nismes

^Pole, Cardinal, against persecution . Pope, ascendency of the. Popish Plot .... Powder Plot in Scotland

Page.

152 . 24

632 35

466

. 381

44

. 249

163 .' 439

119 . 122

316 . 431

518 . 542

521

. 527

558, 576

. 56a

542 . 617

606

388

115, 227

188,210

384

531

536

101

672

8

330

462

74

587

653

595

11

629

388

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COVTBIITS.

	Page.
Prete6tani martyrs, modem, .	. m
Purgatory, tlie Fathers on the doctrine of,	412
Rapacity of courtiers . . .	. . 485
Rebellion in Norfolk, &c., against Mary	699
Reformation, the, ....	. 113
Progress 0^ in Scotland	863
In England, in the reign	of BdwanlTI. 997
In Ireland	508
Horrible Sacrileges during the, .	. 512
Reformers, deposing power assumed by the.	871
Rebellions of the, .	. 869
Faith of Scotch,	W2
Sacrilege of,	. 876
Persecuting spirit o^	. . 877
	. 258
Ridley's discourse with Mary	63J
Dr., speech of, on the Divorce	.149
Schism In the Church	108
Scotland, persecutions in.	^343, 892
Seditious writings	586
Six Articles	. 297
Slavery legalized * ....	429
Somerset, Lord High Admiral, beheaded	. 489
Lord Protector, breaded	499
Somerset-house built	. . 490
Spirit in the Wall	576
Supremacy of the Pope	. 171
The Fatiiers on.	177
Speech against the king's, .	. 186
Sufferers for denying the king's,	190
Authorities on,	. 681
Taxation', curious scale of,	58
Tindal's fiible . . .	. 284
Transubstantiation professed by the Reformers	440
Tyler, Wat, insurrection of .	59
Universities on Henry's Marriage	157
Visitation of Churches	. 417
Wickliffe, John, doctrines of	52, 69
Wolsey, Cardinal • . . .	. 115
Wyatt's rebellion ....	562
Taken and executed .	. 570

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COITTBNTS.

EXBCUnONS OF—

Acton, Roger

Askew, Anne

Badby, Thomas

Barnes, Dr.

Bocher, Joan

Claydon, WUliam

Cobbam, Eleanor

Cranmer

Damlip, Adam •

Dudley, Guilford

Filmer

Fisher, Bishop .

Forrett, Dean

Forest, Henry

Frith

Garrett, Thomas

Gourlay, Morroan

<jtTey, Lady Jane

Hamilton, Patrick

Hooper, Bishop of Gloacester

Hun, Richard

Jerome, William

Kennedy

Lambert

Latimer

Manderville

Marbeck

More, Sir Thomas

Murte

Oldcastle, Sir John

Pearson, Anthony

Ridley .

Rogers, Prebendary .

Russel, Richard .

Bussel

8awtre •

St^tton, DaTid

Suffblk, Duke of

Testwood

Van Parre, George

Wishart

yU Page.

88 339

80 317 473

86

01 6U2 827 £68 325 20H 352 349 220 317 350 569 348 597 116 317 354 290 600

90 319 SIO

87

93 325 600 597

90 354

76 350 570 335 474 355

i

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INTRODUCTORY REMARKS.

Wb are now arrived at a very interesting period of our Review, inasmuch as it^i^lates to the history of our own country, about which bo much has been written to no pur- pose, a great deal to delude and keep the people in ignorance^ and but a small portion to instruct and inform the searcher after truth. As we, at the commencement of the first volume of this work, shewed how the Christian or Catholic religion was first established and propagated by the apostles of Christ in the east, and how it was 'preserved when it had spread to other parts of the globe, so we purpose here, by way of preface»to this volume, to shew hxm this same system of Christianity was introduced and preserved in England, till the era of what is called the Reformation. Fox begins his eighth book, or the " few plain Christian " editors fbr him, in their edi^tion, with " a brief history of ihe Reformation, and ihe remarkable cireumstanees which preceded it, from the time of Wickliffe to the reign of queen Mary*^ so that the reader is left in total darkness concerning the events which occurred previous to the heresy of Wicklifie. It is true, we have some " particulars relative to the great ascen- dancy of the popes throughout Christendom, in the middle ages, ** but these particulars are given, as usual, in so con- fused and unauthorized a manner, that it requires consider- able ingenuity to unravel them, and no little space to refute them with that accuracy which is essential to carry conviction to the prejudiced reader, of our pages.

The precise period when CWstianity was first announced in Britain is not accurately known ; some contend that St. Peter brought the glad tidings of " peace on earilh to men of good will,*' while others give the honour to Joseph of

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2 EEVIEW OF FOX 8

Arimathea. This much however is certain, and is admitted by both Fox and his modem editors, that king Lucius, a British prince, sent to pope Eleutherius to solicit the aid of Christian missionaries, and that the holy pope sent to him two zealous prelates, St. Fugatius and Damianus, by whom he was in- structed in the Catholic faith, and who preached to and con- verted many of his people. This event happened about the year 182, and we refer the reader to page 86 of the first volume, where he will see an account of it taken from au- thentic writers. Lucius, on receiving the light of Christi- anity, immediately began to provide for its support and duration, by the erection of churches, and appointing reve- nues for the maintenance of the priesthood. GUdas, Nennius, and Bede, say that he founded churches in each of the cities in his dominions. It may here be remarked, that our island, though governed by native sovereigns, was tributary to the Boman empire, and with Lucius ended the dynasty of British princes. The emperors, on his death, governed the island by their own officers, having reduced it into four provinces ; but in the course of time, the most powerful of these governors assumed the title of emperor. The first of these, we are informed, was Clodus Albinus, who procMmed himself emperor in 193. This state of things continued during a century, and as a proof that Christianity, still existed in the island, we have the testimony of Fox and his editors, who have recorded the martyrdom of St. Alban, who suffered in the persecution of Dioclesian, and was a Catholic martyr, as we have proved in our first volume.

This persecution did not last above two years in Britain, but the Christians did not dare to hold, their religious as- semblies or raise temples to the worship of God, until they were authorized so to do by the edict of Constantino the Great, in 312. On the appearance of this decree, the British Catholics began to vie with each other in the beauty and magnificence of the (lurches they raised, which they accomplisjied by voluntary contributions, there being no British sovereign to assist them in the pious work. That

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BOOK OF MARTYRS. 3

tkese Christians were Oatbolics, and acknowledged the supre* macj of the pope, is clear from their prelates joining in the general ooun^ls and synods on all public occasions. Some of them were present at the first council of Aries, in 313, when the wrong celebration of Easter was condemned ; and at the general council of Sardica, in 347, in which the liberty of appeals to the bishop of Rome was confirmed. On the decay of the Roman power, the western provinces of that rast empire experienced various revolutions, but none was so complete as that of our island. Several of the provinces fell under the sway of different rulers, until a sense of danger induced the people to choose a chief magistrate or king, in order to resist the daring attempts of barbarous invaders, who were incessantly making inroads on the island. The choice fell on Yortigem, and a more unlucky selection could not have been made. He was slothful and sensual, and when threatened with invasion by the Picts or Caledonians, he had the baseness^ to propose, and the address to persuade the council of the Britons to accept, with open arms, the assist- ance of a foreign nation, to repel their warlike neighbours. Accordingly, in the year 449, the Saxon leaders, Hengist and Horsa, two brothers, with a formidable body of that nation, landed in the isle of Thanet, and soon after they gave signal proofe of their valour by defeating and totally routing the army of the Fi(^ and Scots in the vicinity of Stamford, in Lmcolnshire. By the fresh arrival of Saxons, Hengist found himself strong, and throwing off the yoke of obedience, he founded the first kingdom of Kent, in the year 457. For upwards of a century continual struggles were entered into between the native. British and the Saxon invaders, which ended in the erection of six more Saxon kingdoms, the last of which, Mercia, was founded in 5S5, by which extraordinary revolution one race of men was totally rooted out, and another planted on the same soil, ^ith the extirpation of the British race religion also fell, a signal punishment of a degenerate and Binfiil nation, and Pagan idolatry was again established in the island of Great Britain.

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4 REVIEW OF FOX 8

The darkness of PagaDism, however, had scarcely covered the island, when a raj of light beamed in the horizon, which shortly extended its rays over the whole coontry. We have before noticed the ccmversion of the ancient Britons l^ two holy prelates, sent from Rome by pope Elentherius; it is now our duty to shew tiie reader how our Saxon ancestors became acquainted with the blessings of Christianity. The first mover of this woA of piety and charity was St. Gregory the Great, who filled the chair of St. Peter, that is, was bbhop of Eome, and head of the Catholic church, from the year 590 to 604. Previous to his elevation to the papal throne, Gregory had raised himself in public estimation by his great prudence, sanctity, and writings. Walking one day through the market-place of Rome, Gregory noticed several youths of fine features and complexion that were exposed for sale, and enquired what country they came from. He was answered that they came from Britain. He then asked if they were Christians or heathens ; and was told the latter. On this he fetched a deep sigh, and lamented that so fine an outside should have so little of the grace of God within. Bede re- lates, that on being answered that the natives of Britam were called Angli or Angles, Gregory replied, " Right, for they have angelical faces, and it becomes such to be companions with the angels in heaven. What is the name (he continued) of the province fit)m which they are brought? '* It was re- plied, that it was called Deiri ; *< Truly, Deiri,'* said he, " because mercy withdrawn from wrath, and called to the meroy of Christ," alluding to the Latin, De ird Dei eruti. He asked frurther, ** How is the king of that province called?" He was told his name was Alle ; on which Gregory, in allu- sion to the word, said, ** Alleluia, the praise of God the Creator, must be sung in those parts."

Fired with these holy ideas, Gregory applied to pope Benedict I. to have some persons sent to preadi Christianity in Britian. Not finding any one disposed to undertake the mission, he solicited the pope's consent, and obtained his ap- probation to apply hia own labours in the conversion of the

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BOOK OF MARTYRS. 5

island. Accordbglj he set forward with some of his fellow mcmks on the joamej) hat he was stopped hj the people, who complained to the holy fitther, and requested him not to suffer Gregory to depart from Borne. On this pressing occ»uon, Gregory was ordered to return, which he did with great reluctance, and after some time had elapsed, in which he distinguished himself hy his great qualities, Gregory was called to ihe papal chair himself, by the unanimous voice of the clergy, the smiate, and the people. Placed in the apos- tolical chair, the holy pope did not forget the impression made upon him in fayour of Britain, and he selected St. Augustin, then prior to the monastery to which Gregory belonged, to be superior of the mission, in which he was asasted by seTeral of the monks. Haying received their commiflftion, the missionaries set out with z^ and joy ; and on their way through France, an attempt was made to turn their intention aside, by representing the English people as ferocious and cruel, but no obstacles could ^t^ these holy men from their purpose. Taking some Frenchmen along with liiem for interpreters^ they landed in the isle of Thanet, in the year 597, being in all about forty persons.

It is not a little singular, ihat this isle was the spot on which the Saxon hordes first placed their feet, by whom Christianity was rooted out of the island ; and now, about 150 years afi^, the ambassadors of Christ appeared, to regain the people from the poww of Satan, and bend than to a yoke that is both sweet and light. From this place Augustin sent a message to Ethelbert, king of Ketit, announcing his mission, and assuring him of the divine promise of a kingdom that nev^ was to end. Ethdbert was not a stranger to the Christian faith, as his queen was a daughter of Caribert, king of Puis, and had with her a bishop for her director and almoner. Affcer some days, the king went in person to the isle, and ordered Augustin to his presence in the open air. The rdigions men came to him in procession, with joy and devotion, carrying for their banner a silver cross, and an image of onr Saviour pfdnted on a board, smging as they

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6 REVIEW OP FOX '9

walked, the litanj, and praying for the souls they came to save. Being admitted into the presence of the king, who was seated under a tree^ they announced to him the word of life. The king listened with attention, seemed p eased with the interesting truths he heard, and promised to take them into his serious consideration. It may not he unworthy of remark here, that these proclaimers of God's truths did not go forth with a large stock of hihles, which in those days were useless, as but -few could read, but they were armed with the Spirit of Truth, and they carried with them the tmctge of the crucified God they canoe to announce, which is the practice of the Catholic missionaries at this day ; and for which they are reprobated by the advocates for bibfe reading. That the bible never was intended by God, or by the writers of it, for indiscriminate reading is most certain, from the fact, that no nation whatever has been converted through the means of the bible, though many have been per- verted from the truth by having recourse to their own fanciful theories, instead Qf guiding their reason by the unerring rule of truth. It was by preaching the word which God com- manded them to announce to all nations, that the world was Catholicized, and the adherents of the bible- system may be assured, that all their efforts to un-Oatholicize them, by forc- ing the bible, will prove fiitile. The king was pleased with the holy lives of these missionaries, so much is example above precept in captivating the human mind ; he gave them per- mission to preach to the people, and he even received the waters of regeneration himself. On receiving the grace of baptism, Ellielbert became a new man ; he permitted the holy missionaries to build and repair churches every where, and he afforded them every assistance in this pious work his kingly prerogative allowed him. Having thus far succeeded, St. Augustin went to Aries, where he was consecrated bishop, and on his return to Britain he dispatched two of his fellow labourers to Rome, to solicit a further supply of workmen to cultivate the vineyard he had thus planted. The good pope Gregory sent him over several of his own disciples^ among

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BOOK OF MARTYRS, 7

whom was Mellitus, the first bishop of Eochester ; Faulinus, the first archbbhop of York ; and Rufemanus, the third abbot of Augustin's. ''With this colony of new missionaries," writes our countryman, venerable Bede, " the holy pope sent all things in general for the divine worship and the service of the church, viz., sacred vessels, altar-cloths, ornaments for churches, and vestments for priests and clerks ; relics of the holy apostles and martyrs, and many books."

We havo thus shewn, how Ihe Christian religion was intro- duced amongst our Saxon ancestors ; it now remains to prove wTiat that system of religion was. This is a point which Fox and his modem editors glos^ over, though it is the most essential of any, to come at the knowledge of truth. Gildas and Bede testify, that die faith which was planted by St. Augustin was the same that was held at Bome, and that our ancestors, like the primitive Christians, were ever watch- ful to preserve it pure and untainted. Thus, when Arianism shot its baneful grouts, it was immediately detected and ex- drpated. Pelagianism had no sooner infected the church, ihan recourse was had to the proper authorities, who checked the growing evil, and eventually eradicated it. Now this faith, thus carefully preserved, is the same as that preached by the apostles of Christ, and followed by the Catholics of this day. The Saxons on embracing Christianity admitted infant baptism, hr which there is no warranty of scripture, and therefore must be followed from tradition. They believed in seven saaraments, though the church of England now admits of only two. They held confession, absolution, tran- gubstantiation, purgatory, the invocation of saints and angels, prayers for the dead, the mass, celibacy, and, in short, every article of faith, and discipline of the church, rejected at the 80 much vaunted event, called the Beformation, Let the reader now refer back to the beginning of our first volume, and it will there be seen, that all these points of doctrine were held and taught by the fathers of the Catholic church in Bvery age, from the apostles to the period of the conver- fiion of our island by St. Augustin ; and we shall shew in the

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8 REVIEW OF FOX'S

course of this volume, that they were maintfuned with nnde* Tiating accuracy, till Luther hegan his work of infamy and delusion. Since which they have remained, unaltered, the creed of Catholics, and will remain to the end of time, a testimony of t^e promise of Christ, that his words dbould not fail.

The ^^ few plain Christians '' have re^^es^ited the Catholic religion, or Popery, as they call it, as inseparable from per- secution— a blood-thirsty system of cruelty and intolerance ; it will not be, therefore, irrevelant to our purpose if we lay before the reader a short outline of the character of our Saxcm ancestors when under the influence of Paganism, and the change which took place in their manners after they sub- mitted to the benign precepts of the Catholic faith. This outline we will not trust to our own pen, but give it in the words of an elegant and classical writer of the present day, who has made the ancient history of this country his peculiar study. The Bev. Dr. Lingard, in his Antiquities of the Seixon Church, writes thus : — ** By the ancient writers, the Saxons are unanimously classed with the most barbarous of the nations which invaded and dismembered the Roman empire. Their valour was disgraced by their brutality. To the services they generally preferred the blood of their cap- tives ; and the man, whose life th^ condescended to spare, was taught to consid^ perpetual servitude as a gratuitous favour. Among themselves, a rude and imperfect system of legislation intrusted to private revenge the punishment of private injuries ; and the ferocity of their passions continually multiplied these deadly and hereditary feuds. Avarice and the lust of sensual enjoyment had extinguished in their breasts some of the first feelings of nature. The savages of Africa may traffic with Europeans for the negroes whom they have seized by treachery, or captured in open war ; but the more eavage conquerors of the Britons sold with scruple to the merchants of the continent their countrymen, and even their own children. Their religion was accommodated to their manners, and their manners were perpetuated by iJieir reli«-

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BOOK OF IdABTTBS. 9

gi^i. In their theology thej ac^owledged no sin but cowardice ; and rerered no yirtue but courage. Their gods they appeased with the blood of human victims^ Of a futm*e life their notions were faint and wavering ; and if Ihe soul were fated to survive the body^ to quaff ale out Of the skulls of their enemies^ was to be the great reward of the virtuous ; to lead a life of hunger and inactivity, Ihe endless punish- ment of the wicked.

" Such were the Pagan Saxons. But their ferocity soon yielded to the exertions of the missionaries, and the harsher features of Iheir (uigin were insensibly softened imder the mild influence of the gospel. In the rage of victory they learned to respect the rights of humanity. Death or slavery was no longer the f&te of the conquered Britons ; by their submission they were incorporated with the victors: and their lives and property were protected by the equity of theit Chrislian conquerors. The acquisition of religious know- ledge introduced a new spirit of legislation ; the presence of the bishops and superior clergy improved the wisdom of the national councils ; and laws were framed to punish the more flagrant violations of morality,- and prevent the daily broils which harassed the peace of society. The humane idea, that by baptism all men become brethren, contributed to meliorate the condition -of slavery, and scattered the seeds of that liberty, which gradually undermined, and at length abolished so odious an institution. By the provision of the legislature the freedom of the child was secured from the avarice of an unnatural parent ; and the heaviest punishment was denounced against the man who presumed to sell to a foreign master one of his countrymen, though he were a slave or a malefactor. But by nothing were the converts more distinguished than by their piety. The conviction of a future and endless existence bey<md the grave elevated their minds, and expanded their ideas. To prepare their souls for this new state of being, was to many the first object of their soli- citude : they eagerly sought every souroe of instruction, and with scrupulous fidelity practised every duty which ihej had b3

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10 kevibmT of fox's

learnt. Oftheaealof the more opulent among the laity, the numerous churches, hospitals, and monasteries ^hich they founded, are a sufficient proof: and the clergy could hoast with equal truth, of the piety displayed by the more eminent of their order, and of the nations instructed in the Christian faith, by the labours of St. Boniface, and his associates. In the clerical f»d monastic establishments, the most sublime of the gospel virtues were carefully practised ; even kings descended from their thnmes, and exchanged the sceptre fw the cowl. Their conduct was applauded by their contem- poraries ; and the modems, whose supercilious wisdom affects to censure it, must at least esteem the motives which inspired, and admire the resolution which completed the sacrifice. The IMt>greBS of civilization kept ecjual pace with the progress of religion ; not only the useful but the agreeaWe arts were in- troduced; every species of knowledge which could be attained was eagerly studied; and during the gloom of ignorance, which overspread the rest of Europe, learning found, for a certain period an asylum among the Saxons of Britain. To this picture an ingenious adversary may indeed c^ppose a very different description. He may cdlect the vices which have been stigmatized by the zeal of their preachers, and point to the crimes which disgraced the characters of some of their monarchs. But the impartial observer will . acknow- ledge the impossibility of eradicating at once, the fiercer passions of a whole nation; nor be surprised, if he behold several of them relapse^ into their former manners, and on some occasions unite the actions of savages with the pra- fession of Christians. To judge of the advantage which the Saxons derived from their conver^on, he will ^x his eyes on their virtues. They were the offsprings of the gospel; their vices were the relics d* paganism."

To give an instance of the power and efficacy of the Catho- lic religion to reclaim sinners from their evil ways to the paths of rectitude and virtue, ai whatsoever rank and condition they may be, we will here quote a &ct related by the above learned au^or, in his valuable History of England, <^ Ethelbert

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BOOK OF HABTYBS. 11

(writes the Historian) died in 616. The crown devolved uppn his son Eadbald, the violence of whose passions had nearly replonged ihe nation into that idolatry from which it had just emerged. The youth and heauty of his stepmother^ the relict of Ethdbert, induced him to take her to his bed ; and when the missionaries admonished him to break die unnatural conneziony he abandoned a rdiigion which forbade the grati- fication of his appetites. At the same time^ the three, sons of Saberet (their father was dead) restored the altars of the gods, and banished from their territory the bishop Mellitas. With Justus of Eochester he retired into Gaul : and Lauren- tiuSy the successor of Augustin in the see of Canterbury, had determined to follow their footsteps. On the morning of his intended departure, he made a last attempt on the mind of Eadbald. His representations were successful. The king dismissed hb stepmother and recalled the fugitive prelates. The sincerity of his conversion was proved by his subsequent conduct ; and Ohrbtianity, supported by his influence, as- sumed an ascendancy which it ever afterwards preserved.'' Here then, we have a striking effect of the influence of reli- gion on the mind, when supported by the voice of spotless mimsters. How different was the conduct of this Christian and Catholic bishop to that of a modem prelate of London, who, on a memorable occasion, asserted in his place in par- liament that a king of England could do no wrong.

l%ie Catholic religion being thus established in our island, a regular hierarchy was founded for the regulation of ecclesias- tical affairs, and the preservation of true doctrine. Thus, when any dispute occurred, or any grievance was complained of, recourse was had to the regular authority : from the suf- fragan bishop the matter was carried to the metropolitan either of Canterbury or York, who, if need required, sum- moned a provincial synod to discuss the point, and the deci- sion was submitted to the pope, as the supreme head of the universal church. By these means the Catholic religion was preserved entire for the space of nine hundred years, until Henry the Eighth severed the branch from the parent stock.

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and made himself head of a separate churdi, which had no other claim to junsdiction than what the lay power of the state granted to it. During the period of Catholicism, the spiritual authority of the church was quite distinct from the authority of the state. The king and nobles were oUiged to submit to the same discipline as the peasant and the beggar, because the church being a kingdom of another world, knows no distinction in her system of morality, between the monarch and the vassal. With these remarks, we shall proceed in our Beyiew of the work before us.

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BOOK OF MARTIAS. 13

'^BOOK VIII.

« CONTAINING A BRIEF HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION, AND THE REMARKABLE CIRCUMSTANCES WHICH PRECEDED IT, FROM THE TIME OF WICKLIFFE TO THE REIGN OF QUEEN MART.

" SECTION I. ^'PARTICULARS RELATIYE TO THE GREAT ASCENDANCY OF THE POPES THROUGHOUT CHRISTENDOM, IN THE MIDDLE AGE9.*'

Fox commenceB this seetioii with the following string of assertions : — >" In the introduction will be found an account of the rise and progress of Popery, from the commencement of its usurpations to the tenth century. From this period till the Reformation was attempted by Wicklifie, the abominations of these arch and unchristian heretics increased with rapid strides, till at length all the soYereigns of Europe were com- pelled to do them the most serYile homage. It was in ike reign of Edgar, king of England, that monks were first made spiritual ministers, though contrary to the decrees and cus- tom of the chun^ ; and in the time of this soYereign, they were allowed to marry, there being no law forbidding it before the papacy of Gregory VII.

"* To relate the tyrannical innoYations upon the religion of Christ, during the space of more than three hundred years, would be the proYince of a writer on church history, and is quite incompatible with our limits. Suffice it to say, that scarcely a foreign war or ciYil broil conYuked Europe during that period, which did not cnri^ate in the infernal artifices of popes, monks, and friars. They frequently fell Yietims to their own machinations ; for, from the year 1004, many popes died Yiolent deaths: soYcral were poisoned ; SylYester was out to peoes by las own people; and the reigns of his sueceasors

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were but short. Benedict, who succeeded John XXL, thought proper to resist the emperor Henry III., and place in his room Peter, king of Hungary ; but afterwards, being alarmed by the success of Henry, he sold his seat to Gratianus, called Gregory VI. At this time there were three popes in Bome, all striving against each other for the supreme power, viz. Benedict IX., Sylvester III., and Gregory VI., but the empe- ror Henry coming to Rome, displaced these three monsters at once, and appointed Clement the Second, enacting that henceforth no bishop of Bome should be chosen but by the consent of the emperor. Though this law was necessary for tranquillity, yet it interfered too much with the ambitious views of the cardinals, who accordingly exerted themselves to get it repealed i and failing in this, on the departure of the emperor for Germany, they poisoned Clement, and at once violated the law by (loosing another pq»e, without the impe- rial sanction.

^' This was Damasus U., who being poisoned, within a few days from bis appointment, much contention took place. Whereupon the Bomans sent to the emperor, desiring him to give them a bishop ; upon which, he selected Bruno, a Ger- man, called Leo IX. This pope was poisoned in the first year of his popedom.

" After Ids death, Theophylactus made an effort to be pope, but Hildebrand, to defeat him, went to the emperor, and per^ Buaded him^to assign another bishop— a German — who ascend- ed the papal chair imder the title of Victor II. The second year of his papacy this pope also followed his predecessors, like them, being poisoned.

^* On the death of Victor, the cardinals elected Stephen IX. for pope, contrary to their oath, and the empertur's assign- ment. Fr<Mn this period, indeed, their ascendancy was so great, that the most powerful sovereigns of Europe were obliged to do them homage ; and [Nicholas, who succeeded Stephen, established the Council of the Lateran, In this council first was promulgated the terrible sentence of excom- munication against all such as ^ do creep into the seat of

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fiOOK OF MARTYRS. 15

Peter, bj money or favour, without the full consent of the cardinals ; ' cursing them and their children with the anger of Almigbtj God ; and giving authoritj and power to car- dinals, with the clergj and laitj, to depose all such persons, and call a council-general^ wheresoever they will, against them. Pope Nicholas only reigned three years and a half, and then, like his predecessors, was poisoned." — pp. 121, 122. In what part of the introduction the rise and progress of Popery are to be found we have not been able to discover. There is no precise period stated, n(M* any particular dates, whereby we can trace the accuracy of the assertions here made. When did Popery commence ? This question never has been correctly answered. Some have fixed it at one pe- riod, some at another, but none agree on the same point. Now, Catholics can tell the exact time whmi every heresy of note was broached, from the days of Simon Magus to those of Martin Luther, and downwards. The theories- put fbrth by the heresiarchs are always distinguished by the names of the inventors; as Arianism, from Alius, the heretic ; Dona- tism, from Donatus, the broacher of that error ; Pelagianism, hom Pdagius, who taught it ; Lutheranism, from Luther, tiie apoi^e of the Reformation, so called ; Calvinism, from Calvin, a branch spreader oi the Beformation ; and so on of the ^ree or four hundred different sects into which this land of bibles is now divided. But the same caimot be said of that system which Protestant writers term Popery. The word is derived from the title of Pope, given to the bishop of Bome, who is, by divine right, supreme head of the Catholic or uni- versal church. Of these bishops there were more than one hundred in the first nine centuries of the Christian church, but not one of them can be selected by ntxme as the institutor of Popery, or the inventor of hm*esy, though Fox is pleased to st^e them in the gross '' arch and unchristian heretics.^' It must not be forgotten that in the seventh century Fox dlows the Catholic church to have be^i orthodox ; for be ranks the hdy pope Martin amongst his martyrs, and says he was an opposer of the heresy of Monothelism^ and that he

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called a council of 105 bishops, who unaBimouslj condemned the errors of that sect. This pope was martyr^ in 655 ; in the next century, we find Fox admitting another martyr into his calendar, who received his commission from Bome to preach the gospA to the Pagans, and extirpate heresy* This martyr b St. Boniface, the apostle of Germany, who suffered in 755. This was the middle of the eighth century ; so that we have brought the time into a small compass, and yet not a daU nor a name can be given for the origin of Popery, un- less, indeed, we go back to the apostles themsdves, from whom the church is styled Apostolic as well as Catholic«

It b stated by Fox, that ^' from this period (the tenth c^i-' tury) till the Reformation was attempted by Wickliffe, the abominations of these arch and unchristian heretics (the popes) increased with rapid strides, till at length all the sovereigns of Europe were compelled to do them the most eervUe hom- age." These p(^s were strange fellows, truly; and how did they go to work to compel all the sovereigns of Europe, every one of them, to render their holinesses the most servile homage ? There must have been something supernatural in ** these wrch and imchristian heretics," which no other heretics possessed, to perform such feats as these. To compel kings and . emperors, whether tyrants or fathers of their peofde, to render them the most servile homage, is no less than a mira- cle, and heretics were never able to daim one of these gifts of the Divine Being. That the sovereigns of Europe rendered homage to the popes at this time cannot be denied ; but it was not a servile homage ; it was only that spiritual obe- dience which is now given to tiie bead of the Catholic church by Bovermgns in her communion, and it was in consequence of their receiving the light of fait^ from missionaries sent by their authority. The ** abominations " which increased wiUi '^ such rapid strides," were the blessings imparted by the con- version of the nations of Eurq»e to the Catholic £edth, an ac- count of which advantages, both spiritual and temporal, we have given in our relati(m of the conversion of this island to Catholicism.

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BOOK OF MABTYES. 17

Fox goes on to say, that monks were first made spirituiJ ministers in the reign of our Edgar, contrary to the decrees and customs of the church ; and that in this monarch's time they were allowed to marry, there heing no law forbidding it lall tiie papacy of Gregory VII. We thank the martyrolo- gisb for this statement, because we haye something that is tangiUe, and can proye it false by the test of authentic his- tory. In Rapin's History of England, there is a long speedi of Edgar's to the council which he had assembled, for the reformation of abuses and the correction of manners. In this speedi the monarch inyeighs in strong terms against the in- continent lives of the clergy, which he said was a scandal to the people, and a public complaint. This author, comment^ ing on the dissolute lives of the clergy in this age, says, " It must be observed, the popes had for some itme prohibited the dergy from marrying ^ and were very severe to all who raised to comply with th^ decrees." This is the testimony of a Calvinist writer, who cannot be chained with any parti- ality towards Catholics. The asserticm, then, made by F02, that there was no law forbidding the marriage of the clergy before the popedom of Gregory VII., is proved to be false by Protestant evidence* We will now introduce a witness of anoliier character, whose work has received the approbaticm of the most learned and eminent perscmages of the |»resent day. Speaking of Edgar's days, Dr. Lingard says, in his Hist<»y ; << The tranquillity of Edgar's reign, his undisputed Biqp^riority over the ndghbouring princes. Mid his attention to the welfare of his people, have ocmtnbuted to throw a lustre around his memory : the reformaticm of the church, undertaken by the prelates, and effected with the aid of his authority, though it was received with gratitude by his con- temporaries, has been marked with unmerited censure by modem writers. The Banish invasion had both relaxed the sinews of ecclesiastical discip&ie, and dissolved the greater number of the monastic and clerical establishment. The moat opulent monasteries had been laid in ruins by the n^- ci^ of the barbarians; and thdr lands^ without an owner,

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had been seized by the cro^iim, or had been divided among the nearest and most powerful thanes. Under former kings, efforts had been made to restore the monastic order, bat thej had proved ineffectual The prejudices against it were nour- ished by the great proprietors now in possession of its ancient revenues ; even the monastery of Ethelingey, which Alfred had peopled with foreign monks, had been gradually deserted : and the two abbeys of Glastonbury and Abingdon, the fruits of the zeal of Dunstan, had been dissolved by the resentment of Edwy. The clerical order was more fortunate. Though shattered and disfigured, it had survived the tempest. But the friends of religious severity, when they compared the clergy of their day with the clergy of ancient times, saw much in their conduct to lament and correct. Formerly they had lived in communities, under particular regulations : and their seclusion from temporal pursuits insured the faithfrd discharge of their spiritual functions. But during the Danish wars they had been dispersed amidst their relatives, had divided among themselves the revenues of their respective churches, and, substituting others for the performance of the service, indulged in the pleasures and dissipation of ihe laity. But that which gave particular offence to the more devout was iheir marriages. It is most certain, that during the two first centuries of the Saxon church the profession of cdibacy was required from every clergyman advanced to the orders of priest, or deacon, or sub-deacon : but amid the horrors of successive invasions the injunctions of the canons had been overlooked or condemned : and, on many occasions, necessity compelled the prelates to ordain, for the clerical functions, perscms who had already engaged in the state of matrimony. Similar causes had produced similar effects in the maritime provinces of Gtiul ; and Dunstan had witnessed, during his exile, the successfrd efforts of the abbot Gerard to restore the ancient discipline in the churches of Flanders. Animated by his example, the metropolitan made a first essay to raise the monastic establishments from their ruins: and his labours w^re zealously seconded by two active co-operatora, the

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BOOK OF MABTYBS, 19

bishops Oswald imd Ethelwold. The former goremed the church of Worcester; the latter^ his favourite disciple^ had been placed, at his request, in the see of Winchester. To them Edgar was induced to sell, or grant, the lands of the monasteries, which had fallen to the crown ; and of those which remained in the hands of indiyiduab, a portion was recovered by purchase, and still more by the voluntary resig- nation of the possessors. Persons were soon found ready to embrace an institute recommended by the prelates and sanc- tioned by the king ; as fast as buildings could be erected they were filled with colonies of monks and their novices ; and within a few years the great abbeys of Ely, Peterborough, Thomey, and Malmsbury, rose from their ashes, and re- covered the opulence and the splendour which they had formeriy enjoyed. The next object of the metropolitan was the reformation of the more dissolute among the clergy, principally in the two dioceses of Winchester and Worcester. For this purpose a commission was obtained from Rome, and a law was enacted, that every priest, deacon, and sub-deacon should live chastely, or be ejected from his benefice.''

From this passage it will be seen that the monks did exer- cise spiritual functions before Edgar's reign, and that the celibacy of the clergy was a discipline of the church in the first period of the Saxon church. In fact the rule was co- eval with Christianity, though in the early ages marriage was permitted in some oases. On this subject we will give another authority, who has treated the matter very elabo- rately, and who stands unimpeached as a controversialist and historian. The Bight Rev. Dr. Milner, in his excellent History of Winchester j says, '' It would be too tedious a task to cite all the canons made in the primitive church against the marriage of bishops, priest and deacons. Let it suffice to refer to Concil. Elib. can. xxxiii. 2 Concil. Cathag. can iL I Concil. CBcum. ^icen. can. iii. 2 Concil. Arelat, can. ii. St. Jerom, in the fourth age, testifies that, in the three great patriarchates of Rome, Alexandria, and Antioch, no persons were received amongst the clergy, but such as were either

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20 BBVIBW OP fox's

single m^i, or entirely separated from their wives. Liber adversus Vigilant. The testimony of the learned bishop, St. Epiphanius, is to the same effect HcBrts. 59. Not to multiply quotations, the centuriators of Magdehurg allow, that, about the time of the conyersion of our ancestors, a synod was held by St. Gregory ihe Great, in which an ana- thema was pronounced against bishops, priests, or deacons, who should presume to marry. Cent. z. f. 642. The disci- pline of the Greek church, in subsequent times, became less strict in this point, than that of the Latin church. Its bishops did not revise to ordain married persons to serve amongst the inferior clergy, (for no prelate, even amongst them, was ever allowed to have a wife); hence even their schismatical council, called Quinisezt, or In Trullo, afW their separation from the Latin church, utterly condemned the contracting of marriage when a person was once initiated into holy orders, and such their discipline has remained down to the present day. With respect to our ancient English church, if the truth ikiust be told, we are bound to say, that its discipline was strictly con- formable to that of the Latin church in general, of which it formed a part, and of course, that it was never lawful for any clergyman in holy orders, whether secular or regular, to ^it^ into the married state : nor could any married man, unless he was first separated from his wife by mutual consent, ever be ordained to the higher orders. This we may gather, in the first place, from the above quoted passage of Venerable Bede, ' according to which, only those who were net in holy orden were allowed, in any case whatever, to marry or live in the married state. The same is still more clear from another passage of that primitive author, whom Camden calls the friend of truth. In his exposition of the first chapter of St. Luke, having observed that the priests of the old law were obliged to be continent only during the stated times of their ministry, he goes on : ' but, now an injunction is laid upon priests to observe chastity continually, and ^er to abstain from the use of marriage, to the end that they may always assist at the altar.' It does not appear that any of the dergy

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BOOK OF MARTYRS. 21

ever attempted to infringe this law, until after the confusion which followed the Danish devastations, in 800. Soon after this we find Pulco, archbishop of Bheims, congratulating king Alfrod on the firm and zealous conduct of his primate Flegmund, in extirpating what he calls the error of those who held it lawful for the clergy to marry. Flodoard. His. Rhemens. 1. iii. In the reign of king Edmund, viz., in 944, we meet with the particulars of a great synod, as it was called, held at London, by the two archbishops and a great number of prelates, and other considerable personages ; in the very first ordinance of which it is enjoined, " that all, initiated in sacred offices, shall be careful, as their state requires, to lead their lives chastely, whether they be men or women, which, if they fail to do, let them be punished as the canon enjoins.' Spelman, De Concil. The same learned writer proves from tiie Penitential, which he publishes, that bishops, priests, and deacons, no less than monks, were conceived, in those times, to be guilty of a great crime if they ever returned to the state of marriage, which they had renounced at their ordina- tion. This brief dissertation may serve to rectify the mis- taken notions which modem readers may have hastily taken up on this point of ecclesiastical history, from Parker, God- win, Tanner, H. Wharton, Carte, Hume, the late historian of Winchester, and other ignorant or interested writers. Amongst others comes forward, at the present day, a writer, who has miserably waded beyond his depth, wherever he has ventured to treat of ecclesiastical antiquities. Speaking of the revolution in the church of Worcester, which took place at the same time with that mentioned above in our cathedral, he says, * The popes had found it their interest to exact celi- bacy from the clergy; they incited the monks to raise an outcry against those who, instead of devoting their whole time to spiritual employments, gave a part of it to the com- pany of their wives, <fec. Priests that were members of the cathedral colleges had not as yet been restrained from marry - mg.* Yalentine Green's History of Worcester, p. 26. Prom this passage it appears that the writer had never met with a

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single canon, or ecclesiastical authority, enforcing clerical celibacy, anterior to the tenth century, and that he ascribes the measures then taken by king Edgar and St. Dunstan, St. Oswald, and St Ethelwold, to certain negociations be- tween them and the popes, and to some new laws which the latter had just then enacted on this subject for their own interest. It was incumbent on him to have pointed out the negociations and laws in question. Unfortunately, however, too many of the popes in that age were abandoned to licen- tiousness themselves, instead of watching over the morals of the other clergy. The true policy of this original law of clerical celibacy, after all the sagacity of modem writers, will be found in 1 Cor. chap. vii. v. 32, 33. "

Such clear documentary evidence as we have here produced must, we imagine, put the question to rest; at least it is suffi- cient to satisfy every reaaonable mind, and we know not what can be adduced to convince those who are determined to remain in their error. On the subject of celibacy in the clergy, much might be offered in a political point of view, and we cannot help considering those, who advocate the married life of men, whose sole duties should be to labour in the Lord's vineyard, very ill-advised, as far as regards their own interest and the country's welfare. In the time of Catho- licism, the provision made for the clergy did not go solely to fill their own coffers, nor to maintain their own families. They voluntarily embraced a single life, and they en- gaged to perform duties which it would be unjustifiable to call upon a married man to execute. For instance, in the time of pestilence, or of an individual infected with a conta- gious disease, the consolations of religion are not to be denied to the afflicted. But who is to convey these consola- tions to the dying under such circumstances ? It cannot be expected that a married clergyman would rush into danger which might afiect his own life, and thus leave his wife and family destitute ; or, by carrying home the infectious effluvia, cause the pestilence to spread in his family, and though he might escape, yet sip the cup of affliction in the

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BOOR OF MABTYRS. 23

loss of bis wife and children. We have learned at the time we are writing, of a young Catholic priest, eminent for his talents and abilities, falling a sacrifice to this act of godlike charity, in Dublin; and the same disregard of life to impart the cheering and soothing comforts of reli- gion to the infected poor of his flock, has deprived the Ca- tholics of Manchester of a faithful servant of God, in the very prime of his life. Many are the instances where Catholic priests thus fall victims to their zeal and total disregard of life, in the exercise of their sacred duties ; but how few, if any, can be produced oi Protestant clergymen thus offering themselves in sacrifice. Nor is it to be expected, when they are clogged with the cares of a family, and have the temporal happiness of others depending on their own exist- ence. The Catholic priest, on the other hand, is unencum- bered with these ties ; he has voluntarily embraced a single life, that he may become a father to the flock over whom he is placed, and when grim death meets him in the discharge of his pastoral duties, he cheerfully resigns his life^ to render an account of his stewardship to his heavenly Lord and Master.

Besides, how inconsiderate must it be in a people, to pro- vide not only for the clergy, but for the families of the clergymen. In this country, for example, since the Reform- ation, as it is called, the provisions for the chm^ch establish- ment, except that portion which fell into lay hands, go entirely to support the clergy, and is not found to be sufficient for that purpose, as many hundreds of thousands of pounds sterling have been lately voted away by parliament, to relieve the poorer part of the clergy. Whereas, when the church establishment was in the hands of the Catholic clergy, they had the poor, and sick, and aged to maintain ; the churches to build and repair, and the rights of hospitality to fulfil, out of their income. To which we must add, that they contributed too, out of their revenues, to carry on the wars in whicli the sovereigns were engaged, either to secure the safety, or to preserve the honour of the country ; by which

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24 REVIEW OF FOX*a

means the people were eased of taxes, and a national debt was unknown. Bat now, alas I the case is altered. Taxes ai*e raised to snpport the poor ; taxes are raised to repair and bnild churches ; taxes are raised to relieve the poor clergy and their families ; and taxes are raised to pension off many of the sons of the clergy in the shape of half- pay offices and clerks in government offices. And is it wise, is it pmdent, when the country is in such a situation, to raU at the econom- ical and judicious regulations of the Catholic church, and our Catholic ancestors respecting the celibacy and provisi(ms of the clergy ? Of all the cavils reused against the doctarines and discipline of the Catholic church, this we cannot help deeming the most stupid and besotted. Even granting the practice was not introduced till the time of the seventh Gre- gory, so wise a regulation ought to immortalize his name at least with the patriot and the statesman.

Having disposed of this disputed point, we come now to the next charge made by Fox. He says, " to relate the tyran- nical innovations upon the religion of Christ during the space of more than three hundred years, would be the pro- vince of a writer on church history, and is quite incompatible with our limits. Suffice it to say, that scarcely a foreign war or civil broil convulsed Europe, during that period, which did not originate in the infernal artifices of popes, monks, and friars.'*

If we are to believe this account, the worid must have been in a very comfortable state, and true religion must have been banished from the earth. We commend the modem edit<»» however, for declining to be church historians, as they must have convicted themselves in that case. But what are we to make of the " more than three hundred years? '* They tell UB that all the evib which arose during '^ that period " ori^nated with popes, monks, and friars. What are we to gather i^HHn *^ that period?" We have no specified time stated ; how then are we to ascertain what foreign wars or civil broils are alluded to ? This is all froth and fiiry. Tell us the innovations, who made them, and when they were in-

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BOOK OF MARTYRS. 25

troduced. It would not take up much space to name onb of them^ nor can it be incompatible with truth to give us a plain fact. The most authentic writers on churdii history give a very different account of the conduct <^ these popes, and re- present them as the healers of division, and the arbiteFs of justice between the sovereigns of Europe, and frequently be- tween rulers and the people* We are ready to admit that in the tenth century, wh0n the continent of Europe was subjected to intestine wara, entered into by rival diieftatns, there were many popes whose lives ware a scfmdal to the lugh and sacred office they filled. But these were personal vices, and by no means affected the truth and purity of that church of which they were the head, any more than the tyrannical or lewd conduct of a king of England could sully the excellent maxims of the British constitution. The faith of the church could not be effected by the personal crimes of her chief pastors, be- cause her existence does not rest on the individual merit of any man, but on the power and promises of a ci^pcified God, her Divine Founder, who declared that she should remain pure and unsullied, both in faith and mcNrals, till the end of the world, and we have s^en her stand immoveable and unspotted for more than eighteen hundred years. As a proof of our assertion, history records that while Home was the seat of scandal as well as of religion, the northern nations of Europe were receiving the light of the gospel, and becoming civilized and good CatJ^olics. Hungary, Prussia, Poland, Germany Denmark, and Sweden, were conv^ted to Christianity in tlie tenth century. A glanoe too at the annals of our own ooun- i3tj will shew, that in this age lived an Alfred, an Edgar, and an Edward, to whom we are indebted for the best of our poli- tical institutions, and whose msmory reflects honour on the country, and the religioa by whi^ they were iiffluenced to confer such benefits m mankind.

We have next a confused account of a pretended resistance

of pope Benedict to the emperor Henry III. ; of this pope

selling his seat to Gregory YI. ; oi there being three popes at

one time ; of the emperor going to R<»ne, displacing ** these

VOL. 11. c

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26 REVIEW OF foil's

monsters," and ordering that henceforth no bishop of Eotn^ should be chosen without the consent of the emperor ; of the discontent of the cardinab at this law, and their poisoning two other popes. Many of these circumstances we are un- able to trace in history, and therefore it cannot be expected that we should go into the whole detail of them. We cannot find the least appearance of a breach between Henry and Benedict, and the frnmer is re|»«8ented by the authors in our possession as a good and pious prince. There were cer- tainly antipopes, but nobody trouUed their heads about them , If we can proye but otM brazen falsehood against Fox in this long list ol assertions, the rest must lose their credit. To come, then, to the point. The period we are treating of is the eleventh century : Fox says, the order of Henry did not suit the ambitious yiews of the cardinals, and that they riolated his commands by poisoning one pope and choosing another. Now the cardinals had not the privilege of electing a pope 1^1 1160, if we can credit a little work before us, called The Tablet of Memory, and this fact is confirmed by the Rev. Alban Butlw, who, in his life of St. Leo IX., says : '* After the death of pope Damasus II. in 1048, in a diet of prelates and noblemen, with legates and deputies of the church of Bome» held at Worms, and honoured with the presence of the pious emperor Henry III., sumamed the Black, Bruno, who had then governed the see of Toul twenty-two years, was pitched upon as the most worthy person to be exalted to the papacy. He being present, used all his endeavours to avert the storm falling on his head ; and begged three days to deliberate upon the matter. This term he spent in tears 'and prayers, and in so rigorous a fast that he neither eat nor drank during all that time. The term being expired, he returned to the as- sembly, and (hoping to convince his electors of hisunworthi- ness,) made public a general confession before them of the sins of his whole life, with abundance of tears, which drew also tears from all that were present ; yet no roan changed his opinion. He yielded at last only on condition that the whole clergy and people of Rome should agree to his promo-

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BOOK OF MARTYRS. 27

tion%" They did ii,gree, and thus was Leo elected. Fox says, he was poisoned in the first year of his popedom ; now, un- fortunately for Fox's veracity, Leo filled the see of Borne FIVE TBAftS AND TWO MONTHS, and died a natural and holy death. This p^e condemned the error of fierengarius, in a council held at Borne, in 1050, the year after he was chosen pope, and died on the 10th of April, 1054, in the fiftieth year of his age. So much for Fox's pope- poisoning and cardinal- electing.

Another mistake made hy Fox, is the succession of Stephen IX. after Victor IL, and his election hy cardinals. Stephen IX. succeeded Leo VII. in 939 ; it was Stephen X. that fol- lowed Victor II., and his election heing in J 057, the cardinals could not have elected him contrary to their oath, hecause they were not, as we have hefore shewn, empowered at that time to choose the sovereign pontiffs. Nicholas, who suc- ceeded Stephen, is said to have estahlished the '' council of the Lateran." This is gross falsehood. The first council of Lateran was held in the year 112 3, and Nicholas, who was the second of that name, died in 1061 : the " terrible sentence of excommunication," alluded to by Fox, thus turns out to be a fable, invented to alarm the tremulous, as are also his stories about these different popes being poisoned.

We now come to another tale, which he has placed under a special head, and entitled, '' Submission of the emperor Henry IV. to the pope." As we like fair play, we shall give the story in the martyrologist's own words :— " To such a height had papal insolence now attained, that, on the empe- or Henry IV. refusing to submit to some decrees of pope, Gregory VIL, the latter excommunicated him, and absolved rail his subjects from their oath of allegiance to him : on this he was* deserted by his nobility, and dreading the conse- quences, though a brave man, he found it necessary to make his submission. He accordingly repaired to the city of Canusium, where the pope then was, and went barefooted with his wife and child to the gate ; where he remained from morning to night, fasting, humbly desiring absolution, and craving to be

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let in. But no ingress being given him, he continued thus three days together : at length, answer came, that his holiness had yet no leisure to talk with him. The emperor patiently waited without the walls, although in the depth of winter. At length, his request 'v^^s granted, through the entreaties of Matilda, the pope's paramour. On the fourth day, being let in, for a token of his true repentance, he yielded to the pope's hands his crown, and confessed himself unworthy of the empire, if he ever again ofiTended against the pope, desiring for that time to be absolved and forgiven. The pope answered he would neither forgive him, nor release the bond of his ex- communication, but upon condition, that he would abide by his arbitrement in the council and undergo such penance as he should enjoin him ; that he should answer to all objections and accusations laid against him, and that he should never seek revenge ; that it should be at the pope's pleasure, whether his kingdom should be restored or not. Finally, that before the trial of his cause, he should neither use his kingly ornaments, nor usurp the authority to govern, nor to exact any oath of allegiance from his subjects, &c. These things being promised to the pope by an oath, the emperor was only released from excommunication."

Where Fox found this pretty relation he does not tell us, as, according to his usual custom, there is neither date nor authority, to vouch for his facts. We should be glad to have seen such a tyrant (for such was Henry IV., in a superlative degree) thus reduced to a sense of humility ; but this was not the case with this emperor Henry. Father Parsons gives us a very different account of this afiair, in his reply to Fox, and names many writers at the time, who represen t Gregory Yl I. ias a learned, wise, and courageous man ; while the emperor is described as an immoral and depraved character. Platina Sabellicus, and others, record the election of this pope in ^ these terms : — " We have chosen this day, the 2 1 st of May, 1072, for true vicar of Christ, a man of much learning, great piety, prudence, justice, constancy, and religion,*' <fec. Lam- bert of Aschafnaburg also saith : *' The signs and miracles

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yAaxSk ofitentlines were done by the prayers of pope Gregory Vn.y and his most fervent seal for the honour of Qod and de^ fence of ecdeaiastieal kws^ did sufficiently defend him against the venemous tongues of detractors/' This is the character given by authentic writers of this pope, which we could mul- tiply, were it necessary, but enough has been said to shew he was not the person Fox makes him. Let us now look at Ao de8cripti<»i of Henry IV., for whom Foi has so much pity^d ccmipassion. We will here give an account from &ther Parsons.

*' But what do the same authors, yea, Germans themselves, write of their emperor, his enemy, Henry IV. ? Surely it is shameful to report his adulteries, symoniacal selling of bene- fices, robberies, and spoiling of poor particular men, thrusting in wicked men into j^ces of prelates, and ihe like : ' He did revest the princes of the empire (saith Lambert) that they would suffer him to put away his wife, telling them what the pope by his legate had opposed to the contrary.' Which being heard by them, Ihey were of the pope's opinion : the princes affirmed, that the bishop of Rome had reason to deter- mineas he did, and so the king (rather forced than changed in mind) abstained from his purposed divorce.

^ Lo here the first beginning of filing out betwixt the em- peror and the pope ; which was increased, for that two years afW (as the same author saith) the pope deprived one Charles for simony and theft, to whom the emperor had sold fbr money the bishopric of Constance, And this he did by a council of prelates and princes, held in Germany itself, the emperor being present : ' Bishop Charles (saith Lamb^) was deposed, notwithstanding that the king was present in that judgment, and defended him and his cause as much as he could.' Lamb, Sehaf, A. D. 1071. And this was an increase of the falling out between them ; but the constan<r)r (saith the same author) and invinoibie mind of Hildebrand against covetousness, did * exclude all arguments of human deceits and subtilties. Ibid.

** Urspergensis, in like manner, who lived in the same time, rackoneUi up many partijtmlars of the emperor's wicked be*

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haviour in these words: 'He began to despise the princjes, oppress the nobles and nobility, and give himself to inconti- nency.' Usrp. A. D, 1068. Whidii Ayentinus (an authcn: not mislikedby the Protestants) uttereth more par^ularly in these words: ' The very fnends of Henry the emperor do not deny that he was infamous for his wicked life and lephery, ^mication^ and adultery.' Lib, 4. Annaltum Boiorum*

'' And finally, not to name any one, Marianus Scotus (that lived in those days) writeth thus of the whole controversy be- tween them : — Gregory VII. (saith he) being stirred up by the just clamours of Catholic men, and hearing the immanity of Henry the emperor's wickedness^ cryed out against by them, did excommunicate him for the same, but especially for the sin of simony, in buying and selling bishoprics ; wliidi fact of the pope did like very well all good Catholic men, but displeased such as would buy and sell benefices, and were favourers of the said emperw." Mar. ScoL Inchron. A, D. 1075.

Thus wrote the learned Father Parsons, more than two . hundred years ago, who was well acquainted with the autho* rities he has quoted, and who, it appears, lived eotemporary with Gregory and Henry, and must therefore have been in perfect possession of the facts they stated. The Rev. Alban Butler, who compiled the life of this holy pope from some of the ablest and most authentic writers of tiiat and succeeding ages, enters more deeply into the transactions between Gre- gory and Henry. He confirms the testimony of Father Parsons as to the character of this prince, who feU, when young, into the hands of ambitious and unprincipled men, by whom his passions were inflamed and indulged, that ^y might carry on their own vicious designs. Hence, by his tyranny and injustices he provoked his own subjects, and caused the princes and nobility of the empire to appeal to the pope. It must here be observed, that the lives of some of the higher orders of the clergy were scandalous in the extreme, and that many of them had been guilty of simony, having purchased their bishoprics of Henry. Gregory, who was ea^-

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alted to the papacy by compulsion, and with the consent of Henry, was no sooner seated in the chair of Peter, than, like a good and pious pontiff, he meditated a reform in the morals of the clergy, as the best and surest means of producing a general change For the better. Accordingly, he called a coun- cil at Rome, and after due deliberation, a decree was passed, by whicli all persons guilty of simony were declared incapable of receiving any ecclesiastical jurisdiction, and disqualified for holding any benefice whatever. This mandate was of course not pleasing to those bishops who had purchased their benefices from the emperor, and who were not willing to part with them ; they therefore made complaint to Henry, who espoused their cause. This monarch, like all other tjrants and oppressors, could dissemble when it served his ends, and accordingly he wrote a letter to Gregory on his exaltation to ^ ihe papal see, condemning himself for having sold the bene- fices of the church, and promising amendment. This pope answered him in terms of the greatest charity and apostolic zeal. But when Henry found Gregory inflexible in the pur- suit of a reformation in the conduct of the clergy, he shewed that his former professions of repentance were dictated by hypocrisy, and he resolved to continue the patroniser of cor- ruption and exaction. Pursuing this determination, on the 23rd of January, 1076, he assembled at Worms a conventicle of simoniacal bishops, who presumed to depose Gregory from the p<mtificate on the most shallow pretences. Henry sent tliis mock sentence to Home, together with a contumelious letter. On the receipt of this sentence and letter, Gregory called a council at Home, and declared the emperor and his schismatical adherents excommunicated ; and he further took upon him to pronounce that Henry, for his tyranny and op- pressions, had forfeited his right to the crown.

That Gregory had a right to excommunicate Henry and his adherents cannot be doubted, since the afiair for which he was condemned was one of spirituals. With the affairs of the church the temporal power has no jurisdiction. Henry therefore could not depose the pope without creating a schism.

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and for tliis, he was liable to exclusion from the benefit of the stieraments. By the sentence of excommunication he was cut off from receiving any part of the treasures of the church ; but the decree of deposition was quite a different thing. Christ had left too power in his church to depose sovereigns, nor would he admit the power of sovereigns to interfere with his kingdom; the general opinion of those times, however, had constituted the reigning pope, from the nature of his high office, a kind of arbiter or judge in the disputes which arose between contending sovereigns, or the discontents which might occur between a sovereign and the nobles and people. In this case the pope acted not by divine right, but by general consent ; and if kings, and princes, and people alike, are content to refer their temporal concerns to the head of the church, that head cannot be blamed for using his beat endeavours to see justice done to each party, by the removal of public abuses and the establishment of just laws. This was the aim of Gregory VII., and for this most praise- worthy and honourable intention, he is the subject of invective and calumny.

The reader will now perceive the cause of the decree issued by Gregory, and the motives which induced Henry to refuse submission. We must now notice Fox's pathetic tale of the barefooted pilgrimage of Henry, his wife, and child, and the three dftyS' sojournment before the walls of the pope's palace, into which he is said to have gained admission at last through the entreaties of a lady named Matilda, and said to be the pope's paramour. By the name of the pretended para- mour we are inclined to believe that this lady is no other than the countess of Tuscany, who was the daughter of Beatrice, sister to the emperor Henry III., by her husband Boniface, Lord of Lucca, and was therefore cousin to the emperor Henry IT. She was a woman of great virtue and heroism, and the wife of Guelpho, the younger duke of Bavarift. Her mother, Beatrice, and herself, were great admirers and pro- tectresses of Gregory, and were directed by his counsels ili tbd paths of perfection ; it is not therefore likely, but is

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evidently a gross ealamnj, that Matilda was a paramour of tiie pope, who was too serious in his design to hring the clergy to a state of continencj to violate it himself.

The sentence of Ghregorj agidnst Henrj, added to his own oppressions and misconduct, caused the princes of the empire to assemhle in diet^ to take into consideration the state of the empire^ and to decide whether Henry should he any longer their emperor. This state of things, and the repentance of many of his adherents, alarmed Henry, and he set off to Borne to ohtain a reconciliation with the pope, as the sures way to preserve his crown. The monarch put on the garh of penitence, and hegged an audience, hut Gregory, knowing his former insincerity, kept him in suspense till the fourth day, when they were reconciled on certain conditions, the efmperor promising to make all the satisfaction in his power for the injuries he had committed. The conditions of this reconciliation, as related by Fojc, are. fabulous, as the sub- sequent conduct of the monarch will clearly shew. This part of the history Fox has suppressed, but it is necessary to be known, in order to clear up the mist thus thrown around it. Gregory, with the sincerity of an upright man, sent off a messenger instantly to the princes of Germany, imforming them of the important reoondliation, and requesting them to suspend their deliberations, until he and Henry should appear am<mgst than. Henry, on the contraiy, like all dissemblers, made excuses, and tried to prolong his appearance, and thiit of the pope in tiie assembly. The council or diet of the princes, was held at Foreheim, in Franconia, the members of which, growing weary of delay, and expecting no good from a Mthless sovereign, proceeded to the Section, and on the 15th of March, 1077, chose Rodolph, duke of Suabia, for their emperor.

Henry, finding his enemies resolute, and not being dis- posed to part with his crown without a struggle, the seeds of «vil war were sown, and a contest was carried on, with various fRKceM, for ihree years. The death of Rodolph, who fell in battle, left Henry sole master of the empire ; and elated with c3

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victory, he renewed his yidence against the churchy dun^ moned a crowd of simoniacal prelates to depose the pope, and publish again the mock deposition. Gregory, in consequence of this arbitrary and insulting conduct, renewed his former censures against Henry, who, full of revenge, marched an army into Italy, set up an antipope, and laid siege to the city of Home. The pope shut himself up in the castle of St. Angelo, wliere he remained secure till Hobert Guischard, the heroic duke of Calabria, relieved the city and caused Henry to retreat into Lombardy. Though again master of Home, the spirit of party ran so high, that Gregory deemed it most prudent to retire, which he did, first to Monte Ca8sino> and then to Salerno, where he fell sick, and ended his days on the 25th of March, 1085. Thus then this pope, who b repro^ bated for his insolence, which, we are told had attained, at this time, a formidable height, died a proscribed exile, through the villanies and intrigues of a man, who is held out to tlxe people of England as an olject of pity. The last words of Gregory were : " I have loved justice and have hated iniquity, therefore I die in a strange land.*' Gifted as this pontiff was with the most heroic qualities and amiable virtues, it would have been a wonder if his character had not been as- sailed by some writers, and more especially by those who are interested in keeping up similar abuses which Gregory opposed, and who hate that system of religion of which h^ was the head. His own writings, however, will bear testi- mony against these slanders, and when we add the evidenee of a writer, by no means partial to any pope, we may con- sider the character of Gregory as rescued from foul blots, which unjust authors have attempted to cast upon it. Dupin, a French author, says : ** It must be acknowledged that pope Gregory VII. was an extraordinary genius, capable of great things; constant and undaunted in the execution; well versed in the constitution of his predecessors ; zealous fbr the interests of the Holy See ; an enemy to simony and liber!^ tinism (vices which he vigorously opposed); full of Christian thoughts and of zeal for the reformation of the manners of

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BOOK OF MARTYBS. 35

the clergy ; and there is not the least colour to think that he was not unblemished in his o^n morals. This is the judg- jnent which we suppose every one will pass upon him, who shijl read oyer his letters with a disinterested and unprejudiced mind. They are penned with a great deal of eloquence, full of good matter and embellished with noble and pious thoughts; and we boldly say, that no pope since Gregory I. wrote such fine and strong letters as this Gregory did.'* — Du Piny Cent. 11, ch. 1, pp. 67, 68.

As to the emperor Henry IV., after carrying on the con- test with three of Gregory's successors, his own sons rebelled against him, and joined the malcontents. In these contests he suffered the severest checks of fortune, and died at Liege, in the year 1106, and 46th of his age, leaving behind him a name odious for his execrable lust, refined hypocrisy, and barbarous cruelties. Yet such a character as this has Fox enlisted among his auxiliaries to traduce and defame the re- ligion of the primitive Christians, and the successors of the

The next story is headed, — "King John surren- ders HIS CROWN TO THE PoPB j" which Occurrence he gives in these words :— " The ascendency of the popes was never more fully evinced than by a remarkable fact in the history of our own country. King John, having incurred the hatred of his barons and people, by his cruel and tyrannical measures, they took arms against him, and offered the crown to Louis, son of the French king. By seizing the possessions of the clergy, John had also fallen under the displeasure of the pope, who accordingly laid the kingdom under an interdict, and absdved his subjects from their allegiance. Alarmed at this, the tyrant earnestly sued for peace with his holiness, hoping, by his mediation, to obtain favourable terms from the barcms, or, by his thunders, to terrify them into submission. He made the most abject supplications, and the pope, ever willing to increase the power of the church, sent cardinal Pandulf as legate to the king, at Canterbury, to whom John resigned his crown and dominions ; and the cai-dinal^ after

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retaining the crown ^re days, in token of possession^ rettimed it to the king, on condition of his making him a yearly pre- sent of 1000 marks to the court of Itome, and holding the dominions of England and Ireland in farm, from the pope. But if John expected any henefit from this most disgracefbl transaction, he was disappointed ; and instead of enjoying the crown, which he had so hasely surrendered and received again, the short remainder of his life was disturbed by con- tinual insurrections, and he at last died either of grief, or by poison, administered to him by a monk of the convent of Swineshead, in Lincolnshire. The latter cause is assigned by many historians, and we are told that the king, suspecting some fruit that was presented to him, at the above convent, to be poisoned, ordered the monk who brought it to eat of it, which he did, and died in a few hours after."

As this subject is most obscurely given in this passage, and as the transactions in this king's reign are of great interest, even at this moment, and, as well as the days of Alfred, will require to be referred to, in our examination of Fox's acconnt of the Reformation, we will here enter somewhat oopiously into the principal fisicts of the reigns of Alfred and John, as regard the religious and political institutions of those times, and the influence which religion had on these two monarcha in wielding the sceptre. We have already shown Ttow the Catholic religion wius introduced into this kingdom, under the Saxon heptarchy, in the sixth century, and the beneficial effects it produced on Ihe manners and dispositions of our converted ancestors. By the advice of the prekteS; tihe guardians of faith and morals, laws founded on the true prin- ciples of justice were establidied under the best and wisest of their kings ; and when the ravages of war and the torpitacle of sovereigns had debased the morals of the people, the dergj were the foremost to seize the opportunity, whenever one was offered, to bring the nation back to a state of vkiue and hap- piness. 1 n this pursuit, they always found the best had most efficient aid in a religious and active monarch. Such was the renowned Alfred, whose deeds as a Christian, a sddier, and a

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frtatesman, reflect a lustre on that religion by whicli they were infinenced. This great monarch was the fourth and youngest son of Ethelwolph, the pious king of the West Saxons, and the second sovereign of all England. He was bom at Want* age, in Berkshire, in 849, and at an early age was sent to Rome. Leo IV., who then filled the chair of St. Peter, adopted him as his son, and the foundation of those virtues, which afterwards shone with such brilliancy in his actions, was no doubt laid in his heart by the instructions he received at the papal court. How then can that religion be insepar- able from persecution, which leads the mightiest monarchs to establish the most equitable laws ? And how can the men be monsters, as Fox and his editors represent the popes to have been, who planted such noble feelings in the minds of our Alfred, and those other British sovereigns whose names glitter in the page of history, and throw a dark shade on the vices of those monarchs who rejected and violated the prin- ciples of their religion ?

Alfred came to the crown in the 22nd year of his age, when the Danes were pouring their hordes into the kingdom, and swe^xing everything before them. Various were the vicissi- tudes he experienced in his endeavours to recover the king- dom from the invaders, and at last he was driven to the extremity of seeking safety in some woody and boggy parts <rf the county of Somerset. Here he lay hid for six months, employing hhnseff in prayer and meditation, and listening to the instructions of his spiritual director. In this state of exile, several of our best historians relate, that falling into a slumber, he received an assurance from St. Cuthbert thiLt God would shortly restore him to his kingdom. Encouraged by this vision, Alfred renewed active operations, and succeeded in reconquering the kingdom, making the Danes surrender to his prowess, and acknowledge him victor. The first use he made of his triumph was to grant liberty of conscience to the Danish prisoners, by^lowing those who did not choose to become Christians to return to their own country ; those who unbraced the •hxtk were settled in ihe kingdom of the Ea^t

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Angles. He next turned his attention to maritime affairs, and founded that navy which has raised British glory so high among the nations of the world. The arts^ sciences, and literature then occupied his notice, and he also employed himself in erecting castles, fortresses, churches, and monas*- teries, which had heen oyerthrown hy the devastation of the Danes. But that which raised Alfred's name above the rest of our monarchs, was the indefatigable assiduity and superior wisdom he manifested in bringing about a reformation g£ abuses, and laying the foundation of British freedom.

" Nothing," writes the Rev. Alban Butler, in a note to the Life of St. Neot, a near relative of Alfred, ^' is more famous in the reign of this king, than his care and prudence in settling the public tranquillity of the state, by an exact ad- ministration of justice. In the preceding times of war and confusion, especially whilst the king and his followers lurked at Athelney, or up and down, and in cottages, the English themselves became lawless, and in many places revolted and plimdered their own country. Alfred, by settling a most pnident polity, and by a rigorous execution of the laws, re- stored so great a tranquillity through the whole kingdom, that, according to the common assertion of our historians, if a traveller had lost a purse of money on the highway, he would find it untouched the next day. We are told in Bronip- ton^s Chronicle^ that gold bracelets were hung up at the parting of several highways, which no man durst presume to touch.

" Alfred compiled a body of laws from those of Ina, Offa, and Ethelbert, to which he added several new ones, which all tended to maintain the public peace and safety, to enforce the observance of the divine precepts, and to preserve the respect which is due to the church and its pastors. For crimes they inflict fines or mulcts, proportioned to the quality and fortune of the delinquent ; aa, for withholding the Peter- pence, for buying, selling, or working on the Lord's day ot holiday, a Dane's fine was twelve ores or ounces, an English- man's thiHy shillings : a slave was to forfeit his hide, that is^

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BOOK OF MARTYfiS, 39

to be whipped. The mulct of a Bane was called Lash-Ute ; that of an Englishman Wears-wite, or gentleman*s mulct. Were or Weregild was the mulct or satisfaction for a crime; it was double for a crime committed on a Sunday or holiday, or in Lent. By these laws it appears that slaves in England enjoyed a property, and could earn for themselves, when they worked at times in which they were not obliged to work for tiieir masters; in which they differed from strict slaves of whom the Roman laws treat. Alfred's laws were mild, scarce any crimes, except murder, being punished with death ; but only with fines, or if these could not be paid, with the loss of a hand or foot. But the severity with which these laws were executed, roaintamed the public peace. Alfred first instituted trials to be determined by juries of twelve unexceptionable men, of equal condition, who were to pass judgment upon oath as to the evidence of the fact or crime ; which is to this day one of the most valuable privileges of an English subject. To extirpate robberies which, by the confusion occasioned by Danish devastations, were then very common, this king divided the kingdom into shires (though there were some shires before his time), and the shires into hundreds, and the hundreds into ty things or tenths, or in some places into wapentakes, and every district was made responsible for all robberies committed within its precincts. All vagabonds were restrained by every one being obliged to be enrolled in some district. The capital point in Alfred's administration was, that all bribes or* presents were most rigorously forbid the judges, their conduct was narrowly inspected into, and their least faults most severely punished. Upon any information being lodged against a judge or magistrate, he was tried by a council, established for that purpose by the king, who him- self presided in it ; he is said to have condemned in one year forty-five judges to be hanged, for crimes committed by them in their office. By this severity he struck a terror into all his magistrates ; and si^ch was the effect of his perspicuity and watchfidness in this respect, that, as Milton says, in his days justice seemed not to flourish only, but to triumph.

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" This prince, who was born for everything that wa& great, was a lover and zealous patron of learning and learned men. He considered that arts and sciences cultivate and perfect those faculties in men in which the ezcellencj of their nature consists, and bestow the empire of the mind, much more noble, pleasant, and useful than that of riches ; they exceed- ingly enhance all the comibrts and blessings of life, and ex- tend the reputation and influence of a nation beyond any conquests. By this encouragement of learning have so many great geniuses been formed, to which the world stands most indebted ; and to this the greatest nations owe their elegance, taste, and splendour, by which certain reigns have been dis- tinguished. By what else did the golden elegant ages of Rome and Athens differ from the unknown brutal times of savage nations ? Certainly nothing so much exalts the glory of any reign, or so much improves the industry and under- standing, and promotes the happiness of a people, as the cul- ture of leading geniuses by well regulated studies. As Plato says, (1. 6. de leg.) man without culture and education is the most savage of all creatures which the earth nourishes. But sciences are still of infinitely greater importance with regard to religion ; and this consideration above all others, recom- mended the patronage of learning to this pious king. The ancient public schools being either destroyed, or almost fallen to decay with the monasteries during the wars, Alfred founded the university of Oxford. Alfred, canon of Beverly, in 1 120, writes in his manuscript history, that king Alfred stirred up all gentlemen to breed their sons to the study of literature, or if they had no sons, some servants or vassals whom they should make free. He obliged every free man who was pos- sessed of two hides of land, to keep their sons at school till they were flfreen years of age, for, said the king, a man bom free, who is unlettered, is to be regarded no otherwise than a beast, or a man void of understanding. It is a point of im- portance, that persons of birth, whose conduct in life must necessarily have a strong and extensive influence over their fellow-creatures^ and who are designed by Providence to be

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diarged with the direction of many others, be fonned from their infancy to fill this superior rank which they hold with dignity, and to the general advantage of their species. Ih order to he qualified for this purpose, their tender hearts must he deeply impressed with the strongest and most generous sentiments of sincere piety and religion, and of true honours : by being inured to reason in their youth they must acquire a habit of reasoning well and readily, and of forming right judgments atid conclusions. Their faculties must be raised and improved by study, and when, by passing through the circle of the sciences, their genius has been explored, their studies and employs ought to be directed into the channel, which, by their rational inclinations, talents, particular duties, and circumstances of life, the great Author of nature and . Master of the world skeXi point out to each individual. King Alfred also exhorted the noblemen to choose, among their country vassals or villains, some youth who should appear by parts and ardent inclinations to piety, particular promising ii> be trained up to the liberal arts. As for the rest, it was not then the custom to give the poorer sort too much of a school education, which might abate their industry and patience at manual labour. But this prince was solicitous that care should be taken for the education and civilizing of all, by re- ligious instructions and principles. Agriculture, in the first place, and all the useful and mechanical arts never had a greater patron or protector.**

Who can have the hardihood, after this account of the transactions of Alfred, to charge the Catholic church with a desire to keep her children in ignorance ? Kothing but the most barefaced impudence and bigotted prejudice could in- duce a man to utter so groundless a falsehood. X>o we not here see, in the ninth ceutury, the strenuous exertions of a Catholic king, seconded by the Catholic clergy, iu founding seminaries of education^ and imparting the advantages of learning to those who seek them. These schools and colleger were preserved, and others added to them, out of the revenues of the church and through the piety of ihe clergy, till the

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42 REVIEW OP fox's

rapacious Henry the Eigh& came to the crown, when, taking it into his head to become a religious tinker, he and his suc- cessor seized upon most of these seats of knowledge, and destroyed the learned labours of their inhabitanta. Camden, the panegyrist of Elizabeth, in his introduction to the Annak of that queen, says : ** England sate weeping to see her wealth exhausted, her coin debased, and her abbeys demolished, which were the monuments of ancient piety;" while another writer. Sir John Denham^ speaking of this scene of desola- tions, exclaims, —

** Who sees these dismal heaps but will demand. What barbarous invader sack'd the land ! But when he hears no Goth, no Turk, did bring This desolation, but a Christian king ; When nothing but the name of zeal appears Twixt our best actions and the worst of theirs. What does he think our sacrilege would spare. Since these th* effects of our deyotion are." — Cooper's Hill, Of Alfred, on the contrary. Sir Henry Spelman ( Oonc. Brit. ) speaks thus in strains of rapture : " O, Alfred, the wonder and astonishment of all ages ! If we reflect on hia piety and religion, it would seem that he had always lived in a cloister ; if on his warlike exploits, that he had never been out of camps ; if on his learning and writings, that he had spent his whole life in a college ; if on his wholesome laws, and wise administration, that these had been his whole study and em- ployment." Such is the character given to Alfred, who, we wish the reader to bear in mind, was a Catholic king, governed by the divine precepts of the Catholic church, while the " few plain Christians" tell us that the Catholic religion is inseparable from persecution, and its professors bloodthirsty and superstitious.

We must now return to the martyrologist. Fox says : *' The ascendency of the popes was never more fully evinced than by a remarkable fact in the history of our own country ;" which fact turns out to be the surrender which John inade of the crown of England to Innocent III. This fact he has taken care to envelope in much darkness, and when placed in its true light, the ascendency of the popes in those days wil^

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appear to be not half so pernicious as the asoendencj of an Orange faction of our own. It is confessed by Yox, that John was hated bj the barons and ^people for hia cruel and tyrannical measures, and that they offered the crown to Louis, mm of the French king. It is true they did so ; and it is also true that this offer was made subsequent to the surrender of the crown by John to Innocent, so great was the ascendency of the popes in those days I Fox places this circumstance before the affair between the king and the supreme pontiff, whereas, as we have just said, it should have been <$fter the mighty resignation. The case was this : John was a faith- less and perfidious character ; he divorced his wife and mur- dered his nephew, which latter crime drew upon him the indignation of his subjects ; and the Bretons, in particular, swore to be revenged on the murderer. His foreign do- minions in Normandy were attacked, and John was compelled to retire to England, where he raised forces, and applied to the pope to compel his antagonist, the French king, by ecclesiastical censures, to observe his engagements.

It must be here noticed, that at the period we are treating of, the principle upon which our ancestors were governed was the feudal system ; and it was no unconmion thing to see the king of England doing homage as the vassal of the king of France, and the king of Scotland swearing fealty to the king of England ; the one for territories held in Normandy, the other for lands held under the English crown. Hence in many of these disputes, when the fate of arms was doubtful, or had turned out disastrous, the sovereign pontiffs were ap- pealed to as the conunon father of Christendom, to use their spiritual influence, which was almost invariably exercised on the side of justice. In the case with John, the pope entered warmly into the affair, and endeavoured to bring about a re- conciliation. The matter, however, turned out disastrous to the English monarch's interests, and he soon found himself involved in a dispute with Innocent himself.

In those times, the choice of a bishop was not as now, a XOfiXQ matter of Qourse^ at the will of ^ minister, but a canon\-

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44 JREVIBW OF F0X*8

cal election wfts deemed neee&ddiy, and the church heing independent of the 6tate, in point of ipirittsals, a rigid ad- herence to forms was the consequence. It happefued Ihat the see of Oanterhurj became vacant, and Jotai wanted to put one of his own creatures into ihe prii^ate's chmr ; the monkey who had a right of elecUon, differed from the king, and elected another candidate ; but fearing John's displeasure, thej disregarded the €rst choice, and made a selection of John de (jrej, bishop of Norwich, according to the recommendation of the king. As this was an affair that regarded the spiritual jurisdiction of the church, recourse was had to the pope, who pronounced both elections void, and ordered a canonical one to be entered into, when Stephen Langton, an Englishman of great eminence and learning, who had been honoured bj Innocent with the purple, was chosen, and his election con- firmed by the pope. The bishop of Norwich not being willing to loose the object of his ambition, insinuated bad advice into the ear of his royal master, who reused to acknowledge Langton, and, in the fury of disappointment, he turned his rage upon the monks, seized on their revenues, and banished them from the kingdom. Innocent tried, by persuasive means, to bring the king to a state of reason and justice, but he was inexorable ; three bishops, by order of the pope, beseeched him in the most moving terms, to accept the new bishop, but he only answered them with oaths and insults. The king was then laid under an interdict, and was subsequently excommu^ nicated, in tiie hope of bringing him over to justice. John continued to deride these measures till he found the barons were not to be relied upon, so great was their detestation of his conduct and injustices, and his crown was threatened by his rival, the French king. He was then panic-struck, and in a fit of guilty cowardice, he resigned the crown into the hands of the pope's legate, and swore feality to the Boman see. Fox insinuates, that this transaction originated in the willingness of the popes to increase the power of the church ; but if this were the case. Innocent must have felt himself much disappointed, his power not having received the least

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BOOK OF MARTkRS. 45

augmentation by the transaction, as we shall find in the eequel.

The kmg being reconciled, the new archbishop Langton was allowed to take possession of his see and the revenues thereof. The first act of the archbishop, on revoking the sentence of excommunication, was, we are told by Dr. Lin- gard, to make the king swear, '* that he would abolish all illegal customs, and revive the laws of the good king Edward.'' John took the oath, but he did not mean to keep it, so perfidious was his disposition. Some of the barons having fallen under the king's displeasure, he resolved to punish their disobedience by military execution. In this resolution the monarch found himself opposed by the noble minded and honest archbishop, who reminded him that it was the right of the accused to be tried by his peers. John dis- regarded his admonitions, on which the archbishop told the king, gays the last named author, that if he " persisted to refuse them the justice of a trial, he should deem it his duty to excommunicate every person, with the exception of the king himself, who should engage in so impious a warfare. John yielded with reluctance, and for the sake of form, sum- moned the accused to appear on a certain day before him or his justices.*' This conduct of the archbishop may be thought by some as insolent and disrespectful to the sovereio-n ; but to those who admit that a monarch holds his crown for the people, it will appear an act "of the purest patriotism, and shew how beneficial it is that churchmen should not owe their situations to the crown, but be independent of ministerial influence for their elevation.

The continued treachery and vexations of John induced the cardinal archbishop to seek other measures to ensure the safety of persons and property from the lawless rapacity of the king. Accordingly, at a meetiug of the barons at St. Paul's, he called them aside, read to them the chapter of liberties confirmed by Henry I., and commented upon its pro- visions. The barons swore upon oath to conquer or die in defence of their liberties. The reader will observe that

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46 REVIEW OF fox's

daring these proceedings, John held his crown in fealtj to the pope, and was courting his support against the harons, as well as against the king of France, with whom he was at war. The contest with France proved unsuccessiul, and John^ having concluded a truce of five years, returned to England to receive further mortification. On the 20th of November, 1214, the barons met at the abbey of St. Edmundsbury, where they took a solemn oath before the high altar, to de- mand in a body of the king, a redress of their grievances and a restoration of their civil liberties. This was done ac- cordingly, and the king demurring, both parties appealed to the pope, who took the part of his vassal, John. In a letter to Langton he condemned the conduct of the barons as un- just, accused the archbishop of being the fomenter of the dispute, dnd commanded him to exert all his authority to re- store harmony between the king and his subjects. The question was not one of spirituals, but a political struggle for temporal claims, and Langton knew how to distinguish between the two authorities. While he bowed submission to Innocent as head of the church, he declined to obey his mandate as lord paramount of the state, when the command was contrary to the rights and interests of the nation. Thus, when the cardinal primate was urged by the legate and the bishop of Exeter to excommunicate the barons, Langton re- fused to listen to their propositions, and told them that unless John dismissed the foreign troops he had introduced into the kingdom, he should think it his duty to oppose them with all his power. The barons thus fortified by this courageous dignitary of the church, again pressed their demands on the king, who wished to refer the question to the pope, but the barons refused to let the matter be sent to Home, and at length obtained, on the plains of Runnymead, the signature of the king to that charter of liberties which is referred to at the present day as one of the fundamental pillars of British freedom, and is called the Great Charter.

Thus it is clear, that whatever might be the ascendancy of the popes, and however disgraceful the conduct of John

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BOOK OF MARTYRS. 47

might be in surrendering the crown to Innocent^ a Catholic cardinal and bishop, and Catholic barons and knights, knew bow to treat this aseendancj when it stood in the waj <^ their rights and grievances. The idea of the dominions of England and Ireland being l^ldtn /arm from the pope, maj suit some prejudiced minds, but the page of history will prove that none were more attached to the see of Rome, on subjects of spiritual jurisdiction, nor more opposed to the court of Rome, when the rights and independence of the country were interfered with, than our Catholic ancestors. They knew, as we hare before observed, how to distinguish between the two authorities, and if they occasionally appealed to the pope to heal any differences between crowned heads, or between the rulers and the people, when any stretch of power was exerted on the part of the pontiffs, there were always pro- fessors of the canon and civil law to point out the act of en- croachment, and all parties were at liberty to abide by it or reject it. So much for this mighty bugbear, which was con- jured up to fdarm the haters of Popery out of their senses, as well as out of those liberties which our Catholic forefathers were so tenacious in preserving.

After John had signed the charter of liberties, he used eveiy endeavour to render the privileges granted by it nuga- tory, and sought to wreak vengeance on the heads of those who were instrumental in forcing him to sign that important document. His cruelties were unparalleled, and his rapacity insatiable ; which induced the barons to offer the crown to Louis, the son of the king of France. Louis accepted the offer, and an unsuccessful attempt was made by the pope's legate to prevent both father and aon from invading a king- dom^ which, he said, was a fief oi the holy see. Here we have another proof how little the pretended ascendancy of ihe popes was regarded, when it stood in the way of kingly Mnbition. The fact is, as we have frequently repeated, and it ought not to be forgotten, the ascendancy of the popes arose from the high situation they held, and the general opinion entertained of their virtues and learning, and love of

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43 BSYIEW OF POX*8

justice. Innocent III.^ like Gregory YIIL, was a divine renowned for his great knowledge taid stem integrity. Of Innocent, who governed the church eighteen years, Blondus, amongst other authors, writes thus : " The faoE^ and pdour of this pope's gravity, holiness of life, and greatness of ac- tions, was most sweet throughout all France," ^. (Blond, decad, 2. 1. viL p. 297.) The Rev. Alhan Butler says, that Innoeent III. was "famous for his great actions^ and fac several learned and pious hooks which he composed." There are writers, to he sure, who have endeavoured to hlacken the fame of this eminent pontiff, but their slanders are evidently the effect of malicious or prejudiced minds, and, therefore* wholly unworthy of credit. Innocent convened the fourth general council of Lateran, and condemned the Albig^ses ; it is, therefore, do wonder Hiat he should be abused by Fox and his modem editors, the ** few plain Christians,'* who daim so n^ar a kindred in religion with that impious and diabolical sect.

Let us now see what the character of John was from the best historians. Dr. Lingard thus describes it : " Wh&x Geraldus delineated the characters of the four sobs of £Lenry» John had already debased hb faculties by excess and volpp- tuousness. The courtly eye of the preceptor could indeed discover tiie germ of future excellence in his pupil ; but his- tory has recorded only his vices : his virtues, if such a mon- ster oould possess virtues, were unseen or forgotten. He stands b^ore us polluted with meanness, cruelty, pesjury, and murder; uniting with an ambition which nished thpough every crime to the attainment of its object, a pusillanimity which often, at the sole a{^)earance of opposition, sank into despondency. Arrogant in pro^>erity, abject in adver^j, he nether oondliated affection in the one, nor excited eeteem. in the other. His dissimulation was so well known, that it sddom deoeived : his suspicion served only to multiply h*s enemies; and the knowledge of his vindictive temper Am- .tributed to keep open the Ueadi between him and those wha had incurred his cUspleawre. S^dom, perfai^, vras there a

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BOOR OF MARTYRS. 49

prince with a heart more callous to the suggestions of pity. Of his captives many never returned irom their dungeons. If they surnyed their tortures, they were left to perish hy famine. He could eyen affect to be witty, at the expense of his victims. When Geoffiry, archdeacon of Norwich, a faith- ful servant, had retired from his seat at the exchequer on account of tiie interdict, the king ordered him to be arrested, and sent him a cope of lead to keep him warm in his prison. The cope was a large mantie, covering the body from the shoulders to the feet, and worn by clergymen during the service. Wrapt in this ponderous h ^bit, with his head only at liberty, the unhappy man remained without food or assist- ance till he expired. On another occasion, he demanded a present of ten thousand marks from an opulent Jew, at Brist(^, and ordered one of his teeth to be drawn every morn- ing till he should produce the money. 1 he Jew was obsti- nate. The executioners began with his double teeth. He suffered the loss of seven ; but on the eighth day solicited a respite, and gave security for the payment.

^ John was not less reprehensible a^ a h sband, than he was as a monarch. "Wliile Louis took from him his provinces on the continent, he had consoled h mself fjr the lo.s in the company of his beautiful bride; but he soon i.b ndoned her to revwrt to his former habits. The licentiousness of his amours b reckoned by every ancient writer among the prin- cipal causes of the alienation of his barons, many of whom had to lament and revenge the disgrace of a wife, or daughter, t)r sister.'*

We have here given a faithful account of the circumstances which occurred between Henry IV. of Germany and Gregory VIL, and John of England and Innocent III, together with a true character of these respective personnges from the best authorities. It will here be seen that the aux Haries pressed by Fox into his cause are of tiie most worthless and irreli- gious cast, whose crimes bring discredit on human nature, and whose deeds are a blot on the history of nations. On the other hand, the '* infernal artifices*' attributed by him to the

VOL. II. D

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*' popes, monks, and iriars/* we find have led to the most beneficial consequences, and have been the means of exaltmg the human mind ; extending the arts and sciences through every country where Cathcdicism was planted, and in none more so than in our own beloyed island, as the remains of our ancient buildings, and the stately cathedrals that now adorn the kingdom bear testimony. The foreign wars and eiyil broils that convulsed Europe are also imputed to these ''in- fernal" artificers ; with how mneh truth let the admirable laws and regulations of those days, in our country, the work of the most pious kings and learned divines, bear witness. We have shewn how the Catholic religion was planted by the care of popes in this country, and how the purest maxims of justice and civil government were established under its benign influence ; another picture now remains to be unfolded, in which the depravity of error will appear in that light which Pox and his modern editors have endeavoured to cast upon the ministers and disciples of the Catholic church.

Before we enter on this comparison, we must be allowed to lay before our readers another delectable tale by the martyro- logist, which he has headed thus : ** An Emperor troddb]^ ON BY THE Pope.*' Oh horrible ! ! Who could ever have supposed such a thing ? The popes must be '* monsters" in- deed to tread upon emperors I But let us see what Fox himself says on this extraordinary deed. " The papal usur~ pattofis,^* he writes, " were extended to every part of Europe* In Germany, the emperor Frederic was compelled to submit to be trodden under the feet of pope Alexander, and dared not make any resistance. In En^mid, howev©*, a spirit of resentment broke out in various reigns, in consequence of the oppressions and horrible conduct of those anti-christian blas- phemers, which continued with more or less violence till the time of the great Wickliffe, of whom we shall speak more fully in the following pages.*' (Page ii,, 23.)

Can any one re&ain from smiling at this account by Fox ? These German emperors, according to his account, must have been shocking base dastards, to have submitted to such

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humiliation. But they ** dared not/' he says, '^make any resistance!*' No, indeed ! to Ao was to prevent them ? Tell us hy what power, and under tohat au^ority, the popes were so exalted and the emperors so humhled. Let us have chapter and verse, and do not let this tale rest on hare assertion. We have shewn that Henry II. attacked the pope with arms in his very capital, and is it likely that an emperor, (we cannot say whether a predecessor or successor of this Henry, for we cannot tell hy the relation of Fox which of the popes named Alexander it was, there having heen seven of that name, nor which emperor called Frederick, of whom there had heen/owr,) is it likely, we say, that an emperor would suhmit to such an indignity, or that a pope, whose interest it must have heen to live in peace and amity with a powerful sovereign, would re- quire such an act of submission from a monarch ? No man of unclouded mind can ever believe it ; nor could such a story ever have gained credit in this country, had not the people been previously hoodwinked and beguiled out of their wits.

But though the German emperor^ were such cowards, our ancestors, it seems, were not to be humUed and trodden upon by '^ those anti-chrislian blasphemer Sy* as Fox and his editors call the popes. A '* spirit of resentment,** it is said, " broke out in the various reigns." Well, and why not ^ecify diS" tinctly the reigns in which this spirit made its appearance, and the cause of its appearing ? There is history to refer to, and by making this reference a disposition would have been manifested to court inquiry into the truth of the fact. That some opposition was made to the temporal encroachments of some of the popes is what no Catholic will deny ; nay, our be^t Catholic writers frequently mention the stand made by our ancestors in terms of praise, and cite these instances as a proof of the spirit of indepefndenee, not of resentment, that animated the Catholics of those days, denominated by silly ignorant bigots the *' days of darkness." However, as Fox says he shall speak more fully of these days* in his account of Wickliffe, we shall do the same, and follow him inch by inch in his catalogue of falsehoods.

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•* SECTION n.

** ACCOUNT OF WICKLIFFE AND OF THB MARTYRS WHa SUFFERED IN DEFENCE OF HIS DOCTRINES."

This is a most important period in the histoty of oar oonn- try, and deserves much attention. According to his custom. Fox introduces his acconnt with a mixture of truth and false- hood^ of facts and fictions, well calculated to work on the generous creduKty of Englishmen, who are proverhial for their dislike of everything oppressive, and their attachment to justice ; hut who are unfortunately so misled hy the mis- representations and falsehoods of interested writers, that they mistake error for truth, despotism for freedom, and wrong for justice. The following are the introductory remains made hy Fox, regarding the errors of John Wickliiffe. — " The first attempts made in England towards the reformation of the church took place in the reign of Edward III., ahout A. D. 1350, when John Wickliffe appeared. This eariy star of the English church was puhlic reader of divinity in the univer- sity of Oxford, and, hy the learned of his day, was Accounted deeply versed in theology, and all kinds of philosophy. This even his adversaries allowed, as Walden, his hitterest enemy, writing to pope Martin, says, that he was wonderfully astonished at his strong arguments, with the places of authority which he had gathered, with the vehemence and force of his reasons, <fec. At the time of his appearance, the greatest darkness pervaded the church. Scarcely anything hut the name of Christ remained ; his true doctrine heing as far un- known to the most part, as his name was common to all. As to faith, consolation, the end and use of the law, the office of Christ, our impotency and weakness, the greatness and strength of sin. of true works, grace, and free justification by faith, wherein Christianity consists, they were either unknown or disregarded. Scripture learning and divinity were known but to a few, and that in the schools only, where they were

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BOOK OF MARTYRS. 53

tamed and converted into sophistry. Instead of Peter and Pauly men occapied their time in studying Aquinas and Sootus ; andy forsaking the lively power of God's spiritual word and doctrine, were altogether led and blinded with out- ward ceremonies and human traditions, insomuch that scarcely any other thing was seen in the churches, taught or spoken of in sermons, or intended or sought after in their whole lives, but the heapbg up of ceremonies upon ceremonies ; and the people were taught to worship no other thing but that which they saw, and almost all they saw they worshipped. But Wickliffe was inspired with a purer sense of religion ; and, knowing it to be his duty to impart the gracious blessing to others, he published his belief with regard to the several articles of religion, in which he differed fiom the common doctrine. Pope Gregory XI., hearing this, condemned some of his tenets, and commanded the archbishop of Canter- bury and the bbhop of London to oblige him to subscribe the condemnation of them ; and in case of refusal, to summon him to Borne. This commission could not easily be executed, WickMe having powerful friends, the chief of whom was John of Gaunt, duke of Lancaster, son of Edward III. The archbishop holding a synod at St Paul's, Wickliffe i^peared, accompanied by the duke of Lancaster and lord Percy, mar- shal oi England, when a dispute arising whether Wickliffe should answer sitting or standing, the duke of Lancaster pro- ceeded to threats, and treated the bishop with very little ceremony. The people present, thinking the bishop in danger, sided with him, so that tiie duke and the earl marshal thought it prudait to retire, and to take Wickliffe with them. After this an insurrection ensued, the clergy and their emissaries spreading a report .that the duke of Lancaster had persuaded the king to take away the privileges of the city of London, Ac, which fired the people to such a degree, that they broke open the Marshalsea, and freed all the prisoners: and not contented wiUi this, a vast number of them went to the duke's palace in the Savoy, when missing his person, they plundered his house. Vw this outinge the duke of Lancaster caused

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54 REVIEW OF FOX*S

the lord mayor and aldermen to be removed from their offices, imagining that thej had not used their authority to qnell the mutineers. After this, the bishops meeting a second time, Wickliffe explained to them his sentiments with regard to the sacrament of the encharist, in opposition to the belief of the Papists ; for which the bishops only enjoined him silenoe, not daring at that time to proceed to greater extremities against him.'* (Page ii.> 24, 25.)

The martyrologist is not correct even at the commence- ment ; the attempt of Wickliffe and his followers were not to reform^ which means to change from worse to better, bat to deform^ that is, to disfigure, to dishonour the church, and convulse the state. In the first case, however, he was frus- trated, as we shall presently shew, by the watchful eye of her Divine Founder, and the vigilance of her lawful pastors ; in the latter he was unfortunately more successftil. The greatest darkness, we are told, pervaded the church at the time of Wickliffe's appearance, and the true doctrine of Christ, it is said, was unknown to the most part of the world. '* Scripture learning and divinity were known but to a few, and that in the schools only, where they were turned and converted into sophistry. Instead of Peter and Paul, men occupied their time in studying Aquinas and Scotus, and the people were taught to worship no other thing but that which they saw, and almost all they saw they worshipped.^' These are bold assertions, but a little reflection, and a slight glance at saored and profane history, will soon show how groundless they are. Christ has said, that his words should not fail ; that his church should be guided by the Spirit of Truth ; that the gates of hell should not prevail against her ; that she should continue one and the same to the end of the world ; and that she should never be obscured by the mist of darkness, hot should be like a city placed on die top of i mountain, a light and guide to all men. These are j^ain and unequivocal texts from Scripture, which every one may read and understand too, unless reason is perverted, and the brain is disordered with chimerical notions. Kow> then^ how could the church

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BOOK OF MARTTBS. 55

W pervaded with darkness, unless the promises of Christ be- came void ? And is there a man laying claim to the name of a Christian^ who has the hardihood openly to avow that Christ has £&iled in his promise ? Fox caUs the popes *' anti- christiaa blasphemers," but, is he not heie a blasphemer himself, in asserting that the church was at one time m dark- ness, in opposition to the promises made by God, that the church nev^ should be in darkness ?

But it was not wholly in darkness, it may be said ; a spariL of the gospel was still treasured up, to burst forth upon the w(H*ld, and chase away the abominations of Popery. This is a fine flight of imagination, and much used by the adversariea of the Catholic church, to lull the credulous into belief. How- ever, let us look to the history of the world, and see how thia light shone forth, and how tiie darkness, as it is called, en- veloped it. We have, in our first volume, displayed the pro- gress of Christianity in the eaiiy ages of the church, and shewn how the errors of dogmatazers were detected and con- demned, and that the greatest care was taken by the pastors of the Catholic church, either by g^ieral councils, or provin- cial synods, or written epistles, or word of mouth, to condemn ev^7 species of novelty, and caution the people to beware of the deceits of designing men, whose object was to involve them in confusion, and ensnare them in the meshes' of error. We have shewn liiat Fox himself admitted the right of the pope to assemble synods, and condemn heretics. He has dassed the holy pope Martin amongst his ** godly martyrs,'^ and praised him for condemning the errors of the Monothelites ; nor has he, in one single instance, shewn any authority by which the popes were derived of that right which he has allowed them, and which they have exercised from the first foundation of the church to the present day, and will continue to exercise it, in spite of the world and the devil, to the end of time. At the commencement of this volume, we have shewn how the Catholic faith was introduced into this island by missionaries sent fromEgme, and the same £sith was propagated by missionaries sent by the popes, in all

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the different countiies of the world, whieh did not receite ii personallj from the apostles. Wickliffe began Im career about the year 1371, so that England had been in possession of the Catholic faith nearly EfOHT hundbed tears, had acknowledged the sphitual sttpremacy of Borne during that time, and was gorerned in spiritual matters by a regular and unbroken hierarchy. A consecutite list of archbii^ops and bishops of all and every diocess in the kingdom can be pro^ duced from their first foundation to the time when ^ey were displaced by the ruthless hand of Elizabeth, and intruders thrust into the vacant sees, in which they were secured by act of parliament The kings of England, the emperors of both the eastern and western empires (with the exception of some of the former, who hdd scbismatical opinions, but agreed in point of faith, and were for their disobedience consigned by the vengeance of God to the infidel Mahometans) wHh the kings of France and the other monarehs of Europe, were all of one faith and one religion with the other. There were in cfvery age a number of the most eminent doctors and pro-* fessors of divinity, and for some hundred years the monks and friars of England had raised high the character of ^e country, in point of science, literature, and theology. If they studied Aquinas and Scotos, they also studied Peter and Paul, for Aquinas believed and taught the same doctrines as those blessed apostles received, «id preached by the command of their Divine Master. Dming this period, as in former ages^ several synods and councils were held in divers countries, for the suppression of error and sectananism, which ocasionally started up, such as the Bogomilians, Petrobusians^ Waldenses^ Albigenses, Flagellantes, Begardians, and others, some of which we have noticed in our first volume.

We are told that Wickliffe was inspired with a purer << sense of religion ; knowing it to be his duty to impart the gracious blessing to others, he published his belief with regard to the several articles of religion, in which ho differed frorai the common doctrine,** This is very true ; he did differ from the common doctrine, and it was for differing from the

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tratl^ ihat is from the common faith of the whole world, that ke was condemned as a faUe teacher. . But he was an in- ^Hrednaaal This assertioii may suit the fanatic who deals in private ittsfraration ; tiie sensible man, however, will require 80BM test to piove his inspiration. From whom did he receive his credentials? Who commissioned hun to preach a doctrine, differing from those taught h"^ the apostles, and believed in common bj all the worid ? The fact is, if Wickliffe were inspired, it was by ik» 4^irit of revenge, for a disappointment he experienced in losing the wardenship of Canterbury-hall, in Oxford, into whidi place he had oontiived to hedge him- self. Wickliffe made his appeal to the pope, who decided against him, which inspired him with fresh resentment, and was the principal cause of his opposition to the pope. He had previously been engaged in a dispute with the friars, and finding himself not likely to obtain the promotion he sought for, he determined to raO against benefices and temporalities generally, to have his revenge on the whole body of the clergy, his own creatures excepted. Such doctrines could not foil to meet with admirers among hungry ambitious courtiers, and as he declaimed also against tithes, the people, who were oppressed at that time, owing to the expensive wars of Edward III., were ready to catch at his doctrine. The novelty and danger of Wickliffs's tenets, and the conduct of his ^' poor priests,*' as the fonatics who enlisted under his banners were called,'' soon became matter of astonishment and complaint. He was summoned .by the archbishop of Canterbury and the bishop of London to appear before them. He did so, as Fox relates, accompanied by John of Gaunt, duke of Lancaster, and Percy, the lord marshal. An alter- cation ensued between these haughty and irreligious peers and the prelates, and the people present certainly sided with the latter, in consequence of the outrageous and insolent bduiviour of the peers, whose object was to intimidate their opponents. It is equally true that an insurrection ensued ; not, however, from the insbuations of the clbrgy and their enuasaries, as Fox folsely asserts, but through the infiuence

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of WicklifTe's doctrines, whioh heightened Uie discontmit of the peo^e» whose minds w&te ahready soured by taxation and disappointment. To add to the discontent, a new tax was levied of so much a head on eyery person, according to his rank and estate. As this tax accelerated the rebellion of Wat Tyler, of which so much has been written, and so little is cleariy known, and the scale of taxation is yery curious, we will here subjoin an abridgment of it, from Dr. Lingard's History <^ England.

1. The dukes of Lancaster and Bretagne were rated at. . 6 13 4

2. The justices of the king^s bench and common pleas,

and the chief baron of the exchequer 6 0 0

3. An earl, earPs widow, imd the mayor of London 4 0 0

4 . A baroUf banneret, knight equal in estate to a banneret,

their widows, the aldermen of London, mayors of great towns, Serjeants at law, and great apprentices ofthelaw 2 0 6

5. A knight, esquire who ought to be a knight, their

widows, apprentices who followed the law, jurats of

great towns, and great merchants I 0 0

6. Sufficient merchants . . 0 la 4

7. Esquires, their widows, the widows of sufficient mer-

chants, attomies at law 0 6 8

8. Othen of less estate in proportion • 6 3 4

or .•.. 0 2 0

or 0 1 0

9. Each married labourer for himself and wife 0 0 4

10. Single men and womeui not mendicants 0 0 4

Rot. Pari. m. 67, 58. The clergy, who possessed the right of taxing themselves, adopted a similar rate.

Archbishops paid 6 13 4

Bishops and other spiritual peers 4 0 0

All having benefices above the yearly value of 200^ 2 0 0

From 100/. to 200/ 1 10 0

From66/. 13*. 4<f.to 100/ 10 0

From 20/. to 40/ 0 10 0

From 10/. to 20/. 0 6 0

All other clergymen 0 2 0

Monks and nuns paid per head^ according to the value of

the houses to which they belonged, 40d, or 20d. or

12c/. or 4</. Wilk. Con. iU. 141^ 142.

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BOOK OF UABTYHS. 59

From ihia scale it will be seen that the clergy in those dajs ecmtribated their fcur quota to the exigencies of the statOi even of the lowest degree, besides maintaining the poor ; but in these days, the days of the blessed Reformation and bible- reading, the people are taxed to maintain the poor clergy as wdl as the poor laity. Such is the difference between a married and unmarried clergy. We should add, that the above capitation tax falling short of the estimated sum, a further grant was voted by parliament, and the clergy, in a convocalidn, granted a tax of 6d. 8d. from all prelates, priests, (both regular and secular) and nuns, and of one shilling from deacons and inferior dei^s. (Cone, iii. 150.) But to return to Wickliffe and his doctrines. At this period there was a great f<»rment among the mass of the people of all nations, and those of England were encouraged to resist the authori- ties by the diffusion of the doctrines of Wickliffe, amon^ which he maintained that the right of property was founded in grace, and that no man, who was by sin a traitor to his God, could be entitled to the services of others. Thus a man had only to conceive himself to be in a state of grace, and his ndghbour to get drunk, when the latter forfeits his right to property, and the former becomes entitled to it. Such notions as these could not be long entertained without disjointing the scale of society, and we find their propagation by itinerant preadi^rs, who took care likewise to inculcate the natural equality of mankind, and the tyranny of artificial distinctions soon wound the people up to a pitch of madness, and caused them to commit the greatest violences.

To enter into every particular here would occupy too much space^ but to shew the effect of these doctrines we will give the words <rf Stowe, an authority of great reputS and much referred to by historians: — ** The fame of these doings (that is the murder of the collector, by Wat Tyler, and the sub- sequent vhang of the Kentish-men) spread into Sussex, Hert- ford, Essex, Camlnidgeshire, Norfolk, Suffolk, &c., and when such assembhng of the common people daily increased, and that their number was now made almost infinite, so that they

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60 BEVIEW OF FOX^S

*

feared no man to resist them, thej began to shew smne such acts as they had considered in their minds, and took in htaxd to behead all men in law, as well apprentices as nttet bar- risters and old justices, with all the jurors of the country, whom they might get into their hands ; they spared none whom they thought to be learned; espe^cially if diey found any to have pen and ink, they puUed off his hood, and all with one Toice crying out, * Hale him out, and cut off his head !' They also determined to bum all court rolls mid old monuments, that the memory of antiquities being taken away, their lords should not be able to chsJlenge any right on them from that time forth. These commoni had to their chaplain or preacher a wicked priest^ called Shr John Ball, who counselled them to destroy all ths nobility and clergy, so that there should be no bishop in England but one archbishop, which should be himself/' This Sir John Ball^ the same historian informs us, had employed himself for some years in preadiing at '* divers places those things which he knew to be lilong to the common people, slandering as well ecclesiastical pers<ma as secular lords, seeking thereby rather the benevolence of the common people, than merit towards God ; he taught that tithes were not to be given to churchmen, except the party who should give the same should be richer than the vicar or the parson that should receive it. Also, that tithes and oblations were to be withdrawn from curates, if the parishioners or parishioner were of better life than the curate. Also^ that no man was meet for the kingdom of God, that was not bom in matrimony." These and many other things Stowe says he taught, for which he was prohibited by the bishops in whose diocesses he had attempted to spread them; and as they pre^ vented him from preaching in churches, he went forth into the streets, and highways, and fields, where there wanted not common people to hear him^ whom he ever sought to allure to his sermons, by detracting of the prelates. For these sedi- tious practices he was committed to prison, from which he was released by the mob, and, after being thus delivered, he followed them, for the purpose of instigating them to do evil.

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BOOK OF MARTYRS. 6t

"That his doctrines/' writes Stowe, "might infect the more numhers of people, at Blackheath, where ihej were many thousands of the commons assemhled, he hegan his sermon in this manner :—

** When Adam delved and Bve span, ** Who was then a gentleman ?

^' And^ continuing his hegun sermon, he sought hy the word of that proverb, which he took for his theme, to in- troduce and prove, that from the beginning all were made alike by nature, and that bondage or servitude was brought in by unjust oppression of naughty men against .the will of God ; for if it had pleased God to have made bondmen, he would have appointed thom from the beginning of the world, who should have been slave and who lord. They ought to consider, therefore, that now there was a time given them by God, in the which, laying aside the yoke of continual bondage^ they might, if they would, enjoy their long wished-for liberty. WhM^fore he admonished them, that they should be wise, and afiter the manner of a good husbandman that tilled bis ground, and did cut away all noisome weeds that were accus- tomed to grow and oppress the fruit, that they should make haste to do now at this present the like. First, the arch- bishop and great men of the kingdom were to be slain ; after, lawyers, justiciars, and questmongers ; lastly, whom- soever they knew likely hereafter to be hurtful to the com- mons, they should dispatch out of the land, for so might they purchase safety to themselves hereafter, if the great men being once taken away, there were among them equal liberty, all one nobility, and like dignity, one semblable authority or power. These" adds the writer, "and many such road devices he preached, which made the common people to esteem of him in such manner, as they cried out, he should be the ai*chbbhop of Canterbury and chancellor of the realm^ for he only deserved the honour."

At Canterbury several citizens were slain by the insur- gents, and in every place they demolished the houses and pillaged the manors of the lords, burnt the court rolls^

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62 REVIEW OF FOX'S

and cut off the heads of every justice, lawyer, and juror, who fell into their hands. In Southwark they demolished thQ houses belonging to the Manhalsea and the King*8 Bench, forced their way into the palace of the archbishop of Canter- bury at Lambeth, and burnt the furniture, with the records belonging to the chancery. In the city they demolished New- gate, and set the prisoners free, plundered and destroyed the magnificent palace of the Savoy, and burnt the Temple with the books and records. The next objects of their vengeance were the natives of Flanders, sixty of whom ihey seized in various parts of« the city, and struck off their heads with shouts of savage triumph. They next rushed into the Tower, and laying hands on the archbishop of Canterbury, who was also lord chancellor. Sir Eobert Hales, William Apuldore, the king's confessor, Legge, the farmer of the obnoxious tax, and three of his associates, they were instantly led to exe- cution. Walsingham relates the death of the archbishop with much minuteness. His head was carried through the streets on the point of a spear in triumph and fixed on London Bridge ; and that it nnght be better known, the hat or bon- net worn by him was nailed to the skulL

The reader will now be able to judge of the credit due to Fox, who has endeavoured to screen the pernicious and revo- lutionary tendency of Wickliffe's preachings, by insinuating that the clergy were the instigators of the insurrection, when it is clear, from the testimony of the most authentic writers, that they were the victims and not the factors of the seditious and lawless spirit of those times. As to the duke of Lan- cast^ displacing the lord mayor and aldermen for this remiss- ness, it is one of Fox*s numerous fabrications, for Bapin tells us, that the duke was in the north during the rising, and being himself suspected, he retired into Scotland till the storm was appeased, by which time the lord major went out of office by regular order. We are then told that, '^ q/1^ this, the bishops had a meeting a second time, when Wickliffe explained to them his sentiments with regard to the sacra- ment of the eucharist, in opposition to the belief of thd^

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BOOK OF MABTTSS. 63

Papists; *' that is, of the whole kingdom, and of all Christen- dom, as there was then no division or contradiction in helief <« the real presence either in the Greek or Latin church. For heing so kind as to explain, the bishops, he sajs, *^ only enjoined him to silence, not daring at that time, to proceed to greater extremities." We know not whether we ought to smile or feel indignant at the subterfuges practised by the anti-Popery writers, who will never give to the Catholic churdi her just due. The bishops, in enjoining silence to WicklifPe, only acted according to the mild precepts, c^thek* diurch, and proved by their conduct, that persecution was not an ingredient of their creed. By this false and base writer it is imputed to fear. But what cause had the bishops to fear? They had the king and people on their side, by Fox's own shewing. Nay, according to his account, they (the people) had even gone so far as to commit outrages at the instigation of the clergy ; and now in the same breath we are assured, that they dare not punish WickJifie for fqar of the people, or something else. What contradiction have we here, and to diffuse, as it is pretended, *' a knowledge and love of the genuine principles ai Christianity '' among their fellow-believers. The truth is, the bishc^s were the appointed guardians of " the faith once delivered to the saints ; ** they were bound to preserve the truths which they received from thdr predecessors, who received them from St. Augustin, who had them from the Ecunan bishc^, and this bishop from his predecessors in the see, up to the apostles. They did not act on their own jpriva^ opinion, as Wickliffe did, and as all other heresiarohs do, who depart from the truth^ and promul- gate error : but they follow the example set them by the apostles in the council of Jerusalem, and by the fathers of the preceding ages of the church in the various councils held to examine into the pretensions of impostors, and explain the real truths of the Catholic faith. The bishops assembled at synod to listen to WicUiffe, to deliberate and to decide. They had to pronounce judgment before the whole kingdom, and if that judg^ient had been erroneous, is it to be believed

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64 BBVIEW OF fox's

that some one of talent, learning and respectability, would not have taken np the cause of Wickliffe, and denounced tbe conspiracy of the bishops to lead the peoj^ into error, and im- pugn the truths of the gospel ? And yet it is a &ct, that not one individual of rank in the school of letters came forward to assist this heresiarch. He conld find no followers but those of the most ignorant and depraved oast, and the two peers named patronised him merely to gratify their ambitious intentimis and glut a revenge they had long entertained. This we shall see as we proceed in our review of the martyrology.

The next event noticed by Fox is the ** great schism in the church of Rome/' which we shall treat of hereaflter, as it interferes with the subject under discussion. He then pro- ceeds to give an account of Wickliffe, under the head,

•* WiCKLIFFE TRANSLATES THB BiBLB," which WO shall

transcribe fw the amusement of the reader. ^' Wickliffe," he says, '* paying less regard to the injunctions of the bishops than to his duty to God, continued to promulgiU;e his doc- trines, and gradually to unveil the truth to the eyes of men. He wrote several books, which, as may be supposed, gave great alarm and offence to the clergy. But God raising him up a protector in the duke of Lancaster, he was secure from their malice. He translated the bible into English, which, amidst the ignorance of the times, may be compared to the sun breaking forth in a dark night. To this bible he prefixed a bold preface, wherein he reflected on the immoralities of the clergy, and condemned the worship of saints, images, and the cor- poral presence of Christ in the sacrament : but what gave the greatest offence to the priests was, his exhortin^rall people to read the smptures, in which the testimonies against all those corruptions appeared so strongly. About the same time tiie common people,*goaded to desperation by the oppressions of the nobility and clergy, rose in arms, and committed great devastations ; and, among other persons of distinction, they put to death Simon of Sudbury, archbishop of Canterbury. He was succeeded by William Courtney, who was no l^s diligent than his predecessor had been, in attempting to root

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doOK OF MARTYRS. 60

out heretu^. Notwithstanding aU opposition, howeirer, Wick- liffe's sect increased^ and daily grew to greater force, until the time that William Barton, Tice«-chanoellor of Oxford, who had the whole rule of that university, assisted hy some monastic doctors, issued an edict, prohihiting all persons under a heavy penalty from associating themselves with any of Wickliffe's favourers j and threatening Wickliffe himself with excommunication and imprisonment, unless he, after three days canonical admonition or warning, did repent and amend. Upon this, Widdiffe wished to appeal to the king ; hut the duke of Lancaster forhade him ; whereupon he was forced again to make confession of his doctrine, in which con- fession, hy qualifying his assertions, he mitigated the rigour of hb enemies. Still his followers greatly multiplied. Many of them, indeed, were not men of learning; hut heing wrought upon by the conviction of plain reason; they were the more steadfast in their persuasion. In a short time his doctrines made great progress, being not only espoused by vast numbers of the students of Oxford, but also by many of the nobility, particulariy by the duke of Lancaster and lord Percy, earl marshal, as before mentioned. Wickliffe may thus be considered as the great founder of the reformation in this kingdom. Jf e was of Morton College in Oxford, where he took his doctor's degree, and became so eminent for his fine genius and great learning, that Simon Islip, archbishop of Canterbury, having founded Canterbury College, now Christ Church, in Oxford, appointed him rector ; which employment he filled with universal approbation, till the death of ^e ardibishbp. Langholm, successor to Islip, being de- sirous of favouring the monks, and introducing them into the college, attempted to remove Wlcklifie, and put Woodhall, a monk, in his place. But the fellows of the college, being attadied to Wickliffe, would not consent to this. Neverthe- less, the affair being carried to Home, Wickliffe was deprived in &vour of Woodhall. This did not at all lessen the repu- tation of the former, every one perceiving it was a genera} $Star, and that the monks did not so much strike at Wiokliffd's

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96 REVIEW OF Fox'a

person, as at all tl^ secular priests who were members of the college. Andy indeed, they were all turned out, to make room for the monks. Shortly after, Wickliffe was presented to the liring of Lutterworth, in the county of Leicester, where he remained unmolested till his cteath, which happened December 31, 1385. But, after the body of this good man had lain in the grave forty-one yeai^, his bones were taken up by the decree of the synod of Constance, publicly burnt, and his ashes thrown into a river. The condemnation of hb doctrine did not prevent its spreading all over the kingdom, and with such success, that, according to Spelman, * two men could not be found together, and one not a Lollard, or Wickliffite.' "

This plausible story has had its day, and too long a day for the cause of truth, and the happiness of the country. It is one of those fashionable themes which have caused hundreds in the present age to part with their money and their wits, to encourage a knot of pretenders not a jot better than Wick- liffe himself. He is commended for translating the biUe into English ; but his greatest offence, we are told, was ^' his exhorting all people to read the scriptures, in which the tes- tinK>uies against all those corruptions appeared so strongly .'' What those testimonies and what those cj^rruptions were are not pointed out to the reader, so that he is as completely left in the dark concerning them, as the adversaries of Catholicism charge the Catholic priesthood with keeping the people in ignorance respecting the scriptures. At that time the copies of the sacred writings were few, and confined cluefly to the libraries of the monasteries and universities. The great mass of the people, including many of the nobility and gentry, could not read, from the want of facility in teaching and the paucity of books, the art of printing not being then discovered^ so that the exhortation of the heresiarch to all the people to read the scripture is a mere fiction, invented to conceal the deception of intriguers and knaves. It is true that Wickliffe translated the scriptures, and that he multiplied the copies as much as he could with the aid of transcribers; and by the aid

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BOOK OF MARTYRS. 67

of his dlsdples, who were the off-scum of the clergy, aod called *' poor priests," he disseminated those texts among the illiterate which fayoured his doctrines, bj word of mouth, and he inculcated the now favourite and delusire notion of private interpretation, by which he undermined the authority of the church, and set the people and their pastors at variance. Of the novelties preached by Wickliffe, two of them are said to be the condemnation of the worship of saints and the corporal presence of Christ in the sacrament. We could have wished for more explidtness. Why did not Fox give us the precise grounds on which Wickliffe rested his condemnation ? We have shewn in our first volume, by quotations from the fathers, that the invocation of saints was practised and taught in all times by the apostles and doctors of the church ; that the op« posite doctrine had been cond^nned as false and erroneous ; therefore, that which was fake before the time of Wickliffe could not be rendered truth by him, let him be ever so deeply inspired. That Wickliffe was not a Protestant is beyond contradiction, since he inculcated the doctrine of purgatory, and strenuonidy maintained the efficacy of the mass, both of which Protestants deny upon oath. He also admitted the seven sacraments of the Catholic chureh, while the Protestants of the chureh as by law established hold only two, and many deny them altogether. Consequently, if Wickliffe was righty Pro- testants must be wrong ; and if the latter are rights why then the former must be wrong, and what becomes then of his being inspired ? It could not be by the Spirit of Truth, but must have been by the Father of Lies.

Fox admits that the common people rose in arms, and put several persons of distinction to dea(h : among others Simon Islip, the archbishop of Canterbury, who gave Wickliffe the wardenship of Canterbury college. But then he endeavours to throw the blame upon the clergy as well as the nobility. We have shewn that the dergy were not the oppressors and plunderers of the people, hut that they contributed to relieve them of a considerable share of taxation, by heavy impositions on every rank of the ecclesiastical order. And if W^ilUam of

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Courtney was dUigent in rooting out heretics^ he only followed the example of pope Martin^ who, aa we have before obsenredy aad which should not be forgotton> is extolled by Fox for his vigOaace in preserving truth and oondemntng heresy, and is placed among his '* godly martyrs." The term " to root out heretioiy^* is here improperly used ; because, at this period, there was no kw to inflict corporeal punishment on those who had became infected with heresy. It was the error^ the heresy^ not the individual contaminated with it, that the elergj were diligent to root out, as it became thdlr duty so to 4o. The story of Barton, the vice-diancellor oi Oxford, issuing an edict of prohibition to aU persons not to associate with WickMe or his followers is another fiction, for Barton had not the authority to issue so general an edict. His juris- diction extended only to the university of Oxford, of which Wi(^liffe was not then a member.

But what shall we say to the admission of Fox, that Wide- ns *' y^9A forced again to make eonfemon of Ins doctrine ; in whidi confession, by qualifying his assertions, he miti- gated the rigour of his enemies*'* Here is a pretty i^ostle ^ to uaveil the truth to the eyes of men i " He is compelled to make a confession of his faith, snd in making this confess sion he qualifies his expresnons, he softens, that is, he {days the deceiver, to molify his judges, and save himself. What an admission ! Who eould rely on such a juggling scoundrel ? And yet this is a man who is held ferth as the precursor of that *^ blessed '' work of robbery, and pillage, and corruption, botb in &ith and morals^ called the ReformaiUm, To be sure he was a fit person to precede so irreligious a work, and, as we have shewn, his doctrines were productive of similar disorders, only the wisdom and firmness of the king and his eounciltors, in those days of darkness, nipped the evil in tlie bud. How different is thu oonduet of Wicklifie to the ex- ample set by the primitive martyrs ? How different to the itlustiious and innumerable confessors of the Catholic fiuth in all ages. They did not want to be eompeUsd to make a oon- fesinon of their feith ; they gloried in it, and4^>enly professed

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BOOK OF MABTYBS. 69

it in the face of their judges and executioners. They neyer practised the art of dissimulation, as, we are assured hy Fox, John WickliffB did ; hut they declared, in plain and unequi- vocal language, the tenets of their creed, and hraved the malice and rigour of their enemies. Wickliffe, however, was not made of such materials ; he did not aspire to he a martyr, and therefore when he appeared hefore his lawful judges, to render an account of his doctrines, he read a confession of faith with some reluctance, in their presence, which heing considered satisfactory, he was allowed to remain in peace, at his rectory i^t Lutterworth, where he died two years after- wards, whilst assisting at the mass of his curate. That Fox gave a true character of Wickliffe, when he represented him as a qualifier of doctrine, is confirmed hy Dr. Lingard, who thus describes his manner of managing disputation. '' On many points of doctrine," writes the doctor, "it is not easy to ascertain die real sentiments of this reformer. In common with other religious innovators, he claimed the two-fold pri- vilege i3^ changing his opinion at toill, and of being infallible in every change; and, when he found it expedient to dissemble, could so qualify his doctrines with conditions, or explain them away by distinctions^ as to give an appearance of innocence to tenets of the most mischievous tendency.** Here, then, the historian and Fox are agreed, and it cannot now be doubted or disputed that John Wickliffe, the precursor of the Eefor- mation, an inspired reformer of religion, appointed by Qod, according to Fox, " gradually to unveil die truth to the eyes of men," was a pbbvaricatob and dissembleb ! I ! He most have be^a an admirable teacher of truth.

Fox next gives us the " Tenets of Wickliffe ; " that is, diose whidi were condemned as heredcal. They are as follow :

1. '* The substance of material bread and wine doth remain in die sacrament of die altar after the consecration.

2. *' The accidents do not remain without die subject in the same sacrament, after the consecration.

3. ** That Christ is not in the sacrament of the altar truly and really, in his proper and corporal person.

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4. ** That if a bishop or a priest be in deadly sin, he doth not order, consecrate, nor baptize.

5. " That if a man be duly and truly C(mtrite and penitent, all exterior and outer confession is but superfluous and unpro- fitable unto him,

6. *' That it is not found or established by the gospel, that Christ did make or ordain mass.

7. " That if the pope be a reprobate and evil man, and consequently a member of the devil, he hath no power, by any manner of means given unto him over faithful Christians.

8. " That since the time of Urban the sixth, there is none to be received for pope, but every man is to live after the manner of the Greeks, under his own law.

9. " That it is against the scriptures, that ecclesiastical ministers should have any temporal possessions.

10. ''That no prelate ought to excommunicate any man^ except he knew him first to be excommunicate of God.

11. ** That he who doth excommunicate any man, is there- by himself either an heretic or excommunicated.

12. " That all such which do leave off preaching or hear- ing the word of God, or preaching of the gospel for fear of excommunication, they are already excommunicated, and in the day of judgment shall be counted as tr^tors unto Gt>d.

13. '' That it is lawful for any man, either deacon or priest; to preach the word of God, without authority or license of the apostolical see or any other of his Catholics.

1 4. '* That so long as a man is in deadly sin, he is neither bishop nor prelate in the church of God."

Speaking of the 4th article, Father Parsons, in his reply^ observes ; "Will Fox yield to this article, think you? For, if he do, we may call in doubt whether ever he were well baptised, and consequently whether he were a Christian; seeing it may be doubted whether the priest that baptized him were in mortal sin or no when he did it." Of the ninth; the same learned writer remarks : " This article, if Fox will grant, yet his fellow ministers^ and his lords the bishops^ I

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BOOK OF MARTYRS, 71

|H«same, will hardlj yield theireiiiitOY but will pretend scriptures to the contrary agaimt Wicfclifie.** With regard to the first three articles, we refer the reader to the primitive fathers we have quoted in the first volume, who contended for the oppo- site doctrine, and vouched for the real presence as of divine institution, derived from Christ to the apostles. As to the sixth, which rejects the mass, WickMe attended at this sacrifice to the day and hour of his death, as we have before stated. But, what will the modem editors of Fox say to the following tenets, which they have prudently suppressed in these awkward times about tithes.

16. " That temporal lords may, according to their own wills and discretion, take away the temporal goods from any church- men, whensoever they offend.

17. '* That tithes are mere alms, and may be detained by the parishioners, and bestowed where they will at their pleasure.'*

These are some of the truths which Wickliffe thought pro- per ** gradually to unveil to the eyes of men," and we will here ask the reader, if another Wickliffe were to rise up now iukL preach the same doctrines, whether the clergy of the church, as by law established, would not one and all contend for his being punished and silenced? There cannot be a doubt but they would, and the impostor made severely to feel the weight of the law. He might try to persuade the clergy uid the people that he was an inspired man ; that they were all in the dark, and he alone was commissioned to shed light up<m them ; but not one of the clergy would he get to believe him, unless it was some poor half-starved curate, who could lose nothing by the experiment. So it wa« with Wickliffe ; he found greedy ignorant clerks to imbibe his notions in lu)pee of b^iefitting from the credulity of the pe<^le, and the duke of Lancaster was not averse to the improving his estate by the possessions of the church, which, however, he was not al- lowed to do ; such robbery being reserved for the beastly H^ory and his rapacious courtiers. The effect of Wickliffe^s doctrines, nevertheless, were too apparent in the diaturbanceis

U-^

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they created, and the treasons thej gave rise io, nor were the evil eonse()uences ever entbdj removed.

To ^ve another specimen of the daring attempts of the disciples of Wickliffe, who. Fox says, felt himself called upon *' gradually to unveil the truth to the eyes of men/' Dr. Lingard relates, that while Richard IL was establbhing his power in Ireland, he was suddenly recalled to his English dominions. The disciples of Wickliffe, under the denomina- tion of Lollards, had seized the opportunity of his absence to commence a fierce attack upon the revenues and the disci- pline of the church. Not content with affixing libels against the clergy in the most public places in the capital, they had prepared an inflanimatory petition, which was to be presented to the House of Commons. This instrument is a strange compound of fanaticism and folly. It complains, that ever since the church had been endowed with worldly possessions, faith, hope, and charity have been banished from England : that the English priesdiood is a false priesthood, because sin- ners can neither impart nor receive the Holy Spirit ; that the clergy profess a life of celibacy, but pamper themselves too much to observe it ; that by accepting places under the government they become hermi^hrodites, obliging themselves to serve both GK>d and mammon : that they teach transubstantiation, which leads to idolatry; enjoin confession, which makes them supercilious; authorize war and criminal executions, which are contrary to the law of Christ, a law of mercy and love ; and permit men to exercise the trades of the goldsmith and swcmi-cutler, which are unnecessary and pernicious under the dispensation of the gospel. The prelates, alarmed at the 'x)ldness of these fanatics, solicited the protection of the king; ho at their prayer returned to London, and reprimanded >ae patrons of the Lollards vnth so much severity, that they did not venture to move the subject in parliament." By this extract the reeAer must be now convinced, that there was nei^er truth not justice on the part of these disturbers of the public peace, but only faction and a lawless desire of abolish- ing the ooi»tituted authorities of the reahn.

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BURNING OF THE WICKtIFFITES.

As this subject is one of the utmost importance, and but little understood by the great mass of the people of England, we have distinguished it by a head line, and intend to eluci- date it with as mudi perspicuity as we are master of. But, first we will see what Fox has got to say. He writes :— 'Mn the council of the Lateran, a decree was made with re- gard to heretics, which required all magistrates to extirpate Uiem upon pain of forfeiture and deposition. The canons of this council being received in England, the prosecution of heretics became a part of the common law ; and a writ (staled de heretieo comburench) was issued under king Henry IV. for burning them upon their conyiction ; and it was enacted, tiiat all who presumed to preach without the licence of the bishops, should be imprisoned, and be brought to trial within three months. If, upon conviction, they offer to abjure, and were not reli^ses, they were to be imprisoned and fined at pleasure ; but if they refused to abjure, or were relapses, tliey were to be delivered up to the secular arm ; and t^e magis- trates were to bum l^em in some puUic place. About this time William Sautre, parish priest of St. Osith, in London, being condemned as a relapse, and degraded by Arundel, archbishop of Canterbury, a writ was issued, wherein burning is called the common punishment,^ and referring to the cus- toms of other nations. This was the first example of that sort in England. The clergy, alarmed lest the doctrines of Wickliffe should ultimately become established, used every exertion in their power to check them. In the reigu of Bichard II. the bishops had obtained a general license to imprison heretics, without being obliged to procure a special order from court, which, however, the house of commons caused to be revoked. But as the fear of imprisonment could not check the pretended evil dreaded by the bishops, Henry IV., whose particular object was to secure the affec- tion of the clergy, earnestly recommended to the parliament the concerns of the church. How reluctant soever the house

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of commons might be to prosecute the Lollards, the credit of the coui;, and the cabals of the clergy, at last obtained a most detestable act, {(x the burning of obstinate heretics ; which bloody statute was not repealed till the year 1677. It was immediatdy after the passing of this statute that the ecclesiastical court condemned William Sautre aboTe m^i- tioned,"

We always have contended, and still contend, that perse- cution is not a part and parcel oi the system of Catholicism. The precepts and maxims of the Catholic church are founded on the purest principles of charity ; nay, it is charity itself, which is an emanation from the Deity, and by the Deity wa» the Catholic church founded. We have here the acknow- ledgment of Fox that the execniioa of the priest, Sautre, ^' was the first example oi the sort in England." Now the Catholic church had been established in this island, reckoning from the landing of St. Austin, in 596, to the execution of Sautre, in 1399, eight hundred and three years, without one single instance of corporal coercion for matters of opinion, though difference of opinion had occasionally arisen, and in the case of Wickliffe ,we find to some height That this man was treated with the utmost lenity is confessed by Fox, and we find him remaining unmolested in his rectory till the day of his death. From what cause then could spring this writ» stiled de heretico comhurendo, of which so much has been said to bring odium on the Catholic religion, and so little understood by the Protestants of England ? Fox alhides to the council of Lateran, a decree of which, he says, required all magistrates to extirpate heretics upon pain of forfeiture and deposition. This decree, admitting that there was such a one passed, was not of faith, and therefore binding on none . without the consent of the temporal power; and at this council, which may be consistently called the parliament of Christendom, there were preseiit, either in person or by their ambassadors, all the sovereigns of Europe, to give their con- sent to such decrees of discipline as might be deemed con- : ducive to the morals of society and the tranquillity of their

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States. The real version of the decree, according to Dr. LiDgard, was this, that persons convicted of heresy " should be lefi to the secidar power, to be dealt with according to the due form of law." Now what could be more correct than this ? Every state haa an undoubted right to provide for its own internal as well as external security, and should an indi- vidual imbibe a notion that he is commissioned by God to preach novelties tending to disturb the peace> and raise tumults and rebellions, why, in the name of common sense, are not laws to be passed to prevent such lawless doings, no matter whether committed under the garb of a religiotts or political reformer? Who will have the hardihood to answer us in the negative ? The same was the conduct of the Wick- liffites ; they sought, under the cloak of religion, to revolu- tionize all ranks and property; and when they had thus declared their intentions, and made them manifest by their actions, then^ and not till then, and with a view of self- preservation, not of personal cruelty and ambition, did the authorities take upon them to protect themselves and the people, by this statute de heretico comhwrendo. So long as the heresy of Wiekliffe was confined to mere matter of opinion, the spiritual weapons only of the church were ex^:ted to counteract the poison, and convince the ignorant of their error ; but when the infected proceeded to lawless outrages and murders, surely it was time to use the arm of the civil sword to restrain them within due bounds. Nor can the measures thought necessary at that time to be adopted be justly termed persecution, seeing that they were enforced on none but the most obdurate miscreants of the day.

When such a disposition reigned among the ignorant and illiterate people, it is no wonder that the clergy should be- come alarmed, and use every means in their power to check the progress of the pernicious doctrines ; nor were the laity less anxious to subdue the spirit of depredation that influ- enced the Lollards. Fox would fain have us believe that the house of commons reluctantly passed the act ; Dr. Lingard, however^ tells us a different sort of story. This able and . B 2

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accurate wtlter states, that the commons were more zealaus at that time in opposing the Lollards, than the nohilitj and the clergy. On this interesting point we shall give the kamed historian's own words. ^' Encouraged by the royal invitation, and the disposition of the commons, the clergy- presented a petition to the king in parliament ; and an act was passed for the protection of the church, and the suppres- sion of the new sect. The preamble sets forth, that divers unauthorized preachers go about teaching new doctrines and heretical opinions, making conventicles and confederacies, holding schools, writing books, misinforming the people, and daily committing enormities too horrible to be heard : and that the bishops are unable to repress these offences, because the offenders despise ecclesiastical censures, and when they are cited before their ordinaries, depart into another diocese : the statute therefore provides, as a remedy for these evils, that the bi^op shall have power to arrest and confine per- sons defamed or vehemently suspected of such offences, till they make their canonical purgation ; and, if they be con- victed, to punisli them with imprisonment, and a fine to the king. It then enacts that if any person so convicted shall refuse to abjure such preachings, doctrines, opinions, schools, and informations, or after abjuration shall be proved to have relapsed, then the sheriff of the county, or the maycHr and bailiffs of the nearest borough shall, on requisition, be present at the pronunciation of the sentence, shall receive the person so condemned into custody, and shall cause him to be burnt cm a high place before the people, that such punishment may strike terror into the minds of others."—/?©/. Pari, iii. 466. Wilk. Cone. iii. 252.

" During this very parliament (whether before or after the passing of the act is uncertain) a petition was presented to the lords and commons by William Sautre, begging that he might be permitted to dispute before them on the subject of religion. Such a request excited considerable surprise: but the enthusiast aspired to the crown of martyrdom, and had the satisfaction to fall a victim to his own folly. He had

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been rector of Ljnn, in Norfolk, but about two years before had been convicted of heresy and deprived of his living. On his recantation he had been lately admitted a chaplain in St« Osith's, in London. The character of Sautre, and the nature of his request, induced the convocation to summon him be- fore them : and six days were allowed him to prepare his answer. The articles objected to him were those of which he had been accused before the bishop of Norwich. With un- paraUeled effrontery he denied his former conviction and re- cantation ; explained the other articles in an orthodox sense ; but refused to give any satisfaction on the subject of the eucharist. The trial was adjourned from day to day ; and the archbishop, notwithstanding the contempt and insolence of his answers, made a last effort to save him, by asking if he were content to stand on that question by the determination of the church. He answered that he was, provided the de- termination were agreeable to the will of God : an evasion which of course was rejected. The record of his former conviction and recantation were now produced from the registry of the bishop of Norwich ; and on the eleventh day from his arraignment he was pronounced by the primate a relapsed heretic, was degraded from his orders, and delivered into the custody of the constable and mareschal of England. — (Con, iii. 255-260). About a week afterwards, Henry consulted the temporal lords sitting in parliament, and by their advice issued a precept to the mayor and sheriffs to execute the sentence of the law upon Sautre. The unhappy man, instead of being shut up in an asylum for lunatics, was burnt to death as a malefactor, in the presence of an immense multitude: and the commons, by their speaker, returned thanks to the king that, whereas ^ by bad doctrine the faith of holy church was on the point of being overturned, to the destruction of the king and kingdom, he had made and or- dained a just remedy to the destruction of such doctrine and the pui'suers thereof.'

" This severity did not, however, subdue the boldness of ihe preachers. They declaimed with redoubled animosity

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against the temporalities of the clergy, till the lay proprie- tors became alarmed for the security of their own possessions. In 1407 the subject attracted the notice of the house of lords ; a petition was sent by them to the commons fw their concurrence, and it was afterwards presented by the speaker to the king. It stated that- the preachers excited the people to take away the possessions of the church, of which the clergy were as assuredly endowed as the temporal lords were of their inheritances ; and that unless these e?il purposes were speedily resisted^ it was probable that in process of time they would also move the people to take away the possessions and inheritances of the temporal lords, and make them com- mon to the open commotion of the people and the utter sub- version of the realm. In consequence it was enacted that such persons, together with those who maintained that king Kichard was still alive, and others who published false pro- phecies to delude the people, should be arrested and brought before the next parliament to receive such judgment as the king and peers, in their judicial authority, should pronounce." From this authentic relation it is evident that persecution is no part or parcel of the Catholic church. No act of vio- lence was offered, nor could be offered by the clergy as clergymen ; they petitioned the king in parliament, as mem- bers of the state, not as ministers of the ehUrch, in conse- quence of their temporalities being endangered by lawless and erroneous pretensions. The power was granted to them by the civil supreme authorities of the land, and it will not, we apprehend, be disputed, that the representatives of the people, that is, the real representatives of the people, for such was then the case, had the right to grant and delegate the power of preserving the peace of the kingdom to whomsoever they pleased. How far it was consistent with sound policy and a due regard of religion is mere matter of opinion ; the then parliament thought it wise, and in this they were probably light, for as some part of the crime was an error in judg- ment, and as the clergy were then the most learned class of men in the country, and the most able to decide on the case^

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none could be so proper to act as they in matters requiring discriminate nicety. That they acted with every degree of forbearance^ charity and mildness, is conspicuous in their conduct towards the unfortunate Sautre. This unhappy ecclesiastic was a bold, impudent enliiusiast ; a recanter, a preyaricator, and frontless liar. When rector of Lynn, he was convicted of heresy, and retracted. The infection of heresy necessarily deprived him of his living ; for it would have been inconsistency itself to have continued a man as the instnictor of others, who was himself under the influence of error. On renouncing that error, we find him appointed to another situation, which does not display a vindictive or persecuting spirit on the part of the clergy ; nor do their conduct in putting off his condemnation from time to time evince a sanguinary feeling towards him. Finding him ob- stinate, they had nothing left to do but to pronounce what he evidently was, a relapsed heretic, that is, a man wilfuUy attached to erroneous opinions — opinions which he must know, and which he had acknowledged, to be heretical. Having done this, they delivered him over to the officers of the civil power, to do with him as the laws of the state, not of the church, authorized them. We agree with Dr. Lingard that it would perhaps have been better had Santre been confined in a madhouse, instead of being burnt ; but the king and the commons thought otherwise ; they thought it best that the wretched man should be made a sacrifice to deter others from the like offence, and he suffered accord- ingly. Why such an outcry should be raised by the admirers of Fox's lies against this single statute by Henry IV., while 80 many bloody laws were passed against Catholics by Elizabedi and her successors, for no other cause than their adherence to truth and rejection of error, is somewhat incom- prehensible. It must arise from the most stupid ignorance, or the basest impudence, and when they have made their choice, there is plenty of cause to make them blush. During the whole space when Catholicism was in power, from the time of passing the act to. the assumption of the spiritual

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supremacy by Henry YIII^ embracing a period of more than 130 years, fewer persons suffered under the writ de heretieo camhurendo than in the last fifteen years of the first spiritual temporal head of the church of England. But it is time to see what kind of martyrs Fox has selected to grace hi& martyrology and stamp credit on Wickliffe's doctrines.

MARTYRDOM OF THOMAS BADBY,

The first after Sawtree, named by the modem editors, i» an inspired tailor of the above name, and is distinguished by the above title line. Fox writes,—** Thomas Badby was a layman, and by trade a tailor. lie was arraigned in the year 1409 before the bishop of Worcester, and convicted of heresy. On his examination he said, that it was impossible any priest could make the body of Christ sacramentally, nor would he believe it, unless be saw, manifestly, the corporal body of the Lord to be handled by the priest at the altar ; that it was ridiculous to imagine that, at the supper, Christ held in his own hand his own body, and divided it among his disciples, and yet remained whole. * I believe,' said he, * the' omnipotent God in Trinity ; but if every consecrated host at the altars be Christ's body, there must then be in England no less than 20,000 gods.' After this, he was brought before the archbishop of Canterbury, at St. Paul's church, and again examined in presence of a great number of bishops, the duke of York, and several of the first nobility. Great pains were used to make him recant ; but he courageously answered, that he would still abide by his former opinions* which no power should force him to forego. On this the archbishop of Canterbury ratified the sentence given by the bishop of Worcester. When the king had signed the warrant for his death, he was brought to Smithfield, and there being put in an empty tun, was bound with iron chains fastened to a stake, and had dry wood piled around him. And as he was thus standing in the tub, it happened the prince of Wales, the king's eldest son, was there present ; who, being moved with compassion, endeavoured to save the life of him whom

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the hjpocritical Levites Und Pharisees sought to put to death. He admonished and counselled him that, having respect unto himself^ he should speedily withdraw himself out of these dangerous labynnths of opinions^ adding oftentimes tbreateningSy which might have daunted any man not sup- ported hj the true faith. Also Courtney^ at that time chan- cellor of Oxford^ preached unto him^ and informed him of the faith of holy <^urch« In the mean time^ the pi'ior of St. Bartholomew's, in Smithfield, brought, with all solemnity, the sacrament of God's body, with twelve torches borne before, and shewed the sacrament to the poor man at the stake. And then they demanded of him how he believed in it, he answered that he knew well it was hallowed bread, and not God*fl body. And then was the tun put over him, and fire put unto him. And when he felt the fire he cried, ' Mercy !' (calling upon the Lord), when the prince immediately com- manded to take away the tun, and quench the fire. He then asked him if he would forsake heresy, and take the faith of holy church, which, if he would do, he should have goods eoiough, promising him also a yearly pension out of the king's treasury. But this valiant champion of Christ, neglecting the prince's fair words, as also contemning all men's devices, refused the oficr of worldly promises, being more inflamed by the spirit of God, than by any earthly desire. Wherefore, as he continued immovable in his former mind, the prince com- manded him straight to be put again into the tun, and that he should not afterwards look for any grace or favour. But as he could be allured by no rewards, he was not at all abashed at theit torments, but, as a valiant soldier of Christ, per- severed invincibly till his body was reduced to ashes, and his sool rose tnumphant unto him who gave it."

To this rodomontade account them odem editors have added the following note : " It will not be uninteresting to our town readers, to be informed, that that part of Smithfield where the large board containing the laws and regulations of the market formerly stood, is the very spot on which their fore- fathers suffered for the cause of Christ. There many an

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Englisli martjr*g body mingled with the dust ; from thence ascended many a soul to inherit everlasting glory." So &r as the Wickliffites were concerned, we shall shew that the cause for which they suffered was not that of Christ nor of Christianity, and the readet must he informed that Catholic martyrs suffered in Smithfield under the beastly Henry, who was the founder of that devastating thing, called the Kefor- mation, in greater numbers than the fanatical disciples of the Beformation so called. We agree with the author of the note that many an English martyr's body there mingled with the dust, and that many a soul ascended from thence to ever- lasting glor^ ; but then they were martyrs to the cause of truth, and not the enthusiast victims of visionary theories.

But what shall we say to this learned tailor of the fifteenth century, whose knowledge of divinity is here stated to have been so great as to bear down all the clergy with the king and the duke of York to boot ? Why this reverend knight of the thimble must have excelled the famous iidlor of Leyden, who, though he assumed the title of king of Sion, does not appear to have been a cool disputant with divines, whose lives had been spent in studying the fathers and exploring sacred history. But where did Fox, or his editors, find this narrative of the life, behaviour, and death of this ^' valiant champion of Christ," Tom Badby, layman and tailor ? We have looked into Stowe, Baker, Rapin, Echard, andLingard, but we can find no trace, in their pages, of any such transaction. Nay» we have by us an edition of Fox, by a Bev. Henry Southwell, LL.D., who does not mention our learned tailor. It is true there is a History of England, by one Russell, a work scarcely heard of, in which it is stated, that, in the year 1410, " One Bodby, a tailor, took upon him to exclaim violently against the absurdity of the real presence in the sacrament. This person, therefore, was singled out by the clergy for exemplary punishment. He was accordingly tried and condenmed to the stake, and the prince of Wales had the curiosity to be a spectator of the execution. When the flames first reached the body of the criminal, he cried out in so horrid a mamier.

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ihat the prince ordered the fire to be remoyed^ and offered the man his life^ together with a pension out of his private purse, as the fiames had disabled him from following his busi- ness, on condition he would renounce his opinions. Bodbj, however, shocked when he first felt the flames, refused the offered pardon ; he loved his opinions better than his life ; and he was accordingly committed again to the fire, and there resigned his breath as a forfeit to his faith.** For this account there is not the least voucher, and we may therefore conclude that, as the most authentic writers are silent on the subject, the story is a fictitious one.

That some of the circumstances connected with the tale are spurious and self-made, we think, probable. Can it be supposed, for one moment, by any rational mind, that so much interest should be shown towards an individual in so humble a station of life, by the king and the principal nobility, as well as the dignified clergy, as to honour him with a public examination in St. Paul's church ? Then again, why is the duke of York introduced ? Who was the duke of York of that day ? Not a son of the king, reader, but one among the rest of the nobles, of no great eminence for talent or ability, that we read of. The whole story, the more it is examined, the more improbable it appears. The tailor is first ar- raigned before the bishop of Worcester, and convicted of beresy ; then be is brought before the archbishop of Canter- bury, and examined in the presence of the king and nobility, in St. Paul's church, when the sentence is ratified by the primate, and the warrant for his death signed by the king. Truly, the tailor is a most important personage, that the ordi- nary process of the law was not sufficient to convict him, but the most extraordinary proceedings must be entered into to overcome his novelties and vagaries. Firm as the tailor was before the prelates and the monarch, when the fire began to warm him, we are told, his heart failed him and he cried out for mercy 1 A precious witness for the truth of the gos- pel, to be sure! How different from the conduct of the primitive martyrs, and the Catholic sufferers under Protestant

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ascendancy. These latter braved their torments, and scorned to cry for mercy from their persecutors. They gave testi- mony of the truth, by the uivincible fortitude of their be- haviour, nor did they rest their faith on their own fanciful reason, but learned it from the apostles and their successors.

The tailor, it is said, denied that any priest could make the body of Christ sacramentally, and *< that it was ridiculous to imagine that, at the supper, Christ held in his own hand his own body, and divided it among his disciples, and yet remained whole. '^ Eidiculous as Tom Badby might suppose such doc- trine to be, the learned fathers of the Catholic church> who derived their faith from the apostles themselves, who were present at this very supper, believed differently from John Fox's tailor. Their sentiments may be seen in the first volume of this work ; and we beg the reader will refer to them before he proceeds any further, and compare them with the ridicu- lous nonsense put into Badby 's mouth. The mode of execu- tion, as described by Fox, is ludicrous in the extreme, iarented probably to please the taste of ignorant people, who delight in the marvelTous, or borrowed from the tub-preachers of some sectarians. At that time, it was usual, we believe, to hang first and bum afterwards. At least, such was the way in which Sir John Oldcastle suffered.

One word more, and we close with the tailor. From what h stated to have passed between the prince and Badby, it cannot be said that he was persecuted. Every mode of per- suasion, it seems, was used to overcome the fellow's obstinacy. He was promised goods and a pension by the prince, if he would but believe as aU the world then believed;, but, as soon as he lost the pain of the fire, he became inspired^ and renounced the '* offer of worldly promises, being more in- flamed by the spirit of God than by any earthly desires.'* '>^^hat cant and hypocrisy, to in^nuate that a tailor, who must' of necessity have been ignorant in the extreme, so far as literary knowledge was concerned, the use of letters being then chiefly confined to the clergy, and printing not invented ; what hypocrisy, we say, what cant to represent this man as

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inspired af God, and the bolder of the true faitli, in opposition to the befief of the whole nation for upwards of eight hundred years. Really, such rant is truly disgusting, and fit only for bedlamites.

. The modem editora of Fox have been rather concise re^>ecting the persecutions, as they are called^ of the Wick- liffites or Lollards, as they have confined themselves ta twoi cases only, namely, this tailor Badby and Sir John Oldcastle, of whom we shall speak hereafter. Other editors of this mar- tyrology, as well as Fox himself, however, have been more prolix, and the historians of England, with a single exceptioa or so, have grossly misrepresented the conduct of the clergy and the then constituted authorities, in their proceedings to stem the torrent of sedition and rebellion rushing throughout the kingdom, and thyeatening destruction to civil society from the pernicious tendency of Wickliffe*s doctrines* These writ- ers have studiously represented the question as one of religion, and the only opposition shewn as raised against the supposed encroachments and corruptions of the church of Rome. This, however, was not the case, as we shall proceed to shew, by a few instances, it is our intention to cite from a work issued by Protestant hands, and therefore the less ex- ceptional^e to the generality of the people. In doing this, we are influenced by a desire to disabuse the public mind^ which has been so long led astray by interested writers, and is so little informed on those points of history which it is so important they should know, to be able to distinguish the ti-uth- On no subject are the people of England 1 ess informed than that of sacred history, and of profane, too, where the interests of the Catholic church are concerned. The measures- juiced prudent and precautionary by oiu? ministers and legis- . lature,. in these days of Protestant enlightenment, to preserve order and regularity in the state, are represented as sanguinary and persecuting, the offspring of a bloodthirsty religjon, and the invention of cruel churchmen. in the days of Catholic darkness, though precisely of the same nature, and adopted for the same ends. The law of de heretico comhurendo^

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though directed against heresy, was occasioned by the SEDT- Tious and traitorous tendency of those who imbibed the erroneous opinions, and, though those who su£fered might have been convicted of heresy, yet it must also be observed that they were guilty of treason and sedftion, and suffered hanging for the latter crimes. This we shall proceed to prove be the following example, which we have selected fi-om a work we have before quoted, namely, The History of King-killers ; or^ The Fanatic Martyrology^ published in the year 1720. The facts recorded therein are authenticated, and are stated to have been derived from another work written by a church of England divine, the Rev. Mr. Earbery, aiid entitled, The pretended Reformers; or, The History of John Wiehliffe^ Sfc. We beg the reader's serious attention to the statements made, and likewise to the remarks which the author makes on Fox, for introducing such desperate villians and barefaced hypo- crites into his famous, or rather infamous. Book of Martyrs.

WILLIAM CLAYDON.

** This fellow was a currier by trade ; but running mad with an enthusiastic spirit communicated to him by the followers of that known rebel. Sir John Oldcastle, he quitted his lawful profession to bear arms against his sovereign, king Henry V., in the year 1413. In relation to this man, the best account we find is in Walsingham, who, speaking of Oldcastle, says thus : ' In the mean time, their leader and chief. Sir John Oldcastle, coming abroad, sent a messenger to the lord Aber- gavenny, that he would be revenged of him for the injuries received ; but he wisely prevented him, and, departing from his castle at midnight, got so many men about him, that Sir John was obliged to fly again to his retreat ; however, the lord Abergavenny took a priest of his, who confessed where his arms, banners, &c., lay; and soon after was taken an old Lollard of the same gang, called William Claydon, who, de- pending on the notions of his sect, was become so mad, that, being himself a layman, he pretended to confer holy orders on his son, and to make him a priest, and to celebrate

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mass in his house on the day of his mother's rising from childbed, for which, he being apprehended, examined and legally convicted, he was burnt in London. The reader is here to observe, that though this wretch was burnt as a heretic, he was taken in open rebellion, and must have died for the same if the crime of heresy, being a rebellion against God, had not taken place/ It is true Fox sets him down as a martyr, and on the same day, which does not in the least exempt him from this calendar, because nothing is more plain than that he was a rebel, and, indeed. Fox has been very free in canonizing any such if they came in his way, as is visible by a very considerable number of his martyrs, whom all his- torians acknowledge to have been traitors. As for the wild notions of this fanatic, more of them may be seen where we treat of others of his gang ; and I believe any member of the church of England will be convinced of the brutality of this fellow, when he finds him taken in open rebellion, and prac- tising an episcopal power, beiug himself an illiterate, grace- less, and base currier."

WILLIAM MURLE.

" Thomas Walsingham, the author above quoted in the life of William Claydon, gives us the following short account of this William Murle, who was one of the same wicked gang with Claydon, last spoken of. ' This Murle, more closely following the opinions of John Oldcastle, had perfidiously been more vexatious to many of the orthodox than any other of his sect. And this fellow having been in St. Giles's Fields, and understanding that the king was coming thither, he with- drew into the country for fear, and hid himself there. He had before made preparations for receiving the order of knighthood at the hands of Sir John Oldcastle, to which pur- pose he had brought with him two fine horses, with rich fur- niture, adorned with gold, and a pair of gilt spurs in his bosom, for the same effect the which were found upon him when taken, soon after his flight from the field. Being dragged frt)m his lurking place, he was hanged, drawn, and

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burnt ; an end which he well deserved. Among other things there was found upon him a list of the names of monks, which he had taken from the chanter of St. Alban's, and those monks he intended to have destroyed, in order to ob- tain, by the gift and donation of the aforesaid John Oldcastle, the place and possessions of the monks of St. Alban's. Many others, as well priests as laymen, were taken, convicted, and condemned for this conspiracy, and had like ends ; most of whom died unpenitent,' Thus Walsingham.

" This Murle was a malster, of Dunstable, and having by that trade acquired wealth, the same turned his brain, so as to entertain thoughts of being a knight, and enjoying all the large possessions of the abbey of St. Albans, and all this by joining in rebellion with Sir John Oldcastle. The devil had blinded him, and being purse-proud, there was nothing so lienious but what he could attempt to raise himself above his mean state, and accordingly he was advanced to the gallows, the fittest preferment for such scoundrels. His life and death was at the same time with William Clay don, the next above him."

SIR ROGER ACTON.

**The heresy of Wicklifie, for such Mr. Earb«*y has sufficiently proved it to be, having spread itself in England, under the protection of the duke of Lancaster, who favoured the same in order to exclude his elder brother's son from the succession to the crown, and to usurp the same himself, it occasioned, as the same author informs us, many seditions, murders, and rebellions, which we have not here room to mention. The same spirit, says Mr. Earbery, which began Wickliffe's reformation, animated his followers after hia death, to rebel under Sir John Oldcastle in England, &c. Sir Roger Acton was one deeply engaged in that rebellion.

"In the reign of king Henry V., and in the year 1413, the Wickliffian heretics posted it up in writing on the church doors in London, that there were an hundred thousand of them ready to rise up in armi^ against such as opposed their

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sect. One Sir John Oldcastle, called lord Cobhara, for having married a kinswoman of that nobleman^ was their chief, having been before convicted of heresy, and made his e&cape out of custody. This Sir Roger Acton of whom we here speak, was engaged with Oldcastle^ and next to him in post Their design was to murder the king and his brothers, and to destroy all the religious houses in London. The king having sufficient information of these practices, and that the rendezvous of the rebels was appointed to be in the wood at St. Giles's, came privately away from Eltham, where he had kept Christmas, to Westminster, on the day after the feast of the Epiphany, and having ordered the lord mayor to keep the city gates shut, that the rebels in the city might not join those in the wood, went himself to the said wood after midnight with a considerable body of men, where he tock above eighty men of that gang in armour, who being thus surprized, and not knowuig by whom, all owned that they came to the lord Oobham. He and the rest, being thus disappointed, fled ; but in the pursuit several of his men were killed or taken, of the latter, sixty-nine were convicted as traitors &i West- minster, of which number thirty -seven were on the 13th of January, drawn from the Tower of London to Newgate, and so to St. Giles's, and there all hanged in a place called Ficket's field ; seven of them were also burnt with the gal- lows on which they hung. Some time after Sir Roger Acton, having skulked about and lain concealed among his party, was discovered and taken, and the fact being so noto- rious, that there was no difficulty to convict him ; so that on the 10th of February he was hanged and drawn, and buried under the gallows. Though Fox, in his Martyrology, has given these and many others for martyrs, having found them no other than rebels, by the universal consent of all our his- torians, there is no reason why they should not have their due place here among the fanatic martyrs and king- killers, for ta murder the king was their intention, and to involve, the nation in blood and rapine under a false pretext of religion, the cloak for all rebellions. Walsingham and other ancient

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historians do inibrm ns^ that this Sir Eoger Acton was a very lewd fellow, reduced to heggary hy his riotoosness, and thus sought to recover himself by the spoil of his country."

WILLIAM MANDRVILLE AND RICHARD RUSSEL.

" The heresy of Wickliffe having spread abroad in several parts of England, and disposing the people to libertinism and rebellion, there were many executed at several times for the same. William Murle is one instance hereof on the fourth of February, and we shall hereafter speak of Others in their proper places. The two saints we here treat of were of that gang, rank enthusiasts, and infatuated with the poison of those abominable doctrines. Being both obscure fellows, and their reign in villainy but short, we have only the followmg brief account of them in Stow. * Soon after Easter, in the year 141 4, being the 10th of king Henry the Vlth, who was still in his minority, the lord protector was warned of an assembly of certain lewd persons, under pretence of religious minded men, to be assembled at Abington, wherefore he sent thither certain persons, and also rode thither himself, and there arrested the baily of the town, named William Mande- ville, a weaver, the which was appointed for a captdn, who had named himself Jack Sharp of Wigmer's Land, in Wales, who being examined, confessed that he meant to have done many mischiefs, especially against priests, so that he would have made their heads as cheap as sheep's heads, that is to say, three or four a penny, or as some write, ten for a penny. Many of his accomplices were taken and sent to divers prisons. Their captain, Mandeville, was drawn, hanged and beheaded fet Abington, and. his head was sent to London, and set on the bridge ; I^b other fautors were exe- cuted in divers places and countries, to the terror of others.'

" I here join to this scoundrel another like him, though he belongs to another day, because he is too inconsiderable to deserve a place to himself. Stow, in the same place above quoted, goes on thus: 'Also the 13th of July, Richard Russel, woolman, was hanged, drawn and quartered, for that

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he would have made dukes and earls at his pleasure. Here we see the nature of wicked sectaries, who are whoUy bent upon cruelty; Mandeyille was for murdering of all clergy, which was the meaning of making their heads so cheap, and Russel could design no less than the destruction of the ancient Qobility, to make room for his rabble of dukes and earls, and both could aim at no less than the slaughter of their sove- reign, usurping such barbarous authority themselves."

ELEANOR COBHAM; DUCHESS OF OLOUGESTER.

" She was the daughter of Reginald Cobham, lord of Sdrbrough, and wife to Humphrey, duke of Gloucester. Having been infected with the fanatic notions of John WicklifPe, she abandoned herself to all sorts of wickedness, and associated with in&mous persons. Among these were

Roger Bolingbroke, an astrologer, and Thomas Southwell, canon of St. Stephen's chapel at Westminster^ both of them reputed necromancers ; as also Margery Gurdemaine, com- monly called the witch of Eye, by whose sorceries it was then thought tibat lady Eleanor had induced the duke of Gloucester to love and marry her : all these persons conspired to destroy king Henry VI. by sorcery or witchcraft, and Roger Boling- broke and Thomas Southwell being apprehended and ex- amined^ both of them confessed their guilt, and declared that what they had done, had been at the instigation of the said duchess. For this, Roger Bolingbroke did public penance on a scaffold, in St. Paul's churchyard. On the Tuesday following, the duchess knowing herself guilty, fled by night into ihe sanctuary at Westminster. Being cited, upon the information of the parties aforesaid, to Appear before Henry Chidieley, archbishop of Canterbury, Henry Beaufort, bishop of Winchester, and cardinal John Kemp, archbishop of York, and cardinal William Aiscoth, bishop of Salisbury &c., in St. Stephen's chapel, at Westminster, to answer to twenty-eight articles of necromancy, witchcraft, sorcery, fa^^sy and treas<m, she appeared accordingly, and Roger Solln^broke charging her with having employed him in those

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mischiefs, she was on the 1 1th of August committed to the custody of Sir John Stewart, Sir William Rolfe, John Stanley, Esq., and others^ to be conveyed to the castle <^ Leeds, there to remain till three weeks afiber Michaelmas^ Not long aft^ she was indicted of high treason, in Guildhall, in London, before the earls of Huntingdon, Stafford, Suffolk, and Northumberland, the treasurer. Sir Ralph Cromwell, John Cornwall, lord Fanhope, Sir Walter Hungerford, and some judges of both benches. On the 21st of October she ap- peared in the chapel of St. Stephen, at Westminster, again, before Robert Gilbert, bishop of London, William Alnewick, of Lincoln, and Thomas Brown, of Norwich, where Adam Molios, clerk of the king's council, read the articles of sorcery and witchcraft laid to her charge, whereof some she denied, and others she confessed. On the 23rd of October she ap- peared again, and the witnesses against her being examined, she was fully convicted. Being then asked whether she had anything to object against the witnesses, she answered in the negative, and submitted herself. On the 27th of October she abjured the articles, and was ordered to appear again on the 9th of November, which she accordingly did, before the archbishop and others, and was enjoined penance, which she performed as follows : —

'' On Monday, the 13th of November, she went from Westminster by water, and landed at the Temple bridge, whence she proceeded through Fleet-street, with a wax candle of two pounds in her hand, without an hood, but with a kerchief, to St. Paul's, where she offered her taper at the high altar. On the Wednesday following, she landed at the Swan in Thames-strtet^ and went through Bridge-street, Gracechurch-street, &c., straight to Leaden-hall, and so to Christchurch, by Aldgate. On Friday she landed at Queen- hithe, and proceeded to Cheapside, to St. Michael's in Corn- hill, in the same manner as aforesaid. At all these times the mayor, sheriffs, and tradesmen oi London met and accom- panied her. After all this she was committed to the custody of Sir Thomas Sfanley, so to remain during her life in the.

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easUe of Cbester, having 100 marks a year allowed for her roainteDance ; but in the 22nd year of king Henry the VI., she WAS removed to Ken il worth.- Her pride, covetoosnese, and lust, were the cause of her confusion.

*^ This is one, as well as some others before mentioned, whom Fox has thought fit to canonize as a aamt in his Book of Martyrs, and indeed we have here shown that she was a king-kiiier in intention, though she could not compass her design, and being a practitioner in sorcery and witchcraft, she may well have a place among fanatic saints, such as many are of those transmitted to us by that latitudinariaa writer. It is true there are many at this time who altogether explode all notions of sorcery or witchcraft, it is not our business to enter upon this controversy, but all the persons here mentioned having confessed their guilt in that crime, it must be supposed that they best knew what they had done, and whether they had really any compact with 1^ devil or not, their confession sufficiently evinces, that they practised such things as they looked upon as charms, and that the end of the same was to destroy the king, which is enough to prove they were intentional regicides, and so far answers our pur- pose."

MARTYRDOM OF MR JOHN OLDCASTLB.

We oome to another of John Fox's martyrs, of whom more has been said by historians than of the Tom Badby, and we shall therefore be better able to detect the falsehoods «nd misrepresentations of the martyrologist. But first lei us have his account of the afiair. *^The persecutions of the Lollards," he says, ** in the reign of Henry V. were owing to the cruel instigations of the clergy, who thought the most effectual way to check the progress of Wickliffe^s doctrines, would be to attack the then chief protector of it, viz.. Sir John Oldcastle, baron of Cobham ; and to persuade the king that the Lollards were engaged in conspiracies to overturn the state. . It was even reported that they intended to mur- der the king, together with the . princes, his brothers, and

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most of the lords spiritaal and temporal, in hopes that the confusion which must necessarily arise in the kingdom, after such a massacre, would prove favourable to their religion. Upon this a false rumour was spread that Sir John Oldcastle had got together 20,000 men in St. Giles's in the Fields, a place then overgrown with bushes. The king himself went thither at midnight, and finding no more than fourscore or a hundred persons, who were privately met upon a religious . account, he fell upon them and killed many. Some of them being afterwards examined, were prevailed upon, by promises or thi'eats, to confess whatever their enemies desired ; and these accused Sir John Oldcastle.

« The king hereupon thought him guilty ; and in that be« lief set a thousand marks upon his head, with a promise of perpetual exemption from taxes to any town which should secure him. Sir John was apprehended and imprisoned in the Tower ; but escaping from thence, he fled into Wales^ where he long concealed himself. But being afterwards seized in Powis land, in North Wales, by Lord Powis, he was brought to London, to the great joy of the clergy, who were highly incensed against him, and resolved to sacrifice him, to stiike a terror into the rest of the Lollards. Sir John was of a very good family, had been sheriff of Hert- fordshire under Henry IV., and sunmioned to parliament among the barons of the realm in that reign. He had been sent beyond the sea, with the earl of Arundel, to assist the duke of Burgundy against the French. In a word, he was a man of extraordinary merit, notwithstanding which he was condemned to be hanged up by the waist, with a chain, and burned alive. This most barbarous sentence was executed, amidst the curses and imprecations of the priests and monks, who used their utmost endeavours to prevent the people from praying for him. Such was the tragical end of 1^ John Oldcastle, who \eh the world with a resolution and constancy that answered perfectly to the brave spirit with which he had ever maintained the cause of truth and of his God, '< Not satisfied with his single death, the clergy induced

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tbe parliament to make fresh statutes against the LoUards. It was enacted, among other things, that whosoever read the scriptures in English should forfeit land, chattels, goods, and life, and he condemned as heretics to God, enemies to the crown, and traitors to the kingdom ; that thej should not have the heuefit of any sanctuary ; and that, if they continued ohstinate, or relapsed after heing pardoned, they should first be hanged for treason against the king, and then burned for heresy against God. This act was no sooner passed, but a violent persecution was raised against the LoUards ; several of them were burnt alive, some fled the kingdom, and others were weak enough to abjure their religion, to escape the torments prepared for them."

Sdch is the account given by Fox, or his modem editors ; the reader, by a comparison with the foregoing accounts of some of Oldcastle's comrades, will be able to appreciate the credit due to the relation of the martyrologist. As usual, all is bare assertion ; .not a voucher has he produced to prove the au- thenticity of the incidents he mentions, but we are called upon to take for granted whatever he has thought proper to advance. The time, however, is come when facts must be ]nt>daced to obtain credit, and it would have l>een well for the people of England had they always demanded unquestionable authority for the statements of historians. With Catholic writers it has been the invariable rule to lay down the source from whence any extraordinay circumstance has been derived, in order that the suspecting party might satisfy themselves by a reference to the authority cited ; while, on the other hand^ the oppugners of truth always shun plain and open dealing, and have recourse to trick and deception to make up what may be wanted of common honesty. Such is the case wilh JB'ox in hiis account of the death of Sir John Oldcastle. He commences his tale by attributing the persecutions of the Lollards, in Henry V.'s time, " to the cruel instigations of the clergy, who,'* he says, *' thought that the most effectual wa,j to check the progress of Wickliffe's doctrines, would be to attack the then chief protector of them," this Sir John Old-

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castle, and " to persuade tlie king that the Lollards were engaged in conspiracies to overturn the state." We trust the people of England will no longer be persuaded by Fox and "the few plain Christians,'' his modern editors, to take these gross perversions of history for genuine fact. Let us refer to dates, which are the best guides to come at disputed facts. Wickliffe's doctrines had been broached about fifty years when Sir John Oldcastle was apprehended. Several rebellions had been occasioned by their dissemination, during the reign ef Henry's father, and his predecessor, Hichard IT., so that there could be no occasion for the clergy to persf$ade the king that conspiracies were intended, when he had himself the perfect knowledge that such had actually been entered into to dethrone his father, and were in progress to wrest the sceptre from himself. To charge the clergy, therefore, with being the instruments oi persecuting a nest of traitors and plunderers, because tliese treason-hatchers had the adroitness to screen their lawless and wicked designs under a pretence of reforming religion, and purifying the morals of the clergy, is brazen impudence and mendacity in the extreme.

Henry, when prince of Wales, had joined the lords and commons in petitioaing his father to arrest the progress of the preachers and punish them, as may be seen by searching the records of parliament. This fact is an indisputable proof of the lying qualities of Fox. Sir John Oldcastle had been one of the intimate companions of Henry in the follies of his youth, and on the reformation of the monarch, on his coming to the crown, he was dismissed his presence, in consequence of the opinions he held and the immorality of his conduct. Henry therefore did not require the instigation of the clergy. Fuller (p. 168) tells that Sir John Oldcastle was, among our more ancient dramatists, the debauched but facetious knight who now treads the stage under the name of Sir John Falstaff. Thus we have the same personage pourtrayed by Fox as a " godly martyr," and by Shakspeare as a " beastly debauch^." What an edifying saint to grace the martyrology

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of John Po», To return, however, to the narrative. Fox says, the persons who were assembled in St. Giles's, and ' snrprtsed by the king, " were privately met upon a religious account," and that ** he fell upon them and killed many." In contradiction to this gross fidsehood, we refer the roader to the account of the death of Sir Eoger Acton, pi^e 89, which is copied from Stow. Of ^He extraordinary merit of this notorious traitor we have before given an account; his death, which b represented to have been most tragical, was no other than what many others less deserving have undergone, without exciting the notice or pity of John Fox. - The execution of this base villian took place when the king was engaged, with his anny in France, and is thus related by Dr. Liugard : — " But while the king was thus occupied with the conquest in Normandy, a feeble attempt had been made to deprive him of England. In consequence of a secret understanding between the Scottish cabinet and the chiefs of tiie Lollards, the Duke of Albany and the Earl Douglass suddenly crossed the borders and laid siege, the former to the castle of Berwick, the latter to that of Roxburgh. It proved, however, a ' foul raid.' They had persuaded themselves that the kingdom had been left without a competent force for its protection : but when they learned that the Dukes of Bedford and Exeter were approaching at the head of one hundred thousand men, they decamped with precipitation, and dis- banded their armies. At the same time Sir John Oldcastle emerged from his concealment, and arrived in the neighbour- hood of London. The retreat of the Scots defeated all his projects. At St. Albans he eluded, by a precipitate flight, the pursuit of his enemieii: in the marches of Wales he was taken, after an obstinate resistance, by Sir Edward Charlton, a retainer of the lord Powis. At the petition of the com- mons (the parliament was then sitting) he was arraigned before the peers: the indictment on which he had been formerly outlawed^ was read, and he was asked in the usual form by the Duke of Bedford, why he should not receive sentence of deatL Instead of replying directly to the ques- VOL. ir. p

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tion, be preached a long sermon on one of the faTOurite doctrines of hi» sect, that it is the duty of man to forgive, and to leave the punishment of offences in the hands of the Almighty. Being interrupted, and required to -return a direct answer, he said that he would never acknowledge the authority of that court, as long as his liege lord, king Bichard II., was alive in Scotland. Judgment was instantly pronounced ; that he should he hanged as a traitor, and burnt as a heretic. St. Giles's fields, which had been the theatre of his rebellion, witnessed also his pnnbhment. By his partisans he would have been revered as a martyr, had not their faith been staggered and scandalized by a non>accom- pitshment of a prophecy, which he was said to •have uttered at the gallows, that he should rise again from the grave on the third day."

Looking at this account by Dr. Lingard, and that given by Fox, the shameless mendacity of the latter is most con- spicuous, and must make the unprejudiced Protestant blush at the depravity of the mind that could deliberately and purposely invent such brazen lies to villify the clergy of former times, who were the fathers of the people and the protectors of the poor. Alas ! how have the people of England been deceived and beguiled, since the pretended Reformation, by the means of the press. From the moment the spiritual supremacy was connected with the state, the press became the instrument of forgery, falsehood, misrepre- sentation, calumny, and fanaticism. By a long career of near three hundred years in this wholesale system of iniquity, the people of this country have been plunged into the densest mists of error and imposition. Thus the most palpable lies have been swallowed as indisputable facts ; the most depraved villians have been taken for the most pious saints ; and the most humane and self devoted order of religious men for the most sanguinary and malignant miscreants. The time, however, is rapidly approaching when the rays of truth will dispel this dark gloom, and exhibit the hypocrites and falsi- fiers in all their horrid deformity. In this relation of the

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BOOK OF MARTYRS. 99

deatk of Sir John Oldcastle^ Fox, idth his usual malioe and want of veracity, has represented the Catholic priests and monks as the bitterest enemies of the hoary traitor, though it is dearly proved by Dr. Lingaid and other authorities, that he was arraigned at the petition of the representatives of the people, and that he confessed himself a traitor to the reigning king. Fox also states that he was hung ** by the tcaist with a chain, and burni alive,** This statement, made for the purpose of exciting horror and indignation against the sup- posed cruelty and barbarity of our Catholic anc^tors, is positively contradicted by Stow, who had better means of ascertaining the fact than Fox. The former says, " he (Sir John Oldc^le) was hanged by the neck in a chain of iron, and AFTEB consumed with fire." Who, after this palpable 4|etectiou, can believe the statements in this Book of Martyr si Fox talks of Oldcastle's '^ resolution and constancy,'* and his ** brave spirit," but he does not note his Janaiical spirit, which led him to predict his resurrection from death after the third day, which is recorded by Stow, and as Dr. Lingard observes, staggered not a few of his deluded disciples <hi finding his prophecy not fulfilled.

Fox next asserts that, '^ not satisfied with his (Oldcastle's) ^ngle death, the clergy induced the parliament to make fresh statutes against the Lollards." In whose reign, and in wJiat year, were these /re«^ statutes made? It was surely an easy ti^ to have given chapter and verse, by a reference to his- tory and the statu(^ book. He talks here of the siTigle death of Oldcastle, after having recorded the martyrdoms, as he calls the death of Sautre and Badby^ and recounting the killings of many of Oldcastle's followers, as persecutions by the clergy. We have, from authentic testimony, named several traitors that suffered death for their crimes, and w^e classed as martyrs by Fox ; how then can he here speak of only one single death, namely, Oldcastle's? The insinuation is base and groundless, and like the rest of the assertions made by this lying martyrologist. For instance^ he says, <* it was enacted, among other things^ that whosoever read

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the scriptures in English, should forfeit land, chattels, goo^, and life ; and be condemned as heretics to God, enemies to the crotcn, and traitors to the kingdom," Were ever such improbabilities before put f<»rth for facts? Peo|^e in general^ at that time, were not able to read ; but why not punish the translators and copyists, as well as the readers ? If it was made heresy and treason merely to read, what ought to have been the crime and punishment of those who were the instigator» of this heresy and treason ? But who ever heard of the mexe readers of the scriptures becoming heretic8> and heretics te God too? What nonsense, sheer stupid nonsense, is this« Heresy, as defined by Johnson, L» *' an opinion of private men, different from ^at of the CathoHe and orthodox church; ^* and a HERETIC, "one who propagates \m private opinions in opposition to the Catholic church." Now a man mighi read the scripture, as hundreds and thousands have read the sacred volume, and yet remain Catholics — sound orthodox Catholics ; therefore to make it heresy and treason merdy to read the bible is preposterous folly, and such as our Catholic ancestors, though they are said to have lived in the dark ages, would never have been guilty of. No, no ; it waa not the reading then, nor is it the reading now, oS the scrip- tui*es, that the Catholic church objects to ; it is the misitUer^ pretation of the sacred text that she condemns; and it waa the corruption of the meaning to traitorous purposes ^at caused our ancestors to pass the law de heretico comburendo, as we have shewn by indisputable facts, accompamed by the clearest testimony.

This account of the death of Oldcastle is self- contradictory in ihe extreme. Fox says that Oldcastle was burned alive, and in the same column he says the punishment of the Lollards was, to be hung Jirst, for treason against the king» and then burned for heresy against God. ^gain, he says, there were fresh statutes made against the Lollards, and immediately after he speaks of only one. '* Thisaet,*^ he . writes, was no sooner passed, but a violent persecution was raised against the Lollards; several of them were burnt

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oKw,'* &c. Yet this very law, hj his own statement, enacted that they should be hung in the first instance, and burned afterwards. Yerily those who believe such a narrator as Fox will believe any thing, however incredible or monstrous.

CONFESSION OF SIB JOHN OLDCASTLE.

Fox next proceeds to give an account of the religious creed of this infamous and debauched knight, Oldcastle. He says, ''The following is the confession of this virtuous and tru4. Christian, which, ^m its clearness imd- simplicity, is well worthy of remembrance." He commences with the Apostles* ereed thus : —

<' I believe in God the Father Almighty, maker of heaven and earth ; and in Jesus Christ his only Son our Lord, which. was conceived by the Holy Ghost, bom of the Virgin Mary,, suffered under Pontius Filate, crucified, dead, and buried, went down to hell, the third day rose again from death, ascended up to heaven, sitteth on the right hand of Gt>d the. Father Almighty^ and from thence shall come again to judge Use quick and the dead. I believe in the Holy Ghost, the ^miversal hdy church, the communion of saints, the forgive-. oess c^ sins, the uprismg of the flesh, and everlasting life. Amen.

*^ And for a more large declaration of this my faith ia the Catholic church, 1 steadfastly believe, that there is but one Qodi Almighty, in and of whose godhead are these thi'ee persons^ the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, and that those three persons are the self-same God Almighty. I believe also, that the second person in this most blessed Trinity, in most convenient time appointed thereunto before, took flesh and blood of the most blessed Virgin Mary, for the safeguard and redemption of the universal kind of man, which was before lost in Adam's offence.

<' Moreover, I believe that the same Jesus Christ our Lord, thus being both God and man, is the only head of the whole Christian church, and that all those that have been or shall be saved; be members of this most holy church.

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•' Whereof tlie first sort be now in bearen, and tbey are tbe saintB from hence departed. These, as tbej were here eonrersant, conformed always their lires to the most hdj laws and pure examples of Christ,- renouncing Satan, the world, and the flesh, with all their concnpiseence and evils.

" The other sort are here upon earth, and caOed the church militant. For day and night they contend against ei*afty assaults of the devil, the flattering prosperities of this world, avd the rebellious fllthiness of the flesh/'

Such is tbe confession which the modern editors of Fox have put into the mouth of Sir John Oldcastle, traitor, heretic, and martyr, which they are pleased to describe as **well worthy of remembrance," from "its clearness and simplicity.^ But, reader, though Sir John might make this confession, it was not the creed he always held, and be made other acknowledgments, which it did not suit the convenience of the "few plain Christians" to make public. These modem editors set forth that their purpose in publishing this Book of Martyrsy was to *^ diffuse a knowledge and love of the genuine principles of Christianity ; *' but they have taken special care to suppbess in this edition many other things which Fox admitted in his original work, and o^er editors have inserted in their editions of the Martyrology. Before we notice these suppressions, we will here ask the modem editors by whose authority did they change the word Catholic for " tmiversal *' in the Apostles' Creed ? Sir John Old- castle, we are sure> never made use of the term "universal,** nor could there be any occasion for it in then* edition, as they allow that be professed the Catholic faith in his confession. Now the Catholic faith then was the same as the Catholie faith now, and consequently cannot be the Protestant fakh, if tbe endless diversities of sects into which Protestanti^n is divided can be c&Ued faith. But what will the reader say of John Fox, and John Oldcastle, and Fox's modem editors, V. hen we inform him that this valiant martyr, this virtuous and trtie Christian^ professed his belief in the real presence of the sacrament of the Eucharist, and also many other

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tenets of the Caibolic clmroli^ which Protestants deny? One of the editors of Fox, in his ectition^ remiu*king on the con- fessicm of &ith made bj Oldcastle, says, ''the sincere Lollards had rather eoitfused notions of (he gQspel ; and it appears from some remai^ of lord llale^.that (hey were not aU of the same sentiments." Men of common sense, what do you think of this ! The sincere Lollards had con- fnsed notions^ Well, then, what were they but men tossed to and fro with every wind of doctrine, and not the disciples of that church built upon a rock, (hat was to remain un- changeable to the end of time. They were not all of the same sentiments ; then they had none of the marks of TRUTH with them, which is always the same, and ever will be the same, as long as time endureth. To declare that men dis^ eigreed in their sentiments, thai they had confused notions^ and yet followed tbdih, is an outrage to common sense, and deserves universal reprobation.

We have had occasion to speak of the reply of father FarsoBS to this lying c^nnpilation of Fox, who vrrote while John was living. On this subject of the Wickliffian heresy and Oldcastle's c<mfession, the learned father is so plain and argumentative, that we should not do justice to his memory and great talents were we not to record his remarks. Bj so doing too, we furnish a clear proof of the consistency of the defenders of the Catholic faith, who in every age and of every na(ion, followed the same rule, and consequently wrote with the same spirit, namely, that of Truth. Examine the works of the Catholic controvertists from the time of the apostles and evangelists to the present day, and you will find sincerity in their language, without any confusion of notions or diver- sity of sentiments, on whatever concern the revealed truths of religion. This test of unity is not to be found amongst sectarians, and therefore they can have no more claim to t je truths of the gospel than the heathen or publican.

We have given a picture of some of the most prominent martyrs, as Fox calls them, of the Wickliffian faction, from which the reader has learned that they were traitors to their

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kin^, and disturbers of the country ^s peace ; this picture is not only confirmed by father Parsons, but he goes further into the conduct of Sir John Oldcastle, and proves that he. was not only a traitor, but a self- convicted heretic. Parsons writes : — " But there i& yet another point worse than this ;. which is, that he (Fox) doth not only allow of the religion of these men, but defendeth also and Justifieth their life and actions in what case soever ; and though never so orderly and lawfully condemned by the church or state of those days, yea, though they were convmeed to have conspired the king^s murder, and ruin to the state, or had broken forth into opea war and hostility against the same. As dkd Sir John (Xd^ castle (by his wife called lord Cobham) Sir Roger Acton and many other their followers, in the first year of king Henry V. which story you may read in John Stow truly related out of Thomas Walsingham, and other ancient writers.

'* He sctteth down also without blushing (I mean Fox) a& well the records of the Chancery, as the act of Parliament itself, whereby they were condemned of open treason, and confessed rebellion ; for which sixty-nine were condemned in one day by public sentence; and yet doth the mad fallow take upon htm to excuse and defend them all by a long discourse of many leaves together, scoffing and jesting as well at their arraignment and sentence given, as also at the act of Parliament holden at Leicester, ann(y2, Hen, 5, cap. 7.> and in the year of Christ 1415w And after i^ he setteth forth, in contempt of this public judgment,, a great painted pageant or picture of those that were hanged fcx that open fact of rebellion in St. Giles's Fields^ in London, a& of true saints and martyrs ; namely, of Sir Eoger Acton and others^ p. 540. And some leavea after that again, he setteth out. another particular pageant of the several execution ^ Sir John Oldcastle, with this title : 'The Description of the Cruel Martyrdom of Sir John Oldcastle, Lord Cobham.' And more than this, he appointeth unto them their several festival days in red letters, (which were the days of their hanging) as unto solemn martyrs. The first upon the sixth of January^

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with tkiB title : * Sir Roger Acton, Knight, Martyr ; ' and ^ Qither upon the fifth of February, with this inscription in his tudendar: 'Sir John Oldcastle, Lord Oobham, Martyr.' Whereby we may see that these men do not measure things BB they are in themselres, but as they serve to maintain their £ftction.

^ And it is further to be noted, tliat albeit these two re-^ bellious knights (Acton and Oldcastle) besides all othar their convicted crimes, did make public profession of a far difi^Brent fiuth from John Fox {«s may be seen by the confessions and protestations set down by Fox himself) yea, and the latter of them also did openly recant all the errors and heresies that he had held before ; yet, notwithstanding, will not Fox so let th^n go, but perforce will have them to be of his church, whether they will or no. It would be over long to rehearse many examples — some few shall you have for a taste.

" Page 612. Fox setteth down the protestation <rf Sir Jeha Oldcastle with this title ; * The Christian belief of the Lord Cobham.' By which title you may see that he liketh well of his belief, and holdeth it for truly Christian. Well, mark what followeth ! When, after other articles about the Blessed Trinity, and Christ's Deity, Sir John Oldcastle oometh to Ix^at of the sacrament of the altar, he protesteth thus : ' And forasmuch as I am falsely accused of a misbelief in the sacrament of the altar, I signify here to all m^n that this is my faith concerning that : I believe in that sacrament to be contained very Christ's body and blood, mider the similitudes of wine and lH*ead, yea, the same body that was conceived of the Holy Ghost, bora of the Virgin Mary, hung on the cross, died and was buried, arose the third day from Uie dead, and now is glmfied in heaven.' This was his con- fession, and is related here by Fox : and will Fox agree to this, think you ? It may be he will, for that he saith nothing agfunst it At all in this place.

i_ " ]3ut some leaves after, repeating another testimonial of the said Oldcastle's belief, witnessed by his own friends, coDceming this articla^ he writeth thus : ' Furthermore^ he

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beltereth tbat the blessed sacrament of tiie altar is verllj ain]* truly Christ's body in the form of bread. Upon which words Fox maketli this commentary in the margin : ^. In form of bread, but not without bread, he meaneth.' Yea, John» is that his meaning? How, then, standeth Has with hk former words, * Under the similitudes of bread and wine V Is the similitude of bread, true bread ? VTho seeth not this silly shift of a poor baited Fox, that eannot tell whither to turn his head ? Bat mark yet a far worse shift !

** Sir John Oldcastle, shewing his belief about three sorts of men, the one, of saints bow in heaven^ the second, in purgatory, the third, here mlKttfnt upon earth, saith thus :

* The holy church I believe to be divided into three sorts or companies ; whereof ihe first are now in heaven, <fec. ; the second sort wte in purgatory, abiding the mercy of God, and a ftiU deliverance of pain ; the third, upon earth, <fec.* To this speech of purgat^y. Fox thought best (lest if might disgrace his new martyr) to add this parenthesis of his own,

* (if any such place be in the scriptures, <frc.)' And by this you may perceive how he proceedeth in all the rest, to wit, most perfidiously, like a Fox in all.

** Furthermore, he settoth down at length a very ample and earnest recantation of the said Sir John Oldcasde, taken out of the records, as authentically made as can be devised. Wherein he thus protested : * In nomine Dei. Amen, I, John Oldcastle, denounced, detected and convicted of and upon divers articles favouring heresy and e^ror, <fec. I, being evil seduced by divers seditious preachers, have grievously erred, heretically persisted, blasphemously answered, and ob- stinately rebelled, &c.' And having recounted, at length, all his former condemned and h^^etical opinions, he endeth thus : ' Over and besides all this, I, John Oldcastle, utterly for- saking and renouncing all the aforesaid errors and heresies, and all other like unto them, lay my hand here upon this book and evangel of God, and i^ear, that I shsdl never more from henceforth hold these aforesaid heresies, nor yet any other like unto thetn wittingly, &c,* All which recantation

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BOOK OF MARTYRS. 107

and abjnratian being related bj John Fox, he saith nothing at all against it, but only that it was devised bj the bishops without his consent ; alleging no one author, witness, writing, record, reason, or probable conjecture for proof thereof, but f<^oweth the fond shift before touched by me against the Magdeburgenses of him that, being accused of heinous crimes, bringeth in first the best witnesses of all the city to prove the same ag^nst himself, and then answereth all with only saying, ' that they are liars, and know not what they say.' "

In conclusion, we beg the reader to refer to the confession put into the mouth of Sir John Oldcastle, by the modern edit(»:s of Fox, and the declaration, quoted by father Parsons from the cniginal work of Fox, above. It will be seen by the latt^, that Sir John, this *^ virtuous and true Christian," held that the church was divided into three sorts or companies, the second sort being in a middle state or purgatory ; but this article of his belief is studiously left out of the latter, and he is made to name expressly but two sorts. This pal- pable contradiction ; this barefaced suppression of a material &ct in the original work, by the modem editors, is sufficient to stamp their character for veracity, and consign them to the too numerous company of falsifier b produced by the pre- tended Beformation. It is clear, fi'om the words of father Parsons, that when Wickliffe began to dogmatize, the belief of whole Christendom was that of the Catholic faith, and that he and his disciples were not Protestants, because they hdd doctrines which Protestants deny. The real presence, the invocation of saints^ purgatory, and the seven sacraments, were then, as now, articles of Catholic faith, though rejected by Protestants. Tithes, surplice fees, benefices, oblations, and every emolument pertaining to temporal aggrandizement are now maintained by Protestants of the church, as by law established, though these were disputed by Wickliffe and the Lollards ; yet are they ranked by Fox and his editors as virtuous and true Christians, and godly martyrs, while au- thentic history represents them as the most depraved and

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perfidious traitors. If to disturb the peace of society, by the propagation of seditious doctrines; if to rebel against the lawM authorities of the state, from motives of faction ; if to set father against son ; brother against brother; if to involve the country in murder and strife, and violate all tho princijJes of cliarity, be the essence of Chnstianity, why then Wickliffe and his disciples were tioie and virtuous Christians. But that flame could not be the light of the gospel, which only blazed like a meteor, and was heard of no more ; nor is its appearance known now but only by the evils produced by its exhalations. To sum up the true causes of Wiekliffe's doctrine, so highly extolled by Fox, they were, 1st. A desire of revenge against the bishops and the clergy, on the part of Wicklifle, in consequence of hiis being deprived of a benefice in Oxford, which he had possessed unjustly. 2dly- He was moved with envy agmnst monks^ together with a desire of gaining over the Duke of Lancaster^ who had an eye to the crown, and his followers, by teaching them that it was lawfnl to invade church livings at their pleasure ; and 3rdly. The duke and hb adherents w^e stirred up by the same motives of ambition, covetousness, and emulation against the bishops and clergy. These causes we gather out of Stow and Walsingham, and they are con- firmed by the general voice of all the world. The opinions of Wickliffe were condemned by the whole universal church as heretical; and the parliaments of Bichard II., and Henry IV., who best knew their lives, condemned Ina fol- lowers by their public acts, for " hypocrites, seditious, and pernicious people in manners/' Here, then, we close our remarks on the Wickliffites, having, we flatter ourselves, satisfactorily established the real' character of this class (^ Fox's martyrs.

GREAT SCHISM IN THE CHURCH OF ROME.

During the heresy of Wicklifie, the Christkn church was aliicted with schism, originating from the ambition of some <^ the cardinals, and the loose conduct of others, which pope

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BOOK OF MARTTBS. 109

Urban YI. was desirous of reforming. This schism was noticed bj Fox, in his account of the proceedings against Wickliffe, but we passed it over, rather than interrupt the order of the subject Fox imputes this event to the provi- dence of God, in favour of the progress of truth, and lest it might be thought that there was some failure of the pro- mises of Christ in the churdi of Borne, we have cbemed it right to place the martjrologist's account upon record, and a counter-relation of the affair after it, that the reader may be- aUowed to judge for himself, how far Fox is entitled to credit. He writes, under the above head, — *' A circumstance* occurred at this period, by the providence of God, which greatly tended to facilitate the progresa of trutk This waa a great schism in the church of Borne, which originated aa foUowa: After the death of Gregory XI., who expired in the midst of his anxiety to crush Wickliffe and his doctrines, Urban YI. succeeded to the papal chair. This pope was so- proud and insolent, and so intent on the advancement of his^ nephews and kindred, which he frequently accomplished by injuring other princes, that the greatest number of his car- dinals and courtiers deserted him, and set up another pope- against him, named Clement, who reigned eleven years. After him Benedict XIII., who reigned twenty-six years. Again, on the contrary fade, after Urban YI.^ succeeded Boniface IX., Innocent YIIL, Gregory Xil., Alexander Y.,. and John XIII. To relate all the particulars of this miser- aUe schism, would require volumes ; we shall merely take notice of a few of the principal occurrences, from which the reader may form an idea of the bloodshed and misery brought on the Christian world by the ambition and wickedness of these pretended representatives of our blessed Saviour ; and niay judge how widely they departed from his blessed maxims of peace and good will to all men* Otho, Duke of Bmnawick and Pnnceof Tarentum, was taken and muidered.. Joan, his wife. Queen of Jerusalem and Sicily, who had senttopo'pe Urban, besides other gifts, 40,000 ducats in gold, was afterwards, by his order, committed to prison, and

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110 REVIEW OF FOX'S

there strangled. Many cardinals were racked, and tortured to death ; battles were fought between the rival popes, in which great multitudes were slain. 'Five cardinals were be- headed together after long torments. The bishop of Aqnilo- nensis, being suspected by pope Urban, for not riding faster when in his company, was slain on the spot, by the pope's order. Thus did these demons in human form torment each other, for the space of thirty-nine years, until tlie council of Constance."

Fox here insinuates that it would require volumes " to re- late all the particulars of this miserable sdiism/' and he goes^ on to tell us that cardinals were racked and put to death, battles were fought, and murders committed by *' these demons in huma,n form,'' namely, the popes or anti-popes, for we are left to conjecture, as it cannot be supposed that all these hor- rible crimes are to rest upon Urban's shoulders, though he is the only pope accused by name. We cannot tell from whence Fox borrowed his testimony, as he has given us no reference, according to custom, but we have no hesitation in pronounc- ing the statement to be a tissue of falsehoods, excepting that a schism did exist. We have looked into the authorities within our reach, but we cannot find any allusion to the hor- rible transactions related by Fox, and we think it very im-. probable, that, had ^\e cardinals been beheaded together^ such a circumstance would have escaped their notice. Fox represents Urban as a monster of cruelty and injustice ; oth^ authors, who are more entitled to credit, give a differ- ent version to his character. The Eev. J. Eeeve, in his History of the Christian Churchy says of Urban, that he was '* famed for his knowledge of the canon law, devout, humble, and disinterested ; an enemy to simony, zealous for justice and purity of morals ; virtuous and learned himself, he en- couraged virtue and learning in others. The abuses com- mitted by the agents and officers of the court of Eome had long been the subject of complaint. A laudable zeal for effecting a reform, carried the religious pontiff to a degree of severity which was thought imprudent. In 1^ exhortation!

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BOOK OF MABTVRS. Ill

Mid reprimands, he spared not the cardinals themselves. They felt the justness of his animadversions, but rather than curtail their luxuries of life, thej chose to throw the whole church into confusion/^ Thus then, it appears that this schism did not arise from the injustices of Urban, but from his de*- sire, his too anxious wish, to have those abuses removed, which had crept into the court over which he presided. The cardini^s fled from him, not for his cruelty, but for his honesty. He was a reformer of real abuses, and therefore it cannot be wondered that he should meet with opposition from those wha stood in need of reform ; ^ nor can we be surprised that his meritorious intentions are misrepresented by those who de- light in calumny and falsehood. As to the murders of dukes and cardinals and queens, the falsity of these charges are too glajing to need refutation. That there was a schism in the church at this period is not denied, but a schism is not a failure of orthodoxy. Though there might be a doubt as to the canonical head of the church, there was not the slightest disagreement as to the articles of faith propounded. The fact is, there was a dispute among the clergy respecting who was the rightful head of the church, and some nations ad- hered to one claimant and sonie to the other ; but during the space of this contention about the headship, there was not a division on doctrine, save and except the heresy of Wickliffe, which was not of that nature to require the con- vening of a general council, the guardians of the church in England, that is, the ecclesiastical hierarchy of the kingdom, being deemed suflScient. Subsequently, the errors spreading on the continent, and the schism continuing, the council of Constance assembled to put an end to one, and give judg- ment on the other.

This council met on the 5th day of November, in the year 1414, and, like the other general councils of the Catholic church, was composed of the most eminent prelates and divines from Italy, Germany, France, Spain, and England. Here then we have a tangible proof of the existence of a ehurck/that should be a judge and a guide to those who

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112

were unruly and in error. Our blessed Saviour told his disd* pies, as the gospel of St. Matthew informs us, that when any dissensions took place, as was natural to human £railty> an appeal was to be made to the chubch, and, when the church had decided, those who refused to hear her were to be considered as heathens or publicans ; that is, cut off from her communion, and deprived of the spiritual blessings her Divine Founder had commissioned her to dispense. Now, if there had been no authority to decide on this schism, it would have lasted till this day, and in all probability e^ibited the same features we now behold in Protestantism, — an endless division of sectarians, and an innumerable number of unbe- lievers. But here, as we before observed, we have a proof of the divine hand, in the protection of his church. She wa«^ threatened with a division c£ the seamlesa garment, but her guardians assembled, under the protection of the Holy Spirit, in the city of Constance; overtures were made to settle the matter amicably, the parties would not consent ; they were deposed, a new pope was elected; the whole universe acknow- ledged the choice, and a termination waa put to the jarrings that had too long distracted the peace of the church, but had never shook her faith. Thus then, by the providence of God, to use the wcNrds of Fox, that event which the enemies of Truth had anticipated would prove the downfall of the Church, was the means of establishing her solidity in the eyes of the world, and from that day to this moment, schism never infected the centre of supremacy.

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BOOK OF HABTYBS. 113

THE KEFORMATION.

We now enter upon the most imp(H*tant epocH of English, we may say general, History, that can interest the mind, and shall have to detail a series of eyents,— some highly expres- sive of the divine nature of the Catholic church, and others declaratory of the evils attending an unhridled sway of the human heart. It will also he our duty to detect the mancBu- vres jHractised hy the interested slaves of iiciction and irreli- gion, to draw the unsuspecting from the road to Heaven. We do not, however, intend to exclude from our history the great political changes that took place in the progress of the creeds, which have, in part, supplanted the ancient &ith. We have undertaken to examine and criticise the most mate- rial facts recorded of the Reformation in the late edition of hFW« Booh of Martyrs, and it' will he our duty to follow the author, step hy step, as we have hitherto done hy his preced- ing statements, through this eventful period. In l^e per-> formance of this task we shall meet with many facts so inter- woven with divinity and politics, that, it will he -impossible to separate them without making the history incomplete. We shall therefore endeavour to elicit the truth in the best manner we can, and rely upon the candour and good sense of the reader for our reward.

" PHOGRESS OF THE REFORMATION UNDER HENRY YIUJ'

Under this head or title, Fox ushers in his narrative of king Henry's reign. He commences with these words ; — '^ The reader will, doubtless, attend to the transactions re- corded in his reign, with peculiar interest. It was in this period that God, through the instrumentality of the king,

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lihetaUd tHis country ^m the Papal yoke, when England became, as it were, a religious wobld dependant on itself." He then goes on to notice the termination of the civil wars between the two houses of York and Lancaster, bj the accession of Henry the Seventh, who married the princess Elizabeth, heiress of the house of York, by whom he had Henry the Eighth, " the instrument under God," Fox says ; he should rather have said the great enemy of mankind, by which this country was separated from the universal Church of Christ. Fox then mentions the popular actions of the latter Henry on coming to the throne, his disgracing and punishing Empson and Dudley, the ministers of his father*s avarice, and his great acquirements in literature and the sciences. Amidst these many good qualities, Fox tells us he was open to flattery, and, with his usual malice towards the clergy of 4;hat day, he charges them with administering this BubUe poLBon in copious draughts. He abo records Henry's entering the list of controversy with Luther, by writing a work on the Seven Sacraments of the Catholic church, for which the pope bestowed upon him the title of Defender of the Faith, still retained by the sovereigns of these realms, though the modem editors say in a note, '' absurdly enough." This work of Henry is still in circulation, and is held in re- pute. Luther wrote an answer, but with such coarse language and invective, as gave scandal to his friends and joy to his enemies. Ass, blasphemer, liar, were some of the epithets bestowed upon the royal author. Henry complained to the German reformer's patron, and the princes of that country, considering Luther's work an insult to crowned heads, he was induced to write an apology, and offered to write a bo<^ in the king's praise. The apology, however, did not please the king, because Luther hinted that Henry was not the author of the Defence of the Seven Sacraments, and that he was be- ginning to favour the new doctrine. He accordingly wrote an answer to Luther, and avowed himself the author of the work which bore his name. This exasperated Luther, and in a boiling rage, he publicly announced his regret that he

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BOOK OF MARTYRS. 115

had stooped to apologise to Henry. Such was the result of the dispute between Henry and Luther. Fox next gives us a " character of cardmal Wolsey,** and ** the manner of pro- motion to bishoprics and abbeys : " the latter having but little relation to the main subject, we shall pass over. Wolsey may certainly be considered the first instrument of the Elefor- mation, as it is called, he being the principal instigator of that coldness which ensued between Henry and his virtuous queen Catharine, after nineteen years affectionate cohabita- tion. The cardiiial was proud, aspiring, ambitious, witty, revengeful, and malicious. Catharine, who was woman of irreproachable conduct, devout without ostentation, and en- dowed with skill and penetration, could not endure the car- dinal ; and her nephew, Charles V., refusing to grant this ambitious churchman the archbishopric of Toledo, to which he aspired, as well as to the popedom, Wolsey determined to be revenged of the nephew, who was out of his reach, by seek- ing the ruin of the aunt. He therefore, Camden says, ** caused a scruple to be put into the king's head that his present marriage with queen Catharine, who before had been his brother's wife, was forbidden by the law of God."

It was Wolsey, too, who first set the work of dissolution on foot, by obtaining several grants from the king and the pope, to suppress about forty monasteries, and to appropriate their revenues to the erecting and supporting two noble colleges he had projected at Ipswich and' Oxford. Although there was a sensible difference in the motives of this measure, and the general destruction of the religious houses, which af(;erwai:ds followed, yet if jre may be allowed to hazard an opinion on the dispensations of Providence, the proceedings of Wolsey were offensive to the throne of Heaven.

Stow says, the monasteries suppressed by the cardinal were of '' good fame and bountiful hospitality,'' and he relates the followmg disastrous consequences which befell the principal actors in this woi^ of suppression. ^' In the executing of this business, five persons were his chief instruments, who on a time made a demand to the priory and convent of tho

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monastery of Daventry, for occupying of certain of their grounds, but the monks refusing to satisfy their requests, straightway they picked a quarrel against the house, and gave information to the cardinal against them, who taking a small occasion, commanded the house to be dissolved, and to be con- ▼erted to his new college, but of this irreligious robbery done of no conscience, but to patch up pride, which private wealth oould not furnish, what punishment hath since ensued at God's hands (says mine author) partly ourselres have seen, for of these ^ve persons, two fell at discord between them- selves, and the one slew the other, for the which, the survivor was hanged ; the third drowned himself in a well : the fourth being well known, and valued worth two hundred pounds, became in three years so poor, that he begged till his dying day: and the fif^, called doctor Allan, being chief executor of these doings, was cruelly maimed in Ireland, even at such time as he was a bishop : the cardinal falling afiter into the king's greviouB displeasure, was deposed, and died miserably : the colleges which he meant to hare made so glorious a build- ing, came never to good effect ; the one at Ipswich clean pulled down, and the other in Oxford unfinished ; and pope Clement himself, by whose authority these houses were thrown down to the ground, was after inclosed in a dangerous siege within the castle of St. Angelo in Borne, by the impe- rials, the city of Bome was pitifully sacked, and himself narrowly escaped with his life." Such was the beginning of the work of Beformation, as it is called, but which is more properly styled the deeds of devastation, and such was the end of the performers of this first scene of the drama.

The next subject we find in Fox is the imprisonment of Hun for heresy, and his murder, as he terms it. This cir- oumstanoe is not connected wiUi the Beformation, still we must notice it, as it shows the glaring disregard of truth in this instance as in numerous others, which we have detected. Fox says, — ^^'Not long after this, (alluding to a pretended con- test concerning ecclesiastical immunity), an event occurred, thai was productive of great consequences. Bichard Hun^ i^

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tnetchant in London, was sued bj bis parish-priest for a mortuary in tbe legate's court ; on this his friends advised him to sue the priest in the temporal court for a preemunire for bringing the king's subjects before a foreign and illegal court. This incensed the clergy so mudi that they oontnYed his destruction. Accordingly, hearing that he hfid Wick- liffe's bible in his house, he was upon that put into tbe bishop's prison for heresy ; but being examined upon sundry ftrticles, he confessed some things, and submitted himself to mercy ; upon which they ought, according to law, to have enjoined him penance, and discharged him, this being his first crime ; but he could not be prevailed upon by the terror of this to let his suit fall in the temporal court ; so one night his neck was broken with an iron chain, and he was wounded in other parts of his body, and then knit up in his own girdle, and it was given out that he had hanged himself; but the coroner's inquest, by examining the body, and by several other evidences, particularly by the confession of the sumner, gave their verdict that he . was murdered by the bishop's chancellor. Dr. Horsey, and the bell-ringer. The spiritual court proceeded against the dead body, and charged Hun with ail the heresy in Wickliffe's preface to the bible, because that was found in his possesssion ; so he was condemned as an heretic, and his body was burnt. The indignation of the people was raised to the highest pitch against this action, in which they implicated the whole body of the clergy, whom- they esteemed no more iheir pastors, but barbarous murderers. The rage went so high that the bishop of London complained that he was not safe in his own house. The bishops, chan- edlOT, and sumner were indicted as principals in the murder. In parliament an act passed, restoring Hun's children ; but ihe commons sent up a bill concerning his murder, which was laid aside by the peers, where the spiritual lords had the majority."

This account, we find, is not Arom Fox, reader, though it is fastened upon him by the modem editors ; but is extracted fioom *' Tbe Abridgment of the History of the Eeformation

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of the Church of England, by Gilbert Burnet, D. D.," an author of equal yeracitj as Fox, and as great a falsifier and forgerer. The event is here said to have been productive of great consequences, yet so little was the death of Hun thought of by our most popular historians, that Kapin, who was a Oalvinist, and has enlarged a great deal on the sup- posed persecutions of the Catholic clergy, takes no notice of the circumstance at all ; neither does Mr. Echard, who was a divine of the established church, make mention of Hun's death; and Dr. Lingard, in his recent admirable history, notices it but slightly, as a legend unauthenticated. Stow says nothing of the barbarous circumstances narrated by Burnet, nor of the trial of the bishop, <fec. He merely says, — ** Kichard Hun, a merchant tailor, of London, dwelling in the parish of St. Margaret, in Bridge-street, who (for denying to give a mortuary, such as was demanded by the parson for his child being buried) had been put in the Lol- lai'd's tower, about the end of October last, was now, the 6th of December, found hanged with his own girdle of silk, in the said tower, and after, he was burned in Smithfield." This was in the year 1514, and the 6th of Henry's reign. We are not going to justify the treatment of this man, because the circumstances are not clearly before us, and the authority of Burnet^ who, by the bye, was a bishop of William the Dutchman*s making, we believe, and the origi- nator of that huge debt which now presses the country to the ground, and steeps the people in misery and poverty, is no authority at all, seeing he neither gives dates nor names. Is it to be supposed that a murder so circumstantially related by Burnet, and attended with such horrid cruelties, woidd not have been more minutely detailed by Stow, if the cir- cumstances had been true ? There cannot be a doubt but he would have noticed it more fully, especially if the indig- nation of the people had been so great as to implicate the

' WHOLE BODY of the dergy. The story is evidenUy a tissue of falsehoods, interwoven with a simple &ct, and fabricated

for the express purpose of inflaming the people against the

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ancient religion of tbe country. That onr conjecture is true, there is every reason to suppose, and we are sure the reader will agree with us when he has read the following article from this Book of Martyrs.

"PERSECUTION OF THE LOLLARDS.

" In the beginning of this reign, seyeral persons were brought into the bishop's court for heresy, or LoUardism. Forty-eight were accused : but of these, forty-three abjured, twenty-seven men and sixteen women, most of them being of Tenterden ; and five of them, four men and one woman, were condemned ; some as obstinate heretics, and others as relapses; and, against the common laws of nature, the woman's husband, and her two sons, were brought as wit- nesses against her. Upon their conviction, a certificate was made by the archbishop to the chancery : upon which, since there is no pardon upon record, the writs for burning them must have been issued in course, and the execution of them is little to be doubted. The articles objected to them were, . that they believed that in the eucharist there was nothing but material bread ; that the sacraments of baptism, confir- mation, confession, matrimony, and extreme unction, were neither necessary nor profitable ; that priests had no more power than laymen ; that pilgrimages were not meritorious, and that the money and labour spent in them were spent in vain ; that images ought not to be worshipped, and that they were only stocks and stones ; that prayers ought not to be made to saints, but only to God ; that there was no virtue in holy water, or holy bread. By this it will appear, that many in this nation were prepared to receive those doctrines which were afterwards preached by the reformei^, even before Luther began first to oppose indulgences."

This is as pretty a piece of trickery as we have met with in the course of our review of this Book of Martyrs^ and proves the shifts to which our modem editors are reduced to make out their charge of persecution. This extract we find in BumeVa Ahridyment^ almost verbatim, with the following

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passage, however, suppressed. "Those who ahjured, did swear to discover all that held those errors, or were suspected of them ; and they were enjoined to carry a fagot in proces-i- sion, and to wear on their clothes the. representation of one in flames, as a puhlic confession that they had deserved to be burnt. There were also four in London that abjured almost the same opinions ; and Fox says, that six were burnt in Smithfield, who might be, perhaps, those whom Warham had condemned ; for there is no mention of any that were condemned J in the registers of London J* This passage should come in between the words, ** holy bread." and " By this," in the fourth line of the extract above, from the bottom. So, then, here are charges made of proceedings "against the common laws of nature," and burnings taking place, upon mere conjecture. There are no registers in the regu- lar courts, and yet they "might be, perhaps,'* burned, because Fox says there were six that suffered in Smithfield. Dr. Lingard writes, — "In Henry's third and thirteenth years the teachers of Lollardism had awakened by their intemperance the zeal of the bishops ; and the king, by proclamation, charged the civil magistrates to lend their aid to the spiritual authorities. Of the numbers brought before liie primate and the bishops of London and Lincoln, almost all were induced to abjure ; a few of the more obsti- nate forfeited their lives." And the authorities the doctor relies upon are Fox and Bumet, as we judge by a reference, fio that, on the whole, we may conclude, for want of better evidence, that the number of sufferers, while the bishops continued faithful to their creed, were trifling indeed. Here let it be understood that we are not justifying the act of burning for heresy, but only detecting the extravagant and unfounded tales, so basely coined by Fox and his followers, to delude the credulous, and excite hatred against truth. What can we think of the veracity of the writer, and the gullibility of his readers, when such narratives as we have just recorded are published and believed, and believed too by a people hitherto professing to be the most enlightened

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m the world I Here, as we have frequently remarked, are neither dates nor names, wherehj the accuracy of the cir- cumstances can be ascertained or detailed ; it is even con- fessed by the original writer, though that fact is suppressed by the modern editors, " a few plain Christians,*' that there is no mention of any persons being condemned in the regis- ters of London ; it is stated, that there is no rscord of par^ don, and yet it is brazenly insinuated, that because there is no pardon there mmt have been execution^ I / But we trust the time is now come, when the people of England will think for themselves, and not take every shallow and inconsistent narrative that dwells upon the supposed cruelties of ancient Catholic times for gospel truths. Is it not more probable, that since there were no regist^^ of executipns, and no re- cord of pardon in the chancery, and the authors and editors were unable to give a name to the sufferers, that these martyrs are only victims of straw — phantoms of the imagi- nation^ conjured up for the basest of purposes, and reflecting indelible disgrace on those who have been so besotted as to give credit to such villanous fabrications ?

With regard to the doctrinal articles which are here ob- jected to, we have proved beyond dispute, in our first volume of this work, from the testimony of the fathera of the first five ages of the church, when she is allowed by Protei^tants to have been pure, that they were taught and believed by that church, as derived from the apostles ; they were received by the Saxons, when Cathdicism was first planted in the island, by St. Augustin ; they continued to be believed by the people from that time to Henry's reign ; and is it consistent with common sense, that a few ignoi-ant men, unversed in history, uninformed of the real sense of scripture, and unacquainted with the sentiments of the fathers and doctors of the church whose writings were then confined to the libraries of the colleges and bisl)ops — is it consistent, we say, with common sense, that t^ese illiterate people should set up their silly and rain notions in opposition to the general voice of the king- dom? Is it consistent with common sense to believe that

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they only were rigbt, and all the rest of the world were wrong? But what shall we think of sueh men as Fox and Burnet, who both held benefices in the Church of England, applauding fanatics who held, among other opinions, *^ that priests had no more power than laymen ? " If this were true, why did Fox and Burnet officiate as clergymen ? We will not say as priests, because they were not entitled to that sacred character, as both disaTowed the great Christian sacrifice of the Mass, which was celebrated by the apostles, by the command of their Divine Master, and has been cele- brated by the priests of the Catholic church from that time to this. These two worthies, would, no doubt, haye sent Master John Wickliffe to ih& stake with very little c^emony, had he been alive in their time ; but as he was opposed to the then order of things, that is, to a Catholic establishment and some doctrines of the Catholic church, though he held the chief of what Fox and Burnet deny, these rogues in grain seized the opportunity of making him an instrument to blind the people of England by misrepresenting facts, and making him the apostle of truth, when he was the preacher of error. For example : the Lollards are represented as objecting to the sacrament of baptism, as being neither profitable nor necessary. Now Fox and Burnet's church, by law established, expressly says in her catechism, that baptism is necessary to salvation. Could then these Lollards preach a true doctrine, and the church of England be right at the same time? But enough has been said to shew the palpable discrepancies amongst these reformers, or rather deformers, of religion, and pretended martyrs to truth.

PROGRESS OF Luther's DueTRiNE. We must hwe remind the reader that we are not now re- viewing the work of John Fox, but of the right, reverend father in God, Gilbert Bcjrnbt, bishop, of Sarura, who wrote a history of his own time, which work for lying and misrepresentation was a counterpart of John Fox's notorious AeU and Manumenii of the Church, commonly called the

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SooJe of Martyrs, This historj by Burnet, being too bulky and expensive for general circulation, he made an abridge ynetU of it, and it is from this abridgment the ** few plain Christians " have extracted the account of the " progress of the Reformation,'* as coming from Fox's pen. These things premised, let us now see what this famous, or rather infamous, writer and church of England bishop had to say on Luther's preaching. ** The rise and progress of the doctrines of Luther," he says, '< are well known ; the scandalous sale of cndulgences gave the first occasion to all that followed be- tween him and the church of Rome ; in which, had not the corruptions and cruelties of the clergy been so visible and jscaudalous, so small a cause could never have produced so great a revolution. The bishops were grossly ignorant ; they seldom resided in their dioceses, except on great festivals ; And all the effect their residence at such times could have, was to corrupt others by their ill example. They attached themselves to princes, and aspired to the greatest offices* The abbots and monks were wholly given up to luxury and idleness; and their unmarried state gave infinite scandal to the world : for it appeared that the restraining them from having wives of their own made them conclude that they had a right to all other men's. The inferior clergy were no better; Aod not having places of retreat, to conceal their vices in, as the monks had, they became nM>re public. In short, all ranks of churchmen were so universally despised and hated, that the world was very easily possessed with prejudice against the doctrines of men whom they knew to be capable of every vice ; and the worship of God was so defiled with gross super- stition, that all men were easily convinced, that the church •tood in great need of a reformation. This was much in- ereased when the books of the fothers began to be read, in which the difference between, the former and latter ages of the ehurch did very .evidently appear. It was found that a ykkd superstition came first in the room of true piety ; and mb&a by its means the wealth and interest of the clergy were lugUy achrano^dy ^ popes had upon that established their

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tyranny ; under which all classes of people had long groaned* All these things concurred to make way for the advancement of the Beformation ; and, the books of the German reformera being brought into England, and translated, many were pre- vailed on by them. Upon this, a furious persecution was set on foot, to such a degree, that six men and women were burnt in Coventry in passion -week, only for teaching their children the creed, the Lord's prayer, and the ten commandments in English. Great numbers were everywhee brought into the bishops' courts ; of whom some were burnt, but the greater part abjured." He tl.en mentions Henry's book against Luther, and continues,^'* Tindal's translation of the New Testament, with notes, drew a severe condemnation from the clergy, there be ng nothing in which they were more con- cerned, than to keep the people unacquainted with that book. Thus much may serve to shew the condition of afiVnrs in England, both in church and state, when the process of the king's div<Nrce was first set on foot.'*

So much for the affairs of England, both in church and state, when the divorce was set on foot, according to Burnet's atory ; we shall, however, be able to place them in a very different light, and upon the testimony of unimpeachable witnesses^ which Burnet scorns to produce, but contents him- self with his own bare assertions. In the first place, it was not the sale of indulgences that first set Luther to oppose the church, but a supposed neglect of the pope, in a^^inting the Pominican order of the church to preach these indulgences* instead of the Augustinian order, of which latter Martin Luther was then a prominent member. Martin conceived his pride to be wounded, and from this spirit of pride and jealousy arose the disputes which afterwards followed between him and the church of Home. That there was a laxity of discipline among some of the clergy cannot be denied, but the doctrine was unimpaired, and continued the same as it ever had been, and ever will be. That there was gross ignorance in the higher order of the clergy, or lasciviousness among the monka, is a base insinuation^ as we shall shew by and by ; that r^potU

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of such a nature were industriously circulated to screen the designs of Henry and his courtiers in their invasion of church property is true enough, hut they were mere reports; not a single charge of the kind was ever suhstantiated^ while nu-* merous instances occurred where learned and pious men laid down their lives rather than samfice their conscience. That the unmarried state of the clergy gave infinite scandal to the world is clearly contradicted hy the English act of parliament passed in the reign of Edward VI., which allowed the new order of parsons to marry, yet nevertheless declared that it would he more edifying to the people, if they remained single. That all ranks of churchmen were universally despised and hated, is contradicted hy the &ct that the people rose in many parts of England in defence of the clergy and the monas- teries, which may he seen hy consulting the historians of the country. Of superstition and the tyranny of the popes we shall say nothing — the supposed tyranny of the pope was changed for an ahsolute despotism in the monarch, and Eng- land's liherties were hartered when a hase parliament gave spiritual supremacy to Harry. The furious persecution set on foot, in consequence of the translation of German books into English never existed, except in the brain of Fox or Burnet ; and the execution of the six men and women for teaching their children the creed, the Lord's prayer, and the commandments in English, is one of the most brazen false- hoods ever told. The people of all countries were, from the commencement of Christianity, aZ/ taught to repeat the Lord's prayer, and instructed in the commandments and creed in thdr vernacular tongue, and parts of Scripture were explained to them by the clergy in the same familiar may. To repre- sent^ therefore, that men and women were burned for per- forming a duty to their children enjoined them by the Catho- lic church, (for such was the cas3) — the clergy taught both parents and children, and the parents were exhorted to aid the clergy by reminding them of their duty — to represent, we say, men and women as being burned for such an act, is one of the most frontless, most malignant, and most diabo«

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. lical^alsehoo Js, ever invented to blacken and defame the oldee^t class of Christians in the world.

We must now say a word on the morals of the worid, when Luther began to preach his doctrines, and the state thej were in after his doctrines had taken root. Burnet states the bishops were grossly ignorant, the regular clergy absorbed in luxury and debauchery, the inferior clergy public scandal- izers by their unblushing immorality, and the people groan* ing under a system of despotism and blind superstition. We have admitted that, there was a laxity of morals among both clergy and people, but certainly not to that extent hero de- scribed. Had there n6t been a debasement of conduct among the clergy, we should not hare had such a crew of beastly reformers as sprung up afler the example set them by Luther*- What the ^eets of their pretended reforms in religion pro- duced let them bear testimony themseWes, and in so doing we shall see them contradicting the description given by Burnet of the state of Catholicism at that period. ^ Here- tofore,'' bays Luther, that is, in the days of Catholicbmy *' heretofore, when we were seduced by the pope, every man willingly performed good works, but NOW no man says or knows any thing else but how to get all to himself by exac- tions, pillage, theft, lying, usury, (fee," Postih super Evemg. Dom, 26. post 7}rm, Here then we have the acknowledgment of Luther himself, that, before he began to preach, every maai was occupied in performing good works, and surely th^ ex- ercise of good deeds eould not be productive of ignorance and immorality. He may calt it being seduced by the pope, but who is the man, who is the Christian, that would not be seduced to perform the works of charity, rather than be charmed by some evil spirit to delight in the ways ^ the devil, as Luther confesses was the case with those who em- braced his doctrines. A great outcry has been raised against the sale of indulgences in the Chureh of Rome ; now that no ill effects were derived from this traffic, allowing for the sake of argument that such a mart was established, is proved by the testimony of Luther, who says, that men then delighted

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.in the performance of good works, an indulgence certainly verj commendable, and liighlj conduoive to the happiness of a people. But the moment Lutber began to preach against the sale of indulgences, he gave such a gratuitous license to his followers to indulge in all the base passions of human nature, that shortly after, he tells us, every kind of good doings was totally obliterated from their minds, and the sole study of every individual was '* how to get all to himself by exacUons, pillage, theft, lyings usury, <&c.*' And he further states, ^' that men were then more rev^igeful» covetous, and licentious tiian they ever were in the papacy." But need we wonder that such should be the result of the progress of liutiier's doctrines, when the preacher himself was a prey to his own lust luid intemperance ? We have it from his own pen that he had conferences with the devil, and in the preface to the first tome of his works he thus describes the state of his own mind, and his dispo^tion towards God, previous to his commencing reformer. ^<I was mighty desirous/' he Bay8> '* to understand Paul in his Epistle to the Eomans ', but was hitherto deterred, not by any faintheartedness, but by one single question in the first chapter, viz., therein is the rigJUeousnese of God revealed. For I hated that word, the righUoueness of Ood: because, I had been taught to under- stand it of that formal and active righUoumees, by which God is righteous and punishes sinners and the unrighteous. Now knowing myself, though I lived a monk of an irreproach- able life, to be in the sight of God a sinner, and of a most unquiet conscience, nor having any hopes to appease him with my own satisfaction, / did not love, nay, / Tiated this righteous God, who punishes sinners, and with heavy mut- tering, if not with silent blaspTiemy, I was angry with Ood, and s^d, as if it were not enough for miserable sinners, who are lost to all eternity by original sin, to suffer all manner . of calamity by the law of the Decalogue, unless God by the gospel adds sorrow to sorrow, and even by the gospel threatens UB with his righteousness and anger. Thus did I rage with a fretted and disorded conscience,*' What a fit apostle to^

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reform religion ! What precious marks of a divine commis- sion ! What charming fruit must such a tree produce ! Here we have a man declaring that he hated a righteous God ; that he raged and fretted with a clisordered conscience : that he muttered against the will of heaven, and silently hlas- phemed his justice — and yet this man, this impious wretched hlaspheroer, is held up as the pattern of excellence, and the reformer of that system which its Divine Founder said should never he reformed. This lihidinous monk taught that, adul- tery was lawful, notwithstanding one of the commandments of God is so positive against that crime ; he said that, ** a person that is haptized could not, though he would, lose his salvation hy any sins how grevious soever, unless he refused to helieve. For no sin could damn a man hut unbelief alone.*' Capt, Bah, tom. ii. fol. 74, 1. Where is the wonder that men should be guilty of lying, iheft, usury, exaction, and the like, when they had such a blessed counseUor in this I'eformer of religion ? Again he says, ** The Papists teach that faith in Christ justifies indeed, but that God's command- ments are likewise to be kept. Now this is directly to deny Christ and abolish faith." In Ep. ad Qah tom. v. fol. 31), 2. An excellent mode of reasoning, if such it can be called. If the commandments are not to' be kept why were they en- joined ? Before we take leave of Luther we will just men- tion his golden rule for the interpretation of scripture, whicli can be considered in ro other light than a general indulgence to commit every degree of enormity that a man's inclinations may lead him to. ** Let this," he says, ** be your rule ; where the scripture commands the doing a good work, under- stand it in this sense, that it forbids thee to do a good work, because thou canst not do it." Tom. iii. fol. 171, 2.

What the " few plain Christians " will say to this rule of interpreting scripture, we cannot divine ; the effects of it, however, have been dreadful, as we gather from the page ©f history, and the writings of the reformers themselves. Calvin wrote in similar strains to Luther, on the increase of iniquity among the disciples of the Beformation, so called.

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'^ Of the many thousands/* he said, ^^ who, renounoiDg Popery, seemed eagerly to embrace thegospel, how few have amended their lires ! Nay, what else did the greater part pretend to, but by shaking off the yoke of superstition, give themselves more liberty to follow all kinds of licentiousness." — Lib, de seandaUs. Erasmus, who was no advocate for the Catholics, lamented the degeneracy of morals brought on by the change of religion. " Take a view," he says, " of this evangelical people," — <he Protestants — ^** Perhaps *tis my misfortune ; but I never yet met with one, who does not appear changed for the worse." — Epist, ad VuUur. Neoc. And again : '^ Some persons," says he, <' whom I knew for- merly innocent, harmless, and without deceit, no sooner have I seen joined to that sect, (the Protestants), but they begun to talk of wenches, to play at dice, to leave off prayers, being grown extremely worldly, most impatient, revengeful, ▼ain, like vipers tearing one another. — I speak by experience. *' Ep, ad Fratres infer, Germant€B, " The greater part of the people," adds Bucer, ** seem to have embraced the gos- pel, only to live at their pleasure, and enjoy their lusts and lawless appetites without control. Hence they lend a willing ear to the doctrine, thai we are juetified by faith onlyy and not by good works, for which they have no relish." — Burde Regn. Christ, b, 1. c, 4. There is one more witness we shall produce, because his testimony goes to shew that lying, and perjury, and forgery, were the instruments by which the reformers midntaiued their ground, and cheated the people out of their senses. '^ I am indignant " says the Protestant professor Zanchlus, '< when I consider the manner in which most of us defend our cause. The true state of the question we often, on set purpose, involve in darkness that it may not be understood ; we have the impudence to deny things the roost evident; we assert what is visibly false ; the most im- pious doctrines we force on the people as the first principles of faith, and orthodox opinions we condemn as heretical ; we torture the scriptures till they agree with our own fancies ; and boast of being the disciples of the fathers, while we

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refase to follow tbeir doctrine ; to deceive, to calumniate, tb abuse, is our familiacr practice ; nor do we care far any thing, provided we can deferid our cause, good or bad, right or wi*ong. O what times! what manners r'*—Z(incA«if ad Slormium, torn. viii. col. 828.

We have advanced enough to shew " the rise and progress of Luther's doctrines " in a different light than what Burnet has pourtrayed them. He has, with the same dexterity as Fox, and other reformed writers, followed the course comf- plained of by Zanchius. The true question is studiously involved in darkness, that it may not be clearly seen ; facts the most evident are denied or suppressed ; the most impious doctrines are imposed upon the people as divine truths ; and the scriptures are tortured and twisted to suit the notions of every cobbler or coalheaver that feneies himself inspired. How dtflSerent are the ways of the Catholic church. Eegtt- lated by one system of divine jurisprudence, and governed by the Spirit of Truth, she, in case& of difficulty, assembles the guaixlians of faith from the different quarters of iho worid, to pronounce on the novelties^ that may arise, and de- clare what is, has been, and always was, the faith of the- church, received by her from Christ, through the apostles. This done, canons or laws were devised for the repressing <rf abuse, and the correction of morals, and thus her unity, holi- ness, apostolicity, and Catholicity have been made manifest to the world. The last of these general councils was held at Trent, during the progress of the Eeformation, and in the seventh session the fathers of that assembly decreed as fol- lows ; — To " those tvho persevere in good works to the endy' and trust in God, eternal life is to be proposed, both as a grace mercifully promised to the sons of Qodi, through Jesus Christ, and as a reward which, according to the promise of God, will be faithMly rendered to their good works and merits.'' Let the reader compare this doctrine with the . iiTeligious preachings of the lustful reformers, and say whether the superstition of the fonner, as it is called, is not to be preferred to the libertinism of the latter.

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HISTORY OF henry's MARRIAGE WITH CATHARINE.

The ^' few plain Christians " usher in Hiis marriage with the following ohsenrations : <' As this incident is so replete with consequences, a piuiicular relation of its cause will not, it is presumed, he unaceeptahle to the reader ;'* and they then proceed with extaracts from Burnet's Abridgment^ under the name of Foz« Burnet states the marriage of Catharine ynih. prince Arthur, and their heing hedded together. He also insinuates that the marriage was consummated, though it is well known that Arthur was a sickly prince, and died soon after the marrii^e, and that Catharine always declared that she was a virgin when she came to Henry's hed. He lur^er says, ^t ^e second match, between Henry and Catharine, originated from tha avarice of Henry*s father ; that Warham, archbishop of Canterbury, objected to the second marriage, and Fox, bishop of Winchester, was for it ; that ** Uie pope's authority was then so well established that, it was thought, a dispensation was. sufficient to remove all objection," and accordingly one was obtained. The two paragraphs following we quote verbatim from the Book of Martyrs, and we beg the reader's partibular attention to the words we have put in italic characters : —

** The pope was then at war with Lewis XII. of France^ and so would refuse nothing to the king of England, being, perhaps, not unwilling that princes should contract such marriages, by which the legilimati<ni of their issue depend- ing on the pope's dispensation, they would be thereby obliged in interest to support that authority. Upon this, a marriage Jollowedf the prince get being under age ; but, the same dag in which he came to be of age, he did, by hie father's orders, make a protestation that he retracted and annulled his marriage^

•* Henry YIl., on his deathbed, charged his son to break it off entirely, being, perhaps, i^prehensive of such a return of confusioa upon a controverted succession to the crown, as had been dming the wai^ of the houses of York and Lan-

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caster ; but, after his father's deaihy Henry VIII., hein^ then eighteen years of age, married her ; she bore him two BODS, who died soon after they were bom ; and a daughter, Mary, afterwards queen of England. After this, the queen contracted some diseases that made her unacceptable to the king; who, at the same time, beginning to have somie scruples of conscience with regard ta the lawfulness of his marrixige, determined to have the affair investigated ! /*'

Did the world ever before see such a specimen of bare- faced lying as this bishop of the Church of England, this Gilbert Burnet, D. D., has here furnished. In the first para- graph he says a marriage followed the dispensation, while the prince was under age, but as soon as he came of age, obeying his father*s orders like a duti&l child, he made a protestation that he retracted, and annulled his marriage. Now what are we to understand by this protestation, and the order of Henry's father ? If his father ordered him ta annul the marriage when he came of age. how came he to permit the marriage to be contracted : and if it were in the poww of Henry, on coming of age, to retract and annul the mar- riage, why was a dispensation required to allow him to con- tract the marriage, and why did he seek, twenty years after, for a dispensation from the same authority, but another person, to have the marriage annulled ? But mark, reader ; having married Henry under age, and made him when of age, according to lus father's orders, protest, retract, and annul the marriage, he nejt marries Henry at eighteen years gf age, after his father's death, and in opposition to his father^s dying request, lest civil war and confusion should ensue, and he continues to live with this same wife, in connubial happi- ness we si^pose, till disease renders her unacceptable, and then, the moral Henry begins to have sotne scruples of con- science / So we may suppose that had Catharine remained buxom and gay, instead of waxing old and infirm, Harry would never have had any scruples of conscience about his brother's wife, nor called for an investigation. Eeally when we see such gross imposture a^ this permitted to be circulated^

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and that too for a long series of time, without coiilraclictioi], and bdieved bj a people claiming to themselves a superiority of intellect over other nations, we feel abashed and vexed for the honour of our country. Another insinuation to notice is, l^t of the readiness o£ the pope to grant the dispensation to Henry's father, because he was at war with the king of France, and could refuse Flenry the Seventh nothing. Now is not this pliant disposition contradicted by the conduct of this pope's successor, who, when applied to by Henry the Eighth to annul the contract Altered into under this dispensa- tion, would not comply with Henry *s wishes, though he (the pope) was then shut up in the castle of St. Angelo, in Rome, by the emperor Charles Yth, the nephew of Catharine, and Henry was able to assist his holiness in his difficulties ?

THE king's scruples CONCERNING HIS MARRIAGE.

Burnet says, ** He (the king) seemed to lay the gi'eatest weight on the prohibition, in the levitical law, of marrying the brother's wife, and bebg conversant in Thomas Aquinas' writings, he found that he and the other schoolmen looked upon these laws as moral, and for ever binding ; and conse- quently the pope's dispensaticm was of no force, since his authority went so far as to dispense with the laws of Gcd. All the bishops of England, Fisher of Kochester only ex- cepted, declared under their hands and seals, that they judged the marriage unlawful. The ill consequences of wars that might follow upon a doubtful title to the crown, were also much considered. It is not probable that Henry's affec- tion for any other lady was the origin of these proceedings ; but rather, that, conceiving himself upon the point of being freed from his former marriage, he gave iiee scope to his affections, which settled on Anne Boleyn.** Harry was certainly conversant with the writings of Thomas Aquinas, as he is said to have been intended for the church by his father, previous to the death of his brother Arthur, and was educated accordingly. This will account for his eagerness and ability in taking the. lists against Luther. We will also

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admit that the pope had no authority to dispeiiBe with the laws of God, and consequently that a papal dispensation to that effect was of no force. Yet we doubt much that Harry ever laid any great weight upon the prohibition of the levitical law, since the leTitical law was superseded by the Christian law> and the levitical enjoined the marriage of a brother to a brother's wife, if he died without issue. But if Harry had been so fond of the levitical law, why did he not turn Jew, that he might, without scruple of conscience, have followed this law to the very letter, without all that mass of hypocrisy and dissimulation which covered his cruel and detestable actions ? Burnet further says, that " all the bishops of Eng- land, Fisher of Hochester only excepted, declared under their hands and seals, that they judged the manriage unlaw- ful/' Thiais another mi&take, since it is declared by Dr. Bailey, in his Life of Bishop Fisher, that the seals and signa- tures of many of the bishops were affixed to the instrument of dissent without their privity y though they had not the courage to make that dedaration as Fisher did.

Burnet also insinuates that it is not probable that Harry's affections for any ** other lady, was the origin ci these pro- ceedings ; but rather that, conceiving himself upon the point of being freed of his former marriage, he g&yefree scope to his affections, which settled on Anne Boleyn.'* It may be that Hany's lust for young Anne was not the original cause of his seeking a divorce from his virtuous queen, but it is a somewhat singular way of pleading an excuse for a lecherous monarch, though well suited to a Protestant bishop, to talk of his giving scope to his affections (read passions) which at length fixed on Anne Boleyn. The plain fact is, Hwry gave way to voluptuousness Mid debauchery, after Wokey had gained such an ascendency over him. Before this he at- tended to the royal duties, now he left business to his favourite, and courted the embraces of loose women. When he married Catharine, he was only eighteen years of age, she was twenty- six. At that time she was beautiful and lovely, as well aa adorned with every amiable quality. Twenly yearS; attended

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with delicate health, had made ravages in her person, though her mind was as pure and exalted as in her youth. The infirmities of age weaned the affections of Harry, hut could not eradicate his regard for her, so powerful were the graces of her soul. While he was attached to Catharine, he pre- served decency in his amours, hut he was not without his mistresses I Of these Pr. Lingard enumerates as the first, Elizabeth, the daughter of Sir John Bbunt, and relict of Sir CHlbert Tidbois, by whom he had a son. To her succeeded Mary Boleyn, daughter of Sir Thomas Boleyn, and sister to the famous Miss Nancy, afterwards queen of England. So that Burnet was not much out when he said that Harry gave ** fte^ sc(^e to his affections '' (passions), even before he considered hifmsolf on the point of being freed from his marriago wi^ Catharine. The origin of the divorce, we have said, may be laid to Wolsey's account,, who put the scruple into Harry's head^ with a view to strengthen his- interest with the French court, by engaging the king to marry a sister of the king of France, and thus revenge him- self the eniperor Charles and his aunt Catharine;, but the devil put it into Harry's head ta take a liking to Anne Boleyn^ that the ambitious minister might be thwarted. Anne was more- cunning than her sister Mary, and would not con- sent to the king's wishes without she* became his wife. She took core to throw out her allurements in the king's presence- so artfully, that she enkindled a raging fire inHuTy^s breast, who resolved to have her, cost what it would.

Here let us examine a Iktle closer into the scrhples of this^ very scrupulous monarch, the first head of the church, as by law established. Burnet says lie laid great stress upon the kvitical law, and that he felt great repugnance at living with his Iw^ther's wife. But if Harry was so conscientious in this affair after having lived with Catharine twenty years ,^ why was he not equally scrupulous in cohabiting with Anne Boleyn, her own sister having been his mistress? The stress of the divorce with Catharine laid upon prince Arthur having carnal knowledge of her, which she most solemnly denied;

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but it cannot be denied that Harry had carnal knowledge of Anne's sister, jet he scrupled not to make Anne in appear- ance his wife. The relationship between brother and brother could not be nearer than sister and sister, it is therefore evident that Harry's scruples were a naockery and cloak for his lustful passions. Another fact, too, we may notice here^ to shew what Harry himself thought of his scruples, when threatened with the danger of mortality. In the year 1528, when the king was deep in love with Miss Boleyn, the court was affected with a sweating sickness, which first made its appearance among Anne's attendants. By the king's orders she was immediately packed off to her father *s seat in Kent, where she was attacked with the disease, but recovered. Harry, finding the contagion spreading among the gentlemen of his privy chamber, took the alarm, and, forgetting all his scruples of conscience, fled to his virtuous queen, whom he joined in her devotional eisercises, confessing himself every day, and communicating every Sunday and festival. These particulars, Pr. Lingard tells us, may be found in the Letters of the bishop of Bayonne. Hero then we find the king laying aside his '< scruples," when under the fear of death, and joining the society of that woman whose marriage with whom he is represented to have considered incestuous. Nay, what is still more corroborative of the hypocrisy of these scruples, when cardinal Campegio, who was sent as joint legate with Wolsey by the pope, arrived in London, Harry sent the lady Anne away, for decency sake, and again joined the company of his queen. "He lived with her,*' writes Dr. Lingard, " apparently on the same terms as if there had been no controversy between them. They continued to eat at the same table, and to sleep in the same bed. Catharine care- fully concealed her feelings, and appeared in public with that air of cheerfulness which she used to display in the days of her greatest prosperity. The arrival of Campegio had added to the popularity of her cause, and though Wolsey had taken every precaution to prevent disturbance, he could not silence the common voice of the people, who publicly declared, that^

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let the king marry whom he pleased, the hushand of the princeas Mary should he his successor on the throne." We mention this last circumstanee with feelings of pleasure, as it reflects the highest credit on the character of the people of England, who on all occasions have heen found on the side of rirtue, and have taken part with the persecuted and op~ pressed. We say on all occasions, heoause in those doys of frenzy and lawless outrage, when the perjuries of Oates led innocent victims to the scaffold, and the ravings of lord George Gordon threatened destruction to the metropolis, the people were misled by interested villains, and taught to look upon the Catholics as dangerous and perfidious men. Had the people heen rightly informed ; had they known the real diaracter of those who were deluding them, we have no doubt hot their vengeance would have been turned upon the base ccmspirators against truth and justice, and the same feeling have been manifested for the oppressed Catholics as was shewn in favour of the unfortunate but magnanimous Catharine.

To enter into all the details concerning the king's mar- riage with Catharine, and his divorce from her, as related by Burnet, and introduced by the ^' few plain Chrbtians," into the Book of Martt/rs, would swell our Eeview to an enor- mous bulk, and tire the patience of the reader ; we shaJl tiierefore pass over many of the subtleties of Burnet, and supply a few of the omissions he has made of most material facts to give a f&he cdour to his relations. But first we must notice his insinuations against the election of popes. Speak, ing of the illness of pope Clement, who filled ihe papal chair during the agitation of the divorce, Burnet says, ** About this time the pope was taken suddenly ill, upon which the imperi- alists b^an to prepare for a conclave ; but Famese, and the cardinal of Mantua, apposed them, and seemed to f&vour Wolaey; whom as his correspondent wrote to him, 'they reverenced as a Deity.' Upon this he dispatched a courier to Gardinar, then on his way to Home, with large directions how to manage the election ; it was reckoned, that on tiie

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kiiig of fVance joiniDg beartilj with Harry, of whidi be seemed confident, there were only six cardinals wanting to make the election sure, and besides sums of money, and other rewards, that were to be distributed among them, be was to give them assurance, that the cardinal's preferments should be divided among them. These were the secret methods ef attaining that chair : and indeed it would puzzle a man of an ordinary degree of credulity to think that one chosen by such means could presume to be Christ *s vicar, and the in- fallible judge of controversies. The recovery, however, of the pope put an end to these intrigues."

When Burnet w^as casting his slanders against the con- clave, he should have reflected on the way he obtained bis prelacy, for it would puzzle a man of more than ordinary credulity to think that men diosen as he was were filled with the Holy Ghost, though they swear it to be so with might and main. To prevent ambitious men from intriguing is impossible, while human nature remains as it is ; to guard therefore against these intrigues, every precaution has been devised in the regulation of the oondave, and no pope is elected until two-thirds of the votes are given in favour of • the cardinal elected. To obtain this number of votes is frequently a work of time, and as there is no communication whatever with the electors after the conclave is once closed, thei'e is no election, we feel convinced, so pure and free from suspicion as that of the head of the Catholic diuroh. We do not wonder that Burnet should sneer at the belief held by all Catholics, that the pope is Christ^s vicar on earth ; but it is to be observed, that this belief has been held by all the world at one time, and is now by the greatest part of Christendom, including many monarchs and eminent statesmen ; and we cannot help feeling, that there is more of presumption in those who reject this tide of the pop^, so long and so univer- sally credited, than there is of credulity in those who main- tain it. As to the secret method of attaining the papal chair, we have said before, that ambitious men, like Wolsey, cannot be prevented from aspirtru; to, and vntrig^ng ioXy so high a

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-dignity ; bnt kistory tells us, that those who resorted to such ub- justtfiable practices, like W olsiBy» invariably met with a defeat.

** In October," Burnet says, ** Campegio arrived in Eng- land, and advised the king to relinquish the prosecution of his suit ; and then counselled the queen, in the pope's name, to enter into a religious community ; but both were in vain ; and he, by affecting an impartiality, almost lost both sides." And why was Campegio *s advice unavailing with the queen ? This Mr. Burnet has not thought proper to inform his r^ulers, lest they should see too much into this scene of iniquity and injustice, which led to the deformation of re- ligion, and paved the way fur his promotion ; which would never have been the case had the old faith not been subverted. Catharine, we are told by Dr. Lingard, listened to the legate with modesty and firmness, and then gave him for answer, ^ that it was not for herself that she was concerned, but for one whose- inter^ts were more dear to her than her own ; that the presumptive heir to the crown was her daughter Mary, whose right should never be prejudiced by the volun- tary act of her mother ; that she thought it strange to \^e thus interrogated without previous notice, on so delicate and important a subject ; that she was a weak, illiterate woman, a stranger, without friends or advisers, while her opponents were men learned in the law, and anxious to deserve the favour of their sovereign ; and that she therefore de- manded as a right, the aid of counsel of Tier own choice^ selected from the subjects of her nephew." Thus spoke this noble-minded and persecuted woman to the legate of the pope, and this dignified conduct she pursued throughout the whole of her cruel and .unmanly case. Her request was par- tially granted. In addition to nine English counsellors, eomposed of prelates and canonists, the queen was permitted to choose two foreign advocates, provided they were natives of Flanders, and not of Spain. The two counsel came from Flanders^ but left England before the trial began.

These proceedings against so virtuous and unprotected a woman occasioned loud murmurs and discontents among the

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people. *' Of the coming of this legate/' Stow writes, **the people, especially the women, talked largely, and said, that the king would for his own pleasure have another wife, and had sent for this legate to he divorced from his queen, with many foolish words, insomuch, that whoever spoke against the marriage was of the common people abhorred and reproved, which common rumour was related to the king." Such an ebullition of popular feeling was by no means agreeable to a monarch of Harry's temperament, so he caused all the nobility, judges, counsellors, the lord mayor, aldermen, and principal citizens, to come to his palace of Bridewell, on Sunday, the 8th of November, 1528, before whom he entered into an explana- tion of his conduct, and the reasons which induced him to have his marriage with Catharine examined into. The speech of the king is given at length in Stow, and is so full of hypocrisy that we give the conclusion, to shew how Harry could dissemble as well as play the tyrant. After noticing the civil wars between the houses of York and Lancaster, about the succession of the crown, and the necessity of guarding against such calamities for the future, he touched on the rumours which were afloat doubting the legitimacy of the princess Mary, his daughter, in conse- quence of her mother having been his brother's wifo, which he said, was directly against God's law and his precept. He then goes on : — '' Think you, my lords, that these words touch not my body and soul ; think you that these doings do not daily and hourly trouble my conscience and vex my spirits ; yes, we doubt not but if it were your own cause, every man would seek remedy, when the peril of your soul and the loss of your inheritance is openly laid to you. For this only cause I protest before Qod, and in the word of a prince, I have asked council of the greatest clerks of Chris- tendom, and for this cause I have sent for this legate, as a roan indifferent, only to know the truth, and to settle my conscience, and for none other cause, as God can judge. And as touching the queen, if it be judged by the law of God, that she h my lawful wife, there was never thing nMure

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acceptable to me in mj life, both for the discharge of mj conscience, and also for the good qualities and conditions which I know to be in her ; for I assure you all, that beside her noble parentage of the which she is descended, (as yoa all know), she is a woman of most gentleness, of most hu- mility, and buzomness, yea, and of all good qualities apper- taining to nobility, she is, without comparison, as I these twenty years almost have had the true experiment, so that if I were to marry again, if the marriage might be good, 1 would surely choose her above all other women ; but if it be determined by judgment, that our man'iage was against Gt>d's law, and clearly void, then I shall not only sorrow the departing from so good a lady and loving companion, but much more lament and bewail ray unfortunate chance, that I have so long lived in adultery, to God's great displeasure, and have no true heir of my bo<iy to inherit this realm. These be the sores that vex my mind, these be the pangs that trouble my conscience, and for these griefs 1 seek a remedy; therefore 1 require of you all, as our trust and confidence is in you, to declare to our subjects our intent, according to our true meaning, and desire them to pray with us, that the truth may be known, for the discharge of our conscience, imd saving of our soul ; and for declaration hereof I have assembled you together, and now you may depart." This speech shewed the king to be as consummate a hypo- crite, when he thought he could carry his cause with a plausible share of religion, as he proved a despot and cdd- blooded murderer, when he found himself disappointed in these vieiirs. What can we think of the man who here made such a parade about conscience, and his scruples at living witii a virtuous woman, because she had been married to his brother, but remiuned 4 virgin, when he was meditating to be married to a wanton, whose sister he had kept as a mis- tress? Out upon such a conscience as this. We learn , however, this fact, from the king and nobles, that it was then as it long had beenj the belief of the whole kingdom, that die pope was the only legitimate authority to decide on

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spiritual questions, which was the case between Henry and Catharine. The king and the people knew that the pope held this authority by di?ine right, for nothing but a divine commission could have preserved it so long, or extended it so universally as it then was, every monarch and nation ia Christendom voluntarily yielding obedience to it.

On recomparing Burnet's abridgment with the account given by the " few plain Christians," we find that the latter have suppressed many facts related by the former. Now this suppression of facts is a strange way of instructing the people in the " knowledge and love of the genuine principles of Christianity." It may tend to excite " a hatred of the (supposed) crimes and corruptions of popery," but it cannot convey to the reader the least perception of truth. The ac- count of the " Progress of the Keformation," is a garbled and unfair extraction from a partial historian, and conse- quently carries with it the design of misleading, instead of instructing, the people on the important matters under con- sideration. For example, we have a title of the coming of Campegio into England ; but, from this circumstance, and the illness of the pope, which we have before noticed, the ^^ few plain Christians " pass over to the ** queen's appeal to the pope," leaving out the commencement of the process of divorce, whidi occasioned the ill-fated Catharine to appeal to the common falJier of Christendom. By the bye, we should have noticed, that the king and his prime minister, Wolsey^ left no means untried to obtain the consent of the pope, who as firmly resisted every sinister measure to seduce him from his line of duty. Involved in a dispute with the •emperor, money and troops were profiered him, but Ciemeat regarded them not. Threats were then appKed with as litUe success. Even his sidL bed was no security to him from the imp<M-ta- fiities of the emissaries of Henry, who went so far as t6 accuse the pontiff of ingratitude to his best friend, and of indifierenoe to the prosperity of the drareh. ** To all ^tmt remonatranoeB," writes Dr. Lisgafrd, <Mie ntemed the aniie muiwer, that he ooold not nftne to Catfattriiie wlat tbeoEfB«>

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nary forms of justice required ; that he was devoted to the king, and eager to gratify him in any manner conformably with honour and equity ; but that he ought not to require from him what was evidently unjust, or they would Hud that wheft his conscience was concerned, he was equally insensible to considerations of interest or danger." Burnet and the " few plain Christians '' may attempt to throw a stigma on the election of popes, but the words and resolution of this bead <^ the church reflect no disgrace upon either the chm'ch or himself.

The "few plain Christians,'* quoting from Burnet, say, ^* At length tiie legates began the process, when the queen ]HX)tested against them as incompetent judges. They, how- ever, proceeded accordiug to the forms of law, although the queen had appealed from them to the pope, and objected both to the place, to the judges, and her lawyers : yet they pro- Rounced her coptomacious, and went on to examine witnesses, chiefly as to the consummation of her marriage with prince Arthur." This part of the affair is so very interesting, the conduct of the oppressed queen so truly heroic, and her appeal so pathetically touching, that we should be doing injusUoe to the cause of religion, and leave our readers in the dark^ did we not give her defence in full. The same arts practised upon the pontiff were tried upon the queen. Burnet says, (but this passage the " few plain Christians *' have also omitted), <' Endeavours were used to terrify her into some comi^iaQce ; it was given out that some had intended to kill the king or the cardinal, and that she had some hand in it ; that she earned herself very disobligingly to the king, and usied many indecent arts to be popular ; that the king was in danger of his life by her means, and so could no more keep her company neither in bed nor at board : but (continues Bmiiet) she was a woman of so resolute a mind that no threatenings could daunt her." While tiiese intrigues and meDaeea were being carried on against the queen, Anne Bdey^ was gaining a complete ascendency at court, and at length obtained tho supreme iM>iitrol of the ministij. Harry

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allowed her a princely establishment, ordered his coartiers to attend her daily levees, the same as they had done those of the queen, who was now banished to Greenwich.

Seven months had now elapsed since the arrival of Cam*- pegio, which time had been spent in fruitless negociations with Eome, when it was deemed necessary that some public proceeding should take place, to bring the question to an issue. Accordingly, a court was held at the Blackfriars, the first session of which began on 3 1 st May, 1529. Wolsey anc( Campegio sat as judges, being joint legates of the pope ; thci chief managers on the part of the king were, Ihr. Sampson, Dr. Hall, Dr. Petre, and Dr. Tregonel ; those that pleaded for the queen were, Dr. Fisher, bishop of Eochester, Dr; Standish, bishop of Asaph, and Dr. Ridley, a very learned civilian. Before this court the king and queen appeared, but previous to their being called, the bishop of Eochester pre- sented the legates with a book, which he had composed ia defence of the marriage ; making therewith a grave and learned speech, in which he cautioned them as to what they did in so important an affair, calling to their minds the many dangers and inconveniences that might ensue, not only ttf the realm, but to the whole of Christendom, by their decision^ The bishop having concluded, the king was called by name, who answered, Here ; and repeated in sfibstanee, what bo had said before the assembly of the nobility. Then the queen- was called, who made no answer, but rising from her ehair, she kneeled before the king, and in sight of the legates and the whole court, thus addressed him : — " Sir, I ^beseech yoa do me justice and right, and take some pity upon me I f<Mr I am a simple woman, and a stranger bom out of your domin- ions, and have no friend but you, who now being become my adversary, alas ! what friendship or assurance of indiffn^moy in my council can 1 hope to find amongst your sabjeoto t What have I done ? Wherein have I offended you ? How have I given you any occasion "of displeasure? Why Will you put me from you in this sort ? I take Qt>d to be my judge, I have been a true, humble, and faithful wife imto

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jou ; alwaj^ cwiformable t% your will and pleasure. Wherein did I ever centradict or gainsay whatever you said ? When was I ctiseontented at the thing that pleased you? W^om did £ love but these whom yon loved, whether I had cause or not ? I have been your wife these twenty years ; jou have had divers children by mo : when you took me first onto your bed, I tidce GFod to be »y witness, I was a virgin ; and, whedier that be true or mot, I put it to your oonseience. ^ow, if tl^re be any just cause that you can allege against me, either of dishonesty or the like, I am contented to depart the realm and yeu, with shame and in^uny ; but, if there be no audi cause, then I pray you let me have justice at yeur hatids. The king your father was in his time ^of such an excellent wit, as that for his wisdom he was accounted a seepnd £lolomon ; and Ferdinand my ftitber was reckoned to. t)e 'One of the wisest princes that reigned in Spain for many yeafs befisre his days. These being both so wise princes, it is not to be doubted but they had gadiered unto them as wise counsellors of both realms, as they in their wisdoms thought most meet ; and, as I take it, there were, in those days, as wise and learned men in both kingdoms, as there are now to be found in these our times, who thought the marriage between yoa and me to be good Mid lawful; but for this I may thftnk you, my lord cardinal of York, who have sought to make this dissension between my lord the king and me, because I have so often found fault with your pompous vanity and aspiring mind. Yet I do not think that this your malice proceeds fwm you merely in respect of myself; but your aiuef displeasure is against my nephew the emperor, because you could not at his hands attain unto the bishopric of Toledo, whidi you greedily desired; and, after that, was by his means put by the chief and high bishopric of Home, where- unto yon most ambitiously, aspired; whereat being sore offended, and yet not able to revenge your quarrel upon him, the heavy burthen of your indignation must fall upon a female weakness, for no other reason but because she is his aont. And these are the manly ways you take to ease your VOL. ir. H

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mind: but God foirgire joul Wherefore, sir, (sppljin^ herself to the king), it seems, to me, to be no justice that I should stand to the order of this court, seeing one of my judges to be BO partial ; and, if I should agree to stand to the judgment of this court, what cotmsdlors hare I but such as are jour own subjects, taken from your own council^ to which they are priyy, and perhaps dare not go against it ? Wherefore I re^se, to stand to their advice or plea, or any judgment that is here^ and do i^peal unto the see apostolic, b^ore our holy father the pope ; humUj beseediing you, by the way of charity, to spare me, till I may know* what further course my friends in Spain will advise me to ; and, if this may not be granted, then your pleasure be fulfilled." Having concluded this tender and . moving remonstrance, she rose, and making her obeisance to the king, she left the court, the members of which were extremely affected, many of th«9 bedding tears. After it was discovered that sh^ had taken her departure, for it was imagined that she would haye returned to her place after a time, the king commuided that she should be called back again; but she resolutely re^^ fused to appear, saying to her attendants, — '* This is no place for me to expect equity ; for they are all agreed what Ihey will do, and the king is reserved what shall be dime." The king finding that she would not return, and that her address had made a strong impression on the court, delivOTed himself as follows: — '< For«smuch as the queen is now gone, I will do- dare in her absence, before you all, that she hath ever been to me, as true, obedient, and eonformahle a wife as I could wish, or any man desire to hare, as having all the virtuous qualities that ought to be in a woman of her dignity : she is high bom, (as the quality of her conditions do declare,) yet of so meek a spirit, as if her humility had not been aeqoainted with her birth ; so that if I sought all Eurc^ over, I should never find a better wife ; and therefore how willingly I would, if it were lawful, continue her to be my wife till death make the separation, ye may all guess ; but consdence, conscience is such a thing,— who can endure the sting and prick of con-

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scienee, always stinging and piioking within his breast? Wiierefore, my lords, this woman, this good woman^ I may say, «ometime hcing nay brother's wife, as ye all know, or hare heard, hath bred such « temple within the se(»et6 of my breast, as daily doth torm^it. cumber, «nd disquiet my mind, fearing and mistrusting that I am in great danger of God's indtgna- tion ; and the rather, because hi) hath semt me no issue male but such as c^ed incontinently after they were bom. Thus, my censoieace being tossed to and fro upon these nnqniet wares, {idmost in despair of h&THig any •ther issue by her,) it 'behoveth me, I think, to look a litde fat ther, and to •eon- fiider now the wdfare of this realm, and the great danger Ihat it staadeth in for lack of a prince to succecKl me in this office; and Uierefore I thought good, in respect to the dis- charging of my conscience, and for the quiet state of this noble realm, to attempt tJie law herein, that is, to know by your good and learned counsel, whether I might lawfidly take another ynie, by whom God may send me issue male, in «ase this, my first marriage, should appear not warrantable; and this is the only cause hr which I ha^e sought ^htis far unto you, and not for any displeasure or disliking of the queen^s person or age, wit^ whom I could be as well contented to lii^, and continue (if our marriage may stand with the laws of God) as with any woman living: and in this point consist- eth all the doubt, wherein 1 would be satisfied with the sound learning, wisdom, and judgments of you, my lords, the pre- lates and past<Mrs of this realm, now here assembled for that pmrpose ; and according to whose determination herein, I am contented to submit mysdf wiih all obedience; and that I meant not to wade in so w^ghty a matter {of myself j with- out tiie opini<m and judgment of my lords ^ spiritual it may appear in this, that shortly after the coming of this scruple into my conscience, I moved it to you, my lord of Lincoln, my ghostly father : and forasmuch as you yourself, my lord, WM« then in some doubt, you advised me to ask the counsel of the rest of the bit^M^ ; whereupon I moved you^ my lord of Canterbury, first, to have your lieeuse (inasmuch as you

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were the raetropoUtan) to put this matter in question, as I did to all the rest ; the which jou have all granted under ywir seals, which I hare here to shew/'

Here we hare the king again appealing to conscience, as if be were the most scrupulous man in his kingdom ; and we have him solemnly protesting his regard and afiectimi for his amiable queen, whose yirtues he could but extsA, and whose conduct towards him had been irreproachaUe. A^'e hare him also protesting his obedience to spiritual authoritj in this case as one of conscience, and aduiowledging thai authority against which he afterwards protested, when he found he could not gain his ends. Let us now then enter farther into the proceedings of the diyorce, and see if the protestations of Harry were sincere. The king had won the archbishop of Canterbury to his design, and the archbishop had got as many of the bbhops as he could to consent to the divorce under their hands and seak, and (^ those he could not prevail upon to give their finrmal consent, he took the liberty of consenting for them, and added their signatures to an instrument which had been drawn up for the purpose. Bishop Fisher, however, undauntedly denied before the king, that he had ever consented to have his hand and seal to the deed; nor could the archbishop disprove his denial. The king, w1k> was all submission before, now proceeded to try another line of conduct. He browbeat Fisher, and threatened him, to make the bishop come into his views. What now became of Harry's conscience? Finding Fisher resolute, and the other bishops, who had been trepanned, silent from fear, the king consoled himself with these remarkable worcb :— •'' Well, well» my lord of Bochester, it makes no great matter ; we will n<^ . stand with you in argwnent ; you are but one man amongst the rest, if the worst fall out.'' So we see it was not the force of truth and reason that Harry wanted, but numben to blind the ignorant and unthinking.

The coiurt, lliough thus thrown into confusion by the dis- appearance of the queen, was not dissolved, and upon the next meeting there was much matter propounded. Wit-

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nesses were heard touching the consummation of the marriage, and when their depositions had been taken, bishop Fisher, who, it will be remembered, was one of the queen's counsel, spoke as follows : — ** All that has been said is no more than what hath form^lj been deposed, examined, thoroughly debated, and scanned by the best and most learned divines and lawyers that could possibly be got ; which time I do very well remember, and am not ignorant of the manner of their proceedings, when and where all the allegations (in re** spect of what was then produced to the contrary) were then adjudged vain and frivolous ; whereupon the marriage was ooncluded ; which marriage was afterwards approved, and ratified by the see apostolic, and that in such large and ample manner, as that I think it a very hard matter now again to call the same question before another judge."

After him stood up another of her majesty's counsel, Dr. Kidley, who is described as a litUe man, but of great spirit and profound learning. He said : — ^' My lords, the cardinals, we We heard how Uie queen herself, here in the face of the whole court, and in the presence and hearing of the king himsdf, called the great God of heaven and earth to witness, that she was a pure virgin when she first came into the king's bed, and how she put it to his conscience, speaking unto him face to face : and, if it were otherwise, we cannot imagine that either the queen durst so appeal unto him ; or the king, so spoke unto (if unworthily), would not have contradicted her. Besides, we have here the testimony of a most reverend &ther, who hath deposed upon his oath how the queen had ofteh, 8uh testimofUo eonsenticB iWBy said unto him, how that she never had any carnal knowledge of prince Arthur. Now, my lords, that such a frolic, or a jest (as that about a cup of ale, which, together with all the rest that hath been said, are but mere conjectures and presumptions,) should stand in competition with so great a testimony as a soyereign prin- eeas's solemn attestation of her cause upon the king's con* science, and that conscience clearing her from such presump- li<m by its own silence ; should cause us to lay aside all

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reverence which we owe to former power and authontry, ^is that all the determinations, consultations, approbations, ccm- firmations of all former powers, even of the see apostoHc itself, should become yoid, by your calling this matter again into question ; ia a thing, in my conceit, most detestable to be rehearsed, and a great shame to this honourable court to hear such stuff ripped up to other purpose but in contempt of former power, and calling the wisdom of our ancestors and predecessors, together with our own, into question and deri- sion.''

This defence annoyed one of the judges (Wdsey), who was supposed to be the originator of the scruple, while Cam- pegio was intent on doing justice. He desired that Dr. Tonstal, bishop of London, should be called. This was a man of profound judgment and great erudition, and liAd written an excellent treatise in -defence of the queen's mar- riage, which was intended to have been read in court, but Harry, the conscientious Harry, though professing to rely on the sound learning oi the prelates, took care to have this able advocate of justice out of the way, by sending him on an embassy into Scotland. The general opinion entertained was, that if the queen had not appealed to Borne, the mar- riage would have been confirmed in this session of the court ; but the appeal being carried to a higher .tribunal, on the motion of the bishop of Ely, another of the queen's counsel, the legates determined to hear no further pleadings.

The king, who thought all was going right, found himself thus disappointed, upon which he intrigued, good conscien- tious man, with the cardinal of York, to g^ the queen to consent to Ihe jud^ent of the court, but she was not t« be persuaded from her first determination. The king was now growing impatient, and to bring the matter to an issue, he directed that another session should be held, at whidi he attended in person and urged a final sentence. The pro- ceedings of the court having been read, the king's counsel called for judgment ; on which Oampegio replied in these words: — ^^ Not so; I will give no sentence before 1 ba^e

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made a relation of the whole transactions of these affairs unto the pope, whereunto I am obliged by virtue of the queen *8 appeal, considering whose commissioners we are, and by whose anthority we here sit. I como not hither for favcmr or dread sake, to pleasure any person living, be he king or subject ; neither for any such respect sake will 1 offend my con&cieBee, or displease my God. I am now an old man, both weak and sickly ; and should I now put my soul in danger of God's displeasure and everlasting damnation, for fear or favour of any prince in this world, it is not all the lances in this world can give me comfort. I come hither to do justice according to my conscience ; I have heard the alle- gations, the party hath appealed from our sentence, as sup- posing us to be unfit judges in her cause, being subjects (under so high authority, and in his own realm), that dare not do her justice, fearing the king*s displeasure ; wherefore I will not do an act which I cannot answer to God, nor my superior; and therefore I adjourn the court for this time.*' Thus the court was dissolved.

To iUustrt^ the question we will digress from the present proceedings, and notice a precedent in the history of France, , in which the pope's authority was more successful than in the case of Catharine. Harry's divorce is not the only in- stance in the annals of our own country, of royal separations, as John was divorced from his wife Avisa, by some unprin- cipled churchmen, in order that he might marry Isabella of Angouleme, with whose beauty he was captivated. But as the repudiated wife did not seek the restoration of her con- jugal rights by an appeal to Kome, the holy see did not take cognizance of the matter. It was not so, however, with the cause of Ingelburga, queen of France, about the same period. Philip, the French king, on his return from I^estine, found himself a widower, by the death of queen Isabella, and not liking a state of smgle blessedness, he wished to marry again. Accordingly he deputed the bishop of Noyon to the king of Denmark, with proposals to marry his sister Ingelburga. The Danish monarch assented; the princess was sent off with a

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suitable tram of attendants ; she arriTed in France, and was married to Philip by the archUshop of Amiens. On the next day she was solemnly crowned qneen of France, but by some ynaecountable cause, during the ceremony Philip coa- ceived an utter aversion for the person of his queen, and at the end of three months measures were concerted to obtain a divorce. No reason was assigned for Ihis strange change in the king's mind ; Ingelburga was lovely and virtuous ; but a m<Hiarch's taste must be indulged.

The doctrine of the Catholic church is, that when a mar- riage is lawfully contracted, no pow^ on earth can dissdve it. Even adultery is not a sufficient ground for a divorce, though it may be for a separation. Since the Beformation so called, however, it has been discovered, in this country at least, that parliament can dispense with that ordinance of our Maker, — " What God hath joined together let no man put asunder." It has been found, since Harry the Eighdi esta- blished the precedent, that adultery is sufficient cause to dissolve the marriage contract ; so that a married coi^de, rich enough to pay for an act of parliament, if tired of each other's company, have only to commit an offence which God ordered the Israelites to punish with death, and they can have a pailiamentary indulgence to engage in a second mar- riage, during each other's life.

Such a license to commit sin is not legally known in the Catholic church. There have been, and there alvrays will be, men ready to barter the sacred functions of their office to gmtify the ambition, or feed the lustful appetite of monarchs; but the abandonment of individual duty cannot be fixed on the church collectively, unless, indeed, it can be proved that she has sanctioned by her laws and councils any such unholy doings. Thus in the case of Philip and Ingelburga, the ardi- bishop of Eheims, who was undo to the king, and had married him to the unfortunate queen, was weak enough to become the tool of Philip, and declared the marriage null, on the ground of consanguinity. For observe, in this case a plea was set up, to shew that the marriage was not originallj

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tawifil, &nd therefore could not be blading. Tbe proceedings were communicated to Ingelburga, who had been kept ig- norant of the king's intentions, and was confined in a convent. Though ignorant oi the French language^ she was not ig- norant of her religion. With the spiritual instructions she had received, she was taught to look upon the pope as the common father of all Christendom, and therefore as soon as she had recovered from the shock given her by the intimation, bursting into tears, she intimated that she appealed to Eome from the unjust sentence that was pronounced against her marriage. Her brother Canute, when he was informed of the treatment she had received^ seconded her appeal, and sent agents to Bome, with am{de proofs to invalidate the plea on which the ar^bishop had grounded his sentence of divorce. Proceed- ings of this kind move slowlj at Rome, and Philip, impatient of dday, publicly marr2^ Agnes, the daughter of Bertold, duke of Bohemia. This last act Cimute deemed an insult Added to injury, and a defiance of justice and decorum. In- stead, however, of appealing to arms, as is now the case, and shedding the blood of his subjects, he deputed other deputies to Rome, and pressed for a sentence At this time Innocent II. filled the papal chair. Alive to every act of oppression, he warmly espoused the cause of Ingelburga, and proceeded to examine the documents. While this examination was pending, he admonished Philip to remove the adulteress, but the king was obdurate. The kingdom was laid under an interdict. Philip, in revenge, seized the temporalities of the ^ergy, and tried to giun them over to his ends. They, how- ev^, remained firm, refused his bribes, and told him he must submit. The king at last complied ; he dismissed Agnes, aiid the cause of Ingelburga was. to undergo another discus- sion. A council met at Soissons ; Philip appeared on one hand, attended with the prelates and nobles of the land ; on the other was the queen, with some bbhops and a retinue of friends, sent from Denmark by her brother Canute. The king demanded to be separated from Ingelburga, to whom, be soid^ he was related witiiin the prohibited degree. The

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Danish minister appealed to the marriage treaty, and proved that the allegation of kindred was altogether unfounded. They saw, however, in the legate's countenance, who presided, a determined partiality in favour of the king, and they there- fore said. We appeal from that judge to the pope. A few days after, in consequence of this objection, another legate, a man of unshaken integrity, was appointed, and the discus- sion was resumed. But the Danes, not imagining such hastily had left; the place, imd Ingelburga was without an advocate. The king's counsel pleaded, toii called for a reply. At first no answer was given ; but after a shwt pcuisej an unknown ecclesiastic stepped forth, meanly habited and of an humble aspect, and requested to be heard. PeFQsissioft was granted ; he repelled the objections> and demonstvated the law with such force and eloquence, that he carried conviction to the judges. The king was told thaf judgment would be pro- nounced against him ; on. which he told the legate he was satisfied, and taking Ingelburga, slie was acknowledged as- queen, but in iietum for his dismissal oi Agnes, the unfortu- nate Ingelburga was shut up in theroyal castle at Etampcfs, where she was secluded, not only from the king's society, but from all intercourse with the world. Innocent frequently corresponded wilh her, and unceasingly urged Philip to be- reconciled to her. At length, after a barbarous confiuemeia of twelve years, he took her to his bed uid treated her ynthi kindness.

We may here see, by this occorrenCe, the utility and benefit of having a supi^me jfidge ioi matters which regard to con- science, and which are of that nature Ihat justice could not be obtained without suoh an appeal. Although Philip had not the appointment <^ bishops in his kingdom, as is now the case with all Protestant states, yet there was always a sort of influence attached to the podnrer of a monarch over the tem- poralities of the clergy that warped the judgment and cofi- duct of many dignified ecclesiastics, as we see in history, and none more strikingly so than ti.e reign of our eighth Harry Against this partiality and abandonuient of justice the appea

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to Rome was always a barrier, and the innocent inTariably found justice at the hands of the pope. Thus it was ih the case of Ingelburga, and thus it wiH he found to be wiih Catharine.

There is another case, likewise, of a royal dtyorce, and of recent date, which we think wiif interest our readers^ and is not irrdevant to the illustration of the question we are dis- cussing. We allude to the divorce of Napoleon and Josephine* after the former became emperor of France. This couple were originally imited under tte ciyil code of the revolutionary reign. When, however, Napoleon took it into his head to be «rowned by the late pope Pius Vll., whom he dragged across the Alps in the depth of winter, and at an advanced age, to perform the ceremony, the holy father refused to place the crown on Josephine's head, or appear in the ceremony, unless they were married according to ^ae rites of the Catholic <^ureh. In consequence of this objection Napoleon consented, and they were married by the pope himsdf on the eve of the coronation day. Some time after the emperor took it into his head that he must form a new dynasty, and as his present empress was too old to lead him to hope for issue, he per- suaded her to consent to a divorce, that he might take to himself a youthful bride. Josephine yielded to his wish, and Kapoleon found a ready ecclesiastic in the person of cardinal Maury, to whom he had promised the archbishopric of Paris, to give this divorce the mockery of a religious sanction » This done, Napoleon woos the eldest daughter of the emperor of Austria, a Catholic sovereign, who, for state purposes, basely consents to give her up, having found prelates to re- concile his conscience to the proceeding. This marriage, like the divorce, had die sanction of a religious ceremony from the same panderer who pronounced the separation of the first lawful marriage. But mark, though Josephine did not appeal to the pope, the holy father never would acknowledge the second marriage, nor has it ever been acknowledged by the church. Thus maintaining the incontrovertible force of the divine injunction, whii^ forbids rnan^ put asunder what:

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God hasjcnned. The issue by this second marriage was a son ; but soon after hia birth the father was compelled to resign his throne, from which he was conveyed to a dreary rock; where he lingered a solitary exile till death set him free ; his second empress became a widowed wife, to be pitied but unheeded, and the boy^is now an orphan under the caie of his grandfather. Such is the fate of those who set the precepts of God at nought, and it too. often happens that the innocent are involted in the punishment brought on by the guilty. EUkving thus shewn how careful the Catholic churdi has ever been, to preserve imsulUed the divine commands, and how beneficial the supreme authority of the pope is to prevent injustice and check corruption, we shall now proceed in oiur review of the compilation of lies and mis statements of Fox and Burnet.

• The next subject introduced by the Booh of Jilqrtyr^is an " Account of Cranheb^" and is given in these w(Hrds:-T* ^* At this period, Dr. CBanmer, a Fellaw of Jesus College ia Cambridge, meeting accidentally with Gardiner and Fox at Waltham, and entering inta discourse upon the royal marria^, suggested, that the king should engage the chief universiti^ and divines of Europe, to examine the lawfulnesa of hjs ' marriage ; and if they gave their resolutions against it, then it being cex:tain that the pope's dispensation could not derogate from the law of God, the marriage must be declared null. This novel and reasonable scheme they prop^^ed to the king, who was much pleased with it> as he saw thia way was better in itself, and would mortify the pope. Craqmer was accord- ingly sent Tor, and on conversing with, him, the king con- ceived a high opinion both of hia learning and prudence, as well as of his probity and sincerity, which took such root ia his mind, that no artifices, nor calumnies, were ever able- to^ remove it." Of the probity and sbcetity of this saini of the Beformotion, we shall have occasidn to speak much hereafter, . and produce facts that will shew how much he possessed of these excellent qualities. At present we must confine our- selves to his cor duct before be entered on the service of the

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kfng, as an advocate for the divorce of the marriage hotween Catharine and Harry. Cranmer was admitted into Jesus College, Cambridge, but was deprived of his fellowship for entering into a matrimonial engagement How he contrived to maintain his wife we do not find related in history, but it is stated that after his wife died he betook himself again to an academical life, entered into holy orders, and became the tutor to two young gentlemen at Cambridge, sons of Mr. Cressy at Waltham, to which latter place he retired with his pupils during the time that university was infected with the {^ague. It was here Cranmer fell in with Fox, the king's almoner, and in the course of conversation (m the marriage, Ciranmer is said by Fuller, m his Church History, to have observed, that '* if it could be proved that marrying a brothet's wife is contrary to the law of G^d. a dispensation would bo out of the pope's power." This remark being communicated to Harry, it agreed so well with his conscientiotis scruples, that he determined to ground his case upon it. Cranmer was now made ehaplain to the earl of Wiltshire, Miss Nancy's father, and waa recommended by him to the king, who cm- ployed him both in Italy, Germany, and France, to forward the cause of his divorce in the universities of those countries. Such was the nu^n selected to manage the fomgn universities, by a '^ novel and reasonable scheme," as the modern editors call his proposition. By the outset of his life, he appears to have been a fit instrument to conduct the nefarious business,, and his subsequent demeanour will prove him to have been one (^ the most diabolical villains that ever stained humaa form.

THE UNITERSITIES DECLARE AGAINST THE KING'S. MARRIAGE.

Afler devoting a amall space to the disgrace of Wols<^,. we are favoured with an account of the decisions of the uni* versities, in the^&lWwing words : — ^ The king now intending to proceed in t^ method proposed by Cranmer, sent to Oxford and Cambridge, to procure their conclusions. At

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Oxford it was referred by the major part of tlre^ convocatJdn to thirty-three doctors and bachelors of divinity, whom that faculty was to name r they were empowered to determine the question, and put the seal of the university to l^eir coh- clusion. And they gave their opinions, that the marriage of the brother'a wife was contrary both to the laws of God and nature. At Cambridge, the convocation referred the question to twenty- nine ; of which number, two-thirds agreeing, they were empowered to put the seal of the university to their determination. These agreed in opinion with those of Oxford. Tie jealousy of Dr. Cranmer's favouring Luther- anism, caused the fierce Popish party to oppose everything in which he was engaged* They were also afraid of Ann Boleyn's advancement, who was believed to be tinctured with these opinions^ Crook, a learned man, was employed in Italy, to procure the resolution of divines there ; in which he was so successful, that besides the great discoveries he made m searching the manuscripts of the GreekYathers concerning their opinions in this point, he engaged several persons to write for the king's cause ; and also got the Jews to give their opinions of the laws in Leviticus, that they were moral and obligatory ; yet, when a brother died without issue, his brother might marry his widow within Judea, for preserving their families and succession ; but they thought that might not be done out of Judea. The state of Venice would not declare themselves, but said they would be neutral, and it was not easy to persuade the divines of the republic to give their opinions, till a brief was obtained of the pope, permit- ting all divinea and canonists to deliver their opinions ac- eording to their consciences. The pope abhorred this way of proceeding, though he could not decently oppose it ; but be said,, in great scorn, that no friar should set limits to his power. Crook was ordered to give no money, nor make promises to any, till they had freely delivered their opinion ; which he is said to have faithfully observed. He sent over to England an hundred several books, and pi^rs, with many subBcriptionB ;. all oondemmng the king's marriage as un-

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tawfbl in itself. At Paris, the Sorbonne made their deter- mination with great solemnity ; after mass, all the doctoi's took an oath to study the question, and to give their judg- ment according to their consciences ; and after three weeks' study, the greater part agreed on this; *that the king's marriage was unlawful, and that the pope could not dispense with it.' At Orleans, Angiers, and Toulouse, ihej deter- mined to the same purpose."

The sensible seader must smile at this account, which is given by Burnet, a man who ranked as a Christian bishop, yet would persuade his readers that the Christian advocates of a Christian (so he thought himself) king, required the opinions of the Jaws, whether his marriage, contracted under a Christiim dispei^sation, was lawful. Well, they appear to- decide against him, for, they say, when a brother died with- out issue, his brother might marry his widow ; but to get out of this dilemma, they limit the operation of the law to Judea, for the preservation of the succession of families, and make it nugatory out of that countiy . What pitiful sophistry m this ! Why, if the Jews were allowed to take the brother's widow in Judea, to preserve the succession, why not a king in England, especially after the oHurch, of which he was a member, had given a sanction to the contract? Then the Oxford divines gave- their opinion that " the marriage of the- brother's wife was contrary both, to the laws of God and. nature." But on what ground did they form this judgment ? Ott the levitical law ? This could not be, since God had; oommanded the Jews to marry t!ie brother's wife in certaiiv cases. On the canons of the Christian or Catholic church ?' The church had already decided that the marriage u^a^ lawful,, and had granted a dispensation through her supreme head, to prevent future cavil. The grounds of this decisioa was- the non- consummation] of the marriage, and the deaths of one party, which made the former contract completely void ; for as Catharine was a virgin, after the death, of the king's- brother, slie could hardly be said to have been a wife. The fact is, the decisions given by the universities were founded

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on fiils^ {^remises, fbr the essential circumstance of the yft** ginity of the queen, after the death of her first hushand, was studiously and partially kept hack hy the propounders of the question. The Camhridge doctors disputed the case, and those who were against the divorce, were not influenced by the injustice attempted on the queen, but from a fierce jea- lousy of the immaculate Dr. Cranmer, forsooth, who was suspected of favouring Lutheranism; and a fear of Miss Boleyn's advancement. Burnet, we presume, in imputing th^se unworthy motives to men who had nothing to gain, but everything to lose, by the cause they espoused, measured his neighbour's com by his own bushel, as he was no unwilling panderer to corruption and falsehood. Then, again, we have . a learned Dr. Crook fishing up manuscripts from the Greek . fathers, in Italy, condemning the marriage, as if these fathers anticipated the dispute, and left their opinions as a legacy to , Harry, to indulge in his adulterous courses under their sanc- tion. This Mr. Crook, it seems, had another commission entrusted to him, and that was, to influence the cause wi6i the diarm of money. Harry, before his nobles and people, could profess the most pious and dutiful submission to the decision of his spiritual guides and judges, and his love of his queen's ' virtue and person, and that if it were lawful, and he had his dioice again, he would select Catharine of all women for bis wife. Yet all this while the arch 'hypocrite was consuming for love of Anne Boleyn, and causing search to be made for the most artful and unprincipled villains that could be found, to cheat the universities of Europe out of a decision, against his virtuous and faithful partner, that he might shelter him- sdf under tlie cloak of religion. But the ways of God are just, and the hoary lecher was compelled to appear in his proper garb.

So determined was the religious Harry to settle his con- science, that it seems he was not content to have the opinions of the Jewty but he must also have the sentiments of the rrformerSf the leader of whom he had openly attacked as a heretic and false apostle* The account given of the opiniims

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p{ these gentleiDen are not less ludicrous than those of the universities. " Calvin," we are told, ** thought the marriage null, and all agreed that the pope's dispensation was of no force. Osiander was employed to engage the Lutheran divines, but they were afraid of giving the emperor new grounds of displeasure. Melancthon thought the law in Xeviticus was dispensable, and that the marriage might be lawful ; and that, in those matters, states and princes might make what laws thej pleased ; and thougli the divines of I^eipsic, after much disputing about it, did agree that those kiws were moral, yet they could never be brought to justify the divorce with the subsequent marriage; but the pope was more compliant, for he offered to Cassali to grant the king dispensation for havmg another wife, with which the im- perialists seemed not dissatbfied." From this statement there appears to have been as much difference of opinion amoAg the reformers, on the question of divorce, as there was on their articles of faith. The offer of the pope to grant Harry a couple of wives, we conjecture, was introduced by Burnet to cover the disgrace of the patriarchs of the Reformation, who, by a written document, under their signatures, granted the Landgrave of Hesse permission to have two wives at once. This gentleman was a disciple of the Eeformation, and, like Henry, he gave way to the lusts of the flesh, on embracing the new doctrines. The cause of this disorder be imputes to his wife, whom, he says, he never loved, and whose bed he left a few weeks after marriage to wallow in adultery. As a remedy, therefore, to this course of life, and without which, he avows, he ¥rill never change it, he proposes to the reforming divines to allow him to have another wife, on the ground, '' that Luther and Melancthon, to his own knowledge, advised the king of England not to break off tbe marriage with the^ queen his wife, but, besides her, also to marry another." So, then, this idea of two wives did not originate with the pope, as Burnet falsely insinuates, but with Blaster Martin Luther and his coacyutora in reform and ini- . quity. The gospcl-loviug and pious Landgrave was touched

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with seruples as well as our Henrj, and, like him, too, ke had the tenderest regard for the character of the womiui on whom he might fix his choice, as well as the greatest dread af giving scandal, unless the shield of religion was thrown over their deeds. Here are the Landgrave's words, well worthy of being recorded with the proceedings of the first head of the new church of England : — " But if they appre- hend such a certificate may turn to scandal at this time, and prejudice the gospel- cause, should it be pinted, I desire at least, they will give me a declaration in writing, that God would not be ofiended, should I marry in private ; and tliat they will seek for means to make this marriage public in due time ; to the end, that the woman I shall wed may not pass for a dishonest person ; othei*wi8e, in process of time, the church would be scandalized.'' Th^ he assures them, that << they need not fear, lest this second marriage should make him injure his first wife, or even separate himself from her, since, on the contrary, he is determined, in this occasion, to carry his cross, and leave his dominions to their common children. Let them, therefore, grant me,'' continues this prince, '' in the name of God, what I request of them ; to the end I may both live and die more cheerfully for the gospd-cause, and more willingly undertake the defence of it ; and, on my side, I will do whatsoever they shall in reason ask of me, whether they demand IHB revenubs of monas- teries, or other things of the like nature." Bather tiian lose such a precious disciple in the *^ gospel-cause," and to avoid having their new church scandalized, these evangelical doctors of the Befbrmation did grant an indulgence, under &eir handft and seals, to the petitioner to marry another wife, his present one being still living, thus establishing polygamy as a doctrine of the Baformation. Tins document may be aOen at length in fiossuet's Variations* «

To i^aee the subject of the divorce in as dear a li^^t as possible, as on this point, we may say, hinged the change of religion in England, and to shew the means resorted to by the adversaries of the queen, to gain the somUancQ of, a

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iBptritoal confirmi^on of the king's pretended scruples, we will here insert the aecount giten by Dr. Lingard, of thdse transactions, from his History of England. But first, we must obs^nre, that though Crook is represented to have had orders not to make '' promises to any till they had freely delirered thdr opinions," the same delicacy was not preeenred towards the nephew of Catharine, as Henry, by his ambiB- sadors, promised the emperor Charles, ^* the sum of three hundred thousand crowns, the restoration of the marriage portion paid with Catharine, and security for a maintenam^ suitable to her birth," if he would consent to the divorce. But Charles was inflexible, and told the worthy r^resen- tatires of Henry, << he was not a merchant, to sell the honour of his aunt. The cause was now before the proper tribunal. If the pope should decide against her, he would be silent ; if in her favour, he would support her cause with all the means which God had placed at his disposal." This fact is related by Dr. Lingard, and is extracted from letters written from Bi^gna, by the bidiop of Tarbes, the French ambas- sador to the English court. Failing in this quarter, he rested his hopes on the decisions of the universities, the success of which plan is thus detailed by Dr. Lingard.

" The new ministers," says that able writer, " condescended to profit by the advice of the man whom they had supplanted ; and sought, in conformity vrith his recommendation, to obtain in favour of the divorce, the opinions of the most learned divines, and most celebrated universities of Europe. Henry pursued the scheme with his characteristic ardour ; but, - if he was before convinced of the justice of his cause, that con- Tiction must have been shaken by the obstinacy of the opposition vrhich he everywhere experienced. In England it might have been expected that the influence of the crown would silence the partisans of Catharine ; yet even in England it was found necessary to employ commands, and promises, and threats, sometimes secret intrigue, and sometimes open violence, before a favorable answer could be extorted from either of the universities.

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" In Italy the king's agents were active and nnmerond : their success and their failures were perhaps nearly balanced ; but the former was emblazoned to catch the eye of the public » while the latter were discreetly concealed. From the pontiff they had procured a breve, exhorting every man to speak his •entiments without fear or favour ; and, taking their respec- tive stations in the principal cities from Venice to Bome, they distributed, according to their discretion, the moneys which had been remitted to them from England. They drew aa ingenious, but in this case not very intelligible, distinction between a fee and a bribe : and contended, that when they rewarded the subscriber for his trouble, they paid him nothing as the price of his subscription. The result of their exertions were the real or pretended answers of the universities of Bdogna, Padua, FeiTara, and the subscriptions of some hun«^ dreds of individuals.

'^ In the Germanic states Henry was less successful. Not one public body could be induced to espouse his cause ; even the reformed divines, with a few exceptions, loudly condracmed tiie divorce ; and Luther himself wrote to Barnes, the royal agent, that he would rather allow the king to have two wives at the same time, than to separate from Catharine for the purpose of marrying another woman.

^' It was, therefore, from France and her fourteen univ^- sities, that the most valuable aid was expected. The bishop of Bayonne had been for some months emj^oyed in soliciting the votes of the leading members of the different faculties ; and Henry had written to the king to employ the royal au- thmty in his favour. But Francis artfully pretended that he dared not risk the offence of Charles, as long as his two sons were detained prisoners in Spain ; nor could they be liberated, according to the treaty, till he had paid two millions , of crowns to the emperor, five hundred thousand to the king of England, and had redeemed, in favour of Charles, the lily of diamonds, which Philip of Burgundy had formerly pawned ; to Henry VII, for the sum of fifty thousand crowns. The impatience of the king swallowed. the bait; he was content

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to make every sacrifice, that he might obtain the snbftcriptions which he sought : he forgave the debt, made a present of the pledge, and added to it a loan of fqur hmidred thousand crowns.

'^ Still the business languished till the earl of Wiltshire was r^med from Bologna. The university of Paris had long possessed the first place among the learned societies of Europe : and it was deemed of the greatest importance to elrtain from it a favourable decision. Henry wrote to ihe dean with his own hand : Francis commanded the faculty of divinity to deliberate on the subject : Montmorency, his prime miniver, canvassed for votes from house to house : and 0mrj absent member in the interest of the court was sum- moned to Paris. Yet the majority was decidedly hostile to the pretensions of the king of England. From the beginning of Jtftie to the middle of August they continued to meet and adjourn : and in one instance only, on the second of July, was a plurality of voices obtained, by dexterous management, in lEivour of Henry. By the order of the court, the bishop of Senlis carried away the register, that the entry might not be effaced or rescinded in any subsequent meeting, and an attested copy was forwarded to England, and published by the king as the real decision of the university of Paris. From Orkans and Toulouse, from the theologians of Bourges, and tiie civilians of Angers, similar opinions were received : but tiie thedogians of the last city pronounced in favour of the existing marriage. The other universities were not consulted, or their answers were suppressed.

^' It had been originally intended to lay before the pontiff tins mass of opinions and subscriptions, as the united voice of the Christian world pronouncing in favour of the divOToe. Bat Clement knew (and Henry was aware that he knew) the arts by which they had been eictorted : and both were sen- sibte that, independently of other considerations, they did not i^each the real merits of the question : for all of them were founded on the supposition that the marriage between Aclbar and Catharine had actually been consummated, a dis-

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puted point which the king was unable to proTe, and which the: queen most solemnly denied. In the place of these opinions it was deemed more prudent to substitute a letter to the pontiff; subscribed by the lords spiritual and temporal, and by a certain number of eommoners, in the name of the whole nation. This instruoient complains in forcible terms of Clement's partiality and tergiversation. What crime had the king of England committed that he could not obtain what the most learned men, and the most celebrated universities declared to be his right? The kingdom was threatened with the calamities of a disputed succession, which could be avoided ^ only by a lawful marriage: and yet the celebration of that marriage was prevented by the affected delays and unjust partiality of the pontiff. Nothing remained but to apply the remedy without his interference. . It might be an evil ; but it would prove a less evil, than the precarious and perik>us situation in whi<^ England was now placed.

/< To thb uBCourteous and menacing remonstrance, de^ ment replied with temper and firmness : that the charge of partiality would have come with more truth and a better grace from the opposite party ; that he had pushed his indulgence for the king beyond the bounds of law and equity, and had refused to act on the queen's appeal, tiU the whole college of cardinals unanimously charged him with injustice: that, if he had not since proceeded with the cause, it was because Henry had appoiuted no attorney to plead for him, and because his ambassadors at Bologna had asked for additional time : t^iait the opinions which they mentioned, had nev^ been officially communicated to the holy see, nor did he know of any, which were fortified with reasons and authorities to inform his judg- m^t: that if England were really threatened with a disputed succession, the danger would not be removed, but augmented by. proceedings contrary to right and justice: and if lawless remedies were empbyed, those with whom they originated must answer for the result ; that, in short, he was ready to proceed with the cause immediately, and to shew to the king every indulgence and favour compatible with justice : <me

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thing only he begged in return, that, they would not require of , him, through gratitude to man^ to violate the immutable commandments of God."

This aceount differs very widely from that given by Burnet, and is more entitled to credit, iK>t only from its carrying the air of probability and sincerity, but because the historian has given the sources from whence they are derived. Thus, then, we see that the king's agents were encouraged to employ every species of art and chicanery to settle the scruples of the conscientious Henry, while on the other hand, the hoiy father was solely intent on doing justice where justice was due, and preventing the injured party, as far as ha could, from being oppressed. The sovereign pontiff had a con- science to satisfy, without being disturbed by tl^ violence of criminal passions like Harry, and therefore his mind was inflisenced with a desire to see the commandments of God fulfilled and not violated. When Harry found his case so hopeless, he himself felt a desire to submit to the difficulties opposed to him ; but this disposition was no sooner discovered than Anne !Boleyn and her friends took the alarm, and she was^nstructed to play off all her arts to win the king from this inclination to become just. The ruin of the ministry, all Anne's <»*eatures, was predicted, when Cromwell, who had been raised into some note by the means of Wolsey, stepped foKward and rescued them from the danger by which they w^!e threatened. Of this man we shall have to say more her^ifter, when we come to the dissolution of the monasteries ; we shall therefore dismiss him for the present, that we may not lureak in upon the narrative of the divorce.

During the whole of these discussions, Catharine remiuned steady to her resolution of leaving the question in the pope's haiuls ; every artifice was used to persuade her to consent to a separaticm, but to no purpose. ^' Several lords,'' writes Dr. lingard, '* were deputed to wait on the queen, and to request that for the king's conscience, she would refer the natter to four temporal and four spiritual peers. ' God grant iim a quiet conscience,' she replied, * but this shall be your

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answer: I am his wife, lawfully married to him by order of holy church ; and so I will abide until the court of Home, which was privy at the beginning, shall have made an end thereof/ A second deputation was sent, with an order for her to leave the palace at Windsor. * Go where I may,' she answered, * I shall still be his lawful wife.' From that day (July 15, 1531) they never more saw each other. She re- paiiBd to the Moor, thence to Easthamstead, and at last fixed her residence at AmpthtU.*' Though Harry had banished the queen from his presence, he still craved the authority of the pope to dissolve the contract, and the cause was urged at Rome by the king's agents with much assiduity. In the mean time, queen Catharine wrote to the holy father, announc- ing her formal expulsion from the king's presence, and pray- ing justice at his hands. Clement couki no longer refuse to listen to the prayers of an injured and defenceless woman : he wrote to Henry a moving letter, in which he painted the in&my of his proceedings ; that having married a most vir- tuous princess, with whom he had lived in conjugal happiness for twenty years, he now drove her from his court to cohabit with anotiier woman. He therefore exhorted the king to recall his injured queen, and dismiss the wanton who had supplanted her. But Harry's conscienee, we suppose, was now seared, for instead of listening to the admonitions of the holy father, he began to shew symptoms of disobedience to that authority which he had hitherto pronounced as lawfril. The olergy had already been placed in prflsmunire, and now they were forbidden to make constitutions, although such had been their imprescriptible right, in fmth and morals, from the first foundation of the church. These things being re- ported at Rome, Clement pronounced against the claim, i^d issued a breve complaining that the king, in defiance of public decency, continued to cohabit with his mistress. We must here leave the unfortunate Catharine, to bring be&re the reader her supplanter.

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THE KING MARRIES ANNE BOLEYN.

We now return to the Book of Martyrs, where we fiud the fpliowiDg account detailed under the above head : — ** Soon after this, the king married Anne Bolejn; Howland Lee (afiterwards bishop of Coventry and Lichfield) officiated, none being present but the duke of Norfolk, and her father, mother, brother, and Oranmer. It was thought that the former marriage being null, the king mtght proceed to another'; and perhaps, they hoped, that as the pope had formerly pro- posed this method, so he would now approve of it. But t^ugh the pope had joined himself to France, yet he was still so much in y^ar of the emperor, that he dared not pro- voke him. A new citation was therefore issued out, for the king to answer to the queen's complaints ; but Harry's agents protested, that their master was a sovereign prince, and England Sifree church, over which the pope had no authority; and that the king could expect no justice at Rome, where the emperor's power was so great."

This is Burnet's story, and the excuse he makes for the actors in the scene is, that they tho/ught and hoped; that the pope would be found as kind as Luther and Co., and grant the scrupulous Harry leave to >iave two wives at once. From this account it is clear the marriage with Anne could not be lawful, because no one had pronounced formally against the marriage witJi Catharine, which, for decency sake, we think should have been done. The day on which Anne was married to the king was the 25th of January, 1533, five years after the scruples of Harry's conscience began to work, three of which he scrupulously spent in adultery with Anne ; nor is it likely he would have married her so soon, had she not proved to be in a condition to give him hopes of an heir. In the September preceding he had created her marchioness of Pembroke, and settled upon her a yearly pension of one thousand pounds, out of the ecclesiastical revenue of the bishopric of Durham ; so that this lady, who is looked upon as a prime Protestant saint, commenced her career by robbing VOL. II. I

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a virtuous woman of the affections of her hushand, and the church of her property. Well, the pious couple were tacked together h^ Dr. Lee, hut not till the king had told him a lie ; for when Lee discovered the ohject of the king, he demurred, having his scruples as well as the royal hridegroom, and it was not till the king told him that the pope had pronounced in hb favour, and that the instrument was safely deposited in his closet, that Lee consented to perform the ceremony. For his compliance the celehrant was made hishop of Chester, waa afterwards translated to Lichfield and Coventry, and hon<mred with the presidentship of Wales. This marriage of Harry, if such it can be called, for though the rites were performed, it could not be legal, being in defiance of both law and justice, and unauthorized by either church or state ; this marriage may be considered the foundation stone of that church, which was afterwards established by law, and is now mainly sup- ported by prescriptive tests and penal codes. Burnet in- sinuates that the pope was influenced in his conduct, in thi» dispute about matrimonial rights, between Harry and Catha-^ rine, by his fears of the emperor, but there k not a shadow of pretence to bear him out ; on the contrary, the testimony preserved shews that Clem^it did not wish to meddle with the matter, but desired to see it decided without his inter- ference ; yet, when compelled to pronounce his judgment, no other motive appeared to infiuence him, than that of dia-v charging his duty to God and his conscience, by doing justice to injured innocence, according to the canons of the churdi*, The power of the emperor was not greater at Rome, when Harry went through the mock ceremony of marrying Anne Boleyn, than when she was living with him as his mistress, and he was seeking, by every disreputable means that could be contrived and put in practice by his corrupt agents, to obtain a favourable decision on his side ; and it was only when his case became hopeless, that his pride was aroused, and his mercenary disposition set on fire. Then it was, and not till then, the monster threw off the mask of hypocrisy, banished all his scruples, and proclaimed himself head of a new, but

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not ** a free,'' church. Till Harry asstimed the suprcDiacy of the church of England, as well as the state, the church might strictly be termed ** free," as the ministers had immu- nities secured to them by Magna Charta, and her doctrine and discipline were not at the nod or caprice of a lecherous old man, a feeble child, or a cold-blooded lascivious woman. The church was then secured in her faith by the promises of €K)d, in her morality by the exemplary lives of her most eminent ministers, and the king, the nobles, the gentry, and people, all bowed submis^on to her decrees, as emanating from the Spirit of Truth, which was to be her guide, till the eonsummation of the world. This was indeed "a free " church, because she was not controlled by the will of man, nor by any set of men, but by the omnipotent will of God, who is the Author of justice, virtue, and freedom. Now, however, a new church was to be formed, under the direction of one of the most consammate hypocrites, as we have proved, and the most inexorable tyrants that ever wore a crown, as we shall have to shew ; and the creed of this church was not to rest on the word of God, but on the enactments of a lay parlia- ment. So that, as We shall see by and by, the symbols of feith were as variable as the wind, and were changed as often as it suited the taste of the head of the church and his wise e;>Qnsellors. Before, however, we enter on the bloody deeds of Henry, we will here give an outline of the doctrine of supremacy, for adhering to which, bishop Fisher and Sir Thomas More, two of the most virtuous and learned men of the age, and many other characters of great eminence and leammg. suffered martyrdom, and the Catholics of the present day are debarred from exercising those civil immunities granted to the people of this country by the constitution.

THE SUPREMACY.

Bunrat gives us in his Abridgment the following ** argu-

MENTa FOR REJECTING THE POPES POWER," which the

modem editors have inserted in their edition of the Book of Meurtyr$^ He Says ;— " In England the foundations

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on which the papal authority was built, had been examined with extraordinary care of late years ; and seyeral books were written on that subject. It was demonstrated that all the apostles were made equal in the powers that Christ gave them, and he often condemned their contests about superiority, but never declared in St. Peter's favour. St. Paul withstood him to his face, and reckoned himself not inferior to hinu If the dignity of a person leffc any authority with the city in which he sat, then Antioch must carry it as well as Rome ; and Jerusalem, where Christ suffered, was to be preferred to all the world, for it was truly the mother church. The other privileges ascribed to St. Peter, were either only a prece- dence of order, or were occasioned by his fall, as that in- junction, ' Feed my sheep,' being a restoring him to the apostolical function. St. Peter had also a limited province, the circumcision, as St. Paul had the uncireumeision, of far greater extent ; which shewed that Peter was not considered as the universal pastor.

'* Several sees, as Ravenna, Milan, and Aquileia, pretended exemption ^m the papal authority. Many English bishops had asserted that the popes had no authority against the canons, and to that day no canon the pope made was Innding till it was received ; which shewed the pope's authority was not believed to be founded on a divine authority; and the contests which the kings of England had had witii the popes concerning investitures, bishops doing homage, appeals to Rome, and the authority of papal bulb and provi^ons, shewed that the pope's power was believed to be subject to laws and custom, and so not derived from Christ and St. Peter; and as laws had given them some power, and princes had been forced in ignorant ages to submit to their usurpations, so they might, as they saw cause, change those laws and resume their rights.

"The next point inquired into was the authority that kings had in matters of religion and the church. In the New Testament, Christ was himself subject to the civil powers, and charged his disciples 'not to affect temporal

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dominion. They abo wrote to the churches to he suhject to the higher powers, and call them supreme, and charge every soul to he subject to them : so in scnpture the king is called head and supreme, and erery soul is said to be under him, which, joined together, makes up this conclusion, that he is the supreme head over all persons. In the primitive church the bbhops only made rules or canons, but pretended to no com- pulsive authority, but what came from the civil magistrate. Upon the whole matter they concluded that the pope had no power in England, and that the king had an entire dominion over all his subjects, which extended even to the regulation of ecclesiastical matters.

" These questions being fiiUy discussed in many disputes, and published in several books, all the bishops, abbots, and friars of England, Fisher only excepted, were so far satisfied with them, that they resolved to comply with the changes the king was resolved to make."

Such is the account which Burnet gives, and it was cer- tainly his interest, who held his prelacy from the king, not by divine authority, to make the people believe what he told them, and unfortunately for the cause of truth, they have too long given credit to his and such like assertions. " The foundations on which the papal authority was built," we are told, " had been examined with extraordinary care of late years ; and several books were written on that subject." But, we ask, by whom ? And what were the titles of these books ? The foundation of the papal authority in England was never disputed till Henry had resolved on parting with his lawful wife Catharine, and the pope had determined not to consent to his iniquitous desires. The supremacy of the bishop of Home was a doctrine received with the Christian faith in England, as it was in all other countries that embraced Christianity, and it is slill held by every Catholic nation and people in the world. There might have been books written on the foundation of cliums set up by some of the popes, regarding the temporalities of the church, but these claims on the one part^ and objections to them on the other^ by.

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no means affected the divine right of the pope to preside over and guide the church of God, as her visible head on earth. Burnet says, '^It was demonstrated that all the apostles were made equal in the powers that Christ gave them, and he often condemned their contests about supe- riority, but never declared in St. Peter's favour.'* In their ministerial functions, the apostles certainly were made equal, and so are all Catholic bishops now in their respective dio- cessee, but Peter received a charge from his divine Master which no other apostle did, and consequently that was a de- claration in his favour. The charge to feed Christ's lamhs and sheep was given to Peter, and to Peter on/y, in the presence of the other apostles ; but all of them were em- powered to preach the word, to offer sacrifice, and to forgive sins. To Peter, too, and to Peter alone, were given the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and the promise that the church should be built upon him as upon a rock. — (Matt. xvi. 17, 18, 19.) In the Protestant version of the bible, we find St. Matthew, in the 10th chapter and 2nd verse of his gos- pel, expressly naming St. Peter as the first apostle, and we also find in the scriptures, that Peter was the ^rst to confess his faith in Christ, (Matt. xvi. 16.); the ^rst to whom Christ appeared after his resurrection, (Luke xxiv. 34.) ; the ^9t to preach the faith of Christ to the people, (Acts ii. 14.^ ; the ^rst to convert the Jews, (ibid, 37.) ; and the ^st to receive the Gentiles, (ibid, x. 17.) With what face, then, could a bishop, whose church is said to be founded on scrip- ture, make such an assertion, that Christ never declared in favour of Peter. Can any circumstance be more dear and . explicit than scripture, on this question of pre-eminence, in favour of St. Peter ? As we before said, the Catholic bishops are equal in power in their respective diocesses, but the successor of the first bishop of Home (St. Peter) inherited from him the superintendence, or jurisdiction, over the whole flock, for the purpose of preserving unity.

St. Paul, it is said, withstood him to his face ; but he did not doubt St. Peter's right to the supremacy, though he

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might differ from him as to an opinion which Peter might hare held. It is one thing to dissent from an opinion merely human, and another to reject a diyine command. cThere is no law in the church to prevent an inferior from finding fault with a superior, provided it is done with due respect and deference, and this is one of the means by which the faith is preserved pure and entire, under the control of the Holy Spirit.; for as all the clergy are human, and are» therefore, liable to fall individually, so, when a departure from truth, or an erroneous opinion is started, it becomes the duty of every man to detect the innovation, and caution the believers against it. It is also a proof that there is a pure system of liberty in the Catholic church, since the pope, though he is head of it, is obliged to govern according to the laws, and is not exempt from the censure of his brethren, any more than ^. Peter was from the reproach of St. Paul. An instance of Ais occurred in the year 1331-2, when Pope John XXII. preached a doctrine from the pulpit in Avignon, then the residence of the popes, that was novel in the church. His doctrine was instantly, and as openly, denounced by an Eng- lish Dominican, named Wales. The friar was imprisoned for his laudable courage and seal, but a crowd of divines aided and supported him, and he was released, while the pope explained and retracted what he had advanced. It is said, the holy father was written to by the then king of France, in this laconic style : — *' Retract, or I will have you burned." St Cyprian, St. Augustin, and St. Gregory did not consider the opposition of St. Paul, here alluded to, any prejudice to the authority of St. Peter, but, on the contrary, they gave entire submission to the see of Eome, as pre-eminent in dignity, and supreme over the whole flock.

Another objection started is, that " If the dignity of a person left any authority with the city in which he sat, then Antioch must carry it as well as Rome; and Jerusalem, where Christ suffered, was to be preferred to all the world, for it was truly the mother church." To this we answer, that wherever St» Peter went, he still preserved his supremacy.

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At Jerusalem he presided at the council held there, as related in the Acts of the Apostles, and pronounced the decision of the members, but he was not bishop of that city. St. James was the first bishop of Jerusalem. St. Peter established the see of Antioch, and appointed a successor, from whence he went to Rome, and there fixed the seat of supremacy, where it has unalterably remained to the present day. That this supremacy was to be centred in the Boman pontiff by divine power is clearly manifest, by the immutability of succession, which no other see, we believe, can boast. The sees estab-^ hshed by all the other apostles, and even that of Antiodi, have been dissevered in their succession; but Home, the eternal city, notwithstanding the revolutions she has under- gone in her temporal concerns and governments, has been the centre of unity of the church of Christ, and will so re- main to the end of time ; a glorious monument of the un- erring word of God, who assured us that his church, founded on a ROCK, should withstand every assault of the world and the devil.

It is also contended that St. Peter had a limited provinee^ '* the circumcision, as St. Paul had the uncircumcision, of a far greater extent ; which shewed that Peter was not con- sidered as the universal pastor/' In opposition to this state- ment, we shall produce a host of witnesses, who had better means of knowing whether St. Peter's mission was limited, than Gilbert Burnet, the Protestant bishop of Sarum. It is really amusing to see the miBerable shifts to which the im- puguers of the pope's supremacy are driven to prop up their cause ; for, in one place, we see them contending that all the apostles were equal, though, as we have shewn from scripture, Christ gave more than one command and promise to Peter expressly ; and, in another, we have his commission to preach limited, though, in conferring this power, Christ spoke to them all in general terms. Besides, St. Peter had his commission given to him long before St. Paul was called to the ministry, and received the Gentiles, in the pei-son of the centmion, before the latter began to preach.

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We have given, in the first volume of this work, the sen- timents of St. Cyprian, St, Basil, and St Gregory Nazianzen, on the supremacy of the pope ; we will here add » few other testimonies from the first ages, to shew that on this doctrine, as well as on all others helieved hy the Catholic church, there was no variation. To hegin, then, with St* Leo. He caUs Rome the head of the Christian world, and adds that that name is properly hers hy reason of the chair of St Peter, and that Rome extends its authority further hy the sacred rights of religion, than hy those of temporal government. — Serm. de Ratio. Apost edit. QuBnal p. 164.

St. Optatus says, that the first mark of the true church, is to oommunicatd with the chair of St. Peter. — Lib. 2. contra Parmen, edit. Dupin. p. 91,

St. Prosper says the same as St Leo. — Lib. de Ingratis, ed. Fraisi. Novo. p. 119.

St. Chrysostom writes to pope Innocent I., hogging him to annul all that had heen done against him in a synod, where Theophilus, patriarch of Alexandria, presided ; and to demand justice against his false accusers. — Ep. 1. ad Inno. t. 2. con. Lab. 1300.

Now, as to the four first councils, and first as to that of Nice, it is evident that Osius, hishop of Cordova, and Vitus and Vincentius, priests of the church of Rome, presided over it, in the place, and hy the appointment, of pope Sylvester, as Gelasius, who lived more than twelve hundred years ago, has left written. — Sjfnb, con. UricB. I. 2, cap. 5.

Eusehius, 1. 7. c. 30, tells us that Paul of Samosata, having been condemned by the second council of Antioch, he would not resign the episcopal palace to him who was chosen in his place, but the emperor Aurelian, though a Pagan, adjusted it to him to whom the pope gave his communion.

Socrates, the historian, vnrites, that the holy canons forbid anything to be decided in the church, without the consent of the pope. — Lib. 2. c. 8, edit. Froben, p. 296.

Sozomen relates, that St. Athanasius, being deposed by Eusehius of Nicomedia, in the council of Antioch, appealed

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to Home, and was by the pope reinstated ; the chief care of all thmgs, says the historian^ belonging to him by the dignity of his chair. — Lib. 3, c, 8.

Theodoret maintains, that the mighty number of bishops who assembled at Eimini, no ways prejudiced the good cause, because the pope, whose advice, says he, ought in the fii-st ])lace to be taken, did not consent ^o what was transacted there Lib. 2, c, 22, edit. Frob. p. 462.

Evagrius assures us, that the fathers of the Council of Ephesus, being on the point to judge Nestorius, said tfaey were assembled in obedienoe to the canons, and pope Celes- tine's letter. — Lib. 1, c. 4, edit Froben p. 726

Such a host of witnesses in fiiTOur of the* supremacy of SL Peter, and his successors, the bishops of Rome, ought, we think, to be sufficiei^ly convincing ; but lest there be some of the present generation sceptically inclined, we will introduce two of the most celebraied eharaeters of the Eeformation, so called, to speak to the article impugned. These are the no less important personages than Luther aud Henry. The former, in his letters to the pope before his condemnation, Wi-ites with all submission and acknowledgment of the right, power, and supreme authority of the see of Home. In his letter to pope LeoX., dated on Trinity Sunday, 1618, he says, that he cast himself at his feet, that it belonged to him alone to condemn him or absolve him, that he abandoned both himself and his cauae to the holy father, resolving to receive his decision as coming from the mouth of (Jurist ; and in another letter to the same pope, dated the 3rd of May, the year following, he acknowledges the church of Home to be superior to all. Such were the sentiments erf Luther, before he threw off the spiritual obedience he acknowledged in the pope,, and before that authority pronounced upon his conduct ; but when he found himself condemned, and re- quired to retract his erroneoias opinions, he then became furious, set up his own ipse dixit against the recorded testi- mony of ages, and in renouncing all rule of authority, he became a slave to the vilfest passions of human nature. It

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was this oondact on the part of Luther which called Henry forth to hreak a lance with him in the field of controversy ; and thus spoke the royal author in reference to the pope's authority^ in his Defence of the Seven Sacraments against Luther :— " I will not wrong the bishop of Rome so much, as trouhlesomely, or carefully to dispute his right, as if if were a matter doubtful ; it is sufficient for my present task, that the enemy is much led by fury, that he destroys his own credit, and makes clearly appear, that by mere malice he is so blinded, that he neither sees, nor knows what he says himself. For he cannot deny, but that all the faithful honour and acknowledge the sacred Boman see for their mother and supreme, nor does distance of place or dangers in the way hinder access thereunto. For if those who come hither from the Indies tell us truth, the Indians themselves (separated from us by such a vast distance, both of land and sea,) do submit to the see of Rome. If the bishop of Rome has got this large power neither by command of God nor the will of man, but by main force, I would fain know of Luther, whei^ the pope rushed into possession of so great riches ? for 60 vast a power (especially if itbe^gun in the memory of man), cannot have an obscure origin. But perhaps he will say, it is above one or two ages since ; let him then point out the time by histories ; otherwise, if it be so ancient that the begin- ning of so great a thing is quite forgot ; let him know, that; by all laws, we are forbidden to think otherwise, than that thing had a lawful beginning, which so far surpasses the memory of man, that its origin cannot be known. It is cer- tain that, by tlie unanimous consent of all nations, it is for- bidden to change, or move the things which have been for a long time immoveable. Truly, if any will look upon ancient monuments, or read the histories of former times, he may easily find, that since the conversion of the world, all churches in the Christian world have been obedient to the see of Rome. We find that, though the empire was translated to the Grecians, yet did they still own, and obey the supremacy of the church and see of Rome, except they were in any turbu- lent schism.

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'* When Luther so impudently asserts, (and that against his former sentence,) * That the pope has no kind of light over the Catholic church ; no, not so much as human ; hut has by mere force tyrannically usurped it ; I cannot but ad- mire, that he should expect his readers should be so easily induced to belioTe his words ; or so blockish, as to think that a priest, without any weapon, or company to defend him, (as doubtless he was, before he enjoyed that which Luther says he usurped), could ever expect or hope, without any right or title, to obtain so great a command over so many bbhops, his fellows, in so many different and divers nations.

" How could he expect, I say, that any body would believe, (as I know not how he could desire they should,) that all nations, cities, nay kingdoms and provinces, should be so prodigal of their rights and liberties, as to acknowledge the superiority of a strange priest, to whom they should owe no subjection ? But what signifies it to know the opinion of Luther in this case, when (through anger and malice) he himself is ignorant of his own opinion, or what he thinks ? but he manifestly discovers the darkness of his understanding and knowledge, and the folly and blindness of his heart, abandoned to a reprobate sense, in doing and saying things so inconsistent. How true is that saying of the apostle !

* Though I have prophecy, and understand all mysteries and knowledge ; and though I have all faith so as to remove mountains, and have not chaiity, I am nothing.' Of which charity Luther not only shews how void he is, by perishing himself through fury, but much more by endeavouring to draw all others with him into destruction, whilst he strives to dissuade them from their obedience to the chief bishop, whom, in a three-fold manner, he himself is bound to obey, viz. as a Christian, as a priest, and as a religious brother ; his dis- obedience deserving to be punished in a treble manner : he remembers not how much obedience is better than sacrifice ; nor does he consider how it is ordained in Deuteronomy,

* That the man who will do presumptuously, and will not hearken unto the priest, (that stands to minister there before

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the Lord thy God,) or unto the judge, even that man shall die.' He considers not, I say, what cruel punishment he tlcjserves, that will not obey the chief priest and supreme judge upon earth. For this poor brother, being cited to ap- pear before the pope, with offers to pay his expenses, and promise of safe conduct, be refuses to go without a guard ; troubling the whole church as much as he could, and excit- ing the whole body against the head ; which to do, is the sin of witchcraft ; and in whom to acquiesce, is as the sin of idolatry. Seeing therefore, that Luther, (moved by hatred), runs headrlong on to destruction, and refuses to submit to the law of God, but desires to establish a law of his own, * It behoves all Christians to beware, lest (as the apostle says) through the disobedience of one, many be made sinners ; ' but on the contrary, by hating and detesting his wickedness, we may sing with the prophet, * I hated the wicked, and loved your law.' *'

Having thus established beyond the power of contradiction the divine right of supremacy in spiritual matters in the pope, we will now proceed to examine the next point which Buniet says was inquired into, namely, ** the authority that kings had in matters of religion and the church.*' He also states that, " Christ was himself subject to the civil powers, and charged his disciples not to affect temporal dominion." Admitted ; and such is the doctrine of the Catholic church at this moment. The pope himself, when a subject of the Roman emperors, like his divine. Master, was subject to the civil power, but he nevertheless exercised that spiritual authority which was com- mitted to him by that same Master, to rule and govern the kingdom He came on earth to establish, which was to em- brace every foim of tempordl government, and every nation in every clime that chose to submit to the law preached unto them. This law, as it related to the next world, made no distinction between the king and the peasant, the pontiff and the friar; all were alike subject to its operations, and the ministers of tliis law were independent of the temporal govern- ments in the exercise of their spiritual functions. Their

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commission was received from Qod, and they were amenaUe to God and his church only for the due performance of their sacred duties. But let it not he understood that we are con- tending that the clergy owed no ohedienco to the supreme temporal government under which tliej lived. As suhjects of the state, whether monarchical or democratical — an absolute or limited monarchy, or a republic — they were bound to yield allegiance to the civil laws of that statey and inculcate the duty of obedience to their flocks. Thus, the allegiance of the Ca- tholic clergy and people is not divided, as is unjustly repre- sented by that portion of the established clergy which is opposed to the claims of the Catholic laity of this kingdom to be admitted to those civil immunities which unjust laws have wrested from them; but it may be sdd to be m<»ie firmly gi*ounded than that of other religious denominations, because it springs from the essence of Truths and is engrafted on the pillars of Justice. This question of the supremacy, we see by the public papers, has been agitated in the House of Lords by the bishop of Chester, (Dr. Blomficld), and it was some time ago objected against the Catholics, by the bishop of Peterborough, (Dr. Herbert Marsh), that they oould not be good subjects because their allegiance was divided. If this objection have any foundation, then were our Catholic ancestors but half subjects to their sovereigns ; yet the page of history informs us that these ancestors were able, though the ages they lived in are described by the modern editors as " dark,*' to discern the extent of the pope's supremacy, and to interpose their weight in favour of the rights of their kings, whenever an ambitious pontiff in the chair of Peter presumed to encroach upon them. We have many instances in the statute book of barriers to prevent the privileges of the English church from being invaded, but we need not insert them here. The prdates uncandidly confound the allegiance Catholics owe and render to the sovereign power of the state, whether vested in a chief magis- trate or a council, and the obedience they owe to the head of the universal church. In the first case they give implidt

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fealty as subjects, in the second snbmission as children to the head of one family. While they refuse to admit the right of the chief magistrate of the state to rule in the church of God, they at the same time deny any right on the part of the supreme head of that church to interfere in the temporal affairs of independent states. Such were the allegiance and obedience rendered to the supreme powers in Catholic times, when the martial prowess of England was renowned through the world, and her people the happiest in existence ; nor could they give any other without flying in the face of the solemn injunctions of their God.

Burnet says the king is called head and supreme in scrip- ture, and every soul is said to be under him, which, joined togethery makes up this conclusion, that he is the $u^eme head over all persons. Who but must smile at the logic of this prelatic historian ? In what part of scripture is the king called the " head and supreme ? " When the Jews sent per- sons to tempt our blessed Saviour on the point of subjection to the B^man power, what was his answer ? — ** Eender to CsBsar the things that are Ccesar's, and to God the 'things that are God's." Or, in other words, render to the temporal power, of whatever kind soever it may be, the duty of good subjects ; and at the same time render to the church, which I am about to establish on earth, to be a light to all genera- tions to lead them to heaven, that obedience which she may exact in my name. Thus SS. Peter and John, when they were desired by the synagogue to desist from preaching Christ crucified, refused to submit, observing they must obey God rather than men. So, when Henry and Elizabeth as- sumed the supremacy in spirituals as well as temporals, and commanded all to obey their dictates, the Catholics, following the example of the two apostles, refused to acknowledge the new spiritual supremacy, and many of them sealed the re- fusal with their blood, and all suffered penalties and proscrip- tions for thus following the divine injunctions of their God, In the Jewish theocracy the two authorities were separated, and when kings were appointed they were not allowed to in-

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terfere in the rites of religion, God having selected the high priest for that purpose. In the New Testament we see nothing about kings being **head and supreme;" and St. Paul, in his injunctions to the Eomans, speaks not of the emperor as being supreme, but of ihe power ^ the thing itself, as coming from God. But if the scripture be so clear on this point, and conferred the supremacy on the king by divine right ^ how did it happen that Henry, when he coveted the title, applied to parliament to confer that honour upon him ? We know that Cranmer — the double-faced hypocritical villain, Cranmer — composed a book to establish the divine right of kings ; but Henry was not so ignorant of the constitution of the country as to ground his title on Cranmer's opinion ; so far from it, he was sensible that unless he had the sanction of his parlia- ment, his claim would have the appearance of being illegal. By the power of parliament then, and not by scripture, was the supremacy of the Church of England conferred on Henry the Eighth, and by the same authority is it now held.

It is also contended, that "in the primitive church the bishops only made rules or canons, but pretended to no com- pulsive authority but what came from the civil magistrate ; *' and therefore, Burnet says, "upon the whole of the matter, they concluded that the pope had no power in England, and that the king had an entire dominion over ali his subjects, which extended even to the regulation of ecclesiastical mat- ters.*' This conclusion shews that those who thus decided, paid as little regard to the principles of the civil constitution of England, as they did to the divine rights of the church of God. Sir Thomas More, however, who refused to admit , this power in the king, and was a true Catholic and sound lawyer, pronounced this conclusion to be illegal and uncon- stitutional. Our constitution knows of no " entire dominion " in the king "over all his subjects," nor of any absolute supreme power immediately under God, in any sense what- soever, independently of parliament. This made the vener- able and learned More, who professed to have studied the subject as a lawyer with intense application for the last seven

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years of his life^ saj, '^ that a parliameut can make a king and may depose him, and that every parliament man may give his consent thereto, hut that the subject cannot be bound so in the case of supremacy.*' (See iState Trials.) Hence it is clear that Henry, being dependent on his parliament, ac- cording to the principles of the constitution, could not take upon himself his new title without being authorized by parliament; consequently it was a parliamentary grant and not a divine right.

We allow that the primitive bishops pretended to no com- pulsive authority, but what came from the civil magistrate ; nor can the Catholic church ever claim such power, because it was never given to her ; hence we ground omr position^

THAT PERSECUTION NEVER WAS A PRINCIPLE OF CATHOLIC

FAITH OR DISCIPLINE. The church of England, however, in her 37th article, seems to have made compuhive authority a question of faith. It is laid down in that article, that power is given by God in the scriptures " to godly princes to restrain with the civil sword the stubborn and evil doers ; ** and (m this supposition did Harry and Elizabeth get laws passed, making matter of conscience acts of high treason, and butchered their subjects without mercy for not conforming to their capricious creeds. It may not be amiss to relate here the means adopted by Henry to obtain an acknowledg- ment of his supreme headship in spiritual affairs. While the question of separation from Catharine was going on at Rome, Harry contrived to get the clergy into a praemunire for ad- mitting Wolsey's legatine power, though it was done by the king's privity, if not with his consent By this step their persons became liable to imprisonment, and their estates to confiscation, so that he got them completely into his power % and as few of them were endued with the desire of martyr- dom, they basely and cowardly submitted to the monarch's wishes, and agreed to allow him his demands, which were, that no constitution or ordinance should thenceforth be enact- ed, promulgated, or put in execution by the clergy, unless the king's highness approved of it. This took place in 1532.

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He next tried the council, where a debate was held, whether it were convenient for the king to assume to himself the supremacy in ecclesiastical affairs? In opposition to this question the following speech is put down in Lord Herbert's History. " Your highness is come to a point which needs a strong and firm resolution 5 it being not only the most im*- portant in itself, that can be presented, but likewise of that consequence that it will comprehend your kingdom and posterity. It is, whether in this business of your divwce and second marriage, as well as in all other ecclesiastical aiOfiairs, in your dominions, you would make use of your own or the pope's authority. For my own part, as an Englishman* and your highness 's subject, I must wish all power in your high*- ness. But when I consider the ancient practice of this kingdom, I cannot but think any innovation dangerous. For, if in every temporal estate, it be necessaiy to come to some supreme authority, whence all inferior magistracy should be derived ; it seems much more necessary in religion, both as . the body thereof seems more susceptible of a head, than any dse ; and, as that head again, must direct so many others. -We should, therefore, above all things, labour to keep an unity in the parts thereof, as being the sacred bond which knits and holds together, not its own only, bui all other government. But how much, sir, should we recede from the dignity thereof, if we, at once, retrenched this its chief and most eminent part ? And who ever liked that body long whose head was taken away ? Certainly, sir, an authority received for many ages ought not rashly to be rejected. For is not the pope communia pater, in the Christian World, and arbiter of their differences ? Does not he support the majesty of religion, and vindicate it from neglect? Does not the holding his authority from God keep men in awe, not of temporal alone, but eternal punishments ; and therein extend his power beyond death itself? And will it be secure to lay aside those potent means of reducing people to their duty, and trust only to the sword of justice and secular arms? Besides, who shall mitigate the rigour of laws in those cases.

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which may admit exception, if the jope be taken awaj ? Who shall presume to give orders, or administer the sacra- ments of the church ? Who shall be depositary of the oaths and leagues of princes ? Or fulminate against the perjured infractors of them ? For my part (as affairs now stand), 1 find not, how, either a general peace amongst princes, or any equal moderation in human affairs, can be well conserved without him. For, as his court is a kind of chancery to all other courts of justice in the Christian world ; so if you take it away, you subvert that equity and conscience which should be the rule and interpreter of all laws and constitutions whatsoever. I will conclude, that I wish your highness (as my king and sovereign) all true greatness and happiness ; but think it not fit, in this case, that your subjects should either examine by what right ecclesiastical government is innovated ; or enquire how far they are bound thereby ; since, beside that it might cause division, and hazard the overthrow both of the one and the other authority, it would give that offence and scandal abroad, that foreign princes would both reprove and disallow all our proceedings in this kind, and, upon occasion, be disposed easily to join against us."

Notwithstanding these excellent sentiments, which clearly shewed the existence, utility, and necessity of a spiritual supremacy, to set bounds to the ambition and violations of unjust sovereigns, Henry packed a parliament in the year 1534, which passed an act setting forth, ''That albeit, the king was supreme head of the church of England, and had been so recognized by the clergy of this realm in their con- vocation; yet, for more corroboration thereof, as also for extirpating all errors, heresies, and abuses of the same, it was enacted, that the king, his heirs and successors, kings of England, should be accepted and reputed the supreme head on earth of the church of England, and have and enjoy, united and annexed to the imperial crown of this realm, as well the title and style thereof, as all honours, dignities, pre- eminences, jurisdictions, privileges, authorities, immunities, profits and commodities, to the said dignity of supreme head

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of the same church belonging or appertaining. And that our said sovereign lord^ his heirs and successors, kings of this realm, shall have full power and authority, from time to time, to visit and repress, redress, reform, order, correct, restrain, and amend all such errors, heresies, abuses, offences, contempts and enormities, whatsoever they be, which by any manner of spiritual authority or jurisdiction, ought or may lawfully be reformed, repressed, ordered, redressed, corrected, restrained or amended, most to the pleasure of Almighty GK)d, the increase of virtue in Christ's religion, and the conservation of the peace, unity, and tranquillity of the realm : any usage, custom, foreign laws, foreign prescription, or any thing or things to the contrary thereof notwith- standing.*'

Burnet would further persuade us that the clergy were unanimous in acknowledging the right of the king to the supremacy, bishop Fisher only excepted. This is a pre- sumptuous falsehood, and is contradicted by the records of history. Sir Thomas More suffered death for no other cause than denying the supremacy of the king in matters of re- ligion. He, as we have before said, spent much time in studying the question, and there cannot be a doubt but that he examined the books published on both sides, and particu- larly those in favour of Henry's claim, which Burnet repre- sents to have had the powerfiil effect of converting ^* all the bishops, abbots, and fnars of England, Fisher only excepted,'' to the king's side. Now what was the result of M ore's search ? On receiving sentence of death, he thus addressed the court : ** Well, seeing that I am condemned, God knows how justly, I will speak freely for the disburthening my conscience what I think of this law. When I perceived it was the king's pleasure to sift out from whence the pope's authority was derived, I confess, I studied seven years together to find out the truth of it, and I could not meet witii the works of any one doctor, approved by the church, that avouch a layman was or ever could be the head of the church." And when the chancellor replied : '^ Would you be

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esteemed wiaer or to have a slncerer conscience than all the bishops, learned doctors, nobility and commons of the realm ?" Sir Thomas answered : '' I am able to produce against one bishop, which you can produce on your side, a hundred holy and Catholic bishops for my opinion, and against one realm the custom of all Christendom." Bishop Fisher held the same sentiments, as we find recorded in his life by Dr. Bailey. After sentence of death had been passed upon him, the prelate thus delivered himself to the judges: — "My lords, I am here condemned before you of high treason, for denial of the king's supremacy over the church of England ; but by what order of justice I leave to God, who is the searcher both of the king's majesty's conscience and yours. Nevertheless, being found guilty (as it is termed) I am, and must be, contented with all that God shall send ,* to whose will I wholly refer and submit myself. And now to tell you more plainly my mind touching this matter of the king's supremacy, I think indeed, and always have thought, and do now lastly affirm, that his grace cannot justly daim any such supremacy over the church of God, as he now taketh upon him; ^neither hath it ever been seen or heard of, that any temporal prince, before his days, hath presumed to that dignity : whereof, if the king will now adventure himself in proceeding in this strange and unwonted case, no doubt but he shall deeply incur the grievous displeasure of Almighty God, to the great damage of his own soul, and of many others, and to the utter ruin of this realm, committed to his charge ; whereof will ensue some sharp punishment at his hand : wherefore, I pray God, his grace may remember him- self in time, and hearken to good counsel, for the preservation of himself and his realm, and the quietness of all Christen- dom."

To shew how little reliance is to be placed on Burnet, and the total disregard he shewed for truth, when writing his History of the Keformation, we will here insert some collec- tions from Stow, of the sufferers for denying the supremacy of the king, beside the above mentioned illustrious characters.

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The reader will then be able to judge whether " all the bishops, abbots, and friars of England; Fisher only excepted, Were so far satisfied with them, that they resolVed to comply with the changes the king was resolved to make ;" and idso of the bloody means that were put in execution to make them satisfied with these changes.

Sir William Peterson, priest, late c(Hnmissary of Calais, and Sir William Richardson, priest of St. Mary's in Calais, were both there hanged, drawn, and quartered, in the market- place, for the supremacy, p. 579.

Dr. Wilson, and Dr. Samson, bishop of Chichester, were sent to the Tower for relieving certain prisoners who had refused to subscribe to the king's supremacy. And for the same offence Richard Farmer, grocer of London, a rich and wealthy citizen, was committed to the Marshelsea, and after arraigned, and attainted in a prcemunire^ and lost all his goods ; his wife and children thrust out of doors, p. 680.

Robert Bams, D.D., Thomas Gerrard, parson of Honey- lane, and William Jerom, vicar of Stepney-heath, batchelors in divinity ; also Edward Powel, Thomas Able, and Richard Fetherston, all three doctors, were drawn from the Tower of London to West Smithfield. The three first were drawn to a stake, and there burnt: the other three were drawn to a gallows, and there hanged, beheaded and quartered. The three first, as appears in their attainders, were executed for dtvers heresies ; the three last for treason ; to wit, for denying the king's supremacy, and affirming his marriage with Catharine to be good. p. 581.

Thomas Bmpson, sometime a monk of Westminster, who had been a prisoner in Newgate more than three years, was brought before the justices in Newgate; and for that he would not ask the king's pardon for denying his supremacy, nor be sworn thereto, his monk's cowl was plucked off his back, and his body reprieved, till the king was informed of his obstinacy, p. 591.

Dr. Forest, a friar observant, was apprehended, for that in secaret he had dedared to many, that the king was not

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SQpreme head of the church. Whereupon he was condemned ; and afterwards, upon a pair of new gallows, set up for that purpose in Smithfield, he was hanged bj the middle and arm- pits, alire, and under the gallows was made a £re^ wherewith he was burnt and consumed, p. 577.

Hugh Farringdon, abbot of Keading, and two priests named Rugg and Owen, were hanged and quartered at Reading. The same day was Richard Whiting, abbot of Glastonbury, hanged and quartered on Torehill, adjoining to his monastery. John Thorn and Roger James, monks, the one treasurer, the other under-treasurer of Glastonbury ehurch, were at the same time executed. Also, shortly after, John Beck, abbot of Colchester, was executed at Colchester : all for denying the king's supremacy, p. 577.

Six persons, and one led between two, were drawn to Tyburn ; to wit, Laurence Cook, prior of Doncaster, William Horn, a lay-brother of the Charter-house at London, Giles Horn, gentleman, Clement Philipp, gentleman of Calais, Edmund Bolhelm, priest, Darey Jennings, Robert Jennings, Robert Bird : and all there hanged and quartered, as haying been attainted by parliament, for denying the king's supre- Biacy. p. 581.

Sir David Jenison, knight of Rhodes, was drawn through Southwark, to Sir Thomas of Watterings, and there executed ior denying the king's supi*emacy. ib,

G^nnan Gardiner, and Lark, parson of Chelsea, were •xeeuted at Tyburn, for denying the king's supremacy ; as likewise one Ashby. p. 585.

It ift a fact, indisputably proved, that Henry VIIL wa« the^r«^ king of England that ever gave leave to bishops to exercise jurisdiction without being approved of at Rome, the JSrst that ever styled himself head of the church, and the ^rsi that ever made it treason to refuse that title. This assump- tion surprised all Europe, and well might it do when this very same king had stood forth the champion of the pope's su- premacy, as of divine right, against Luther, when that arch- heretic threw off the yoke of obedience. Henry charged

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Luther with acting under the influence of anger, and malice, and hatred, and so it was with Henry himself. His defence was written hefore he hecame enamoured of Anne Bolejn, and when his mind was impressed with the duties and ohliga- tions of a Christian sovereign ; hut when his heart was filled with the flame of lust, and, like Luther, he found himself restrained and condemned hy the lawful authority of the . church, then it was he gave loose to his passions, and in his rage to vex and mortify the holy father who reproved him, with a view to hring him to a sense of duty, he resolved to destroy, as far as ho was ahle, that supremacy which he had acknowledged and proved to he of divine origin, and involved his kingdom in all the horrors of schism and corruption. Perfectly sensible that reason and argument would only retard and render his designs abortive, he employed the civil sword to establish his spiritual supremacy, and made pebse- CUTION the basis of his new church. We have shewn the use he made of the knife, the halter, and the fagot, to intimi- date the clergy and learned into submission ; it only now re- n^ains for us to shew how the people were brought over to the views of the court. To grant spiritual supremacy to a lay prince was an idea so repugnant to the people, that the propo- sition was everywhere received with suspicion and wonder. To remove these feelings, Harry gave orders to have the word '* pope '* erased out of every book used in the public worship of the church ; every schoolmaster was ordered diligently to inculcate the new doctrine to his pupils ; all clergymen, ^m the prelate to the curate, were directed to teach, every Sunday and holiday, that the king was the true head of the church, and the pope's supremacy a mere usurpation ; and to prevent the truth from being known, it was made high treason for any one to print or pitblish any work against the spiritual supremacy of this monarch ! Thus, in the process of time, the people became immersed in error, and this state of dark- ness has continued to the present day ; though. Heaven be praised, the mist is gradually dispersing, notwithstanding the efforts of designing and ignorant revilers, and the rays of truth are beaming on this long benighted nation.

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Haying thas given an outline of the doctrine of siipremacj, we must now return to the subject of the divorce and intro- duce two more prominent characters in this momentous affiiir.

CRANMER AND ANNE BOLEYN.

Previous to the establishment of Henry's supremacy by act of parliament, an act was passed, condemning all appeals to Borne, though the king had been for years appealing to that see, but in vain, to be released from his virtuous wife. This act^ like the suppression of the pope's supremacy, had its origin from rage, vexation, and disappointment The next circumstance of importance was the raising of Thomas Cranmer to the primacy of the English church, which is thus stated in the Book of Martyrs : — " Warham, archbishop of Canterbury, having died the preceding year, was succeeded by Cranmer, who was then in Germany, disputing in the king's cause with some of the emperor's divines. The king resolved to advance him to that dignity, and sent him word of it, that so he might make haste over : but a promotion so far above his thoughts, had not its common effect on him ; he had a true and primitive sense of so great a charge, and instead of aispiring to it, feared it ; and returning very slowly to England, used all his endeavours to be excused from that ad- vancement. Bulls were sent for to Bome, in order to his conse- craticm, which the pope granted, and on the 30th of March, Cranmer was consecrated by the bishops of Lincoln, Exeter, and St. Asaph. The oath of the pope was of hard digestion to him. He there made a protestation, before he took it, that he conceived himself not bound up to it in any thing that was contrary to his duty to God,to his king, or to his country ; and this he repeated when he took it." — The modem editors have made a little free here with Burnet, and left out the conclu- sion of the last sentence, which is this : " so that if this seemed too art^ficicU for a man of his sincerity , yet he acted in it fairly, and above board." Such is the way that bishop Burnet f^mpts to bolster up the perjury of his hero. But let ua

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look a little deeper into the conduct of this man of anceritj, this leader in the work of Reformation in England. It was in 1 529 that Cranmer put himself at the head of the party that favoured the divorce of Catharine. In the year follow-' ing he wrote a hook against the lawfulness of the queen's marriage, in which he flattered the predominant passion of the king, and became thereby a great &vourite of the mo- narch. Burnet represents him, at this time, as devoted ilo Luther's doctrine, and was considered as the most learned of those who favoured it. Miss Anne Boleyn, the same author states, had also received some impressions of the same doc- trine. Henry, however, was ignorant of these dispositions and designs of the enemies of the Catholic faith, and the better to deceive him, this arch-hypocrite continued to say mass and conform to the Catholic worship, while, according to Burnet, he was a Lutheran in his heart. While the suit of the king was pending at Rome, Cranmer was sent into Italy to manage the cause of Henry. In the discbarge of this duty he went to Rome, where he carried on the work of dissimulation so well, that the pope made him his penitentiary, which office he accepted, though he was a Lutheran in his heart. From Rome he goes to Germany, to conduct the king's case with his Protestant friends, and here, though he had voluntarily sworn to observe perpetual chastity at his ordination as a priest, he privately married Osiander's niece^ a brother reformer, and one of the most profane and dissolute wretches of the age. Some authors say he debauched her, and was then compelled to marry her. This circumstance is not sufficiently authenticated to be given as fact, but the marriage itself is certain. Cranmer, as we have before stated, was expelled Jesus' college, Cambridge, for engaging in wedlock, contrary to the statutes of the university, but his wife dying he was admitted into holy orders, on which he solemnly engaged to lead a life of celibacy : but with this man of sincerity solemn oaths were no more binding than the wind ; nor did he hesitate at any profligate act of villany which was necessary, to further his ends, and

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serve the lustful passions of his master. It was after Cranmer had engaged asecofid time in v.edlock, that the archbishopric -of CanteHbury was offered to him, which he accepted with apparent reluctance, in order to appear with better grace. But, though Cranmei* and his reforming colleagues made a jest of the sacred canons and their oaths, to gratify their brutal lusts, yet the new-elect bishop was well aware that Harry had an utter aversion to married priests, and there- fore it was necessary to dissemble stilL What then was he to do ? In this perplexity a lucky device came into his head, which, however, was very near ending tragically. Mr. Mason, in his work of the Consecrations of English bishops, says, ** Cranmer kept his wife secret for fear of the law, and that they reported she was carried up and down in a chest, and that at Gravesend the wrong end of the chest was set up- wards," by which mistake the good woman was in great danger of having her neck broken.

Such was the man whom Henry nominated to the see of Canterbury. The pope, who knew no error in him but that of maintaining the invalidity of Henry's marriage, which, as the holy see had not then decided, he was at full liberty to do, granted him the necessary bulls, which Cranmer scrupled not to receive and acknowledge, though, according to his prelatic panegyrist, he disowned in his heart this very authority. V\ e have seen him assooiating with the reformer^ in Germany, and approving of their new doctrines ; we now see him, at the nomination of a Catholic king, for Henry had not yet renounced the pope's supremacy, and by the permission of the pope, submitting to the doctrine and dis- cipline of the church of Rome, and consenting to take the highest dignity of that church in England, for the express purpose of preserving its privileges, and seeing that its canons were duly enforced. Previous to his consecration as arch- bishop of Canterbury, he had to take an oath of fidelity to the holy see ; this, Burnet says, " was of hard digestion to him ;'* but Tom was never at a loss for expedients, until he had run his career, by meeting with that same terrible end

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which he had, with cold-blooded malice, prepaored £(h* fiO many others. He who pretended unwillingDOSs to accept the high station offered him ; he who had such " a true and primitive sense of so great a charge ;** he who, '' instead of aspiring to it, feared it ;" — he could deliberately call his God to witness an act which he intended the world should think him sincere in performing, while inwardly and secretly, it is said, he protested against it. Was ever such a consummate act of perjury committed before ? Can we wonder ihstper^ jury is now become a trade in this Protestant country — ^this land of bibles and immorality, — when we have such an ex- ample of premeditated false-sweaiing here set before them in the person of their first Protestant primate, who is extoUed^ too, as having a primitive sense of the high religious charge he was then entering upon. One of the gross calumnieft raised against the Catholics by the adherents to the blessed work of Eeformation was, that they paid no regard to the sanctity of an oath, and that the pope could dispense with tho obligations of an oath at his pleasure. Such an infamoua charge^ though often repeated, and believed by too many at this day, was never proved against the Catholics ; but here we have Cranmer treating a solemn compact with his God as a mere idle ceremony, by no means binding, and absolving himself from its obligations even before he was invested wi^ his high functions.

We have Cranmer now seated in the primate's chair of the English church, after having taken the oath of fidelity to the see of St Peter, as supreme over the universal church of Christ. He had also, as solemnly, engaged to preserve the church of England in all her rights and privileges, such as he found them when he was installed archbishop of Can-* terbury, and as they had been secured by one of his prede-> cessors, cardinal Langton, under Magna Charta. Cranmer, however, was no sooner seated in his high office, than he began to play the sycophant, the hypocrite, and the tyrant. The pope, who had granted the necessary bulls to authorize Cranmer to act canonically as archbishop, could not be

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kt>i]ghl to consent to the divorce of Catharine ; and Henry, wiio had taken upon himself to be supreme head of the diarch in England, was resolved upon a divorce ; and he was Airtker detormined that there should be some shew, some ^^0aranc0 of nutkoriii/, for this separation from his lawful wife. But then there was a great obstacle in the way, whidi was, to diseover in whom this power, or authority, was lodged, and who was to be the executive minister to put it in force. To get over this difficulty, Cranmer abandons his promise of fidelity to thepope,and feigning himself another Nathan sent to repvtfve a second David, or a John Baptist censuring a Herod, he writes a serious letter, by virtue of his arehieiHSOopal ao&ority^ on Harry's incestuous marriage with Catharine ; '* a marriage," he said, ** the world had long been scandalized witii/' and declared that, for his part, he was deteroiined to mxS&r no kmger so great a scandal. He therefore concludes by requesting his majesty to empower him, the archbishop, to examine and pronounce a final sentence tipon the question. Aecofdingly, the king has an instrument drawn up, which he signs and seals, giving the primato authority to call a «ourt, and put an end to the dispute between him and his lail^iul wife. As this document is a novelty in the annals of history, we will here give the words of it, for the amuse- ttient oi the reader. '* Wherefore ye, whom God and Wfi have ordained archbishop of Canterbury, and primate of this our realm of England, to whose office it has been, and is ap* p«*taining, by the sufferance of us and our progenitors, as you write yourself most justly and truly, to order, judge, ftnd determine mere spiritual causes within this our realm. Therefore in your most humble wise, you apply unto us, in the said letters, to grant unto you our license to proceed to the examination and final determination of the said cause, in exoneration of your conscience towards God. Wherefore we, inclining to your humble petition, by these our letters, sealed with our seal, and signed with our sign manual, do license you to proceed in the said cause, and to the exami* feuiticm ftud final determination of the same." Here is

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hjpocrisj in perfection, "^lien Crantner wrote hit letter, li^ knew that Catharine had heen expelled the nuptial bed, a&d that a private marriage had already taken place between Anne Bolejn and Henry. Then again, the king, who i» tlid dinner, empowers Oranmer, the reprover, to aift and pro^ pounce upon the case. The man by whom, next to Qod^ Cranmer was raised to his office, aecordii^ to HanryV laws^ is to be judged by the creature he made ; a yery pretty judgment, a very impartial decision, by no means to be sus- pected, must of course be the result. That the queen though so, we may infer by &e respe^H she paid to Ae £uree aboitl to be acted.

Cranmer was oonsecrated on the 3(>th of March, 1533# imd on the 20th of May following, he opened a court al Dunstable, by the strength of the above instrument, consist'- ing of bishops, divines and civilians. Here he summoned las royal ordainer, who answered by his proctor. He theil ^uuimoned Catharine, who nobly scorned his summons and disowned his authority. For this dignified o<mduct she was pronounced contumacious, and on the 23rd of that sam6 n)onth, the aichbishop pronounced sentence, that the marriage between Henry and Catharine was void from the beginning* T\iBi such a sentence would follow must have been anticipated by every man of common sense, but what can he think of the archbishop, who, though he denied in his heart the authmity of the pope and the holy see, yet, in the sentence he pro-i nounced, takes upon himself the Utle of legate of the hdy see-apostolic I Five days after he had separated Hairy from his lawful wife, by a marriage that had received the sanction of the pope and all the learned men of that age \ that had been defended as valid by the l»ightest and mo^ learned men then living; Cranmer confirmed the private marriage of Anne Boleyn, though that marriage had been contracted bdbre that of Catharine was declared null, a circumstance as irregular as unprecedented. Thus then we see an affair which had occupied the court of Borne above ^ven years/ decided by Cranmer in as many wee^, from th^

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ttae he entered on his office. Tom soon found out the secret ^liteir he wag elevated to the supremacy. Let me alone, says be to Harry, I will find out the mode by which you shall get released from your old but excellent wife, and take an amor- ous young damsel to your bed ; and this too without seruph to your tender conscienee, which, I know, has been goading you, most religious monarch, these seven long years. But &ni make me archbishop of Canterbury, and you shall have every tiling to your wisbefl« So it turned out ; for Cranmer eoneented to every whim and cruelty the capricious and fluiguinaiy-minded Harry thought proper to indulge in*

Well, the decision of Cranmer was communicated to the king in a letter from the former, who with the most exquisite hypocrisy gravely exhorted Harry to submit to the law of Gai, and to avoid those reproach^ which he must have in- eiirred by persisting in an incestHous intercourse with his ¥rother*s widow. But now another difficulty started. It was asked, how eould the king proceed to a new marriage before the former one was annulled ? Would the right of succession^ be less doubtful, in the case of issue by Anne than by Ofttbarine ? To silence these questions, Cranmer soon adopted an expedient. He cited another court at Lambeth, on the 28th of May, (excellent speed !) before which the proctor of the king appeared, and declared officially that Henry and Anne had been joined in wedlock, whereupon the pliant arehbishqp confirmed the same by his pastoral and judicial anthority, and woe to those who had the temerity to call his decision in question. Catharine received an order to assume no other title than that of princess dowager, to which ord^ she refused to accede, nor would she employ any one. about her who did not address and acknowledge her as queen. Her fate became the subject of commiseration with foreign na- tions, and in England the popular feeling was in her favour* Most men, to be sure, had the prudence to be silent, but the women loudly expressed their indignatio i at the treatment of their queen. To check their boldness and inspire some awe# Henry committed the wife of the Viscount Eochford to the

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Tower. When Clement VII. learned what Cramner had been doing, and that Anne Boleyn was actaallj married to the king, he hesitated no longer on the matter. He formaUj annulled the sentence given by Cranmer, as uncanonieal and nnauUiorised ; and excommunicated Henrj and Anne, unless, thej should separate bj a certain time, or shew cause why thej claimed to be husband and wife.

We must now bring AnniB before our readers, and let. our new archbishop retire for a time tct the back ground, Burnet, and the Book of Martyrs, say, *< The conypcation hayings thus judged in the matter, the ceremony of pronouncing the-, divorce judicially was now only wanting. The new queen being pregnant, was a great evidence of her having preserved her chastity previously tO her marriage. On Easter eve, she; was declared queen.'' And, in another place, the account says, " All people admired her conduct, who during so many years managed the spirit of so violent a king, in such a. manner as neither to surfeit him with too many fevours, nor. to provide him with too mudi rigour. They that loved the Reformation, looked for better days wuler her protection f. but many priests and friars, both in sermons and discourses, condemned the king*s proceedings." Liars, they say, have, but short memories, and bo it turns out with this bishop Burnet, and the modem editors of the Book of Martyr$ ; for here they confess that many priests and friars openly, condemned the proceedings of Henry, whereas they told us,: but a few pages preceding, that << all the bishops, abbots, . and friars of England, Fisher only excepted,*' were unani- mously satisfied with Henry s proceedings. Again, how are we to reconcile this statement, that Nancy's conduet was ad-, mired, 'Muring so many years ,** by the people, when the people are represented as taking part with her unfortunate but magnanimous rival, and she lived but three years with the king after her public marriage with him. If those ** tliat loved the Reformation, looked for better days under her pro- tection," they found themselves most egregionsly mistaken, ~ for JiaiTy.didnot begin to be that sanguinary monarch ha.

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shewed hiraselj^ until he became acquainted with Miss Bolejn and Tom Cranmer, when he gave way to that insatiable lust and merdless cruelty which stain his character and cast a stigma on the human name. Even Burnet acknowledges that '* it does not appear that cruelty was natural to him. For, in twenty -five years' reign, none had suffered for any crime against the state>" except two individuals, while in the last ten yeurs <rf his reign the scf^olds were reeking with blood, and the fttgots constantly blazing. So that it is clear the merit here imputed to Anne Boleyn should be given to Catharine, with whom he lived happily and contented until he cast his eye on the wanton thus eulogized. But the mbst curious logic of these editors, is the attempt they make to V>lster up the chastity of this Angel of the Me/ormatton, whose pregnancy previous to the divorce of Catharine is made a proof of her immaculate continency. What a system of deception have the people of England been subjected to since the days of that thing cdled the Beformation. It is a no-- torious fact to those who are acquainted with history, that Anne Boleyn was the kept mistress of Henry for some time, and that she firould not have been married so hastily as she was, had she not proved in a family way be/ore her marriage, which manriage took place previous to the former connubial «ontract the king had engaged in being declared void. Yet we are h^e told, by men pretending to give a true knowledge •f ifie principles of Christianity, that the very state of pregnancy of a woman not married, but afterwards married when the king had another wife, was ^* a great evidence of her having preserved her chastity previously to her mar- riage." This may be Protestant chastity — this may suit a Protestant bishop — ^but no Catholic, whether bishop or lay- man, ivill be found to whitewash such an open and barefaced state of incontinency and adultery.

Neither was her conduct, after she became queen, such as

drew upon her the admiration of the people. For two years

lifter her coronation historians take very little notice of her,

only ^t she favoured the progress of Lutheranism, which

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pleased ardibiBhop Cranmer, and was fi^ ^tn being agrecfr able to the king. One trait of her feeling we will b^^ gi^Q in the words of Mr. Echard^ a Protestant divine, from his History of England. Catharine died on the 5tli of January, 1536, and ** the king," Mr. EcLard says, '* received the news of her death, not without tears, and ordered her to be buried in the abbey -church of Peterborough, But queen Anne did pot carry herself so decently as became a happy rival, ex-* pressing too much joy, both in her behavour and habit. Il was but a few months after ibsi this flourishing quieen mel with a fall more unfortunate and fatal than the other." This was in a violent death, which we shall relate by and by ; but; we must here apostrophize, to render a tribute due fo virtue and misfortune, and relate the death of the noble-minded princess in the language of Dr. Lingard.

'* During the three .last years Catharine, with a small e»*. tablishment, had resided on one of the royal manord. In most points she submitted without a mXirmm* to the royal pleasure ; but no promise, no intimidation could induce her to for^o the title of queen, or to acknowledge the invalidity of h^ marriage, or to accept the ofl(^ made to her by her n^hew, of a safe and honourable asylum either in Spain or Flanders. It was not that she sought to gratify her pride, or to secure her personal interests : but she still cherished a persuasion » that her daughter Mary might at soom futUre period he called to the throne, and on that account refused to stoop ta any concession which nught endanger or weaken the right of the princess. In her retirement she was harrassed with angry messages from the king : sometimes her servants were discharged for obeying her orders ; sometimes were sworn to follow the instructions they should receive from the (»)m*t : Forest, her confessor, was imprisoned and condemned for high treason : the act of sueces^on was passed to defeat her c*laim ; and she believed that Fisher and More had lost their lives merely on account of their attachment to her cause. Her bodily constitution was gradually enfe^led by mental suffering : and jfeeling her health decline, she repected k

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reqiiest which had often been refused, that she might see her daughter, once at least before her death. For Mary, from the time of the diyorce, had been sieparated from the com- pany, that she might not imbibe the principles, of her mother. Bat at the age of twenty she could not be ignorant of the injorieB which both had suffered ; and her resentment was daily strengthened by the jealousy of a hostile queen, and the caprice of a despotic &tlier. Henry had the cruelty to refuse this last consolation to the unfortunate Catharine, who from her death-bed dktated a short letter to * her most deai* lord, king, and husband.' She conjured him to think of his salvation ; forgave him all the wrongs which he had done her ; recommended their daughter Mary to his parental protection ; and requested that her three maids mi^ be provided with suitable marriages, and that her other servants might receive a year's wages. Two copies were made by her direction, of which one was delivered to Uenry, the other to Eustachio Ohapuys, the imperial ambassador, with a request that, if b^ husband should refuse, the emperor would reward her servants. As he perused the letter, the stem heart of Henry was softened : he shed a tear, and desired the ambassador to hear to her a kind and consoling message. But she died befofe hb arrival, and was buried by the king's direction with becoming pomp in the abbey church of Peterborough. The teputation which she had acquired on the throne, did not suffer from her disgrace. Her affability and meekness, her piety and diarity, had been the theme of universal praise : the fortitude with which she bore her wrongs, raised her still higher in the estimation of the public."

Such is the acconnt given by this eloquent writer of the last mom^its of ibis model of womankind, and even Burnet and the modem editor? are compelled to acknowledge, that ** she was exemplary, patient, fmd charitable;" and that ** her virtues and her sufferings created an esteem for her in all ranks of people.*' This acknowledgment we consider a complete contradiction to their former statement, that all people admired the conduct of her rival, Anne Boleyn, whose

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persoitat niaDiicnv and d^ttment were tlie xeirj oppoeite of €atharine*fl. Anne had given birth to a princess eig^ months after her marriage, who was named Elisabeifa, and ikfterwards became queen. In the same month that CSatharine died, she felt the pains of premature labour, and was ^eliYcml of a dead male child. This accident proved to Henry a l)itter disappointment, as it was a second failure to his hopea of male issue: and in the moment of vexation he upbraided Anne^ who retorted upon him that he had no one to blame but himself, and that her miscarriage had been ewing to hia fondness for her maid. This was Jane Seymour, who afiaiv wards became queen, and the incident is thus related : '^Whes the news of Catharine's death reached the court, Henry, evi of respect to her memory and virtues, ordered his servants to wear mourning on the day of her burial, while Anae decked heradf out in the gayest of her apparel, and appeared in tha highest spirits, saying that now «he was indeed a qoeen, Mnce fihe had no rival. But in this she found herself unluckily deceived, for in the midst of her joy, sha accidentally disv covered her sorant Jane, before mentioned, sitting on the king's knee. Jane was the daughter of a knight of Wilt^ shire, remarkable for her beauty, and the 8%ht of tiua • familiarity awakened the flame of jealousy in Ajme's mind, and produced premature labour. Thus the very circumstanee which she imagined was a completion oi her triumph 9 by the dispensation of a just Providence, turned out to be her &11» By her levity and indiscretion, so contrary to the manners of the late queen, she had given occasion to the retailers of scandal to set up some ugly reports of her conduct, which coming to the ears of Henry^ an unfavourable imprebsion was made on him, which led to Anne's immediate disgrace and imprisonment Before, however, we proceed in this imp<Mrtn ant and interesting affair, we will here give the aceount of it as we find it in the Book of Martyn.

" The Popish party saw, with disappointment and concern, that the queen was the great obstacle to their designs. She ^m not^onfy m tbti king'i atesm, but in the lov4 tf ihe

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iMtifoit. During tke last nitid inonths of her life, she be-^ «towed above .£14,000 in alms to th$ poor, and segm^d to, ddfffhi in doing good. Soon after Catharine's death, Anne bore a dead son, whieh was believed to have made an un- &T0urab1e impression on the king's mind. It was also considered, that now queen Catharine was dead, the king nUghi marry anothery fmd regain the friendehif of the pope and the emperor, and that the iesue by any Oth&r marriage wmid never he queetiofied. With these reasons of state the king's affections joined ; fbr he was now in hve (if so heart- less a monster was oapaUe of feeling love) with Jane Beymoor, whose disposition was tempered between the gravity of Catharine and the gaiety of Anne. The latter used idl possible arts to re-inflione his dying affection ; bat he was weary of her, and therefore determined on her de-^ struetion; to effect which h» soon found a pretence. Lady^ Boehford, wife to the brother <^ Anne, basely accused her husband of a criminal intercourse with his sister ; and Norris, Weston, and Brereton, the king's servants, wi£h Smeton, a musician, were accused of the same crime.

** She was confined to her chamber, and the ^re persons be- fore mentioned were sent to the Tower, whither, the next day, she also was carried. On the river some piivy counsellors came to examine her, but she made deep protestations of her innocence of the crimes laid to her charge. Those who were imprisoned on her account denied everything, except Smeton, who, from hopes of favour and acquittal, confessed that he had been criminally connected with her ; but denied it when he was afterwards brought to execution.

" The queen was of a lively temper, and having resided long in the French court, had imbibed somewhat of the levities of that people. She was also free from pride, and hence, in her exterior, she might have condescended too much to her familiar servants.

" Every court sycophant was now Tier enemy ; and Cranmer formed the only and honourable exception. An wder was therefore procured, forbidding him to come to

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courts yet he wr<»te the king a long letter updn this critical juncture^ wherein he acknowledged^ that * if the things re- ported of the queen were true^ it was the greatest affliction that ever befel the king, and therefore exhorted him to bear it with patience ctnd submission to the will of Ood; he con* fessed he hever had a hetter opinion of any woman than of her; and that, next the king^ he was more bound to her than to aU persons living, and therefore he hegged the king's leave to pray that she might be found innocent; he loved her not a litde, hecause of the love which she seemed to bear to Ood and his gospel; hut if she was guilty, all that hued the gospel must hatr Tier, as having heen the greatest sland^ possihle to the gospel ; hut he prayed the king not to enter"- tain any prejudice to the gospel on her account, n(nr give the world to say, that his love to that was founded on the inJUk^ enee she. had with him.' But the king was inexorahle. The prisoners were put on their trial; when Smcton pleaded guilty, as before ; the rest pleaded not guilty ; but all were condemned/'

When we take . into consideration the treatment of the Popish party, as the Catholics are called by Burnet, we need pot be surprised that they felt concern, or that they looked upon Anne Boleyn as *^ the great obstacle of their detigns." Between the proclaiming of Anne as queen and her fall, the nation had witnessed the violent death of two of the greatest men of that age, and the execution of several religious men« for denying the supremacy of the king, which he had as<* 9umed, the suppression of several religious houses, which were the friends and supporters of the poor, and all their lands and goods conferred, upon the king by an act of parliament, as were the first-fruits and tenths* In these acts of robbery and cruelty Cranmer took an active part. The venerable bishop Fbher, who had been a counsellor to the king's father, Henry VII., executor to the king's mother, and con- fidential adviser to the king himself, was summoned before this base upstart and consummate hypocrite, who, along with C^xMnw^ll, a butcher's son of Ipswich, but now. in high favoiur

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with Henrjy b^cau&e Le could pander to his wishes, and a ]<H*d Aadley^ was appointed oommissibner to take Fisher's answer concerning the oath of supremacy. The venerahle liishop appeared according to summons, and had not Cran* mer's conscience heen seared with iron, he must have felt compunction and shame, on heholding a man grej in jears^ and clothed with the brightest and most heroic yirtuesi standing before him to speak to a question which he^ his judge, had acknowledged under the solemnity of an oath* But Cranmer's heart was steeled against pity and virtue, and Uie appearance of the venerable confessor of the Catholic faith moved him not. When brought before the commis-^ siooers, he informed them that he had examined the oath iu Bin its bearings, and that he could not take it with a safe conscience, unless they would give him leave to alter it in sQme particulars. To this request it was answered, that V the king would not in any^wise permit that the oath should admit any exceptions or alterations whatsoever; '' and, added Cranmer, " you must answer direfetly, whether you will or wiU not subscribe.'' On this the bishop of Bochester promptly and nobly replied, " Then if you will needs have me answer directly, my answer is, that forasmuch as my own conscience cannot be satisfied, I absolutely refuse the oath/' Such a decision on the part of Dr. Fisher must have struck tiie pliant Cranmer to the soul, and no doubt did fire him with revenge. The bishop was instantly committed to the Tower, that is, upon the 26th of April in 1534. While the good prelate remained a prisoner in the Tower, every art that cunning could devise was practised to gain him over to the oath, but he was inflexible. In the mean time a parliament was convened on the 23rd of November, which, though it lasted but fifteen days, was n<Jt idle in complying with the king's wishes. The bishop of Bochester 's imprisonment, and; that of all other men who should refuse to take the oath of supremacy, was Voted good and lawful, which authority was. wanting before, and a statute was passed whereby the suprem- acy of the church of England was granted unto the king.

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tnd his successors, as a title and style to his imperial crown, with all its honours^ &c.» and with full power to repress, reform, correct, restrain, and amend all heresies, &c. Which act heing passed was followed hy another, making it treason for any one, hy word or deed, to deny the title of supremacy, as we have hefore noticed. After heing held in confinement somewhat more than a year, he was at last compelled to take his trial like a common malefactor, the right heing denied him to he tried hy his peers. Several circumstances were, deposed against him respecting the supremacy, but the only material evidence against him was a prwaie conversation which he held with the solicitor-general, which officer was base enough to appear against him, but not without r^roof from the aged and reverend prisoner, for treachery and breach of promise. On this testimony he was found guilty and condemned to suffer death, which sentence was executed on the 2nd of June, 1535, he being in the 77th year of his age. Of this great man the learned and indefatigable his* torian Dodd speaks thus in his Church History : —

" It happened in these days, what is observable upon most revolutions, both persons and causes lay under a general mis- representation, nmr was the strictest virtue able to defend itself against calumny. Bbhop Fisher, a person of primitive behaviour, the oracle of learning, and whom Erasmus styles the phoenix of the age ; a man universally applauded in every article of his life, excepting that point for which he died ; and yet even here he shewed such a contempt of all woridly advantages, that his greatest enemies, when passion did not transport them, were forced to acknowledge his sincerity. Yet notwithstanding the advantage of his character, to put a gloss upon the proceedings of the court, it was judged neces- sary to have him represented' to the people as an obstinate, avaricious, lecherous old man, and a fit object 4>f the king's wrath and indignation ; with which sort of calumnies. Bale, Ascham, and some other virulent writers have fouled their pens, whilst others of the party have generously removed the qalumny. However the people were so over-awed i^ their-

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behaTioiir in his regard, that no one durst speak a word, or move a step in his hehalf ; wh^-eof there cannot he a greater instance, than the disrespect that was shown to his hodj after he was heheaded ; no friend he had durst approach it ; it lay exposed naked upon the scaffold, fix)m the time he suffered tUl eight o'dodc in the eyening, when two watchmen hoisted it upon their halherts, and carried it into AlUhallows Barking church- jard, where it was thrown naked into a hole^ without either coffin, shroud, or any other ceremony hecoming his dignity, or even that of a Christian. His head indeed was taken care of, and, as it is reported, first carried to Anne Boleyn, who heing induoed hy an unnatural curiosity to view that countenance which had so often heen displeasing to her, and flirting her hand against his mouth with a kind of scorn, one of his teeth projecting, she struck her finger against it, which razed the skin, and afterwards hecune a chargeahle wound, the scar whereof remained as long as she lired. Hi» head was afterwards placed upon London hridge, hut wHhin a fortnight, by order of council, was thrown into the Thames^ This was done to prevent superstition; for the whole city crowded to see it, upon a report that certain rays of light wer& obsMired to shine around it. It was also thought proper to remove it upon a political account ; fbr the clouds being now in a great measure dispersed whi<^ darkened the bishop's character, the people began to express themselyes with a great deal of freedom in his favour, and the exposition of his head only served to renew the memory of so worthy a prelate, and give occasion to many to exclaim against the proceedings of &e court. He was a stout champion far the. dignity of the sacerdotal order; and though he would not suffer the laity to insult the clergy, upon account of their mis* behaviour, yet he was always one of the first that moved for a redress, i^ a canonical way, and was himself, by his lifb and conversation, the model of a true refonnation,'' As a proof of t^e very extraordinary learning and industry of this holy man, Dodd sets down twenty-one works which he com- posed in .Latin, which were published in one f>Uo volume/

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anno 1505, besides a History of the Bivorce in MS.> ohcein' the possession of Dr. Philips, dean of Eochester, who fearing^ it should be fonnd upon him, and he by that tneans get into trouble, committed it to the flames soon after bishop Fisher's death. It is also said, that nearly a horse-load of manuscript works were burned after he was condemned.

Of Sir Thomas More, who suffered in the following month, and who was upon the most intimate terms with bishop Fisher, we must be allowed to say something, as we passed his death over alightly under a preceding head. This great lawyer was tr^anned in the same manner as the bishop, by Bicfa, the solicitor-general, and Sir Thomas complained in court, that be had been drawn in by flattery and false friendship, and that his words had been strained and misreported. In our account of the supremacy, we stated that Sir Thomas More suffered death on no other account than that he would not eonsent to allow the king to be supreme head of the church, but we did not then state his reasons for tiiis denial, which be grounded on a political^ as well as a religious principle. He told them that the oath imposed by the statute was neW| and never heard of before, either in England or any other Christian country ; that it was expressly against the law of die go^el, which had long conferred the spiritual supremacy upon St. Peter and his successor ; that it was directly against several statute laws of England, still in force, and particu- hrly against Magna Charta, whereby all Hie rights of the church, as usually practised, were constantly and expressly oonflrmed, among which, obedience to the see of Eome^ in all matters purely spiritual, was always understood ; and that the statute was contrary to the king's coronation oath, which obliged him to maintain and defend the aforesaid privileges. This last objection reminds us of Cranmer's religious con- sideration of an oath ; but, to reverse an old saying, like man like master, Henry having got a primate to his own mind, and ready to do all his dirty work, Tom could dispense with Harry's oath as easily as he could with his own> and Harry had no conscientious scruples about it, since the dispensation

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bad all the form of laVr. Well, Sir TKomas, a& erery one might have foreseen, and probably did foresee, was condemned to suffer the penalty of high treason, as his reverend and venerable friend had been, a few weeks before him ; and,^^ like Fisher, he met his fate like a man convinced of the up- rightness of his conduct, and the purity of his conscience. He had done his best to vindicate his own character, that himself and children might stand unblemished before pos- terity, and, full of modesty and remgnation, he submitted his: neck to the block on the 6th day of July, in the last-named year, in tbe 62nd year of his age. His head was set up on London-bridge, where it remained fourteen days, when his daughter Margaret found means to convey it away. Of this ^^^t toan, Dodd, before quoted, gives the following character: —

" I might dispense with mysdf for entering intoZa detail in giving the character of this worthy person, and content tnyself with saying, that he was the darling of the age, anid a good abridgment (^ all those excellencies which can be thooght to nifi^e a layman valuable. Any one of the good qualities he was master of was sufficient to have reoom-< mended him to posterity ; he was an universal scholar, and though he lived at a time, and in a kingdom, remarkable fot learned men, yet he was without a rival, both in his way of thinking, and tbe manner he had in commimicating himself to others. The gospel, the law, poetry, history, dec., were made familiar to him ; I might have added, his skill in politics^ but this was the rock he split upon. It is true no one understood the game better; but, when once he began to suspect foul play ,^ he threw up his cards, and withdrew; ^ Had his temper been mercenary and ambitious he might have made his fortune to what degree he had pleased ; but he was altogether above the consideration of money, his con^ science was not flexible enough for this purposie.' — f Collier^ 9 Ecclesiasiical History ^ vol. ii.) He had a strong genius, a soul impregnated with the best ideas of things, and so bean** tiful a way of expressing himself, that it was altogether

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peeoliar to himself; he was capable of giving a relish to the most intricate points of law, the most abstracted notions of philosophy, and the soundest roles of morality. All the princes in Europe both valued and coveted htm, excepting that one tiiat enjoyed him ; all the learned men in Europe were am- bitious of corresponding wiili him. Both his writings and conversation were so well adapted for the general use of mankind^ that he seemed formed on purpose to please . and instruct. He was witty upon the most serious mattars, and all his satires were lessons of morality, and full of compas* sion, ^ Some think he indulged his levity too fiir, and thi^. his jests were somewhat unseasonable. But, on the other side, it may be said, the div^rtingness of some expressions might result from the fortitude and serenity of his mind ; that his frequent contemplation of death had preserved Inm from the least surprise, and that the nearest prospect could not disconcert his humour, or make the least alteration upon him.' — (iWrf.) It is, indeed, reported of him, by way of abatement to his character, that he was no friend to the mendicant orders, and sometimes made himself meny with some of their ways and practices. To which it may b^ re^ed, that his greatest admirers do not pretend to make him an angel, or exempt him from the common frulinga Others are subject to; but that^ in the main, he was no Miemy, either to the mendicants, or any other religious order, plainly ai^>ears from what he wrote in their defence, against Fish, in a woik called the Supplication of JSouU. As fov exposing abuses, provided he k^t within bounds, he cannot suiter in his general character upon that aeomnt. And it may be farther said, in regard of hbzeal, both for the church, and ail the members that composed it, that, perhaps, no layman ever published more books in thebr defence, as his writmgs against Dr. Barnes, Joy, Tyndale, Fryth, but most especially against Luther, are an everlasting proofl'' The historian concludes with giving an account of ^ various eompoaitiona from the pen of this sound lawyer and honest man, which comprised nineteen works in the English Ian* guage, verse and prose, and twenty-one in Lfttin.

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. We will leave the reader to decide, whether the persecu* tion and death of these most emioent and irreproadiable men were likely to obtain the favour of popular feeling. The inainuationSy therefore, that Anne was gaining on the love of the nation, was a gratuitious lie, which no <Mie will believe after what we have here stated on the authority of the most authentic writers. As to the prodigal bounty of tills wanton to the poor, and her delight in seeming to do good, who, besides Burnet, and the modorn editors of Fox, would have ventured such a brazen fedsehood ? Where did she get this sum of money ? And how did she expend it ? Is it not notorious that her husband was employed, during die last nine months of her life, iu robbing the poor of their patrimony ; and will it be believed, that this lady, whose life was one continued scene of wantonness and levity, was so intent on supplying the wants of the poor, while the king was increasing those wants ?

We must now return to the account of Anne, which we have quoted from the Book of Marty rt. It is an abridgment of Burnet's Abridgment^ and, we perceive, mutilated for the purpose of carrying on that system of deception which the people of England have been, so long subjected to. For ex- ample, in the second paragraph, the queen is represented as protesting her innocence, and Smeton is made to charge her with guilt, and afterwards to retract the accusation at his execution. Now, Burnet in his Abridgment, confesses that << Anne's cheerfulness was not always governed with decency and discretion ; ** that she '^ sometimes stood upon her vindi- cation, and at other times she confessed some indiscretions which she afterwards denied ; ^ that Smeton confessed lewd- ness with her ; that he pleaded guilty on his trial, and con- fessed that he had known the queen carnally three times ; '> and that '* it was said, that he retracted all before he died • but of that (he adds) there is no certainty.** Let the reader now compare these admissions of Burnet, with the statement in the second paragraph of our quotation, and say if the modem editors, by their shameful suppressions^ have not

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been guilty of brazen-faced falsehoods. The fact is, her carriage was the very opposite of a virtuous and accomplished -woman, as Catharine most undoubtedly was, and therefore she had it not her power to command the affections of the king as Catharine had, even after he had deserted her to in- dulge in the pursuits of lewdness and debauchery. The designs and rumours about reasons of state and disappoint- ment of party designs, regaining the friendship of the pope, and obtaining issue by another marriage, are only so many plausibilities, put forth to cover the shame and disgrace of this defiler of the king's bed.

We are next informed that though, but a short time pre* vious, this sweet lady was growing in the love of the nation, no sooner was she attainted of ciime than every '* court syco- phant " became her enemy, except the redoubtable Cranmer, who is said to have adhered to her to the last. The contrary, however, was the case with our hero Tom, whose conduct towards his patroness Anne was marked with duplicity, heart- lessness, ingratitude, and treachery, as we shall shew by and by. It is necessary here that we should examine the con- tents of the letter which our modem editors, on the authority of Burnet, say he wrote to the king. The exhortation of Oranmer to the king to bear his misfortune with patience, if the charges against his beloved fnend Anne were true, is in keeping with his hypocritical letter to Henry on his pretended incestuous marriage with Catharine, when these two rare characters, of English pope and deputy, conspired to remove the lawful wife, and make room for the lady that had now been unfaithful to his royal holiness. But the asking leave to pray for his unfortunate mistress is as curious a request as we ever heard of. What I could he not pray without per- mission 6rom the king any more than preach 7 l^en the cant about the gospel, and the love which Anne seemed to bear to it and to God ; — is any one silly enough to believe that Cranmer dared to use any such language to Henry, who bad so great a predilection for Catholic doctrine, that he made Cranmer conform to it, say mass, and ordain priests accord-

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iug to the Boman ritual for years, though he was, according to Burnet, a Frotestaut in hb heart ? Again, what are we to think of the archhiBhop's doctrine, that those who laved the gospel must hate the queen, not the crime she had com- mitted ? The charity of the Catholic church leads her to tondemn the offence hut pity the offender ; here, however, it is laid down that the love of the gospel inspires hatred to the pfrson of the wicked. It is certainly not inconsistent with the avowed feelings of the modem editors, who have given circulation to this false and uncharitable production with the express view of exciting hatred and abhorrence of the professors of Popery. Next comes his hope that the Icing would not be prejudiced against the gospel on account Qi\A^ fickle wife. Truly this is something for Granmer to say. Did he imagine then that the king founded his gospel notions on Anne's virtues ? A precious foundation, inde^ ; but we will acquit Henry of being such a simpleton, for he was more rogue than fool, and was probably aware of the knavish qualities of the primate he had to deal with.

Dr. Lingard gives a very different version of this affair. This learned historian says, Granmer received an order, on the day after the arrest of Anne, to repair to his palace at Lambeth, but with an express injunction, that he should not venture into the royal presence. This order put the pliant riave mto a panic, and to smooth his way he wrote an in- genious epistle to the king, in terms similar to those related. Dr. Lingard's authority is Burnet, and he says the letter ♦* certainly does credit to the ingenuity of the archbishop ia the perilous situation in which he thought himself placed : but I am at a loss to discover in it any trace of that high courage, and chivalrous justification of the queen's honour, which have drawn forth the praises of Burnet and his copiers." Kor can any one else, whose eye is not clouded by prejudice and ignorance. The alarm of the archbishop proved to be without foundation, though Harry had his reasons for infusing a little terror into him. Cranmer, though he had written his letter, had not dispatched it ere he was summoned to ipeet

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-some of the oommission^rs m the star chamber, where proofs of the queen*8 offence were laid before hiniy and he was re-^ quired to dissolve the marriage between Henry and Catharine.

<< It must have been/' writes Dr. Lingard, " a most unwel-^ eome and punful task. He had eiamined that marriage ju-> dioially ; had pronounced it good and ralid ; and had con- £rmed it bj his authority as metropolitan and judge. But to hesitate might have cost him his head. He acceded to the proposal with all the zeal of a proselyte : and adopting as his own the objections to its validity with which he had been furnished, sent copies of them to both the king and the queen, * for the salvation of their souls/ and the due effect of law : with a summons to each to appear in his court, and to shew cause why a sentence of divorce should not be pro-* nounced. Never perhaps was there a more solemn mockery of the forms of justice^ than in the pretended trial of thn extoaordinary cause. By the king Dr. Sampson was appointed to act as his proctor : by the queen Doctors Wotton and Barbour were invested with similar powers : the objections were read : the proctor on one part admitted them, those on the other could not refute them : both joined in demanding judgment : and two days after the condemnation of the queen by the peers, Cranmer, ' having previously invoked the name of Christ, and havmg Gt>d alone before his eyes,' pronounced definitively t^at the marriage formerly contracted, solemnized, and consummated between Henry and Anne Boleyn was and always had been null and void. The whole process was after- wards laid before the members of the convocation and the two houses of parliament. The former dated not to dissent from the decision of the metropolitan ; the latter were will- ing that in such a case their ignorance should be guided by the learning of the clergy. By both the divorce was approved and confirmed. To Elizabeth, the infant daughter of Anne, the consequence was that she, like her sister, the daughter of Catharine, should be reputed illegitimate." (See the Record in Wilkins. Con. iii. 801.)

The same historian, in a note, observes, '' Burnet, unae-

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qoftiBted witli this instrumeDt, 'informs us that the divorce was pronounced in consequence of an alleged pre-contract of marriage between Anne and Percy, afterwards earl of Northumberland: that Uie latter had solemnly denied the existence of such contract on the sacrament ; but that Anne, llui>ugh hope of favour, was induced to confess it. That Percy denied it, is certain from his letter of the Idth of May ; that Anne confessed it, is a mere conjecture of the historian, supported by no authority. It is most singular tiiat tJie real nature of the objection on which the divorce was founded, b not mentioned in the decree itself, nor in the acts of the convocation, nor in the act pf pariiament, though it was certainly communicated both to the convocation and the parliament If the reader turn to p. 135, he will find that the king had formerly cohabited with Mary, the sister of Anne Boleyn ; which cohabitation, according to the canon law, opposed the same impediment to his marriage with Anne, as had before existed to his marriage with Catharine. On this account he had procured a dispensation from pope Clement: but &at dispensation, according to the doctrine which prevailed after his separation from the communion of Bome, was of no force : and hence I am inclined to believe Ukat the real ground of the divorce pronounced by Cranraw, was Henry's previous cohabitation with Mary Boleyn i that this was admitted on both sides ; and that in consequence, the marriage with Anne, the sister of Mary, was judged invalid. Perhaps it may be thought a confirmation of this conjecture, that in the parliament, as if an alarm had been already created, Henry, at the petition and intercession of the V>rds and commons, assented that dispensations formerly granted by the pope should be esteemed valid, and all mar- riages made in consequence of such dispensations before November 3rd, 1534, should stand good in law, unless they were prohibited by the express words of scripture. St. 28 ll«n. VIII. 16."

Let us pause here a moment, and look into the eon- doct of Oranmer towards this unhappy woman. We see him VOL. II. L

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introduced into Harry's favoifr, through the influence of the carl of Wiltshire, father to Anne Bolejn ; we see bim worit- ing jealously to place her cm the throne of England, and we find it stated by Biimet, that ** they whoIoTed the Refwum^ tion, looked for bettw days under her protectioii ; " wbile^ Craumer is re^N^esented by the same historian, as the head of the reforming party in England ; yet what do we here see? Do we not behold the yile and hoary ingcate, not only sacri- ficing the diild of his Mend and benefactor to please the whim^ of an inexorable tyrant, but even consenting to woimd h&t tenderest feelings on the Terge of death, by annulling that marriage which he had sol^nidy pronounced good and valid, and declaring the child she had brought forth, and whid) hadr been christened by him with all the pomp and splendoor of religious and royal ceremony, — a bastard. This "oonrtly sycophant,'* who is des(»ribed by Burnet and the modern^ editors as forming the ^< only honourable exertion" <^i attachment to Anne's cause, who is stated by the same an- thorities to have assured the king by letter, that next to hinr ** he was more bound to her than all persons Hving ; " this idol of the Reformation, scrupled not to deaert her the mo*' ment he found himself in jeopardy, and not only to desert, but even to stab her feelings by his base treatment^ in offidaUy. tarnishing her chai*acter with infamy, and her ofiGspring wid»^ disgrace. Is there a human being impressed with the feel- ings of honour, that can refrain from execrating the miscreant who could act so infamous and ungrateful a part? Yet thia is the man who is put on a level, by Fox and Burnet, and their copiers, with a Chrysostom, an Ambrose, and an Austin^ It was well for him that he did not live till the in£Emt Elizabetli he thus bastardized came to the crown, as that vifyin queea would most assuredly have given him a Eoland for his Oiivery had he fallen in her way.

On the very day Cranmer pronounced his judgment, the companions of Anne, one of them her brother, were led to execution ; and two days aftw, Anne herself was taken to the fatal scaffold. In giving the relation of her trial and

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^teath, Bam^ is serupulouslj carefnl in sa^eenin^ Cranmer frotti any share in t^e transactions. His name is not once mentioned in the account, though he took so prominent a part in annulling the marriage. He gives us, howeYMr, more cant in a message said to have b3en sent by Anne to the king, in which she thanked himr for ail his favours, and particularly **'§br sending her to ber a saint in heaven/' Her Mea of sancti^ must have been a little presumptuous we thtnk, as it does not appear t^t she ever positively denied or acknow* ledged her guilt. That she prevaricated is- admitted by her panegyrifitSy and this must be a^wed but a hollow kind of hdinesa to entitle aay one to the rank of a smnt in heaven. The mod^ra editors, we observe, have suppressed one oir- camstanee' connected with the death of this adultri^s^ from partiality, we presume, to the character of Anne, and haired to that of the bloody' (as she is unjustly called) queen Mary. This princessv it will be recollected, was the daughter of Cadiarine, aad was not allowed to see her own mother after her separation from Henry. Burnet says^ that v4ien Anne had intimation of l^r death, she, among o<ii«r things, ** re- fleeted on her carriage to lady Mary, to whom G^ie had been too severe a stdp mother; so she made one of her women sit do<wn, ahd she fell on her knees^ befi)re her and' charged her ta go to kdy Mary, add hi tJutt posture, and in her name, to ask her forgiveness f(»r all she had done i^ainst her.'' So, so ; this candidate for a saintship in heaven ; this protectress of the Keformation ; this woman after Cranmer's own heart, — was a cruel step mother as well as a faithless wife. Flow creditable must this be to the Refbrraatton of which Anne and Cranmer are the chief props !

Thus, only four montlis after the dea^ of Catharine fBll her rivaF Anne Boleyn, as little regarded and respected by the people as Olitharine waa beloved and lamented. Even Henry, a remorseless barbarian,, could not receive the news of hts> Tirtuous wife's death without emotions of grief and attachtideni ; but the day on which Anne was executed he dressed himself in his gayest apparii, and the next day

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appeared as a Inidegroom, by taking Jane Seymour for his wife. In closing our account of Anne Bolejn, for we have much more to saj of Cranmer, it is worthy of ohservation, and is mentioned by Dr. Lingard in a note at tlie end of th^ fourth volume of Ids interesting History, that, if this queea was innocent there was something very singular in the con*, duct of her daughter Elizabeth. " Mary/' he says, " no sooner ascended the throne, than she hastened to repeal the acts derogatory to the honour of her mother. Elizabeth sate on it five-and-forty years ; yet made no attempt to vin- dicate the memory of Tier moth^nr. The proceedings wero not reviewed ; the act of attainder and divorce was not re^ pealed. It seemed as if she had forgotten, or wished tho world to forget, that there ever existed sodi a woman as Anne Boleyn."

We must now revert back to year 1533, the year Cranmer was made archbishop of Canterbury. We find it stated that one Frith was burned in this year for heresy, in which case Cranmer must have had a hand in his death, he being the primate of England and oner of the king's council. Frith is described as being a young man muck famed for learning, and was i}a» first who wrote in England against the corpcMreal presence in the sacrament, l^is admission is not unworthy of notice. Christianity had be«n part and parcel of the law of the land about 900 years, and the belief in the real pre- sence of the sacrament was part of that system of Christianity, and had, in fact, been received with the system of our pagan ancestors. Well, then, is it not somewhat singular 'that during this long space of years no one should become en- lightened with ^e truth in this country, though it abounded with learned men, but this man Frith ? We are told, too, that his book falling into the hands of Sir Thomas More, ^b^t learned scholar answered it. It is further said that, ^* Frith never saw the answer until he was put in prison ; and ^hen, though he was loaded with irons, and had no books allowed, he replied.*' Prodigious I This Frith must have J)een a v^ry plever mai% But as he was not allowed to have

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any booka, how came he hj Sir Thomas Morels answer to him? And was be allowed pen, ink, and paper, though denied books ? This is rather inconsistent. Frith is stated to haye followed the doctrine of Zuinglius, and in his reply he insisted much on the argument, '* that the Israelites did eat the same food, and drank of the same rock, and that rock was Christ ; and since Christ was only mystically and by faith received by them, he concluded that he was at the pre- sent time also received only by faith. He shewed that Christ's words, * This is my body,' were accommodated to the Jewish phrase of calling the lamb the Lord's passover ; and con- firmed his opinion with many passages out of the fathers, in which the elaments were called signs and figures of Christ's body ; and they said, that upon consecration they did not cease to be bread and wine, but remained still in their own proper natures. He also shewed that the fathers were strangers to all the consequences of that opinion, as that a body could be in more places than one at the same time, or could be in a place in the manner of a spirit ; yet he con-* claded that, if that opinion were held only as a speculation, it might be tolerated, but he condemned the adoration of the elements as gross idolatry.''

This disciple must have been learned indeed to make these discoveries, but none but fools and enthusiasts, we think, can give credit to his logic. How the plain words of Christ could be accommodated to the Jewish phrase, we cannot divine, but probably Frith had the same being for a teacher that his master had. Zuinglius informs us that he had great difficulty in obscuring the clearness of the expression of our Saviour, * This is my body ; * but, in the midst of his diffi- culty, the devil, (whether black or whiUi he could not tell), helped him out of it by assuring him, that, in the language of scripture, "this m meaned this signifies;*' and, upon this authority, Zuinglius grounded his doctrine. With regard to the passages out of Ihe Others, we wish that these pas* sages had been given, which we think would have been the case, if truth had been the object of Fox, or Burnet, or the

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modem editors. Of the fathers of the first &ve Ages, "we have quoted passages from their works shewing that they helieved the same as Catholics now, aud always did, believe, imd if Frith had discovered that the passages in the works of any of the fathers had been mistranslated or &Isified by Catholie writers in defence of the doctrine of the real pre- sence, why were they not pointed out ? This would have been the way to defend the eajuse of truth } this would have confounded his antagonists, and shamed his persecutors. But such a eo^se was not adopted, and the reason for it was, ijk coiidd not be so, the fathers being clearly on the Catholic sidet Henry himself wrote ip defence of the doctrine of transubatantiation, against Luther, in which the royal author says, " The D»ost holy &th^^, seeing diese things, took aU possible care, and psed their utmost endeavours, that th^ greatest f^ith imaginable should be had towards this most pFO|Htiatory sacrament; and that it should be worshipped firitb the greatest hpnpqr possible* And for that cause, amPPg^t many other things, they, with great care, delivered us this also : ' That the bread and wine do not remain in the eiuqbarjistf but is pnJy changed into the body and blood of Christ.' They taught mass to be a sacrifice, in which Christ himeelf is truly offsred £or the sins of a Christian people. And, so £ELr as it was lawful for mortals, they adorned this imrowtal mystery with venerable worship and mystical fites ; they oprnmanded the people to be present in adoratioi^ of it, whilst it is ^lebrated, for the procuring of their salva- tion. Finidly, lest the laity, by forbearing to receive the #aqrame^t, should, by little and little, omit it for good and all, they have estaUished an obligation that every man ^)all revive at least onoe a year. By those things, and many of the like nature, the holy fathers of the church, in several ages, have demonstrated their cai'e for the faith, and veneration of this adorable sacrament." The royal disputant is clearly opposed to Frith, and shews that, so far from the ^hers being strangers to the consequences of the opinion that a body c^uld be in mpre places than one at the samQ

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^me, ikej held it as a positive doctrine, that, ba noising was impoBtibie to Gtod, his body could be in as many places a$ he .{^eaawd, and who can dispute the fact without denying the oamtp^^Bce of God?

It is a piece of extreme modesty on the part of Frilh^ to allow the toi^ntion of the opinion if held only as a apecuk^ turn, " but he oondemned," we are told, " the adoration of the elements as gross idolatry," What ! then, we are to snj^Kiee that if this enlightened reformer had been in pos^ session of power, he woidd have served the believers in tran- substantiation the same as they served him. But these words are put into this man's nsouth, or rather they are foisted on him as part of his book. Who are the men that adore the elements of bread and wine? Not Catholics. Indeed we know of no men so simple. It is a gross insin- uation, intended to impose on i}ie credulous, and make them bdieve that Catholics, in adoring the Host in the great and •august sacrifice of the mass, ^ve worship to the elements of bread and wine ; whereas the homage is paid to Ood himself, which he commanded should be given, which the apostles, •and every nation on &e face of the earth on receiving the light of Christianity, gave to him. It was left to the re- formers of the sixteenth century to impugn the doctrine of tl^ real presence, and deprive their Mind followers of the most sublime sacrifice ever offered to the Creator of mankind, as Luther and Zuinglius acknowledged in their works.

** For these opinionHf" the narration goes on, " Frith was jsetzed, in May, 1533, and brought before Stokesley, Gar- diner,-and Longland." So, ' then /> alter all, Frith 's discov- tKies were only opinions^ grounded on the whim or caprice <^ the mind, and not the received doctrines delivered by Christ to the apostles. There was also an apprentice exe- cuted with him, one Hewett, on the same account. This Hewett, Stow writes, was a tailor, and we think it would have been better for htm if he had minded his thimble and sleeve- board, instead of dabbling in theology, which he certdnly could not have been qualified to engage in. To come at the

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true cireumdtances of the death ^ tiese two men is a mtMc of great difficulty, we might say an impossibility, at iiA^ day ; we shall, therefore, content ourselyes with obsernng, that if Fritb and Hewett confined their specakttre 0|miion» to ttiiraiselve», and did not attempt to disturV the peaoe of the king, it was an act of injustice to piunsk tfaem; bot^if they acted in defiance of the law, and attempted to heani the constituted authorities, surely those authorities were ai duty bound to notice the transgression. We are persimde4 thi^ Frith and Hew^t were notorious brawlers and disturbecft of ^e peace, or they would not have been punished in ii» manner they were. We are neither attempting to palHi^ nor justify their deaths. We condemn relijfious perseeatio& as nraen as any man, but it should be shewn that those wto have sufiered for their ofunions or ereed, have suffered soleh and exclusively on that account, and not for creating seditioa^ tumult, or perhaps treason, as we shall shew to have been the case with some of the pretended martyrs in Mary's reign, and as we have shewn was the ease with many that have already been noticed by us.

But why should the proceedings against Frith be thou^it to carry with them the spirit of persecution, any mose than the proceedings which occur in our days, in the eourts of justice, when religious fanaticism inspires some bewildered wight to create disturbance in the streets, w inmlt the min^ ieters of religion? The public journals relate the trial of a man named Hale, in the month of March, 1825, for creating confusion, and disturbing the service of the church in St. Clement's Banes, in the Strand This man, who had been an industrious shoemaker, and realized a property, be- came fascmated with scripture interpretation, and ccmceived himself somebody of importance in Bible disputation. Bie got himself into trouble by spending hismoney in drculating handbills and pamphlets among the soldiers to dissuade theii from fighting, which he maintained was contrary to tli^ scripture. Now he is in prison for challenging the rector oi a parish to public disputation iu the churchy havii^ beoii^

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tried and firaod guilty by a jury of his oountrymen, and sen- tenced to pay a fine, whidi being unable or unwilling to do, lie is eenttnaed in imprisonment until he complies with his Mi^enoe. There can be no doubt that this man is impelled hj what he considers a sense of duty ; but it is evidently an €Erreneons impression^ and therefore it is necessary, for the aake of peace and justice, that he should be restrained from laying his freaks. Such a proceeding can no more be fairly tomed perseoutton, than the execution of a real male&ctor ; neither can we cdl the case t^ Frith an act of religious per- aeeotion, unless it ean be dearly proved that he was burned mAfAj and ezdnsively for belieying in the opinions set forth. But admitting that he suffered for conscience sake, and that Jie was martyred fbr the truth, where was the great and he* foie Oranmer, the chief promoter of the ^formation, tiiat he did not attempt to save the life of Frith ? He was <lien the primate of all England ; he was fiiUy convinced, we are infonned, of the necessity of a Beformation ; yet he coolly allowed poor Frith to be burned for opinions whidi he privately held himself, but openly taught the contrary. Yerilyy this Tom Cranmer was a villain of the blackest dye. The modem editors tell us, ^* thb was the laSt instance of the cruelty of the clergy at that time ;" and <' gave the new preachers and their followers some respite." They would have come much nearer the truth, had they said, that now the bloody work commenced of hanging, embowelling, and qmrtering, for conscience sake. The king Was now, by act of parliament, supreme head of the phurch, and was em- powered to reform all heresies and idolatries; or rather, what he and his satdlites might term heresies and idolatries, as it suited their caprice or interest. The queen, too, that is, the ^laste Anne Boleyn, for we are treating of a period anterior to her death, according to Burnet, '* openly protected the refinrmers ; she took Latimer and Shazton to be her chap- iains, and promoted them to tiie bishoprics of Worcester and Salisbury. Cranmer is rq>resented as *' well prepared for tbat work, to which the providence oi God now called him ;"

L 3

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aad ''Oromwell was his great and constant friend." Thds^ then, ererj thing was well arranged for the blessed woriL cut out bj the reformers, and it is now our duty to potat <mt what that work was. fiut first let ns give the reader some aocoimt (^ the new diaracter we have before us, and who ' made so conspicuous a figure in the transaodons of the daj, till be at last fell into the trap he bad prepared for some oi those who were opposed to his ink^uitous deeds.

Thomas Cromwell was born at Putxiej, near Londo&y hi« lather being a Uaoksmith at that place. In the early part o/ his life he entered as a private soldier in the duke of Bourbon's army, and was at the pillage of Rome by that general, so that he was early initiated in the soenes of n^aeity wM^ afterwards followed in his own country. Eeturoing h(»ne, he was taken into the service of cardinal Wolsey, by whom he was employed to manage the revenues of the disserved monasteries, which the cardinal had designed for his pro* jected new colleges. On the fi^l of his master, Cromwell rose out of his ashes, and became the favourite and confidant of Henry, who raised him to several plaees of honour aai profit, and at last made him vicar-g^ierai to his royal pope- ship, a post never before heard of, and we believe never enjoyed by any other man. By degrees his honours swelled into titles. He was first created lord Cromwell, iheia made a knight of the garter, and afterwards eai'l of Essex. This last title was conferred upon him for being the chief {projector of the match between Henry and Anne of Cieves, which afterwards tni^ed to his down^U. Such was the man who was made '< vicar^general, and visitor of all the monasteries and churches in England, with a delegation of the king's supremacy to him ; he was also empowered to give commis- sions subaltern to himself; and all wills, where the estate was in value above £200, were to be proved in his court. This was afterwards (Burnet says) enlarged: he was nuide the king's vicegerent in ecclesiastical matters ; had the preoedenee of all persons, except the royal family ; and his authority was in all points the same as had been formeriy exettnsed by the

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BOOK OP MARTYRS. !^27

i>ope*s legates." Tet, be it obseired, this Cromwell was a hi>jman. In parliament this son of a blacksmith sat before the archUshop of Canterbury, Cranmer, and he superseded him in the prendencj of the eonvooalion. This degradation caused some murmnrs among the bishops, but farther mortifi* cations were reserved for the men who had basely deserted their duty and bowed to usurped power. They were exhorted, and meanly complied, to admit that they did not derive their pow^ from Christ, but were merely the delegates of the crown. To such a degree of humiliation were these men reduced, who but a short time before were looked upon as the instructors of the people, the protectors of their rights, and the fathers of the poor.

DESTRUCTION OF THE MONASTERIES.

Befmie we prooeed to detul the horrible sacrileges, and th^ Vandalic outrages perpetrated by our gospel reformers, under the doak of religion, in which savage and unjust proceedings Oraomer and Cromwell acted so conspicuous a part, we shall put the reader in possessi<m of the origin and benefit of the monastic orders, th^ a clear view may be seen of the vast misc^ef that accrued to the literature, morality, freedom, and happiness of the country, by the destruction of these seats of learning, virtue, and hospitality. No order of men, we believe, have been subjected to so much calumny, scur- rility, and invective, as the orders of monachismwn the Catholic church, and no order of men are more entitled to the praises of the world for the good they have done mankind. The monastic order is almost coeval with Christianity, and existed in this island before the second conversion of its in- habitants by St Augustine, who was himself a monk. Dr. Miiner, in his History qf Winohsater^ speaking of the monks erf that cathedral, says, "It is certain there were many other xnonast^ies at this period in Britain, as, for example, those of Bangor, Glassenbury, Abingdon, ike. Of the first mentioned monastery three abbots were famous, Pelagius, the heretic, A.D. 400 ; Gildas, the writer, in 650 ; and Nennius, the

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228 HEYIEW OF fox's

hlsiorian, in 620." The monastic orders were also estabiiifaed in Ireland on the preachkig of Christkinitj there, the famous monastery on the isle of Arran having been founded bj St. Ail bee, who was a disciple of St. Patrick, and as the light of truth spread through the country, monasteries were founded and endowed by the piety of the new converts. These instil lutions were governed by rules grounded on the purest prior eiples of charity and piety, and everywhere shed a lig^t of cheerfulness, virtue, and content, not only among the inmates of the cloister, but among the different classes of villagers which sprung up around the monastery; for it should be observed, that there was scarcely a town or village in Eng- land that did not owe its origin to the foundation of some monastery, the recluses in which were the instructors of the ignorant, the physicians of the sick, the comforters of the helpless, the supporters of the traveller, imd the fttthers of the poor. To give some idea of the extent to which <^ rules of hospitality were carried, it is recorded that there were sometimes no less than 500 travellers on horsebaek en- -lertained at a time at Glassenbury abbey. Now, as the monks were bound by their rules to provide all travellers, from the baron to the beggar, with all necessaries, some notion may be formed by this one fact of the vast public benefit that accn^d from these institutions. But this is only a single advantage derived from these calumniated orders. To them we may consider ourselves indebted for those civil rights which form the fundaniental pillars of the British Constitution, and which in its pure state is the most perfect system of rational liberty ever devised by the human mind.

It has been fashionable, since the destruction of these religious orders, to represent the members of them as " la^y idle drones," and whether we look into a novel or romance, or glance at the stage, we shall see the monk pourtrayed aa a monster of intemperance, gluttony, lewdness, and every species of villany that defiles the human heart. To set the reader right on these detestable practices to keep alive pre- judices and foster ignorance we will here give the life of a

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monk^ from Dr. Milner's Wineh^stsrt vol. il: p. 116. The learned hbtorion^ ^>6aking of the Benedictine order founded in that city, writes: — ** The objects of this course of life may be learned from the rule of that saint ; name! j^ to withdraw as much a^ possible from dangerous temptations, also to learn mtd practise the gospel lessons in their original strictness and peiibction. Its primary and essential obligations were, to have all things in common with their bretbi*en, no person Ibeing allowed to possess any property as his own ; to observe po^tnal chastity ; and to live in obedience to their religious superiors. It will be supposed that prayer occupied a great part of their time. In the following account, however, of the economy of a monastic life, it is to be observed that the spiritual exercises, called the canonical hours, were, with aome variatiims as to the times of performing them, equally incumbent on secular canons and the clergy in general as on ihe monks. The time of the monks' rising was different, according to the different seasons of the year, and the festivals that were solemnized ; but the more common time appears to have been about the half hour afiter one in the morning, sO as to be ready in the choir to begin the night office, called l^octumsB VigilifiB, by two. When these consisted of three noctums, or were otherwise longer, the monks of course rose much earlier. . In lat^ ages, the whole of this office, and that of the Matutin^ Laudes, were performed together, and took up, in the singing of them, about two hours. There was now an interval of an hour, during which the monks were at liberty in some convents (for this was far from being the case in all) again to repose for a short time on tiie'r eouches ; but great numbers every where spent this time in private prayer. At five began the serrice called Prime ; at the conclusion of which the community went in procession to the chapter-house, to attend to the instructions and ezhorta* tions which wo have spoken of above. The chapter being finished, they proceeded again to the church, to assist at the early, or what was called the Capitular Mass. This being fini^ied, th^*e was a space of an hour, or an hour and a half ^

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230 REVIEW OT POX*«

which was employed in manual labour or in study. At eight they again met in the dioir to perform the office called Terce^ or the third hour, which was followed by the High Mass ; and that again by the Sext or the office of the sixth hour. These services lasted untU near ten o'clock, at which time, in later ages, when it was not a fasting day, the community proceeded to the refectory to dine. They returned after dinner processionally to the church, in order to finish their solemn grace. There was now a vacant space of an hour or an hour and a half, during part of which, those who were fatigued were at liberty to take their repose, according to the custom in hot countries, which was called from the time of the day when it was taken, the Meridian. Others employed this time in walking and conversing, except on those days when a general silence was enjoined. At one o'clock, None, or the ninth hour, was sung in the chmr, as were Vespers at three. At five they met in the refectory, to partake of a slender supper, consisting chiefly, both as to victuals and drink, of what was saved out of the meal at noon ; except on fasting days, when nothing, or next to nothing, was allowed to be taken. The intermediate spaces were occupied with spiritual reading, or studying ; or with manual labour, which frequently consisted in transcribing books. After the evening refection, a spiritual conference or collation was held, until the office called Complin begSh, which, with certain other exerdses of devotion, lasted until seven o'clock ; when all retired to their respective dormitories, which were long galleries containing as many beds as could be ranged m them, separated from each other by thin boards or curtains. On these the monks took their rest, without taking off any part of their clothes." Let the reader now say whether the charge of laziness, so often applied to monkhood, be or be not a false and foul imputation.

To this valuable body of men we are indebted for much of that ancient literature we now possess, and indeed, had it lnot been for their industry and care, the bible itself might have been lost to the world. To give some light as to the

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BOOK OP UlATTRS. 231

Extent and asefalQess of the k^ours of these hoi j and humble men m transcribing books, before the art (^ printing was known, there were in the library at Peterborough one thousand '.sfiren hundred MSS. Leland and Stow tell us the library of the Grey Friars in London, built by Sir Kiehard Whittington, was one hundred and twenty-nine feet long and thirty-one broad, and well filled with books Ingulf says, that when the library at Croyland was burned in 1091, seven hundred books were lost by the fire. In a word, each monastery had ita library, and the greatest care and' labour were used to have them w^ furnished mth useful volumes. The libraries of the greater monasteries w^e likewise the depositaries of tbe charter of liberties, the acts of parliament, and other documents of moment. The registers of kmgs and public transactions were compiled and preserved in them. It was in one of these monasteries that Stephen Langton, the oardinal archbbhop of Canterbury, found a copy of the charter of liberties granted by Henry the First, which he commimioated to the barons, who were dissatisfied with the faitUess and tyrannical proceedings of king John, and by means of this document and their own patriotic steadiness they wrung from the tyrant monardi the great bulwark of British freedom. Magna Gharta.

Su<^ is a brief outline of the religious orders which Gran* met and Cromwell sought to abolish, before they could intro* duoe those novdties in religion which the former afterwards contrived to-estaldish in this country. To prepare the way ior this change and conspiracy against the liberties and hap- inneas of the kingdom, the most malicious reports were set on foot, charging the monasteries with engrossing and mono- polizing trade and manufactures ; visitors were appointed by Cromwdl, to sifb and examine into the conduct of the reli- gious of both sexes ; and that this hitherto unheard-of In- quisitioh might not be disrelished by the peo{^e, plausible reasons were given out, to smooth the most odious part of the business. Great pain^ were now taken to cause it .to be balifived that the most criminal abuses existed in these reo^

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232 HEVIEW OF FOXV

tacles of lest for the travdler^ and support for tiie infirm and the poor. Ignorance^ sloth, lasdvioosness, ayarice, super- stition, and fraud of all kind, were laid at the door of iheae institutions, and hj daily lampoons aQd table talk many people were brought to believe what, but a ^ort time before, would have been thought incredible. But lest these onA calumnies should fail, the press, which was now brought to some perfection, was put into requisition, and one Fish, a lawyer, published a most virulent book against ail churchmen, in which he attacked' the monks unsparingly, representing them as the cause of all the poverty in the nation, and to give a greater colour to his misrefMresentations, he called the work The SuppliceUion of BeggafB. Of this work, Mr. Dodd says, <' It is hard to determine whether the language or matter is more scandalous. He paints out all the bishops^ deans, archdeacons, priests, monks, friars, ^., as a herd of lazy drones, that devour the king's lands ; that they are the occasion of all the taxes, of beggary at home, and want of success abroad; that they excommunicate, absolve, he*j merely for gain ; that they debauch the wives, daughters, and servants of the whole kingdom ; that they are thieves, highwaymen, ravenous wolves, and cormorants; that he hopes the king will take it into consideration to have them reduced, tied to a cart, whipped, turned adrift, and entirely demolished, as enemies to his state and to all mankind. Had the devil been employed in the work, he could not have made an apology more suitable to the times ; for though the book was levelled against religion in general, and had the visible marks of iniquity stamped upon it, yet such was the humour of king Henry's days, that when it was offered to him by Anne Boleyn, as an ingenious performance, it was read at court with singular pleasure, and many hints taken from it in order to promote the cause in hand."

To such purposes was the press ai^lied in its infancy^ and to such ends it has been since employed ; to keep tiie people of this country ignorant of the chief cause of the miseries they have endured^ and now endure, and will con*

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BOOK OF MABTTRS. 233

ttnoe to ^idnre^ untB tbe vengeance of God shall have been satisfied for the crimes committed bj the sham reformers i^^ftiust his divine commandments, and he shall <mce more deign to shower his blessings on the land which was once the seat of true religion and civil freedom. When the in- valuaUe art of printing was first invented^ the dergy, though i^resented as striving to keep the people in darkness, were its ^ef patrons and protectors, when properly applied. Bi^)ort says, the first printing office was in a chapel in West- minster Abbey, and probably the first printers were monks. From this circumstance, printing-offices are to this day called chapeh, and monk and friar are technical terms used for such parts of a page as are not touched with ink, or are blurred with too large a quantity of it. We have not heard that, i»«vious to the event called the Reformation, but which, it has been justly observed, should rather be called a Devas" ioHon, one single instance can be proved of the press b^g prostituted to the service of falsehood, detraction, and calumny ; but no sooner did the pretended reformers break with the Catholic church, than this instrument was put into requisition, to vilify the most eminent characters living, and spread forth the blackest lies that could be invented. Even Henry YIII., before he assumed the supremacy of the churchy had recourse to the press in defence of the ancient faith, as we have before shewn, and, while he adhered to the unerring principles of truth, proved how useful a discovery the art of printing was. Of this advantage he and his minions were BO sensiUe, that when he departed firom the course of truth afid justice, a law was passed which restricted every indi« vidual from applying the press in defence of those two attri- butes of the Deity, while hirelings were employed to exercise it in the adverse cause, and traduce every person who had the courage and honesty to declare themselves in favour of the ancient laws and usages of England.

Matters were thus i»«pared, and the visitors performed their parts to tbe utmost satisfaction of their employers, by encouraging som^ of tbe member^ of monaateriea to imr

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•234 RITIBW OP FOX*S

peaefa one anoibher, and priraidy setdng lewd yonng men to tempt the nuns to knpuritj, that tfaej might puiposelj turn informers. Speaking of the means used to blast the repu->- tation of these religious orders, Dr. Heylhi, in his History of the Eeformation, observes, " Where these tricks were played, it may be feared that God was not in that terrible wind which threw down so many monasteries and religions houses in the reign of Heiuy VIIL The monks' offences were represented in such multiplying glasses, as made them se^n both greater in number and more horrid in nature indeed than tiiey were." Exclusive of the charge of immo- ndity, the monks were represented, (as the Catholic priests of Ireland are now by the Evangelicals and Bible Missionaries}, as impostors, seducing the people by false mirades and strange operations, performed by images, crosses, relics, &e. These calumnies and charges were laid before pariiament, and an act was passed for the dissolution of the lesser houses of both sexes, as abandoned to sloth and immorality. The parliament which passed this nefarious act had continued, by successive prorogations, six years, and was the firsts we be- lieve, that had ever sat so long a time in England. The bOl was introduced and hurried through the two houses, though not without some opposition ; but opposition in those limes, as well as in our own, has but little weight in the scale of oorruption. The act having passed, no time was lost in puttmg the same into effect, and how it was done we think oann(^ be better described than in the following relation by Sir Wm. Dugdale, in his celebrated History of Warwick- Bhire. Speaking of the dissolution of a particular convert -of nuns, called Folesworth, he says : —

*' I find it left recorded by the commissioners that were empk>yed to take surrender of the monaster^ in this shire^ An. ^, Henry VIII., that, after strict scrutiny, not only by the fame of the counl3*y, but by examination of Beyertl per- sons, they found these nuns virtuous and religious women^ and of good conversation. Neverthdess it was not the strict «nd regular lives of thes6 devout ladies, nor anything that

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BOOK OF MA.UtYRS. 235

Slight be said m 'behadf of the moiiasterteSy that «ou1d pre- vent tbdr ran then approaching. So great an aim had the kiog to make himself tJiereby glorious^ and many others no less hopes to be enriched in a considerable manner. 6u to the end that snch a change should not overwhekn those that ,9»ght he aedve therein, in regard the people everywhere had jio small esteem of these houses, for their deront and daily exercises in prayers, alms-deeds, hospitality, and the like, whereby not only the souls of their deceased ancestors had much benefit^ as was &en' bought, but themselves, the poor, as ^so strangers and pilgrims, constant advantage ; there wanted not the most suhtle contrivances to effect this stu- pendous work that, I think, any age has beheld ; wh^*eof k will not be thought Impertment, I presome, to take here a .^lort view.

*' In order, therefore, to it, was that which eardinal Wolsey Jbad done for the founding his colleges in Oxford and Ipswich, aaade a precedent : viz», the dissolving of above thirty reh- jp^rn houses, most very small ones, by the lieelice of the king, and pope Clement YIL And that* it might be the better eanied <hi, Mr. Thomas Cromwell, who had been an nAd servant to the eardinal, and not a little aetive in that, iwas the ohief person jpitched upon to assist therein. For I look upon this business as not originally designed by the king, bat by some prineipal ambitious men of that age, who projected to theoEiseives aU worldly advantages imaginable, through that deluge of weahh whidi was like to flow amongst them by this hideous storm.

** First, however, having insinnaied to the king matter of profit and honour, (viz. profit by so vast enlargement of his ;^venue, and honour in being able to maintain mighty armies to recover his right in FVance, as also to strengthen himself against the pope, whose snpremacy he hima^ abolished, and Wike the firmer attiance widi such princes as had done the like), did they procure Onmmer's advancement to the see of Canterbury, and more of the Protestant clergy to other bishopriokB and high places ; to iho end that the rest should

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236 RBYISW OF FOX'iS

not be able in a full council to carry any tbing against tlieit* design; sending out preacbers to persuade tbe people to stand fast to tbe king, witbout fear of tbe pope's curse, or bis dissolyjDg tbeir allegiance. ^

" Next, tbat it migbt be more plausibly carried on, care was taken so te represmit tbe lives of monks, nuns, canons, &c,y to tbe world, as tbat tbe less regret migbt be made at tbeir ruin. To wbicb purpose Tbomas Cromwell, being con«- Btituted general vbitor, employed sundry persons, wbo acted tberein tbeir parts accordingly : viz., Bicbard Layton, Tbomas Leigb, and William Petre, doctors of law; Dr. Jobn London, dean of Wallingford, and otbers; by wbicb tbey were to enquire into tbe bebaviour of 1^ religious of botb sexes ; wbicb commissioners, tbe better to manage tbeir design, gave encouragement to tbe monks, not only to accuse tbeir govern-^ on, but to inform against eacb otber ; compelling tbem also to produce tbe cbarters and eridences of tbeir lands, as also their plate and money, and to give an inventory tbereof. And b'ereunto tbey added certain injunctions from tbe king, containing most severe and strict rules ; by means wbereof, divers, being found obnoxious to their censure, were expelled; and many, discerning themselves not able to live free from some exception or advantage tbat might be taken against them, desired to leave tbeir habit.

'' Having, by these visitors, thus searched into their lives, (wbicb, by a black book, containing a world of enormities, were represented in no small measure scandalous), to tbe end tbat tbe people migbt be better satisfied with their proceed- ings, it was thought conveni^it to suggest, that the lesser houses, for want of good government, were chiefly guilty of these crimes tbat were laid to tbeir charge ; and so tbey did, as appears by tbe preamble to that act for Ihdr <Hsso]ution, made in the twenty^sev^tb of Henry YIII. ; wbicb parlia- ment, (consisting in the most part of su^ members as were packed for tbe purpose tbrough private interest, as is evident by divers original letters of that time, many of tbe nobility for the like respects also &vouring ibe design), assented to

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BOOK OF MARTkfiS. 237

the Buppressiog of all such houses as had been certified of less value ^than two hundred pounds per annum, and giving them, with their lands and revenues^ to the king ; yet so as not only the religious persons therein should be committed to the great and honourable monasteries of the realm » where they might be compelled to lire religiously for the reformation of their Uves^ wherein thanks be to God, religion is well kept and observed (they are the words of the act), but that the posses- sions belonging to such houses should be converted to better usesb to the pleasure of Almighty God, and the honour and profit of the realm.

" But how well the tenor thereof was pursued, we shall see ; these specious pretences being made use of for no other purpose, than, by opening this gap, to make way for the totid ruin of the greater houses, wherein it is by the said act acknowledged, that religion was so well observed. For no sooner were the m<mks, &c., turned out, and the houses demolished, (that being first thought requisite, lest some accidental change might conduce to their restitution), but care was taken to prefer such persons to the superiority in government upon any vacancy in those greater houses, as might be instrumental to their surrender, by tampering with the convent to that pur- pose ; whose activeness was such that, within the space of two years, several convents were wrought upon, and the com- missioners sent down to take them at their hands to the king's use ; of which number I find, that besides the before specified doctors of law, there were thirty-four commissioners.

** The truth is, that diere was no omission of any endea-* yours Uiat can well be imagined, to accomplish these sur- renders ; for so subtly did the commissioners act their parts, as that, after earnest solicitation with the abbots, and finding them backward, they first tempted them with good pensions during life ; vhereby they found some forward enough to promote the work, as the abbot of Hales in Gloucestershire wasy who had high commendation for it from the commis- Bion^«, as their letters to the visitor-general manifest. So likewise had the abbot of Eamsay and the prior of £ly . Nay,

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some were so obsequious tbat^ after they had wrought liie surrender of theur own houses, thej were employed as .eom- missioners to pursuade others ; as the prior of Gisbom in Yorkshire, for one. Neither were &e courtiers inactive in driving on this Fork ; as may be seen by the k>rd chanceBor Audley's employing a speeiai agent to treat with the aJbbot of Athelney. and to oii^ him 100 marka per amium pension in

,.ca^ he would surrender; whidi the abbot refused, insisting* upon a greater sum ; and the personal endeavours he used

• ^ith the abbot of S. Osithe in Essex^ as by his letter to Uie visitor- general, wherein it is signified, that he had with great solicitation prevailed with the said abbot ; but wi^ial insin- uatmg his desire, thi^ his plaee of lord chancellor being very chargefible, the king might be moved for an addition of some more profitable o^ees unto him. Nay, I find that this great man,, the lord chancellor^ hunting eagerly after the abbey of Walden in Essex» (out of the ruins whereof afterwarcb that magnificent £abrick called by the name of Audley-Inn> waa built), as an argument to obtain it, did, besides the extenua- tion <^ its worth, ^lege^ that he had in this world sustained gpreat damage and infamy in serving the kuig^ which ike grant of that wouM recompense.

** Amongst the particular arguments which were made me of by Uioso that were averBe to surrender, I iki^. that the abbot of Feversham idleged the antiquity of tiieiir monastery's foundation, viz., by king Stephen, whose body, with the bodies of the queen and prince> lay there interred, and for whoM were used continual suffrages and oomm^Mlations by prayers. Yet it would not avail ; for they were resolved to efieet what- they, had begun, by one means or other ; in so much, that they procured the bishop of London to come to the nnns of Skia, with their confessinr, to solicit them thereunto ; who, after many perswiaionB, took it upon their consciences, tha^ they ought to submit unto the king's pleasure therein, by- Qod'a law. But what eould not be effocted by such argu- ments and fair prcwiises, {which w^:e not wanting or onful- filled, as appears by the large pensions that aome aotive

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monks and canons ha4 in eompariaon of others, eyen to a ifth or sixth-fold proportion more than ordinary), was hj terror and severe dealing brought to pass. For under pre- tence of dilapidation in the buildings, or negligent adminis-. tration of their offices, as also for breaking the king's in-, junetionsy thej deprived some abbots, and then put other» that were more pliant in their rooms.

. <<Erom others they took their convent seals, to the end they might not, by making leases or sale of their jewels^ Eaiae money, either for supply of their present wants, or payment of their debts, and so be necessitated to surrender.. Kay, to some, as in particular to the canons of Leicester, the commissioners threatened^ that they would charge them with adultery and sodomy, unless they would submit. And Dr. IxMndon told the nuns of GK»dstow, that because be found them obstinate,, he would dissdve the hooee by virtue of the king's oommission, in ^ite of their teeth. And yet all wiui- so managed that the king was solicited to accept of them ; not being willing to have it thought they were by terrctt moved thereunto ; mid ^^ecial notice Was taken of such aa gave out that their surrender was by compulsion.

** Which courses, (afiber so many that, through underhand oomuption, led the way), brought on others apace ; as appears by thdr dates, which I have observed from the very instru- ments themselves ; in so mudi that the rest stood atnazed, not knowing which way to turn themsdves. Some thereibrft thought fit to try whether mo^y might save their houses from this dismal fate so near at hand ; tiie abbot of Peter- borough offering 25,000 marks to the king, and 300 pounds to the visitor-general. Others with great constancy refused to be thus accessary in violating the donations of their pious founders. But these, as they were not many, .so did they taste of no little severity. For touching the abbot of Foun- taines^ in Yorkshire, I find, that being charged by the eomnussionera for taking into his private hands some jewels- belonging to that monastery, which they called theft and sacrilege^ they, pronounced him perjured^ and so diq^mg.

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him^ extorted a private resignation. And it appears that <^e monks of the charter-house, in the suhurhs of London, w^*e committed to Newgate ; where with hard and barharous usage, five of them died, and five more lay at the point of death, as the commissioners signified ; but withal alleged tliat the sup-* presbion oi that house, being of so strict a rule, would occasion great scandal to their doings : for as much as it stood in the face of the world, infinite concourse coming from all parts to that populous city, and therefore desired it might be altered to some other use. And lastly, I find, that under the like pretence of robbing the church, wherewith the afore- said abbot of Fountaines was charged, the abbot of Glaston- bury, with two of his monks, being condemned to death, was drawn from Wells upon a hurdle, then hanged upon a hill called the Tor, near Glastonbury, his head set upon the abbey gate, and his quarters disposed of to Wdls, Bath, Ilchester, and Bridgewater. Nor did the abbots of Colchester ami iBeading fare much better, as they that will consult the story of that time may see. And for farther terror to the rest, some priors and other ecclesiastical persons, who spoke against the king's supremacy, a thing then somewhat un-* couth, were condemned as traitors, and executed.

^^ And now, when all this was effected, to the end that it might not be thought these iMags were done with a high hand, the king having protested that he would suppress none without the consent of his parliament, (it being called April 28, 1589, to confirm these surrenders so made), there wanted not plausible insinuations to both houses for drawing on their consent with all smoothness thereto ; the nobility being pro« mised large shares in the spoil, either by free gift from the king, easy purchases, or most advantageous exchanges, and many of the active gentry advancements to honours with increase of their estates ; aU which we see happened to them accordingly. And the bet^ to satisfy the vulgar, it was represented to them, that by this deluge of wealth the king-> dom should be strengthened with an army of 40,000 men, and that for the future they should never be chained with

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sabsidics, fifteenths, loans, or common aids. By which means, the parliament ratifying the abovesaid surrenders, the work became completed: for the more firm settling whereof, a sudden course was taken to pull down and destroy the build- ings ; as had been done before upon the dissolution of smaller houses, whereof 1 have touched. Next, to distribute a great proportion of their lands amongst the nobility and gentry, as had been projected, which was accordingly done : the visitor general having told the king that the more that had interest in ihem, the more they would be irrevocable.

*' And lest any domestic stirs, by reason of this great and strange alteration, should arise, rumours were spread abroad, that cardinal Pole laboured with divers princes to procure forces against this realm, and that an invasion was threatened; which seemed the more credible, because the truce concluded between the emperor and the French king was generally known, neither of them wanting a pretence to invade Eng- land. And this was also seconded by a sudden journey of ihe king unto the sea coasts ; unto divers parts whereof he had sent sundry of the nobles and expert persons to visit the ports and places of danger, who failed not for their discharge upon all events to affinn the peril in each place to be so gre&tf as one would have thought every place needed a forti- fication. Besides, he forthwith caused his navy to be in readiness, and muster to be taken over all the kingdom. All which preparations being made against a danger believed im- minent, seemed so to excuse the suppression of the abbeys, as that the people, willing to save their own purses, began to suffer it easily ; especially when they saw order taken for building such forts.

** But let us look a little upon the success : wherein I find that the visitor general, the grand actor of this tragical busi- ness, having contracted upon himself such an odium from the nobility, by reason of hb low birth, (though not long before made knight of the garter, earl of Essex, and lord high chan- cellor of England), as also from the Catholics, for having thus operated in the dissolution of abbeys, that (before the

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end of the aforesaid parliament wherein that was ratified which he had with so much industry brought to pass) the king, not having any use of him, gave way to his enemies' accusations; whereupon, being arrested by the duke of Norfolk at the council table, when he least dreamt of it, and committed to the Tower, he was condemned by the same parliament for heresy and treason, unheard, and little pitied ; and on the 28th of July, viz. four days after the parliament was dissolved, had his head cut off on Tower Hill.

** And as for the fruit which the people reaped, after all their hopes built upon those specious pretences which I have mentioned, it was very little. For it is plain, that subsidies from the clergy and fifteenths of laymen's goods were so<m after exacted: and that in £dward the Vl.'s time, the commons were constrained to supply the king's wants by a new invention, viz., sheep, clothes, goods, debts, <&;c., for three years ; which tax grew so heavy, that the year following they prayed the king for a mitigation thereof. Nor is it a little observable, that whilst the monasterieB stood, there was no act for the relief of the poor, so amply did those houses give succour to them that were in want ; whereas in the next age, viz., 39 Elizabeth, no less than eleven bills were brought into the house of commons for that purpose.*'

We might rest satisfied with this testimony in favour of the religious orders, and exposure of the black villanies of the devastators, but to render the cause of truth more firm, and prevent idle cavil, we will here add a confirmation to the learned knight's statement, which is taken irom Mr. Thomas Heam's preliminary observations upon Mr. Brown Willis's View of the Mitred Abbeys. This gentleman makes a solemn declaration of his being a sincere member of the church of England, and must, therefore, be deemed an un« exceptionable witness. He writes thus : — " Popery (as I take it), signifies no more than the errors of the church of Kome. Had he, (Henry VIII.) therefore, put a stop to those errors, he had acted wisely, and very much to the con- tent to all truly good and religious men. But then this

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would not have satisfied the ends of himself and his covetous and ambitious agents. ^Thej all aimed at the revenues and riches of the religious houses ; for which reason no arts or contrivances were to be passed bj, that might be of use in obtaining these ends. The most abominable crimes were to he charged upon the religious, and the charge was to be managed with the utmost industry, boldness, and dexterity. This was a powerful argument to draw an odium upon them, and so make them disrespected and ridiculed by the gener- ality of mankind. And jet, after all, the proofs were so insufficient, that, from what I have been able to gather, I have not found any direct one against even any single monas- tery. The sins of one or two particular persons do not make a Sodom. Neither are violent and forced confessions to be esteemed as the true result of any one*s thoughts. When, therefore^ even these artifices would not do, the last expe- dient was put in execution, and that was ejection by force ; and to make these innocent sufferers the more content, pen- sions were settled upon many, and such pensions were in some measure proportioned to their innocence. Thus, by degrees, the religious houses and the estates belonging to them, being surrendered unto the king, he either sold or gave them to the lay-nobility, and gentry, contrary to what he had at first pretended ; and so they have continued ever since, though not without visible effects of Good's vengeance and displeasure, there having been direful anathemas and curses denounced by the founders upon such as should pre- sume to alienate the lands, or do any other voluntary injury to the religious houses. I could myself produce many instances of the strange and unaccountable decay of some gentlemen in my own time, though otherwise persons of very great piety and worth, who have been possessed of abbey- lands : but this would be invidious and offensive, and there-* fore I' shall only refer those that are desirous of having Instances laid before them, to shew the dismal consequences that have happened, to Sir Henry Ppelman's History of Sacrilege, published in 8vo., in the year 1698." M 2

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The reader has here before him an account of the Tile artifices made use of bj the visitors to bladien the fair fame of the religious orders, and bring about what soon followed, the destruction of ecclesiastical property which was de^ voted to most sacred purposes. Let the bigots of the pre** sent day continue to circulate the venomous calumnies of "Fox and Burnet, and oUier lying writers, who, to palliate the infamy and scandal of these barbarous and goihie pro- ceedings, invented the false charges of looseness and inregu^ larity agdnst the religious orders ; thank God, the ^«ts is not now shackled as it was by the evangelical disdples of liberty, at the very birth of their devastating Beformation, and the honest ]^art of it will now p^ovm its duty, and make known the real state of the case. Opposed to the lies of Fox and Burnet, we have even the parliament of Henry declaring that religion was well kept and observed in the greater houses, and Mr. Heam, whom we have just quoted, states it as a positive fact,. that not one direct proof was brought against any one single mcmastery, great or small, of the crimes laid to their charge.

The modem editors of Fox, copying from his cousin- german Burnet, say, — '^ The most horrible and disgusting crimes were found to be practised in many of the houses ; and vice and cruelty were more frequently the inmates of these pretended aanctuariesy than religion and piety. The report (of the visitors) contained many abominable things, not fit to be mentioned ; some of these were printed but tiie greatest part w<m lost.^' We have no doubt the report did contain many ^' abominable things," but th^i these ^* abom*' inable things " were mere report, — sheer slander and lies — invented for a cloak to conceal the real acts of vice, crue%, and injustice committed by the pretended reformers. If the monks and nuns were such dissolute and worse than beastly wretches, as represented by Burnet, why were the j not punished for their abominable mmes, as an exam^ to future members of religious orders, and in vindication of the suppressing deeds of the visitors? But not one criminal

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have we on rec<nrd to support the base iDsinnalions of Burnet and Fox ; not one sin^e offender has Burnet and the modem editors furnished to bear out their infamous charges-— whilst history records^ the slaughter of fifty-nine persons^ (among whom were a bishop, an ez-lord-chancellor, six doctors of divinity, three abbots, several Carthusian, Benedictine, and Frandsoan friars, and many secular clergymen), for oppos- ing and denying the king's spiritual supremacy. Twenty were executed for rismg in defence of monastic lands; nine for pretended plots against the king ; and sixty were starved in prison^ chiefly Carthusian and Franciscan friars, for denying the king's spiritual supremacy. Cranmer all this time, observe, was archbishop of Canterbury.

In fact, it was this opposition to the assumed supremacy of the king in spirituals, by the religious orders, that drew &e voigeance of Henry and the reformers upon their estab- li^mients. This we learn from the modem editors and Bumet. They say, ** It was well known that the monks and friars, ihough they complied with the times, [this is faUCf for if they had complied, they would in all probability have been unmolested] yet hated this new power of the king's ; Iliepe(q[>le were also startled at it: [oh! then the people were sencdble it was something new^ and something alarming y (NT why startie at it?] so one Dr. Leighton, who had been in Wolsey's service with Cromwell, proposed a general visitation of all the religious houses in England; and thought that nothing would reconcile the nation so much as to see some good effect from it." Certainly, the pvoduction of good was tiie best way to reconcile the people to the measure ; but, unfortunately for the people of England, no good whatever has arisen to them from the usurpation of the supremacy in iqinritiials by Henry. The good, if such it can be called, fS^ to the lot of the greedy and unprincipled courtiers, and the evil to the share of the people. There can be no doubt tiuit abuses existed at the time we are speaking of, and that many of the high dignitaries of the church were too well fed, and too rich to do their duty truly ; for if this had not

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been the case, the bishops would not have acknowledged the supremacy of Henry, through fear of losing their tempo- ralities, with the exception of one only, namely Fisher, bishop of Rochester. But the reforming of abuses, and the de- structi^m of useful institulions, are two very distinct things, and the cry of reform was merely a pretence to put in exe- cution a diabolical purpose. The stoutest opposers of the dissolution, as well as the divorce of Catharine, were the mendicant friars, whose holy poverty kept them independent in mind, and fearless of the threats of death. An example of this heroic fortitude was shewn in the conduct of friars Peto and Elstow, the former of whom boldly preached against the divorce in the presence of Henry, and being at- tacked in the pulpit by one Dr. Ourwin, chaplain to the king, was as strenuously defended by Elstow, who challenged. Curwin, before God and all equal judges, to prove him a false prophet and a seducer. This conduct of Elstow was in presence of the king also, nor would he desist in his oppo- sition to Curwin, until the monarch commanded him to he silent. Not many days after the affftir took place, Peto mi Elstow were ordered to make their appearance before tte lords of the council, and, in the conclusion, were sent to prison. Cromwell was present during their examination, and told Elstow that he ought, for his violent behaviour, to have been imtnediately tied up in a sack, and thrown into the Thames. This observation caused Elstow to smile, and make the following noble reply : — " My lord, be pleased to frighten your court epicures with such menaces as these ; men that have lost their courage in their palate, and whose minds are softened with pleasures and vanities. Such as are tied fast to the world, by indulging their senses, may very likely be moved with such kind of threats; but as for us, they make little impression upon us. We esteem it both an honour and merit to suffer upon the occasion, and return thanks to the Almighty, who keeps us steady under the trial. As for your Thames, the road to heaven lies as near by water as by Iftnd, and it is iiidifferQnt to us whether road we take/*

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Here we have a proof of the utility of voluntary poverty, inculcated by the religious orders, which makes men fearless of death, and intent only on seeing justice and religion flourish.

Before the dissolution of monasteries in England, twenty-' seven abbots, sometimes twenty-nine, sat in the upper house of parliament ; to prepare for the devastation, Henry created some close boroughs, .whereby he got his creatures returned to ensure a majority, and thus the corruption of parliament was the interlude to the destruction of church property, and the robbery of the poor of their rights. The abbeys which enjoyed the privileges of being represented by their abbots in parliament, were, St. Alban's ; Glastonbury ; St. Austin's at Canterbury ; Westminster, the richest in all England ; Winchester, founded by the first Christian king of the West Saxons ; St. Edmund's Bury, founded by king Canute ; Ely ; Abingdon, founded by Cedwella and Ina, kings of the West Saxons ; Beading, built by Henry I. ; Thoniey, in Cam- bridgeshire ; Waltham, founded by Earl Harold, in 1062 ; St. Peter's, in Gloucester, founded by Wulfere and Etheldred, kings of Mercia ; W inchelcomb, in Gloucestershu'e, founded by Ofla and Kenulph, kings of Mercia also ; Bamsey, in Huntingdonshire, founded by Ailwyne, alderman of England, and earl of the East- Angles; Bardney, in Lincolnshire. This abbey was demolished by the Danes, in 870, who slew three hundred monks, and was rebuilt by William the Con- queror. Crowland; St. Bennett's, at Hulm, in Norfolk, founded about the year 800 ; Peterborough, begun by Peada, king of Mercia, in 665, and rebuilt by Adulf, chancellor to king Edgar; Battel, in Sussex, founded by William the Conqueror ; Malmsbury, in Wiltshire ; Whitby, founded by king Oswy in 657 ; Selby, in Yorkshire, begun by WiUiam the Conqueror ; St. Mary's, at York, built in the reign of William Bufus; also Shrewsbury, Cirencester, Evesham, Tavistock, and Hide at Winchester. Besides these mitred abbeys, two priors had seats in the House of Lords, namely, of Coventry, and of the knights of St. John of Jerusalem.

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According to the most exact calculation, at the suppression of the religious houses in England, the sum total of the revenues of the greater monasteries amounted to .£104,919 ; of the lesser, ^29,702 ; of the head house of the knights hospitallers, or of Malta, in London, X2385 ; of twenty- eight other houses of that order, £S02Q, The revenues of the clergy were laid at a fourth part of the revenues of the kingdom, in the 27th of Henry VllL, and Mr. Collier, in his Ecclesiastical History, says, that the revenues of the monks never did exceed a fifth part With these revenues, the poor were not only provided for, churches huilt, and tra- vellers hos{Htably entertained, but the church lands contri- buted to all public burdens,, equally with the lands of the laity, while the leases granted by the monks were always on easy rents and small fines. Walsingham and Patrick say, that, in 1379, every mitred abbot paid as much m an earl ; and 6«. 8c^. for every monk in his monastery. In 1289, a century previous, the abbot of St. Edmund's Bury paid JC666 1^. 4d, to the fifteenth granted that year, — an enor- mous sum if reckoned according to the rate of money at this, ^ay. And when we take into consideration that this Sum was paid by only one abbey, what an immense revenue must have been raised for the exigencies of the state, by the eon- tributions of these institutions throughout the kingdom. The people then were not harassed by the calls of the tax- gatherer, or the distress- warrant of the broker; nor were they subjected to the insults and tyranny of parish-ofiiceKs^ if overwhelmed with pecuniary difficulties; they had only to apply to these mansions of charity, where they were sure to find succour in their distress, and comfort to the wounded mind. If money was required, it was lent without interest ; if rest and sustenance, they wwe bestowed from brotherly love, not wrung from the fear of legal pains and penalties.

It has been fashionable, since what is called the era of the Beformation, to represent the clergy of Catholic times as ignorant, and the people superstitious ; but these representa- tions were no other than base devices to cover the deformity

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of that horrible fanaticism and worse than savage barbarism which marked the progress of the first pretended reformers' days. The libraries of the monasteries, as we have before sti^, were filled with works of literature, and the destruction of these seats <^ learning and the sciences has been an irre- parable loss to the country. Tyrrell, in his History of Eng- land, writes: — ** From the conyersion of the Saxons most of the laws made in the Wittena Gemote, or great councils, were carefully preserved, and would have been conveyed to us more eadre, had it not been for the loss of so many eurions monuments of antiquity, at the suppression of monas- teries in the reign of Henry YIII." How valuable would these records have been in our days as standards of reference for omr statesmen, and models of legislation of which, God knows, we stand mudi in need, when we look at the verbosity of our present acts of parliament, and the shortness and perspicuity of the laws of our ancestors. Then the laws were made so plain that the meanest capacity could under- stand them ; now they are couched in such terms as to bear various constructions, and in many instances it has been re- eorded in the public papers that one magistrate will define a law in a very diffisr^it sense to what another will, and each aet upon his own oonstruction. Even the libraries of the two univendties of Oxford and Cambridge were not spared in the gothie rage displayed by the visitors and reformers of imputed monastio abuses. At Oxford there were two most noble public libraries, the one founded by Bichard of Burg, or Hichard Aungerville, lord treasurer of England and bishop of Durham in the reign of Edward III., who spared no cost or pidns, and he was a bishop be it remembered, to render this coUedion eon^lete ; the odier was furnished with books by Thomas Cobham, bishop of Worcester in 1367, which were greatly augmented by the munificence of Henry IY.,his sons, and by the addition of the library of Ebmiphrey, duke of Gloucester, filled with many curious manuscripts from ibreign parts. Of the fate of this last library, Mr. Collier, in his Eodeaiaatical History, says, << These books were many M 3

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of tbem plated with gold and sUver, and curiously embossed* This, as far as we can guess, was the superstition which destroyed them. Here avarice had a very thin disguise, and the courtiers discovered of what spirit they were to a very

remarkable degree Merton college had almost a cart load

of manuscripts carried off and thrown away to the most

scandalous uses This was a strange inquisition upon

sense and reason, and showed that they intended to seize the superstitious foundations, and reform them to nothing. The universities languished in their studies the remainder of this reign, and were remarkable for nothing, but some trifling performances in poetry and grammar." The same author writes, ** The books instead of being removed to royal libra- ries, to those of cathedrals, or the universities, were frequently thrown into the grantees, as things of lender consideration. Now oftentimes these men proved a very ill protection for learning and antiquity. Their avarice was sometimes so mean, and their ignorance so undi^inguishing, that when the . covers were somewhat rich, and would yield a little, they pulled them oS, threw away the books, or turned them to waste-paper. Thus many noble libraries were destroyed/* He further observes, that John Bale, sometime bishop of Ireland, " a man remarkably averse to Popery and the mo- nastic institution,'' gives thb lamentable account of what he himself was an eye witness to : — ** I know a merchant (who shall at this time be nameless) that bought the contents of two noble libraries for forty shillings a piece ; a shame it is to be spoken. This stuff has been used instead of grey paper by the space of more than these ten years. A prodi- gious example this, and to be abhorred of all men who love their nation as they should do. Yea, what may bring our realm to more shame, than to have it noised abroad, that we are despisers of learnmg ? I judge this to be true, and utter it with heaviness, that neither the Britons under the Romans and Saxons, nor yet the English people under the Danes and Kormans, had ever such damage of their learned monuments as we have seen in our time/' {John Balers Declaration or^

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LelancVs Joumalf an. 1549.) Fuller, too, has borne testi- mony to the devastating spirit of the reformers in those days. He breaks out into a passionate declamation on the occasion, and complains, '^ that all arts and sciences fell under the common calamity. How many admirable manuscripts of the fathers, schoolmen, and commentators were destroyed by these means? What number of historians of all ages and countries ? The holy scriptures themselves, as much as the gospellers pretended to regard them, underwent the fate of the rest. If a book had a cross upon it, it was condemned Jbr Popery ; and those with lines and circles were interpreted the black arts, and destroyed for conjuring. And thus (he adds) divinity was profaned, mathematics suffered for corres- ponding with evil spirits, physic was maimed, and riot com- mitted on the law itself." We shall produce one testimony more. Chamberlain, in his Present State of England^ thus describes the havoc committed by the vandalic reformers, headed by Cranmer and Cromwell: — "These men, under pretence of h}oting out Popery, superstition, and idolatry, utterly destroyed these two noble libraries, and embezzled, sold, burnt, or tore in pieces all those valuable books which those great patrons of learning had been so diligent in procuring in every country of Europe. Nay, their fury was BO successful as to the Aungervillian library, which was the oldest, largest, and choicest, that we have not so much as a catalogue of the books left. Nor did they rest here. They visited likewise the college libraries, and one may guess at the work they made with them, by a letter still kept in the archives, where one of them boasts, that New- College quad- rangle was all covered with the leaves of their torn books, <fec. The university thought fit to complain to the government of this barbarity and covetousness of the visitors, but could not get any more by it than one single book, given to the library by John Whethamstead, the learned abbot of St. Alban*s, wherein is contained part of Valerius Maximus, with the commentaries of Dionysius de Burgo ; and to this day there is no book in the Bodleian Hbrary besides this and two more

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which are certamlj known to have belonged to either of the former libraries. Naj» and the university itself* despairing ever to enjoy any other public library, thought it advisable to dispose of the very desks and shelves the books stood on, in the year 1555." Enough is here related to make the cheek of a Protestant redden with shame, and cause him to forbear in future from charging the calumniated monks with ignorance and idleness.

The Booh of Martyrs tells us that there were debates going on in the convocation concerning the different opinions which were found to be spreading in the kingdom, of which the lower house made a complaint to the upper house of no less than sixty-seven, in that early period of the king's supremacy. Of these opinions we shall have occasion to say something by and by; we must confine ourselves at present to the dissolution of the monasteries. On this head the book says, '* At this time visitors were i^pointed to survey all the lesser monasteries : they were to examine the state of their revenues and goods, and take inventories of them, and to take their seals into their keeping; they were to try how many of the religious would return to a secular course of life; and these were to be sent to the archbishop of Canterbury, or the lord chancellor, and an allowance was to be given them for their journey ; but those who intended to continue in that state were to be removed to some of the great monasteries. A pension was also to be assigned to the abbot or prior during life ; and the visitors were particularly to examine what leases had been made during the last year. Ten thousand of the religious were by this means driven to seek for their livings, with forty shillings and a gown a man. Their goods and plate were estimated at £100,000 and the valued rents of their houses was ^2,000 ; but they were above ten times as much. The churches and cloisters were in most places pulled down, and the materials sold.'' ,

Here then we have it admitted that Cranmer, the first Protestant primate of England, took a conspicuous part in the work of spoliation and robbery. It b also confessed that

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ten iTiousaid of these innocent and useful class of men were turned out of their peaceful habitations into the wide world, to seek a living wherever they could^ with only forty shillings and a gown a man. The churches and cloisters in which many of them dwelt were pulled down and sold, and the proceeds went to enrich some base and hungry courtier, for his readiness to pander to the beastly vices of an unfeeling and depraved monarch. These doings, however, we are told, gave great discontent to the people ; and who can wonder at it? So to remove this discontent, Burnet writes, that *' Cromwell advised the king to sell these lands (belonging to the monks) at very easy rates, to the nobility and gentry y and to oblige them to keep up the wonted hospitality. This (he intimated) would both be grateful to them, and would engage them to assist the crown in the maintenance of the changes that had been made, since their own interests would be inter- woven with those of their sovereign.^* Such was the advice of Cromwell, the blacksmith's son, and from this counsel we may date the division of England into parties, whereby the people have lost a great portion of their civil privileges, and a boroughmongering faction has been established in the room of the once free parliaments of the country. The degree of hospitality shewn by the new possessors of the lands of the hospitable monks we may gather from Dr. Heylin, who in his History of the Beformation, speaking of the sacrilegious devastations carried on by Cranmer and the courtiers of Edward VI., writes, " But bad examples seldom end where they first began. For the nobility and inferior gentry possessed of patronages, considered how much the lords and great men of the court had improved their fortunes by the suppression of those chantries, and other foundations which had been granted to the king, conceived themselves in a capacity of doing the like, by taking into their hands the yearly profits of those benefices, of which by law they only were entrusted with the presentations. Of which abuse complaint is made by bishop Latimer, in his printed sermons, in which we find, ^ That the gentry of that time invaded the

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profits of the church ; leaving the tithe only to the incum- hent : ' and * That chantry-priests were put by them into several cures, to save their pensions/ (p. 38) ; that ' many benefices were let out in fee-farms,* (p. 71) ; 'or given unto servants for keeping of hounds, hawks, and horses, and for making of gardens,' (pp. 91, 114); and finally, *That the poor clergy, being kept to some sorry pittances, were forced to put themselves into gentlemen's houses, and there to serve as clerks of the kitchen, surveyors, receivers,' &iC. (p. 241). All which enormities (though tending so apparently to the dishonour of God, the disservice of the church, and the dis- grace of religion) were getierally connived at by the lords and others, who only had the power to reform the same, because they could not question those who had so miserably invaded the church's patrimony, without condemning of themselves." That the interests of these receivers of stolen property were interwoven with the interests of their sovereign, or, in other words, that they considered it their interest to have a sovereign of the same disposition as themselves, is clear from the records of history. On the death of Edward, the faction attempted to set aside the right of Mary, a Catholic princess, in favour of Jane Grey, who had no claim whatever to the crown, and the same faction occasioned James the Second, another Catholic sovereign, to abdicate the throne, because he sought to establish freedom of conscience for all.

Under such circumstances it is not surprising that the discontents of the people should increase, which was the case, until at length they broke out into open rebellion. The account given by Burnet of this resistance on the part of the people is in part true, and in other parts false. The insur- rection commenced in the north, where the people retained a strong feeling in favour of the ancient faith, and the clergy were removed from the influence of the court. Every suc- ceeding innovation produced increased discontent. The people had looked with reverence from their childhood on the monastic establishments, from which they had experienced so much kindness and affection, and could not behold the ruin

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of these institutions without irritation and grief. To see the monks driven from their houses, and compelled, in most instances^ to heg their hread ; to behold the poor, who were formerly fed at the doors of the convents, now abandoned to despair and hunger, excited the indignation of the people, who flew to arms, to demand a redress of these grievances. " They complained chiefly," writes Dr. Lingard, " of the suppression of the monasteries, of the statutes of uses, of the introduction of such men as Cromwell and Rich, and of the preferment in the church of the archbishops of Canterbury and Dublin, and of the bishops of Rochester, Salisbury, and St. David's, whose chief aim was to subvert the church." Others of the insur- gents required, the same writer says, ** that heretical books should be suppressed, and that heretical bishops (alluding probably to Cranmer and his party) and temporal men of their sect, should either be punished according to law, or try their quaiTel with the pilgrims (the insurgents had taken the name of the pilgrims of grace) by battle : that the statutes which abolished the papal authority, bastardized the princess Mary, suppressed the monasteries, and gave to the king the tenths and first fi*uits of benefices, should be repealed : that Cromwell, the vicar general, Audley, the lord chancellor, and Bich, the attorney general, should be punished as sub verier s af the law, and maintainers of heresy : that Lee and Layton, the visitors of the northern monasteries, should be prosecuted Jbr extortion, peculation, and other abominable acts : and that a parliament should be shortly held at some convenient place, as Nottingham or York.'' These terms were re- jected ; but, after some negociation, an unlimited pardon was oflered and accepted, with an understanding that the griev- ances complained of should be shortly discussed in a parlia- ment to be holden at York ; but, with true Protestant magnanimity, the royal pope of England, as soon as he was freed from his apprehensions, did not think proper to keep his promise, and the parliament was never called. Two months after, the pilgrims were again in arms, but were de- feated in their measures^ their leaders were taken and sent to

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London to be executed, and oUiers were hanged bj scores at York, Hull, and Carlisle.

This was the only forcible opposition that Henry expe- rienced in his designs upon the liberties of the church of England, which had been of so long standing, and were secured by the Charter. Of this insurrection, Mr. Oollier thus speaks : '* If resistance of the chief magistrate bftd been justifiable in any case, those who appeared in arms upon the dissolution of monasteries had a strong colour for their undw- taking. For were not the <dd landmarks set aside, and the constitution newly moddled ? For do not the liberties and immunities of the church stand in Ihe front of Magna Charta ? and are they not particularly secured in the first place ? Was not the king's coronation oath lamentably struned, when he signed the dissolution act ? For had he not sworn to guard the pr<^erty of his subjects ? to protect the religious ? and maintain them in the legal establishment ? The andent nobi- lity were thrown out of the patronage of their monasteries, lost their corrodies, and the privilege of their ancestors' bene&c- tions. The rents were rused> and the poor forgotten, as they complained, by the new proprietors. Besides, they were afraid their friends in another world might suffer by these alienations, and the dead fare worse for want of the prayers of the living. Granting therefore the matter of fact, that the prosecutions were legal, which way are the abbots more to be blamed (who rose in the north) than the barons who took up arms in defence of liberty and property, and appeared in the field against king John and Henry III. ? The abbeys, with- out question, had all the securities the civil magistrate could give them ; no estate could be better guarded by the laws. Magna Charta, as I observed, was made particularly in favour of these foundations, and confirmed at ^e beginning of every parliament for many succeeding reigns. These things con- sidered, we must of necessity either condemn the barons, or acquit the monks, and justify the northern rebellion."

From these facts it may be discovered that Cranmer and his vile associates, though they could keep in favour widi tk

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brutal monarchy bj catering to his passions, and dissembling tbeir own views, were by no means popular with the people of England. We have always contended that the people generally are on the side of virtue and justice, and though, we have seen acts of injustice sanctioned by popular assem- blies, yet they have always been done with a view (erroneous certainly) of punishing those who were supposed to have been the betrayers of their country, and the violators of the laws of society. Till this period England had been a truly free and happy country, and the office of judge was alniost a sinecure. When the reformers meditated their designs on the church, they began by calumniating the clergy and de- ceiving the people ; but, notwithstanding, when facts developed the baseness of their conduot, the multitude, we see, became sensible of their error, and called for the punishment of the. * betrayers of their country's welfare. But power is some- times, and we will say too frequently, an overmatch for jus- tice ; and the complaints of the people are too often disre- garded, through the interests of courtiers. So it was in this case ; though Oranmer and Cromwell, and the rest of the corrupt gang, were hated by the people, they nevertheless continued in office, and converted the once happy England into a great slaughter house. New crimes were created, and new penalties enacted ; men w^e put to death without being arraigned or heard in their defence^ or even without any direct charge against them, and the jails were filled to suffocation with persons arrested on suspicicMi only. Hitherto^ the sys- tem of spoliation had been confined to the lesser monasteries, and it was supposed by some that the dangerous insurrection which had been quelled would have induced Henry to stay his hand and preserve the greater monasteries in their rights* This he had promised the nobility and gentry in the north, before they consented to lay down their arms. But the king having nothing now to apprehend from the insurgents, the seizure of the great monasteries was resolved i^ton, and the same means were resorted to as before to deceive the people. Rumours of an invasion by France were set afloat, and that,.

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as heavy taxes would be the natural consequence to meet the invaders, the seizure of the monasteries would be a better ex- pedient, inasmuch as their revenues would defray all the expenses, and be a great easement to the people. These and such like specious pretences were found to be necessary now, because the charges of immorality could not be put forth, the character of the religious being established by the very act of parliament that dissolved the lesser convents. Therefore management and mystery must be resorted to, and how well they were practised the reader has seen in the account we quoted from Sir Wm. Dugdale. Suffice it to say, that by stratagem and device, the commissioners, in about two years time, demolished the monuments of British, Saxon, and Nor- man glory, which, for above one thousand years, had given undeniable proofs of virtue and had been the fountains of learning and the arts.

To give an exact number of the religious houses thus de- molished is a matter of difficulty. Mr. Camden states them at 645 in England and Wales ; but a list taken out of the court of first fruits and tenths makes them 754. The annual revenue of these religious houses was computed at 135,522/. IBs. lOd., and the moveable goods were, it may be said, incalculable. To this list we have to add 90 colleges, 2374 chantries and free chapels, and 110 hospitals, which met with the same fate. Sir Robert Atkyns says, there were in England, before the Reformation, 45,009 churches, and 55,000 chapels, from which we may judge of the piety of our ancestors in Catholic times, and the great share of employment that was given to the people by the erection of these temples to the ■ worship of God, many of which were of the most beautiful structure and workmanship, and give a flat denial to the foul sneers so lavishingly thrown out, by the vain conceited Pro- testants of these days, of the darkness and ignorance of those ages. Of these the greater part were destroyed by the ruth- less hands of the pretended reformers of religion, and time has nearly decayed the remainder. Though the abbey lands were granted to the king to be applied to the benefit of the

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nation, but few of them wont into the exchequer, the greater part being distributed amongst his favourites and partners in guilt. Thus a new race of upstarts sprung up to beard the ancient nobility of the king, and to this work of spoliation and sacrilege do many of the. present noble families of this king- dom owe their origin and wealth. Of these we may name the families of Eussell, Cavendish, and Powlet. To give some idea of the manner in which these possessions of the church were disposed of. Stow relates, that he (Henry) made a grant to a gentlewoman of a religious house, for presenting him with a dish of puddings, which happened to please his palate ; that he paid away many a thousand a year belonging to the monasteries, and particularly that Jesus' bells belong- ing to a steeple not far from St, Paul's, London, very remarkable both for their size and music, were lost at one throw to Sir Miles Partridge. Many other of the ancient places of the divine worship were turned into tippling houses, stables, and dog kennels, while others, as we have before observed, were left a heap of ruins, which made Sir William Davenant complain of this havoc in the following elegant Jin^s i—r

*^ Who sees these dismal heaps* but will demand. What barbarous invader sack'd the land ? But when he hears no Ooth, no Turk did bring This desolation, but a Christian king — When nothing but the name of zeal appears *Twixt our best actions, and the worst of theirs, What does he think our sacrilege would spare. Since these th' ejects of our devotions are V*

Having described the manner in which the monastic insti- tutions fell by the hands of a barbarian king and his villanous courtiers, we will conclude by drawing a brief contrast between the situation of the country, when these institutions flourished, and the* present days of enlightened wisdom, as they are termed. But first, it may not be amiss to give a slight sketch of the early consequences of this work of destruction. The lure held out to the people to reconcile them to the project of

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a general dissolution was, tliat by the kiug*s taking the^ revenue of these establishments into his own hands, he would be able to maintain an army of 40,000 well trained soldiers, with skilful captains and commanders, without calling upon his subjects for subsidies, fifteenths, loans, and other common aids. But no sooner did he get possession of the lands and revenues of the monks, than he called upon the people for subsidies and loans, and received them ag^st the law; The. first step taken, on the passing of the act of parliament to dissolve the monasteries, was the i^pointment of a Court of Aiigmentation, to manage the revenues accruing to the crown bj the dissolution ; and well did the members of this court manage the business for their own interest, as Fuller tells us, in his Church History, that ** the officers of the court were many, their pensions great, crown profits thereby very small, and causes there defending few ; so that it was not worth the. while to keep up a mill to grind that grist where the toll would not quit cost" But though this Protestant historian held this opinion, the reformers ^ere of another, for they continued to " keep up the mill " during a space of eighteen years, chiefly for the benefit of the clerks, <&c., and it was not. stopped grinding the public till the first year of Mary I., better known by the name of " bloody queen Mary,'* because she was a Catholic princess, and governed her subjects ac- cording to the ancient laws of the land. While the courtiers were thus feeding their own nest, eveiy other order of men in every station of life felt the heavy weight of this calami- tous event. Nobility and gentry, rich and poor, young and old, clergy and laity, the ignorant and the learned, the living and the dead, were alike sufferers, and experienced numerous miseries flowing from it. Tn the same parliament that gave the king the great and rich priory of St. John of Jerusalem, (the last that was seized upon, because the only one left to be seized), a subsidy from both Idity and clergy was demanded. Sir Bichard Baker says, in hi» Chronicle, *' In his one and thirtieth year, a subsidy of two shillings in the pound of lands; and twelve of goods, with four fifteens, were grants.

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to the king, towards his charges of making bulwarks. In his five and thirtieth year, a subsidy was granted, to be paid in three years, every Englishman being worth in goods twenty shillings and upwards to five pounds, to pay four pence of every pound ; and from five pounds to ten pounds, eight- pence ; and from ten pounds to twenty pounds, twelve pence ; 'from twenty pounds and upwards, of every pound two fihillings : strangers, as well denizens as others, being in- habitants, to pay double. And for lands, every Englishman paid eight pence of the pound, from twenty shillings to ^ve pounds ; and from five pounds to ten pounds, sixteen pence ; and from ten pounds to twenty pounds, two shillings ; and from twenty pounds and upwards, of every pound three fihillings ; strangers double. The clergy six shillings in the pound, of benefices ; and every priest having no benefice, but an annual stipend, six shillings and eightjpence yearly, during three years." The same writer tells us that *' In his six and thirtieth year, proclamation was made for the enhancing of gold to eight and forty shillings, and silver to four shillings, the ounce ; also ke caused tp be coined base money, mingling it with brass, which was, since tiiat time, called down the fifth year of Edward YI., and called in the second year of queen Elizabeth." Such were the consequences to the country immediately following the baneful measure ; we will now proceed to a detail of the more remote results.

The spoils of the church and the lands of the monasteries were not appropriated to the benefit of the people, but were distributed amongst the favourites and panderers of Henry, and subsequently, that is in the reign of the boy-pope, his successor, Edward YI., amongst the hirelings of the ruling factions whidi alternately governed the young monarch. These creatures were not selected for their attachment to the principles cf the constitution, and their love of rational free- dom, though they had the cry of " Liberty " constantly in their mouths ; but the possessions they obtained were the recompense, from a bloody and merciless tyrant, for the viUanous services which they performed to gratify his in-

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satiable lust and brutal passions. Thej were the dross of the nation, famed only for their vices and yiUanj, and thus they became the bane and scourge of the unhappy people of England. Conscious of the illegal tenure of their property, and fearful that a knowledge of the truth might oblige them to disgorge the property thus unjustly obtained^ the possessors thereof raised themselves into a party, the grand principle of which was intolerance and fraud. Thus, whenever a dispo- sition was shewn to favour the Catholics of this country, false reports and unjust accusations were immediately circulated to inflame the minds of the ignorant, and conspiracies were forged to alarm the timid. The gunpowder plot in James I. 'a reign, and Gate's plot in Charles II.'s, had no other founda- tion than the intrigues of this party to keep ajive the embers of religious fanaticism, and thus prevent the public mind from discerning the evils preying upon the country. The wishes of James II to establish liberty of conscience for all his subjects again alarmed the party, and in the end, being a Catholic, he was driven from the throne. The reign of his successor, William III., was one of war for the safety of the Protestant interest, and in support of it the national debt was commenced, the* weight of which is now become insup« portable.

We will now proceed to contrast the benefits derived to the country from the monasteries, with the miseries the peo- ple now endure from the want of them. In the first place, the convents both of men and women were schools of learn- ing and piety, and were therefore of the greatest service to the education of children. In every monastic institution one or more persons were assigned for the purpose of teaching ; and thus the children of the neighbourhood, both rich and poor, were taught grammar and music, without any charge to their parents, and in the nunneries, the female children were instructed in the useful branches of housewifery. Now, however, the case is altered. In those endowed schools, which bear tbe name of charity, interest must be used to get the children admitted, and though there are some supported

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by voluntary contributions, yet it can be considered in no other light than a tax, which many pay from fear^ and others from ostentation.

In the second place, the monasteries were, in effect, great hospitals, where the poor were relieved and nursed in the time of distress and sickness ; and they were likewise houses of entertainment for Utivellers of all ranks. From their revenues they provided with a liberal hand for the wants of others, while their own diet was slender aiid frugal. Then we had no assessment upon parishes to relieve the indigent ; now we have upwards of eight millions sterling, levied upon the land and trade, to supply the poor with but half a suffi- ciency, and indeed scarcely that. Then the poor fared sumptuously, the villagers were happy and cheerful, their hours were spent in paymg homage to God, labouring for their families, and harmlessly enjoying themselves over a plenteous board of meat and nut brown ale. ^ow the labourer is scarcely able to procure even bread for his family, and in most cases, he has to apply to the parish for relief ; there he meets with the surly growl of the overseer, instead of the smiling welcome of the cowled monk, and is too often sent away with a refusal of assistance ; instead of the plump and florid countenance of the rural swain, we see nothing but pallid and emaciated figures, pining in sorrow and care, or totally regardless of that noble feeling of independence which marked the peasantry of ancient days. Then the population were chiefly employed in agricultural pursuits and the dif- ferent branches of trade connected with the land, and the monks bmng the best landlords, a little colony was sure to spring up near a monastery ; now the people are congregated in large towns, and employed in great manufactories, whereby their morals are corrupted and their health injured, while the profits of their labour go to enrich perhaps one individual, whose property is already immense, and applied probably only to his own individual gratification*

Thirdly, the nobility and gentry had, by means of the monasteries, a creditable mode of providing for their younger

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children and old servants. Now they are fastened upon the nation in the way of pensions, places, the half-paj list, and such like devices, hy which they live out of the sweat of the poor, whereas in Catholic times they contributed to the com- fort of the poor, hy being their instructors, physicians and nurses.

Fourthly, the monasteries were of the greatest advantage to the commonwealth, inasmuch as they not only contributed to preserve the dignity of the crown and the rights of the people, but they had services reserved by their founders, which were of a military nature, but widely different from a standing army. For example, the abbeys that held by knights' service, were bound to provide such a number of soldiers as their services required, and furnish them for the field at their own charge. Thus, when the country called, their men appeared at their musters, to attend the heirs of the founders, or such as had settled a knight's fee upon them. Here then we had an army equipped at a moment's notice, to support the honour of old England, and without a tittle of tax upon the people. Now, however, we are compelled to employ recruiting officers and men at a heavy charge ; individuals are bought or trepanned into the service ; a large sum of money is annually wrung out of the sweat of the poor to maintain this army ; and in the event of its being reduced, the officers are saddled upon the nation for life, so that one part of the people may be said to live upon the labour of the other; whereas in Catholic times, in the absence of debt, loans, pensions, sinecures, taxes, and tax-gatherers, every class of the community was usefully employed, and each con- tributed to the other's comfort.

When Henry VIII. came to the crown, he found his ex- chequer well filled. The nation was without debt and the people content and happy. In this state he reigned over them nearly twenty years, when the passion of lust first turned him from the path of duty, and he became an inexorable tyrant. In this raging temper he was surrounded by men of the vilest qualities, who fumed the flame of his desires to

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an ungovernable fury, and by tbe most deceptive arts led him to sanction the most disgraceful outrages, while they took care to profit by the villanies they projected. But as Ihe vengeance of God fell on the persecutors of the primitive Christians, so did his justice fall on the evil doers in the work of devastation we have just described. Harry, who, as the head and supreme in these horrible sacrileges, demands the first notice, ^fter living a voluptuous life, grew so corpulent and unwieldy that he was not able to go up stairs, or from one room to another, but was obliged to be hoisted up by an engine; his body too was filled with foul and nauseous humours, which caused such a stench as made it loathsome to attend upon him. In his dying illness he affected some re- ligious compunction, but no one gave oredit to his actions, and he who had made so many men's wills void, had his own totally disregarded by those who had been his greatest favourites. He died unregretted, and his memory is only held in remembrance to execrate the bloody deeds which slain his life. Dr. Heylin records that " he never spared woman in his lust, nor man in his anger ;'* and Sir Walter Kaleigh says of him, " That if all the patterns of a merciless prince had been lost in the world, they might have been found in this king." Of his six wives, the memory of one only is held in veneration by posterity ; this is the unfortunate, but magnanimous Catharine, whose cruel persecution has been dearly paid for by the nation. His second wife, Anne Boleyn, who was instrumental in the sufferings of Catharine, was beheaded for incest with her own brother ; the third, Jane Seymour, being in childbirth and in danger of death, as well as the child, had her body ripped up by order of the king to preserve the child ; the fourth, Anne of Cleves, was cast off within two or three months; the fifth, Catharine Howard, was beheaded for adultery ; and the sixth, Catharine Parr, was near sharing the same fate, but had the good fortune to escape and survive him.

We must now say a word or two on Cromwell, who was a principal actor in this tragedy of depredation and cruelty. VOL. II. N

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This creature of crime and violence had risen so high in royal farour, that he seemed to engross all the power and influence of the court. He obtained a grant of thirty manors belonging to the suppressed monasteries, the title of earl of Essex was conferred upon him, and he was appointed to the office of lord chamberlain, in addition to hb situation of vicar general, and other trusts. In this sunshine of court patron- age he conducted the business of the crown in parliament, and thought himself omnipotent. Indeed so littie did he ap- prehend the &te that awaited him, that he actually com- mitted tlie bishop of Chichester and Dr. Wilson to the Tow^^ on a charge of having relieved prisoners confined for refusing the oath of supremacy ; and threatened with the royal dis- pleasure the duke of Norfolk, and the bishops of Durham, Winchester, and Bath, who were opposed to his views, when he suddenly found himself the object of the king's anger. Henry, it will be recollected, had taken a dislike to Anne of Cleves, his fourth wife, and he learned that Cromwell had been the prime negociator in this disagreeable match. Hence, he contracted as violent a dislike to his favourite as he had entertained a strong partiality for him, and he was not slow in wreaking his vengeance. The butchering vicar-general seems not to have had the least suspicion of his fall, until he found himself, after he attended the house of lords in th^ morning, and the council board in the afternoon, on the 10th of June, 1540, arrested and taken to the Tower on a charge of high treason. As minister, he was accused of receiving bribes and encroaching on the royal authority by issuing commissions, pardoning convicts, and granting licences for the exportation of prohibited merchandize. As vicar-generali he was charged with having betrayed his duiy, by not only holding heretical opinions himself, but also by protecting heretical preachers. And to make him a traitor, he was ac- cused of having expressed a resolution to fight agfdnst the king, if it were necessary, in support of his religious opinionSb He was confronted with his accusers in presence of the com- missioners, but was refused the benefit of a public trial before

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Mi peers. He was proceeded against hy a bill of attainder, ttf whi<^ be bad no reason^ bowever^ to complain^ as be was the first to employ tbe iniquitous measure against otbers. Tbe modem editors of tbe Book of Martyrs, copying from Burnet, fUkf, ** GroMwdl experienced the common fate of fallen minis- ters ; bis pretended friends forsook him, and bis enei&ies pur- sued their revenge itgainst bim without opposition, except from Cran%Ber> who, with a rtxre fidelity, dared to avow an attacb- tnent to bim, even at this time, and wrote a very earnest letter to tbe king in bis favour. But Henry was not easily turned from his purpose, and being resolved on the rum of Cromwell, was not to be dissuaded lirom his design/' Crantier did, to be -s«re, interpose in beludf of his friend and compeer in villany,but he todc care to use such measured Hinguage, that the king could aotti^ offence, for Tom was very eareiul to keep his own skin whole dA long as be could. His epistle rather enumerated the ^MiBt services of Cromwell than defended his innocence, as th^ i9&>lnng extract will shew: — ^** A man,'* writes Cranmer, *' dkat Was BO advanced by your majesty, whose surety was enly by your majesty, who loved your majesty no less than God [what blasphemy !], who studied always to set forward •whatsoever was your majesty's will and pleasure, who cared for no man's <tispleasure to serve your majesty, who was such a servant, in my judgment, in wisdom, diligence, faithfulness, und experience, as no prince in this realm ever had the like ; who was so vigilant to preserve your majesty from all treasons, that few could be so secretly conceived but be detected the same in the beginning ; such a man, that, if the noble princes <tf mem<)ry, king John, Henry 11., Eichard II., had bad such a ebunsdlor about them, I suppose they would never have %een so treacherously abandoned and overthown, as those good princes were. Who shall your grace trust hereafter, if you mistrust him? Alas! I bewail and lament your grace's ^mnee herein : I wot Hot whom your grace may trust," Ac Such was the character given by Cranmer of his friend Crom- wdl; ye* five days after this pattern of " rare fidelity " had ihuft addressed' hb majesty, this very Tom Cranmer, this Pro-

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testant archbbhop of Canterbury, this prime reform^ of ih^ cliurch of England, on the second and third readings of the "bill of attainder, gave his vote in favour of it, thinking i( safer to go with the stream than contend against the tide <^ Harry's will. Oh ! blessed Tom Cranmer. In oonsequ^ce of Tom*B compliance, the bill passed the lords without a dis-* sentient voice, and probably with as little opposition through the commons. The bill was no sooner passed, than the prir soner was led out and beheaded on Tower-hill a few dayp after he was arrested.

Thus fell the great &vourite of Henry, whom he made os^ of to do his dirty work, and who was too ready, it cannot be denied, to perform the task set him. In the £eJ1 of this man there were three singular circumstances attending his £e^. Though appointed vicar-general to the head of the chords with a power to reform all heresies, he was accused of here^ himself. Agidn, although he had, in his life-time, been the greatest destroyer of the church of all the innovators of that age, yet^ in his dying speech, he declared himself i^ stanch Catholic. *' I pray you," says he, " that be here, to bear me record, I die in the Catholic faith, not doubting in any article of my faith ; no, nor doubting in any sacrament of the church. Many have slandered me, and reported that I have been a hearer of such as have maintained evil opmions, which is untrue ; but I confess, that like as God, by his Holy Spirit, doth instruct us in the truth, so the devil is ready to seduce us, and I have been seduced : but bear me witness, I die of the faith of the Catholic church.*' Next, he fell by a law of his own framing, the most odious and diabolical that eould be devised, and intended to revenge himself of those individuals who had the courage and honesty to oppose his in^Eunoos practices. We find in Dodd*s account of the life of this mon- ster in human shape, the following singular relation of his posterity : — ** I meet with a pedigree of this family,*' writer this historian, '* which makes the infamous Oliver CromweU a branch of it, in the following manner : Lord Cromwell, am to the earl of Essex, dying without issue male, a daughter of

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tlie famOy was married to one Morgan Williams, of Glamor- ganshire, whose son, Sir Eichard Williams, took the name of Cromwell, and settled in Huntingdonshire, from whom de- BOended Sir Oliver Cromwell,knight of the Bath in king James I.'s reign, who had a younger brother called Robert, father to Oliver the protector. Now, if this pedigree may be depended Bpon, it is very remarkable how fatal the name has been both to church and state, both to Catholics and Protestants. About a hundred years after Thomas Cromwell had stripped the church of Rome of monastic lands, Oliver carried on the Refor- mation, and stripped the church of England of bishops' lands. Now, to draw a parallel of their irreligous proceedings, there seems to be some resemblance both as to their motives and methods, and Catholics may be in hopes of being pitied under iheir oppression; for altering the date of years, the same apol- ogy will serve for both churches.*'

Such was the fate of Cromwell, who fell unpitied by his ^ends and despised by the people ; nor was he the only example of Gods vengeance on the cruel and remorseless destroyers of the pious monuments and charitable institutions ctf their religious forefathers. The instances of the resent- ment of Heaven at the injuries done to church property and the rights of the poor were numerous and awful. The monas- tic institutions were chiefly designed to revive the piety of the primitive Christians, and promote the great end of charity. We have seen how well they performed the task, and the many benefits they conferred upon those nations that fostered lAiem, but especially on England, as regarded religion, the sciences, and civil freedom. The destruction of these institu- tions was the death blow of England's liberties and happiness ; but the perpetrators fell in the vortex of ruin they had pre- pared for the church. The abbey lands, which were seized to grafafy the avarice aild cupidity of courtiers, became the ctir»B of the families who alienated them from their lawful owners. The effect of this curse was so visible, that, within twenty years after the dissolution, more of the nobility were attainted and died under the sword of justice, than suffered

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in that way from the Conquest to the deriuitation, making & period of 500 years. To give the winrk an af^pearanoe of legality, the sanction of parliament was obtained by corrapttng the members; and see the consequences which foUowed. Mr. Fuller, in his Church Hist(n*y, c. vi., writes, '* If you examine the list of the barons in the pariiament of the 27th of Henry VIII. I you will find very few of them whose sons do, at thifi day, inherit their fathers' titles and estates ; and of these few^ many to whom the king's favour hath restored what the rigor-' ous law of attainder took, both dignity, lands, and posterity. And, doubtless, the commons have drunk deeply of thi» cup of deadly wine ; but they, being more numerous and leee eminent, are not so obvious to observation. However, it will not be amiss to ins^ the observation of a most worthy an^* quarian. Sir Henry Spelman, in the county whwe he was boni, and best experienced ; who reporteth that, in Norfolk, th^ro were 100 houses of gentlemen, before the dissolution, pes- sOBsed oi fair estates, of whom so many as gained acoessioa by abbey lands are at this time extinct, or much impaired, bemoaning his own &mily, under the latter notion, aa (|ixabis)ied hy such an addition." That Norfolk, our BotivB^ oounty. was not alone marked with the finger of God, may he traced by history, for it will be found that every county throughout England bore the same visiUe marks of God'a sig- nal displeasure of this woik (^ sacrilege and spoliation.

DEBATES OF THE CONVOCATION.

Having shewn how the temporalities of the chureh fell it prey to the avaricious designs of the panders of Henry, it is now time to take some notice of the theological pcoceediaga which took place among Henry's divines, while the work of robbery and saerilege was going on. The king, it wUl bo observed, had caused himself to be* aduiowledged by th* ol^gy and parliament, the supreme head of the churdi of England, and consigned many of the most virtuous and learned men, such as Fisher, More, Foreat, and others, to die fagot and the block, for recusing to acknowMge tlus aii-

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premacy in bim, so far as i^irituals were concerned. Having submitted to his supreme headships the clergy^ in convocatioD^ obsequiously became the mere tools of the royal lay-pope. A conyoeation is an assembly of the clergy for consultation upon matters ecclesiastical^ and in this coimtry consisted of two distinct houses, like the parliament '; the archbishops and bishops constituted the upper house, and the inferior clergy^ represented by deputies, forming the lower house. Frevioos to the Reformatioui as it is called, this assembly was uninflu^ced by royal power, as the church was secured in her priyileges by Magna Charta, and in return was highly instrumental in securing to the people their privileges enjoyed under the same diarter. To bring the matter about, Henry had got all the dergy into tkpremunire, whereby they had forfeited all their temporal possessions to the king, and were in danger of being sent to prison at the king's pleasure. When the statutes of premunire were passed, a power was given to the sovereign to mitigate or suspend their operation, and hence it was customary for the king to grant letters of license or protec- tion to particular individuals. Wolsey held one of these patents under t^e great seal for fifteen years, during which no one ever accused him of violating the law. When the cardinal was indicted for the offence, for some reason or other he neglected or refused to plead the royal permission, and suffered judgment to pass against him, and it was argued, on the ground of his conviction, that all the clergy were liable to the same penalty, because, by admitting his jurisdiction, they had become partners in his guilt. Accordingly, the aittiHmey-general, to their consternation, was instructed to file an information against the whole in the court of king's bench. To get out of this predicament, into which they had fallen, the cl^gy of the province of Cant^bury hastily assembled in convocation, and t^idered to the king a present of one him- ^d thouMmd pounds in return for a full pardon. Henry, however, under the advice of Cromwell, through whose ooaning the lushops and clergy had been caught in the snare, to their great |prief and astonishment, refused the proposal^

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onless they at the same time consented to acknowledge him^ the king, " to be the protector and onfy supreme head of the ohurch and dergy of England.'' Three days were consumed in useless consultation^ and conferences were held with Crom- well and the royal commissioners. In the course of the debates, bishop Fisher, who appeared to be almost the only kidividual of the clergy that had the courage to speak the sentiments of his mind, and oppose, as far as he was able, Ifee irreligious innoTation meditated by Henry, delivered hiff sentiments in the following terms : " My lords, it is true, we are all under the king's lash, and stand in need of the king's good favour and clemency ; yet this argues not that we should therefore do that which will render us both ridiculous and contemptible to all the christian world, and hissed out from the society of God's holy Catholic church : for, what good will that be to us, to keep the possession of our houses, cloisters, and convents, and to lose the society of the Christian world; to preserve our goods, and lose our consciences? Wherefore, my lords, I pray 1^ us conwder what we do, and what it is we are to grant ; the dangers and inconveniences^ that will ensue thereupon ; or whether it lies in our power to. grant what the king requireth at our hands, or v^hether the king be an apt person to receive this ; that so we may go groundedly to work, and not like men that had lost all honesty and wit together with their worldly fortune. As concerning the first point, viz., what the supremacy of the church is, which we are to give unto the king; it is to exercise the spiritual government of the church in chief; which, accord- ing to all that ever I have learned, both in the gospel and* through the whole course of divinity, mainly consists in these - two points : —

'*1. In loosing and binding sinn^^; according to that which our Saviour said unto St. Peter, when he ordained him head of his church, viz., ^ To thee will I give the keys of the kingdom of heaven.* ^ow, my l<»*ds, can we say unto the king, tibi, to thee will I give the keys of the kingdom of heiiven ? If you say ay, where is your warrant? if you-

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flay no, then you have answered yourselves, that you cannot put such keys into his hands.

"2. — The supreme government of the church consists in feeding Christ's sheep and lamhs ; according unto that, when our Saviour performed that promise unto Peter, of making him his universal shepherd^ hy such unlimited juris- diction^ *Feed my lamhs ;* and not only so, but feed those that are the feeders of those lambs ; * Feed my sheep.' Now, my lords, can any of us say unto the king, pasce oves f

•* God hath given unto his church, some to be apostles, some evangelists, some pastors, some doctors ; that they might edify the body of Christ : so that yon must make the ling one of these, before you can set him one over these ; and, when you have made him one of these supreme heads of the church, he must be such a head as may be answer- able to all the members of Christ's body : and it is not the few ministers of an island that must constitute a head over the universe ; or at least, by such example, we must allow as many heads over the church, as there are sovereign powers within Christ's dominion ; and then what will become of the supremacy ; every member must have a head : attendite vobis, was not said to kings, but bishops.

" Secondly, let us consider the inconveniences that will arise upon this grant : we cannot grant this unto the king, but we must renounce our unity with the see of Kome ; and, if there were no further matter in it than a renouncing of Clement VII., pope thereof, then the matter were not so great: hut in this we do forsake the first four general councils, which none ever forsook ; we renounce all canonical ecclesiastical laws of the church of Christ ; we renounce all Other Christian princes ; we renounce the unity of the Christian world ; and so leap out of Peter's ship, to be drowned in the waves of all heresies, sects, schisms, and divisions.

" Yoc the first and general council of Nice acknowledged Silvester's (the bishop of Rome) authority to be over them,, by sendbg thdr decrees to be ratified by him^

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*' The council of Constftirtiiiople did acknowledge pope DamasuB to be their chief, by admittiag him to gire s^ntenoe against the heretics Maced<HiiuBy Sabellinus, and Ennomius.

<< The council of Ephesus acknowledged pope Celestine to be their chief judge^ by admitting his condemnation upon the heretic Nest<mus.

'^ The council of Chalcedon acknowledged pope Leo to be their chief head ; and all general councils of the world e?er acknowledged the pope of Rome (only) to be Uie supreme head of the church. And now shall we acknowledge another head ? er one head to be in England, and another in Bome ?

'* Thirdly, we deny all canonical and ecclesiastical laws ; which wholly do depend upon the authority of the apostolical see of Eome.

" Fourthly, we renounce the judgment of all otiier Christian princes^ whether they be Protestants or Catholics^ Jews or Gentiles ; for, by this argument, Herod must have been head of the church of Uie Jews, Nero must have been head of the church of Christy the emperor must be head ci the Protestant countries in Germany, and the church of Christ must haye had neyer a head till about three hundred years after Christ.

"Fifthly, the king's majesty is not susceptible of this donation : Ozias, for meddling with the priest's office, was resisted by Azarias, thrust out of the temple, and told that it belonged not to his office. Now if the priest spake truth in this, then is not the king to meddle in this business : if he spoke amiss, why did God plague the king with leprosy for this, and not the priest?

" King David, when the ark of God was in bringbg home, did he place himself in the head of the priests' order ? did he so much as touch the ark, or execute any the least, properly belonging to the priestly function ? or did he not rather go before, and abase himself amongst tiie people, and say that he would become yet more yile^ so tibat God might be glorified*

"All good Christian emperors have erermore refused

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ecclesiastica] authority ; for^ at tiie first general council of "Mdee, certain bills were privilj l»rouglit unto Oonstantine^ to be ordered by his authority ; but he caused item to be bumt^ saying, Dommus vob constkuit, kc», God has ordained you (priests)^ and' hath given you power to be judges over us ; and therefore, by right, in these things, we are to be judged ty you ; but you are not to be judged by me.

** Valentine, the good emperor, was required by the bishops to be present with them, to reform the heresy of the Arians ; but he answered, ' Forasmuch as I am one of the members of tiie lay-people, it is not lawful for me to define such contro- versies ; but let the priests, to whom God hath given charge thereof, assemble where they will in due Order.'

** Theodosius, writing to the council of Ephesus, saith, * It is not lawful for him that is not of ihe holy order of bishops, to intermeddle with ecclesiastical matters :' and now shall we cause our king to be head of the church, when all good kings have abhorred the very least Uiought thereof, and so many wicked kings have been plagued for so doing ! Truly, my lords, I think they are his best friends that dissimde him from it ; and he would be iJie worst enemy to himself, if he ^ould obtain it. '

" Lastly, if this thing be, farewell all unity with Chnisten- dom ! For, as that holy and blessed martyr S^t Cypriaa satth, all unity depends upoa thait holy see, as upon the authority of St. Peter's successors; for,^ saith the same holy father, aU heresies, sects, and schisms, have no other rise but this, that men will not be obedient to the chief bishop ; and BOW, for us to shake off our communion with that church, • either we must grant the church of Rome to be the church of Gbd, or else a malignant churcL If you answer, she is of 0od, and a chi^rch where Christ is truly taught, his sacrai- menta r%htly administered, <fec., how can we forsake, how ctan we % from such a chiurch ? certainly we ought to be with,. and not tOr separate ourselves from suck a one.

"If we answer, that the church of Rome is not of God,. hoi a maligQajit church; then it will foUow^.that we» ^^

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inhabitants of this land, have not jet receired the true ^eiitb of Christ ; seeing we have not received any other gospel, any other doctrine, any other sacraments, than what we have received from her, as most evidently appears by all the ecclesiastical histories: wherefore, if she be a malignant church, Yfe have been deceived alt this while ; and if to i*enounce the common father of Christendom, all the general councils, especially the first four, which none renounce, all the countries of Christendom, whether they be Cathdic Countries or Protestant, be to forsake the unity of the Christian world ; then is the granting of the supremacy of the church imto a king, a renouncing of this unity, a tearing of the seem- less coat of Christ in sunder, a dividing of the mystical body of Christ his spouse limb from limb ; and tail to tail, like damson's foxes, to set the field of Christ's holy church all on fire ; and this is it which we are about : wherefore let it be said unto you in time, and not too late, look you to that."-— {Bailey's Life of Fisher.)

This profound and unanswerable speech had eonnderaUe efiect upon the whole convocation for a time, but, in the end, the king obtained the consent of the assembly, through the artful persuasions of his emissaries, and the worldly-minded- uess of some of the leading dignitaries. In the mean time Cranmer, as we have before stated, got appointed to the high dignity of archbishop of Canterbury* and primate of all England. The link of unity formed by the divine founder of the church being thus dissevered, the only means left to preserve a uniformity of faith were acts of parliament and pains and penalties ; but those were found ineffectual idmost as soon as the king assumed the character of pope. Harry himself, with the exception of the supremacy, was rigidly attached to the dogmas of the Catholic church, but as he had no divine authority to rule the consciences of men, he could ^ot prevent others from exercismg their visionary fancies in tlie way of religion-making as well as himself, and hence, th^ nation soc^ swarmed with religious tinkers, each battering tiie other'^ ket^tle^ untilther people were distracted andaUnoat

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maddened with the discordant sounds. It is now time to gire the acoomit of ike modem editors of Fox of these proceedings^ which we peroeiye they have extracted from Burnet's Abridg- ment. They say, '* The convocation sat at the time, and was much employed. Latimer preached a Latin sermon before them ; he was the most celebrated preacher of that time ; the simplicity of his matter, and his zeal in expressing it, being preferred to more elaborate compositions. The convocation first confirmed the sentence of divorce between the king and queen Anne. Then the lower house made an address to the u{^>6r house, complaining of sixty-seven opinions, which they found were very much spread in the kingdom, These were either the tenets of the old Lollards, or of Ihe new Reformers, or of the Anabaptists ; and many of Ihem were only indis- creet expressions, which might have flowed from the heat and folly of some rash zealots, who had endeavoured to disgrace both the received doctarines and rites. They also complained of some bishops who were wanting in their duty to suppress such abuses. This was understood as a reflection on Cranmer, Shaxton, and Latimer, the first of whom it was thought was now declining, in consequence of the fall of queen Anne. . '* But all these projects failed, for Cranmer was now fully established in the king's £&vour ; and Cromwell was sent to the convocation with a message from his majesty, that they should reform the rites and ceremonies of the church accord- ing to the rules set down in smpture, which ought to be pre- ferred to all glosses or decrees of popes.

** There was one Alesse, a Scotchman, whom Cromwell entertained in his house, who, being appointed to deliver his opinion, shewed that there was no sacrament instituted by Christ but baptism and the Lord's supper. Stokesly answered him in a long discourse upon the principles of the school divinity ; upon which, Cranmer took occasion to shew the wmity of that sort of learning, and the uncertainty of tradition ; and th«t religion had been so corrupted in the latter ages, that there was no finding out the truth but by resting on the au-- th.ority (^ the scriptures. • Fox, hisAiOf of Hereford, seconded

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lum, and told them that the world was now awake^ and would be no longer imposed on by the niceties and dark terms o£ ihe sdiools ; for the laity now did not only read the scriptures in the vulgar tongaes> but searched the originals themselyea; therefore they must not think to govern them as they had been gov^ned in the times c^ ignorance. Among the bishc^M^ Granmer, Goodrick, Shaxton, Latimer^ Fox, Hilsey, and Barlow^ pressed the Reformation ; but Lee^archbishop of York, Stoksley, Ttmstally Gardiner, Longland, and several others^ opposed it as much. The contest would have been mueh sharper, had not the king sent some' articles to be considered of by them, when the following mixture of truth and error wis agreed upcm:— >

^' 1. ^Hiat the bishops and jH^achers ought to instruct the pjBople according to the scriptures, the three creeds, and the four first general eouncils*

''2. That baptism was necessary to salvation, and that children ougl^ to be baptized for the pardon of original sin, and obtaining the Holy Ghost.

^^ 3. That penance was necessary to salvaticm, and Hiat it consisted in confession, contrition, and amendment of life> with the external works of charity, to whidi a lively faith ought to be joined ; and that confession to a priest was necessary where it might be had.

^' 4» That in the eucharist, under Ihe f(»rms of bread and wine, the very flesh and blood of Christ were received.

^' That justification was the remission of sins, and a perfect renovation in Christ ; and that not only outward good works, but inward holiness, was absolutely necessary. As for the outward ceremonies, Ihe people were to be taught. — 1. That it was meet to have images in churches, but they ought to avoid all such superstition as had been in times past, and not to worship the image, but only God. 2, That they were to honour the samts, but not to expect those things fix>m than which God only gives. 3. That they might pray to them for their intercession, but all superstitious abuses weie to cease ;. andif the king should lessen the number (rf saints' days, they

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ought to obe j him. 4* That the ode of the ceremonies was good» aod tiiat the j eontained maaj mystical significaticms thai tended to raise the mind towards Qod ; soch were yest^ meo^ in dirine worship^ holy water> holy breads the carrying of oandlea^ and palms and ashes^ and creeping to tibe cross, and hallowing tiie font, With other exorcisms. 5. That it was good to pray for departed souls, and to hare masses and exequies said for them ; but the scriptures haying neither declared in what place they were, nor what torments tiiey suf^ fered, that was uncertidn, and to be left to €K>d ; therefore all the abuses of the pope's pardons, or saying masses in such and such plaoeS) or before such images, were to be put away* These articles were signed by Cromwell, the two ^rdibisbops^ sixteen bishops, forty abbots and priors, and fifty <^ the bwer house. The king afterwards added a preface, dedaring tlie* pains that Le and the dergy had been at for the remoYiug the differences in religion which existed in the nation, and that he approved of these articles, and required aU his subjects to accept them, and he would be thereby encouraged to take further pains in the fike matters for the future.

*' On the publication of these things, the fovourers ci the Reformation, though they did not i^proYO of every par- ticular, yet were well pleased to see things brought under examination; and i»nce some things were at this time changed,, they did not doubt but more changes would foUow ; they were glad that the scriptures and the ancient creeds were made the standards of the faith, without adding tradition, and that the nature of justification and the gospel-covenant was rightly stated ; that the immediate worship of images and saints was condemned, and that purgatory was }»h uncertain : but tiie necessity of auricular confession, and the corporeal presence,, the doing reverence to images, and praying to saints, were of hard digestion to them ; yet they rejoiced to see some grosser abuses removed^ and a Reformation once set on foot. The popish party, on the other hand^ wene sony to see four sacra- ments passed ov^ in silence, and the trade in masses for the dead put do wn» At the sa^ne time other things wero in eon.-

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sultation, though not finished. Oranmer offered a paper to Ihe king, exhorting him to proceed to further reformation , and ihsA nothing should be determined without dear proofe from scripture, the departing from which had been the occa- sion of dl the errors that had been in the church. Many things were now acknowledged to be erroneous, for which dome, not long before, had suffered death. He therefore proposed several points to be discussed, as, Whether there were a purgatory ? Whether departed saints ought to be invocated, or traditions to be believed ? Whether images ought to be consideped only as representations of history? And, Whether it was lawful for the clergy to marry ? He prayed the king not to give judgment in these points till he heard them well examined ; but all this was carried no fur- ther at that period." ^

We must now examine this account, which has a mixture of truth with falsehood, and is calculated to disguise the former for the purpose of leading the people into the latter. Why Latimer should be named as the preacher, without giving the substance of the discourse, remains to be explained,, for the simplicity of his matter, and his zeal in expressmg it, conveys just nothing, unless we know what the matter con- sisted of. However, the first act of the convocation was to confirm the sentence of divorce passed by Cranmer between Henry and Anne Boleyn. Here, then, we have a specimen of the mean submission which this once learned and spirited body of men paid to the mandates of a tyrant. Cranmer and his associates were as pliant to the king's amours as ever he could wish, and never was head of the church so well ac- commodated in his lewd and irreh'gious woik as Henry found himsdf* The clergy very civilly dissolved the mar- riage of Anne Boleyn, as they had dissdved the previous marriage of Catharine with Henry, and the parliament, a» kindly, declared the issue of Anne, namdy Elizabeth, ille- gitimate, as it had declared Catliarine's daughter, Mary, to be the same. But what shall we say of Cranmer's conduct in the case of Anne^ to whom, of aU persons living, he. was

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under the greatest obligations ? His treatment of his bene- factress was so barefacedly ungrateful, that even his greatest panegyrist, Burnet, could not view without concern this odious blot on the life of this most notorious dissembler and eold-bloodcd yillain. Well, this matter being settled to the king's wish, the lower house, we are told, made complaint of the diversity of opinions which were found to spread in the kingdom, and they fiurther complained of the negligence of some of the bishops, who were understood to be (>anmer, and Shazton, and Latimer. The former was raised to his high situation by Henry, the two latter by the influence of Anne Boleyn, So, then, as we have before observed, the acknowledgment of Henry as supreme head of the churchy was followed by the introduction of innumerable heresies, and the perpetration of countless injustices and murders. For more than a thousand years the people, by being locked in the bonds of unity with the whole universe, by the pro- fession of the same /aith, devoted themselves to the practice of every virtue, and were careful to preserve their civil rights. Secure from the distraction of silly fanatics, and grounded in the sure rule of Christianity, they devoted their time to the cultivation of the arts and sciences, and while they raised magnificent temples to the worship of the living- God, they were not less tenacious of their country's honour, and by the prowess of theu* deeds in arms, they became as renowned for their attachment to religion, as for their valourous exploits. The laws of England were founded on justice, and the people w^e then the freest of the free in all Christendom. Every man could then sit and repose under the shade of hb own vine, and England was really- then, what she is now nominally considered, the envy of surrounding nations, and the admiration of the world. Now she is represented by Burnet, under the new pope, as the prey of faction, and the nursery of heresy and inquietude. Whatever might have been the tiioughts of Cranmw's oppo- nents, Tom knew very well how to keep in Harry's good graces. Bqrnet tells ys thi^t these three worthies, to secure

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their favour with Henry, protested to him " that they raeaat to do nothing that might displease the king^ whom thej acknowledged to be their supreme head- ; that they were re- solyed to obey his laws^ and they renounced the pope's au- thority with all his laws." This compilable declaration the modem editors have suppressed, probably, as reflecting no great credit upon the reforming heroes.

We must now look into the other proceedings of this shackled and corrupted assembly. One Alesse, a Scotchman^ and a creature of Cromwell, we are told, was appointed to shew that there never were more than two sacraments ol Divine institution, though the whole Christiim world, from the fimt foundation of the church, believed there were seven. Who this Scotchman was we have no clue whatever, other than Uiat he was a sojourner in Cromwell's house; but whether he was a learned divine, or an ignorant fanatic, we cannot learn, nor have we one argument stated, that he pro- duced, supposing him to have argued the case, on which ta fcrm a conclusion. Stoksley, the then bishop of London, it is said, answered this Scotchman in a long discourse upon the principles of the school divinity ; upon which Cranmer took occasion to shew " the vanity of that sort of leartiing, and the uncertainty of tradition ; and that religion had been BO corrupted in the latter ages that there was no finding out the truth but by resting on the authority of the scriptures, ^^ Well said, Tom I but pray tell us on whom the authority of the scriptures rested. If religion had become so corrupted in the latter ages as to raider it difficult to discover the truth, what assurance have you that the scriptures were not corrupted by those who had so c(»Tupted religion? When the reformers began to discover the truth, they began at the same time to corrupt the scriptures. This is a notorious fsifii. The reformers, in preaching the word oi God, a/s rather, in passing off their chimmoal notions of divbity aa articles of divine fedth, corrupted and adulterated the <»iginal text of the bible, and imposed it upon their credulous heareia a9 the word of Gpd. Wbitt blasphemy i;ras not j^ractised b^

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tl^e abandoned hypocrites, in addition to the work of sacri- lege» and robberjy and bloodshed, we have already detailed ? For our part, we look upon this account to be purely fictitioiui, the inyentioa of Fox or Burnet's brain ; for, is it to be sup- posed that Cranmer, or any other of the bishops, who were Lutherans in their hearts, would dare openly to deny the di?ine origin of the seyen sacraments, which Henry himself had defended against Luther, and held so steadfast that he would have shortened even his favourite ardibishop Tom a head, if he had dared to impugn any one of them ? But let us go a little further into this disputation. Fox, Inshop of Hereford, we are informed, seconded Cranmer against Stok^y, ** and told them that the world was now awakb, and would no longer be imposed on by the niceties and dark terms of the schools, for the laity now did not only read IIm scriptures in the fmlffar tongues, bi^ learehed the originals themselves ; therefore they must not think to gorem them as they had been gov^ned in the times of ignorance/' Ah ! Gilbert Burnet, when you told this fine tale, you did not expect th^ people would really begin to see through the Edsratagems played (rfT to lull them to sleep. We do not believe that Fox was so lost to his character as to make such a statement as you have imputed to him; but^ allowing iiim to have made it, what does it amount to^ ? Absurdity and falsehood ! 1!h& worid was said to be now wide awake ; in whi(di case it must be aUowed to have slept a long time, nnce the Christian part of it had then existed 1500 years with ita eyes shut. But the e<mcluding part of the statement is the most extra(»rdinary. The laity are said not only to have read the translati<m of &e smptures, but even to have searched the originals ! Is there any one credulous enough to believe this? The laity searching the originals of the sacred wrings I To be sure they must have been a very learned laity indeed ; and we wond^ much that, in this case, there was so great and Yandalic a deslaruction of the libraries of tto OKmastories and colleges whidi tofk. place just at that time. And then as to the tn^nshitioiis into ih^ vulgar

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tongue, we believe at thb period there was only one, namely Tyndal's, which was found to be filled with so* many cor- ruptionSy and adulterated with such gross and scandalous (^Hnions, that the king issued a proclamatbu, ordering all persons to deliver up their copies of this version, declaring tiiat, in respect to the malignity of the times, it was better that the scriptures should be expounded by the learned than exposed to the misconstruction of the vulgar. Now this proceeding looks very much like the world being wide awake^ and no longer inclined to be imposed upon, since it appears the reformers wished to impose upon them with their eye& open. To prevent this was the object of the king's procla- mation, and he promised the people, that if it should afiter-. wards appear that erroneous opinions were forsaken, and Tyndal's version destroyed, he would then provide them & new translation through the labours of learned, tried, and Catholic divines. But what necessity could there be for all this attention on the part of his royal popeship, if the people were of themselves able to search the originals? The false- hood of the statement imputed to tdie bishop, by Burnet is palpable. . The suppression of Tyndal's bible, to be sure,, took place before the elevatbn of Cranmer to the primacy, : and as Tom had witnessed the success of so powerful a weapon among the reformers in Germany, he took care, after he was raised to his high station, to recall to the reool- .^ lection of the royal pope, his promise to give a translation of liie scriptures in tiie vulgar tongue, and his endeavours to procure one were seconded by petitions from the convocation, and the reconmiendation of Cromwell. The king consented to this importunity, and two printers, named Grafton and Whitchurch, obtained the royal license to publish a folio edition of the bible. " It bore,'* says Dr. Lingard, ** the name of Thomas Matthewe, a fictitious signature ; and was made up of the version by Tyndal, and of anotiier by Covw- dale, printed very lately, as it was tiiought, at Zurich. In- junctions were now issued, that a bible of this edition should be placed in every church, at the joint exp^ise of the in*-

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bumbent and the parishioners ; and that any man might have the liberty of reading in it at his pleasure^ provided he did not disturb the preacher in his sermon^ nor the clergyman during tlie service. Soon afterwards this indulgence was extended from the church to private houses ; but Henry was .at all times careful to admonish the readers^ that, when they met with difficult passages, they should consult persons more learned than themselves; and to remind them, that the iiberty which they enjoyed, was not a right tcr which they possessed any claim, but a favour granted ' of the royid Hberality and goodness.' '^ The recommendation and per • mission to print, took place about 1534, the work was com- pleted in 1537, and tiie indulgence to allow the bible in private houses in 1539. We give these dates, as they will be f>und useful when we come to detail the persecutions ^hich followed, and which were sanctioned by Cranmer and his base compeers. r

- It is now tme to examine the articles of faith which were jsent by Ihe king to be considered by the convo<^ation, and which, we are further told, though compounded of truth and error, were signed by Cromwell and Cranmer, and several oi the dignified clergy. With regard to the first, by adopting the three creeds, and the first four general councils, they ad- mitted the doctrines of the Catholic church, for Catholics believe no more now than the fathers of the councils believed then. Of baptism there is no difference in the belief, and .with regard to penance we have the Catholic doctrine at once •confirmed. We have confession to the priest taught, as necessary to salvation, then we have contrition, and satisr faction by the external works of charity ; all which aro con- sidered as essentially necessary acts of the sacraments of penance. As to the eucharist, or sacrament of the altar, .the recU presence is most distinctly admitted, and, observe reader, Tom Cranmer, though he rejected this doctrine in his heart, yet he nevertheless subscribed to it, and continued not only to say mass during Henry's lifetime, but consecrated priests to do ^e same. The eucharist is here said, as it is

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in the present church catechism, to be the yeiy flesh and blood cf Christ, under the ^ortns of bread aod wine ; Oranmor solemnly subscribes to this ^otrine, which all Cathdics hoid, and sbordj after he bums a poor fellow, and a fanatic old womon^ ior not b^eving in this doctrine, as we shall pro*- sently see ; yet do Protestants, at tliis day, swear that sudi doetrine is damnable and idolatrous, to qoaHiy tliemBeh«B for office.

We ha^e the system of venerating images retained ako, though an injuncti(m is attached, that the people ought to be taught to aroid superstition. And so they were taught, for there is not a Catholic that will not deny that he renders any homage to the image he may pray befere, but that his adora^- tion is directed to God, and to God ^one. The custom of pi:ayingfor tiie dead is also admitted, as w^ as saying masses for the repose of their souls, which included the doe- trine of purgatory ; so that we have here nothing but Ca- tholic doctf ine, and ibe reformers subseriMng to sudi doc- trine. It is true, Burnet and the modern editors tdl us that when these things were published the reformers did not approve " of every particular," yet they rejmced to see *of»e grosser abuses removed, and a Reformation ^ on foot This was tsome consolation to these dissembling and innovating spirits, to be sure ; but if they did not a{^ove <rf them, why did the heads of the reforming piurty sign them ? Were these learned reformers ignorant of what was most essesitial , in the Beformation^ or were they intimidated by the over- bearing temper of Henry? Principle was made to give way to policy, and though it is attempted to botch up Cranmer's reforming spirit by the introduction of a pi^Mor, which it is pretended he presented to the king, esiiorting him to proceed further in the work of Eeforma^n, yet it is very well known Henry did not listen to Tott's suggestions, and the latter continued to profess Henry^s o'eed with the most obsequious dkpoditiicm. The points proposed for discussion had already been decided, and as to Cramner's praying the king not to give judgment oa them till he had

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heard them well examined, the act of the six articleB, which soon followed, shewed how little influence Tom had oyer his master, and that Harry was resolved that Tom should obey him.

This assent of the convocation to Henry's book of *' arti- cles/' whi<^ were presented to that assembly by Cromwell, was followed by the publication of a work caU^, " The godly and pious institution of a Christian Man/' subscribed by the archbishops, bishops, archdeacons, and certain doctors of canon and civil law, and pronounced by them to accord, '^ in an 'iMngs, with the very, true meaning of scripture." Br. Lingard writes: — ** It explains in succession the creed, the seven sacraments, which it divides into three of a higher and four of a lower order, the ten commandments, the Pater Noster and Ave Maria, justification and purgatory. It is chiefly remarkable for the earnestness with whidi it refuses salvation to all persons out of the pale of the Catholic church, denies the supremacy of the pontiff, and inculcates passive obedience to the king. It teadies that no cause whatever can authorize the subject to draw the sword against his prince ; that sovereigns are accountable to God alone ; and that the only remedy against oppression is tO pray that God would change the heart of the despot, and induce him to make a right use of his power." Here then it is placed beyond contradiction that Cranmer, being a Lutheran in his heart, must have been one of the rankest dissemblers that ever bore human shape, seeing that he subscribed to a work which maintained the doctrine of the seven sacraments, purgatory, and exclusive salvation, all which were according to the true meaning of scripture. Another of the blessed fruits of Henry's supremacy, as set forth in this book and subscribed by Cranmer and the clergy, was the doctrine of the divine right of lings, which till this period was never heard of in England. Sir Thomas More, who was a sound lawyer, laid it down as a fundamental principle of the British Constitu- tion, that Parliament could make and unmake a king, though it could not alter a law of God. Thus, then, with the inno-

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yation of religion, we may trace the invasion of the consti«> tution, and from the destruction of the monasteries we may lay all the evils which have afflicted this now unfortunate^ hut once happy country, for the last three centuries.

PERSE0UTI01C8 FOB RELIOIOnS OPINIOHS,

The reader is now in possession of the proceedings regard- ing religion which accompanied the work of spoliation and sacrilege in the destruction of monasteries and seizure of bhurch property. While this work of impiety was going^on, the reformers of Germany sent envoys over to Henry to bring the monarch into their views, but the obstinacy of Henry was insurmountable. This embassy was the work of Cranmer, who knowing well that if he dared to thwart his master his head would soon £y from off his shoulders, con- ceived that foreigners might take a liberty which he dared bot do, and flattered himself that through their influence and learning the king might be won over. Several conferences were accordingly held, and Henry, with the aid of the bishop of Durham, was pleased to answer their arguments, which having done, he thanked them for the trouble they had taken, and sent them home. The pope, on the other hand, hearing of the scene of devastation that was going on in England, issued out a bull of excommunication against Henry, and threatened him with spiritual censures. Of this latter affair Burnet thus speaks : — " When these proceedings were known at Home, the pope immediately fulminated against the king all the thunders of hb spiritual store-house ; ab- solved liis subjects from their allegiance, and his allies from their treaties with him ; and exhorted all Christians to make war against and extirpate him from the face of the earth. But the age of crusades was past, and this display of impo- tent malice produced only contempt in the minds of the king iand his advisers, who steadily proceeded in the great work of reformation ; and the translation of the bible into English being now completed, it was prmted, and ordered to be read

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in aII churobes, with penniesion for every person to re«d it who might be so disposed.

'^ But, notwithstanding the king's disagi^eement with the pope on many subjects, there was one poiht on which &ey weie alike*— thej were both intolerant, furious bigots ; and while the former was excommunicated as an heretic^ he was himself equally aealous iu rooting out heresy, and burning all who presumed to depart from the standard of faith which he had established. Gardiner, bishop of Winchester, str^igthened thb disposition of the king, and persuaded him, under the pretext of a zeal for religion, to persecute the Sacramentarists, or those who denied the corporeal presence in the sacrament."

This is Burnet's account, and we have here two remark- able circumstances connected with the work of Reformation, which it will be well for the Protestant reader to notice. First, the steady progress of '^ the king and his adyisers in the great work of Eeformation," exemplified in the circula- tion of the bible in the English language ; and secondly, its accompaniment of fer8E€UTI0N, by burning those who dared to differ in opinion from the king and his advisers. Burnet w(Hild persuade us there was very little difiSdrence between the then pope of Rome and the royal pope of England ; both, he says, were intolerant, furious bigots. Well, let it be so; still it must be confessed that the fury of the pope was given to the winds, while the rage of the English pope, unallayed by bis advisers, Cranmer, Cromwell, and the like, knew no bounds, and saturated the earth with the blood of his victims. The crafty historian has placed Gardiner, bishop of Win- chester, in front of the -stage ; but we shall see, by and by, even in his own w(M*ds, that Cranmer was not an unconcerned spectator in these scenes of cruelty and slaughter. We have before shewn that Cranmer was no sooner in the primate's c^air, than he was an actor in the burning of Frith and a poor tailor, for denying the real presence. Of this fact we have the testimony of Cranmer himself, who gives the follow- ing account of the affair in a letter which he wrote to Master vpL. II. o

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Hawkins : — " One FrytK which was in the Tower in pryson, was appoynted by the kyng's grace to be examyned before nae, my lorde of London, my lorde of Wynchester, my lorde of Suffolke, my lorde Chancelloure, and my lorde of Wylt- shire, whose opynion was so notably erroneouse, that we culd not dispatche hym : but was fayne to leve hym to the deter- mynacion of his ordinarye, which is the bishop of London. Bis said opynion ys of such nature, that he thoughte it not necessary to be believed as an article of our faythe, that ther ys the very corporall presence of Christe within the oste and sacramente of the alter: and holdeth of this poynte most after the opynion of Oecolampadious. And surely I myself sent for hym iii or iiii tymes to perswade hym to leve that his imaginacion; but for all that we culd do therein he woulde not apply to any counsaile : notwithstandyng he ys nowe at a fynall ende with all ezaminacions, for my lorde of London hathe gyven sentance, and delyvered hym to the secular power, where he looketh every day to go to a fyer. And ther ys condempned with hym one Andrewe a tayloure of London for the said selfsame opynion." — Arch, xyu. p. 8L

Two years after the burning of Frith, that is, in 1535, a colony of Anabaptists came over to England from Germany^ and were instantly apprehended ; fourteen of them, refusing to recant, were consigned to the flames. In 1538 another batch of them followed, and Oranmer was ordered by the king to call them before him (the archbishop) and three other prelates, to admonish them of their errors, and deliver the contumacious over for punishment. Tom readily complied : four of the number abjured, and a man and woman suffered for their obstinacy, at the stake. The next sufferer was one of more than ordinary interest, and we will here give the account as we find it in the Book of Martyrs, before we make any comment upon it.

<< Martyrdom of John Lambert. — In consequence of this determination, John Lambert, a teacher of languages in London, who had drawn up ten arguments against the tenets of Dr. Taylor, on the above subject, as delivered in a sermon

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at St. Peter'6 cburch, and presented tbem to the doctor, was brought before the archbishop^ a court, to defend his writings ; and, having appealed to the king, the royal theologian, who was proud of every occasion of displaying his talents and learning, resolved to hear him in person. He therefore issued a commission, ordering all his nobility and bishops to repair to London, to assist him against heretics. A day was appointed for the disputation, when a great numbca: of per- sons of all ranks assembled to witness the proceedings, and Lambert was brought from his prison by a guard, and placed directly opposite to the king. Henry, being seated on his throne, and surrounded by the peers, bishops, and judges, regarded the prisoner with a stern countenance, and then commanded Day, bishop of Chichester, to state the occasion of the present assembly. The bishop made a long oration, stating that, although the king had abolished the papal au- thority in England, it was not to be supposed that he would allow heretics with impunity to disturb and trouble the church of which he was the head. He had therefore determined to punish all schismatics ; and being willing to have the advice of his bishops and counsellors on so great an occasion, had assembled to hear the present case.

'* The oration being concluded, the king ordered Lambert to declare his opinion as to the sacrament of the Lord's supper, which he did, by denyiug it to be the body of Christ The king then commanded Cranmer to refute his assertion, which the latter attempted; but was interrupted by Gardiner, who vehemently interposed, and, being unable to brmg argu- ment to his aid, sought, by abuse and virulence, to overpower his antagonist, who was not allowed to answer the taunts and insults of the bishop. Tonstal and Stoksley followed in the same course, and Lambert, beginnmg to answer them, was silenced by the king. The other bishops then each made a speech in confutation of one of Lamb^'s argu- ments, till the whole ten were answered, or rather, railed against ; for he was not permitted to defend them, however misrepresented.

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'^ At last^ when the day wets passed, and torches began to he lighted, the king, desiring to break up this pretended dis- putation, said to Lambert, * What sajest thou now, after all these great labours which thou hast taken upon thee, and all the reasons of these learned men ? Art thou not jet satis- fied? Wilt thou live or die? What sayest thou? Thou hast yet free choice/ Lambert answered, * I yield and sub- mit myself wholly unto the will of your majesty/ ' Then/ said the king, ' commit thyself unto the hands of God, and not unto mine/ Lambert replied, ' I commend my soul unto the hands of God, but my body I wholly yield and subnlit unto your clemency/ To which the king answered, ' If you do commit yourself unto my judgment, you must die, for I will not be a patron unto heretics ;' and turning to Crom- well, he said, ' Bead the sentence of condemnation against him ;* which he accordingly did.

*' Upon the day appointed for this holy martyr to suffer, he was brought out of the prison, at eight o'clock in the morning, to the house of Cromwell, and carried into his inner chamber, where, it is said, Cromwell desired his forgiveness for what he had done. Lambert being at last admonished that the hour of his death was at hand, and. being brought out of the chamber into the hall, saluted the gentlemen pre- sent, and sat down to breakfast with them, shewing neither sadness nor fear. When breakfast was ended, he was car- ried straight to the place of execution at Smithfield.

'< ^he manner of his death was dreadful ; hr,^ after his legs were consumed and burned up to the stumps, and but a small fire was left under him,^two of the inhuman monsters who stood on each side of him, pierced him with their hal- berts, and lifted him up as far as the chain would reach ; while he, raising his half-consumed hands, cried out unto the people in these words: *None but Christ, none but Christ ;' and so, being let down again from their halberts, fell into the fire and there ended his life.

•* The Popish party greatly triumphed at this event, and endeavoured to improve it. They persuaded liie king of the

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good effects it would have en his people, wha would, in this, see his zeal for the faith ; and they forgot not to magnify all that he had said, as if it had heen utt^ed hy an oracle, whioh proved him to he hoth ^ Defender of the Faith, and Supreme Head of the Church/ All this wrought so much on the king, that he resolved to call a parliament, for the oontradictoiy purposes of suppressing the still remaining monasteries^ and extirpating the ' new opinions.' "

We have given this long account of the death of Lamhert, that the reader may he ahle to judge for himself, of the manner in which the rest of these pretended martyrdoms are detailed. We have no clue to learn from whence the account was obtained, and common sense dictates that the tale is too highly coloured to hetrtie. However, there is one thing to be remembered, which is, that though great pains are taken to impress the reader that this execution of Lamhert was the exclusive work of the Popish party, the chief actors in the drama were the prime movers of the Beformation, Cromwell and Cranmer, and the time of performance after the king and his advisers had resolved to proceed steadily in the great work of the Beformation, by translating the Bible into English, and granting permission for ev^ person to read it. This fact must always be borne in mind. It is admitted that Lambert, in the first instance, was brought before *^ the archbishop* 8 court, to defend his writings," and this arch- bishop was no other person than Tom Cranmer, a Lutheran in his heart, and who held the very opinions which Lambert himself held. Before this man's court was the unfortunate victim brought, and from the judgment of this court, he appealed to the king himself. Of the proceedings before Henry we have a Icmg and minute relation, indeed it is too minute to be correct ; there is oije circumstance, however, that must not be overlooked. Cranmer is ordered by the king to refute Lambert, which the base hypocrite, we are told, attempted to do, but, it should seem, failed in the at- tempt, as, it is said, he was interrupted by Gardiner, who took up the cudgels with vehemence and abuse. Tins attempt,,

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on the part of Burnet, to screen the abject and slavish com- pliance of his hero, Cranmer, at the expense of another prelate, who, though culpable in acknowledging the supremacy of Henry, was stiH attached to the ancient faith, is only to be equalled by the infamy of Cranmer himself. What are we to think of the man who, holding such a high station as the primacy of England in spiritual affairs, woiJd submit to be interrupted by one of his suffragans while in the per- formance of a duty imposed upon him by the king ? Could he have the feelings of an upright mind ? Must he not have been a most debased slave, or the most consummate hypocrite that ever breathed ? But, as we shall see, and have seen, the whole life of Cranmer, during the reign of Henry, was one continned act of dissimulation, in the practice and profession of religious rites and doctrines which he inwardly renounced and disbelieved. The hired cut-throat, the mid- night assassin, the wretch who perjures himself for his daily bread, is a moral character compared with this hoary villain and sanctified murderer, who filled the primate's chair of England, under Henry, the first pope of the reformed church, and his successor Edward, the boy-head of the same church, though altered in faith and discipline. But, to return to Lambert ; he was not, Burnet says, allowed to answer the taunts and insults of Gardiner, but was even compelled to listen to further outrages on his own feelings from the other bishops, who had each a separate error to confute, and when Lambert made an effort to reply to them he was stopped by the king. Will any unprejudiced mind give credit to this story ? Will it be believed that ten bishops were selected to convict one unhappy heretic of the same number of erroneous opinions he had imbibed, and this before the new pope to whom poor Lambert had appealed ? The thing is incredible. To believe such a preposterous tale would betray a mind warped with the most bigoted prejudice, or devoid of the slightest pretensions to common sense.

The bishops having spent their breath in railing at the poor prisoner^ and torches being about to be lighted, (had

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tbej no candles at that day?) Henry began to be a little weary, and wishing to break up the disputation, which, by the by, was all on one side, put some questions to Lambert, whose answers not being satbfactory, he ordered Cromwell to read the sentence of death against him, which was accordr ipgly done. So then, we have one of Fox's blessed martyrs passing sentence of death upon another of. these soldiers of the Beformation. Pretty work this, it must be admitted. Well, the martyr Lambert is brought out of prison on the morning of his execution, and taken to the chamber of afterwards-martyr Cromwell, in order that the latter might ask of the former for|iveness for what he had done! What! is it probable? Is it at all likely that the criminal should be paraded to the chamber of his judge on his way to execution, and that this judge, who was a principal .performer in the work of desolation then going forward, and subsequently fell a victim to his crimes, should ask pardon for what he had done ? But not only was he permitted to pay this visit to Cromwell, he was also allowed to salute the gentlemen present in the hall, and then to sit down to BREAKFAST WITH THEM, shewing neither sadness nor fear ! Well said, Gilbert Burnet ! We defy Baron Munchausen to beat this specimen of the devil's art One word more on poor Lambert. Could we believe the description of his death, we should blush for human nature ; at least, we meant to say, we should blush for the honour of our country, because w^ are sorry to say, the cruelties practised by the reformers have equalled the sufferings detailed of Lambert, if nature were capable of sustaining what he is here stated to have under- gone. But we do not believe it possible ; the description is intended to excite a feeling of horror and abhorrence of the supposed cruelty of Popish executioners, but the tale is evidently overcharged, and palpably untrue. For example ; it is said that after his legs were consumed, they were burned up to ^ stumps; and when the fire was nearly consumed under him, two monsters lifted him up with their halberts as far as the chain would allow them, and letting him fall into

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the almost expiring embers, the fire was noi put out by the feUl, but his life was ended. But if the chain restricted the / itet of rainngy would it not also prerent his falling — and would not the flames that ccmsumed the poor rictim^s legs to ashes^ stifle his breath, and rislease him from his UMrments? What prerented him from falling into the flames, wbile at their utmost height, if the chain permitted lum to fall into them when nearly eztingoished ? Oh t it is a bungling taler, calculated to impose on the unthinking and besotted fanaitie; but cannot have any weight witli the sensiMe and reflecting part of the community.

Sa much for the manner of Lambert's execution; with regard to the insinuation that his death was considered as a triunvph by the Popish party, iliis is a trick of Burnet to cover the i^ame of his heroes, who basely truckled to Harry's indinations, and flattered him in all his excessive vanities. The paragraph contradicts itself. It is said the Popish party did not forget to magnify what the king had said, and repre- sented his words as an oracle, proving him to be both '' Defender of the Faith and Supreme Head of the Church." Now, unluckily for Burnet's veracity, it so happened, thi^ the Popish party not only denied this supremacy by word of mouth, but they exhibited a degree of fortitude which the reforming party did not possess ; laying down their lives in support of their doctrines, and evincing by then* courage and demeanour the purity of their lives and stability of their faith. Had the Popish party admitted the supremacy of the king in ecclesiastical niatters, they would have renounced their faith, and consequent!^ have ceased to have been of ihat party. The fact, however, is as we have stated it, the te- formert were the flatterers. This is placed beyond a doubt by a letter which Cromwell wrote to Wyatt, the ambassador in Germany. In this epistle, the vicar general says : '^ The king's majesty presided at the disputation, process, and judgment of a miserable heretic sAcramentary, who was burnt the 20th of November. It was wonderfbl 'to see how princely, with how excellent gravity and inestimable majesty.

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Ilis highness exercised ikere the very ofSce of supreme head « of the church of England: how benignly his grace essayed to convert the miserable man: how strong and manifest reasons his highness alleged against him. I wish the princes and potentates of Christendom to have had a meet'j^ace to have seen it.'' Collier, iii. 152. After this testimony who will credit Fox or Burnet? Dr. Lingard notices the long stories told by Godwin and Fox of this trial, which he con- siders unworthy of credit. The account states that Henry ** regarded the prisoner with a stem countenance ; " but this is contradicted by Cromweirs letter, and as Cromwell was afterwards one of Fox's blessed martyrs, surely he will not be charged with falsehood by the enemies of Popery. Lambert is also represented as *' shewing neither sadness nor fear," when lead out for death ; but, according to Hall, who was present at his trial, he had so little courage and as little ability, that he exhibited signs of great terror on that occa- sion, and it is not too much to presume that he was not more firm on one of greater nM>ment

THE ACT OF THE SIX ARTICLES.

We come now to another important trimsaetion in this work of (as it is called) Eeformation. The Book of Martyrs says: "All this," that is, the flattery of the Popish party, (which we have proved belongs to the reformers), and the condemnation of Lambert ; " all this wrought so much on the king, that he resolved to call a parliament for the contradictory purposes of suppressing the still remaining monasteries, and extirpating the new opinions." Oh, oh ! HEW OPINIONS ! Then the blessed work of Reformation was not grounded on unchangeable principles, but upon new OPINIONS ; and these opinions were so often renewed and have been so much multiplied, thatt it is really difficult now-a- days to know what men's opinions are with regard to religion. The modem editors say the parliament was called for the " contradictory " purposes of suppression and extirpation : on looking into Burnet's Abridgment, we find that the words o3

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•* coutradictoiy " and '* extirpation '* have been introduced, by the way, we suppose, of improyement. Burnet writes, . that the king *' resolved to call a parliament, both for the suppression of the monasteries and the new opinions.'' By this mode of expression it would seem that the bishop of Sarum did not consider the two purposes for which the parliament was called " contradictory," though the modem editors represent them as such. But no matter ; it is little to our purpose whether they were contradictory or not, our object is to shew the result and the conduct of the actors in the proceedings. To do this clearly we must borrow a little from Burnet, as we perceive the modem editors have culled from this fabulous historian, and suppressed at their pleasure facts which will throw much light on the subject, but which they did not wish should be elicited.

Burnet says : " Upon Fox's death, Bonner was promoted to Hereford ; and Stoksley dying not long after^he was translated to London. Cromwell thought that he had raised a man that would be a faithful second to Cranmer in his designs of Eeformation, who indeed needed help, not only to balance the opposition made to him by other bishops, but to lessen the prejudices he suffered by the weakness and indiscretion of his own party, who were generally rather clogs than helps to him. Great complaints were brought to the court of the rashness of the new preachers, who were flying at many things not yet abolished. Upon this, letters wei-e writ to the bishops, to take care that as the people should be rightly instructed, so they should not be offended with too many novelties. Thus was Cranmer'^B interest so low, that he had none to depend on but Cromwell. There was not a queen now in the king's bosom to support them; and therefore Cromwell set himself to contrive how the king should be engaged in such an alliance with the princes of Germany, as might prevail with him, both in affection and interest, ta carry on what he had thus begun."

From this account we may clearly perceive that the work 80 improperiy termed a B^formation waa nothing more nor

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less than the straggles of faction and interest, in which the people were the greatest sufferers, and the actors the most abandoned villains. Cromwell it appears was at this time greater in influence at court than Tom Cranmer, who, we are told, needed help in his designs. Again, the preachers of the new opinions are charged with rashness, and were rather clogs than helps in the godly work. There was not a queen in the king's bosom to support the brace of diabolical villains, Cromwell and Cranmer, and therefore it was necessary to look out for one to further their ends. After the death of poor Jane Seymour, who was ripped open, the king could not find a woman of sense and virtue willing to share his bed, 80 Cromwell looked out for one among the Protestants in Germany, and pitched upon Anne of Cleves. He went to work, and got the lady's consent, and afterwards obtained Harry's, but it proved in the event his own rain. While Cromwell and Cranmer were concerting these things between them, their interest with the king was declining, and the duke of Norfolk, an old opponent of the archbishop, was rising again in favour. The Catholic sovereigns of Europe, by their negociations with each other, had excited some serious apprehension in the mind of Henry, and he therefore resolved on some project to convince the foreign powers that though he had renounced all subjection to the common father of Christendom, he was still determined to adhere to the ancient doctrine of the church. He therefore summoned a parlimnent to meet, which accordingly assembled at the call of the monarch. Before we proceed with the transactions of this body, we will give the modem editors' account, which we see is an abridgment of Buraet^s Abridgment They say : " The parliament accordingly met on the 28th of April, 1538; and afi;er long debates, passed what was called ' a Bill of Religion,' containing six articles, by which it was declared, that the elements of the sacrament were the real body and blood of Christ ; that communion was necessary only in one kind ; that prieetts ought not to marry ; that vows of chastity ought to be observed ; that private masses were lawful and

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uaefol ; and that auricular confession was oecestory. This act gare great satisfaction to the Popish party, and induced them to consent more readily to the act for suppreaeing the monasteries, which immediately followed ; hy virtue of which their total dissolution soon after took place. The king founded six new hishoprics from a small pottioB of their immense revenues, and lavished the remainder on his profligate courtiers and favourites.''

Here, then, we have another admission that in the founda- tion of six new hishoprics hy the king, hut a small portiim of the immense revenues obtained by the suppression system was appropriated to tliat purpose, and the greater part was lavished on his profligate courtiers and favourites. Now, these courtiers and favourites were the creatures of the prime villains, Cranmer and Cromwell, as well as the panders of the king, and we gather therefrom the precious materials used to build the new church of England. It is hinted that the six articles gave great satisfaction to the Popish party, and induced them to consent more readily to the work of desolation and robbery ; now we believe the Popbh party had very litUe hand in the matter, for though many actors in the drama might profess themselves Catholics, the ohuieh itself, Ve believe, did not acknowledge thenu We admire the easy manner in which this vwy interesting subjeet is glossed over by the modem editors ; Burnet himself is more explicit, but he takes special care to screen the conduct of Cranmer in this affair. Let us, then, see how the case stands, and then the reader may decide for himself. We have befcnre noticed that the renunciation of the pope's supremacy, which being of divine right, is the link of uaity in the Catholic church, let in a flood of opinions which in- creased daily, and induced Heniy, as head oi the diurdi, to devise some method to preserve uniformity. Acoordingfy, on the meeting of this parliament, which took place oa the 28th of April, 1539, a committee of spiriiual kwds was ap- pointed to examine into this diversity of religion opinioiks. This committee wa» composed of the archbiabopft of Canter-

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bury and York, the bish<^ of Durham, Carlisle, Batb, Ban^r, Salisbury^ and Ely, and Cromwell the lay yieav- general. On every question the members divided £ve agabst four. The prelates of York, Durham, Carlisle^ Bath» and Bangor, being opposed to Cromwell, Cranmer, and the bishops of Salisbury and Ely. Eleven days were consumed in these divisicms, and the he»d of the new church grew im- patient. The duke of Norfolk, who had been commissioned by the king to conduct the affairs of the crown in the house of peers, observing the new pope's impatience, remarked that

. there was nothing to be expected from the labours of the ^mmittee, and proposed that six questions conc^ning cer- tain points of doctrine should be submitted to the house,^ w^ch was accordingly done* The questions selected were,^ the real presence, communion under one kind, private masses,, the celibacy of the priesthood, auricular confession, and vow» of chastity. The bishops only to<^ a part in the debate on the first day, and on the second day the king-pope ^ame down to the house, and took a share in the discussion* Here was a trial for the two arch deformers ; they had hitherto opposed with vehemence their prelatic brethren, but to resist Ihe kikig, to place themselves in o|^K>sition to the new head of the church, in whom was centred the good things of this world, and who could send them at almost ati hour'» notice to know their fate in the next ; to resist such a mighty per- sonage as this was another matter *; it required more courage than either of them possessed, and with meanness the most base 8nd truckling, did CromweU and bight Tom Cranmer,. Burnetts famous hero of the Keformation, gulp down in the pres^oee of the king^ all they had advanced before their fellow eommittee-m^, and, excepting the bishop of Salisbury, acknowledged liiemselves vfmquished by the superior reas«n-

, ing and leamiog^ of his. pope^ip, a» they said, but, as we believe, and as the reader will bdieve witin us, by the terror ei displeasing the inexorable tyrant. Though Crattmer and Crcfflnwell eould send poor Lambe]^ to the stake, they bad no inclination to follow him in defence of their Mmona^ Fox

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and Bnmet both assert that Cranmer persisted in his oppo- sition, but these niendaeious writers are contradicted bj the journals of the house, and bj the assertion of one of the lords who were present. — {See Ltn^ard, note, roL, iv. p» 287, 4to. edit.)

Henry, ha^ng thus far succeeded, was not a little proud of his victory, and sent a message to the lords, congratulating them on their unanimity, and recommending the introduction 'of a bill to enf(H:ce conformity by pains and penalties. To comply with the royal recommendation, two separate com- mittees were appointed to prepare a bill, and it is very sin- gular that three of the prdates who were opposed to the measure at first, but became conyerts through royal influence, namely, the prelates of Canterbury (Tom Cranmer), Ely, and St. David's, were selected to form one committee, and the bishops of York, Durham, and Winchester, constituted the other. The two bills were submitted to the king by the lords, who chose that drawn up by the latter. The lord Chancellor then introduced H in the usual form to the house, through which it was passed, as also the commons, in a few days, and received the royal assent. As this is one one of the most important acts of Henry'a reign, we will here transcribe it at length for the satisfaction of the reader.

" The king's royal majesty, most prudently considering, that, by occasion of various opinions and judgments concern- ing some articles in rdigion, great discord and variance hath arisen, as well amongst the clergy of this realm, as amongst a great number of the vulgar people; and being in a fall hope and trust that a fuU and perfect resolution of the said articles would make a perfect concord and unity generally amongst all his loving and obedient subjects; of his most excellent goodness not only commanded that the said articles should deliberately and advisedly, by his archbishops, bishops, and other learned men of his clergy, be debated, argued, and reasoned, and their opinions therein to be understood, declared, and known ; but also most graciously vouchsafed, in his own princely person, to come unto his high ooovt of

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parliament and council, and there, like a wise prince of most high prudence, and no less learning, opened and declared many things, of the most high learning and great knowledge, touching the said articles, matters, and questions, for an unity to be had in the same. Whereupon, after a great and long, deliberate and advised disputation and consultation had, and made concerning the said articles, as well by the consent of the king's highness as by the assent of the lords spiritual and temporal, and other Ibamed men of the clergy, in their convocations, and by the consent of the commons in parliament assembled, it was, and is, finally resolved, accorded, and agreed, in manner and form following ; that is to say,

'* 1. That in the most blessed sacrament of the altar,. by the strength and efficacy of Christ's mighty word, (it being spoken by the priest), is present really, under the forms of bread and wine, the natural body and blood of our Saviour Jesus Christ, conceived of the Virgin Mary ; and that, after the consecration, there remains no substance of the bread or wine, nor any other substance but the substance of Christ, God and man.

" 2. That the communion in botb kinds is not necessary (to salvation) by the law of God, to all persons ; and, that it is to be believed, and not doubted, but that in the ffesh, under the form of bread, is the very blood, and with the blood, under the form of wine, £s the very flesh, as well apart, as if they were both together.

** 3. That priests, after the order of priesthood received, may not marry, by the law of God.

" 4. That vows of chastity, widowhood, &c., are to be kept.

" 5. That it is meet and necessary that private masses be continued in the king's Ehglish church and congregation ; as whereby good Christian people, ordering themselves ac- cordingly, do receive both godly and goodly consolations and benefits, and it is agreeable also to God's law.

<< 6. That auricular confession is expedient, and necessary to be retained, and continued;^ used, and frequented in thoa eharcb of God*

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** For the whidi most godly stadj, pain, and travel of lib majesty, and determination and resolution of the premises, his humble and obedient subjects, the lords spiritual and temporal, and commons, in this present parliament assembled^ not only render and give unto his highpess their most high and hearty thanks, and think themselres most bound to pray for the long continuance of his grace's most royal estate and dignity ; but being also desirous that his most godly enter* prize may be well accomplished and brought to a full end and perfection, and so established that the same might be to the honour of God, and after to the common quiet, unity, and concord, to be had in the whole body of this realm for ever, do most humbly beseech his royal majesty, that the resdution and determination, above written, of the said articles may be established, and perpetually perfected, by the aathority o( this present parliament.

^' It is therefore ordioned and enacted by the king our sovereign lord, and by the l<»:ds spiritual and temporal, and by the commons in this present parliament assembled, and by the authority of the same, that if any perscm oc persons, within this realm oi England, or in any other of the king's dominions, do, by word, writing, printing, cyphering, or any otherwise, publish, teach, preach, say, affirm, declare^ dis- pute, argue, or hold any opinion :

^< First, That in the blessed sacrament of the altar, under

the form of bread and wine such persons are to

suffer pains of death, as in cases of felony, without any benefit of the clergy, or privilege of church, or sanctuary ; and shall forfeit all their lands and goods, as in cases of felony."

The passing of this act not only struck poor archbbhop Tom with terror, but all the rest of the tribe were in great alarm. So little were they inclined to become martyrs for their " NEW opinions," and so desirous were they of keep- ing a whde skin, that it was deemed by them most prudent to submit to the king's will, and, to insure their safety, re^ main silent. Latiiner and Shaxton, bishops of Worcester

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BOOK OF MARTYRS. 305

and Salisbiiry, resigned their sees, and Cranmer fonnd it necessary to be oantions in his conduct for his own safety. It will be borne in mind^ that Tom, before his promotion to the archiepiscopal dignity, had taken a niece of Osiander, the reformer, to be his wife, and that he nsed to transport her from place to place, in a box, afiter his promotion to the primacy. By this woman he had several children^ and though the matter was not made public, yet the secret was sufficiently known to induce many priests to follow Tom's example. The making it felony to cohabit with the sex was an awkward dilemma to the^e lewd wretches, who already began to feel the rope round their necks, and to avoid its being drawn tight, many of them scampered out of the way, said some oHiers put aside their wives. Tom Cranmer had tried, previous to the passing of this tremendous law, to soften Harry's inflexible aversion to a married clergy, but the king was not to be moved ; so the archbishop, on the passing of this act, not willing to lose his dignity, packed off his wife and children to Germany, and then following up his consummate baseness, wrote a crawling apology to Henry, for his presumption in daring to differ from the monarch's will on this point.

Burnet tells us, " The poor reformers were now exposed to the rage of their enemies, and had no comfort from any part of it, but one, that they were not delivered up to the cruelty of the tcclesiastical courts, or the trials ex officio y but were to be tried by juries ; yet the benefit of abjuration was a severity without precedent, and was a forcing martyr- dom on them, since they were not to be the better for their apostacy. It was some satisfaction to the married clergy, [he adds], that the incontinent priests were to be so severely punished ; which Cromwell put in, and the clergy knew not how they could decently oppose it" Surely this act must have been devised by the archfiend, that it put ^e godfy reformers into such a fright. But why did they not follow the example of the two chiefs, Cromwell and Crimmer, but especially the latter, who had been so long a Lutheran in his

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heart. Toniy when he saw no other resouree, mik his accu8« tomed baseness, yielded to circumstances and subscribed to the doctrine of the six articles, though he disbelioTed them* But what did that signify to him ; it was the king's will, and therefore it was right he should obey the supreme head of the church, though he condemned inwardly the doctrine which the new lay-pope promulgated. To preserve his life and his place, this hero of the BeformaticMi, so called, could subscribe outwardly to what he inwardly rejected, thus setting the firet example of mental reservation, which succeeding reformers fastened upon Catholics, though their church moat strongly condemns such conduct* Though Oranmer denied infallibility to the pope, who could do him no harm, yet he was ready to allow Harry infallibility, because he had power over his life, and that Tom did not wish to part with by any premature means.

Connected with this measure was an act of this parliament which few of the people of this country are acquainted with, but which every one of them should know, as it materially affects the principle of civil and religious liberty, and abso- lutely subverted the constitution. It was this : in the act which invested all the real and moveable property of the re- ligious houses in the hands of the king, a clause was intro- duced which laid prostrate at the foot of the throne the liberties of the whole nation. It declared that the king's proclamations ought to have the effect of acts of parliament, and adjudged all transgressors of such proclamations to fine and imprisonment, and those who might endeavour to evade the punishment, by quitting the realm, incurred the guilt of high treason. Only think of thb, reader. The ipse dixit of a tyrant was made equal to the decrees of two deliberate assemblies, and in cases, too, involving the life and property of the people. This scheme to obtain absolute power was the offspring of Cromwell, who was supported in it by that slave of despotism, Tom Oranmer. The act was not carried through the two houses without eonsiderable <^poution, so repugnant was its enactments to everything lUie British

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justice and liberty. But the nation was now distracted hy two factions, and the crafty Cromwell succeeded in carrying this odious measure, by the Machiayelian policy, divide and conquer. It is a fruitful theme with Fox and Burnet, and other corrupt historians, to represent Gardiner, bishop of Winchester, as a merciless and tyrannical character ; yet it is dear, even by the testimony of Fox himself, that Gardiner was averse to this unconstitutional measure, and opposed it even to Harry's face. The wretch Cromwell had frequently inculcated this despotic doctrine before Henry, as we gather from a letter written by Gardiner. " The lord Cromwell,** says he, ** had once put in the king's head to take upon him to have his will and pleasure regarded for a law ; and there- upon I was called for at Hampton Court. And as he was very stout, * Come on/ my lord of Winchester, quoth he, * an- swer the king here, but speak plainly and directly, and shrink not, man. Is not that,' quoth he, ^ that pleaseth the king, a law ? Have ye not that in the civU laws, qiwd principi placuit, (fee. V I stood still, and wondered in my mind to what conclusion this would tend. The king saw me musing, and with gentle earnestness said, ' Answer him whether it be so or no.' I would not answer the lord Cromwell, but de- livered my speech to the king, and told him, that ' I had read of kings that had their will always received for law ; but that the form of his reign, to make the law his will, was more sure and quiet ; and by this form of government yet be established,' quoth I, * it is agreeable with the nature of your people. If you begin a new manner of policy, hpw it frame, no man can tell' The king turned his back ,and left the matter."— Foar, ii, 65,

This attempt of Cromwell to establish an absolute despotism in this once free country, is only to be equalled by the con- duct of Cranmer, the prime reformer, the hero of the Refor- mation, and the idol of John Fox and Gilbert Burnet, who endeavoured to promulgate the idea of a divine right in kings to govern both in church and state, which notion he committed to paper, and Burnet has preserved in his records. The

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doctnDe is uuexampled, slayish, and disgraceful, as the reader will see by Hie following citation : — ^He (Cranmer) teaches, ^* that all Christian princes hare committed unto them imme- diately OF God the whole care of all their subjects, as well concerning the administration of God's word, for the cure of souls, as concerning the ministration of political and civil governi^ice ; and, in both these ministrations, thej musthaye sundry ministers under them to supply that which is appointed to their several offices : as, for example, the lord chancellor, lord treasurer, lord great master, and the sheriffs for civil ministers ; and the bishops, parsons, vicars, and such other priests as be appointed by his highness in the ministra- tion of the word : as, for example, the bishop of Oaaterburyy the bishop of Duresme, the bishop of Winchester, the parson of Winwick, &o. All the said officers and ministers, as well of that sort as the other, must be appointed, asugned, and elected, and in every place, by the laws and orders of kings and princes, with diverse sdemnities, which be not of necessity, but only for good order and seemly fashion ; ibr if such offices and ministrations were committed without sudi solemnity, they were, nevertheless, truly committed : and there is no more promise of God, that grace is given in the committing of the ecclesiastical office, than it is in the com^ mitting of the civil office." It is the fashion with Protestants to boast of the liberty produced by what they call the Reforma- tion ; but did the world ever before witness such doctrine of passive obedience and divine right as the ardi-reformer Cranmer here taught? Did England ever witness a parlia- ment in Catholic times, that by its own act abrogated its own power, contrary to the crown ? Oh I no : Catholics, imbibing the principles of true liberty from the doctrines and canons of their church, knew not only haw to establish it, but likewise 7u>w to preserve it ; while Protestants, dei^ising the unerring rules of Divine Wisdom, and trusting to the vain caprices of the human mind, have thrown away the substance of that celestial blessings without which life is valueless, to grasp at the shadow.

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PtJBTHEB INSTANCES OF THE SLAVISHNRSS OF CBOMWELL AND CRANMBB.

The submission of Cromwell and Cranmer to the act of the six articles, though the latter was, according to Burnet, a Lutheran in his heart, was followed by another proceeding still more disgraceful and infamous on the part of the latter. We have seen the fate of Anne Bolejn and her relatives, who were accounted, by this far-famed historian, the prop and pillar of the reforming party. Jane Seymour, who supplied her place, fell by the doctor's knife, being ripped open in child-bed, to gratify the king's wish for a son, who was after- wards the boy-pope, Edward VI. Her fete, combined with that of her predecessor, alarmed the sex, so that Harry could find no one willing to share his bed, and it was while the king remained a widower, that the six articles of religion were enacted and the reformers put into such a fright. Cromwell was not insensible of the ticklish situation in which he stood, now that there were no more prizes to distribute from the spoils of the church, and, under these circumstances, he turned his eyes towards Germany, and sought among the Lullieran courts a mistress for his capricious master. At length he pitched upon Anne of Cleves, whom Cromwell found willing to engage with Harry, and he succeeded in gaining the king's consent to the marriage. Cromwell and Cranmer both thought to forward the Beformation scheme by this match, but, by a singular instance of the Divine hand, it proved to be the downftdl of the monastery destroyer. The marriage contract had scarcely been concluded, than Harry conceived an utter aversion to his new wife, and as suddenly became enamoured with Catherine Howard. In consequence of this change in his desires, he took a dislike to Cromwell, considering this minister to be the cause of the hated match', and his being yoked for life, as he then thought, to a partner he detested. Harry resolved therefore to be revenged on Cromwell, who was soon after arrested and, as we have before shewn^ consigned to the executioner's hands. Previous, how-

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ever, to his death, his partner m the work of BeformatiOD, Tom Oranmer, was caUed npon to perform a work, whioh even his panegyrist, Burnet, blushed at. Harry having disgraced his former favourite, CromweU, was resolved to be separated from his new wife, and accordingly he sent for Cranmer, who was ordered to summon the convocation, and prepare the business agreeably to the king s wishes. As Tom had readily per- formed such a job for his master before, it was not to be expected that he would be backward in complying with the second request, so he set to work, and though there was not a shadow of a pretext to disannul the marriage, it being legally and lawfully contracted, the king's whim must be gratified, and after only two days' sham ceremony of reoeiving depositions and examining witnesses, the sentence of divorce between Henry and Anne of Cleves was pronounced on the 9th of July, 1540, by the oompliable Tom Cranmer, in his capacity of primate of England. Burnet, as we have before observed, was ashamed of this act, and acknowledges that this was the greatest piece of compliance the king had from Cran- mer and the clergy, for they all knew that there was nothing on which they could ground a sentence of divorce. Cranmer presided over the convocation, gave sentence, and afterwards carried the result to parliament, in which body Hany found as ready slaves to his will as he found among the clergy, so great a change was made in the dispositions of the nobility and gentry with the change of religion. An act was passed confirming the decision of the synods and every person who should presume to believe or judge the marriage lawful was subjected to the penalties of treason. Cromwell, the reader will observe, was at this time in disgrace and under arrest ; and this situation of the once overbearing and haughty favourite is made an excuse by Burnet for the archbishop's obsequious conduct. This bishop historian represented his ^ro, Tom Cranmer, as a second Athanasius for his courage, and a second Cyril for his virtue ; yet, in this case, he is obliged to admit that Tom's courage failed ^lim, and how £ur his virtue came off vfithout a stain we will leave the reader to

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conclude. Burnet says, that " overcome with fear (for he knew it was contrived to send him quiclUj after Cromwell) he (Cranmer) consented with the rest." Yes, yes ; this pillar and underprop of the Reformation was too fond of life to lose it in defence of virtue and justice. The modem editors of the Book of Martyrs, speaking of this divorce, say, " The con- vocation unanimously dissolved the marriage, and gave him (Henry) liberty to marry again ; indeed it is probable, that if he had desired to have two or more wives at once, the meai^ure would have been sanctioned, so hose and servile were the courtiers and priests by whom this monstrous tyrant was sur- rounded." Say you so, most worthy instigators of hatred and ^horrence to the professors of Popery ! But who were these hcLse and servile courtiers and priests ? Was not GRAKMEft at the Tiead of the latter ? Base and servile was Tom to the monstrous tyrant, who is said to have rescued this country from the tyranny of the pope. Anne, you know, most learned instigators of uncharitableness, was brought over from G^e^- many by the reforming party ^ to be their prop in the bosom of the king ; and yet this very party, base and servile to the king's wishes, no sooner found the king disliked her, than she was abandoned by them, without any ceremony. The clergy were base and servile, to be sure, but they were not Catholics, strictly speaking, for they had forsaken and forsworn the head of the Catholic church, though some of them still adhered to her doctrines. But there were reforming clergy in the con- vocation, and as that body was unanimous in its consent, the ** godly crew *' were as base and servile as those represented to form the Popish party. This fact cannot be got over, and we agree with tiie editors, that Cranmer and his reforming brethren would have made as little scruple in granting EEarry as many wives as the Koran allows to Mussulmen, had he required it, for we have a proof of the readiness of the reformers to gratify the beastly appetites of monarchs, in the license granted by Luther, Melancthon, Bucer, and other reforming divines, to the Landgrave of Hesse to have two wives at once.

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So much lor Cranmer and Anne of Cleves, who was ex» pected to be as useful in the work of Eefonnation as her namesake, but was abandoned without reserve when it was discovered she could not advance the cause. Her fate, how- ever, was different from ih&t of her predecessor, as she had the sense to submit without a murmur to the king's will, and retired to Bichmond with a pension. The next wife selected by Henry was a Protestant lady too, namely, Catharine Howard, neice to the duke of Norfolk. She gained an ascendancy in the king's affections, which she maintained about a year, but as she was related to his grace of Norfolk, who had always been a stout opposer of Cranmer and Crcmi- well, and their party, a plot was formed which proved her downfall, and brought her to an untimely end. The modem editors say, on the testimony of Burnet, that the king was so delighted with the charms of Oatiiarine Howard, his ^th wife, that he " even gave public thanks to God for the ex- cellent choice he had made." The royal pope, however^ was somewhat hasty in his conclusions, for the same historian states, that the very day after his public prayers, Cranmer appeared before his lay holiness, with an account of the infidelity of his most excellent wife. Harry was thunder- struck ; he could not believe the tale, but Cranmer wrought on the unfortunate lady to make confession of her guilt, on which she admitted having been guilty of lewdness before her marriage, but denied that she had defiled the nuptial bed. The modern editors say, " she was convicted on the clearest evidence,'' which does not appear to have been the case, at least so far as regarded her marriage. However, guilty or not, she was condemned and executed on the 14th of February, 1541, along with the lady Hochford, who was in- strumental in bringing Anne Boleyn to the block. Burnet and the modem editors make a mystery of this circumstance^ and consider it a Divine judgment on her baseness and fedse- hood to that injured queen ; we have no affection for this lady, as we consider them aH tarred with the same stick, but we must deny that Anne Boleyn was " an injured queen^"

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any more than Catharine Howard. Mrs. Anne was the con- cubine of Henry during the lifetime of his lawful wife, Catharine of Arragon, and was married to him after his mock divorce from that noble-minded princess. Kate Howard was a lewd hnssy previous to her marriage with the king, which marriage, observe, was during the life of his lawful wife, Anne of Cleves.

Beside the lady Eochford, Dereham and Calpepper were put to death under suspicion of improper intimacy with Catharine, and the lord Howard, her father, his wite, four men, and five women, were condemned in the penalties of misprision of treason, because they had not revealed the pre- vious incontineney of the queen. On the execution of this fifth wife of Henry, the first pope of England, Dr. Lingard has the following remarks : — " To attaint without trial was now become customary ; but to prose^cute and punish for that which had not been made a criminal offence by any law, was hitherto unprecedented. To give, therefore, some counten- ance to these severities, it was enacted in the very bill of attainder, that every woman about to be married to the king or any of his successors, not being a maid, should disclose her disgrace to him under the penalty of treason ; that all other persons knowing the fact and not disclosing it, should be subject to the lesser penalty of misprision of treason ; and that the queen, or wife of the prince who should move another person to commit adultery with her, should suffer as a traitcr." Truly this is pretty work, and well worthy the event which gave rise to these scandalous and unholy doings, inimical alike to freedom of conscience, purity of morals, and personal liberty of the subject.

MORE MATTERS CONCERNING RELIGION.

Hairy, having thus rid himself of his fifth wife, began to turn his attention to the duties imposed upon him as head of the church. The translation of the bible into the vulgar tongue, had generated a race of teachers who propounded the most discordant and absurd doctrines. The scriptures VOL. II. p

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were tak^ to alehouses and taverns ; discussions, heated bj the potent fiimes of strong liquors, were carried on, and generaJlj ended in breaches of the peace. With a view to remedy these evils, a restraint was placed on reading the scriptures, Tindall's bible was condemned as '* cra%, £Edae, and untrue," but that the people might not be without spi- ritual food, his royal highness issued a code of doctrines and ceremonies, published under the title of ^^ A Necessary Doc- trine and Education for any Christened Man ;" it was also distinguished as ** The King's Book," and being approved by both houses of the convocation, was considered the only authorized standard of English orthodoxy. On these labours of mending and devising new articles of faith, Father Par- sons has a very pleasant story in his Three Conversions of England^ written in answer to Fox's Acts and Monuments^ which has afforded us some amusement, and as it is equally applicable to the present times as to those in which the learned author wrote, we will here insert it.

'^ A certain courtier at that day, (some say it was Sir Francis Byran), talking with a lady tha^t was somewhat for- ward in the new gospel, about this book of the king's then lately come forth, she seemed to mislike greatly the title thereof, to wit. Articles devised hy the King's Highness j ^c, saying* that ' it seemed not a fit title to authorize matters in religion, to ascribe them to a mortal king's device.' Where- unto the courtier answered, ' Truly, madam, I will tell you ^ my conceit plidnly : if we must needs have devices in religion, I would rather have them from a king than from a knave, as your devices are ; I mean that knave friar Martin, who, not yet twenty years agone, was deviser of your new religion, and behaved himself so lewdly in answering his majesty with scorn and contempt, as I must needs call him a knav#; though otherwise I do not hate altogether the profession of friars, as your ladyship knoweth. Moreover (said he) it is not unknown neither to your ladyship nor us, that he devised these new tricks of religion, which you now so much esteem and reverence, not for God, or devotion, or to do penance,

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but for ambitioii, and to revenge himself upon the Dominican ii*iars> that had gotten for him the preaching the pope's bulls ; as also to get himself the use of a wench> and that a nun also, which now he holdeih. And soon afiter him again three other married priests, his scholars, to wit, (Ecolam- padius, Carlostadius, and Zuinglius, devised another religion of the Sacramentarians, against their said master. And since these again, we hear every day of fresh upstarts that would rather devise us new doctrines, and there is no end of devising and devisers. And I would rather stick to the de- vising of a king, that have majesty in him, and a council to assist him, (especially such a king as ours is), than to a thousand of these companions put together.'

'' ' It is true (said the lady) when they are devices indeed of men ; but when they bring scriptures with them to prove their sayings, then they are not men's devices, but Grod's eternal truth and word.' * And will you say so, madam ?' quoth he. ' And do you not remember what ado we had the last year about this time, with certain Hollanders here in England, whom our bishops and doctors could not overcome by scriptures, notwithstanding they held most horrible here- sies, which make my hair to stand upright to think of them, against the ipanhood and flesh of Christ our Saviour, and against the virginity of his blessed Mother, and against the baptism of infants, and the like wicked blasphemies. I was myself present at the condemnation of fourteen of them in Paul's church on one day, and heard them dispute and allege . scriptures so £BU3t for their heresies, as I was amazed thereat ; and after I saw some of these knaves burnt in Smithfleld, and they went so merrily to their deith, singing and chant- ing scriptures, as I began to think with myself whether their device was not of some value or no ; until afterwards, think- ing better of the matter, I blessed myself from them, and 80 let them go.'

'' ^ Oh (said the lady) but these were knaves indeed, that devised new doctrines of their own heads ; and were very heretics, not worthy to be believed.' * But how shall I know

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(quotb the courtier) that jour devices have not done the like, seeing these alleged scriptures no less than they ; and did one thing more, which is, that they went to the fire and burned for their doctrine, when they might have lived, which your friar and his scholars before named have not hitherto done. And finally, madam, I say, as at the beginning I ' said, if we must needs follow devising, we courtiers had much' rather follow a king than a friar in such a matter. For how many years, madam, have friars shorn their heads, and no courtier Ifath ever followed them hitherto therein ? But now his majesty having begun this last May (as you know) to poll his head, and commanded others to do the like, you' cannot find any unshorn head in the court among us men, though you women be exempted. And so I conclude that the device of a king is of more credit than the device of a ' friar. * And with this the lady laughed ; and so the con- ference was ended."

MARTYRDOMS OR PERSECUTIONS.

We have now forty-four pages of the modem book devoted to a relation of the martyrdoms and burnings of some of Fox's " godly " heroes, who, though holding notions the mt)st wild, discordant, and ridiculous that can be imagined, are all cks'-ed as soldiers of Christ, though some of them denied his Godhead, and others his existence. To enter into a minute detail of this mass of rodomontade and nonsense would sicken the reader ; we shall therefore confine ourselves to some few particular cases. First on the list is an account of the " Mabttrdom op Dr. Robert Barnes," which is followed by the "Story of ThomCas G-arrett," and of "William Jerome." These effusions of a fanatic brain are ushered in with the following remai^ :-*-" The clergy now, elated by the victory which they had gained by the death of Cromwell, persuaded the king to new severities against the reformers ; and three eminent preachers, Drs. Barnes, Gerard, and Jerome, were picked out for sacrifices on this occasion." ' Here we have the clergy again charged with these acts of

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crudtj, and Tom Cranmer, observe, at the head of this clergy. But to the stories. The first hero, we are informed, .was educated at Louvain, in Brabant, and on coming to England he went to Cambridge, which he found steeped in the darkest ignorance, but, with the assistance of one Pamel, his scholar, he not only promoted knowledge and truth, but he instructed the students in the classical languages, and soon caused learning to flourish in that university. Barnes was certainly a clever man, but not such a prodigy as he is here represented.. The long account given of the proceedings between him and Wolsey is mere fiction ; but if true, he must have been as base a^ villain as Tom Cranmer, for let it jiot be forgotten that he was the- man who was consulted by Taylor, in the case of Laipbert, and disclosed the matter to Cranmer, and, in consequence, Cranmer had the poor Lambert summoned before his archiepiscopal court to answer for his presumption. Barnes was also a dependent of Cromwell, and by his imprudence hastened that minister's fall. Gar- diner of Winchester, as we have before said, was a stickler for the old doctrine, though through weakness ke admitted the supremacy of the king. In a sermon preached by him at St Paul's cross, he censured the extravagance of those preachers who inculcated doctrines opposite to the established •creed. A fortnight after, Barnes, who had imbibed Lutheran principles, boldly defended, in the same pulpit, the doctrines 'Gardiner had reprobated, and cast many scurrilous invectives against the bishop. Harry got a hearing of his conduct, and summoned the doctor before himself and a commission of divines, where the several points of controverted doctrine were discussed, and Barnes was prevailed upon to sign a re- cantation. He read his recantation before the audience, .asked pardon of Gardiner, and immediately proceeded, in a seimon, to maintain the very doctrine he had but a few minutes before renounced. Such ))ase and insulting conduct irritated the king, who committed him to the Tower, with Garrett and Jerome, two fanatics of the same stamp, who had placed themselves in similar circumstances.

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These men were tried for heresy and condemned, and we have a long account of their ezecation ; hut the editors forgot to relate, or have wilfully suppressed the fact, that with these three men were other thi-ee executed for denying the supre- macy of the king, namely, Ahel, Powd, and Featherstone. These six victims were coupled together, Catholic and Pro- testant, on the same hurdle, from the Tower to Smithfield, where the Catholics were hung and quartered as traitors, and the Protestants burned as heretics. Thus it appears the Catholics cannot with justice be blamed for the persecutions in this reign, especially after Henry was acknowledged head of the church, as they suffered in greater proportion than the Protestants. Fox reckons ten Protestants who suffered during the remainder of Henry's reign, and Dodd counts fourteen Catholics in the same period. It must be borne in mind too, that Cranmer, the hero of the thing called the Eeformation, sat in the primate's chair during this work of blood and slaughter. In the account given by Fox of the Protestant martyrs, Barnes, Jerome, and Garrett, they are, of course, represented as the most perfect lighU of the new gospel, and the most successful exposers of the supposed errors of the church of Home. But there is a circumstance related of Barnes, so extravagantly presumptuous, that we must place it upon record. He is represented as making hb profession of faith at the place of execution ; after which, ** a person pre- sent asked him his opinion upon praying to saints. * I believe,' said he, * they are in heaven with God, and that they are worthy of all the honour that scripture wiUeth them to have. But 1 say, throughout scripture we are not commanded to pray to any saints. Therefore I neither can nor will preach to you that saints ought to be prayed unto ; for then should I preach unto you a doctrine of my own head. Notwith- standing, whether they pray for us or no, that I refer to GK)d. And t/ saints do pray forius, then / trust to pray for you within this half-hour, Mr. Sheriff, and for every Christian living in the faith of Christ, and dying in the same as & mnf . Wherefore, if the dead pray for the quick, I will surely pray

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for jou.' " We have no stated authority for this precious narradve ; hut^ taking it for granted that such were the words of Dr. Barnes, it is clear that his opinions were new and con- trary to the received doctrine of the Christian world. All England helieved in the doctrine of praying to the saints^ and that saints prayed for us, without any ify and it was the doc- trine of the Catholic church from the time of the apostles. No nation whatever received the faith of Christ without receiving this dogma at the same time ; and even here the martyr speaks as of an uncertainty, heing made to introduce a convenient if, by the way of evading a direct answer to the question. What reliance then is to be placed on Barnes's creed, when he himself is dfyiMful of its accuracy ? The martyrs of the primitive ages never doubted a single article of their faith, of which this of praying to the saints was one. The fathers who wrote in defence of the Catholic church spoke positively of this doctrine as one of divine revelation, and th^ quote scripture in proof of it. But though the doc- tor-martyr was uncertain as to the veracity of his notions, he seems to have no doubt as to his fate in the other worid ; this was as sure to him as if he had been before his judge and received the promised reward. But enough has been said of these sufferers, for such they were though they were enthu- siasts.

We have now an account of the persecution of one Testwood, but so ridiculous a tale that we shall not notice it. Then follows the persecution of Anthony Pearson, and others equally as absurd, which the reader will admit when he has gone through the following relation given of the proceedings of one of Pearson's companions : — '* Marbeck was five times ex- amined before the council ; the bishop of Winchester ; one of the bishop's gentlemen ; the bishops of Salisbury, Here- ford, and Ely; Dr. Knight ; and the bishop of Winchester's secretary. Throughout these examinations he defended the cause of truth with a spirit and boldness which confounded his accusers, but could not turn them from their cruel and bigoted purposes.

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'^ Alarbeck had began a concordance of the bible in Eng- lish, which was taken, with his other papers, and laid before the council The bishop of Winchester asked him if he understood Latin, and would scarcely believe that he did not ; telling the other lords of the council that it was probable his concordance was a translation from the Latin, and asserting that, ^ if such a book should go forth in English, it would destroy the Latin tongue/ Marbeck was much pressed to disclose ' the secrets of his party,' and promised great rewards and preferment, if he would betray what he had heard of the opinions of Testwood, Pearson, and Haynes, on the mass, &c. He steadily refused all these offers, declaring that he knew nothing against them.

** On his fourth examination, he was told by the bishop of Salisbury that he must answer, on oath, faithfully and truly, to such questions as the commissioners should judge it neces- sary to put to him ; which he promised to do, and was accordingly sworn. Then the bishop laid before him his three books of notes, demanding whose hand they were. He answered they were his own hand and notes, which he had gathered out of other men's works six years ago. ' For what cause,' said the bishop, ' didst thou gather them? ' * For ho other cause, my lord, but to come to knowledge. For I, being unlearned, and desirous to understand some parts of scripture, thought by reading of learned men's works to come the sooner thereby : and where I found any place of scripture opened and expounded by them, that I noted, as ye see, with a letter of his name in the margin, that had set out the work.' * So, methinks/ said the bishop of Ely, who had one of the books of notes in his hand all the time of their sitting,

* thou hast read of all sorts of books, both good and bad, as seemeth by the notes.' • So I have, my lord,' said Marbeck.

* And to what purpose ? ' said the bishop of Salisbury. * By my troth,' replied Marbeck, * for no other purpose but to see every man's mind.' Then the bishop of Salisbury drew out a quire of the concordance, and laid it before the bishop of Hereford, who, looking upon it awhile, lifted up his eyeg to

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Dr. Oking, standing next to him^ and said, * This man hath, been better occupied than a great many of our priests.'

" Then said the bishop of Salisbury, * Whose help hadst thou in setting forth this book ? ' * Truly, my lord,' replied Marbeck, ' no help at all.' * How couldst thou/ said the bishop, J invent such a book, or know what a concordance meant, without an instructor ? ' * I will tell you, my lord,' said the prisoner, * what instructor I had to begin it. When Thomas Matthew's bible came out in print, I was much desirous to have one of them ; and being a poor man, not able to buy one of them, determined with myself to bon*ow one amongst my friends, and to write it forth. And when I had written out the five books of Moses in fair great paper, and was entered into the book of Joshua, my friend Mr. Turner chanced to steal upon me unawares, and seeing me writing out the bible, asked me what I meant thereby. And when 1 had told him the cause, ' Tush,' quoth he, * thou goest about a vain and tedious labour. But this were a profitable work for thee, to set out a concordance in English.' * A concordance.' said I, * what is that ?' Then he told me it was a book to find out any word in the bible by the letter, and that there was such an one in Latin already. Then I told him I had no learning to go about such a thing. ' Euough,'^ quoth he^ *^ for that matter, for it requireth not so much learning as diUgence. A°<1 seeing thou art sa industrious a man, and one that cannot be unoccupied, it were a good exercise for thee.' And this, my lord, is all the ins^ctioa that ever I had, before or after, of any man.'

" * And who is that Turner ? ' asked the bishop of Salisbury.. ' Marry,' said Dr. May, ' an honest and learned man, and a bachelor of divinity, and some time a fellow in. Magdalen^ College, in Oxford.' * How couldst thou,' said the bishop of Salisbury, * with this instruction, bring it to this order and form, as it is ? ' * I borrowed a Latin concordance,' replied he, ' and began to practise, and at last, with great labour and diligence, brought it into this order, as your lordship doth. 9ee.' < It is a great pity,' said the bishop of £ly^ ' he hadi

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not the Latin tongne.' * Yet I cannot believe/ said the bishop of Salisbury, ' that he hath done any more in this work than written it out after some other that is learned.'

^* ' My lords/ said Marbeck, ' I shall beseech yon all to pardon me what I shall say, and grant my request, if it shall seem good unto you.' * Say what thou wilt/ said the bishop. ' I do marvel greatly whereof I should be so much examined for this book, and whether I have committed any ofifence in doing it, or no. If I have, then were I loth for any other to be molested or punished for my fault. Therefore, to clear all men in thb matter, this is my request, that ye will try me in l^e rest of the book that is imdone. Ye see that I am yet but at the letter L, beginning now at M, and take out what word ye will of that letter, and so in every letter following, and give me the word in a piece of paper, and set me in a place alone where it shall please you, with ink and paper, the English bible, and the Latin concordance ; and if I bring you not these words written in the same order and form, that the rest before is, then was it not I that did it, but some other/

" * By my truth, Marbeck,' cried the bishop of Ely, * that is honestly spoken, and then shalt thou bring many out of suspicion.' This being agreed to by the commissioners, they bade Dr. Oking draw out such words as he thought best on a piece of paper, which he did ; and while the .bishops were perusing them. Dr. Oking said to Marbeck, * Hake haste, for the sooner you have done, the sooner you shall be delivered.' And as the bishops were going away, the bishop of Hereford (who, as well as the bishop of Ely, had formerly known the prisoner, and was in secret his friend) took Marbeck a little aside, and informed him of a word which Dr. Oking had written false, an^ also, to comfort him, said, * Fear not, there can no law ccmdemn you for anything that ye have done, for if you have written a thousand heresies, so long as they be not your sayings nor your opinions, the law cannot hurt you.' And so they all went with the bishop of Salisbury to dinner, taking Marbedi with them, who dined in the hall at the

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Steward's board, and had wine and meat sent down from the bishop's table.

*' When dinner was done, the bishop of Salbburj came down into the hall, commanding ink and paper to be given to Marbeck, and the two books to one of his men to go with him ; at whose going he demanded of the bbhop, what time hb lordship would appoint him to do it in. * Against to- morrow this time/ replied the bishop, and bo departed. Mar- bee^, now being in his prison chamber, fell to his business, and so applied himself, that bj the next day, when the bishop sent for him again, he had written so much, in the same order and form he had done the rest before, as filled three sheets of paper and more, which, when he had delivered to the bishop, Dr. Oking standing by, he said, ' Well, Marbeck, thou hast put me out of aU doubt. I assure thee,' said he, putting up the paper into his bosom, ^ the king shall see this, ere 1 be twenty-four hours older.' But he dissembled in every word, and did not shew it to the king ; but afterwards,^ the king being informed of the concordance which Marbeck had written, said, that he was better occupied than those who persecuted him."

We have copied this long account that our readers may be able to judge for themselves what stupid and gross nonsense, what palpable falsehoods, and what improbable incidents, are coupled together to amuse and deceive the wise children of the Reformation, the learned disciples of bible-interpretation. Can any individual in his proper senses be capable of believing this account of Marbeck's adventures ? What ! a man who is unlearned, by his own confession, set about writing a concordance of the scriptures, and observe too, this con- cordance was to supply the place of the bible. Marbeck could not read Latin, but he meets with a copy of Matthew's bible in English, which pleases him so much that he wishes for a copy, but being a poor man he could not afford to 6uy one ; but mark, reader, though he could not find money to buy a printed bible, he could buy puper to copy it out, and f^pare lime for copying too, though it must have taken au

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immensity of time. Well, with much labour this poor unlearned man gets through the five books of Moses, and is beginning Joshua, when a friend pops in upon him, and seeing what he is about, tells him he was vainly occupied, and that a con- cordance in English would be a more PROFITABLE work. Of the nature of this work Marbeck is completely ignorant, but being told what it was, and that there was one in Latin already, he makes another objection, namely, that he had no learning, and did not understand Latin. This obstacle, how- ever, is soon renr oved by telling him that learning was not 80 much required as diligence. Let us here observe, that we wonder much there has never appeared a concordanoe to the scriptures from the hands of an ignorant but diligent Pro- testant since the time of Marbeck, and we regret much that the MS. of our illiterate author has not been preserved, as it would form a curious relic in one of our learned universities. The concordances now in use have the name of some learned divine prefixed to the work by way of recommendation, as it has been generally supposed that learning and ability were essential requisites in the performance of such a literary task ; but it would appear from this tale that we have all along been in error, and that it requires no more learning to compile a concordance than it does to write a rhapsodical philippic against the supposed errors of Popery.

But to return to the diligent and unlearned Marbeck. The only instruction he ever got, we are told, was from his fiiend Turner, who said that it required not so much learning as diligence, and that as he, Marbeck, was so industrious a soul t'lat he could not remain idle, it were a good exercise for him. Now reader, what instruction do you call this ? What informa- tion could Marbeck gain from Turner's words? Marbeck is ignorant of the constiiiction of a concordance. He is ignorant of the Latin language — he had never he^ird of sudi a work — he was engaged in copying a bible ; but all at once he quits his original intention, and engages in a work . which he knows nothing about, and which would be of no use to ,him whatever, as it appears he could not get a bible, and

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without a bible a concordance is perfectlj useless. Well might the bishop of Salisbury express his surprise that Mar- beck was able to bring his manuscript into such form and order with such instruction as he said he had received, Wdl might the prelate be marvellous at hearing a man profess ta be ignorant of the Latin language, and yet declaring that he obtained his knowledge from a book of that language? The whole relation is a mass of inconsistency and falsehood, but the more inconsistent and wonderful a tale, the better and readier it is gulped down by Protestant credulity * From whence this circumstantial account was borrowed, we are not informed. Burnet mentions Marbeek as a singing man, and gives some account of his great ingenuity in thi& work of the concordance, but he gives us no authority for his statement, any more than the modern editors ; and surely, if it were not a work of fiction, sueh a circumstance might have been Authenticated. Burnet admits that the work appeared to be the production of some learned man, and that it seemed in- credible ihat Harbeck, who was known to be an illiterate man, was the author of it. Of the rest of the tale we need gay no more, but it would appear that the persecutors of this learned illiterate singer were a little civil and hospitable to .him, as they gave him plenty of wine and meat, and in the end he was let off scot free.

Pearson, Testwood, and Filmer, were not so fortunate, being condemned and led out to execution. From the account given by Fox. of l^eir last moments, we may suppose they were jolly old topers, as well as martyrs ; for " being all three bound to the post," says Fox, "a young man of Filmer's acquaintance brought him a pot of drink, asking, * If he would drink V * Yea,' cried Filmea*, * I thapk you ; and now, my brother,' continued he, * I desire you, in the name of the lining Lord, to stand fast in the truth of the gospel of Jesu^ Christ, which you have received;' and so, taking the pot into his hand, he asked Pearson if he would drink, * Yea, brother Filmer/ replied he, ' I pledge you in the Lord*' Then all three drank ; and Filmer, rejoicmg in the Xiord^

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said, * Be merry, my brethren, and lift up your hands unto God, for after this sharp breakfast I trust we shall have a good dinner in the kingdom of Christ, our Lord and Ee- deemer.' At which words Testwood, lifting up his hands and eyes to heaven, desired the Lord above to receive his spirit, and Anthony Pearson joined in the same prayer." These guzzling devotions and tippling pledges must have been truly edifying to the spectators ; and no doubt have ex- cited many a heavy and pious sigh from the readers of Fox, at the godly heroism of these Beformation martyrs, who practised good drinking to their last moments. One of these guzzling saints, we are told, on arriving at the place of execution, ** embraced the post in his arms, and kissing it, said, * Now welcome my own sweet wife ; for thb day shalt thou and I be married together in the love and peace of God.'" What are we to understand from this nonsense of the post and Pearson, for that was the sufferer's name, to be married^ whea they were both to be consumed ? And then the kissing bout,*— was not this rank idolatry? The Catholic is charged with idolatry for kissing and venerating the Cross, — the emblem of man's redemption, and surely the kissing a post must amount to the same offence ; or is a Protestant martyr to have a greater indulgence for kissing than a Catholic sinner?

In concluding this account of the executi(m of these three tippling heroes, the editors say, " Thus they yidded up their souls to the Father of heaven, in the faith of his dear Son, Jesus Christ, with such humility and steadfastness, that many who saw their patient suffering were convinced that nothing but real" religion could bestow so much constancy and Chris- tian courage." If this were the case, we wonder much that the conversions were not greater than they are said to have been ; and it is still greater matter of astonishment that it was soon found necessary to frame cruel and bloody penal laws to prevent the people from relapsing into Popery. Not- withstanding the great exertions used to blind the people, and the horrid conspiracies entered into to alarm 4he timid

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with the supposed bloodthirstiness of the Papists, the Catholic religion has stood its ground in this country, and is now gaining in estimation among the people, while Protestantism has been shivered into a thousand different sects, and its advocates are sinking fast into the gulf of infidelity.

We are now treated with another martyrdom and history, namely, of one Adam Damplin, who had once been a zealous Papist, but proceeding to Kome, he there found " such blas- phemy of God, contempt of Christ's true religion, looseness of life, and abundance of all abominations and filthiness,"^ that he soon discovered "the errors of Popery,'* and gamed " a perfect knowledge of the true religion ;" at least, so the story goes in Fox's Martyrology. Thus gifted with new lighty " this godly man, every morning at seven o'clock [how very minute is Fox in his relations] preached very learnedly and plainly the truth of the blessed sacrament of Christ's^ body and blood, inveighing against all Papistry^ and con- futing the same, (but especially those two most pernicious errors — transubstantiation, and the propitiatory sacrifice of the Romish mass), by the acripturea^ and from the ancient doctors;'* but what this truth wa& we are not informed. Now we have clearly proved, in our first volume of this woi^^ that the ancient fathers and doctors were decidedly in favour of these " two most pernicious errors," and that they pro- duced icripture, as well as tradition, in support of the doc- trmes of transubstantiation and the mas». It cannot be denied that these *• two pernicious errors," as they are called, were coeval with Christianity, and were received with the Christian faith by the people of this country, and by them held at the very moment thia Adam Damplin was inveighing against them, and that Tom Cranmer, the Protestant arch- bishop, had set lus name to this belief; and are we to sup- pose that Adam was wiser than afi the rest of the generation ? To entertain such a notion would exhibit very little common sense ; and, in truth, the people were actually frightened out of their senses, before they gave credit to such preposterous tales as Fox, and Burnet; and the lying crew of interested

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. writers had told them. But though Master Adam rejected the real presence and the mass, we find he practised confession, for the story makes him meet the celebrated concordance-

. maker, Marbeck, at this rdigious ceremony ; so that here we have this Protestant martyr practising at least one Popish error. In another part o( this precious tale, we find Adam was a bouser, as well as the three just mentioned, for he eat and drank as heartily, the narrative says, when he was informed of his sentence, as before. But the conclusion we think more extraordinary than any other part. Without any reason assigned, the prisoner is taken from London, after

. sentence, to Calais, and there, we are told, he was executed for treason, in receiving a trifling sum of money of cardinal

;,Pole, a pardon having been granted him for his heretical opinions. Is this probable ? Is it at all likely ? We do not see him mentioned by Burnet, nor have we, as usual, any clue to ascertain the authenticity of the tale.

Next we have a long account, but whence taken we know not, of the case of Anne Askew, who sufiered for denying the real presence. Upwards of seven pages are de- voted to this lady^s examinations, which are pretended to be given from her own pen. We do not find that Burnet is very elaborate in his detail of her trial, and Dr. Lingard mentions a fact or two but little known to the generality of the people. This lady, was married to one Kyme, but left her hus- band, and assumed her maiden name of Askew, that she might practise the work of an apostle mc^re freely, along with another female, who was afterwards burned by Tom Cran- mer*s order. This woman was evidently an enthusiast^ like our modern Johanna Southcott^ though she did not possess 80 much cunning as the latter, and lived in more violent times. She got it into her head that Christ was not present in the blessed eucharist, though the fathers and all the world, from the time of the c^ostles, believed He was; and as it was against the act of the six articles, she was condenmed to be burned for her contumacy, and sufiered, after two r^- eantation.; in 1546. The council book mentions that op.

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June 19th, in that year, " hoth Kvme and his wife were called before the lords ; that the former was sent home to remain there till he was sent for ; and that the latter, who refused him to be her husband, without alleging any honest allegation, for that she was very obstinate and heady in reasoning mat- ters of religion, wherein she shewed herself to be of a naughty opinion, seeing no persuasion of good reason could take place, was sent to Newgate, to remain there to answer to law."— ZTarZ. MS. 256, fol. 224. Thus it is clear this martyr of Fox's was no other than a crazy madcap ; yet is she represented as inspired with the spirit of wisdom, and more learned than all the bishops put together, even with Tom Cranmer at their head. But why is her death to be charged on the Catholics, when Cranmer, the renowned Cranmer, archbishop of Canterbury, and chief pillar of the Keformation, was consenting to this woman's death, although being a Lutheran and a reformer in his heart, he himself did not believe in the doctrine, for rejecting which he con- sented to the death of this Anne Askew ? Oh ! let this never be forgotten. When the Protestant bigot is launching forth in the praises of this hero of that thing called the Beformation , let it be rung in his ears, that Cranmer, the vile, the truckling Cranmer, was assenting to the burnings and hangings of Protestant heretics, and Catholic pretended traitors, and never crossed the will of the tyrant he served, whether it was to rob the church and poor of their property, the people of their rights, or the king's wives of their lives. The will of the tyrant was a law for Cranmer, who even preached in favour of despotism and passive obedience.

These burnings, wo are told, " were so many triumphs to the Popish party," though the Catholics had no more hand in them than John Fox. The nation was at this time divided into two factions, and the Catholics were as .much persecuted for the denying the supremacy of the king, as the hot headed reformers for denying the real presence in the blessed sacra- ment. How unjust then is it to charge these executions to "the account of the Catholics, when they were themselves, the

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victims of party rage, and were despoiled of tbeir property to gratify the avariciousness of profligate courtiers. Harry, after the death of his fifth wife, who was sent out of the world by severbg her head for adultery, married Catharine Parr, who was a widow, and a favourer of the reformers. Of course Oranmer and the queen rowed In the same boat, and it appeaw a plan was laid by their enemies to bring them both into disgrace. Burnet says, ** They persuaded the king that Cranmer was the source of all the heresies in England ; but Henry's esteem for him was such, that no one would appear to give evidence against him ; they therefore desired that he might be committed to the Tower." Burnet then goes on to tell a story of the king's informing Cranmer of the designs against him, of Tom's fortitude and forbearance, and the king's suggesting a plan, to entrap the rogues for daring to cast suspicion on the immaculate prelate and panderer. Of this state of parties Dr. Lingard writes thus : — *' During these transactions, the court of Henry was divided by the seoret intrigues of the two religious parties, which continued to cherish an implacable hatred against each other. The men of the old religion naturally looked upon Cranmer as their most steady and most dangerous enemy : and, though he was careful not to commit any open transgression of the law, yet the encouragement which he gave to the new preachers, and the clandestine correspondence which he maintained with the German reformers, would have proved his ruin, had he not found a friend and advocate in his sovereign. Henry still retained a grateful recollection of his former services, and felt no apprehension of resistance or treason from a man, who on all occasions, whatever were his real opinions or wishes, had moulded his conscience in con- formity to the royal will. When the prebendaries of Canter- bury lodged an information against him, the king issued a commission to examine, not the iiccused, but the accusers ; of whom some were imprisoned; all were compelled to ask pardon of the archbishop. In the House of Commons Sir John Gostwick, representative for Bedfordshire, had the

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boldness to accuse him of heresy: but the king sent a message to the * varlet,' that if he did not acknowledge his fault, he should be made an example for the instruction of his fellows. On another occasion Henry had consented to the committal of the archbishop ; but afterwards he revoked his permission, telling the council that Cranmer was as faithful a man towards him as ever was prelate in the realm, aad one to whom he was many ways beholden ; or, as another version has it, that he was the only man who had loved his sovereign 80 well, as never to have opposed the royal pleasure* In like manner Gardiner, from his ackn'owledged abilities and his credit with the king, was to the men of the new learning a constant object of suspicion and jealousy. To ruin him in the royal estimation, it was pretended that he had communi- cated with the papal agents through the imperial ministers ; and that, while he pretended to be zealously attached to the interests of the king, he had in reality made his peace with the pontiff. But it was in vain that the accusation was re- peatedly urged, and that Gardiner's secretary was even tried, convicted, and executed on a charge of having denied the supremacy : the caution of the bishop bade defiance to the wiles and malice of his enemies. Aware of the danger which threatened him, he stood constantly on his guard ; and though he might prompt the zeal, and second the efforts of those who wished well to the ancient faith, he made it a rule never to originate any religious measure, nor to give his opinion on religious subjects, without the express command of his sovereign. Then he was accustomed to speak his mind with boldness : but though he might sometimes offend the pride^ still he preserved the esteem of Henry, who, unmoved by the suggestions of his adversaries, continued to employ him in affairs of state, and to consult him on questions of religion. As often, indeed, as he was absent in embassies to foreign courts, Cranmer improved the favourable moment to urge the king to a further reformation. He was heard with attention ; lie was even twice desired to form the necessary plan, to subjoin his reasons, and to submit them to the royal con- Digitized by LjOOQiC

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sideration ; still, however, Henry paused to receive the opinion of Gardiner ; and, swayed by his advice, rejected or suspended the execution of the measures proposed by the tnetropolitan." Hence it is clear that what was done by the two factions, was prompted by self-interest and passion, while the good of the commonwealth was suffered to decay, as we shall take occa- sion to shew.

The next story is the lucky escape of Catharine Parr from the trap that was laid to shorten her life, and the death of the tyrant himself. As we have noticed the judgments that befel this obdurate and beastly head of the church of Eng- land in a former number, it is not necessary to repeat them here. Suffice it to say, he died on the 27th of January, .1547, in the 56th year of his age, and the 38th of his reign, ^ execrated by thousands and regretted by none. The editors are obliged to confess that he was a monster in cruelty, and that ^' almost the last act of his life was one of barbarous ingratitude and monstrous tyranny ; '' but then they basely attempted to screen the cruelties of this barbarian, by insinu- ating that he was urged to these atrocious acts by the machi- nations of the pope and the clergy* Here, reader, is what they say, which we see is copied from Burnet : — ** The severi- ties Henry used against many of his subjects, in matters of .religion, made both sides write with great sharpness against him ; his temper was imperious and cruel ; he was sudden -and violent in his passions, and hesitated at nothing by which he could gratify either his lust or his revenge. This was much provoked by the sentence of the pope against him, by .the virulent books cardinal Pole and others published, by the rebellions that were raised in England by the Popish clergy, .and the apprehensions he was in of the emperor's greatness, together with his knowledge of the fate of those princes against whom the popes had thundered in former times ; all which made him think it necessary to keep his people under the terror of a severe government ; and by some public ex- amples, to secure the peace of the nation, and thereby to •prevent a m,OTe profuse effusion of bloody which might have

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otherwise followed if he had heen more gentle; and it was no wonder, if after the pope deposed him, he proceeded to great seyerities against all who supported the papal autho- rity." We may here see the malignity of Burnet, whose disregard for truth was only equalled by his malicious insinu- ations against the Catholic clergy. Now it is well known by those who have consulted history, that the pope did not pro- ceed to extremities until Henry had been guilty of tiie grossest violations of his coronation oath, and had shed the blood of his innocent subjects and best friends. Of the writings of cardinal Pole, it does not appear by the catalogue of his works in Dodd, that he wrote more than one volume folio in the lifetime of Henry, and surely it will not be contended, that the subsequent writings of the cardinal were the cause of Henry's cruelties. The rebellions raised in England were occasioned not by the clergy, but by the king himself, in sanctioning measures by which the clergy were stripped of their possessions and the poor of their support and rights. And if the modem editors agree with Gilbert Bufnef, that it was " necessary to keep his people under the terror of a severe government ; and by some public examples to secure the peace of the nation, and thereby prevent a more profuse effusion of blood, which might otherwise have followed if he had been more gentle;*^ why do they make such a parade of the martyrs which they say suffered during his reign ? Burnet, after making these remarks, gave a long list of Catholics who suffered in consequence of refusing to admit the king's supremacy, but the modem editors have not been so candid as the authority from whom they borrow. In-' stead of these real Catholic martyrs, they have introduced a^ number of pretended sufferers, occupying fourteen pages of the veriest nonsense and absurdities ever submitted to a credulous people. As the greater part is evidently fictitious" and grossly inconsistent, we shall pass by these unauthori^ied' details, and conclude the eventftil period of Henry's reign with Dr. Lingard's account of his character, and the conse- quences of the measures pursued by him, during the course of his government of this realm : —

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" To form ^ just estimate of the character of Henry, we must distinguish between the young king, guided by the counsels of Wolsey, and the monarch of more mature age, governing by his own judgment^ and with the aid of minis- ters selected and fashioned by himself. In his youth, the beauty of his person, the elegance of his manners, and his adroitness in every martial and fashionable exercise, were calculated to attract the admiration of his subjects. His court was gay and splendid ; a succession of amusements seemed to absorb his attention : yet his pleasures were not permitted to encroach on his more important duties : he as- sisted at the council, perused the dispatches, and corresponded with his generals and ambassadors : nor did the minister, trusted and powerful as he was, dare to act, till he had asked the opinion and taken the pleasure of liis sovereign. His natund abilities had been improved by study : and his esteem for literature may be inferred from the learned education which he gave to his children, and from the number of eminent scholars to whom he granted pensions in foreign states, or on whom he conferred promotion in his lown. The immense treasure which he inherited from his father, was perhaps a misfortune ; because it engendered habits of expense not to be supported by the ordinary revenue of the crown : and the soundness of his politics may be doubted, which, under the the pretence of supporting the balance of power, repeatedly involved the nation in continental hostilities. Yet even these errors served to throw a lustre round the English throne, and raised its possessor in the eyes of his own subjects and of the different nations of Europe. But as the king advanced in age, his vices gradually developed themselves : after the death of Wolsey they were indulged without restraint. He became as rapacious as he was prodigal : as obstinate as he was capri- cious : as fickle in his friendships as he was merciless in his i^entments. Though liberal of his confidence, he soon grew suspicious of those whom he had ever trusted ; and, as if he possessed no other right to the crown than that which he derived fix>m the very questionable claim of his father, he

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viewed with an evil eye every remote descendant of the Pl«n- tagenets: and eagerly embraced the slightest pretexts to remove those whom his jealously represented as future rivals to himself or his posterity. In pride and vanity he was per- haps without a parallel. Inflated with the praises of interested admirers, he despised the judgment of others ; acted as if he (kemed himself infallible in matters of policy and reli- gion ; and seemed to look upon dissent from his opinion as equivalent to a breach of allegiance. In his estimation, to submit and to obey, were the great, the paramount duties of subjects : and this persuasion steeled his breast against remorse for the blood which he shed, and led him to trample without scruple on the liberties of the nation.

'^ When he ascended the throne, there still existed a spirit of freedom, which, on more than one occasion, defeated the arbitrary measures of the court, though directed by an able minister and supported by the authority of the sovereign: but in the lapse of a few years that spirit had fled, and before the death of Henry, the king of England had grown into a despot, the people had shrunk into a nation of slaves. The causes of this important change in the relations between the sovereign and his subjects, may be found not so much in the abiHties or passions of the former, as in the obsequumsness of his par^ liamenU, the assumption of the ecclesiastical supremacy^ and the servility of the two religious parties which divided the nation.

** The house of peers no longer consisted of those powerful lords and prelates, who, in former periods, had so often and so successfully resisted the encroachments of the sovereign. The reader has already witnessed the successive steps, by which most of the great families of the preceding reigns had become extinct, and their immense possessions had been frittered away among the favourites and dependants of tiie court. The most opulent of the peers under Henry were poor in com- parison with their predecessors : and by the operation of the statute against liveries, they had lost the accustomed means of arming their retainers in support of their quarrelis. In

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generrf they were new men, indebted for their present honours, and estates to the bounty of Henrj or of his father : and the proudest, among the rest, by witnessing the attainders and execution of others, had been taught to tremble for themselves, and to crouch in submission at the foot of a master, whose policy it was to depress the great, and punish their errors without mercy, while he selected his favourites from the lower classes, heaping on them honours and riches, and confiding to them the exercise of his authority.

^' By the separation of the realm from the see of Rome, the dependence of the spiritual had been rendered still more complete than that of the temporal peers. Their riches had been diminished, their immunities taken away: the support which they might have derived from the protection oithe pon- tiff was gone ; they were nothing more than the delegates of the king, eiercbing a precarious authority, determinable at his pleasure. The ecclesiastical constitutions, which had so long formed part of the law of the land, now depended on his breath, and were executed only by his sufferance. The con- Yocation, indeed, continued to be summoned ; but its legisla- tive authority was no more. Its principal business was to grant money ; yet even those grants now owed their force, not to the consent of the grantors, but to the approbation of the other two houses, and the assent of the crown.

'* As for the third branch of the legislature, the commons of England, they had not yet acquired sufficient importance to oppose any effectual barrier to the power of the sovereign, yet caro woB taken that among them the leading members should be devoted to the crown, and that the speaker should be one holding office, or high in the confidence of the ministers. Freedom of debate wa9, indeed, granted : but with a qualifi- cation which, in reality, amounted to a refusal. It was only a decent frecSdom : and, as the king reserved to himself the right of deciding what was or was not decent, he frequently put down the opponents of the court, by reprimanding- the " varlets *' in person, or by sending to them a tiireatening message.

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^' It is plain that from parliaments thus constituted, the crown had little to fear : and though Wolsej had sought to govern without their aid, Henry found them so obsequious to his will that he convoked them repeatedly^ and was careful to have his most wanton and despotic measures sanctioned with their approbation. The parliament^ so often as it was opened or closed, by the king in person, offered a scene not unworthy of an oriental divan. The form indeed differed but little irom our present usage. The king sate on his throne ; on the right hand stood the chancellor, on the left; the lord treasurer ; whilst the peers were placed on their benches, and the commons stood at the bar. But the addresses made on these occasions by the chancellor or the speaker, usually lasted more than an hour ; and their constant theme was the great character of the king. The orators, in their efforts to surpass each other, fed his vanity with the most hyperbolical praise. Cromwell was unable, he believed all men were unable, to describe the unutterable qualities of the royal mind, the sublime virtues of the royal heart. Eich told him, that in wisdom he was equal to Solomon, in strength and courage to Sampson, in beauty and address to Absalom ; and Audeley declared before his face, that Qod had anointed him trith the oil of wisdom above his fellows, above the other kings of the earth, above all his predecessors ; had given him a perfect knowledge of the scriptures, with which he had prostrated the Roman Goliath ; a perfect knowledge of the art of war, by which he had gained the most brilliant vic- tories at the same time in remote places; and a perfect knowledge of the art of government, by which he had for thirty years secured to his own pealm the blessings of peace, while all the other nations of Europe suffered the calamities of war.

** Durmg these harangues, as often as the words, * most sacred majesty,' were repeated, or as any emphatic expression was pronounced, the lords rose, and the whole assembly, in token of respect and assent, bowed profoundly to the demi- god on the throne. Henry himself affected to hear such

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fulsome adulation with indifference. His answer was invari- ablj the same : that he laid no daim to superior excellence ; but that, if he did possess it, he gave the gloij to God, the author of all good gifts ; it was, however, a pleasure to him to witness the affection of his subjects, and to learn that they were not insensible of the blessings which they enjoyed under his goYemment.

'' It is evident that the new dignity of head of the church, by transferring tb the king that authority which had been hitherto exercised by the pontiff, must have considerably augmented the influence of the crown ; but, in addition, the arguments by which it was supported tended to debase the i^irit of the people, and to exalt the royal prerogative above law and equity. When the adversaries of the supremacy asked in what passage of the sacred writings the government of the church was given to a ^yman, its advocates boldly appealed to those texts which prescribe obedience to the established authorities. The king, they maintained, was the image of God upon earth : to disobey his commands was to disobey God himself: to limit his authority, when no limit was laid down, was an offence against the soverdgn : and to make distinctions, when the scripture made none, was an impiety against Qod. It was, indeed, acknowledged that this supreme authority might be employed unreasonably and un- justly, but even then to resist was a crime ; it became the duty of the sufferer to submit, and his only resource was to pray that the heart of his oppressor might be changed, his only consolation to reflect that the king himself would be summoned to answer for his conduct before a future and un- erring tribunal. Henry became a sincere believer in a doc- trine so flattering to his pride ; and easily persuaded himself that he did no more than his duty in punishing with severity the least opposition to his will. To impress it on the miads of the people, it was perpetually inculcated fix)m the pulpit: it was enforced in books of controversy and instruction : it was promulgated with authority in the < Institution,' and afterwards in the < Erudition of a Christian Man.' From

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that period the doctrine of passive obedience formed a leading trait in the orthodox creed.

" The two great parties, into which religious disputes had separated the nation, contributed also to strengthen the des- potic power of Henry. They were too jealous of each other to watch, much, less to resist, the encroachments of the crown. The great object of both was the same, — to win the favour of the king, that they might crush the power of (heir adver- saries ; and with this view they flattered his vanity, submitted to his caprice, and became the obsequious slaves of his pleasure. Henry, on the other hand, whether it were through policy or accident, played them off against each other ; sometimes appearing to lean to the old, sometimes to the new doctrines, alternately raising and depressing the hopes of each, but never suffering either party to obtain the complete ascendancy over its opponent. Thus he kept them in a state of dependance on his will, and secured their con- currence to every measure which his passion or caprice might suggest, without regard to reason or justice, or the funda- mental laws of the land. Of the extraordinary enactments which followed, a few instances may suffice. The succession to the crown was repeatedly altered, and at length left to the king's private judgment or affection. The right was first taken from Mary, and given to Elizabeth ; then transferred from Elizabeth to the king's issue by Jane Seymour, or any future queen ; next, restored, on the failure of issue by prince Edward, to both Mary and Elizabeth; and lastly, failing issue by them, to any person or persons to whom it should please him to assure it in remcdnder by his last will. Treasons were multiplied by the most vexatious, and often, if ridicule could attach to so grave a matter, by the most ridiculous laws. It was once treason to dispute, it was afterwards treason to maintain, the validity of the marriage with Anne Boleyn, or the legitimacy of her daughter. It became treason to marry, without the royal licence, any of the king's children, whether legitimate or natural, or his paternal brothers or sisters, or their issue ; or for any woman to

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marry the king himself, wolees she were a maid, or had pre- viouslj revealed to him her former incontinence. It was made treason to call the king a heretic or a schismatic, openly to wish him harm, or to slander him, his wife, or his issue. This, the most henious of crimes in the eye of the law, was extended firom deeds and assertions to the yeiy thoughts of men. Its guilt was incurred hy any person who should, by words, writing, imprinting, or any other exterior act, directly or indirectly accept or take, judge or believe, that either of the royal marriages, that with Catharine, or that with Anne Boleyn, was yalid,. or who should protest that he was not bound to declare his opinion, or should refuse to swear that he would answer truly such questions as should be asked him on those dangerous subjects. It would be difficult to discover, under the most despotic governments^ a law more cruel and absurd. The validity or invalidity of the two marriages was certainly matter of opinion, supported and opposed on each side by so many contradictory arguments, that men of the soundest judgment might reasonably be expected to difiEer firom each other. Yet Henry, by this statute, was authorized to dive into the breast of every individual, to extort from him his secret sentiments upon oath, and to subject him to the penalty of treason, if those sentiments did not accord with the royal pleasure. The king was made, in a great measure, independent of parliament, by two statutes, one of which gave to his proclamations the force of laws,the other appointed a tribunal, oonmsting of nine privy counsellors, with power to punish all transgressors of such proclamations. The dreadful punishment of heresy was not confined to those who rejected the doctrines which had already been declared or- thodox, but it was extended beforehand to all persons who should teach or maintain any opinion contrary to such doc- trines as the king might afterwards publish. If the criminal were a clergyman, he was to expiate his third offence at the stake ; if a layman, to forfeit his personal property, and be imprisoned for life. Thus was Henry invested, by act of , parliament, with the high prerogative of theohgicdl infaUi^

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hiUfy, and an obligation was laid on all men, without excep- tion^ whetheir of the new or of the old learning, to model their religious opinions and religious practice by the sole judgment of their sovereign. By an ex post facto law, those who had taken the first oath against the papid authority, were reputed to have taken, and to be bound by a second and more comprehensive oath, which was afkerwards enacted, and which, perhaps, had it been tendered to them, they would have refused.

'' But that which made the severity of these statutes the more terrible, was the manner in which criminal prosecutions were then conducted. The crown could hardly fail in con- victing the prisoner, whatever were his guilt or his innocence. He was first interrogated in his cell, nrged with the hope of pardon to make a confession, or artfully led by ensnaring questions into dangerous ^idmissions. When the materials of the prosecution were completed, they were laid before the grand inquest, and if the bill was found, the conviction of the accused might be pronounced certain, for in the trial which followed, the real question submitted to the decision of the petit jury was, which of the two were more worthy of credit, tbe prisoner who maintained his innocence, or the grand inquest which had pronounced his guilt. With this view the indictment, with a summary of the proofe on which it had been found, was read ; and the accused, now perhaps for the first time acquainted with the nature of the evidence against him, was indulged with the liberty of speaking in his own defence. Still he could not insist on the production of his accusers that he might obtain the benefit of cross-exami- nation ; nor claim the aid of counsel to repel the taunts, and unravel the sophistry^ which were too often employed at that period by the advocates for the crown. In this method of trial, every chance was in favour of the prosecution ; and yet it was gladly exchanged for the expedient discovered by Cromwell, and afterwards employed against its author. In- stead of a public trial, the minister introduced a bill of attiunder into parliament, accompanied with such documents

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as be thougbt proper to submit. It was passed by the two houses with all conveDient expedition ; and the unfortunate prisoner found himself condemned to the scaffold or the gallows, without the opportunity of opening his mouth in his own vindication.

" To proceed by attainder became the usual practice in the latter portion of the king's reign. It was mwe certain in the result, by depriving the accused of the few advantages which he possessed in the ordinary courts ; it enabled the minister to gratify the royal suspicion or resentment without the danger of refutation, or of unpleasant disdosures ; and it satisfied the minds of the people, who, unacquainted with the real merits of the case, could not dispute the equity of a judgment given with the unanimous consent of the whole legislature.

. *' Thus it was that, by the obsequiousness of the parliament, the assumption of the ecclesiastical supremacy, and the ser- vility of religious factions, Henry acquired and exercised the most despotic sway over the lives, the fortunes, and the liberties of his subjects. Happily the forms of a free government were still suffered to exist : into these forms a spirit of resistance to arbitrary power gradually infused it- self: the pretensions of the crown were opposed by the claims of the people, and the result of a long and arduous struggle was that constitution which for more than a century has excited the envy and the admiration of Europe."

With this account from the pen of one of the first writers of the day, we shall dose our review of the transactions of the reformers during the portentous rule of the wife-killer and priest-slayer. The reader will now be able to see the rueful consequences of submitting to the will of an arbitrary tyrant, and the direful effects which followed the investment of Henry with the supreme ecclesiastical authority of the church. The people of England have been taught to look upon the rejection of the pope's supremacy as the dawn of the nation's liberties, whereas it is clear that this event led to the most arbitrary and unjust laws, and entailed upon the people the

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most deplorable miseries. Oh, England! what hast thou suffered since thou departed from the faith of the apostles, and separated thyself from the communion of the Christian world !

PERSECUTIONS IN ' SCOTLAND DITRINO THE FIFTEENTH AND PART OF THE SIXTEENTH OENTURT.

We are now going to reconnoitre the transactions in the northern part of the island, where the "saints'* were more violent than those who put some of them to death. Perse- cution is a word familiar to eveij person in this country, but though eyery one knows its meaning, it is not every individual who is su£5ciently acquainted with history to know whether the term is correctly applied to the circumstance. To jperse^ cute, we are toH by Dr. Johnson, is " to harass with penal- ties ; to pursue with malignity — to pursue with repeated acts of vengeance or enmity ; " and it will be seen, when the reader is put in possession of both sides of the question, that the charge of persecution will apply with much more justice to the reforming party, who are represented as being perse- cuted, than to those who are described as persecuting. We have, in the preceding remarks, been considering the progress of the Eeformation, so called, under the protection of the government of the country, the head of that government having thrown off the submission exacted by the divine founder of true religion to his church, and assumed the supremacy of that portion of it in England himself. The case, however, was different in Scotland. There the Catholic religion was the religion of the state, as it was in England before Henry's usurpation, and the temporal authorities yielded the same obedience to the spiritual supremacy of the church as the other Catholic sovereigns did. The attempt, therefore, of the reformers to introduce their new-fangled notions into Scotland, and create confusion, was an innovation on the constituted authorities, and being such, it was natural that the attempt would be resisted. We are aware that the Catholic religion was introduced and established in the

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Boman empire^ and in almost every place, in opposition to ^ the powers that be/' and that persecution was practised to stop its progress, bat without efiect. But we must hero obserre, that the apostles, and their successors afterwards, in disseminating this holy faith, inyariablj abstained from mix- ing the affairs of this world with the kingdom they laboured to establish, which, they said, was not of this world, and that it did not interfere with the temporal concerns of the different states in existence, but was calculated for one form or consti- tution as well as another, and, indeed, gave security to all, by 4 inculcating the doctrine of obedience to the established forms of government. In no instance whatever do we read in history that the introduction of the Catholic or Christian religion produced disorder or destruction to the kingdoms or empires that received it. On the contrary, we see by the annals of our own country, that those monarchs who were the most celebrated for their attachment and devotion to the Catholic churchy and who listened to the advice and admoni- tions of the most pious and sainted dignitaries of that church, were equally eminent for the establishment of just and wholesome laws, the protection they thus afforded to the lives and property of their subjects, and the consequent absence of all harsh and tyrannic measures, which only tend to brutalize and debase a people. To monarchs such as these do English- men owe all that is good and excellent in that civil constitution of which they make such a boast, though most of its privileges have been suppressed since the period of the Beformation, so called, and to be eligible to the remainder it is required to be sworn that the holy founders were damnable idolaters !

It was not so, however, with the reformers ; though they declaimed against the supposed errors of the Catholic church, with all the vehemence they were capable of, yet they found their cause made very little progress, until they instigated the ignorant and illiterate people to violence and rebellion, and thus sought by revolutionary means to subdue those in authority who were opposed to the wild notions they pro- pagated, and grasped the civil sword to assist them in silencing

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tibe voice of truth and justice. In every country where the clamour of Protestantism was heard agiunst the ruling powers, sedition, rebellion, and treason followed in its train ; and where it was ushered in by the sanction of the civil magistrate, it was preceded by robbery, sacrilege, and murder. We have seen by the transactions in Henry's reign the accu- racy of the latter observation ; it remains then to be shewn how far we are correct with regard to the former. The reformers of Scotland imbibed the notions of John Calvin, who, in his commentaries on Daniel, says, ** Princes forfeit thdr power when they expose God in opposing the Reforma- tion ; and it is better, in such cases, to spit in their &ces than to obey.'* Beza, Calvin's scholar, in his book, " Vindicce, contra Tyrannos,^* says, ** We must obey kings for God's sake, when they obey God ; " but otherwise, " as the vassal loees his fief or tenure, if he commit felony, so does the king loee his right to the realm also." Such doctrines could not ffdl to produce turbulent and riotous disciples, as the sequel will shew.

Pox, in the modem edition of the Book of Martyrs, com- mences his account of the Scottish persecutions, as he calls them, with the following prefatory ol^ervations : — " Having brought our account of the su&icmgs and martyrdoms of the English reformers down tp the death of Henry VIH., we sh^ now proceed to relate the cruel persecutions of God's faithful servants in Scotland, to the same period ; but it will previously be necessary to give a short sketch of the progress of the Reformation in that country. The long i^liance between Scotland and Prance, had rendered the two nations extremely attached to each other ; and Paris was the place where the learned of Scotland had their education. Yet mirly in the^i^^^^ century, learning was more encouraged t» Scotland^ and universities were founded in several epis- copal sees. About the same time some of Wicklife's followers began to show themselves in Scotland; and an Mnglishman, named Resby, was burnt in 1407 £&r teaching some opinions contrary to the pope's author^y* Some yeai;»

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after that, Paul Craw, a Bohemian, who had heen converted hj H1188, was humt for infusing the opinions df that martyr into some persons at St. Andrew's. Ahout the end of the fifteenth century, Lollardy, as it was then called, spread it- self into many parts of the diocess of Glasgow, for which several persons of quality were accused ; but they answered the archbishop of that see with so much boldness and truth, that he dismissed themy having admonished them to content themselves with Xh^ faith of the church, and to beware of new doctrines. The same spirit of ignoravkce, immorality, and superstition, had over-run the church of Scotland that was so much complained of in other parts of Europe. The total neglect of the pastoral care, and the scandalous lives of the clergy, filled the people with such prejudices against them, that they were easily disposed to hearken to new preachers, among the most conspicuous of whom was Patrick Hamilton.'' Early in the fifteenth cenjury, we are told, learning was more encouraged in Scotland than before, that universities were founded by several bishops, and yet before the close of this same century the country is represented as over-run with ignorance, immorality, and superstition ! But mark, reader, it does not appear from this account that any one was burned before the year 1407, yet the Catholic religion had been the religion of Scotland upwards of nine hundred years. Can this be a persecuting religion ? The occasion of this burning, we are informed, was the introduction of some of Wickliffe*s followers, and what sort of religionists these Wickliffites were we have already shewn the reader in the preceding pages. They have been shewn to be spoliators and rebels, and were punished for their violations of the peace of society, rather than their religious notions. To represent such men as "God's servants" is rank blasphemy, and cannot be too strongly reprobated; but so it is with the interested opposers of Catholicism, that wherever they meet a man who is a reviler of the pope and the Catholic clergy, who is a clamourer against the supposed errors and corruptions of the church of Bon\^, though, in other respects he should be the vilest and

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most perfidious character, jet will thej represent him as the most immaculate of human beings, and the chastisement he may receive for his outrages on the laws of society, as a persecution for his religious notions. Of Paul Craw we have no authentic account ; he is stated to have been converted by Huss, but, from the life and conduct of this Huss, it should have been corrupted. Then Lollardism spread itself in many parts of the diocess of Glasgow, and several persons of quality became infected with it, who, on being accused before the archbishop, answered with so much boldness and truth, it is said, that they were only admonished ^' to content them- selves with the faith of the church, and to beware of new doctrines." Well, as we are told to adhere to the faith once delivered to the saints, whatever is new cannot be that faith once delivered, and therefore the advice given must be acknow- ledged to have been good. Next comes an account of ^* the spirit of ignorance, immorality, and superstition," which infected all parts of Europe, and at length contaminated Scotland. When we read this part of the account we fancied the editors were alluding to the present state of a certain church, in which we find a "total neglect of the pastoral eare, and the scandalous lives of many of the clergy," daily filling the people with disgust and indignation at such con- duct, and causing them 'to nm to conventicles to hearken to other preachers. We are veady to admit, nay we have fre- quently admitted, that there was a laxity in morals among many of the clergy at the close of the fifteenth century ; for if this had not been the case, we should not have had such beastly and depraved characters as the chief of the refor- mers were, namely, Luther, Calvin, Beza, Zuinglius, Melanc- thon, (Ecolampadius, and many others, whose immoral doc- trines, coupled with the impiety of their lives, soon covered that part of the world where tiiey had taken root with the most horrible scenes of lewdness and wickedness. We have before given the admissions of the reformers of this state of things ; it is not necessary, therefore, to repeat them here, but we will proceed to notice the martyrs of this pretended persecution.

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The first we see upon the list is Patrick Hamilton , the nephew of the earl of Arran, and hy his mother's side the duke of Alhany. This reformer is represented as having hecome acquainted with Luther and Melancthon^ ^^ and heing convinced, from his own researches, of the truth of their DOCTRINES, he hurned to impart the light of the gospel to his own countrymen, and to shew them the errors and corruptions of their own church." Before we proceed further, it may not he amiss to remind the reader of some of Luther's doctrines, that he may judge for himself what excellent use our reformers made of their researches, and how correct their convicjbions must have been. Here then are a few specimens of Lut])er's doctrines taken from his own works. — ** God's commandments are all equally impossible." (De Lib, Christ. t. ii. fol. 4.) " No sins can damn a man, but only unbelief." fDe Captiv, Bah. t. ii. fol. 171.) " God is just, though by his own wiU he lays us under the necessity of being damned ; and though he damns those that have not deserved it." (t. ii. fol. 434, 436.) " God works in us both good and evil." (t. ii. fol. 44.) That the reader shudders at these horrible and blasphemous doctrines we feel convinced ; but what are we to think of those men who, in the nineteenth century, have held forth the propagator of these diabolical notions as the paragon of Christian perfection, and his dis- ciple Hamilton as " a godly martyr." Patrick, it is said, denied the doctrine of free will, which was taught by the apostles, and advocated the impious notion of justMoation by faith alone. Now, by this doctrine, a man was taught that though he committed the most heinous offence in the eyes of God, whether of murder, adultery, or any other immorality^ he had only to believe himself a saint, and nothing could damn him. Such pestiferous notions were sufficient to set open the floodgates of vice, and it became the duty of every well-wiaher to morality and good order, to stpp the current of devilism thus about to be spread over the kingdom. Hamilton was accordingly condemned as a heretic, and sentenced to the flames, which sentence was put into execution in the year

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1527, under circumstances, the account says, of refined cruelty. "We are not, as we have often said before, the advocate of these burnings, but, in the absence of authentic testimony, and taking into consideration the doctrines imbibed and preached by Patrick Hamilton, we think there can be but little doubt that he was condemned and suffered, not for his speculative opinions, but for the immorality and seditious- ness of his doctrines. The Bool of Martyrs says, " The views and doctrines of this glorioiLS martyr were such as would not fail to excite the highest admiration of every real believer; and they were expressed with such brevity and clearness, and such peculiar vigour and beauty (forming in themselves a complete summary of the gospel), that they afforded instruction to all who sought to know more of God."^ This is true sectarian cant. Why, if his views and doctrine* were of such peculiar excellence — why, we ask, were they not carefully preserved for the edification and instruction of future generations? Catholics have carefully preserved the writings and testimonies of the fathers from the primitive age of Christianity : they have recourse to them as witnesses of the unity and impeccability of the Catholic feith ; why then was not this complete summary of the gospel by Hamilton pre- served by his disciples as a reference for every real believer ? The fact is, Hamilton's views and doctrines would not bear a strict scrutiny, and we question whether they were ever put on paper. The account is a fabrication intended to excite prejudice against the Catholics and enthusiasm for the re- formed, or rather deformed, doctrines.

The next martyr is one Henry Forest, described as a y(w^^ /riar of Lithgow. This disciple of the Keformation is said ^ have fallen a victim for his faith by going — where do you suppose, reader? — by going to confession, and there SECRETLY disclosing his conscience. He told his eonfessor, " that he thought Hamilton to be a good man, and wrong* fully put to death, and that his doctrines were true, and not heretical: upon which [the relation continues] the friar," whom Forest had caused to hear his confession, *^ came and

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related to the bishop the confession which he had received. This was taken as sufficient evidence against him ; and he was accordingly declared to be ^ a heretic, equal in iniquity with Patrick Hamilton,* and sentenced to suffer death." Here we have another most improbable story ; for if Forest believed the doctrines of Hamilton to have been true, why did he follow the Popish custom of confession, which all the other reformers renounced with the doctrine of good works ? This is a bungling tale, and proclaims its own falsehood. Had he been what he is represented, he would not have chosen secresy for a disclosure of his conversion, but we may naturally suppose that he would have made an open profession of his faith, as the martyrs under the Eoman heathen em- perors did. Neither is it likely that his judges should rely only on the statement of his confessor, whose conduct, by the by, would have been reprobated in the strongest terms, as it is held one of the greatest sacrileges that can be committed, and there is no authenticated instance of such a disclosure having ever been made. Why should the proceedings agdnst the young friar be more summary than those against Hamil- ton ? Why had he not a trial ; and why was he not called upon to abjure ? It is, as we before said, a bungling tale, and enough has been said to shew its improbability.

We have now two martyrs, one named Norman Gourlay, and the other David Stratton. They both are said to have denied there being such a place as purgatory, and the former would have it, " that the pope was not a bishop, but Anti- christ, and had no jurisdiction in Scotland ; "the latter con- tended, •* that the passion of Christ was the only expiation for sin, and that the tribulations of this world were the only sufferings that the saints underwent." What rank and con- dition of life Gourlay moved in we are not informed, but David, we are told, was a fisherman, and we suppose con- sidered himself as well calculated to expound the mysteries of religion — fifteen hundred years after it had been established -*as the apostles, some of whom were fishermen, who were personally commissioi\ed by Chriat to teach his truths; and

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inspired bj the Holy Ghost to fulfil their commission. Whether the martyrs, Norman and David, would have re- mained unmolested, if David had not proved refractory with his vicar, we cannot teU, but the story informs us that the vicar asked David for his tithe-fish, and that David cast them out of the boat in so negligent a manner that some of thetn fell into the sea. Now this was very naughty of David, be- cause the vicar did not appropriate the tithes wholly to his own use, as the parsons do now-a-days under a Protestant reformed establishment, but he divided the tithes among the poor, the sick, the widow, and the stranger, and it was therefore an ill-natured trick of Davy, the fisherman, to prevent the Catholic vicar from performing these charitable acts. Well, for his siUy behaviour, he got accused of " having said that no tithes should be paid ; " and forthwith we find him and his companion, Gourlay, before the archbishop ; but how Gourlay came into custody we have no information. In the end they were " condemned as obstinate heretics, and sentenced to be burnt upon the green side, between Leith and Edinburgh, with a view to strike terror into the surrounding country." How "the surrounding country ^^ was to be terrified by this execution, is not explained to such of the good people as may read this famous Book of Martyrs ; however, it is said they addressed the spectators, and con- tinued to preach so long that the officers were under the necessity of stopping them. A moment's reflection, we think, is sufficient to shew the falsity of this relation. When we look at the state of letters in those times, and consider that literary knowledge was chiefly confined to the clergy and persons destined for the orders of the church ; when we take into consideration that printing was then scarcely known, and consequently that books were not so familiar to the working classes as they are now ; is it probable, we ask, that a poor fisherman should be able to teach and discuss such knotty points as the mysteries of religion, or that he should know better what to believe than all the learned men in the world for fifteen hundred years before him ? To entertain such an

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idea would be to prodaim a defect of common sense, yet is such trash sent forth in these ** enlightened " days, as they are called, to excite a hatred against the greater part of the Christian world.

The next story of martyrdom is still more ridiculous, and we shall not do justice to it unless we give it as it is related. The book says : — ** Not long after the burning of Stratton and Gourlay, dean Thomas Forret was accused to the bishop of I>unkeld, as * a heretic, and one that shewed the mys- teries of the scriptures to the vulgar people in their own language, to make the clergy detestable in their sight/

" The Wshop of Dunkeld said to him, * I love you well, and therefore I must give you my counsel, how you shall rule and guide yourself. My dear dean Thomas, I am informed that you preach the epistle or gospel every Sunday to your parishioners, and that you take not the cow, nor the upper- most doth, from your parishioners, which is very prejudicial to the churchmen ; and, therefore, I would you took your cow, and your uppermost cloth, as other churchmen do, or else it is too much to preach every Sunday ; for, in so doing you may make the people think that we should preach like- wise. But it is enough for you, when you find any good epistle, or any good gospel, tiiat setteth forth the liberty of the holy church, to preach that and let the rest be.'

<< Forret answered, ' My lord, I think that none <tf my parishioners will complain that I take not the oow, nor the uppermost doth, but will gladly give me the same, togeth^ with any other thing that they have ; and I will give and communicate with them any thing that I have; and so, my lord, we agree right well, and there is no discord among us. And where your lordship saith, ^Mt is too much to preach every Sunday," indeed I think it is too little ; and also would wish that your lordship did the like.' 'Nay, nay, dean Thomas,' cried the bish<^, ' let tbat be, for we are not or- dained to preach.'

"Then said Forret, * Where your lordship biddeth me preach when I fin^ any good epistle, or a goodgospd; tmly^

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mj lord^ I have read the New Testament and the Old, and all the epistles and gospels^ and among them all I could never find an evil epistle, or an evil gospel ; but if your lordship will shew me the good epistle, and the good gospel, and the evil epistle, and the evil gospel, then I shall preach the good and omit the evil.'

• " The bishop replied, * I thank Ood that I never "knew wh4U the Old and New Testament was; therefore, dean Thomas, I will know nothing but mj portuise and pontifical. Go your way, and let be all these fantasies, for if you perse- vere in these erroneous opinions, ye will repent when you may not mend it.'

" Forret said, * I trust my cause is just in the presence of God; and, therefore, I heed not much what may follow thereupon ; ' and so he departed.

^^A short time aflberwards he was summoned to appear before cardinal Beaton, archbishop of St. Andrew's; and, after a short examination, he was condemned to be burnt as a heretic. A similar sentence was pronounced, at the same time, on four other persons, named Killor, Beverage, Simson> and Foster ; and they were all burnt together on the castle- liiU at Edinburgh, February 28, 1538."

Having gone through this relation, we will now ask the reader if he ever met with such an improbable relation before ? Mercy upon us ! what must be the state of that man's intel- lect, who could give credit to such absurdity as this ? We hear much of the superior excellence of Protestant intellec- tual capacity ; but can those who give credit to such barefaced falsehoods as we have detected in this Book of Martyrs be fit for any thing but to inhabit a bedlam ? The recommen- dation of the bishop to the dean to take the cow and the uppermost cloth of the parishioners had been better omitted ; because it reminds us too closely of the griping dispositions of the Protestant established clergy in Ireland, to take the poor half-starved peasants' potato, and many is the time that the cow and sheep have been seized from the poor man, not- withstanding they were the support of his helpless family, to

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satiate the avarice of the unfeeling rector or his tithe-proctor. l)ut at the time Fox is speaking of, the cow and the cloth did not come within the claims of the clergy, who, not having wives to maintain, as parsons have now-a-days, seldom or ever took the tithe or due to the full demand, but rather assisted the labourer in his difficulties than ruined him when , in distress. Neither was it well conceived to hint at the backwardness of the bishop to preach, for we are again re- minded that the state bishops in these days are as little prone to preaching as ever the bishop of Dunkeld could be. But when the bishop is made to say that they (bishops) " are not ordained to preach ; " when he is made to ** thank God that he never knew what the Old and New Testament was," the lie is so palpable, so openly barefaced, that we blush for the depravity of that mind that could be so base, so lost to shame, as to publish it. The bishop not to know what the bible was ! when to bishops of the Catholic church we are in- debted for the preservation of that sacred volume. The bishop not to know what the Old and New Testament was, though he was compelled by the canons of his church to read certain portions of the scriptures every day in his life, and could not celebrate mass without reading some parts of one or both. Oh ! shame, where is thy blush ?

It is needless to enter into the details of all the persons selected as martyrs by John Fox ; we will therefore be brief with the remainder. Forret and four others are said to have suffered on February 28, 1538, and we have then two more, named Eussel and Kenedy, who were taken up the year fol- lowing, viz. 1539, and executed. Kenedy is described as a youth, eighteen years of age, and being inclined to recant, felt himself suddenly refreshed by divine inspiration, and became a new creature. They were examined, it is said, but we have no account of the examination ; however, being declared heretics, " the archbishop [says the book] pronounced the dreadful sentence of death, and they were immediately de- livered over to the secular power." Here is another direct falsehood ; for in no instance whatever do the clergy pro- Digitized by LjOOQ iC

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noonce sentence of death on any criminal. They are for- bidden to do so by the canons of the church, and it is an invariable rule, at this day, borrowed from our Catholic ancestors, for the bishops to retire from the House of Lords in all cases where that tribunal has to pass sentence on a convicted peer.

The next martyr we shall notice is George Wishart, whose death led to many important events. Nine pages are devoted to the details of this man's proceedings, and contain the veriest cant and absurdity to be met with. Eoiox, the famous John Knox, who cut such a conspicuous figure in the pil- lagings, rebellions, and outrages committed in Scotland under pretence of religion, was, it appears, a disciple of George Wishart. The death of this man is, as usual, laid at the door of " the inveterate and persecuting prelate," Cardinal Beaton. To go through the silly sickening detail would tire the reader ; we shall, therefore, content ourselves with noticing the account of his execution, to shew the total dis- regard paid to probability and truth. After being made to across the spectators, telling them to exhort their prelates to learn the word of God, though we always thought the prelates were to instruct the people, the narrative goes on, — ** He was then fastened to the stake, and the fagots being lighted, immediately set fire to the powder that was tied about him, and which blew into a flame and smoke. The governor of the castle, who stood so near that he was singed with the flame, exhorted our martyr, in a few words, to be of good cheer, and to ask pardon of Gt>d for his ofiPences. To which he replied, ' This flame occasions trouble to my body, indeed, but it hath no wise broken my spirit. But he who now so proudly looks down upon me from yonder lofty place,* pointing to the cardinal, ' shall, ere long, be as ignominiously thrown down, as now he proudly lolls at his ease.' When he had said this, the executioner pulled the rope which was tied about his neck, with great violence, so that he was soon strangled ; and the fire getting strength, burnt with such rapidity that in less than an hour his body was totally

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consumed." Is there any one in these days credulous enough to helieve that the governor was so much of a fool as to place himself so as to he singed with the flames that c(msumed the sufferer ? We think not Besides we are told, that as aeon as Wishart was fastened to the stake, the fagots were lighted which set fire to some powder tied ahout him, which blew into a flame and smoke. This flame and smoke must have rendered the criminal insensible, and it is, therefore, most unlikely that the governor should address a man stupifled by the blowing up of gunpowder, or that the culprit should be able to return such an answer as is imputed to him. Biit, observe, reader, after blowing up the victim, and then recov- ering him to reply to the governor, he is provided vnth a rope round his neck for the executioner to strangle him, which he does, it is said, with great violence, and here ends the martyr's sufierings. This bungling account of his death is sufficient to satisfy every sensible mind that much, at least, of the preceding part of the tale, is romance and fiction.

MURDER OF CARDINAL BEATON.

An account of this bloody deed follows the death of Wishart, who was said to have predicted the cardinal's un- timely end. We know not from whence Fox obtained the particulars of this event; we have examined Burnet and Heylin, but they differ widely from his narn^ive. If he copied from Buchanan, the character of this man, thus given by Dr. Heylin, a Protestant writer and divine, in his Cosmo- graphy, will shew that no reliance is to be placed on his testimony. — " George Buchanan, an ingenious poet, but an unsound statesman ; whose History and Dialogue De jurB Regniy have wrought more mischief in the world than all MachiavePs works." Dr. Stuart, another Protestant author, says of him : — " His zeal for the earl of Murray, overturned altogether his allegiance as a subject, and his integrity as a man. His activity against Mary in the conferences in Eng- land, was a strain of the most shameless corruption ; and

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ihe virolenoe with which he endeavoured to defame her by his writings^ was most audacious and criminal. They involve the comphcated charge of ingratitude, rebellion, aadpety'uryJ^ {Hist, of Scotland^ ii. 245.) So much for this writer, Bu- chanan, who may well be classed with Fox and the modem editors. But to the narrative. Fox says the cardinal went to Finhaven to solemnize a marriage between the eldest son of the earl of Crawford, and his own natural daughter, Mar- garet, and that while there, *^ he received intelligence that an English squadron was upon the coast, and that conse- quently an invasion was to be feared. Upon this he imme- diately returned to St. Andrew's, and appointed a day for the nobility and gentry to meet, and consult what was proper to be done on this occasion." From this statement it would seem that the cardinal was supreme in temporals, as well as in spirituals, or how could he siunmon the nobility to attend upon him ? As to the natural daughter, this is a gratuitous fabrication, to cast a slur on the celibacy of the Catholic clergy, which none of the reformed preachers had the gift to preserve. The appointment of a day of consultation we also deem a fiction ; for though the cardinal was, we believe, primate of the Scottish church, he was not the regent of the kingdom, whose province was to guard and protect the country against invasion. The fact is, the kingdom of Scot- land was at this time infected with the seditious doctrines of the Genevese reformers, whose horrible cruelties and restless doings we have displayed in our review of the pretended Huguenot martyrs. James V., who reigned in that kingdom, had been solicited by his uncle, Harry of England, to throw off his spiritual obedience to the see of Borne, but refused, and his premature death, leaving an infant daughter, the un- fortunate Mary, who was afterwards butchered by her cousin Elizabeth, then only a few days old, threw the kingdom into a state of confusion, and it became the prey of fanatical enthusiasm and faction. Such was the state of Scotland when the event took place of which we are treating. The manner in which the cardinal was put to death we shall give

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from the Book of Martyrs. It says, ^< In the mean time, Norman Lesley, eldest son of the earl of Bothes, who had heen treated by the cardinal with injustice and contempt^ formed a design^ in conjunction with his uncle, John Lesley, who hated Beaton, and others who were inflamed against him on account of his persecution of the Protestants, the death of Wishart, and other causes, to assassinate the pre- late, though he now resided in the castle of St. Andrew's, which he was fortifying at great expense, and had, in the opinion of that age, already rendered it almost impregnable. The cardinal's retinue was numerous, the town was at his devotion, and the neighbouring country full of his dependents. However, the conspiratoi-s, who were in number only sixteen, having concerted their plan, met together early m the morn- ing, on Saturday, the 29th of May. The first thing they did was to seize the porter of the castle, from whom they took the keys and secured the gate. They then sent four of their party to watch the cardinal's chamber, that he might have no notice given him of what was doing ; after which they went and called up the servants and attendants, to whom they were well known, and turned them out of the gate, to the number of fifty, as they did also upwards of an hundred workmen, who were employed in the fortifications and build- ings of the castle ; but the eldest son of the regent, (whom the cardinal kept with him, under pretence of superintending his education, but, in reality^ as an hostage,) they kept for their own security.

" All this;was done with so little noise that the cardinal was not waked tiU they knocked at his chamber door ; upon which he cried out,' * Who is there ? ' John Lesley answered, • My name is Lesley.' * Which Lesley ? ' inquired the cardinal ; * is it Norman ? ' It was answered, that he must open the door to those who were there'; but, instead of this, he barricadoed it in the best manner he could. However, finding that they had brought fire in order to force their way, and they having, as it is said by some, made him a promise of his life, he opened the door. They immediately entered with their

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swords drawn, and John Lesley smote him twice or thrice, as did also Peter Carmichael ; but James Melvil (as Mr. Knox relates the affair) perceiving them to be in choler, said, * This work sLnd judgment of God, although it be seci'et, ought to be done with greater gravity : ' and presenting the point of his sword to the cardinal, said to him, * Eepent thee of thy wicked life, but especially of the shedding of the blood of that notable instrument of God, Mr. George Wishart, which albeit the flame of fire consumed before men, yet cries it for vengeance upon thee ; and we from God are sent to revenge it. For here, before my God, I protest, that neither the hatred of thy person, the love of thy riches, nor the fear of any trouble thou couldst have done to me in particular, moved or moveth me to strike thee ; but only because thou hast been, and remainest, an obstinate enemy of Christ Jesus and his holy gospel.' Having said this, he with his sword run the cardinal twice or thrice through the body ; who only said, ' I am a priest — fie ! fie ! all is gone ! ' and then ex- pired, being about fifty-two years of age."

We have here the acknowledgment of Fox, or his modem editors, that a set of the ** saints " were " inflamed'* against the cardinal, and that another Tiated him. But how different is this disposition to that which is taught in the gospel of Christ, and which these pretended reformers ^professed to follow. The rule laid down in the sacred volume by our Divine Lawgiver was, that we should love our enemies, return good for evil, and pray for those that persecute ^b ; but here, we are told, the " new lights *' entered into a murderous and secret design to assassinate an individual who Jiad rendered himself obnoxious to them by his zeal for the e£tablished order of things. We are not going to justify^ the burnings of cardinal Beaton, because we are not su£Sciendy acquainted with the history of those transactions; but this much may be said, that what he did was done under the sanction of the established laws and usages of the country, and it cannot be proved, though it may be asserted (falsely), that he was ac- tuated by any other motive than a sense of justice towards

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society, the peace of whicb was endangered by the wild and lati- tudinarian notions of the disciples of Calvin's school. The executions under the cardinal must be attribifted to the turbulence of the times, and it would have been much better if the veil of oblivion had been thrown over the deeds of those ages, than to have them placed constantly before the eyes of the ignorant multitude for the express and professed purpose of exciting the same passion, namely ha.tb£D, against the Catholics of the present day, that the bloody conspirators of the sixteenth century had imbibed against cardiiial Beaton. How much more to the credit of these enlightened days would a contrary line of conduct have been ; and instead of exciting hatred against the professors of the most ancient faith of Christendom, a desire had been evinced to see justice done to all parlies, and the spirit of charity spread among dissentients on speculative doctrine. But since the Catholics have been so unceasingly and widely repres^ited as cruelly inclined from the principles of their religion, it becomes the bounden duty of a press devoted to the cause of truth, to let the public see both sides of the case, in order that a fair and just conclusion may be formed of the respective merits due to the party said to be persecutors, and the party said to be persecuted. It is with this feeling we have taken up our pen, and with no other view will we continue to exer- cise it, than that of enabling our readers to gather from our pages that knowledge of the history of the pretended Refor- mation so essential for them to know.

In the primitive ages of Christianity we observe nbthing of the disposition shewn by the new reformers, who pretended to discover corruptions in the then established religion of all nations. On the contrary^ we find the martyrs suffering persecution for righteousness sake, and confessing their faith in Christ with courage and fortitude, but at fhe same time with meekness and submission to their temporal rulers. Not so, however, with the evangelical preachers of the new doctrines. They were inflamed with a diabolical hatred towards those whom they deemed their oppressors, and under

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the cloak of the most blasphetnous protences tbey (sommitted murder and rebdlion. We see it admitted by Fox, or the hatred-inuring editors, that the work of assassination was committed in cold blood, on the part of one of the assassins, who affirmed that it was a judgment of God, and consequently tiiat they looked upon themsdiyes as the instruments of divine vengeance, in seeking to satiate their malice. How far their judgment waa correct we will leave Burnet to decide, who observes, ** that scarce any of the coni^iratorti died an ordi- nary death ; " from which wemay conclude that the vengeance of God followed them for the diabdical deed, and the blas- phemous pretensions under which it was perpetrated.

There is another circumstance .connected with this affair mentioned by Dr. Heylin, in his Sistorp of the Presby^ terianSf wimk is not generally known, abd therefore deserves our notice. Speaking of the cardinaFs death, this historian says, " In the relating of which murder, in Knox's History, a note was given us in the mar^ent of the first edition, printed at London, in octavo, which points us to the yodly cusi and saying of James Melvin, for so the author calls this 1/iMBt wii^sd deed. But that edition being stop()ed at the press by the queen's command, the history never came out perfect till the year of our Lord 1644; when the word godly was left out of the marginal note, for the avoidiiig of that horrible scandal which had h^den thereby given to all sober readers.'* Who, indeed, but must be scandalized and horri- fied at the conduct, of men, who, setting themselves tip for the reformers of cormption and the preachers of true doctrine, held out tmurder, secret coldblooded assassination, as a

60DLT ACT?

The^ death of Cardinal Beaton was the signal for the work of x^ormation in Scotland, which consequently had its rise in heartless revenge, shocking barbarity, religious mockery, and deliberate murder. The base then on which the thing called the Heformation was raised was composed of tnaterials containing the opposite qualities to those on which the Chns- tiao religion was founded. By the latter, man was taught, VOL. II. &

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as we have before obseryed, to forgive an enemy, and to stifle in his. heart the motions of anger; but we see the reformers, who pretended to act under the immediate impiSse of the Spirit of God, and to have been commissioned bj him to reform his church, transported with rage and inflamed with savage fury, breaking into the room of an old man, and there, with fiend-like malice, glutting their vengeance with the victim's blood. Nor did their fury cease with the death of their victim; for after the perpetration of the horrible deed, they exposed the mangled body of the cardinal over the walls of the castle, as a signal of their revolt against the constituted authorities of the country.

The latter and most important part of the aflair has been suppressed by the modem editors, conceiving, we suppose, that but little credit would be added to their cause by a detail of the subsequent proceedings of these godly acUyin in the work of reforming Popery. We, however, have no such feelings, as we consider a full exposure of the deeds of the reforming heroes the best way to enaUe the reader to come to a right decision on their merits. Heylin says: *^li was upon the 19th of May, 1547, that the nmrderers possessed themselves of that strong place, into which many flocked from all parts of the realm, both to congratulate the act and assist the actors ; so that at last they cast themsdves into a congre- gation, and chose John Bough (who afterwards suffered death in England) to be one of their preachers ; John Knox, that great incendiary of the realm of Scotland, for another of them. And thus they stood upon their guard till the coming of one and twenty gallies and some land forces out of France, by whom the castle was besieged, and so fiercely battered, that they were forced to yield on the last of July, without obtaining any better conditions than the hope of life."-* {Hist. ofPres. I. iv. p. 123.) How they passed their time in the castle, while in a state of open rebellion against the regent, and after they had ** cast themselves into a congre- gation," we may learn from the account of Buchanan, a Presbyterian writer, and himself a zealous promoter of the

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Beformation. He informs us, that " they made a very bad use of this respite, which this temporal accommodation pro- cured them ; and that, notwithstanding the admonitions of Knox, they spent the time in whoredom and adultery ^ and all the vices of idleness."— (6?u<Arw'5 Hist, of Scot. v. 397.) A precious edifying assembly to compose the first Presby- terian congregation or parish of Scotland, with John Knox at their head. It is not a little curious, too, that one of the conditions of the surrender of this pious knot of rebellious whoremongers and adulterers was, ^* that the government should procure imto them a sufficient absolution from the pope ; and that themselves should give pledges for surrender- ing the casde, how soon the absolution was brought from Home, and deFivered unto them." — {Ibid. 306.) Thus these reforming saints could add hypocrisy to the list of their other crimes; but it is no wonder, for villains of a deeper dye never disgraced human nature than those who broached and carried on the Keformation, as it is called, of Scotland. They may be equalled in this work of iniquity, but they never can be excelled.

PROGRESS OF THE REFORMATION IN SCOTLAND.

After recounting the execution of two other of the refor- mers, named Wallace and Mille, the modem editors conclude their account of the persecution in these words : — " The death of Walter Mille proved the overthrow of Popery in Scotland. The clergy were so sensible that their affairs were falling into decay, that they, from that time, never dared to proceed to a capital punishment, on account of religion : insomuch, that in the synod held in Edinburgh, in July, this year, 1558, some persons who had been impeached of heresy, were only> condemned, upon their non appearance, to make a public re- cantation at the market-cross of that city, on the Ist of. September following, being St. Giles's day, the titular bishop of that place. It was usual, at the feast of this saint, which now nearly approached, to carry his image in procession through the town, and the queen^regent was to honour the B 2

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solemnity with her presence ; but when the time was come, the image was missing, it haying been stolen from its station by some who were too wise to pray to it. This caused a halt to be made, till another image was borrowed from the Grey- friars, with which they set forward : and after the queen had accompanied them a considerable way, she withdrew into the castle, where ^he was to dine. But no sooner was she gone, than some persons, who had been purposely appointed, tore the picture from off the shoulders of those who carried it, threw it into the dirt, and totally destroyed it. This gave such universal satisfaction to the people, that a general shout ensued, and a riot continued in the streets during some hours ; which was at length suppressed by the vigilance of the magistrates.

'' About the same time a great disturbance happened at Perth, the circumstances attending which were as follow: a celebrated reformist minister having preached to a numer^ ous congregation, after sermon was over some godly persons remained in the church, when a priest was s(i. imprudent as to open a case, in which was curiously engraved the figures of many saints : after which he made preparations for saying mass. A young man observing this, said aloud, ' This is intolerable ! As Qod plainly condemns, in scripture, idolatry, shall we stand and see such an insult? ' The priest was so offended at this, that he struck the youth a violent blow on the head, on which he broke one of the figures in the case, 'When immediately aU the people fell on {he priest and de^^ stroyed every thing in the church that tended to idolatry. This being soon known abroad, the people assembled in large bodies, and proceeded to the monasteries of the Grey and Black Friars, both of which they stripped ; and then pulled down the house of the Carthusians ; so that in the space of two days nothing remained of those noble buildings but the bare walls. The like kind of outrages were committed in many other towns in the kingdom.

" At this time there were many persons who made it their busmess to solicit subscriptions in order to carry on the work

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of Reformation, and to abolish Popery. Among these were several of the nobility, particularly the earl of Argyle, the lord James Stuart, the earl of Glencairn, &c. The endea- vours of these nohU reformists were attended with such success that they at length effected a complete Reformation m the kingdom; though they met with many obstacles from their inveterate enemies the papists J*

Taking this account to be genuine, are the transactions therein detailed creditable to the cause of reform, and that reform said to be of a religious nature ? Did the apostles and their successors, the bishops and priests of the Catholic church, act thus when they planted Christianity in a Pagan country ? Do we read of such exploits as are here unblush- ingly related, when Paganism was subdued and Christianity established in any part of the world through the labours of Catholic missionaries? It stands acknowledged that the Catholics were violently attacked, that sedition and outrage followed the sermon of a celebrated reformist minister, and that the work of destruction was commenced by some ^^ godly persons.'* WE« an admission ! Could that religion which, it is here admitted, began with the destruction of noble buildings and *^ the like outrages " throughout the kingdom, be grounded on the sublime principles laid down in the gospel of Christ? It is impossible. But the most curious part of the tale is that where we are told many persons made it their business to solicit •ubscriptions in order to carry on the work of Eeformation, and to abolish Popery I Solicit sub" soriptions, truly 1 Ah, ah ! had they confined themselves to solicitations, indeed, as the bible-mongers of the present day are forced to do, the Reformationf as it is miscalled, would have made as little progress under the hands of the early Scotch fanatics, as the abolition of Popery does under the modern retailers of calumny against Catholicism, We have historians, however, of greater credit than our hatred-exciting editors, who give a very different colour to the transactions above quoted. The solicitations are represented by them to have been menacing demands, and the subscry^tions na

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other than forcible conJisecUions. The " noble reformists *' were not endued with the gifib of persuasion, nw were thejr armed with the shield of truth ; they therefore combined to employ brute force to aid the mad preachings of Knox and his associates, by which they plunged their country into a state of anarchy and desolation, which, after years of blood and misery, ended in the establishment of Presbyterianism, but not in the total destruction of Catholicism. Its seed was never extinct, and at this day it is flourishing in that part of the island as well as in this.

After the perpetration of the above outrages. Dr. Heylin says, the constituted authcMrities used much diligence to find out the principal actors, but '' the brethren kept themselves together in such companies, tinging psalms, and openly tncourciging one another, that no one durst lay hands upon them." A very pious way, the reader will say, to preach the gospel of Christ and true religion. It may be necessary here to observe, that these rebellious proceedings were the off- spring of a connection with John Calvin and the Genevian consistorians, who were in open rebellion against their prince, and had excited a rebellion in the kingdom of France ; and the first fruit of them was a common band or covenant, signed by the earls of Argyle, Glencaim, and Morton, &c., in the name of themselves, their vassals, tenants, and de- fendants, the tenure of which was to venture their lives to establish what they called ** the most blessed word of God and his congregation." This beginning made, the work of confusion soon followed. We have seen the account from Fox of the outrages committed at Perth, but his story is not altogether correct. He attributes the commencement of the riot to the imprudence of a priest in attempting to say mass, and opening a curious case engraved with images, one of which he breaks about the head of a young man. This is mere fiction, introduced to screen the unprovoked assault^ by casting the blame on the suffering party. Dr. Heylin gives the following account of this affair ; — ^After stating that Knox arrived at Perth on the 5th of May^ 1559j he goes on: "Ixi

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the chief church whereof, he preached such a thundering sermon against the adoration of images, and the advancing of them in places of God's public worship, as suddenly beat down all the images and religious houses within the pre- cincts of that town. For presently after the end of the sermon, when almost all the rest of the people were gone home to dinner, some few which remained in the church pulled down a glorious tabernacle which stood on the altar, broke it in pieces, and defaced the images which they found therein* Which being dispatched, they did the like execution on all the rest in that church ; and were so nimble at their work, that they had made a clear riddance of them, before the tenth man in the town was advertised of it. The news hereof causeth the rascal multitude [so my author calls them] to resort in great numbers to the church.'' He concludes by describing the destruction of the monasteries in nearly sim- ilar words as Fox. The doctor then informs us, that Ejiox left Perth in company with Argyle, &c., on his way to^ St, Andrew's, and that preaching at a town called Craile, his ^' exhortation so prevailed upon most of the hearers, that immediately tliey betook themselves to the pulling down of altars and images ; and finally, destroyed all monuments of superstition and idolatry which they found in the town.'* The like proceedings took place at a place called Anstruther, from whence they marched to St. Andrew's, " in the parish church whereof," continues the historian, "Knox preached upon our Saviour's casting the buyers and sellers out of the temple, and with his wonted rhetoric so inflamed the people, that they committed the like outrages there, as before at Perth, destroying images, and pulling down the houses of the Black and Grey friars, with the like dispatch." This last outrage took place on the 11th of June, so that the evangelists made quick work from the first preaching of Knox. The next scene of dilapidation was the monastery of Scone, long famous for being the place where the kings of Scotland were crowned ; the churches and monasteries of Stirling and Lin- lithgow were next sacked and destroyed; and Edinburgh

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shared the same fate. Dr. Hejlm «ajs, l^e queen retired from the latter place to Dunhar in great fear, and the lord Seaton, then provost of the town, staid not long hehkd her. " But," he continues, " he was scarce gone out of the city^ when the rascal rabble fell on the religious houses, destroyed the conyents of the Black, and Grey ftiars, with all the odier monasteries about the town, and shared amongst them all the goods which they found in Uiose houses ; in whi<5h they made such quick dispatql^, that Uiey had finished that part of the Eeformation, before the two lords and their attendimts could come in to help them."

Such were the beginnings in Scotland of that change in religion which is called the Beformation. Our blessed Saviour, when he established his church, laid down fixed rules for his mini8ter^ to follow;; and when he was tempted by his enemies with rc^gard to his loyalty and allegiance to the Boman emperor, who then reigned in Judea, his answer was : " Better unto Qpsar ike thmgs that belong to Casar; and to God the things that belong to God,'' In every case, as we have before remarked* ihe«^>Qstles and their successors, on planting the Catholic faith in a Pagan soil, invariably followed this maxim. The celigion they preached was to fit them for another world, by making them better members of this. The kingdom they cwne to establish was not of this world, but a supernatural (me, of which Christ was the head, and the pope his visible vioegeront on earth. Henee in every kingdom of the globe which received the Ught of £uth, monarchs, legislators, and people, alike acknowledged the spiritual supremacy of the pope, while, at the same time, they were equally as tenacious of their own temporal rights and independence, nay, more so than when they were heathens, ^t least, such was the conduct of our English forefathers ; and who has not heard of those Scottish heroes, Bruce and Wallace, who w^re both standi Catholics? When the pretended reformers and disciples of evangelical liberty began to dogmatize, however, they preached up destruclioa and fury to the Catholic constituted authorities^ which they

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cloaked under the hypocritical cant of rooting out idolatry and superstition, which cry is now set up by the bible and school-mongers of the evangelical caste of the present day. Forgetful of the commands of God, to go and teach all nations ; or rather, sensible that they had no claim to such divine commission, instead of persuasion and the power of miracles they had recourse to physical force, and the engines of death and destruction. We see them here in open re- bellion against their sovereign, carrying the work of desolation and pillage in their train, and fired with the most intolerant passions against everything that savoured of Catholicism. Dr. Heylin tells us, that at the outset of the violent pro- ceedings of Knox and his party, the queen-regent issued a proclamation, in which she declared that her wish was to satisfy every man's conscience, and therefore she would call a parliament for establishing order. That, in the mean time, every man should be suffered to live at liberty, using their own consciences without trouble, until further orders. She also charged the congregation with seeking more for the subversion of the crown than the benefit of religion. This proclamation wad answered by the congregationalists, in which they denied any other intention than to banish idolatry (t, e. Catholicism), to advance true religion, and defend the preachers thereof ; that they were ready to continue in all duty toward their sovereign, provided they might have the free exercise of their religion. Here, then, we see the alle- giance of these Protestant reformers made conditional, while the allegiance of the Catholic, under all circumstances, is unconditional, according to the laws and principles of the • constitution under which they live. As to their love of liberty of conscience, about which so much noise has been made and clamour raised against the Catholic church, the reforming or rebel party soon gave an example of what was to be ex- pected from the liberality of their principles. Dr. Heylin says, that they wrote letters to the queen-regent herself, <* whom they assured, in the close, that if she would make use of her authority for the abolishing of idolatry and super- R 3

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stitious abuses which agreed not with the word of God, 8]ie should find them as obedient as any subjects within the realm. Which, in plain truth^ was neither more nor less than this, — that if they might not have their wills in the point of religion, she was to look for no obedience from them in other matters ; whereof they gave sufficient proof by their staying in Edinburgh, her command to the contrary notwith- standing ; by pressing more than ever for a toleration, and adding this over and above to their former demands, that such French forces as remained in Scotland might be dis- banded and sent ba<;k to their native country. In the first of which demands they were so unreasonable, that when the queen offered them the exercise of their own religion, upon condition that when she had occasion to make use of any of their churches for her own devotions, such exercise might be suspended, and the mass only used in that conjuncture, they would by no means yield unto it ; and they refused to yield unto it for this reason only, because it would be in hex power, by removing from one place to another, to leave them without any certain exercise of their religion, which in effect was utterly to overthrow it. And hereto they were pleased to add, that, as they could not hinder her from exercising any religion which she had a mind to (but this was more than they would stand to in their better fortunes), so could they not agree that the ministers of Christ should be silenced upon any occasion, and much less, that the true worship of God should give place to idolatry. A point to wliich they stood so stiffly, that when the queen-regenf had resettled her court at Edinburgh, she coold neither prevail so far upon the magistrates of that city, as either to let her have the church of St. Giles to be appropriated only to the use of the mass, or that the mass might be said in it at such vacant times in which they made no use of it for themselves or their minis- ters." Thus it will be seen that on the very outset of the pretended liberty-loving Eeformation, the most intolerant system of persecution was commenced against the professors of the ancient faith of Christendc .

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These proceedings of the '* noble reformists " and evan- gelical tribe were succeeded by other treasonable outrages. The lords of the congregation excited the whole kingdom, bj a written instrument, to rise in arms, and now the country was distracted with a civil war carried on by religious fanati- cism on one hand, and a struggle to preserve lawful authority on the other. One of the most successful engines used by Protestants against the Catholics of this kingdom has been the supposed authority of the pope to depose kings. Of the two hundred and odd bishops that have filled the chair of St. F^ter, not half a dozen ever laid claim to this power, and then not by the divine authority of the church, which could not communicate such power to any of them, but by the chrcumstances in which Christendom was then placed, the monarchs looking upon the pope as the common father of the faitiiful, and often appealing to him to settle their differences ; and it may be here observed, that in no instance did the popes attempt to avail themselves of this power but in cases where the monarchs were the most immoral and tyrannical of their class, hated by the nobles and detested by the people. But not one of these obnoxious rulers lost his throne through the interference of any of the popes, though many Catholic sovereigns have felt the weight of the deposing power introduced by the very men who raised the cry against the pope. As an instance, we must here mention what took place at the period when the sham Beformatipn was set on foot in Scotland. We have noticed the excitement to re- bellion by the lords of tSe congregation ; this was followed by a resolution, Dr. Heylin says, to put in execution what had been long in deliberation, that is to say, the deposing op the queen-regent from the public government. " But first," writes the doctor, ** they must consult their ♦ ghostly fathers 9 that hy their countenance and authority y they might more certiunly prevail upon all such persons as seemed unsatisfied in the point. Willock and Knox are chosen above all the rest to resolve this doubt, if, at the least, any of lliem doubted of it, which may well be questioned.

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They were both factors for Geneva, and therefore both obliged to advance her intQrest^ Willock declares that» albeit God had appointed magistrates only to be his lieutenants on earth, honouring them with his own title, and calling them gods ; yet did he never so establish any, but that for just causes they might be deprived. Which having proved by some examples out of holy scripture, he thereupon inferred, that since the queen-regent had denied her chief duty to the subjects of this realni^ which was to preserve them from in- vasion of strangers, and to suJSer the word of Gdd to be freely preached ; seeing also she was a maintmner of super'- stition, and despised the counsel of the nobility; he did think they might j'mtly deprive her from all regiment and authority over them, Knox goes to work more cautiously, hut comes home at last ; for having first approved whatsoever had been said by Willock, he adds this to it, that the iniquity of the queen-regent ought not ta withdraw their hearts from the obedience due to their severely ; nor did he wish that any such sentence against her should be pronounced, but that when she should change her course, and submit herself to good counsels, there should be {jace left unto her to regress to the same honours from which, for just cause, she ought to be deprived." Such were the opinions of the apostles of the Heformation in Scotland, so lauded by the modem editors of the Book of Martyrs ; but we should be glad to learn whether they dare tp avow, at tlus day, the oorrediness of these opinions on which the blessed Beformation was founded. If they did, we think they would soon have the attorney-general teaching them to change their opinions.

Having shewn the pernicious tendency of the civil doc- trines, we must now give the read^ some idea of the stability they attached to their articles of faith. Hitherto no parti- cular creed had been followed, but on the death of Mary of England, and the accession of Elizabeth^ finding it necessary to secure the interests of the latter queen^ the liturgy of the English church established by Elizabeth was the form of worship adopted by the Scotch rebel reformers, by solemn

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sdljscription. But when the king of Francoi Fratids II., who was the husband of the unfortunate Mary, died, and the reformers were no longer in fear of the French, they then began to discover their affections for the Genevian discipline and creed, and their distaste to the form which they before solemnly subscribed to. Dr. Heylin tells us that *^ Knox had before devised a new Book of Discipline, contrived, for the most part, after Calvin's platform, and a new form of Common-prayer was digested also, more consonant to his infallible judgment than the English liturgy. But hitherto they had both lain dormant, because they stood in need of such help from England, as could not be presumed on with so great a c(mfidence, if they had openly declared any dissent or disaffection to the public forms which were established in that church* Now their estate is so much bettered by the death of the king, the sad condition of their queen, and the assurances which they had from the court of England (from whence the earls of Morton and Glencaim were returned with comfort), that they resolve to perfect what they had begun : to prosecute the desolation of religious houses, and the spoil of churches ; to introduce their new forms, and suspend the old. For compassing of which end they sum- moned a convention of the estates to be held in January.

^* Now in this book of discipline,'^ continues the doctor, ** they take upon them to innovate in most things formerly observed and practised in the church of Christ, and in some things which themselves had settled, as the groundwork of the Beformation. They take upon them to discharge the accustomed fasts, and abrogate all the ancient festivals, not sparing those which did relate particularly unto Christ our Saviour, as his nativity, passion, resurrection, &c. They condemn the use of the cross in baptism, give way to the intradnction of the new order of Geneva for ministering the sacrament of the Lord's Supper, and commend sitting for the most proper and convenient gesture to be used at it. They require lliat all churches not being parochial should be forthwith demolished, declare al foims of God's public wor-

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ship, which are not prescrihed in his word, to he meil' idolatry, and that none ought to administer the holy sacra- ments but such as are qualified for preaching. They appoint the catechism of Geneva to he taught in their schools, or- dained three uniyersities to he made and continued in that kingdom, mAi salaries proportioned to the professors in all arts and sciences, and time assigned for heing graduated in the same. They decree also in the same, that tithes should he no longer paid to the Romish clergy, hut that they shall he taken up hy deacons and treasurers, hy them to be em- ployed fDr maintenance of the poor^ the ministers, and the said universities. They complained yery sensibly of the tyranny of lay-patrons and impropriators in exacting their tithes, in which they are said to be more cruel «nd unmer- ciful than the popish priests ; and therefore take upon them to determine, as in point of law, what 'commodities shall he tithable, what not; and declare also that all leases and alienations which formerly had heen made of tithes, should be utterly Toid." Then followed some regulations touching the ministry of the sacrament and preaching, by which it was ordered that the ministers should be elected by the congregation. The reader will here contrast the discipline set forth in this book, with the mode practised by the primi- tive Christians, and followed by every nation that received the faith of Christ. Dr. Heylin says that they began with INNOYATIOM, and even changed that which they before con- sidered the groundwork of their Eeformation. Under these circumstances it is impossible that the proceedings of these rebel reformers could be guided by the influence of truUi, because truth is always one and ihe same^ and will not bear inruwation or change. The work, then, of these ^' noble reformists,'' as thej are stiled by the modem editors, must have been instigated by the powers of darkness, under which it is dear they acted.

It is said by our divine Saviour, that the goodness of the tree shall be known by its fruit, and common sense tells us it b only by following this rule that we can come to a right

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conclusion on the respective merits of the Beformation, so called, and the principal actors therein. We have seen them changing their creed as hirds do their feathers, but they clung with more pertinacity to the work of destruction. They solicited of the convention of estates, in the absence of the queen, for leave to demolish all the monuments of snperstUion and idolatry, by which they meant all cathedral churches, as well as monasteries and other religious houses, and before they could have the assent or dissent of the queen or her oouncil, they proceeded to execute ecclesiastical cen- * sures, and arrogate to themselves the authority of nominating their own ministers over the heads of the old incumbents, and to hold their general assemblies. Emboldened by these unjustifiable acts, for they were neither authorized by law> confirmed by the queen, nor sanctioned by the convention of estates, a petition is directed to the lords of the secret council from the assemblies of the church, in which their lordships are solicited to make quick work of it. ^' On the receipt of this petition," writes Dr. Heylin, " an order pre- sently is made by the lords of the council, for granting all which was desired ; and had more been desired, they had granted more, so formidable were the brethren grown to the opposite party. Nor was it granted in words only which took no effect, but execution caused to be done upon it ; and warrants to that purpose issued to the earls of Arran, Argyle, and Glencairn, the lord James Stuart, <&c. Whereupon followed a pitiful devastation of churches and church- buildings in all parts of the realm ; no difiBrence made, but all religious edifices of what sort soever, were either terribly defaced, or utterly ruinated ; the holy vessels, and whatsoever else could be turned into money, as lead, bells, timber, glass, &c., were publicly exposed to sale ; the very sepulchres of the dead not spared; the registers of the church, and the libra- ries thereunto behnginy, defaced and thrown into the fire* Whatsoever had escaped the former tumults^ is now made subject to destruction ; so much the worse^ because the violence and sacrilegious actings of these church-robbers had

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now the countenance of law. And to this work of spoil and rapine, men of all ranks and orders were observed to put their helping hands ; men of most note and quality being forward in it, in hope of getting to themselves the most part of the booty ; those of the poorer sort, in hope of being gratifi^ for their pwns therein by their lords and patrons. Both sorts encouraged to it by the zealous madness of som^ of their seditious preaeherSy who frequently cried out, that the places where idols had been worshipped, ought by the law of God, to be destroyed ; that the sparing of them was the reserving of things execrable ; and that the command- ment given to Israel for destroying the places where the Ganaanites did worship their false gods, was a just warrant to the people for doing the like. By which encouragements the madness of the people was transported beyond the bounds which they had first prescribed unto it. In the beginning of the heats, they designed only the destruction of religious houses, for fear the monks and friars might otherwise be restored in time to their former dwellings ; but they pro- ceeded to the demolishing of cathedral churches, and ended in the ruin of parochial also ; the chancels whereof were sure to be levelled in all places, though the aisles and bodies of ihem might be spared in some."

Such was the deplorable effect of the Beformation, as it is called, in Scotland ; an effect much more destructive and disastrous to learning and the sciences than the devastating rapacity of the reformers in England, who, by adhering to the order of episcopacy, preserved in some degree the beautiful cathedrals which adorned the kingdom, many of which are standing now, a sad testimony of the superiority of the " dark ages " of monkery and Catholicism, over' the enlightened days of bible reading and sectarianism. The conduct of the un- fortunate Mary in these days of tribulation and adversity was that of a just and amiable sovereign, desirous of allaying the spirit of innovation by mild and gentle means, and granting the utmost liberty of conscience to those who had imbibed, the noxious doctrines of Calvin and £noz. But

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lihese Christian feelings did not satisfy the hoisterous refor- mers, who openly railed at the stipends proposed to be granted to their minbters, and exclaimed at the Catholic clergy being paid and encouraged in their idolatrous practices. John Knox, with daring impudence, raved in the pulpit against his sovereign, a beautiful and defenceless woman, and even in- sulted her to her face at a conference she granted him. The modem editors of Pox's Book of Martyrs, we have no doubt, are all loyal men to the backbone, and would consent freely to the punishment of any of those individuals who lately sought a redress of the abuse known to exist in the civil administration of the country. They make a great noise about the tyranny of the Catholic church, and the cruelties of the inquisition ; and they have lauded to the highest heavens tiie conduct of the authors of the Beformation, so called, in England and in Scotland; but they have most carefully concealed the blood-thirsty tyranny, the diabolical robberies and murders, the barbarous outrages, and the despotic temper of the miscreants who figured in that affair. It is but right however that the people should be informed of the proceedings which marked that epoch. We are, therefore, rejoiced that our loyal modem editors have imposed the task upon us ; but that we may not be charged with dealing in assertions, with- out advancing proofs, we. will here give the. words of Dr. Heylin, from his " History of the Presbyterians," from which we have before quoted. Thus writes this author: — "At Midsummer they held a general assembly, and there agreed upon the form of a petition to be presented to the queen in tlie name of the kirk ; the substance of it was for abolbhing the mass, and other superstitious rites of the Eomish religion ; for inflicting some punishment against blasphemy, adultery, contempt of word, the profanation of sacraments, and other like vices condemned by the word of God, whereof the laws of the realm did not ts^e any hold ; for referring all actions of divorce to the church's judgment, or at the least' to men of good knowledge and conversation ; for excluding all popish churchmen from holding any place in council or session ; and

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finally, for the increase and more assured payment of the minister's stipends, but more particularly for appropriating the glebes and houses unto them alone. This was the sum of their desires, but couched in such irreverent, coarse, and hitter expressions, and those expressions justi^ed with such animosities, that Lethington (the secretary of state) had much ado to prevail upon them for puttmg it into a more dutiful and civil language. All which the queen knew well enough, and therefore would afford them no better answer, but that she would do nothing to the prejudice of that re- ligion which she then professed ; and that she hoped to have mass restored, before the end of the year, in all parts of the kingdom. Which being so said, or so reported, gave Knox occasion in his preachings before the gentry of Kyle and Galloway (to which he was commissioned by the said as- sembly) to forewarn some of them of the dangers which would shortly follow ; and thereupon earnestly to exhort them to take such order that they might be obedient to authority, and yet not suffer the enemies of God's truth to have the upper hand. And they, who understood his meaning at half a word, assembled themselves together on the 4th of Sept., at the town of Ayr, where they entered into a common bond, subscribed by the earl of Glencaim, the lords Boyd and Uchiltry, with one hundred and thirty more of note and quality, besides the provost and burgesses of the town of Ayr, which made forty more. The tenor of which bond was this that foUoweth :-^

<^ ^ We whose names are underwritten, do promise in the presence of God, and in the presence of his Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, that we and every one of us, shall and will maintain the preaching of his holy evangel, now of ^is mercy offered and granted to this realm ; and also will main- tain the ministers of the same against all persons, power and authority, that will oppose themselves to the doctrine proposed, and by us .received. And farther, with the same solemnity we protest and promise that ev^ one of us shall assist

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another, jea, and the whole body of the Protestants within this realm, in all lawful and just occasions, against all per- sons ; so that whosoever shall hurt, molest, or trouble any of our bodies, shall be reputed enemies to the whole, except that the offender will be content to submit himself to the govern- ment of the church now established amongst us. And this we do, as we desire to be accepted and favoured of the Lord Jesus, and accepted worthy of credit and honesty in the presence of the godly.'

^^ And in pursuance of this bond, they seize upon some priests, and give notice to others, that they would not trouble themselves of complaining to the queen or council, but would execute the punishment appointed to idolaters in the law of God, as they saw occasion whensoever they should be appre- hended. At which the queen was much offended ; but there was no remedy. All she could do, was once again to send for Enox, and to desire him so to deal with the barons and other gentlemen of the west, that they would not punish any man for the cause of religion, as they had resolved. To which he answered with as little reverence as at other times, that if her majesty would punish malefactors according to the laws, he durst assure her, that she should find peace and quietness at the hand of those who professed the Lord Jesus in that kingdom : that if she thought or had purposed to allude the laws, there were some who would not fail to let the Papists understand, that they should not be suffered without jaunUhment to offend their God. Which said, he went about to prove in a long discourse, that others were by God intrusted wiUi the sword of justice, besides kings and princes ; which kings and princes, if they/at/^ in the right use of it, and drew it not against offenders, thegr must not look to find obedience from the rest of the subjects,

'^ The same man (Enox) preaching afterwards at one of their general assemblies, made a distinction between the ordinance of God, and the persons placed by him in authority ;

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and then affirmed that men might lawfully and justly resist the persons, and not offend against the ordinance of God. He added as a corollary unto his discourse, that subjects were not bound to obey their princes, if they command unlawful things ; but that they might resist their princes, and that tliey were not bound to suffer. For which being questioned by secretary Lethington in the one, and desired to declare himself further in the other point, he justified himself in both, affirming that he had long been of that opinion, and did so remain. A question hereupon arising about the punishment of kings, if they were idolaters, it was honestly affirmed by Lethington, that there was no commandment given in that case to punish kings, and that the people had no power to be judges over them, but must leave them unto God alone, who would either punish them by death, imprison- ment, war, or some other plagues. Against which Knox replied with his wonted confidence, that to affirm that the people, or a part of the people may not execute God's judgments against their king, being an offender, the lord Lethington could have no other warrant, except his own imaginations, and the opinion of such as rather feared to dis- please their princes than offend their God. Against which, when Lethington objected the authority of some eminent Protestants, Knox answered, that they spake of Christians subject to tyrants and infidels, so dispersed, that they had no force but only to cry unto G^d for their deliverance : that such indeed should hazard any further than those godly m^ willed them, he would not hastily be of counsel. But that his argument had another ground, and that he ispake of a people assembled in one body of a commonwealth, unto whom God had given strident forces not only to resist, but also to suppress all kind of open iiblatry; and such a people again he affirmed were bound to keep their land olean and unpol- luted : that God required one thing of Abraham and his seed, when he and ^ey were strangers in the land of I^ypt, and that another thing was required of them when they were delivered from that bondage, and put into the actual posses* sion of the land of Canaan.*'

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We shall cite no further to shew the diabolical and dangerous doctrines introduced by the reformers into their new system of religion, or more properly Speaking, irreligion. It is here clearly proved that they were instigated, not by the principles of charity and truth, but by the basest of passions, and hurried on by the spirit of intolerance, cruelty, and daughter. The doctrines advocated by Knox were of the most revolutionary tendency, and grounded upon treachery and hypocrisy. We have here the very doctrines charged upon the Catholics by their Protestant adversaries, which the former disclaim and deny as farming any part of their civil and religious principles. How disgraceful, how dishonour- able, how unjust then is that conduct, which attempts to fasten upon a class of men crimes of the most abhorrent nature, which they never practised but always condemned ; while these very enormities were inculcated and acted upon by another set of men, who are represented as the most perfect set of beings by the accusers of the innocent!

But it is high time that we should have the testimony of credible and unprejudiced witnesses to the character of the leaders of the Scotch Beformation. Of<- John Knox, Dr. Stuart, in his " History of Scotland," writes thus : — " The glory of God stimulated this reformer to cruel devastations and outrages. Charity, moderation, the love of peace, patience, and humility, were not in the number of his virtues. Papists as well as Popery were the objects of his detestation ; and though he had risen to eminence by exclaiming against the persecution of priests, he was himself a persegijtor. His suspicions, that the queen was determined to re-establish the popish religion, were rooted and uniform ; and upon the most frivolous pretences^ he was strenuous to break that chain of cordiality which ought to bind together the prince and the people. He inveighed against her government, and insulted her person with virulence and indecency. It flattered his pride to violate the duties of the subject, and to scatter sedition. His advices were pressed with heat, his admoni^ tions were pronounced with anger ; and whether his theme

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was a topic of polity or of faith, his knowledge appeued to be equally infallible. He wished to be considered as the organ qftJie Divine will. Contradiction inflamed him with hostility, and his resentments took a deep and lasting founda- tion. The pride of success, the spirit of adulation, the awe with which he struck the gaping and ignorant multitude^ in« spired him with a superlative conception of his own merits. He mistook for prophetic impulse the illusions of a heated fancy, and with an intemperate and piddy vanity, he yen- tured at times to penetrate into the future, and to reveal the mysteries of providence " — (Vol. ii. p. 135.)

Such were the qualities possessed by Knox, and we ask the sensible reader, of whatever religious denomination he may be, whether such a character as we have here described would be chosen by the Divinity to work a Beformation in the morals of the people, or establish a new system of faith, supposing the words of Christ to have failed, when he pro- mised that the Spirit of Truth should abide with his church, and guide her in all truth to the end of the world ? Knox is here charged with being a persecutor, while he was ex- claiming against the persecution of priests ; and we charge the modem editors of Fox with the same hypocritical and unjust line of conduct ; for they, while endeavouring to raise the cry of persecution against the Cathdics of the present day, are hostilely combined to persecute the accused, by de- barring them from the exercise of their civil rights, for no other cause than following the dictates of conscience.

The next hero in the Scottish drama is George Buchanan, who was a man of undoubted literary talents, but of the most abandoned character. Dr. Stuart says of him : ^' While his genius and ability adorned the times in which he lived, and must draw to him the admiration of the most distant pos- terity ; it is not to be forgotten, that his political conduct was disgraceful to the greatest degree, and must excite its regrets and provoke its indignation. His zeal for the earl of Murray overturned altogether bis allegianoe as a subject, and his integrity as a man. His acUvity against Mary, in

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the conferences in England, was a strain of the most shame- ' less corruption ; and the yirulence with which he endeavoured to defame her hj his writings^ was most audacious and criminal. They involve the complicated charge of ingra- titude, rebellion, and perjury." — {Hist, of Scot, v. ii. p. 245.) This miscreant, by his writings, contributed much to the poisoning of the public mind, and inflaming the bad passions of the people against the old order of things. He wrote a work entitled. The Detection of Mary^s Doings, in which, Dr. Stuart observes, ** in the place of information and truth, he substitutes a boundless audacity of assertion, and the most pestilent rancour. An admirable but malicious eloquence, misrepresentations, and the vileness of calumny, characterize his work ; and it i;,emains an illustrious monument of the wickedness of faction, and the prostitution of wit.'* — {Ibid, p. 415.) Tlie Rev. Mr. Whitaker, another Protestant author, in his Vindication of Mary, says, Knox was '' an original genius in lying,*' and he forther writes, that " he [Knox] felt his mind impregnated with a peculiar portion of that spirit of falsehood, which is bo largely possessed by the great father of lies, and which he so liberally communicates to some of his chosen children. And he exerted this spirit with the grand views, which he uniformly pursued in, both that of abusing Mary, his patroness and benefactress ; of branding her forehead with the hottest iron of infamy, which his un- derstanding could provide ; and of breaking down all the fences and guards of truth, in the eagerness of his knavery against her. But Mary herself has told us a circumstance concerning him, that serves sufSciently to account for his flagitious conduct. Buchanan, she said^ ie known to be a lewd man, and an Atheist, He was one of those wretched men, therefore, who suffer their passions to beguile their understandings ; who plunge into scepticism to escape from sensibility ; who destroy the tone of their minds, while they are blunting the force of their feelings ; and at last become devoid equally of principle and of shame, ready for any fabrication of falsehood, and capable of any operation in villainy."— (v, ii. p. 22.)

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To didse principal leaders in the work of doTaatadon in Scotland we must add the lord James Stuart, afterwards earl of Murray, and regent of the kingdom, who^ like the other actors, was an apostfite from the church of Bome. In feict, he was originally an ecclesiastic under the name of the prior of St. Andrew's ; " hut," says Mr. Whitaker, " when the Keformation hroke out in all its wildness and strength, he put on the sanctified air of a reformer, he wrapped himself up in the long cloak of puritanism, he attached all the popular leaders among the (reformed) clergy to him, and he prepared to make them his useful steps to the throne." — ( Vind, vol. i. p. 22.) The reader must here he told that this am- hitious hypocri^ was an illegitimate son of king James V., the fath^ of the unfortunate Mary, from which circumstance he conceired the criminal project of dethroning his unpro- tected sister Mary, and taking the sceptre into his own hands. To advance his aspiring object, Mr. Whitaker continues,— '' He had the address to make the most cunning and most ambitipui^ of his contemporaries to be subservient to his cunning; to make them commit- the enormities themselves which were necessary to his purposes ; and even to dip their hands in ^nurder, that he might enjoy the . sovereignty. Bui he displayed an address still greater than this, Thou^ he had not one principle of religion within him, though he had not one grain of honour in his soul, and though he was guilty of those more monstrous crimes, against which God has. peculiarly denounced damnation ; yet he was denominated ▲ sooD 114.N by th^ reformers at the tio(ie, and he has .been snsidered as an honest man, by numbers, to our own days." — (Ibid. p. 24.) The colours in which Dr. Stuart haadiawn his picture are not more &70urable :-*'' A selfish aad in-, satiable ambition was his ruUng appetite, and he pursued itSi dictiUies with, an unshaken perseverance. Hb inclination to, aspire beyond the rank of a subj^ was encouraged by the> turbulence of his age; and his connections with Elisabeth, overturned in him altogethev the virtuous restraii;it« of idle-*, gianoe and duty. He becam0 an enemy to. hit. silver, imd

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his soTereign— his ebligaitioiis to ber w«re ezoesrive ; his in- gcatitttde wius monfitrous ; and oo language has any terms of reproach, that are sufficiently powerful to characterise his per- fidiousness and cruelty to her. Unoommon pretensioits to sanctity, and to the love of his country, with the perpetual affectation of acting under the impulse of honourable motives, concealed his purposes, and recommended him to popular £Avour. His manners w^re grave even to sadness; by a composed and severe deportment, and by ostentatious habits of devotion, he awakened and secured the admiration of his contemporaries. His house had a greater resemblance to a church than a palace. A dark solemnity rdgned within its walls; and his domestics were precise, pragmatical, and mortified. The more sealous of the clergy were proud of resorting to him, and while he invited them to join with him in the exercises of religion, he paid a flattering respect to their expositions of scripture, which he hypocritioidly con- ffldered as the sacred rule of his life. To the interests of science and learning he was favourable in an uncommon de^-ee ; and BudMuian, who has tasted his bounty, gives a varnish to his crimes. The glory of having adiieved the Beformation afforded him a fame that was most seducing and brilliant. With a cold and perfidious hearty he conferred favours without being generous, and received them • without being grateful. His enmity was implacable, his friendship dangerous, and his caresses, oftener than his anger, preceded the stroke of his resentment. The standard of his private interest directed all his actions, and was the measure by which bo judged of those of other men. To the neoessiUes of his ambition he was ready to sacrifice every duty and every virtue, and in the paroxysms of his selfishness he feared not the commission of any crime or cruelty, however enormous or detestable. To the great body of the Scottish nobles, whose consequence he had humbled, his death was a matter of stem indifference, or of secret joy ; but to &e common people, it was an oly'ect of sincere grief, and they lamented him long, under the appellation of the godly regent. VOL. II. s

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Elizabeth bewailed in him i^ strenuoos partisan, and a chosen instrument^ by which she might subvert the independency of Scotland ; and Mary, tender and devout, wept over a brother, a heretic, and an enemy, whom a sudden and violent desdny had overtaken in his guilty career, with his full load of unrepented crimes." — (Hist of Scot. v. ii,,p. 62.) Enough has been said of the character of these ** noble reformists," as they are termed by the modem editors of Eox ; it now remains for us to show whether '< a complete Eeformation in the kingdom" was effected through their instrumentality, as the modem editors assert, or whether the endeavours of the " noble reformists" were not followed by an excess of immorality, and the most direful calamities that could afflict a nation. The testimonies we have adduced unequivocally prove that the characters of the leading re- formers were made up of the unchristian dispositions of revenge, cruelty, ambition, revolt, hypocrisy, and every vice that disgraces the human heart ; it is, th^efore, not to be expected that the followers of such leaders were to be found immaculate and undefiled in their actions. No, no; ihe consequences that resulted from what is called the Eeforma- tion were the very reverse of what followed the planting of that faith and church which the reformers pretended to reform. When Catholicism was introduced by the holy missionaries sent from the pope of Bome for that purpose, the people were transformed from savage, uncultivated hea- thens into orderly and hospitable Christians. Learning and science were cultivated, churches and monasteries ware erected, hospitals were raised to support the sick and infinn, the clergy were obliged to lead a life of oelibaey and penance ; while idle pensioners and placemen, living on tl^ labour of the working classes, were unknown. Such were the fruits of the establishment of Catholicism, or Popery, as the modem editors call it ; alas ! how altered is the scene under the thing called the Beformation. DupUcity, violence, ferocity, murder, fanaticism, became general in Scotland ; the whole nation was impregnated with vice and iniquity, and the very men

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who trere the cause of ihb general wickedness were com- pelled to hear witness to their *own work of infamy and guilt. In the yew 1578, the commissiohers of the kirk conceived that they had then a favourahle opportunity to advance a new discipline, which they had long contemplated. To usher in their design they passed an act of the assembly, the preamble of which set forth, that *' the general assembly of the kirk finding universal corruption of the whole estates of the body of the realm, the great coldness and slackness in religion in the greatest part of the professors of the same, with the dailif increase of all kind of fearful sins and enor- mities, as incests, adulteiies, murders (committed in Edin- burgh and Stirling), cursed sacrilege, ungodly eedition, and division within the bowels of the realm, with all manner of disordered and ungodly living," they call for " such a polity and discipline in the kirk, as is craved by the word of God," &c. But with all their endeavours to restore morality, it does not appear that they were in any manner successful, which manifestly shews that the tree was not good, since it yielded such bad fruit. In the year 1648, about seventy years after, the general assembly of divines again complained that '' ignorance of God, and of his Son Jesus Christ, pfe- vailed ezceediu^y in the land ; that it were impossible to reckon up all the abominadons that were in the land ; and that the blaspheming of the name of God, swearing by the creatures, profanation of the Lord's day, uncleanness, excess, and rioting, vanity of apparel, lying and deceit, railing and cursing, arbitrary and uncontrolled oppression, and grinding of the faces of the poor by landlords and others in place and power, were become ordinary and common sins,*^ — {An Acknowledgment of Sins,) Nor was the kirk in a more flourislung state in 1778 than in the former periods, for the divines of the associate synod of that year say : — ** It is sur- prising to think what gross ignorance of the meaning and authority of the truths they profess to believe, prevails at present among many."— (^^Famwi^, p. 62.) ** A general unbelief of revealed religion [prevails] among the higher

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orders of our oonntrymeiiy which hath hy a necesstfy con-- sequence, produced in vast numbers an absolute indifierence as to what they believe, dther concerning truth or duty, «iy further than it may comport with their worldly views".-^ {Ibid. p. 54.) Then, speaking of the country generally, they lament it is nowy " through the prevalence of infidelity, ignorance, luxury and venality, so much despoiled of all re- ligion and feeling the want of it."-^/6ui p. 64.) Before we conclude our account of the transactions of the reformers of Scotland, we feel it a duty to injured innooence to give a summary view of the treatment which Mary, their beautiM, their accomplished queen, experienced at tiieir hands. She was the daughter and only legitimate child of James Y., whom she succeeded when in the cradle, having her mother for queen-regent. She was promised in marriage to Edward YI. of England, but through the power of the HamHtons, was carried into France, where she manned the dauphin, afterwards Francis 11., of that kingdom. While residing in France, the pretended Beformation of Scoliand commenced, and her royal husband dying, she was induoed to leave that kingdom, and place herself in person on the throne (^ Soot- land. Finding herself an unprotected woman, surrounded by nobles heated with faction and bent on rapne and spoil, she married Henry, lord Damley, the eldest son of the earl of Lennox. This marriage gave considerable umbrage to the reformed party, and a conspuracy was entered into be- tween the lords Morton, Murray, and Boihwell, to remove Darnley, and Bothwell was to obtain possession of the queen's person by marriage. The plot was soon put into ex6outi<m, and Damley was blown up by gunpowder whilst he lay ode in his bed ; the queen was seized by Bothwdl and earned to Dunbar castle. Here every art was used by Bothwell to induce the helpless and indignant Mary to consent to aunkm with him, but in vain, and he had recourse at last to vidence by an act of ravishment The queen wept and lamented over the degradation thus iate&di upon her, and judging it inser to conceal her misfortune than that the scandal should

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go forth to the world ; considering also the helplessness of her own situation, and the powerful confederacy raised against her, she at length consented to wed the cruel and haughty Bothwell. But the cup of sorrow for this ill-fated princess was not yet filled. She had heen attached to the religion of h^ fore&th^rs from her in&ncy, and neither force nor intrigue could lessen her fidelity to God. She was unalterahly fixed to her religion, and this made her the de- YOted victim of the yillany and perfidy of the " noble re- formists,'' as the modem editors call the leaders in the dia- bolical concerns of Scotland. They openly accused the unhappy princess of being guilty of adultery with her ravisher ; of murdering Damley, her husband, in order that she might indulge with her paramour ; of having concerted a plan with him for her own seizure, for her own ravishment, and for her own marriage, as if she, the queen of the realm, could nqt have married the man she wished, without either the seizure or the rape. But this ia not all. Papers and letters were fobqed by tibe reforming party to convict her of these horrible and unnatural crimes, the villany of which attempt has been most ably detected and exposed by the Bev. Mr. Whitaker, in his Vindication of Mary. To such a diabolical pitch did they carry this system of forgery y that the queen was constrained to give directions that no ordera should be taken with regard to the lord Huntley, whose death they attempted by a forged warranty except from her very UPS. Who, yaik the feeling of nature in his breast, but must sigh over the misfortunes of a woman and a queen, lovely, mild, courageous, and refined ; who, when looking on her portrait the day before her execution, now to be seen at the wmdows of ahnost every print-i^op in the metropolis, but must loath and execrate her persecutors, who, under the doak of religion, offered to her the grossest insults and in- dignities? Nor was their revenge satiated even with her death, since they sought to tarnish her unblemished Hfe by forged accusations.

Speaking of. tl^is base and cruel attempt ta sully the

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character of this vhrtuoos Catholic princess, Mr. Whitaker exclaims. " EoBQERY, I hlush for the honoar of Protestantisxn while I write, seems to have been peetdiar to the reformed. I look in vain for one of these accursed outrages of impo- sition among the disciples of Popery." — ( Vtnd. toI. ii., p. 2.) This author further says, " ^ infamy of forgery was not confined to Scotlimd at this period. It extended equally to England.'* Eandolph, the agent of Elizabeth at the Scottish court, had recourse to the same disgraceful means oi forging letters in the name of lord Lennox, to induce the Scottish lords to draw their swords against their sovereign, by their regard for the reformed religion. '*0n the detection of them,'* observes Mr. Whitaker, " Randolph was justly reproached with the 'profligacy of his conduct. Nothing but the peculiarity of his situation as an ambassador could have screened him from the vengeance due to it. Even Elizabeth was very naturally considered as an associate in the foul act of forgery with him. He acted, no doubt, by her directions. The peculiar boldness of his proceedings shews it. But, indeed, Elizabeth did not attempt to vindicate herself from the imputation. She never disowned either the violence or fraudulence of her ambassador. She did not even recall him. She even justified him in form up<m his return, as a man of integrity, and as a friend to Scotland. And she thus made all his forgery her own. She had long been habituated to the sight of forgery. She had seen it displayed in its liveliest colours, at the conferences before her commissioners. She had made herself a party in that grand deed of knavery, by assisting in the deception, and by uniting to prosecute the purpose of it. But she afterwards went further in forgery. She rose £rom the humility of an acccnnplice to the dignity of a chief in the work. The vile arts which she had seen practised by the Scots against their queen, she practised with more confidence, and with less success against the Scots themselves. And she exercised them equally against Mary afterwards ; letters forged in the name of Mary being sent to the houses of papists, letters forged in the name of papists

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^ing pretendedlj intercepted on their way to Mary, and eren forged letters from Mary, concerning Babington's con- spiracy, being pretended to be found in the wall of her prison. Elizabeth had probably been taught this highest act of flagi- tious policy by that trio of the most unprincipled politicians, which human impiety perhaps ever generated all together ; Murray, Morton, and Lethington. By them, probably, she had been initiated into those hellish mysteries of iniquity. And Lethington, no doubt, was the original initiator of them all."... ^' Such, such (continues the same author) were the persons that presumed to call themselves reformers, to tax the wickedness of Popery, and to be zealous for the purity of religion ! That great ferment, indeed, which was sure to be excited in the body politic of Christendom by the necessary efforts for Reformation, naturally threw out to the surface a violent eruption of morbid matter on every side. But forgery appears to have been the peculiar disease of Protestantism. Originally coming forth as a kind of leprosy, upon the brow of Pifesbyt^iftnism in Scotland, it was conveyed by the inter- courses of vice^ to the profligate head of the church of England."

Forgery, then, it is here declared by a Protestant divine, was peculiar to Protestantism. Before Cranmer and Knox commenced as refprmers in England and Scotland, this system of fraud and viHany was unknown to the whole of Christen- dom, and the same authority that fixes it upon those who pretended to be inspired to reform religion says, that not one single act of this infamous kind can be proved against Oatiiolics to this day. What then are we to think of the conduct of men who could be guilty of such base actions ? From forging letters and documents to traduce the character of a Catholic queen and rob many eminent Catholics of their property and their lives, this work of deception has been carried on and multiplied in commercial transactions, until hundreds of Protestants within the last thirty years have ^ided their lives, in this Protestant country, for it at the gallows. Oh God ! how inscrutable are thy designs ! how

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unsearchaUe thy ways I Bi^fcwgerywal not the only meato' by which the ^^campkU Seformatian** m Scotkoid wa» brought about by the endeavoun of the ** noble refanmsiMf*' as the modern editors style the aeton in tins wtok of Uood and desolation. P£BaEGimov» for consd^ce sake, was m peculiar feature in its progress. We have repeatedly sud and shewn that Catholicism was e8tal]liahed ki every country that receiyed it by the power of persoasion and coovictioQ only. In no instance whateyer was compulsion resorted to ; but in many cases it was planted in oppositictt to the ciwl 9wordf numerous martyrs having sealed their testimony of the doctrines they pieadied by ih^ blood» But sodi was not the case with our reforming gentry ; for no sooner did they obtab possession (^temporal power, than they exerciaed the most wanton and tyrannical authority or&t the consciences of men, in order to/or6« all descriptions of pe(^ into a blmd and unUmited aocq^tance of their new fon^ed doeirinea, which were as variable aa the wind, being changed at the caprice of those who held the reins of government. In proof that PERSBCunoN was part and parcel of the Befonnatiixi in Scotland, we shall here take an extract from ** The Naiionai Covenant; or the drnfeexum qf Faith: subscribed at first by the king's majesty and his household, in the year 1580 thereafter by persons of all ranks in the year 1581 ,'* dec. subscribed again by all sorts of persons in the year 1590 approved by the general assembly, 1638 and 1639 ; subscribed again by all ranks in the latter year ; ratified by an act of parliament in 1640; and subscribed by king Charles II. at Spey in 1650, and Scoon in 1651. The edition we take the extract from was printed at Edinburgh in the year 1815» by Sir D. Hunter Bliur and J. Bruce, printers to the king's most exceUent majesty. It says, ^^ Like as many acts of par- liament, not only in general, do abrogate, annul, and rescind all laws, statutes, acts, cimstitutions, cancms-*— civil or muni- cipal— with all other ordinances, and {H:aetique penalties whatsoever, made in prejudice of true religion, and [nofessors thereof ; or of the true kirk, discipline, jurisdiction, and free-

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dom thereof; or in fayours of idolatry and superstition^ or of the papistical kirk : as act 8. act 81. pari. I. act 23. pari. 11 act 114. pari. 12, of king James YI. That papistry and superstition may be utterly suppressed, according to the intention of the acts of parliament, repeated in the 5th act, pari. 20. king James YI. And to that civil and ecclesiastical pains, as adversaries to God's true religion, preached, and by law established, within this realm, act 24. pari. 11. king James YI. ; as common enemies to all Christian goyemment, act 18. pari. 16. king James YI. ; as rebellers and gain* standers of our sovereign Lord's authority, act 47. pari. 8. king James YI. ; and as idolaters, act 104. pari. 7. king James' YI. But also in particular, by and attour the confes- sion of faith, do abolish and condemn the pope's authority and jurisdiction out of this land, and wdains the maintainors thereof to be punished, act 2. pari. 1. act 51. pari. 3. act 106. pari. 7. act 114. pari. 12. king James YI. ; do condemn the pope*s erroneous doctrine, or any other erroneous doctrine repugnant to any of the articles of the true and Christian rdigion, publicly preached, and by law established in this vealm ; and ordams the spreaders and makers of books or libels, or letters, or writs of that nature to be punished, act 46. pari. 3. act 106. pari. 7. act 24. pari. 11. king James YI. ; do condemn all baptism conform to the pope's kirk, and the idolatry of the mass ; and ordains all sayers, wilfdl hearers, and concealers of the mass, the muntainers and resetters of lixe priests, Jesuits, trafficking Papists, to be punished with* out any exception or restriction, act 5. pari. 1. act 120. parU 12. act 164. pari. 13. act 193. pari. 14. act 1. pari. 19. act 5. pari. 20. king James YI. ; do condemn all erroneous books and writs containing erroneous doctrine against the religion presently prt^essed, <x containing superstitious rites and cere- monies papistical, whereby the people are greatly abused, and <»rdain8 the home-bringers of than to be punished, act 25» pari. 11* king James YI. ; do condemn the monuments and dregs of bygone idolatry, m going to crosses, observing thi» fiBeftiTal days of saints, md such oth^ raperstitiousaQd papiii»

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tical rites, to the dishonour of God, contempt of true religion, and fostering of great error among the people ; and ordains the users of them to be punished for the second fault, as idolaters, act 104. pari. 7. king James VI."

It is not to he wondered that with such fiend- like laws as these, under which a person had no alternative hut either to subscribe to this covenant or confession of faith, or perish by the sword, that the Eeformation made great progress, especially as the leaders in the work were very zealous in enforcing obedience to those laws. In the Presbyteries* Trial, p. 29, it is stated, that ** at the beginning men only were admitted to subscribe the covenant ; yea, shortly after the more zealous sisters obtained that favour ; and others who were not seeking that courtesy, got it pressed upon them. At length, it came to children at school, to servants, young maids, and all sorts of persons, without exception. And those who could not write their own names into the covenant, behoved to do it by public notary ; so that they would have none to be left out of God's covenant, and the covenant of grace, as they spoke." Such was the detestable tyranny of these pretended friends of evangelical liberty, whose freedom consisted m forcing even cAt^r^n to subscribe their covenant, who could not even read and understand what they thus sub- scribed, and not only were they made to sttbscrihe, but like- wise to swear that this new form of religion was God's undoubted truth grounded only upon his written word. Nor was this all, for those who subscribed this covenant were made also to " protest and call the searcher qfaU hearts as a witness, that their minds and hearts did fiilly agree with their oath and subscription, and that they were not moved to it by any worldly respect : " whereas it was notorious that the greatest part of those who thus swore and subscribed, " were driven to obedience by ministerial armies, which consisted at the beginning of Highlanders, whom the old Protestants called Argyle-apostles, who, by their sacking and htsming of some good houses, converted more to the covenant than the minis- ters had done." fPreshy. Trials p. 2^. J These facts

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sufficiently display the atroeioas persecuting spirit of the reformers in a full light ; it only remains to say, that this cruel and bloodthirsty temper was fanned and exasperated by the horrible and furious preachings of Knox and his associates, who, like the devil, could quote scripture for every outrage and ruffianly deed that was committed. But none was more subject to theur rancourous rage than the unfortunate Mary, their amiable and Catholic queen. She was persecuted with the most diabolical vengeance that could inflame the passions of fanatical zealots, until she ended her miserable days on the scaffold, by order of that tigress in human shape, the virgin queen Bess. This religious princess was even denied the consolations of her religion in her last moments, and was told by a reformed divine at her execution, ^* Your life would be the death of our religion, and your death will be the life of it." When the executioner struck off her head, he exclaimed, holding it up, '< Long live queen Elizabeth, and so let the enemies of the gospel perish ! * ' But enough of these brutali- ties masked by religious hypocrisy.

We have now given a succinct account of the rise of the Beformation, as it is called, in Scotland, the practices by which it was carried on, the consequences resulting from it, and the character of the men who headed the reforming party. We shall now close this part of our labours with observing, that the testimony we have produced, from Protestant autho- rities, be it remembered, does not accord with the unsupported assertions of the modem editors. They state that stibscriptians were solicited to carry on the work of the Eeformation ; but Dr. Heylin shews it was carried on by sacrilege, violence, murder, and civil war ; neither was the Beformation so com- pletely effected as the modem editors would have their readers believe. The despotic and intolerant combination of fury and fanaticism called the covenant filled the kingdom with blood and desolation, and finally caused the overthrow of the con- stitution in church and state, as well as the vjiolent death of the sovereign, Charles I. And are we, in these days, to have the rebellions, the devastations, the persecutions, and

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the wild enthusia^n of the madiHrained Coyenanters held up as examples of praise and commendation? Surely the modern editors are like the Jews who crucified their Saviour, not knowing what they did. Whether what we have here said will open their eyes, and cause them to see their folly» not to say their infamy^ because we are willing to believe they are ignorant of the mischief they are doing, is more than we can say ; but we do flatter ourselves that the Protes- tant of liberal mind will see the n^otives which induced the pretented reformers of Scotland to shake off theur obedience to the church of Eome in their true lights and appreciate the merit or infamy due to their actions.

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PEOGRESS OF THE REFOBMATION IN ENGLAITD,

IN THE REIQN OF EDWARD VI.

The modem editors commence this interestiDg period of the Eeformation with an acoomity taken from Burnet^ of the qaalities of the yomig king, who is re;»*esented as having ^ discovered very early a good disposition to rdigion and virtue, and a particular reverence for the scriptures ; and was once greatly offended with a person, who, in order to reach something hastily, laid a great hiUe on the floor, and stood upon it." This story may do for hihle-readers, hut we see very little probability that a person would make such use of a book, or that a child so young should take upon himself to chide his elder. We are next told, that dissen- sions soon arose among the sixteen governors named in Harry's will, to have the care of the young king's person, and that these dissensions were no more than what might have be^i expected. The lord-chancellor Wriothesley imagined that he would be placed, in virtue of his o£Sce, as head of the commission of sixteen, but, by cunning and in- trigue, the earl of Hertford, afterwards duke of Somerset, the king's undo, was declared governor of the king's person, and protector of the kingdom. Thus he wlio had set so many wills and testaments aside to gratify his inordinate lust and ambition, had his own will disregarded and treated with as little ceremony as he had treated others. This ap- pointment, we are next told, occasioned two parties to be jformed, ^* the one headed by the protector, and the other by the chancellor ; the favourers of the Eeformation were of th^ former, and those that opposed it; of the latter." The c(m- sequttices of this division in the government we shall see in the coarse of oar review.

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The first thing done, after the appointment of the pro- tector, was the renewing of the commissions of the judges, and other state officers, and among the rest the hishops, who came and took out commissions, hy which thej were io hold their bishoprics only during the king^s pleasure I Gentle reader ! what do you think of these men, these pretended ministers of religion, who could thus suhmit to he tlie slaves, the ohsequious tools of the faction in power ? Cranmer, of whom we have had occasion to say so mach, led the way in this work of degradation, and Burnet, another bishop of the established church, says, ^^ this check upon the bishops was judged expedient in case they should oppose the Beforma- tion ;" that is, in case they should oppose the n^adty of the greedy courtiers, who were bent upon fleecing the church of what Harry had left. We are next told, that *^ an accident soon occurred which made way for great changes in the church. The curate and ehurehwardens of St. Martin's, in London, were brought before the council, for removing the crucifix, and other images, and putting some texts of scrip- ture on the walls of their church, in the places where they 9tood ; they answered, that in repairing thdr church they had removed the images, which being rotten they did not renew them, but put the words of scripture in their room ; they had also removed others, which they found had been abused to idolatry. Great pains were taken by the Popish party to punish tiiem severely, in order to strike a terror into others ; but Cranmer was for the removmg <^ all images set up in churches, as being expressly contrary both to the second commandment, and the practice of the purest Ohris" tians for many ages ; and though, in compliance with the gross abuses of Paganism, much of the pomp oi their wor-* ship was very early brought into the Christian church, yet it was long before images were introduced. At first, all images were condemned by the fathers ; then they allowed the use, but condemned the worshipping, of diem ; andafter«» wards, in the eighth and ninth centuries, the worshipping <rf them was^ after a long contest, both in the east and west^ at

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last generally received. Some, in particular, were believed to be more wonderfully endowed, and tbis was mucb improved by tbe cbeats of tbe monks, wbo bad enricbed themselves by sucb means. And this abuse bad now grown to such a heigbt, tbat beatbenism itself bad not been guilty of greater absurdities towards its idols. Since all tbese abuses bad risen out of tbe use of tbem, and tbe setting tbem up being contrary to tbe command of God, and tbe nature of tbe Cbristian religion, wbicb is simple and spiritual, it seemed most reasonable to cure the disease in its root, and to clear tbe cburcbes of images, tbat tbe people might be preserved from idolatry.

^' These reasons prevailed so far, that the curate and churchwardens were dismissed with a reprimand ; they were ordered to beware of such rashness for the future, and to provide a crucifix, and, till tbat could be had, were ordered to cause o>e to be painted on the wall. Upon this, Dt. Ridley, in a sermon preached before the king, inveighed against tbe superstition towards images and holy-water, and spread over the whole nation a general disposition to pull tbem down ; which soon after commenced in Portsmouth.

" Upon this, Gardiner made great complaints ; be said, that Lutherans themselves went not so far, for he had seen images in their churches. He distinguished between image and idol, as if the one, which, he said, only was condemned, was tbe representation of a false god, and the other of the true ; and he thought, that as words conveyed by the ear begat devotion, so images, by the conveyance of tbe eye, might have the same effect on the mind. He also thought a virtue might be both in them and in holy water, as well as there was in Christ's garments, Peter's shadow, or Elisba's staff ; and there might be a virtue in holy- water, as well a& in the water of baptism. To these arguments, which Gar- diner wrote in' several letters, the protector -answered, that the bishops had formerly argued much in another strain, namely, that because the scriptures were abused by tbe vulgar readers, therefore they were not to be trusted to tbem ; and

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80 made a pretended abuse the groaiid at ^king away that wliich, by God's spedal appointment, was to be ddivered to all Christians. This held much stronger agm^ images for- bidden by Ood. The brazen serpent set up by Moses^ by God's own direction, was brdcen when abused to idolatry ; for that was the greatest corruption of religion possible ; but yet the protector acknowledged there was reason to com- plain of the forwardness of the people, who hnke down images without authority; to prevent which, in future, (Hrders were sent to the justices of the peace to look well to thepeaee and govemment of the nation."— (i?ooi& of Martyrs, pp. 349, 350.)

It is necessary to notice the assertions here made by Burnet, with a yiew to delude his readers on the doctrine of venerating and using images in churches, and to screen the sacrilegious rapine of the reformers, who pillaged the shrines and altars to glut their own avarice. Oanmer, it is ad- mitted, took the lead in this mattor, as we have proved him heading every other measure of iniquity and outrage. He is stated to have grounded his advice for removing all the images set up in (Churches, as being contrary both to the second commandment, and the practice of the purest ages of Christianity. That ^'all images were condemned by the jGftthers ; then the use of them was allowed, but the toor- shipping of them was condemned." That abuses arose, and ''had now grown to such a height, that heathenism, its^ had not been guilty of greater absurdities towards its idols." This is mere gratuitous assertion, unaccompanied by a single fact. The practice of using images is eoeval widi Chris- tianity, and the worshipping or reverencing them was never condemned by the early &thers, but, on the contrary, the fathers wrote in defence of this doctrine. St. Gregory of Nyssa, who died late in the fourth century, and consequentiy lived in that age when Fhytestants admit the Cbistian diurcb to have been pure, thus speaks to his audience, when cele- brating the feast of the martyr Theodoras:— ''When any one entera such a place as this^ where the mttuory ot ihb

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just man and his relics are preserved, his mind is first strock —while he views the stmotore and all its ornaments— with the general magnificence that breaks upon him. The artist has here shewn his skill in the figores of animab^ and the airy sculpture of the stone ; while the painter's hand is most conspicuous in delineating die high achievements of the martyr : his torments ; the savage forms of his executioners ; their furious efforts ; the burning furnace ; and the happy consummation of the laborious contest. The figure of Christ is also beheld, looking down upon the scene. X^us, as in a book the letters convey the history, so do the colours describe the conflict of the martyr, and give the beauty of a flowery mead to the walls of our temple. The picture, though silent, E^teaks, and gives instruction to the beholder ; nor is the mosaic pavement, which we tread on, less instructive." — {Orat. de Theod. Martyr, t. ii., p. 1011.)

The Booh of Martyrs says, the worshipping of images was generally received in the eighth and ninth centuries, after a long contest. This is an allusion to the heresy of the Inconoclasts. or image destroyers, which was opposed by all the prelates of the Catholic church, and, like all other heresies, when possessed of the civil sword, was supported by brute force and persecution. The founder of this sect was the emperor Leo III., sprung from a plebeian family in Isauria. He, like the reformers in our Edward's reign, sent forth an edict, ordering the images of our Saviour, and his virgin mother, and the saints, to be removed out of the churches under the severest penalties. This extraordinary declaration against the universal practice of the Catholic church, excited murmurs and discontent at Constantinople, the seat of the empire. St. Germain, the patriarch of that see, tried by mild persuasion to disabuse the emperor of his error, and represented to him, that fipom the time of the i4>ostles this relative honour had been paid to the images of Christ and his Uessed mother. Leo was ignorant and obsti- nate : he C(mimanded all the images and pictures to be col- lected and burned. The people resisted, and by an imperial

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order were massacred without mercy. St Germain was driven into banishment, and a t^nporising priest, another Oranmer, waa thrust into his place. This took place in the year 729. The holy pope (Gregory III., on coming to the papal chair, wrote a long epistle to the emperor, exhorting him to desist from his unholy purposes, and among other things he tells him, << Our churches in their rude state are but the work of the builders, a rough fabric of stone, of wood, of brick, of lime, and mortar. But within they are adorned with rich paintings, with historical representations of Jesus Christ and his saints. On these the converted gentiles, the neophytes, and children of the faithful, gaze with no less profit thmi delight. In these they behold the mys- teries of our religion dbplayed before their eyes ; by theae they are animated to the practice of virtue, and silently taught to raise their affections and hearts to Gk>d. But of these external helps to virtue and religious information you have deprived the fai(hful; you have profanely stript the churches of their sacred ornaments, which so much contri- buted to edify, to instruct, and animate. In doing this you have usurped a power which God has not given to the sceptre. The empire and the priesthood have their respective powers, differing from each other in their use and object As it bdongs not to the bishop to govern within the palace, and to distribute civil dignities, so it does not belong to the emperor to command within the church, or to assume a spiritual jurisdiction, which Christ has left solely to the ministers of his altar. Let each one of us move and remain within the sphere to which he is called, as the apostle admonishes." — (Reeves Hist, of the Church, vol. ii., p. 9.)

This emperor, however, continued the persecution whilst he lived, and his son Constantino Copronymus, when he mounted the throne, exceeded his father's barbarity, and ex- tended the persecution through all the provinces. After a cruel reign of thirty-four years, Constantino was seized by death, and his son Leo followed his steps in harassing the church during the five years that he reigned. He was sue-*

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ceeded by his wife, the empress Irene, who, being a Catholie, gave peace to the church, and by her desire a council was called by pope Adrian, which assembled at Nice, on the 24th of September, 787. It consisted of 377 bishops, from Gieece, Thrace, STatolia, the islands of the Archipelago, Sicily, and Italy* The prelates thus assembled were occu- pied in examining the fathers, the conduct of the Incono- clasts, and the objections made against the practice of venerating images. In the seventh session of the synod the bishops came to the following decision: — "After mature deliberation and discussion, we solemnly declare, that holy pictures and images, especially of Jesus Christ our Lord and Saviour, of his immaculate Mother our Lady, of the angels and other saints, are to be set up in churches as well as in other places, that at the sight of them the faithful may re- member what they represent ; that they are to be venerated and honoured, not indeed with that supreme honour and worship, which is called Latria, and belongs to God alone, but with a relative and inferior honour, such as is paid to the cross, to the gospel, and other holy things, by the use of incense or of burning lights. For the honour paid to images passes to the architypes or things represented, and he wha reveres the image reveres the person it represents. Such has been the practice of our pious forefathers ; such is the tradition of the Catholic church transmitted to us : this eccle- siastical tradition we closely hold conformably to the injunc- tion given by St. Paul to the Thessalonians." — (2 Thess. c. ii., V. 14.) The decree was published and received with loud acclamations by the people ; Iconoclasm died away, and was heard of no more, till the reformers of the sixteenth century thought fit to revive it with many other pernicious doctrines, that entailed misery upon the people where happiness before reigned. To shew the concurrent belief of the Catholic church in all ages on this ancient practice^ we will here give the decree of the council of Trent, which sat at the same period when the work of devastation was going forward in England^ by comparing which with the sen4;iments of

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Gregory IIL and the council of Nice, the reader will see that the doctrine of the Catholic church is invariahle, and that what was tanght in the eighth centurj^ was grounded on the universal practice of the church from the time of the apostles, as it was in the sixteenth century, and is now at the present day. The council of Trent decreed : " That images of Christy of the hlessed Virgm, and of other saints, are to he exposed and retained particularly in diurches^ and that due honour and veneration are to he shown tiiem ; not as helieving that any divinity or virtue is in them, for which they should he honoured ; or that anything is to he asked of them, or any trust be placed in them, as the Gentiles once did in their idols ; but because the honour given to pictures is referred to the prototypes, which they represent ; so that through the images, which we kiss^ and before which we uncover our heads and kneel, we may learn to adore Christ, and to venerate his saints." — (Sess. xxv. cle Invoeat 88,, p» 289.) Having thus clearly established the doctrinal part of the subject, we may now proceed to examine the motives which induced the reformers of the sixteenth century to ad<^t the violent measures of the Iconoclasts of the eighlli, or, as Burnet says, '* to clear the churches of images, tiiat the people might be pbeserted from idolatry."

But though, as Burnet would make us believe, the advisers of the youthful Edward were anxious to preserve the people from idolatry, they were not so feelingly alive to preserve for them those civil privileges which had hitherto made them a free and happy nation. Of this, however, we have not a word in the modem Booh of Martyrs ; it is therefore neces- sary that we should supply the omission. The object of the modem editors is to mislead the public mind, and excite hatred against the Catholics and their religion ; ours iB to elucidate the truth, and, by removing the vdl of ignorance which has so long clouded the Protestant mind, dissipate those groundless prejudices which interested bigots have so long kept alive against the professorsof the ancient fsath of the kingdom. While the chief reformers were hypocritically

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exclaiming against idolatry, or the use of images in churches, they were worshipping and paying adoration to the mammon of iniquity, and contriving means how to aggrandize diem- selves hoth in titles and estates. Though Harry's will was in some respects wholly disregarded, in others it was made to sanction the schemes of amhition which the &ctious leaders meditated. Set a heggar on horseback, and it is said he will ride to the devil ; the same we may say of the prominent characters who ruled under Edward VI. Of the sixteen in- dividuals named as executors to the late king's will, it was remarked that they were men hitherto but little known, having no claim to high birth, but raised to their present rank by the partiality of Harry, and their readiness to pander to his vices. Of their moral character some estimate may be formed from the fact, that after having solemnly sworn to see the last will and testament of their late master scrupidously fulfilled, they almost immediately absolved themselves from the obligation of that oath, to cmnply with the ambitious projects of the protector Hertford. In another point of view, however, where their personal interests were concerned, they took care that nothing should be neglected that could he^ their own aggrandizement In the body of Henry's will there was a clause charging the executors with ratifying every gift, and performing every promise which he should have made before his deatii. Here was a sweeping charge, which it was resolved to turn to the best account. Dr. Lingard, in his History of England, says : — " What these gifts and promises might be, must, it was presumed, be known to Paget, Herbert, and Denny, who had stood high in the confidence, and been constantly in the chamber of the dying monarch. These gentlemen were therefore inter- FOgated before their colleagues ; and from their depositions it was inferred, that the king had intended to give a dukedom to Hertford, to create the earl of Essex, his queen's brother, a marquess, to raise the viscount Lisle and brd Wriothesley to the higher rank of earls, and to confer the title of baron on Sir Thonats Seymour, Sir Bichard Bieh, 8k John St.

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Leger, Sir William Willoughby, Sir Edward Sheffield, and Sir Christopher Danbj : and that, to enable the new peers to support their respective titles, he had destined for Hertford an estate in land of £800 per annum, with a yearly pension of £300 from tiie first bishopric which should become vacant, and the incomes of a treasurership, a deanery, and six prebends, in different cathedrals: for each of the others a proportionate increase of yearly income ; and for the three deponents, Paget, Herbert, and Denny, 400 pounds, 400 marks, and 200 pounds. Two out of the number, St. Leger and Danby, had sufficient rirtue to refuse the honours and revenues which were allotted to them: Hertford was created duke of Somerset, Essex marquess of Northampton, Lisle earl of Warwick, Wriothesley earl of Southampton, and Seymour, Bich, Wiltoughby, and Sheffield, barons of the same name : and to all these, with the exception of the two last, and to Cranmer, Paget, Herbert, and Denny, and more than thirty other persons, were assigned in different propor- tions manors and lordships out of the lands, which had be- longed to the dissolved monasteries, or still belonged to the existing bishoprics. But Sir Thomas Seymour was not satined: as uncle of the king he aspired to office no less than rank : and to appease his discontent the new earl of Warwick resigned in his favour the patent of high, admiral, and was indemnified with that of great chamberlain, which Somerset had exchanged for the dignities of lord high treasurer, and earl marshal, forfeited by the attainder of the duke of Norfolk. These proceedings did not pass without severe animadversion. Why, it was asked, ware not the executors content with the authority which tliey derived from the will of thdr late master ? Why did they reward them- sdves beforehand, instead of waiting till their young sove- reign should be of age, when he might recompense their services according to their respective merits ? " Thus the reader will see that though the crime of idolatry is r^re- sented as havbg touched the oonsdences of these menders of religion, they were not averse to the crimes of self-aggran*

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dizement, robbery, and sacrilege. We should have added forgery too ; for the same historian remarks, that though the clause to the above effect appears in the body of the will, yet it is somewhat mysterious that it should be ordered, as the deponents testified, to be inserted only when the king was on his death bed, that is, about January the 28th, and the will purports to be executed three weeks before, on the 30th of December.

We must now notice the funerfil of Henry. The ceremony was performed with very great pomp, and, while the body lay in state at WhitehaU, masses were said every day, so that it is as clear as the sun at noon-day, that though Protestants are now compelled, in order to qualify for civil o£Sce, to swear that the mass is idolatry, yet Cranmer, and all the crew of reformers at the beginning of Edward's reign, as well as the reign of the first pope of the Bnglish church, believed in and followed the doctrine and practice of this great sacrifice. The king himself, by his will, left 600Z. a year f(»r masses to be said for the repose of his soul ; but this part of his will was soon violated, and the money appropriated to other purposes, as he had impiously deprived others of the same religious benefit. Next followed the coronation of the young king, the ceremony of which was much shortened, and an alteration was made of so important a nature that we shall give the relation in Dr. Lingard's words. '* That the delicate health t>f the young king," says the historian, ** might not suffer from fatigue, the accustomed ceremony was considerably abridged : and, under respect for the laws and constitution of the reakn, an important alteration was introduced into that part of the form which had been devised by our Saxon ances* tors, to put the new sovereign in mind that he held his crown by the free choice of the nation. Hitherto it had been the custom for the archbishop, first to receive the king's oath to preserve the liberties of the realm> and then to ask the people if they were willing to accept him, and obey him as their liege lord. Now the order was invected : and not only did the address to the people precede the oath of the king, but in

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that very address they were reminded diat lie held liis crown by descent, and that it was their duty to submit to his rule. * Sirs,' said the metropolitan, ' I here present king Edward, rightful and undoubted inheritor, by laws of Qod and man, to the royal dignity and crown imperial of this realm, whose consecrati(m, inunction, and coronation, is appointed by all the nobles and peers of the land to be this day. Will ye serve, at this time, and give your good wills and assents to the same consecration, inunction, and coronation, as by your duty of allegiance ye be bound to do ? ' When the acclama* tions of the spectators had subsided, the young Edward took the accustomed oath, first on the sacrament, and then on the book of the gospels. He was next anointed, after the anoieht form : the protector and the archbishop placed on his head successively three crowns, embleinatic of the three king- doms of England, France, and Ireland ; and the lords and prelates first did homage two by two, and then in a body pro- mised fealty on their knees. Instead of a sermon, Cranmer pronounced a short address to the new sovereign, telling him that the promises that he had just made could not effect his right to sway the sceptre of his dominions. That right he, like his predecessors, had derived from GK)d : whence it fol- lowed, that neither the bidiop of Bome, nor any other bishop, could impose conditions on him at his coronation, ni r pretend to deprive him of his crown on the plea that he had brdc^i his coronation oath. Yj^t these solemn rites served to ad^ monish him of his duties, whidi were,^ as GK)d's vicegerent, and Christ's vicar, to see that Gk>d be worsh^^, and idoktiybe destroyed that the tyraanyofthe bishop of Rome be banii^edy and images be removed ; to rewaid virtue, and revenge vice; to justify the innocent, and relieve the pocnr; to repress vio*- lence, and execute justice. Let him do this, and he would become a second Josias, whose £ame would remam to the end of days.' The ceremony was conshidod with a solenm high mass, sung by theanchbishop."

Here we have tSranmer i^;ain upon the csrpei We see him not only teaching the young king to look upon himself

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as holding the sceptre hy divine right, and authorized to jp^r- secuU for religious opinions, but we also see him celebrating that august sacrifice of the mass^ which had been offered up ever since the introduction of Christianity, but which was soon after to be abolished, and by the instrumentality of this very archbishop. Thus, then, to Cranmer, who is so much extolled by the liberty-loving disciples of the Reformation, we may lay the loss, in the first instance, of those fundamental principles of civil freedom which distinguishes the genuine constitution of our country, and the conduct of our forefathers when Catholics, and the origin of those bitter grievances which the people have sufiered from misrule and faction, Burnet, who is the trumpeter of Cranmer, speaks of this deviation for the first time frH)m the form devised by our Saxon ancestors, as a matter of common place, though he acknowledges the altera- tion to have been a " remarkable " one. He says, ** that for- merly the king used to be presented to the people at the corner of the scaffold, and they were asked if they would have him to be their king ? Which looked like a right of an elec- tion, rather than a ceremony of investing one that was already king. This was now changed, and the people were desired only to give assent and good will to his coronation, as by duty of allegiance they were bound to do.'' This is the lan- guage of a church-of-England bishop, and one too who was raised to that dignity by William the Dutchman, who came over to this country to dethrone his father-in-law, having married James the Second's eldest daughter, Mary, and was placed on the English throne during the life-time of James, not, indeed, by divine right, but by the consent of the people, who, in Edward's reign, we arie told by this bishop, had only to give their assent to the coronation as by duty of allegiance they were bound to do. Such was the regard which Cranmer, in the first instance, and Burnet, after him, had for the rights and privileges of the people.

We must now return again to the modem Book of Martyrs, or rather to Burnetts Abridgment, from which the editors have selected their account. In order to justify the work of VOL. II. T

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desolation which followed the coronation of Edward YI., Bomet makes the following remarks on the Catholic doctrine of prajing for the dead : — ^* The pomp of this endowment [alluding to Henry's bequest for daily masses for his soul] led people to examine into the usefulness of sotU-masses and obits, Christ i4>pointed the sacrament for a commemorati<m of his death among the living y but it was not easy to conceive HOW that was to be applied to departed souls; and it was evidently a project for drawing the wealth of the world into their hands. In the primitive church there was a com^ memoration of the dead, or an honourable remembrance of them made in the daily offices. But even this custom grew into abussy and some inferred from it, that departed souls, unless they were signally pure, passed through a purgation in the next life, before they were admitted to heaven ; of which St. Austin, in whose time the opinion began to be re^ ceivedy says, that it was taken up without any sure ground in scripture. But what was wanting in scripture-proof was supplied by visions, dreams, and talesy till it was generally received. King Henry had acted like one who did not much believe it, for he had deprived innumerable souls of the masses that were said for them in monasteries, by destroying those foimdations. Yet he seems to have intended, that if masses could avail the departed souls, he would himself be secure ; and as he gratified the priests by this part of his endowment, so he pleased the people by appointing sermons and alms to be given on such days. Thus he died as he had lived, wavering between both persuasions." The modem editors have here cut off the paragraph which goes on thus : — > ^^ And it occasioned no small debate, when men sought to find out what his opinions were in the controverted points of religion ; for the esteem he was in, made both sides study to justify themselves, by seeming to follow his sentiments; the one party said, he was resolved never to alter religion, but only to cut off some abuses, and intended to go no further than he had gone. They did, therefore, vehemently press the others to innovate nothing, but to keep things in the

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state in which he left them, till his son should come of age. But the opposite party said, that he had resolred to go a great way further, and particularly to turn the mass to a communion; and, therefore, religion heing of such con- Bequence to the salvation of souls, it was necessary to make all the haste in reformation that was fitting and decent."

This is Burnet *s account, to co?er the shameful rohheries that preceded and accompanied the famous, or rather in- famous, Reformation, of which he was the historian. Burnet was a hishop as well as a writer, but his sacred character did not prevent him from being as gi-eat a falsifier as ever sat down to write for the purpose of deception. We have proved, in the first volume of this Beview, from the testimony of the fathers, that Christ appointed the eucharist to be a sacrifice as well as a sacrament; that tiiere was a commemoration daily made in the mass iot the dead as well as the living, in the primitive church ; and that there was no difficulty among the faithful, in the pure ages of the church, nor is there any now, to conceive how the merits of Christ in the mass are applied to departed souls. But it is insinuated that the pro- ject of soul-masses and obits or anniversaries, was evidently broached for the purpose of drawing the wealth of the world into their hands. This insinuation comes with a bad grace from a bishop of the established church, whose brethren draw a great deal of wealth by their vocation, without doing much for it. Burnet forgot, or at least he did not wish his readers should know, the vast works of charity that were performed by the Catiiolic clergy through the revenues they derived from this custom of soul-masses ; whereas, if we look to what has been done by the Protestant clergy since the change of religion, we shall find litde for them to boast of. It is notorious that all the beautiful churches, all the noble hospitals, the magoificent monasteries, the colleges an^ halls of the universities, the public schools, and, in fact, every public building of utility and ornament, were chiefly raised by the revenues of the church, aided by the donations of pious laymen and women. Not a &rthing was con-

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tributed through compulsory means; the statute book in Catholic times does not contain one single clause imposing a tax upon the people to support those noble works of our forefathers, while it is notorious that numbers of the beautiful edifices were destroyed by the reformers, others were con- verted into profane uses, and even at this day the people, though taxed to the utmost to support a debt caused by a profligate and ruinous war, are compelled to pay an impost towards erecting new churches, the old ones having been suffered to fall into decay. The doctrine of purgatory, Burnet says, began to be received about the time of St. Austin : this is false, for St. Basil, long before St. Austin lived, maintained this doctrine, and Fox called him '' the pillar of truth."— (iSctf Review, vol. i. p. 257.) But let St. Augustin speak for himself, and then let the reader decide whether he said, as this lying bishop asserts, ^' that it [the doctrine of purgatory] was taken up without any sure ground in scripture." This great luminary of the Catholic church writes thus : — " Before the most severe and last judgment, some undergo temporal punishments in this life ; some after death; and others both now and then. But not all that suffer af%er death are condemned to eternal flames. What is not expiated in this life, to some is remitted in the life to come, so that they may escape eternal punishment." — De Cevit. Dei, L, xxi. c, xiii. T. v. p. 1432. " The prayers of the church and of some good persons are heard in favour of those Christians who depsurted this life, not so bad as to be deemed unworthy of mercy, nor so good as to be entitled to immediate happiness. So also, at the resurrection of the dead, there will some be found to whom mercy will be im- parted, having gone through those pains to which the spirits of the dead are liable. Otherwise it would not have been said of some, with truUi, that their sin shaU not he forgiven, neither in this world, nor in the world to come (Matt. xii. 82), unless some sins were remitted in the next world.'' — Ibid, c, xxiv. p. 1446. '' It cannot be thought, that the souls of the dead are not relieved by the piety of the living.

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when the sacrifice of our Mediator is offered for them, or alms are distributed in the church. They are benefited, who so liyed as to have deserved such favours. For there is a mode of life, not so perfect as not to require this assist- ance, nor so bad as to be incapable of receiving aid. The practice of the church in recommending the souls of the departed, is not contrary to the declaration of the apostle, which says : We mtist all appear before the judgment- seat of Christ, that every one may receive the proper things of the body, according as Tie hath done, whether it be good or evU, (2 Cor. v. 10). For this merit each one, in his life, has acquired, to be aided by the good works of the living. But all are not idded : and why so ? Because all have not lived alike. When, therefore, the sacrifice of the altar or ahns are offered for the dead ; in regard to those whose lives were very good, such offices may be deemed acts of thanks- giving ; acts of propitiation for the imperfect ; and though to the wicked they bring no aid, they may give some com- fort to the living." — JEnchirtd. c. ex. T. iii. p. 83. " Lord, chastise me not in thy anger ; may I not be numbered witli those, to whom thou wilt say : Oo into eternal fire, which hath been prepared for the devil and his angels. Cleanse me so in this life, make me such, that I may not stand in need of that purifying fire, designed ^r those who shall be saved, yet so as by fire. And why, but because (as the apostle says) they have built upon the foundation, wood, hay, and stubble f If they had built gold and silver, and precious stones, they would be secured from both fires ; not only from that in which the wicked shall be punished for ever, but likewise from that fire which will purify those who shall be saved by fire. But because it is said, he shall be saved, that fire is thought lightly of; though the suffering will be more grievous than anything man can undergo in this life." — In Psal xxxvii. T, viii. p. 127. " It cannot be doubted, that, by the prayers of the holy church, and by the salutary sacrifice, and by alms which are given for the repose of their souls, the dead are helped ; so that God may treat

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them more meroifullj than their sins deserved. This the vhole church observes, which it received from the tradition of the fathers, to pray for those who died in the communion of the body and blood of Christ, when, in their turn, they are commemorated at the sacrifice, and it is then announced, that the sacrifice is offered for them/' — De verbis Apostolic Serm. xxxii. T. i. p. 154. " We read in the second book of Maccabees (zii. 43), that sacrifice was offered for the dead ; but though, in the old testament, no such words had been found, the authority of the universal church must suffice, whose practice is incontrovertible. When the priest at the altar offers up prayers to God, he recommends in them the souls of the departed. When the mind sometimes reodlects that the body oi his friend baa been deposited necur the tomb of some martyr, he lails not, in prayer, to recom- mend the soul to that blessed saint; not doubting that succour may thence be derived. Such suffirages must not be neglected, which the church performs in general words, that they may be benefited who have no parents, nor children, nor relations, nor friends." — De cura pro Mortuut, e, i, iv. jT. pp. 288 — 290. The same sentimait is repeated through the whole treatise, and we now leave it to the unbiassed Protestant to decide whether there was any difficulty am^^ng Catholic fathers, and jlivines, and people, to oMiceive how the efficacy of the mass was applied to departed souls.

We must allow that Henry acted like one who did not believe it, by his depriving so many souls of the benefit con- ferred by this Christian and divine sacrifice ; but Harry was then blinded by his passions, as Burnet was by his interests ; but when Henry came to the last point, and death was stand- ing before him, he knew too well the value of this religious consolation to reject it at such an awful moment, though the Almighty so ordered that he should derive little or no advantage from it. In the passage we have added, and the modem editors suppressed, Burnet would persuade ns that the monster in cnielty, Henry, was held in esteem by both parties. But where was the proof of this regard to the

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deceased tyrant when his last will was neglected almost as soon as the hreath had left his body ? One party said he resolved never to alter religion, and yet it is very well knoWn that he did alter it. The other party contended that he had resolved ** to go a great way further, and particularly to turn the mass into a eommunion/^ and therefore '* it was necessary to make all the haste in reformation that was fitting and decent." iiVell said, Gilbert Burnet ; but what authority have you for this statement ? If Harry intended to have turned the mass into a communion, would he have left such a sum of money as he did by his last will, to have masses said for the repose of his soul ? Gome, Gilbert, get over this awkward predicament. No, no ; it was not the people who began to be inquisitive into the use/vlness cff soul^masseSf hot the fiEtctious leaders in the work of Bdormation, who cast their longing eyes on the goods of the church which had escaped the rapacity of the preceding reign, and which they coveted the usefulness of for their own private gain. This it was that made them in such Tuute to commence the change in rdigion, which you, Gilbert Burnet, represent as being ** of such consequence to the salvation of souls !" Let us now have an account of their proceedings from the Book of Martyrs, It says : — ^* The nation was in an ill condition for a war with such a mighty prince ; — labouring under great distractions at home ; the people generally crying out for a Beformation, despising the clergy, and loving the new preachers. The priests were, Tor the most part, very ignorant, and scandalous in their lives ; many of them had been monks, and those who were to pay them the pensions which were reserved to them at the destruction of the monas- teries, till they should be provided, took care to get them into some small benefice. The greatest part of the parsonages were impropriated, for they belonged to the monasteries, and the abbots had only granted the incumbents either the vicar- age, or some smsdl donative, and left them the perquisites raised by masses and other offices! At the suppression of tiiose houses there was no care taken to make provision for

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the incumbents ; so that thej were in some measure compelled to continue in their idolatrous practices for subsistance.

*' Now these persons saw that a reformation of those abuses would deprive them oi their means of existence ; and, there- fore, they were at first zealous against all changes ; but the same principle made them comply with every change which was made, rather than lose their benefices. The clergy were encouraged in their opposition to the Eeformation by the pro- tection they expected from Gardiner, Bonner, and Tonstall, men of great reputation, and in power ; and, above all, the lady Mary, the next heir to the crown, openly declared against all changes till the king should be of age.

" On the other hand, Cranmer resolved to proceed more vigorously ; the protector was firmly united to him, as were the young king's tutors, and Edward himself was as mudi engaged as could be expected from so young a person ; for both his knowledge and zeal for true religion were above his age. Several of the bishops also declared for a Eeformation, but Bidley, bishop of Eochester, was the person on whom Cranmer most depended. Latimer remained with him at Lambeth, and did great service by his sermons, which were very popular ; but he would not return to his bishojmc* choosing rather to ser^e the church in a more disengaged manner. Assisted by these persons, Cranmer resolved to proceed by degrees, and to give the reasons of ev«py advance so fully, that he hoped, by the blessing of God, to convince the nation of the fitness of whatsoever should be done, and thereby prevent the dangerous opposition that might other- wise be apprehended."

We have here some more of Gilbert's falsehoods, but before we proceed to examine them, we must notice a trifling liberty the modem editors have taken with their text. We have more than once informed the reader that this account of the *' progress of the Eeformation," in the modem Book of Martyrs, is taken from Gilbert Bumet's " Abridgement of the History of the Eeformation," <fec. We have compared the above quotation with the original now before us, and we

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find that Burnet thus speaks of Cranmer : — <^ But on the other hand, Cranmer, WHOSB greatest weakness was his

OVER-OBSEQUIOUSNESS TO £lNG HeNRY, BEING NOW AT

LIBERTY, resolved to proceed more vigorously," Now, ' if the reader will turn to the last paragraph of the quotation, it will he seen that all the words we have put in small-capital letters have heen omitted hj the modem editors. So, then, these exciters of hatred against Popery were ashamed of the ohsequiousness of their own dear Tom Cranmer, whose slavish compliance, under every circumstance, to the wiU of Henry, could not he passed over uncensured, even hy his greatest flatterer, Gilbert Burnet. Well, but Tom was now at liberty to set about the godly work of Beformation, and it is time to see how he went to business. We are told that he ** resolved to proceed by degrees,** so that the nation might be convinced "of the fitness of whatsoever should be done." The first proceeding, we are informed, was an order for " a general visitation of all the churches in England, which was divided into six precincts : and two gentlemen, a civilian, a divine, and a register, were appointed for each of these. But before they were sent out, a letter was written to all the bishops, giving them notice of it, suspending their jurisdic- tion while it lasted, and requiring them to preach no where but in their cathedrals, and that the other clergy should not preach but in their own churchM, without licence ; by which it was intended to restrain such as were not acceptable, to their own parishes, and to grant the others licences to preach in any church of England. The greatest difficulty i^e re^ formers found was in the want of able and prudent men ; most of the reformed preachers being too hot and indiscreet, and the few who were otherwise were required in London, and the universities." Here we have more disclosures not very creditable to the performers in this scene of civil and religious innovation. The commissioners were appointed by the privy coundl, and consisted of laymen as well as divines. These commissioners, on their arrival in any diocess, assumed the spiritual aadiori^ over the bishop himself, who was not

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allowed to preach any where hut in his own cathedral, and the other clergy were prohibited from preaching without a liceme. The commissioners further summoned the bishops, ' the clergy, and householders before them, and not pnly com- pelled them to take the oaths of allegiance and supremacy, but also to answer such questions on oath as might be put to them. Here was a comfortable state of freedom for English- men to enjoy I But they had renounced the tyranny of the pope, and the slavery of the Catholic church, and therefore the despotic restrictions imposed upon them, being cloaked with the charm of eyangelieal liberty, the Eeformation of religion was hailed as a blessing. What a change was here worked for the downfall of England's liberties, and the happiness of Englishmen. Heretofore religion was held aa of diyine right, and in the exercise of their spiritual functions the clergy had always been independent of the crown. Un - fettered with the cares of wives and families, and enjoined, not only by the canons of the church, but by the laws of the kingdom, to follow the spiritual and corporal works of mercy, by visiting the sick, comforting the houseless, entertaining the stranger, and supporting the poor, their interests became identified with the privileges of the people, and they formed a barrier agamst the encroachments of the crown and the ambition of the nobles. Thus we see, in the tenth century, king Edgar, while acting by the advice and counsels of an archbishop of Canterbury, St. Dunstan, governing his people with the anxiety of a father, and watching the administration ot justice with a jealous eye. Falling into the foul sin of adultery, he was brought to a sense of his crime, and retraced his steps by making atonement for the scandal he had given to religion and morality. We are aware that the conduct of St. Dunstan has been censured as arrogant and insolent, by by many of our modem writers, who wrote for profit and not fov truth ; but did the courageous and noble-minded archbishop do more than Nathan, who reproved king^ David to his face for the offence he had committed ? And would St. Dunstan have dared to rq[krove the king had he taken out a oommissioii

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from Edgar^ as the reforming bbhops did uidet Edward the Sixth?

Again, in the eleventh century, we see St. Anselm with- standing the innovations attempted bj William Bufus, who,' like his Norman father, governed the kingdom more bj his own capricious and despotic will than bj the laws and customs of the country, established and confirmed by the Saxon monarchs. No threats nor persuasions could induce the holy Anselm to relinquish his own rights, or sanefcien the violation of others. He preferred banishment and poverty to ease and riches in his see, and he outlived the tyrant by whom he was persecuted. But had Anselm been a man of the world, like Tom Cranmer ; had he been encumbOTed with a wife and family, like our Protestant prelates ; had he held his high possessions through the influence and will of the sovereign, would he have had the courage to withstand the power of the monarch, and brave the storms which gathered around him, in the rigid performance of duty ? Oh^ no ! the endearments of his wife, the cries of his children, the bve of pleasure, and the fear of distress, would have influenced him, and he would probably have been as ready a slave to the whims of Hufus, as Tom- Cranmer b acknowledged by Burnet to have been to the will of Henry^ and as we shall shew him to have been to the will of the protector.

So, in the next century, we find St. Thomas k Becket re- sisting the encroachments meditated by Henry II., in the constitution of the country. St. Thomas was the first Englishman who rose to any considerable station under the Norman race of kings. He was well versed in the canon and civil law, was made lord chancellor, and afterwards archbishop of Canterbury. On being raised to the primate's chair, he resigned his civil office, considering the two offices to be incompatible with each other. Henry, like other ambitious sovereigns, meditated pretensions contrary to ihe • established privileges of the constitution, and he required the assent of the archbishop. St Thomas had taken an oath to preserve these privileges^ and he refused to violate that oath

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and the constitution at the same time. This was the head and front of the archbishop's offence, and yet to this day hi» memory is maligned, and his patriotic firmness misrepresented. Even the great Sir Walter Scott, in his last novel, that famous vehicle for calumny and abuse of the Catholic church, has spoken of the conduct of St. Thomas in the most injurious and unjustifiable terms. The archbishop is represented by the popular novelist, who, by- the- by, is a thorough-paced Tory, as a proud and imperious prelate, which impression, we suppose, he borrowed from his country- man, Hume. The latter base and unprincipled writer, ^ insinuates that St Thomas k Becket was proud and ambitious and covered his vicious inclinations with the cloak of sanctity and zeal for religion. Had St. Thomas not been a church- man, he would probably have been held in as high esteem a» the most renowned of our statesmen since the Beformation, but it was his misfortune, as the world will say, to be a Catholic prelate, and therefore, though his resistance to the will of Henry was purely conscientious, and he refrained from entering into any party strife, yet he is foully attacked by the infidel Hume ; and the rage and violences of Henry, which ended in the archbishop's death, are extenuated. Had St. Thomas been a panderer and a base violator of his oaths, like Cranmer ; had he renounced the visible head of that divine religion, through whose influence we owe all that is valuable and venerable in our constitution ; had he consented, like Cranmer, to become the mere tool and lieutenant of the kmg, exercising the functions of his office to cheat the people of their rights and customs, and enrich the himgry expectants that crowd a vicious court out of the patrimony of the poor, we should have seen him extolled as one of the best benefacn tors of mai^ind, though he would have been, as Cranmer was, the disgrace of his sacred profession, and the curse of this once happy country. But St. Thomas was a disinterested and firm supporter of the laws and privileges of his country, and a Catholic prelate ; it was not fit therefore that the Pro- testant people should be told the truth. Cranmer was a base

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truckler, a yicIoub sensualist, and a traitor to the constitution ; but he was an instrument in bringing about that reformation which has led to all the evils the country has suffered, and will yet suffer — it is therefore necessary that the truth should here too be' disguised ; — thus the brave and good prelate is represented as ambitious and arrogant for doing his duty ; while the corrupt and dissembling prelate, who basely betrayed his trust, is described as the paragon of excellence and per- fection.

In the thirteenth century we have another example of the great advantages derived to civil freedom and the people's rights, by an independent and disinterested clergy. To whom does England owe so much, next to Alfred and Edward the confessor, as to cardinal Langton, archbishop of Canter- bury, who advised and instructed the barons of England to curb the despotic conduct of an unprincipled king, and de- mand a restoration of the Saxon laws, which the Norman conqueror and his successors had abrogated ? As might be expected, John, the reigning monarch, resisted this demand ; but, encouraged by the counsels and example of the patriotic and inflexible primate, the barons persisted in their claims, and at length compelled the king to sign the great charter of English liberties, which was faithfully preserved till the bloody reign of Henry, the wife aed priest slaughterer, when Cranmer and his associates in the work of reform, or rather of devastation, consented to its violation, by making the church the footstool of the state, and placing its ministers in subserviency to the will of the king and his courtiers.

Burnet has confessed that Cranmer was over obsequious to the will of Henry y nor was he less compliant to the will of the lord protector, after he was released from the control of the lustful and inexorable despot. On attaining the summit of power, Hertford aUowed Cranmer to make some progress in what they called a reform, without the consent of par- liament, and Cranmer, in return, assured the protector that he would find the episcopal order, who now held their sees durmg the pleasure of the crown, ready instruments to fulfil

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the wishes of their masters. Gardiner was the only hishop who stood out for episcopal rights, and he soon found himself in a prison. But what does Bmnet himself say of the ca- pahilities and character of the reformers ? ^^ The greatest difficulty the reformers found was the want oi able and jpru- dent mm; most of the reformed prbaohers being too HOT and INDISCREET, and the few who were otherwise were required in London and the universities. Therefore (he adds) they intended to make those as common as was possible, and appointed them to preach as itinbrants and visitors." The latter sentence of this quotation the wise editors of the modem Book of Martyrs have suppressed, thinking, we suppose, it reflected no great credit on the work they were extolling. But what, gentle reader, will you say of that Keformation which was not performed by *^ able and prudent men," but was the work of ** Ao< aud indiscreet " preachers ? Could a change of religion be good and true that had such hands to produce it ? The Catholic religion was first founded by the apostles, who were inspired men, and renowned for their virtues, prudence, and invincible constancy. They selected others equally eminent for piety, integrity, and purity of conduct, to carry the faith delivered to them to other nations, and we find by the page of history, that king*- dom after kingdom was subdued to the Catholic faith by holy, able, and prudent men, till, in a word, the whole world had been converted from Paganism, and acknowledged the cross of Christ. We have it in the annals of our own country, that, at the close of the sixth century, St. Gregory the Gh'eat, who then filled the chair oi St. Peter at Eome, sent a holy and prudent man, St. Augustin, to preach the Catholic faith to the Saxon inhabitants of Britain, and that, aided by other able and prudent men, the whole island, in a ^ort i^Mtce of time, became Catholic, and so continued through a series of nine hundred years, producing, during that period, the most just laws, the most valiant and wise kings, noUes, and legislators, the most pious and charitable prelates and priests, and the moi^ learned and exp^ienced sdiolars. And

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now we are unblushinglj told, bj the panegjristB of what is galled " THE Reformation," that the change from Catho- licism to Protestantism was the work of men who were wholly destitute of the qualities requisite to be a true servant of religion, being devoid of prudence and ability, and influenced by passion and indiscretion. From such a tree is it possible that good fruit could come ? Need we wonder at the nu- merous evils that have sprung from this unhappy change from good to bad; from a system of perfect liberty and justice, to a chaos of licentiousness and oppression? The wonder is, that the people have remained so long under the reign of folly and delusion, but that wond^ ceases when we reflect on the pains taken by interested and unprincipled writers to disguise and deface the truth, which, however, has been preserved by the care of learned and trusty scholars, and we rejoice to say is now making rapid progress among a people so long the dupes of designing men, an illustration of which we shall now proceed to give the reader.

Speaking of the progress of this hitherto unheard-of visi- tation, the editors of the modem Book of Martyrs say ; — " The injunctions made by Cromwell, in the former reign, for instructing the people, for removing images, and putting down all other customs abused to superstition ; for reading the scriptures, saying the litany in English, for frequent sermons and catechising, for the exemplary lives of the clergy, their labours in visiting the sick, reconciling differ- ences, and exhorting the people to charity, <&c., were now renewed ; and all who gave livings by simoniacal bargains, were declared to have forfeited their right of patronage to the king. A great charge was also given for ihe strict ob- servation of the Lord*s day, which was appointed to be spent wholly in the service of God, it not being enough to hear mass or matins in the morning, and spend the rest of the day in drunkenness and quarrelling, as was commonly prac- tised ; but it ought to be all employed, either in the duties of religion, or in acts of charity. Direction was also given for the saying of prayers, in which the king, as supreme

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head, the queen, and the king's sisters, the protector and council, and all orders of persons in the kingdom, were to he mentioned. Injunctions were also given for the hishops to preach four times a year in all their diocesses, once in their cathedral, and thrice in any other church, unless they had a good excuse to the contrary; that their chaplains should preach often ; and that they should give orders to none hut to such as were duly quidified. The visitors, at length, ended the visitation, and in London and every part of England, the images — for refusing to how down to whichy many a saint had been bumt^^were now committed to the flames." What we hav« here quoted is a selection from Burnet, with an addition of their own. The modem editors have shamefully violated the truth in stating that many a SAINT had heen burned for refusing to bow down to images, as there is not a single burning on record f(Nr such an offence. We challenge the assertors to the proof, and we boldly defy them to produce one authenticated case of a saint, or even a sinner, having suffered for refusing to bow down to an image. What can we think of that cause which requires FALSEHOOD for its support ? What are we to think of those men who can have recourse to such detestable practices to vilify and malign their neighbour's good name, and blind the unsus- pecting reader? Having detected this addition to Burnet's tales, we shall now notice a stippression which the modem editors have been guilty of, on a very important subject. Among the directions given for praying, Burnet says, " they were idso to pray for departed souls, that at the last day we with them might rest both body and soul.** This order too clearly proved that the reformers in Edward's day held, at first, the doctrine of purgatory and praying for the dead^ which they afterwards abolished, when they had stripped the church of all the chantries, and violated the testamentary deeds of their ancestors, by appropriating the money left for masses for the repose of the souls of the testators, to their own use. So dear a testimony of the Catholic doctrine, though recorded by Bumet, was too much

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for the modem editors, who profess to convey a true know- ledge of Ghrastianity to their readers, and therefore it was omitted. Thus the ignorant reader is confirmed in his ignorance, while they pretend to have the desire of enlight- ening him. The modem editors could not be ignorant themselves that this doctrine was not only enjoined, but even Jbilotvedhj Granmer and his associates at this time, for Collier, in his Ecelesiaatical History , alluding to the death of the king of France, Francis I., on which occasion the in- junction suppressed by the modem editors was observed by the too hot and indiscreet preachers, says : — <' on the 19th of June, a dirge was sung for him in all the churches of London. The choir of St. Paul's was hung with mourning, and no other circumstance of state or solemnity omitted. The archbishop of Canterbury (Cranher), with eight other bishops, in their richest pfrntifieal habits, sung A mass ad requiem, and a sermon was preached by Dr. Eidley, elect of Eochester." So, then, the reforming bishops, with Cranmer at their head, did not scmple to celebrate that august sacrifice which Protestants now swear is damnable idolatry, to qualify themselves for office under the crown of England. But it was necessary to keep up appearances for the present ; there- fore, while these hypocrites were complying with the forms of the old religion, the preachers were ordered to inveigh against the doctrines of the Catholic church, in order to prepare the people for the change which the courtiers medi- tated. These proceedings did not pass, however, without opposition. Gardiner, bishop of Winchester, and some other of the prelates, stood so stoutly in the old belief, that neither threats nor persuasions could move them ; and the princess Mary, afterwards queen, wrote to the protector, telling him that the changes made and about to be made, <' were contrary to the honour due to her father's memory, and that it was against their duty to the king to enter upon such points, and endanger the public peace, before he was of age." The protector wrote for answer, " that her father had died before he could finish the good things he had intended

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concerning religion ; and had ex|Hres8ed his regret, both before himself and many others, that he left things in so unsettled a state ; and assured her, that nothing should be done but what would turn to the glorj of God, and the king's honour/' What hypocrisy and blasphemy ! We shall soon see how far the glory of God, and the honour of the king was respected by these base and iniquitous scourges of a once happy people.

The Book of Martyrs next proceeds to detail the new acts passed by the first and only parliament of Edward, but it does not furnish us with the origin of this parliament. The mode of selecting it was so dissimilar to the elections in the time of Catholicism, and was attended with such dire conse- quences to the nation at large, tiiat we shall give it in the words of Dr. Heylin, a Protestant diyine, from his History of the Reformation. The doctor says: — " And now it is high time to attend the parliament, which took beginning on the fourth of November and was prorogued on the twenty-fourth of December following : in which the ciffds were so well packed by Sir Ealph Sadler, that there was no need of any other shuffling till the end of the game. This very parlia- ment, without any sensible alteration of the members of it, being continued by prorogation from session to session, until at last it ended by the death of the king. For a preparatory whereunto Ridiard lord Rich was made lord chancellor on the twenty-fourth of October ; and Sir John Baker chan- cellor of the court of first fruits and tenths, was nominated speaker for ihe House of Commons. And that all things might be carried with as little opposition and noise as might be, it was thought fit that bishop Gardiner should be kept in prison till the end of the session ; and that bishop Tonstal of Durham (a man of a most even and moderate spirit) should be made less in reputation, by being deprived of his place at the council table. And though the parliament con- sisted of such members as disagreed amongst themselves in respect of religion, yet they agreed well enough together in one common principle, which was to serve the present time

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and preserve themselves. For though a great part of the nobility, and not a few of the chief gentry in the House of Commons, were cordially affected to the church of Borne ; yet were they willing to give way to all such acts and statutes as were made against it, out of a fear of losing such church lands as they were possessed of, if tliat religion should prevail and get up again. And for the rest, who either were to make, or improve their fortunes, there is no question to be made, but that they came resolved to further such a re- solved to further such a Beformation, as should most visibly qonduce to the advancement of their several ends. Which appears plainly by the strange mixture of the acts and re- sults thereof; some tending simply to Qod's glory, and the good of the church ; some to the present benefit and enrich- ing of particular persons ; and some again being devised of purpose to prepare a way for exposing the revenues of the church unto spoil and rapine.'^ Look at Uiis account, sensible reader, and then go back to the time of John, when Langton and the barons stipulated for the nation's freedom and rights. •Alas, what a change ! When the Catholic religion flonridied, the parliaments were freely elected, and lasted only during the session, so that parliaments were as frequent as they were free. It was only in the preceding reign that parliaments were packed to carry the changes and inroads on the religion and constitution of the country against the will of the people, and we here see how the system of corruption was improved upon. Here we have an assemblage of men influenced by the basest motives, and packed for the worst ends, legislating for the church as well as the state, and forming new articles of faith, at the whim of the moment. Here we have it avowed that they were actuated not with a love of country or of truth, but with the sordid view of enriching themselves by the spoil and rapine of the revenues of the church, which had already suffered severely in the former reign. Here it is distinctly stated that the Eepormation, as it is called, was promoted by laymen under the fear that they would be obliged, in the event of the old order of things being restored,

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to give up the ill-gotten goods they were possessed of, wldch did not suit their worldly views. Such then was the origin of that change of religion which took place in this country in the sixteenth century, after having heen Catholic nine hundred years. Is it possible that the change could be good, springing as it ,did from such a source ?

Of the acts passed by this parliament, some were of a civil nature, and others regarded matters of conscience. The most material, however, was the act for placing the funds of the chantries, colleges, free chapels, and hospitals, which had escaped the rapacity of the late king, at the dis- posal of the reigning monarch, that he might employ them in providing for the poor, increasing the salaries of the preachers, and endowing free shools for the diffusion of learn- ing. All this however was no more than pretence ; for the harpies of the court took especial care that very little of the spoil should he applied to public purposes. Dr. Heylin says there were then no less than ninety colleges, which being for ^ the ends of education, why were they destroyed to make room for free schools ? Ofthis we shall say more hereafter. Another act was for the regulation of the election of bishops, by which the originators intended to weaken the episcopal authority^ " by forcing them," writes Dr. Heylin, ** from their strong hold of divine institution, and making them no other than the king's mmisters only, his ecdesiastical sheriffs (as a man might say), to execute his will, and disperse his mandates. And of this act [continues the doctor] such use was made (though possible beyond the true intention of it), that the bishops of those times were not in a capacity of conferring orders, but as they were thereunto impowered by especial licence. The tenor whereof (if Sanders is to be believed) was in these words following : viz. the king to such a bishop, greeting, whereas all and all manner of jurisdietion, as weU ecclesiastical as civU, flows from the king as from ike «»- pr&me head of all the body, Sfc. We therefore give and grant to thee full power and licence, to continue during our good pleasure, for holding ordination within thg diocess of

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N, and for promoting fit persom unto holy orders, even to that of the priesthood. Which being looked on by queen Mary, not only as a dangerous diminution of the episcopal power, but as an odious innovation in the church of Christy she caused this act to be repealed in the first year of her reign, leaving the bishops to depend on their former claim, and to act all things which belonged to their jurisdiction in their own names, and under their own seals, as in former times. In which estate they have continued, without any legal interruption, from that time to this. But in the first branch there was somewhat more than what appeared at the first sight : for, though it seemed to aim at nothing but that the bishops should depend wholly on the king for their pre- ferment to those great and eminent places ; yet the true drift of the design was to make deans and chapters useless for the time to come, and thereby to prepare them for a dissolution.'' But the most arbitrary and diabolical piece of tyranny , remains yet to be recorded. This was the act legalizing 8LAY£BY in once free England, under the pretence of sup- pressing mendicity. Thb circumstance we must give in the words of Dr. Lingard. — ** The mendicants, who had formerly obtiuned relief at the gates of the monasteries and convents, now wandered in crowds through the country, and by their numbers and importunities often extorted alms from the intimidated passenger. To abate this nuisance a statute was enacted, which will call to the recollection of the reader the barbarous manners of our pagan forefathers. Whoever * lived idly and loiteringly for the space of three days,' came under the description of a vagabond, and was liable to the following punishment. Two justices of the peace might order the letter V to be burnt on his breast, and adjudge him to serve ^e informer two years as his slave. His master was bound to provide him with bread, water, and refuse meat ; might fix an iron ring round his neck, arm or leg, and was authorized to compel him to * labour at any work, however vile it might be, by beating, chaining, or otherwise.' If the slave absented himself a fortnight, the letter S was burnt on his cheek or

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forehead, and he hecame a slave for life : and if he offended a second time in the like manner, his flight suhjected him ta the penalties of felony. Two years later this severe Btatote was repealed." Burnet attempts to soften the severity of this infamous deed of the evangelical reformers, hy insinua- ting that it was ** chiefly intended to operate against the vagrant monks who went about the country infusing into the people a dislike of the government; " but Lingard in a note on this law, says, — ** Similar penalties were enacted against clerks convict, who were nt> longer to make their purgation. Hence it has been inferred, I conceive eironeoudy, that the sevoity of the statute was chiefly directed against some of the monks who are supposed to have become beggars, and to ' have railed against the government. (Burnet, ii. 45.) The young king in his journal calls it * an extreme law.' (Edward's Joiu*nal in Bum. p. 5)."

Of this law for making shves of Englishmen it is impos- sible to speak in measured language, or to stifle those feelings of indignation which arise at the very thought of sudi a measure. What would a Langton, what would our Catholic ancestors have said or done, had such a tyrannous and diabolical law been proposed to make slaves of them, in case they felt the iron hand of poverty ? Well, thank Heaven, this law was the fruit of Protestant legislation ; it was an offspring of the Beformation which Englishmen are now taught to praise and admire, while a majority of them are steeped in misery, and numbers are made to supply the place of beasts of burden. Talk of the tyranny of the pope ; of the slavery of Popery ! Alas ! who are greater slaves than the labourers of England at this moment, who are not allowed to reap the profit of their labour, but are compelled to give more than one third of it to support a race of idle and pro- fligate tax-eaters. In some measure the present state of England is not unlike the state she was in under Edward VI. Schemes were entered into then to su^ress mendicity^ which had been increased to a frightful degree by the rapacioiia spoliations of the court ; and schemes have been proposed in

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our days to reduce the population iu consequeucc of the in- crease of pauperism arising from the plundering of state cormorants. Masters were authorized hj Edward's statute to cause the dave to perform any work, however vile, by beating and chaining ; and in our own days men have been harnessed to carts to drag gravel, by order of the overseers^ and the whip is only wanted to complete the paralleL

There is one other act of this parliament of Edward which we must not overlook. It is that which legalised the mar- riages of the parsons^ and legitimated their children. . By t^is law a heavy burden was entailed on the people, and the tithes which heretofore had gone to repair churches smd feed the poor, were not only given solely to the parsons, but were found inadequate to maintain them, and millions have been voted to support the poor clergy out of the public taxes. The church and the poor were thrown upon the land and trade ; the parsons' sons and daughters are many of them fastened upon the taxes through the sinecure and half-pay lists ; and the bishops are not unmindful of their families, as they take care to promote their sons and sons-^in-law to benefices in preference to others, though perhaps more able candidates, and thus the church propei ty is made a kind of family patrimony between the patrons and the prelates. Now this was not the case in Catholic times ; then the poor man's son stood as good a chance of a parish or a mitre, if he possessed merit and abilities, as the son of the most power* fill nobleman ; and the property of the church, as we have before observed, was expimded in useful and charitable pur- poses. This is one of the blessings of the Eeformatiom, and, to throw dust in the eyes of the people, these parsons are ever and anon reviling the Catholic church for not allow- ing her ministers to marry, contending that it is contrary to the word of God, though the word is more in favour of celibacy than otherwise. But what shall we say, after all the abuse that has been lavished on Ci^holics since the com- mencement of the glorious work of refoim, and especially after the passing of the parson-marrying ]atn, to the schemes

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lately proposed, and we believe actually brought into parlia- tnent, to prevent the Poor from marrying I Not, reader, the poor clergymen, but the poor laymen and women. And this infernal proposition originated, too, with a Protestant parson. How glorious is the inconsistency, and how great the blessings of Protestantism I

Before we proceed further, we must recall the reader's attention to the consequences which resulted from the act which granted possession of chantries, colleges, <fec., to the king. Of these establishments, besides the greater and lesser monasteries, which had been dissolved by Harry, the number was computed to be about 2374, all endowed widi lands, pensions, and moveable goods, to an immense value. " Whwi the law passed," says Mr. Collier, " for their dis- solution, the act promised the estates o[ these foundations should be converted to good and yo<% tueSf in erecting grammar schools, in further augmenting universities, and better provision for the poor and needy. But these lands being mostly shared amongst the courtiers, and others of the rich laity, the promise of the preamble was, in a great measure, impracticable." Dr. Heylin is more diffuse in re-* lating the rapacious and scandalous proceedings of this reign, in his History of the Reformation, As many of the present aristocracy owe^ their estates and rank to the spoliations and sacrileges of the courtiers of Henry and Edward, and as the work of Br. Heylin is little known at this time, and the transactions he alludes to, much less, from the base cupidity of our popular historians, who wrote for lucre^ and not for truth, we will here give the doctor's words, which, though long, will, nevertheless, be deemed important and interesting. He writes : — '' In the next place, we must attend the king's commissioners, dispatched in the beginning of March into every shire throughout the realm, to take a survey of all colleges, free-chapels, chantries, and brotherhoods, within the compass of the statute or act of parliament. According to the return of whose commissions, it would be found no difficult matter to put a just estimate and xalue on so great

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a gift, or to know how to parcel out» proportion, and diyide the spoil betwixt all such, who had before in hope devoured it. In the first place, as lying nearest, came in the free- chapel of St. Stephen, originally founded in the palace at Westminster, and reckoned for the chapel-royal of the court of England. The whole foundation consisted of no fewer than thirty- eight persons : viz., one dean, twelve canons, thirteen vicars, four clerks, six choristers, besides a verger, and one that had the charge of the chapel. In place of whom, a certain number were appointed for officiating the daily ser- vice in the royal chapel (gentlemen of the chapel they are commonly called), whose salaries, together with thai- of the choristers and other servants of the same, amount to a round yearly sum : and yet the king, if the lands belonging to that chapel had been together, and honestly laid unto the crown, had been a very rich gainer by it ; the yearly rents thereof being valued at 1085/. IO5. 5d. As for the chapel itself, together with a cloister of curious workmanship^ built by John Chambers, one of the king's physicians, and the master of the same, they are still standing as they were ; the chapel having been since fitted and employed for an house of commons in all times of parliament.

** At the same time also fell the college of St. Martin's, commonly called St. Martin's le Grand, situate in the city of London, not far from Aldersgate : first founded for a dean and secular canons, in the time of the conqueror, and after- wards privileged for a sanctuary ; the rights whereof it con- stantly enjoyed, without interruption, till all privilege of sanctuary was suppressed in this realm by king Henry YIII. But the foundation itself being now found to be superstitious, it was surrendered uito the hands of king Edward VI. ; who after gave the same, together with the remaining liberties and precincts thereof to the church of Westminster : and they, to make the best of the king's donation, appointed, by a chi^ter held the seventh of July, that the body of the church, with the choir and isles> should be leased out for fifty years, at the rent of five marks per annum, to one H. Keeble, of

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London ; excepting out of the said grant, the heUs, lead, stone, timher, glass, and iron, to he sold and disposed of for the sole use and henefit of the said dean and chapter. 'Which foul transaction heing made, the church was totally pulled down, a tavern huilt in the east part of it : the rest of the site of the said church and college, together with the whole precinct thereof, heing huilt upon with several tenements, and let out to strangers ; who very industriously affected to dwell therein (as the natural English since have done) in regard of the pri- vileges of the place, exempted from the jurisdiction of the lord mayor and sheriffs of London, and governed hy such officers^imongst themselves as ai*e appointed thereunto by the chapter of Westminster.

*' But for this sacrilege the church of Westminster was called immediately in a manner to a soher reckoning ; for the lord protector, thinking it altogether unnecessary that two cathedrals should he founded so near one another, and think- ing that the church of Westminster (as being of a late foundation) might best be spared, had cast a longing eye upon the godly patrimony which remained unto it. And being then unfrimished of a house or palace proportionable unto his greatness, he doubted not to find room enough upon the dis- solutioD and destruction of so laige a fabrick, to raise a palace equal to his vast designs. Which coming to the ears of Benson; the last abbot and first dean of the church, he could bethink himself of no other means to preserve the whole, but by part- ing, for the present, with more than half the estate which belonged unto it. And thereupon a lease is made of seven- teen manors and good farms, lying almost altogether in the county of Gloucester, for the term of ninety-nine years; which they presented to the lord Thomas Seymour, to serve as an addition to his manor at Sudley : humbly beseeching him to stand their good lord and patron, and to preserve tbem in a fair esteem with the lord protector. Another present of aJmost as many manors and farms, lying in the counties of Gloucester, Worcester, and Hereford, was made for the like term to Sir John Mason, a special confidant of the duke's ;

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BOt for his own, but for the use of his great master ; which, after the duke's fall, came to Sir John Bourn, principal secre- tary of the state in the time of queen Mary. And yet this would not serve the turn till they had put into the scale their manor of Islip, conferred upon that church by king Edward the Confesiaor ; to which no fewer than two hundred customary tenants owed their soil and service : and being one of the best wooden things in those parts of the realm, was to be granted also without impeachment of waste, as it was accord- ingly. By means whereof the deanery was preserved for the later times : how it succeeded with the bishopric we shall see hereafter. Thus Benson saved the deanery, but he lost him- self ; for, calling to remembrance that formerly he had been a means to surrender the abbey, and was now forced on the necessity of dilapidating the estate of the deanery, he fell into a great disquiet of mind, which brought him to his death within a few months after."

The doctor then goes on : — " I had not singled these two (I mean St. Nfartin*s and St. Stephen's) out of all the rest, but they were the best and richest in their several kinds, and that there was more depending on the story of them than on any others. But ' bad examples seldom end where they first began.' For the nobility and inferior gentry, possessed of patronages, considering how much the lords and great men of the court had improved their fortunes by the suppression of those chanteries and other foundations, which had been granted to the king, conceived themselves in a capacity of doing the like, by taking into their hands the yearly profits of those benefices, of which, by law, they were entrusted with the presentations. Of which abuse, complaint is made by bishop Latimer, in his printed sermons. In which we find, ' that the gentry at that time invaded the profits of the church, leaving the title only to the incumbent : and that chantery priests were put by them into several cures, to save their pen- sions ; (p. 38.) that many benefices were laid out in free fanms, (p. 71.) or given unto servants, for keeping of hounds, hawks, and horses, and for making of gardens u 2

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(pp. 91, 114).' And finally, * tliat the poor defgy being kept to some sorry pittances, were forced to put themselves into gen- tlemen's houses, and there to serve as clerks of the kitchen, surveyors, receivers, &c. (p. 241)/ All which enormities (though tending so apparently to the dishonour of God, the disservice of the church, and the disgrace oi religion) were generally connived at by the lords and others, who only had the power to reform the same ; because they could not question those who had so miserably invaded the church's patrimony, without condemning of themselves/'

Here let us pause a moment, and reflect upon the scenes thus described, and those which have passed since they occurred. What apology can be offered for the outrages thus committed ? Could Popery, with all its imputed corruptions and oppressions, produce calamities equal to what befel the country under the hands of the evangelical reformers ? Burnet tells us the clergy were ignorant in the time of Popery ; but the vast amount of valuable books and manuscripts de- stroyed by the sackings and burnings of public libraries, proved the careful regard in which learning was held by the calumniated Catholic clergy, and the little value that was set upon it by the reformers. See toathe respect shewn by the godly reformers for the clergy, by causing them to serve the most menial offices in their families, to avoid the horrors of starvation. Then again the appropriation of a portion of the tithes to lay purposes, many of the lords and gentry at this day deriving a part of their income from the tithes thus diverted from their original purport. Ail these things considered, and many more that might be added, can any reasonable being conceive that religion had any hand in thb pretended Beformation, unless, indeed, to cloak the villanies of the devastators ? Oh ! how deeply have the people had gccasion to deplore this eventful period. Penalties upon penalties have been enacted to restrain their comfort and abridge their liberties. New offences have been heaped upon each other in the statute book, till the most wary have reason to fear they may become trespassers. From the time of iht

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separation of this kingdom from the oharch of Borne, the laws have heen multiplied a hundred fold, and so numerous axfi they grown, and^ so complicated in their hearings, that the wisest lawyer existing caimot digest them. Taxes have heen imposed on the people till the country is hrought nearly to the hnnk of ruin, and, as in the time of Edward, while the rich are rioting in luxury, the working classes are starring in the midst of plenty.

Among other devices in the work of reform was the «hO'- lition of certain religious ceremonies, and the curtailment of the amusements of the people. Of these the BooJc of Martyrs, following Burnet, speaks thus :— *' Candlemas and Jjent were now approaching, and the clergy and people were much divided with respect to the ceremonies usual at those times. By some injunctions in Henry's reign, it had heen declared that fasting in Lent was only hinding hy a positive law. Wakes and Plough-Mondays were also suppressed, and hints were given that other customs, which were much ahused, should be shortly done away. The [Burnet s&js gross] rabble loved these things, as matters of diversion, and thought divine worship without them would be but a dull business. But others looked on them as relics of heathenism, and thought they did not become the gravity and simplicity of the Chris- tian religion." We doubt much that the customs thus alluded to were abused, at least to any great extent. But allowing they were abused, why not endeavour to remove the abuse, and not abolish the custom. Why deprive the people of their diver^ons, which had been so long standing, and afforded mirth and recreation to lighten labour and poverty ? The answer is obvious. The retention of the customs would have reminded the people of the old religion, and of the sad changes which had been made by the lamentable plans of the reformers, and therefore it was deemed best to do away with the innocent enjoyments, as well as with the more solemn religious rites, which the Catholics had introduced to remind* man of his Maker, and cheer him in his pilgrimage through life. Next followed a general order for the removal of alL

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images out of the churches, and stripping the sacred edifices of all unnecessary furniture. To this species of rohbery bishop Hooper contributed largely by his doctrine. This reforming prelate was much displeased at the word altar, as well as the situation of it. He therefore exerted himself to have all the altars removed, and a table to be placed in the middle of the chanceL Such a scheme was very serviceable to those who had cast their eyes on the rich decorations which adorned the Catholic cathedrals and churches. The pretence was the superstitions and abuses occasioned by the use of images, &c., but the real design was that of plunder. Notwithstanding the vast treasure obtained by the confisca- tion of the chantries, colleges, &c., the king's exchequer was in an empty condition, and it was thought to replenish it by seizing the images, vestments, jewels, crosses, and other costly utensils and ornaments of the church. Commissioners were accordingly appointed to secure the delivery of these spoils for the king's use. But, writes Doctor Heylin, — ** In all great fairs and markets there are some forestallers, who get the best pennyworth themselves, and suffer not the richest and most gainful commodities to be openly sold. And so it fared also in the present business, there being some who were as much beforehand with the king's commissioners in em- bezzling the said plate, jewels, and other furnitures, as the commissioners did intend to be with the king, in keeping all or most part unto themselves. For when the commissioners came to execute their powers in their different circuits, they neither could discover all, or recover much of that which had been purloined ; some things being utterly embezzled by per- sons not responsible ; in which case the king as well as the commissioners was to lose his right ; but more concealed by persons not detectable, who had so cunningly carried the stealth, that there was no tracing of their footsteps. And some there were, who, being known to have such goods in their possession, conceived themselves too great to be called in question ; connived at willingly by those who were but their equals, and either were or meant to be offenders in the

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"very same kind. So that although some profit was thereby raised to the king's exchequer, yet the far greatest part of the prey came to other hands ; insomuch that many private men's parlours were hung Mrith altar cloths, their tables and •beds covered with copes, instead of carpets and coverlits ; and ■many made carousing cups of the sacred chalices, as once Belshazzar celebrated his drunken feast in the sanctified vessels of the Temple. It was a sorry house^ and not worth, the naming, which had not somewhat of this furniture in it, though it were only a fair large cushion made of a cope or ^tar cloth, to adorn their windows, or make their chairs ap- pear to have somewhat in them of a cTiair of state. Yet how contemptible were these trappings in comparison of thosi3 vast sums of money, which were made of jewels, plate, and cloth of tissue, either conveyed beyond the seas, or sold at Lome, and good lands purchased with the money ; nothing ihe more blessed to the posterity of them that bought ihem, for being purchased with the consecrated treasures of so many temples.'^ Mr. Collier, speaking of the same depre- dations, says : — '* This order for undressing churches was, it seems, represented to the king [as Burnet relates the fact] as an inoffensive expedient, and only calling for the superfluous plate, and other goods that lay in churches, more for pomp than for use. But those who called these things superfluous, and shewed so slender a regard for the honour of religion, were none of the best reformers. Had these people governed in the minority of Josiah, as they did in this of Edward YI., they would, in all likelihood, have retrenched Hie expense of the Mosaic institution, and served God at a more frugal rate. They would have disfumished the Temple of most of the gold plate, carried off the unnecessary magnificence, and left but little plunder for Nebuchadnezzar."

While these nefarious practices were going on among the factious lay reformers, Cranmer and his apostate bishops were engaged in forming a new Uturgy, or office for the new ehurdi about to he established hy law, but now supported by the power and authority of the crown. Previous however to

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this measure, Oranmer had published a cateditsm, **hr^be singular profit and instruction of children and young peo|de ;** and it is well descrying notice, indeed it is a thing not to be forgotten, that in this yerj catechism^ Cranmer comprises the prohibition of false gods and of images under one command- ment, as is the case with the Catholic catechism, and teaches that in the communion are receiyed with the bodily mouth THE fiODT AND BLOOD OF Ohrist ; iuculcatos, in strong terms, the adyantages of con/etaion and absolution, and attributes the origin of ecclesiastical jurisdictl<m to Christ, in a manner which seems to do away with his former opinion on the same subject. Now, howeyer, the doctrine was to be chan^rBXkd some new method was to be deyised, with a yiew to consum- mate the separation of the kingdom irom the mother and mistress of fdl Christian churches. The Book of Martyrt says : '^ The first step that was now taken was to make a new office fixr the communion, that is, the distribution of the jsacrament, for the office of consecration was not at this time touched. In the exhortation, auricular confesMOn to a priest is left free to be done or (miitted, and all w^e required not to judge one another in that matter. There was also a denunmation made, requiring impenitent sinners to withdraw. The bread was. to be still of the same form as that formerly used. In the distribution it was said, ^ The body of our Lord, <kc., preserye thy body ; and the blood of our Lord, &c., pres^re thy soul.' This was printed, with a prodama- tion, requiring all to receiye it with such reyerence and uni^ formity as might encourage the king to proceed further, and not to run to other things before the king gaye direction, assuring the people of his earnest zeal to s^ ibrth godly orders ; and therefore it was hoped they would wait for it : the books were sent all oyer England, and the clergy were appointed to administer the communion at the foUowing Easter according to them."

We haye now arriyed at a most interesting period of the progress of the Beformation^ as it is called, and we beg tiie reader'B particular attention to it. It has been shews that

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Cranmer in his catechism admitted the real presence of Christ in the hlessed sacrament, as the law-established church- catechism now does, though the law compels all candidates for ciril and ecclesiastical office to 9wear that He is not present, and that the doctrine is damnable, though the church- by-/aw teaches it. Such is the incongruity of the dabblers in error under the mask of truth. Well, we are told that the first sU^ in this work of innovation was to make a new office for the communion, which was only to affect the distri- bution of the sacrament, the office of the consecration, which, is the essential part of the ceremony, remaining untouched. Still, in the dietribution of the sacrament, the words thb BODY and THE BLOOD of our Lord, which words imply the realprssence of Christ, and had always been used by the Catholic church, as they now are, were retained, because it was considered too imprudent to abolish them precipitately, in consequence of the well-known doctrine of the Catholic church on that head, and the di^osition of the people, who were accurately acquainted with the faith and discipline of their creed, notwithstanding the representations of Burnet and his followers that they were ignorant and demoralized. As an instance of this fact, the Catholic clergy were wiUing to abide by public opinion, but the reformers, who preached up evangelical liberty, would not consent to leave their cause to argument and persuasion, but were resolved to cram their new sch^nes and opinions down% the people's throats by tmmi force. So long as the reformers proceeded no farther than ceremony and discipline, the lukewarm adherents to the Catholic faith slumbered at their posts; but when it was found that there was a design to attack the church both in doctrine and discipline, they began to arouse themselves from their apathy, and published sev^al books in defence of the old religion, and challenged the opposite party to try the cause by disputation. ** But," says Collier, in his Eccleei-* aetioal Bistort/, voL ii^ b. 4, p. 22Bf ^* the court, who, it is thought, had something &rther than religion in view, did not think it advisable to venture the cause upon disputation, and

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rely wholly upon arguments. They might he apprehensive, that, unless the disagreement hetween Home and England was carried on to a wider distance, the hreach might possibly be closed, and that such an union might prove unfriendly to their church estates. On the other hand, they were not as- sured whether any farther alterations in doctrine and worship would be well received. The minority of the prince was a circumstance of disadvantage : and how far the people would be passive under a new face of things was not easy to con- jecture. To guard against the woi'st, it was thought fit to be furnished with forces, to awe the opposite party and pre- vent them from giving disturbance. And as an army was a seasonable provision, they wanted not a colour to rabe it. A marriage (as has been observed) was agreed, in the late reign, between the young queen of Scotland and the present king ; but the Scots failed in their articles. The protector and council, therefore, resolved to bring them to reason. For this purpose men were levied, a fleet equipped, and the veteran troops of Boulogne and Calais embarked for England. The protector likewise had several regiments of Walloons and Germans in his pay : not that he had a better opinion of their courage, but because he might believe them more ready to execute any harsh service at home, if occasion required."

So, then, the preaching of the new doctrines was to be backed by an army, and that army t^o composed in part of FOBEIGN TROOPS, of German mercenaries ! What would the Catholic people of England have said to this gross viola* tion of their constitutional rights and national honour and freedom ? What can the liberal Protestant of the present day say in defence of his creed, which is here shewn to have been advanced, not by the power of miracles and the elo- quence of reason, as the Catholic faith was planted in every part of the globe, but by the force of war, and the terror oi bloodshed and rapine ? By these unhallowed and unlawful means where the people terrified into a tacit acquiescence of the projected changes, and a commission was accordingly

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appointed in the year 1548^ by the protector and council, consisting of certain biehops and divines, to draw up a new form of prayer or liturgy, a new ordinal, with a collection of articles, canons, and homilies, which were intended as a STANDARD, both for doctrine and discipline. But futile is the work of man in raising a standard to guide the conscience of his fellow men, as we shall see in the progress of this pretended Keformation of religion. The Catholic rests his faith on God alone, from whom it is derived, and, like Him, is immutable and indivisible. The Catholic can trace the finger of God sustaining his church through all the vicissitudes of earthly establishments, firm and erect like a citadel upon a rock, defying the waste of time or the assaults of adversaries ; while the plans of the reformers to erect a standard of uniformity were no sooner attempted than they were dispersed like sand before the wind, and scattered into thousands of discordant sects, each alike claiming the golden talisman of Truth, but all immersed in the slough of err<»*. > Of the articles of faith there were /ortt/'two in number, and though pretended to have been drawn up under the influence of the Holy Ghost, yet under the popeship of queen fiess, they were reduced to thirty-nine, and blasphemously imputed to the same divine oracle of Truth, though they were well known to have been the work of impriucipled men. As to the liturgy in English, it was a selection from the Missal^ in which Hie collects, epistles, and gospels were preserved, and are the same as are now used by the Catholic church, which has not varied in her service ; and even the essential part*, relating to the great sacrifice of the mass, was not then omitted, though it has subsequently been erased. When this precious work was completed, it was some months before it obtained a legal establishment, and in the mean time many pf the bishops and clergy continued to make use of the ancient liturgy in Latin. Others made use of it according to their own whims and pleasure. Some were for both forms, and some for neither. In a word, the fiood-gates of discord were let open, and all was endless confusion. Collier

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sajs, that *' some censured this provisioii of a common prayer^ because it is said to have been composed bj one unifortn consenty and yet /otcr of the bishops who were in the com- mittee for drawing it up, protested against the hill. These were the bishops of Norwich, Hereford, Chichester, and WestminstOT." The latter bishopric was afterwards abolished by the king's letters patent. Here then we hare a lie set forth, and this book too was specified in the act of parliament to have been carried on with the aid of the Hoiy Qhoet,

Of this work Burnet thus speaks :— " It was now resolved to have a liturgy, which should bring the worship to a proper mean between the pomp of superstition and naked simplicity* It was resolved to change nothing merely in oj^KMition ta received practices, but rather (in imitation of what Christ did in the institution of the two sacraments of tire gospel, t^at consisted of rites used among the Jews, but sanctified by him to higher purposes) to comply with what had been fonnerly in use, as much as was possible, thereby to gain the peo^e. All the consecrations of water, salt, &c., in Hie church of Borne, being relics of heathenism, were laid aside. The ab- solutions on account of the merits of the Blessed Virgin imd the saints, the sprinklings of water, fastings, and pilgriuMiges, with many other things, imd the absolution given to dead bodies, were looked upon as gross impostures, tending to make the world think that the priests had the keys of hearen in their hands, and could carry people thither on easier terms than the gospel prescribes. This induced the people to pur- chase their favour, especially when they were dying ; so that^ as their fears were then heightened, there was no other way left them, in the conclusion of an ill life, to die with any hopes of eternal happiness, but as they bargained with their priests : all this was now rejected/' Here we are told that it was resolved to change nothing, but to comply with what had been formerly in use, as much as possible, thereby to gain the people. Out upon thee, hypocrite ! thou must have known that the way adopted by these reformers to gida the peoj^e, was by the force of military coercion and penal laws 1 Bat what

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ftball ire say to the base iunnaation that the people w^:e, in those times, induced to purcTuue the favour of the priests ? This, we suppose, is throwD in as a set-off to hide the selfish dispo8iti<m of the refonned clergy, of whom Burnet was one, in seizing the tithes to themsdves, and grinding the people as much as they could, instead of gaining their favour. The priests were, at that time, as the Catholic clergy are now, and always have been, the fathers of the people and the rapportera of the poor : they were the shepherds of their flocks^ and not the shearers of them, like the reformed clergy. But though it «< was resolved to change nothing, merely in opposition to received practices, but rather to comply with what had been formerly in use," it appears that the reformers were some- what like the old man in the fable, in trying to please every- body they pleased nobody, for it must have been self-*evident that the Catholics would not be satisfied with the changes> moderate as they are represented to have been ; and as to the refbnners themselves, Burnet says, ** When the book came before the public, several things were censured : aa particu-^ larly the frequent use of the cross> and anointing. The for- mer was at first used as the badge of a crucified Saviour, but was much corrupted by the priests in after ages, sa that it was at length believed to have a virtue for driving away evil spirits, and preserving one from dangers; and acquired a kind of sacramental character, entirely unfounded in scripture or reason ; but Hie using it as> a ceremony, expressing the believing in a crucified Saviour, couht im|dy no superstition.''^ This representation may suit Mr» Gilbert Burnet, bishop of Sarum, and the modern editors of the Book <^ Mariyrs, but Catholics have better authority than this hireling historian^ for retaining and using this glorious and holy emblem of our redemption, wrought by a God-man. Why were not the ^* after ages *^ specified when the use of this badge waa^r^t eorrupted by the priests? Why not name the express time when the belief that the use of this badge drove evil spirits from us, and preserved one from dangers, wa»first introduced ? We have shewn, in our first volume of this^ work,, that

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CoQstantine the Great obtained a splendid victory over bis enemj in arms under tbe banner of the cross, before he became a Christian, and which, he was told in a vision, would ensure him a triumph on adopting it. He afterwards embraced Christianity, and caused images of our Saviour and repre- sentations of the cross to be placed in the most conspicuous parts of Constantinople, viewing that sign as the defence and bulwark of his empire. But this was not the first time that the sign of the cross was used by Christians, the custom being coeval with Christianity itself. Tertullian, who lived in the second century, writes : — " Whenever we move ; when we enter and go out; in dressing and washing; at table; when we retire to rest ; during conversation — we empress ou our foreheads the sign of the cross. Should you ask for the scripture authority for this and suchlike practices, I answer there is none ; but there is tradition that authorizes it, cus- tom that confirms it, submission that observes it." — De Corona Mil, c. iii. iv. p. 289. Lactantius, a father of the Latin church, in the fourth century, says : — " As Christ, whilst he lived amongst men, put the devils to flight by his word, and restored those to their senses whom these evil spirits had pos- • sessed : so now, his followers, in the name of their master, and by the sign of his passion, exercise the same dominion over them. The proof is easy. When the idolaters sacrifice to their gods, they cannot proceed if, a Christian being pre- sent, he sign his forehead with the cross ; nor can the diviner give his responses. This has often been the cause of the per- secutions we have undergone. And, in like manner, when some masters were on the point of sacrificing in the presence of their Christian servants, the latter, by making the sign of the cross on the forehead, so freightened away the gods, that nothing could be collected from the bowels of the victims." — Divin. Instit, 1. 4. c. xxvii. p. 225. St. Athanasius, of the Greek church, in the same century, says : — ** In the midst of the incantations of the devils only let the sign of the cross, which the gentiles ridicule, be used ; let Christ be merely pamed, the devils will be instantly put to flight, the oracles be silent, and all the arts of magic reduced to nothing." — De

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Incarnat. t. i. p. 89* And St. John Chrjsodtom, of the same church and the same age, who, for his profound learning and eloquence, obtained the surname of Chrysoalomy which signifies Golden Mouth, thus speaks of this ceremonj :— " Let tio one be ashamed of these symbols of our salvation, of these signs. The passion of our Lord is the origin, is Uie fountain of that happiness, by which we live, and are. With a joyous heart, as if it were a crown, let us carry about with us the cross of Christ. For by it is consummated whatever pertains to our salvation. When we are baptized, the cross of Christ is there ; and also, when we partake of the most holy food of the eucharist, and in every other sacred exercise. Wherefore, let us, with earnestness, impress this cross on our houses, and on our walls, and our windows, on our foreheads also, and on our breasts. It is the sign of our salvation, of our common liberty, of the meekness and humility of our Lord. As oflben then as you sign yourself, pass ov^r in your mind the general concern of the cross, suppress all the workings of anger and the other passions, and fortify your breast with firmness. It should be made not only on the body, but with great confi- dence on the mind. If it be done in this manner, not one of the wicked spirits, when he sees the spear that inflicted the deadly wound, will dare to assail you." — ffomil iv. in Matt, c. xvi pp. 594, 595. We could produce many other fathers of this age in favour of the use of this sign of our redemption, but enough has been said to shew the spirit which induced the reformers to hate it, and Gilbert Burnet to become their apologist.

The modern editors, selecting from Burnet, go on to tell their readers, that '* the Protestant religion now appeared almost ruined in Germany, and this made the rieformers turn their eyes to England. Calvin wrote to the protector, and pressed him to go on to a more complete Reformation, and thaX prai/ers for the dead, the chrism, and esetreme unction, might be laid aside. He desired him to trust in God,^ and go on, and wished there were more preaching, and in a more lively way than he het^rd was then in England : but above

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all things he prayed him to sxtfprbss that IMPtsTT AND PROFANITY that, as he heard, abounded in the nation." Oh Lord I what, had the pious John Oal?in, who had himself heen branded on the shoulder for a most detestable crime, learned that impiety and profanity abounded in England ? And did he, most apostolic man, really exhort the saintly and devout reformer, Somerset, lord protedtor, to suppress that burning shame of the Keformation, immorality of the grossest nature ? What a precious change to godliness and pure doctrine that must have been, which produced such a general scene of wickedness andrdissoluteness of manners as ov^^flowed those countries where the Reformation, as it is improperly termed, took root ! But we need not wonder at such deplor- able depravity, when we look at the character of the principal movers in those scenes. Burnet tells us, but the modem editors thought proper to suppress this information, that, '^ while these changes were under consideration, there were great heats everywhere, and a groat contradiction among the pulpits : some commending all the old customs, and others inveighing as much against them ; so the power of granting licences to preach was taken from the bishops, and restrained only to the king and the archbishops ; yet even that did not prove an effectual restraint So a proclamation was set out, restraining all preaching, till the order, which was then in the hands of the bishops, should be finished ; and instead of hearing sermons, all were required to i^ply themselves to prayer, for a blessing on that which was then a preparing, and to content themselves in the meanwhile with the homilies.'.' What a pretty description is this of the ** Progress of the Reformation," under the evangelical apostles in the young pope Edward's time. Here we have a complete repetition <^ Babel-building confusion, till the civil power was exerted to •btain ^ence, and the teachers of—- what shall we say ?— ;to say religion, would be to apply a wrong term — ^Ihe teachers of cornet doctrine and human notions were muzzled by a state proclamation. But what else was to be expected from such A beginning ? Those who pretended to reform the SBp^

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posed emnrs and abuses in the Catholic church, which, as we have shewn^ was founded by a divine Architect, had no lawful ocmimissioii to interfere in her regulations, and consequently, not being invested VitL a divine commission, they had not the least power to restrain conscience or command obedience. Hence, it f<^owed that those who set up for reformers of the church of Home, were themselves taxed as infected with error by others who set up for reformers of the new church of Eng- land and her liturgy : ^ese latter reformers were, in their torn, beset by other reformers, and thus the work of reform has been going on among the children of the Reformation, so called, until faith has been fHttered away and infidelity has taken its place. In the meanwhile, the Catholic church, securely seated on her imperishable foundation, has, by the aid of her missionaries, afforded all the succour in her power to those who seek her he^, and thousands have been rescued from the gulf of perdition, by entering the doors of her stately edifice and conforming to her divine precepts.

We must now notice another curious transaction of these reformers. The modern editors, copying from Burnet, say : — " Another act was also passed respecting fasting^ declaring, « that though all days and meats were in themselves alike, yet fasting, being a great help to virtue, and to the subduing the body to the mind, it was enacted, that Lent, and all Fridays and Saturdays, and Ember-days, should hejish-days, under several penalties, excepting the weak, or those that had the hinges lieence,' Christ had told his disciples, that when he was taken from them, they should fast ; so in the primitive chtu*ch they fasted before Easter ; but the same number of days was not observed in all places ; afterwards, other rules and days were established ; but St. Austin com- plained, that many in his time placed all their religion in ' observing them. Fast^days are turned to a mockery in the church of Rome, in which they dine on fish exquisitely drest, and drink wine." If fast -days be turned to a mockery in the church of Bome, we have here the avowal of the modem edit<»rs and Burnet; that Christ commanded his disciples to

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fast; and yet the modern editors and their compeers, in hatred to Foperj^ condemn fasting as a superstitious practice. How far it is a mockery in the church of Borne we will say no more than, if the authors of this gross falsehood would hut spend one week of Lent according to the discipline of the Catholic church, they would soon become convinced of the injustice they have done her, and acknowledge them- selves to be what we tell them they are — brazen, frontless liars. This act was abolished by queen Mary, but was re- newed in the fifth year of Elizabeth, not, however, for the purpose of " subduing the body to the mind ;" not because it was " a great help to virtue ;" not because Christ had

. told his disciples that they should fast ; but because it was deemed of political importance, to provide for the increase of the navy. It was, therefore, enacted by the parliament of her lady-popeship, that all Wednesdays, Fridays, and Satur- days throughout the year, should be observed as fast'da^s^ under a penalty of forty shillings for each offence, one third part of which was to go to the queen, one to the informer, and the other to the poor of the parish. This act, we believe, is still unrepealed, but not enforced. But since it is allowed that fastiny is not only of benefit to the mind, but a help to virtue, why are the Catholics the only class of religionists in England that follow this admitted apostolic practice ? And why do Protestants revile and reproach them for it, when their own church, in her infancy, attempted to enforce the custom on them by civil pains and penalties ? See again, too, that power was given to the king, as head of the new church, to dispense with the obligations of this law, yet Pro- testants object to a similar power being held by the pope and the prelates of the Catholic church. But it is like all the

.proceedings of the disciples of error, who have no other rules than their own visionary notions, which are drifted to and fro by every wind that blows from the different points of the compass.

We have seen i\]aA foreign troops were brought over bj the lord protector, to awe the people into an acquiescence of

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the changes then meditated in the religion of the country and of Christendom. It was now thought necessary to in- troduce foreign doctors in religion, to reform what had already undergone reform. Peter Martyr Vermilli, an Italian canon, Martin Eegular Bucer, a hlack friai*, and Bemardin Ochin, a capuchin, were hrought over hy Cranmer to assist in the great work the latter and the protector had at heart. As the tree is known hy its fruit, we may as well give the reader some slight sketch of the character of these apostles of the Eeformation. They were s\\ hound by the solemn vows of celibacy to lead a continent life, but they took upon themselves to dispense with these vows, and Peter brought over with him a woman, a nun, bound like himself to a life of chastity, whom he called his wife. Martin Bucer like- wise broke through his solemn vows by a sacrilegious mar- riage; he was also chiefly instrumental in procuring the scandalous license which granted to the landgrave of Hesse the privilege of having two living wives at once. He im- posed upon Luther and others by shameful equivocations concerning the blessed sacrament, and was the first inventor of that contradictory system of a real presence of a thing really absent, that is, of receiving verily and indeed the body and blood of Christ in the sacrament, though they are . not verily and indeed there. Bemardin was not content with one wife, but wrote a book in defence of polygamy, and at length proceeded so far as to deny the blessed Trinity. Such were the auxiliaries introduced by Cranmer to complete the work of deformation which he had begun.

In the first liturgy, drawn up in the year 1648, which we have before spoken of, the consecration of the sacrifice of the Eucharist was retained, with the prayer. With thy Holy Spirit vouchsafe to ble+ss and sanc-\-tify these thy gifts and creatures of bread and wine, that they may be made unto us the body and blood of thy most dearly beloved Son, Sfc, This prayer was soon found to savour too much of the doctrine of transubstantiation, and therefore it was subse- quently erased. The liturgy also retained something of

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prayer for the dead : for at funerals, thet/ recommended the soul departed to Ood^e mercy ^ and as Catholics now do, they prayed that hie etna might be pardoned. This prayer sa- voured of the primitive doctrine of purgatory, and reminded the people too much of the despoiled chantries ; therefore it must now he hanished from that liturgy that was said to have heen compiled hy the inspiration of the Holy Ghost. The sacrament of confirmation was turned into a catechism to renew baptismal vows, though the fathers, who received it from the apostles of Christ, say not one word of a catechism. Here are a few examples. St. Cyprian, who lived in the third century, and was a doctor of the Latin church, writeft thus: — ^'^ It is moreover necessary, that he who has been baptized, should be anointed, in order that, having received the chrism, that is, the unction, he may be the anointed of God, and possess the grace of Christ.'' — Ep, Ixx. p. 190. •* They who had believed in Samaria (Acts, vii.), had be- lieved with a true faith, and were baptized in the one church by Philip, whom ihe apostles have sent. And, therefore^ because their baptism was legitimate, it was not to be re- peated. That fJone which was wanting, was supplied by Peter and John ; that by prayer and the imposition of hands, they might receive the Holy Ghost. The same thing is now done by us, when they who have been baptized in the church are presented to the bishops, that by our prayer and the im- position of hands, they may receive the divine spirit, and be perfected by the seal of the Lord." — Ep» Ixxiii. p. 202. St. Cyril of Jerusalem, in the same age, says: — " To you, when you came out from ihe font, was given ihe chrism, which is the image of that with which Christ was anointed, that is, the Holy Spu*it. Take care that you think it not mere ointment, with which the forehead and your bodily senses are symbolically anointed; the body, indeed, is anointed with that visible chrism, but the soul is sanctified by the Holy Spirit."— Ca/. Myet. iii. n. 1, 3, pp. 289,290. *^ As Christ, after his baptism and the coming of the Divine Spirit, went out to battle, and conquered the enemy ; so you^

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after baptism and the mystical chrism, clothed in the arms of the same Spirit, are opposed to him and surmomit his attacks." — Ibid, p. 290. St. Ambrose, likewise, at the same period, says: — ''Because thou hast received the spiritual seal, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spi^t of counsel and fortitude, the spirit of knowledge and piety, the spirit of holy fear ; keep what thou hast received. God the Father has sealed thee ; Christ the Lord has confirmed thee^ and has given the pledge of the Spirit in thy heart, (2 Cor. i. 22.) as thou hast learned from the apostle." — De Initiand, e. vii. t, iv. p. 349. And St. Jerom, the great and learned compiler of the bible, speaking to a schismatic, says: — "You cannot be ignorant, that it is the practice in the church to impose hands on those that have been baptized, and to invoke the Holy Spirit. Where, you ask, is it written ? In the Acts of the Apostles ; and although there were no authority of scripture, the consent of the whole world on this point must be received as law." To this St. Jerom thus assents : '' I admit this to be the practice of the church, that when, in remote places, any have been baptized by the priests or deacons, ihe bishop goes to them, and having invoked the Holy Spirit, lays his hands on them." — Dial, adv. Lucif, t, i. p. 615. Thus, then, it is manifest that confirmation was deemed by the primitive fathers and Christians a sacrament of divine institution, but it was considered by the reformers as too papistical, and therefore must be altered.

Another alteration was in the sacrament of extreme unction. The visitation of the sick was enjoined ; but the use of the holy oil, though spoken of by St. James in the New Testa- ment, must be laid aside, under pretence that it was not heard of till the twelfth century. To enable our readers to decide this point, we will here lay before them, as we have done on the ceremony of the cross and the sacrament of confirma- tion, the sentiments of 8(Hne of the holy fathers, who all, observe, ground their doctrine on the words of St. James and the practice of the apostles. It is stated in St. Mark^ vi. 12^ 13,

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that, " going forth, they preached that men should do penance, and they cast out many devils, and anointed WITH OIL many that were sick, and healed them,*' To this practice of the disciples of Christ, during his ministry on earth, St. James undoubtedly refers when he says, in his epistle : — " /s any man sick among you ? Let him bring in the priests of the church,*' ^c. Victor of Antioch, a priest of that city, who flourished about the close of the fourth century, has left us a commentary on St. Mark's gospel, in which he says: — ** St. Mark mentions (vi. 13.) that the anointing with oil was anciently used ; with whom St. James agrees when he says: Is any one sicJc among youf ^c. (v. 14.) Oil relieves lassitude, and is the source of light and gladness ; the anointing with oil, therefore, denotes mercy from God, the cure of sickness, and the illumination of the heart." BihL PP, Max. T, ir.p. 381. St. John Chrysostom speaks also in the same terms. He says : — "To our parents we are indebted for the present life ; to the ministers of God for the life to come. But they cannot ward off death from their children, nor even sickness ; while the latter, not unfrequently, save the soul labouring at the point of death ; inflicting on some a lighter punishment ; and preventing others from being lost ; not by instruction only and admonition, but by the defence of prayer. For they have obtained a power, not in baptism only, but of forgiving the sins which we afterwards commit. 7^ any man sicJc among you ? says St. James, Let him bring in the priests of the church,*' S^c. L. iii. de^ Sacerdot. c. 6. L iv. p, 31. Pope Innocent I. in reply to certain questions put to him by Decentius, an Italian bishop, remarks: — " You cite the words of St James, Is any man sicJc among you f Let him bring in the priests of the church, S^c. This pas- sage, doubtless, is to be understood of the sick among the faithful, who may be anointed with the holy chrism, which, when consecrated by the bishop, not only priests, but all Christians, may use in anointing themselves and others in cases of necessity. It is idle to make any question about bishops, since the practice is allowed to priests. For there-r

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fore are priests mentioned, on account of the many occupa- tions in which hishops are engaged, which may hinder them from attending the sick. When the bishop can, or is in- clined to attend, he may give his blessing, and anoint with that chrism, which it was his oflSce to consecrate." Ep, ad Decent. Cone, Oen. t ii. pp. 1247, 1248. St. Augustin too holds the same doctrine. ** As often," he says, " as sickness happens, the sick man should receive the body and blood of Chri^st, and then anoint his body, in order to comply with the words of the apostle, Is any man sick among you^ Sfc, Consider, brethren, that he who, in his sickness, has recourse to the church, will deserve to obtain the restoration of his health, and the forgiveness of his sins." Serm, ccxv. de Temp, t X. p, 367. We have thus established the ancient tenure of this doctrine, and we think common sense will decide that it is better to hold with a belief as old as Chris- tianity itself, than to renounce it on the authority of such worthless characters as the prime movers of this new liturgy or bastard mass for the poor beguiled and unhappy people of England.

It is now time for us to speak of the means used to estab- lish this form of prayer, as it was called, and to make it a standard of church service for the people of England. It was, as we have before stated, first drawn up in the year 1548, and being put forth without any due authority, gave rise to much confusion, some using it and some deriding it, which caused a proclamation to be issued in the king's name on the 24th of June, 1549, ordering that no one in future should, so much as in private, make use of any other liturgy, and that the mass in Latin should be laid aside. This was certainly a pretty stretch of power on the part of these evan- gelical liberty-men, to presume to dictate and regulate the private devotions of the people. However, this proclamation was found inefficient, and it was therefore followed by an Ad of Parliarrient, called the Uniformity Act, which imposed severe penalties on those who had the temerity to refuse compliance with the orders of the new religion makers.

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Every clergyman not making use ef it, in the church seryioe, was, for the first offence, to suffer half-a-year*s imprison- ment, and forfeit half-a-year's profits of his benefice ; for the second offence he was to be deprived ipso facto, and lose all his spiritual emoluments ; and for the third, to be imprisoned for life. Persons absenting themselves from church, or attempting to bring the new liturgy into contempt, were^so subjected to fine and imprisonment. Thus stood the common prayer of the new church of England, as by law established, till it was revised and altered in the year 1552, just three years after its formation. The reign of Mary rendered it nugatory, but her successor Elizabeth, on assuming the su- preme headship of the church, had it revised and altered again in 1559. It was a third time altered under James I.^ in 1603 ; and a fowrth time under Charles II., in 1662. Several alterations were made at each of those times to please those who disimttditom the established church, but equally hated Popery, and with a view to secure unity ; but the more such uniformity was attempted, the further were the meddlers from tlie mark, since each successive age, has proved more prolific in sectarianism than the preceding one. There was an attempt made in 1669, the year after that era, termed " the glorious Eevolution," from whence the bigottedfavour- ists date the constitution of England to be essentially Protes- tant, though it is well known to have been the work of Catholic hands ; but the attempt failed, and though there has been and is now much diversity of opinion on the contents of this book, and many divines are anxious that it should be again revised^ yet they one and all swear before ordinatioii, that it contiuneth in it nothing contrary to the word of God, that it may be lawfully used, and that they will use it, and none other. What consistent teachera to instruct and enlighten the most superiorly gifted people on the earth, as Protestant writers in modem times represent the English Protestants to be.

To secure a uniformity of doctrine and discipline, which had been so long preserved when the kingdom was Catholic,

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with6iit the aid of peoal laws, another notable scheme was devised by these reformers, i^ch further disclosed the regard they entertained for the freedom of conscience and the liberty of the subject. The church was now absorbed in the state, and the canon law established by the decrees of popes and eoaneils, who were invested by the Divine Powsb to watch over the faith and morab of mankind, became nugatory through the abolition of the pope's supremacy. It was there- fore thought necessary that some code of ecclesiastical laws bhould be forthwith formed that would answer the purposes intended. Such a soheme was in preparation during Henry's reign, but his death retarded the completion of the project, and it was left to Edward's wise counsellors to reduce the plan to practice. Accordingly a commission of thirty-two persons, one half of them ecclesiastics, and the other half laymen, were appointed by the king's letters patent, who were ordered to finish their work in three years. The wording of these new laws, however, was left to a sub- committee of 4^ight persons, at the head of whom was Tom Cranmer, who had sided with every administration since his appointment to the see at Canterbury, and pandered to the vices both of Henry and the lord protector Somerset. The entire collec- tion of these ecclesiastical constitutions was completed in 1552, and consisted of fifty- one titles, besides an appendix De Regulis Juris. It was called Reformatio Legum Eccle- 9i€i8ticorum, but the king happening to die soon after, pre- vented its becoming confirmed either by parliament or the convocation. Of the tenor of these constitutions the i^eader will be able to decide when he has read the foUowing account of them from the pen of Dr. Lingard. Speakmg of the compilation, the learned historian says : —

** It commenf^es with an exposition of the Catholic faith, and enacts the punishment of forfeiture and death against those who deny the Christian religion. It then regulates the proceedings in cases of heresy, the ceremony of abjuration, and the delivery of the obstinate heretic to the civil magis- trate, that he may su&r death according to law. Blasphemy

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subjects tbe offender to the sune penalty. The marriages of minors, without the consent of their parents or guardians, and of all persons whomsoer^, without the previous publica^ tton of banns, w the ^itire performance of the ceremony in the church according to the Book of Common Prayer, are prcmounced of no effects The seduce of a single wOTown ia compelled to marry her, or to endow her with one-third of bis fortune : or, if he have no fortune, to charge himself with the maintenance of their illegitimate offspring, and to suffer some additional and arbitrary punishment. Adultery is visited with imprisonment or transportation for life. In addition, if the offender be the wife, she forfeits her jointure, and aU the advantages she might have derived from her marriage : if the husband, he returns to the wife her dower, and adds to it one half of his own fortune. But to a clergyman, in whom the enormity of the offence increases in propOTtton to ibe sanctity of his office, the penalty is more severe. He loses his benefice, and surrenders the whole of his estate, if he be married, to the unoffending party, for the supp<N*t of her and her children ; if unmarried, to the bish(^, that it may be devoted to purposes of charity.

*^ Divorces are allowed not only for adultery, but for cruelty, long absence, and incompatibility of temper ; and ia all such cases the parties are permitted to marry again : but where one deserts the other, this indulgence is confined to the innocent person ; the guilty is condemned to perpetn^ imprisonment. In cases of defamation, when from the de- struction of papers or absence of witnesses, the truth eamiot be discovered, the accused is permitted to clear his charaefter by his oath, provided he can produce a competent number of compurgators, who shall swear that they give full credit to his assertion. Commutation of penance for money is c(m- ceded on particular occasions : the right of devidng properij by will is refused to married women, slaves, childrenr under fourteen years of age, heretics, fibdlers, females of 1oob9 character, usurers, and convicts sentenced to death, <^ per- ^petnal banishment or imprisonment : and ezcommusiottlMMi

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h asserted to cot off the otfender ftom the society of iiie fiuthfuly the protectioii of God, and the expectation of fiitnre happiness; and to consign him to er^asting punishmeiift, and tlie tyranny of the devil."

We shall dismiss the minor transactions appertaining to religion, detailed in the modem Booh of Marfyrsy from Bm'net's History, snch as the disputes concerning the real presence, which we proved to demonstration in the first volume of this woi^, from ^e testimony of the fathers of the first ^Te ages, was of apostolical belief, and conclude the theological part of the progress of the Reformation, with the following remarks from Boesuet's Bisiory of the Varimtiona, shewing how the hatred of the people was raised by degrees against the Catholic doctrine, in which be furnishes a re- markable instance practised upcm the young king himself. The modem editors unblushingly avow that their motive for prefrisely circulating this mass of lies, distortions, and mis- r^Niesentations, was to excite haired and abhorrence against the (snj^posed) crimes and corruption of Fopery and its pro- fes8<ms. The reader will here see that the sitme spirit that influ^ieed the ancient reformers to Uacken and vilify the Gatholie church and their institutions, bow infiuenees the modam exclusionists and admirers of Fox to follow the same midiaritable practices. Treating on the dianges made on tiie doctrine of the blessed sacrament, the learned Boesuet says : '* The cause of bo irp^ular a proceeding, was ijie lead- ing the people by motives of hatred, and not of reason. It was an easy matter to excite hatred against certain practices, ^prfiereof they concealed from the people the beginniog and right use, especially when some abuses were interwoven with them : thus, it was easy to render priests odious who abused the mass for sordid gain : and hatred once inflamed against tiiem, was by a thousand artifices insensibly turned against the mystery they celebrated, and even, as ha& appeared, against the real presence, tiiie foundation of it.

** The same was done with reapeotto images, and aFrench letter^ which Mr. Bnmot gpfres us, of £dward YI. to his undb

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the protector, makes it palpable. To exercise the young prince's style, his masters set him about collectmg all th6 passages wherein God speaks against idols. ^ In reading the holy scripture I was desirous^' said he, 'to note several places which forbid both to adore and to make any images, not only of strange gods, but also to form anything : thinking to make it like to the majesty of Ood the Creator.' In his credulous age he had simply believed what was told him, that Catholics made images, thinking ^ they made them like to the majesty of God.' * I am quite astonished,' proceeds he, (God himself and his Holy Spirit having so often for- bidden it,) that so many people have dared to commit idolatry hy making and adoring images,^ He fixes the same hatred, as we see, on the making ^ as on the adoring them ; and, according to the notions that were given to him, is in the right, since undoubtedly it is not lawful to make images with the thought of making something ' like to the majesty of the Creator.^ * For,' as this prince adds, * God cannot be seen in things that are material, but will be seen in his own works.' Thus was a young child deluded by them. His hatred was stirred up against pagan images, in which man pretends to represent the Deity : it was shewn him that God fnrbids to make such images : but they, not having as yet taken it into their heads to say, that it is unlawful to make such as ours, or unlawful to represent Jesus Christ and his saints, they took care to conceal from him that those of Catholics were not of this nature. A youth of ten or twelve years old could not discover it of himself: to make images odious to him in general and confiisedly was enough for their purpose. Those of the church, though of a different order and design, passed in the lump : dazzled with the plausible reasoning and autho- rity of his masters, everything was an idol to him ; and the hatred he had conceived against idolatry was easily^ turned agunst the church.

<^ The people were not more cunning, and but too ea^ was it to animate them by the like artifices. After this, can the sudden progress of the Reformation be taken for a visilde

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miradey tlie work of God's own liand? With what assurance could Mr. Burnet say it ; he, who has so thoroughly dis- covered to us the deep causes of this lamentable success? A prince blinded with inordinate passion, and condemned by the pope, sets Then at work to exaggerate particular facts, some XNlious proceedings and abuses which the church herself con- demned. All pulpits ring with satires against ignorant and scandalous priests, they are brought on the stage and made the subject of farce and comedy, insomuch that Mr. Burnet himself expresses his indignation at it. Under the authority of an infant king, and a protector violently addicted to Zuin- glianism, invective and satire are carried to a still higher pitch. The laity, that had long looked on their pastors with an evil eye^ greedily swallowed down the poisonous novelty. The difficulties in the mystery of the eucharist are removed, and the senses, instead of being kept under subjection, are flattered. Priests are set free from the obligation of con- tinency ; monks from all their vows ; the whole world from the yoke of confession, wholesome indeed for the correction of vice, but burdensome to nature. A doctrine of greater liberty was preached up, ' and which,' as Mr. Burnet says, ^ shewed a plain and simple way to the kingdom of heaven.' Laws so convenient met with but too ready a compliance* Of sixteen thousand ecclesiastics, who made up the body of the English clergy, we are assured by Mr. Burnet, that three parts renounced their celibacy in Edward's time, that is, in the space of five or six years ; and good Protestants were made of these bad ecclesiastics, who thus renounced their vows. Thus were the clergy gained. As for the laity, the church revenues exposed to rapine became their prey. The vestry plate enriched the prince's exchequer : the shrine alone of St. Thomas of Canterbury, with the inestimable presents that had been sent to it from all parts, produced a royal trea- sure of immense sums of money. This was enough to degrade that holy martyr. He was attainted, that he might be pillagei, nor were the riches of his tomb the least of his crimes. In short; it was judged more expedient to plunder

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the chui^)heAy than, confodnaUtt to the intenticn 6f Ab founders, to apply their patrimonj to itt right use. Where is the wimder, if the nobifitj, the dergj, and the people wer« 80 easily gained upon ? Is it not rather a visible miradetha* there remained a spark in Isra^ and that idl other kiDgdoma did not follow the example of Englaady Denmark, Sweden^ and Germany, whidi were refbrrMd by the same means? Amidst all these reformaiionf^ the only one that visibly made no progress was that of mann^rt."

DISCONTENTS OF THE PEOPLE.

We have seen the change made by the reformers in the doctrine and discipline of the church; it is now time to see what effect this dbange had upon the general condition of the people and the public credit of the kingdom. Burnet, like all other writers who prostitute their talents fw lucre by lying and deception, would fain persuade us that the Reformation was pleasing to the people. He tells us, a^ the commence* ment of his account of this reign, tiiat '' the people generally were crying out for a Beformation, despising the clergy, and loving the new precmhersJ* This disposition however, it appears, did not, if it ever existed, last long, for he was .obliged to acknowledge, in a subsequent part of his aceount, that the people grew discontented, and that rebdlionB took place in Devonshire and other parts. *' About this time,^ he writes, ^' a rebellion broke out in many parts of BnglaB«l, partly arising from a jealousy in the commons against the nobility and g^itry, who finding more advantage by the trade of woo] than by that of com, generally enclosed Uieir gronnda^ and turned them to pasture, by which a great nanber el persons were thrown out of employment, and a general consternation was spread throughout the country. The other cause was the unquenched dimity of the Popish priests to the Beformation, and their endeavours to revive in the minda of the blinded multitude their former errors." Hi^pe we have a base attempt to disguise the real state of the case^ by affix- ing part of the discontents to << the unquenched enmity of the

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Popish priests/' whereas it is incontroyertible that the com- motions originated in the cruel oppressions of the reformers towards the commonalty. Eeligion was undoubtedly mixed op with the grievances of the people^ but it ought not to surprise any one that the people should bear an affeetion towards a system of religion under which they had been so happy* and a dislike towards that which had brought with it 80 many ills, and rendered their situation so miserable and comfortless. The disturbances arose out of the new order of things, by which mischieYOus inroads had been made in the constitution of the country, the currency was depreciated, and a proportionate advance in idl saleable commodities followed in consequence. The value of land rose with the value of its produce, and the rents of farms had been doubled, and in several instances trebled. Had the wages of the labourer kept pace with the advance of prices, little or no diff(»^nce would have been occasioned. But the demand for labour, in, consequence of the land being in new hands, was lessened, and the wages were reduced instead of being adviynced. This state of things we have in part witnessed within the last thirty years, owing to the restrictions which were placed upon the bank of England, whereby it was prevented from paying its notes in gold, and the country being thus deluged with paper money, the regular currency became defM^eciated, so that prices advanced to the injury of labour, and discontents succeeded as in the time of Edward. In Catholic times, particularly on the estates of the monks and clergy, consider- able portions of the land were allotted to the common use of the labourers and poor inhabitants ; by which careful economy a great degree of comfort was afforded them, and pauperism was utterly unknown in England. Now, however, the new landlords, after having robbed the clergy of their abbey lands and the poor of their patrimony, conceived that these waste lands would add to their advantage, and wholly disregarding the wants of their indigent neighbours, began to inclose the commons, and thus cut oS every hope of the po<M: for a sub- sistence. Grazing, too» waa found much more profitable than

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growing corn, and id i^uch an extent was this new mode of fanning earned, that it was stated in a prodamation issued by the king, that many villages, in which 100 or 200 people had lived, were now entirely destroyed ; that one shepherd now* dwelt were industrious families dwelt before ; and that the realm is wasted by ** bringing arable grounds into posture, and letting houses, whole fomilies, and copyholds, to fall down, decay, and be waste." Under such a state of things, it could not be expected that men would remain quiet, especially as we have seen that the |H*ojectors of the new liturgy so far anticipated resistance to their innovations, that they caused foreign mercenary troops to be brought into the country. The pec^le felt their own miseries, and they saw that the new holders of the land did not treat them with the same kindness as the former proprietors: it was natural therefore that they should couple their own grievances with the innovations of religion. They found their own resources diminished, and were now comp^ed to listen to a dull, cold, inanimate form of worship, instead of those souKinspiring ceremonies they had been accustomed to from their very infancy. Thus goaded nearly to madness, the people rose almost simultaneously in the counties of Surrey, Sussex, Kent, Wilts, Hampshire, Gloucester, Somerset, Berks, Warwick, Leicester, Worcester, Hertford, Essex, Suffolk, Norfolk, and Cornwall. In Wiltshire, Sir William Herbert put himself at the head of a body of troops, dispersed the insurgents, and executed martial law on the ringleaders. In the other countries tranquillity was partially restored by the exertions of the resident gentry and the moderate among the yeomanry. In Norfolk, Cornwall, and Devon, the risings assumed the most alarming appearance, and threatened de- fiance to the government. In general, however, the insur- gents acted without concert and without competent leaders ; still the issue would have been doubtful, had not the reformers availed themselves of the aid of foreion troops to cut down and massacre Englishmen contending for their rights. Protestant reader, bear in mind, and never let it slip your

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memory, this great and important fact, that the Eeformation in religion in England^ was crammed down the throats of the people hj FOREIGN bayonets.

When the new liturgy was read the first time in the church of Samford Courteney, in Deyonshire, on Whit Sunday, the people compelled the clergyman the next day to restore the ancient service. This act was the signal for a general insur- rection, and in a few days the insurgents numbered ten thousand men, headed by Humphrey Arundel, governor of St Michaers Mount. With the troops sent to oppose them were three preachers^ named Gregory, Eeynolds, and Cover- dale, who received a license from the Tcing to declare the word of Oodto the people; but these missionaries did not feel disposed to ruii the risk of martyrdom, and the general not having confidence in their eloquence, entered into anegocia- lion with the malcontents. The latter made fifteen demands, which they afterwards reduced to eight, requiring the resto- ration of the ancient service, the introduction of cardinal Pole into the council, and the re-establishment of two abbeys at least in every county. Tom Cranmer composed a long reply to the former, and the king answered the latter by a proclamation, couched in no very gracious language. Arundel in the mean time attempted to take the «ity of Exeter, by laying siege to it, but without success, as he was bravely resisted by the inhabitants. Aftei: a siege of forty days, lord Gray arrived with a reinforcement of Qerman horse and Italian arquebusiers, who drove the insurgents from the town, and eventually defeated them. During these distur- bances martial law, we are told, was executed in every part of the kingdom. Sir Anthony Kyngstone, provost of the Western army, is stated by Speed and Hayward to have distinguished himself by the promptitude of his decisions and the pleasantry with which he accompanied them. Havmg dined with the mayor of Bodmin, writes Dr. Lingard, he asked him if the gallows were sufficiently strong? The mayor replied he thought so. " Then," said Kyngstone, " go up and try;" and hanged him wi1lK)ut further cerenumy.

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On another ocob^oq* haTing received informatioii against a miller, he proceeded to the mill, and not finding the master at home, ordered the servant to the gallows, bidding him be content, for it was the best service which he had ever rendered to his master. The reader, we have no doubt, is disgusted with such pleasantry, and shudders at the callousaess of the heart that could indulge in them, though acting in defence of the eiklightened Protestant religion. Let us then bear no more of Popish cruelties. The changes have been rung till the people are almost deafened with the barbarous deeds of Jefferies and Kirk, in Monmouth's rebellion against Jacnes IL, who haj^ned to be a Catholic prince, though in this ease the judge and colonel were both Protestants.

In Norfolk the insurrection assumed a m<H:e formidaUe appearance. It commenced at Attleborough, on the 20th oi June, 1549, according to Dr. Heylin, but the insurgents did not begin to appear in considerable numbers until the 6th of July following, when the people flocked from all the surround* ing parishes to join them, and they were headed by one Kett, a tanner, of Wymondham, a town about six miles distant from Atdeborough, ''These men," writes Dr. Heylint *' pretended only against enclosures ; and if religion was at all regarded by them, it was rather kept for a reserve, than suff^^ed to appear in the front of ihe ba^e. But when their numbers were so vastly ^multiplied, as to amount to twenty thousand, nothing would serve them but the suppression of the gentry, the placing of new counsellors about the king, and somewhat also to be done in favour of the old religion* CoDceraing which they thus remonstrate to the king, or the people rather ; viz., first, 'That the free-bom commonalty was oppressed by a small number of gentry, who glutted thems^ves with {Measure, whilst the poor commons, wasted with daily labour, did (like pack-lMH-ses) live in eitr^ne slavery.' Secondly* ' That holy rites, established by antiquity, were abolished; new ones authorised, and a new form of religion obtruded, to the subjecting of their souls to those horrid pains^ which no death could termiiutte.' And theie*

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fore, ihirdi jy * That it was necessary for them to go in person to the king, to place new counsellors about him during his minority, removing those who (ruling as they list) confounded things sacred and profane, and regarded nothing but the en- riching of themselves with the public treasure, that they might riot it amidst these public calamities.'" Such are recorded as the complaints of the malcontents at the origin of the Beformation, as it is called, and if we look at the present situation of the country, we shall see that it is not bettered in its condition. We have Jew loan-jobbers, sine- curists and pensioners, half-pay officers, and married parsons, glutting themselves with luxury, whilst the poorer classes are obliged to contribute more than a third of their labour to support these idlers out of the taxes, and work like pack- horses under the slavery of a criminal code a thousand times more galling than the penances imposed upon them by the Catholic clergy, because these were voluntary, and of course performed with cheerfulness.

To the above demands no satisfactory answer was given, and the insurgents marched off for Norwich, where K^tt planted his standard on Moushold hill, which overlooked a great part of the city, and gave him full command of it. Here, seated under a large oak, which he called the oak of reformation, Kett kept his courts, and carried terror among the neighbouring gentry and citizens of Norwich. The latter had allowed the marquess of Northampton to enter the city with one thousand English horse, and a body of Italians under the command of Malatesta, out of which the marquess was beaten by Kett, and returned in disgrace to London. The council then sent the earl of Warwick with eight thousand men, two thousand being German horse, by whom the insurgents were defeated, after a long and desperate struggle. More than two thousand perished by the sword, Kett and nine others were hanged, and the remainder were granted a general pardon. Thus it will be seen that the introduction of the Reformation, as it is misnamed, produced in its progress not cmly a change in religion, but a gr089

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Tidlation of the principles of the constitution, the most iin«^ pious sacrileges and spoliations, and a waste of homan blood hitherto unparalleled in the annals of the country, arising from the discontents of the people. England had been Catholic nine hundred years, and during that long period but one insurrection occurred on the part of the people, namely, tiiat under Wat Tyler, occasioned in part from the heavy taxation produced by a long war with France, and the sedi- tious doctrines of ignorant preachers, instigated by Wickliffo and his adherents. This rising, however, was put down with a trivial loss of blood, compared with the amount shed in th^ insurrections of Harry and Edward's reigns, from the inno- rations then made on religion and the inroads on the consti- tution. The civil war between the houses of York and Lancaster, and the frequent appeals to arms by the barons, had nothing of the character of religion in them, nor did they spring from gross oppressions of the poor. The people iu those times were in the possession of plenty and ease, but the Reformation has taken from them those means which secured them against want and contumely, and instead of the profusion which abounded on the tables of the Catholic people of England, and the visible effects of good living displayed in their robust countenances and hardy frames, we now see the hearty meal reduced to the meagre mess of potatoes, and the people exhibiting the care-worn visages of misery and the lank, emaciated forms of want. And this change in the time of Edward VI., when Tom Cranmer was archbishop of Canterbury, was effected by foreign batonets !

Connected with these scenes, we must notice the treatment . of bishop Bonner, whose name is so familiar with the readers of the Booh of Martyrs, where he is delineated a monster delighting in the blood of the innocent. Of this, however, we shall have to speak by and by. Burnet has represented that the people were fond of the new preachers; the com- motions we have recorded give the lie to this statement, and prove that nine-tenths of the nation were in favour of the creed of their fathers, and opposed to the mongrel doctrines

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invented by the reformers. The innovators, howcrver, relied on the support of the crown, and resolved to get rid of some of the most obnoxious of their adversaries in the church who stood up for the old creed. Among these was bishop Bonner. He was summoned before the council, and ordered to perform the new service at St. Paul's ; besides which he was com- manded to preach at St. Paul's Gross, and the heads of his sermon were selected for him. One of these was to shew that ** the rebels m Devonshire, Cornwall, and Norfolk, did not only deserve death as traitors, but accumulated to themselves eternal damnation, even to be in the burning fire of hell, with Lucifer, the father and first author of rebellion.'' Mark ! this was the doctrine of the reformers of the 16th century, irho had rebelled against the lawful authority of the diurch, but would not admit of any resistance to their views under pain of damnation. At the day appointed, crowds of people assembled to hear the prelate, and Latimer and Hooper, the latter being afterwards made a bishop, were appointed to inform against him, if he did not comply with sufficient exact- ness. He was denounced by these reformers or spies to the council, who appointed a commission, of which Cranmer was at the head, before which Bonner appeared, and by his extensive knowledge in the canon law, and his dignified behaviour before his judges, he maintained his episcopal character, but was deprived of his bishopric, and committed to the Marshalsea prison, where he remained till the king's death. Ridley, one of his judges, was appointed to the see of London, which Bonner filled, but under circumstances the most dbgraceful. The bishopric of Westminster was dissolved, and Ridley accepted the lands and revenues, in exchange for the lands and revenues belonging to his own church. These, four days after, were given to three of the principal favourites at court, Rich, lord chancellor; Wentworth, lord chamber- lain ; and Sir Thomas Darcy, vice chamberlain.

While these disastrous and afflicting matters were going on at home, the afi*airs of the kingdom were not less dia- graoeful and unfortunate abroad. Boulogne, as well as Calais,

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had been £(>r a long series of years in the hands of the English^ and was looked upon as the most honourable appendage of the English crown. The reformers, howerer, seemed to oare aa little for the honour of the nation, as for its constitutional rights. The insurrections making so formidable an appear- ance, induced the king of France to dedare war against Englacld, while, we should have observed, this country waa hostilely engaged also with Scotland^ In this state of things, Somerset, the lord protector, proposed to make peace with Scotland, to surrender Boulogne to Henry II. of France for a 9um of money, and to enter into a treaty with that monarch to support the Protestant interest in Germany against the growing superiority of Charles V. The majority of the council were opposed to this proposition, and pronounced the surrender of Boulogne a measure calculated to bring odium on the king's government. The French, however, were deter- mined to obtain possession of it ; they poured troops into thQ Boulognnois, and in less than three weeks they possessed them- B^ves of the fortified outworks of Blackness, Ambleteuse, and Seilacques; the town itself prepared to sustiun a regular siege. Equally unfortunate were the English forces in Soot- land, for after various disasters, nothing was left them of all their former acquisitions but the fort of Aymouth and the town of Boxburgh. In the meanwhile, the government itself^ as well as the country, was torn by factions and divisions, and a party was growing formidable in the ministry against the lord protector. Boulogne had now sustained a twelvemonth'a siege, but the internal troubles of the kingdom, occasioned bj the rapacious robberies of courtiers and the impious pre8ump<* iion of the reformers of religion, had reduced it to a state of impotency, and it was now determined to crave the assistanoa of that monarch, who, but a year before, it was proposed to confederate against with the French king. An ambassador was actually sent to the emperor Charles Y. to demand succour of him, and request that he would take the town of Boulogne into keeping, till the youthful Edward could settle the difierencea between his own subjects Charlea would noi

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listen \o tlie revest, unless the king would promrae to restore the Catholic religion, whieh his counsellors not heiug willing to accede to, Charles would have nothing to do with 1hem^ They then entered into a negotiation with France, to hring^ ahout which they employed a foreign merchant, named An? tonio Guidotti, through whose agency amhassadors wer^ named and conferences opened. The French were sensible of their superimty, and accordingly dictated their own termsu The English talked big, but it was mere talk ; their actions did not correspond with their words, for every day produced fresh secessions from their terms, and at last they agreed to surrender the town on the terms proposed by the French. ** The treaty," writes Dr. Lingard, " was pi^efaced by a long and fulsome panegyric of the two kings : Henry and Edward were the best of princes, the two great luminaries of the Christian world : personally they had no causes of enmity Against each other : and as for the relics of that hostility which had divided tiiieir fathers, they were determined to suppress them for ever. With this view they had agreed, first, that there should be between the two crowns a peace, league, and union, which should last not only for their lives, but as long as time should endure : second, that Bouli^ne should be restored to the king of France, with the ordnance and stores, which were found in it at the time of its csaj^^are t that in return for the expense (^ keeping up tiie fortifications, Henry should pay to Edward two hundred thousand crowns at the time of its delivery, and two hundred thousand more within five months ; on condition that the English should previously surrender Dunglass and Lauder to the queen of Scots, or, if Dunglass and Lauder were not in their posses- sion, should raze to the ground the fortresses of Eozburgh and Ay mouth: third, that Scotland should be comprehended in this treaty, if the queen signified her acceptance of it within forty days ; and that Edward should not hereafter make war upon h^ or her subjects, unless some new cause of offence were given : and lastly, that all the rights, daims, ft&d pretensions of England against France and iScotland, or

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of FraDce and Scotland against England, should be mntaally resenred. Though Warwick had signed the instructions to the ambassadors, he absented himself, under the pretence of aid^ness, from the council on the day on which the treaty was confirmed. By the public the conditions were considered a national disgrace. The sum of two millions of crowns, which Francis had consented to give for the surrender of Boulogne at the expiration of eight years, had been cut down to one- fifth : the right of enforcing the treaty of marriage between Bdward and Mary of Scotland had been abandoned : and the perpetual pension, which Henry YIII. had accepted in lieu of his claim to the crown of France, had been virtually sur- rendered. In fact the pretensions of the former kings of England were, after this treaty, suffered to sleep m silence by their successors. They contented themselves with the sole title of kings of France, a barren but invidious dis- tinction, which, after two centuries and a half, has been wisely laid aside by the father of his present majesty." Such were the fruits, both foreign and domestic, produced by the de- parture of the nation from that system of rdigion which, guiding all its believers in the way of truth, and inculcating principles the most moral and virtuous, filled our Catholic ancestors with the most noble and heroic actions, and rendered England the most happy and powerful kingdom on the earth. Under Henry V. France was subdued, single handed, to the crown of England ; under the Protestant king Edward YI. her arms were sullied by cowardice and treachery, and her honour stained by the bad faith of her rulers. Gui- dotti was rewarded, according to Dr. Heylin, with knight- hood, a present of one thousand crowns, and an annual pension of as much to maintain his dignity, besides a pension of two hundred and fifty crowns per annum for his son.

BURNINQ OF HERETICS.

Before we commence our remarks on this part of the "Progress of the Reformation," we will give the account of these burnings from the modem Book of Mart^r^

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We have oolnpared it with Burnet's Ahridgement, and we find it is a stUl further alnridgement, the most material points regarding Cranmer heing left out. Bat to the storj. The modem editors saj : ** There were some Anabaptists at this time in England, who came from Germany. Of these there weie two sorts ; the first only objected to the baptizing of children^ and to the manner of it, by sprinkling instead of dipping. The other held many opmions, anciently con- demned as heresies : they had raised a tear in Germany, and had set up a new king at Munster ', but all these were called Anabaptists, from their opposition to infant baptism, though it was one of the mildest opinions they held. When they came to England, a commission was granted to some bishops, and oth^«, to search them out^ and proceed against them. Several of these persons, on beitig taken up and brought be- fore them, abjured their errors, some of which were, * That there was not a Trinity of persons ; that Christ was not God, and took not flesh of the Virgin ; and that a regenerate man oould not sin."

" Joan Bocher, called Joan of Kent, one of their proselytes, persisted in her error, and denied that Christ took flesh of the substance of his mother ; she was intolerably vain of her notions, and rejected with scorn all the instructions offered her ; she was therefore condemned as an obstinate heretic, and delivered to the secular power. But it was with the most extreme reluctance that the king signed the warrant for her execution ; he thought it was an instance of the same spirit of cruelty for which the reformers condemned the Papists ; and notwithstanding all the arguments that were used with him, he was rather silenced than satisfied, and signed the warrant with tears in his eyes, saying to Cranmer, that since he resigned up himself to his judgment, if he sinned in it, it should lie at his door. This struck the arch- bishop ; and both he and Ridley took great pains with her, and tried what reason, joined with gentleness, could do. Bui she growing still more and more insolent, at last was burnt, and ended her life very indecently, breaking out often injeert and reproaches.

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*' Some time after this, George ran Pjure, a Dutcbtnanv vaff also condemned and bumt^ for denying the divinity of Christ, saying that the Father only was God. He had led afoery exemplary Ufe^ both for fasting, deTotion, and a good oonvarsation, and suffered with extraordinary composure of mind. Against the other sort of Anabaptists no severities were used: but several books were written to justify infant baptism: and the practice of the church, so clearly begun f and so universally spread, was thought a good plea, especial! j being grounded on such arguments in scripture as^ demon- strated at least its lawfulness.''

So, so ; the reformers then oould bum for heresy as welt as Catholics ; and yet all the clamour, all the invective, all the brutal calumny raised on this mode of punishment for religious error, has been levelled against Catholics only. The king, it seems, judged it an instance of cruelty for which the reformers condemned the Pi^ists, and objected to signin|p the warrants ; well, and how did the reformers reply to this objection ? This the modem editors have not told us, thoqgii Bomet mentions the arguments used by Cranmer. These men of veracity, who publish this book for the purpose ol conveying a knowledge of Christianity to their readers^ and exciting a hatred of Popery, suppressed the arguments <^ Craamer for burning this crazy old woman, considering, we have no doubt, that they would be thought to bear too hard upon the hoary old miscreant, who cared not whom he sent to the stake, so that he escaped with a whole skin. He was always ready to comply with the merciless edicts of a beastly tyrant, and here he was urging a royal youth to an act of cruelty against his inclination. But let us see what he bad to urge agfUQst the '' intolerably vain " heretic Burnet says, that ** Cranmer persuaded him, that he, being God's liea« tenant, was bound in the first place to punish those offsnoes committed against God : he also alleged the law of Moses for punishing blasphemy; and he thought the errors that struck immediately against the apostles' creed ought to be eo^Oally punished." Pr. Heylin tells us, that she was con->

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fseaed before archbishop Gratuner and his assUtants, in the diiirchof St. Paul, and that her crime was, ** That she denied Christ to have taken flesh from the Virgin Marj, affirming (as the Yalentinians did of old) that he onlj passed through her body, as wat^ through the pipe of a conduit, without participating anything of that body Uirough which he passed ;" and that when Cranmer *^ was upon the point of passing sen- tence upon her, for persisting obstinate in so gross a heresy, she most maliciously reproached him for passing the like sentence of condemnation on another woman, called Anne Askew, for denying the carnal presence of Christ in th« sacrament ; telling him, that he condemned the said Anne A^ew not long before for a piece of bread, and was then ready to condemn her for a piece of flesh." Dr. Lingard gives her answer to the archbishop in much mor€> pungent terms than Heylin does. This historian tells us she replied lo Tom Cranmer in these words : — '* It is a goodly matter to consider your ignorance. It was not long ago that you burned Anne Askew i(xc a piece of bread ; and yet you came yourselves soon after to heUwe andprqfess the scune doctrine for which you burned her; and now, forsooth, you will needs bom me for a piece of flesh, and in the end will come to believe this also, when you have READ ihe scriptures and UNDEBSTAND THEM." We should have liked to have seen the reforming apostles of the church of England, when Joan ihrew ^s smart charge of inconsistency in their £ftce. Surely they must have looked very foolish at each other. Burnet says '' she was intolerably vain of her notions ; " it does not appear that her judges were so vain of iheir notions, when they could condemn a woman for a belief which they afterwards adopted themselves. The fact, however, was, Joan and Anne were both wild enthusiasts, while their judges were eoid and calculating reformists, veering with every change of the tide at court ; now adopting laransubstantiation because Harry willed it so ; now rejecting it because it wa» more fashionable ; and had the wind blown the same notion that Joan was sentenced to death for, there is no doubt bul

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her judges would have fulfilled her predictions. We are not surprised that Burnet should thbk Mrs. Joan " was intoler- ably Tain of her notions *' when she told her judges that they were igiwrani, not haying r^ad the scriptures, and therefore did not understand them. This is the same with all bible readers, who build upon their own superior knowledge of interpretation ; and as the ground work of the Eefonnationy so miscdled, was the allowing every one, however illiterate, to interpret the mysterious word according to his own fancy, who Was to decide between the disputants? What ri^t ooold Tom Cranmer, and Latimer, and the rest of her judges have to condemn Joan Bocher, or any other Joan or Judy among the whole tribe of bible readers, for heresy, when they themselves had been guilty of it, and had refused submission to the only unerring tribunal that had legitimate cognizance of erroneous doctrines. Only think, sensible reader, of a man invested with the character of a judge, condemning a poor silly woman under the authority of a tyrant, for having taken a strange notion in her head on religious matters, and then embracing and teaching the self-same 'doctrine whidi the unfortunate woman was burned for. Then see this same man urging a youth (whose merciful disposition made him shudder aC the idea of sending a woman out of the worid while she remained in sin, lest her soul should be consigned to everlasting torments) to sign the death warrant of his victim, and quoting scripture to back his cruel request. Yet this unfeeling monster — this hoary villain — this panderer to the vices of the basest men in power — is held up to this day, by bigotted and interested individuals, as a paragon of virtue and a holy martyr to the Protestant religion, and is believed to be so by hundreds of credulous and ignorant people I

We do not attempt to justify, but oondemn, the putting heretics to death for mere speculative doctrine ; but as Pro- testants have been guilty of burning for heresy, as well as ripping and hanging for truth, it may not be amiss to point out some shades of difference between thefn and Catholic states in the exercise of this civil prerogative, for there is no

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authority existing in the ehurch to authorize the putting any- one to death for any error of the mind. The Arians were the first to persecute for conscience sake, after the estahlish- ment of Christianity and the ecadication of Paganism ; the Inconoclasts the next ; and we have it on record that St. Amhrose and St. Martin, two great luminaries of the Catholic church, refused to hold communion with a Spanish hishop, named Ithacius, even against the will of the emperor, hecause he sought to have certain Priscillian heretics put to death. Heresy, we helieve, was not made a capital punishment until those who hroached it mingled with it doctrines that were dangerous to the peace and happiness of society, and threatened the subversion of all order. It consequently followed that kings and magistrates found themselves necessitated to adopt fiome strong measures to secure their own authority/ and hence arose the statutes enacted to punish heresy with death. In these cases the offender was taken before his ecclesiastical judges, who examined the doctrines he maintained, pointed out to him the erroneousness of his opinions, and if he con- tinued obstinate, after due time was allowed him for reflec- tion, he was pronounced contumacious and handed over to the secular power.

This was the mode of proceeding with Joan Bocher, but toho were Tier judges, and tohat authority had tkey to pro- nounce her a heretic. In those cases where Catholics were concerned, it is to be observed that their decisions were made according to a rule believed to be unerring. They pronounced upon the authority of an undeviating system of faith, brought down from age to age, and followed universally throughout the world. Here then it was antiquity and uniformity against novelty and disunion. Now this was not the case with Cranmer and Joan Bocher. Her judges had departed them- selves from the invariable rule ; they had set up reason, fallible human reason, as their guide ; they allowed private interpretation of the scriptures ; and at the same time they passed laws to punish individuals who did not or would not think as they did ; they had them arrested ; they sat in

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judgment upon them ; and with the utmost composure ttentenced them to death, though it does not appear that the error maintained in the least affected the safety of the state. Here then we have real sheer tyranny ; because the judges in this case did not decide by legitimate authority, and were themselves infected with the same crime. They condemned the woman for exercising a right which they said she pos- sessed, and was to use according to her own judgment, and punished her because she could not see as they pretended to see. Thus we have shewn that there is a very great dif- ference between Catholic divines pronouncing upon heresy^ and the decbions of Protestants on that offence. The former decide according to an andent and unerring law ; the latter according to their own whim and fancy, which the other culprit under trial, if a Protestant, would probably exercise over his judges were the tables reversed, and the power placed in his hands. This, as we have said before, is pure despotic tyranny ; but the other is law, though subject to abuse, through human agency, and we liave no doubt has been abused.

The saying of the king to Cranmer, '* that since he re- signed up himself to his judgment, if he sinned in it, it should lie at his door," seems to have struck old Tom a little queerly, and he and Bidley set about making a convert of old Joan. But how could they expect to remove Joan's opinion, when she was sensible that they had themselves shuffled in their own, and that too for their temporal interests. Hence when she was taken to the stake, and Dr. Scory under- took to refute her opinion in a sermon to the people, she told him, *' he lied like a rogue, and had better go home and study the scriptures.** Von Parris, or Von Parre, the oAer victim sent to the stake, was a surgeon in London. He was also arraigned before Cranmer, Ridley, Coverdale and others, after having been excommunicated by his brethren of the Dutch churcL This man seems to have been a moralist, nor does there appear to have been the least charge of a seditiom nature against him. He was burned purely for his specu- lative ojunions, but Burnet is forced to acknowledge, though

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the modern editors hame suppressed the afdmission, that this man's death ** east a great hlemish on the reformers."

DIVISION AMONG THE BEFORMBRS. In taking leave of the foregoing subject for the present, it b necessary that we should observe, that while Cranmer and bis associates were thus prosmbing with fire and fagot Uni- tarian sentiments, a convenient latitude was given to other sectarians, and forti^ religionists, as well as foreign troops, were encouraged to settle in the kingdom. Men of eveiy sect as well as of every nation found an asylum in the palaoe of Cranmer, and he procured for them livings in the church and protection at court. In return for these favours, some accommodated their consciences to the existing order of things. There was one, howev^, of the native reformers, whose vagaries and obstinacy led to a train of cemfusion and dis- order, which had nigh prov^ fatal to the new church, and have left testimony of the fallacy of her foundation, and another instance of the subtlety of Tom Cranmer. This inci- dent we shall give in the words of Dr. Lingard : — ^* John Hooper, by his activity, his fervid declamation, and his bold though int^nperate zeal, had deserved the applause and grati- tude of the well-wishers to the new doctrines. Edward nanaed him to the bishopric of Gloucester i when the preacher hin^ self opposed an unexpected obstacle to his own promotion. How could he swear obedience to the metropolitan, who was determined to obey no spiritual authority but that of the scriptures? How could he submit to wear the episcop^ habits, the livery of that church, which he had so often de- nominated the harlot of Babylcm? Cranmer and Ridley attempted to convince him by argument, and to influence him by authority : Bucer reminded him that to the pure all things are pure: and Peter Martyr contended that the wearing of episcopal habits, though meet, in his opinion, to be abolished, was yet an indifferent matter^ in which the most timorous might conscientiously acquiesce: on the oth^ hand, the Helvetic divines ap^nded hia ccmststency : the eari of

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Warwick conjured the "archbishop to jidd in favour of bis extraordinary merit: and the king promised to protect that prelate from the penalties, to which he might sub- ject himself by swerving from the ordinal. But Cran- mer was unwilling to incur the danger of a praemunire: and Hooper not only refused to submit, but published a justiiScation of his conduct, and .from the pulpit declaimed against the habits, the ordinal, and the council. The new church was on the point of being torn into fragments by the intemperance of her own children, when the royal authority interposed, and committed the refractory preacher to the Fleet. In the confinement of a prison, the fervour of his imagination gradually cooled ; the rigour of his conscience relaxed ; he condescended to put on the polluted habit ; he took the obnoxious oath ; he accepted from the king a patent, empowering him to govern the diocess of Gloucester; and fourteen months later was transftored to the united bishoprics of Gloucester and Worcester. By this union a wider field was opened for the exercise of his zeal ; but at the same time an ample source was supplied for the depredations of the courtiers. With a double diocess he retained a less income : the larger portion of the revenues of the two sees was des- tined to be divided among the men, who at this period were actively employed in calling out of the possessions of the church fortunes for themselves and their posterity."

Dr. Heylin, speaking of this transaction, says: " Thus we have the first beginning of that opposition, which hath con- tinued ever smee, against the liturgy itself, the cap and sur- plice, and other rights and usages of the Anglican church.* These oppositions were introduced by one John a Lasco, a German, who took sanctuary in England, and was allowed liberty of conscience, in return for which he took great liberty witl^ the discipline of the new church. Peter Martyr, of whom we have before spoken, was another of the dissi- dents, and objected to the wearing of square caps, because he had a round head. He was joined by many others, and square caps, gowns and tippets, were cried down as super-

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stttious and Popish attire. To shew the istate to which religion was reduced at this period, if we may he allowed the term, we will here give the statement of Dr. Heyiin, who, heing a Protestant divine, must he considered unimpeachable authority in the case. " Such," writes the doctor, •* were the effects of Calvin *s interposings in behalf of Hooper, and such the effects of his exceptions against some ancient usages in the public liturgy ; and such the consequences of the indulgence to John a Lasco, and his church of strangers, opposite both in practice and point of judgment to the esta- blished rules and orders of the church of England. For what did foUow hereupon, but a continual multiplying of disorders in all parts of this church ? What from the sitting at the sacrament, used and maintained by John a Lasco, but first irreverence in receiving, and afterwards a contempt and de- praving of it ? What from th6 crying down of the sacred vestments, and the grave habit of the clergy, ^but first a dis- esteem of the men themselves, and by degrees a vilifying and contempt of their holy ministry ? Nay, such a peccancy of humour began then manifestly to break out, that it was preached at PauPs Cross by one Sir Steven (for so they com- monly called such of the clergy as were under the degree of doctor), the curate of St. Katherine Christ church, that it was fit the names of churches should be altered, and the names of the days in the week changed ; that fish- days should be kept on any other days than on Fridays and Saturdays, and the Lent at any other time except only between Shrovetide and Easter. We are told also by John Stow, that he had seen tiie said Sir Steven to leave the pulpit, and preach to the people out of an high elm, which stood in the midst of the churchyard ; and that being done, to return into the church again, and leaving the high altar, to sing the com- munion service upon a tomb of the dead, with his face toward the north. Which is to be observed the rather, because Sir Steven hath found so many followers in these latter times. For as some of the preciser sort have left the church to preach in woods and bdtas, kc, and instead of the names of VOL. II. w

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the holiday and months, can find no other litle for l^em than the first, second, or third month of the year, and thp first, seccmd, or third day of the week, &o», so was it pn^tmded not long since by some state-reformers, ' that the Lenten £Eist should be kept no longer between Shrovetide and Easter, bat rather (by some act or ordinance to be made for that pmrpose), betwixt Easter and Whitsuntide.' To such wild &ncie8 ck> men grow, when once they break those bonds and neglect those rules which wise antiquity ordained ioc thepreserratiQii of peace and order.''

Wild as these fancies might be considered by the doctor, they were followed by a general order for the taking down of id tars, bearing date the 24th of November, ISdO, and sub- scribed by the duke of Somerset, the ardibishop of Canterbuiy^ and others. For the advancement of this woi^, John Hoop^ observed, in a sermon before his king : ** that it would be v^ well, that it might please the mctgistrate, to turn the altars into tabUsy according to the first institution of Christ ; and thereby to take away the feilse persuasion of the people, which they have of aaorifioes to be done upon altars. Because (said he) as long as altars remain, both the ignorant people and the ignorant and evil persuaded priest will dream always of sacrifice" Such was the recommendation of one of the diief and turbulent reformers ; but though his advice was followed to the destruction and piUaging of those necessai^ appendages to the temple of the living God, yet Ihe adorftble sacrifice of the mass could not be wholly obliterated from the minds of the people, and it is daily offered at this day in almost every part of England. Thb change of aitars into tables was the occasion of much derision and satire. The difierences of opinion among the reformers might fairly be compared to the confused tongues among theBabel-buildera. The ministers who had to officiate were at a loss to know where they were to stand at the table ; whether at this end or that end, or in the middle. Bishop Eidley called it an oyster-board, and White, of Lincoln, according to John Fox, in his original work, sud, *' that when their table was con-

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stituted, they could ne^er be oonlent in {daoing the same ; now east, now north ; now one way, now another ; until it pleased Grod in his goodness to place it quite out of the church." Dr. Heylin says : ** The like did Weston, (the prolocutor of the oonyocation in the first of queen Mary) in a disputation held with Latimer ; telling him, with r^roach and contempt enough, that the Protestants having turned their table, W6re Wee a company of apes, that icnew nol which way to turn their taUs ; looking one day east, and another day west ; one this way, and another that way, as their fancies led them. Thus, finally, one Miles Hubbard, in a book called ^ The Display of Protestants,' printed in 1556, p. 81, doth report the business, ^ How long (say they) were they learning to set their tables to minister the communion upon ? First they placed it aloft, Wh^re the high altar stood ; then must it be removed from the wall, that one might go between ; th& ministers being in contention whether part to turn their faces, either toward the west, the north, or south ; some would stand westward, some northward, some souUi- ward.' " To settle these diversities, a rubrick was drawn up, and Ihe north side Was pitched upon as the most proper place for the table. We have before noticed the changes made in the liturgy, arising from the factious and capricious whims of the leading reformers, who blasphemously stated that every alteration was made under the influence of the Holy Ghost, the Spirit of Truth.

Much has been said of late on the subject of Excommu- nication, and it has been frequently brought as a heavy charge against the Catholic clergy of Ireland, to justify the exclusion of the Irish people from the exercise of their civil rights. The power of excommunication, or separating the unbeliever from the faithful, is clearly established in the scriptures, and it is exercised by all sects, though we never hear any complaint made against the use of this prerogative except when applied to the Catholic church. We have seen that the Anabaptists excommunicated Von Panis for Unita- nanism, and we are now about to shew that one of the greatest

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of the sixfeentli century reformers thonglit it necessary to call for thb ancient discipline of the church, the new hishops of Edward's making, having somehow or other lost, or were restrained in, the right of exercising it ; hut were subsequently empowered by act of parliament to assume it. The strifes amongst the reforming divines, and the repeated changes and alterations made in the creed and ceremonies of the new church, all tending to a relaxation of morals and devotion, produced the most dismal consequences in the condition of the people, whose habits were now marked by the grossest vices and the most impure debaucheries. Latimer, who was appointed bishop of Worcester by Harry, but resigned his see rather than sign the six articles, in a sermon before the young head of the church, complained of the luxury and vanity of the age, and of many called gospellers, who were concerned for nothing but abbey and chantry lands, and he thus, according to Dr. Heylin, called for the restitution of the ancient discipline: "Lechery," says he, '* is used in Eng- land, and such lechery as is used in no other part of the world ; and yet it is made a matter of sport, a matter of nothing, a laughing matter, a trifle not to be passed On, nor reformed. Well, I trust it will be amended one day, and I hope to see it mended, as old as I am. And here I will make a suit to your highness, to restore unto the church the discipline of Christ, in excommunicating such as be notable offenders. Nor never devise any other way ; for no man is able to devise any better than that God hath done with excommunication to put them from the congregation, till they be confounded* Therefore restore Christ's discipline for excommunication ; and that shall be a means both to pacify GK>d's wrath and indignation, and also that less abomination shall be used than in times past hath been, or is at this day. I speak this of a conscience, and I mean to move it of a will to your graoe and your realm. Bring into the church of England the open dis- cipline of excommimication, that open sinners may be stricken with all." He also complabed, Burnet says, that the king^s debts were not paid, and yet his officers grew vastly rich.

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What the Protestants understood hy excommunication, and how the excommunicated are to be avoided, we may gather from the 33rd of the 42 of Edward's articles, and the 39 of Elizabeth's. It says : " That person which, by open de- nunciation of the churchy is rightly cut off from the unity of the church, and excommunicate, ought to be taken of the whole multitude of the faithful as a heathen and a publican, until he be openly reconciled by penance, and received into the church by a judge that hath authority thereunto." And Sogers, in his explanation of it, tells us, ^' that the most severe and uttermost punishment that the visible church can inflict upon the wicked, is excommunication. Which is to put the wicked doer from the con^any of the fieuthful, to deliver him unto Satan, and to denounce him a heathen and a publican. A man so cut off from the congregation, and excommunicated, is not to be eaten withal, nor to be received into a house.'' Such is the punishment of excommunication by the church of England ; let us then not hear it alleged any more agiunst the Oatholics.

We have said enough to shew the progress that was made in the Reformation, so called, during the reign of this boy pope. To the nation at large the consequences were of the most afflicting nature. While some of. the most unprincipled men were exalted at court, and enriched by the spoils of the church, the people were reduced to the lowest state of beggary and want, and the clergy of the new establishment were the most ignorant and debased of their profession. Dr. Heylin, in summing up the transactions of Edward's reign, says: " that such was the rapacity of the times, and the unfortunateness of his condition, that his minority was abused to many acts of spoil and rapine (even to an high degree of sacrilege), to the raising of some, and the enriching of others, without any manner of improvement to his own estate. For notwith- standing the great and most inestimable treasures, which must needs come by the spoil of so many shrines and images, the sale of all the lands belonging to chantries, colleges, free chapels, &c.^and the diliq^idating of the patrimony of so many

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bishoprics and oatlieclral dratcfaes ; he was not only pltmged ia debt, but the crown Iraids were mach diminished and im« paired^ since his coming to it. Besides which spoils, &eve were many other helps, and some great ones too, of keeping him from being both before-hand and full of money, had ^ey been used to his advantage. The lands of divers of the halls and companies in London were charged with annual pensions for the Ending of such lights, obito, and chantry priests, as were founded by ^e donors of tiiem: for the redeeming whereof t^ey were oonstrained to pay the sum of twenty thousand pounds to ^e use of the king, by an order from the council table ; not long before the payment of the first money fbr the sale of Boulogne, (umo 1550. And somewhat was also paid by the city to the king fbr the purchase of ^e borough oi Southwark, which they b<M^ of him the next year. But the main glut of treaaura was that of tiie four iiundred thousand orowns, amoui^ng in our money to 133333/. IBs. 4d, paid by the French king on the sunwdiy of the town and territory of Boulogne, before remembered. Of which vast aam (but small in refidrence tothe k>saof so great a strength) no less than fbur^BCore thousand pounds was laid up in the tower, the rest assigned to public uses for the peace and safety of the kingdom. Not to say anything of that yearly profit which came m from the Mint, after the interoonrse settled betwixt him and the king of Sweden, and the deciymg so much baee money, had begun to set the same on work. Which great advantage notwithstanding, he is now found to be in debt to the bankers of Antwm*p, and elsewhere, no less than 251,000/ of Engli^ money.'*

Such was the deplorable state of England, brought on by the reformers in religion. By the- same authority wo loam too, that these state cormorants, when they found the king- dom placed in such difficulties, adopted similar notable means to xetrieve it from embanrassment that we have seen put in practice in our time, when the cry of reform became too loud to be passed unheeded. The doctor tells us, ** they fell upon a oourse to lessen the exp^ises of his court and famOy, by

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suppresding the tables formerly appointed for youDg lords, the masters of the requests, the serjeants-at-arms, &o,, which though it saved some money, yet it brought in none. In the next place, it was resolved, to call such officers to a present and public reckoning, who either had embezzled any of the erown lands, or inverted any of the king's money to their private use. On which course they were the more intent, because they did both serve the king and content the people ; but might be used by them as a scourge, for the whipping ci those against whom they had any cause to quarrel. Amongst which I find the new lord Paget to have been fined six thou- sand pounds (as before was said) for divers offences of that ■ature, which were charged upon him. Beaumont, then master of the rolls, had purchased lands with the king*s money, made longer leases of some oth^ crown lands than he was authorised to do by his commission, and was otherwise guilty of much corrupt and fraudulent dealings : for expiating of which mmes, he surrendered all his lands and goods to the king, and seems to have been well befriended that he sped no worse. The like offences proved against one Whaley, one of the king's receivers for the county of York ; for which be was punished with the loss of his office^, and adjudged to «tand to any such fine as by his majesty and thd lords of the council should be set upon him. Which manner of proceeding, though it be for the most part pleasing to the common people, and profitable to the commonwealth, yet were it more unto the honour of a prince to make such officers whom he thinks not likely to offend, than to sacrifice them to the people and his own displeasures, having thus offended."

. FATE OF THE PRINCIPAL ACTORS.

We have given a detail of the evil effects produced by the Reformation on the people ; we shall now proceed to shew the fate of some of the leading characters in the unholy transac- tions of this reign. The king was the child of Jane Seymour, from whose body he was ripped, and was, of course, the death of his mother^ under his &ther*s order. This queen

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had tvi^o brothers, Edward and Thomas, who roae to great favour imder Henry, and to higher honours when their nephew came to the throne. Edward was made lord protector, and Thomas had the post of lord high admiral. The latt^ besides married Catherine Parr, the queen dowager, and the former took for his wife one Ann Stanhope, who is represented as a woman of an ambitions temper, and envious that her husband's brother's wife should have been a queen. She knew no will but her own, and she could not brook that she, being the wife of the lord protector, should give way to his younger brother, who claimed precedency of her as queen dowager. Dr. Hey- lin tells us she thus said within herself: " Am I not wife to Uie jprotectOTy who is king in power though not in tUU, a duke in (n*der and degree, lord trecuurer, and earl marshdlt and what else he pleased ; and one who hath ennobled his highest honours by hia late victory ? And did not Henry marry Catherine Parr in his doting days, when he had brought himself to such a condition by his lusts and cruelty, that no lady who stood upon her honour would adventure on him ? Do not all knees bow before me, and all tongues celebrate my praises, and all hands pay the tribute of obedience to me, and all eyes look upon me, as the first in state ; through whose hands the prlhcipal officers in the court, and chief preferments in the church, are observed to pass ? Have I so long com- manded him who commands two kingdoms, and shall I now give place to her, who in her former best estate was bat Latimer's widow, and is now fain to cast herself for support and countenance into the despised bed of a younger brother ? If Mr. Admiral teach his wife no better manners, I am she that will; and will choose rather to remove them both (whether out of the court, or out of the world, shall be no great matter), than be outshined in my own sphere, and trampled on within the verge of my jurisdiction."

With this disposition she went to work with her husband, and it was not long before she contrived to fill his head with an implacable jealousy against his brother. The lord admi- ral was equally as ambitious as the lord protector, and superior

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BOOK OF MAETYBS. 489

in abilities : lie not only married a queen, but be aspired to the band of tbe king's sister Elizabetb, wbile bis dowager queen was alive. Dr. Lingard saj^: '^ His attentions to tbe princess were remarked ; and tbeir familiarity was so un- disguised, tbat it afforded employment to tbe propagators of scandal, and awakened tbe jealousy of bis wife, by whom be was one day surprized witb Elizabeth in bis arms. But tbe queen in a sbort time died in cbild-bb*tb ; and ber death happened so opportunely for his project, that by the malice of his enemies it was attributed to poison." He now redoubled his suit to the princess Elizabeth, began to intrigue with some of tbe discontented courtiers, and thus raised an excuse for his brother to have him arrested. This was accordingly done, he was committed to the Tower, charges of high treason were preferred against him, a bill of attainder was brought into the House of Lo^ds, where his brother attended every stage of the bill, the third reading of which was agreed to without a division. In the Commons it met with some opposition, but was eventually passed^ and received tbe royal assent at tbe end of tbe session. Three days after, tbe warrant for bis execution was signed by tbe council, and, among other names, appeared those of Seymoub and Cranmeb, *' both of whom/' Dr. Lingard justly observes, ^* might, it was thought, have abstained from the ungracious office, the one on account of his relationship to tbe prisoner, tbe other because tbe canons prohibited to clergymen all participation in judgments of blood.'' Thus fell one of the uncles of the youthful pope and king. He was a partaker in tbe spoils of tbe church and tbe poor, and be now received bis reward for conniving at such un- hallowed sacrileges. Dr. Heylin tells us, he bad a grant of 100 marks annually, and a convenient bouse out of tbe property of tbe dissolved order of St. John of Jerusalem. He was afterwards created Lord Seymour of Sudley, having obtuned possession of tbe manor and castle of Sudley by tbe attamder of tbe rightful owner^ Lord Botteler, whose greatest crime; Heylin says, wa» the being owner of so goodly a manor, swhicb the greedy courtiers bad cast tbeir eyes upon. The

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lord high admiral obtained it> along with tlie title, but had scarcely come into possession of it, when he lost both, to- gether with his head, and it fell once more into the hands of the crown, where it remained till queen Mary conferred it upon Sir John Bruges, who derived his pedigree from the ancient inh^itors of the estate.

The lord protector having removed his brother, the object of hb Jealottsj, but the prop of his house, now thought him- self ouAipotent, and projected the erection of a magnificent palace, which should exdt him in the eyes of the nation. To give the reader an idea of the veneration in which the refor- mers of religion held the temples of the living God in thoiie days, we will h^:^ give the account of the erection of ihiB structure, as told by Dr. Heylin. " He had," writes the doctor, *' been brought out of his purpose for building on the deanery and close of Westminster, and casts his eye upon a piece of ground in the Strand, on which stood three episcopal houses and one pari^ churdi ; the parish church dedicf^ed to the Virgin Mary, the houses belonging to the bishops of Worcester, Lichfield, and Landaff. All these he takes into his hands, ^e owners not daring to oppose, and therefore willingly consenting to it. Having cleared the place» and projected the intended fabric, Ihe workmen found that more materials would be wanting to go through with it than the demolished churdi and houses could afford unto them. He thereupon resdves for taking down the parish church of St. Margaret's, in Westminster, and turning the parishioners for Ihe celebrating of all divine offices into some part of the nave or mi^n body of the abbey church, whidi should be marked out for that purpose. But the workmen had no soonei; ad- vanced their soafiblds, when the parishioners gathered together in gr6at multitudes, with bows and arrows, staves and dubs, and other such offensive weapons; wiudi so terrified the workmen, that thjey ran away in great amazem^iit, and never could be brought again upon that employment. In the next place he is informed of some superfluous, or rather supersti* tious, buildings on the north side of St« Paul's; that is to

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say, a goodly cloister, environiDg a goodly piece of ground, called Pardon-church-yard, with a ohapel in the midst thereof, and beautified with a piece of most curious workmanship, called the dance of death, together with & fair chamel house, on the south side of the church, and a chapel thereunto be- longing. This was conceived to be the safer undertaking, ^e bishop then standing on his good behaviour, and the dean imd diapter of that church (as of all the rest) being no better in a mann^ (by reason of the late act of parliament) than tenaats at will of their great landlords. And upon this he «ots his workmen on the 10th of April, takes it all down, oonverts liie stone, timber, lead and iron, to the use of his intended pidace, and leaves the bones of the dead bodies to foe buried in the fields in unhallowed ground. But all this not sufficing to complete the work, the steeple and most parts of St. John of Jerusalem, not far ^m Smithfield, most beautifully built not long before by Doc^wray, a late prior thereof, was blown up with gunpowd^, and all the stone ihereof employed to that purpose also. Such was the ground, and suck were the materials of the duke's new palace, called Som^«et*hoiise ; which eith^ he lived not to finish, or else it must be very strange, that after having ptilled down two churches, two chapels, and three episcopal houses (each of whidi may be probably supposed to Imye had their oratories), to find materials for this fabric, there should be no room pur- posely erected for rdigious offices.''

This saorilegioos destmclion of so many sacred edifices was the prdude to the protector's fall. From this time he met ynik nothing but disasters and disquietude. The death of his broths was looked upon as a great blot on his character. While he was building his costly palace the exchequer was empty, and the people rose in rebellion. Next followed the mkfortunes in Scotland and the loss of Boulogne, which fell into the hands of the French; all which circumstances con- joined raised up a strong party against him in the cabinet, headed by Dudley, earl of Warwick, afterwards made duke of Northumberland, and the lord piotector found himself a

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prisoner in the Tower^ under the accusation of high crimes and misdemeanors.

We must here notice some proceedings m the parliament which met after the arrest of Somerset. An act was passed, the purport of which was to make it felony for any persona to assemble to the number of twelve or more, for the purpose of abating the rents of farms or the price of provisions^ or of destroying houses or parks, or of asserting a right to ways or commons, if they continued together one hour after they had been warned to disperse by proclamation from a magistrate^ sheriff, or bailiff; and raising the offence to high treason when the object of the meeting should be to alter the laws, or to kill or imprison any member of the king's council. Another act was passed, subjecting every individual, either ''clerk or layman, who should ke^ in his possession any book containing any portion of the ancient service of the churdi, to a fine for the first and second offence, and to imprisonment during the king's pleasure for the thu:d. A proclamation had been issued previous to the passing of this act, ordering all such books to be delivered up, that they might be burned or destroyed. Thus it will be seen that the era which is . called the dawn of liberty was in fact the birth of slavery in this formerly free and happy country ; and that the rejection of the pope's spiritual authority led to the tyranny of an oligarchical faction far more oppressive than what had ever been felt even under the most odious of the former sovereigns of the country. From thia period to the present day, laws have been passed, infringing on the rights of the people, and the six acts which w^:e passed in 1819, to counteract the proceedings of the reformers of that day, remind us strongly of the laws passed- in Edwaid's parliament. It was never dreamed of by our Catholic legislators to make it high trea- son to kill or imprison a mender of the king's council; and it was reserved for our own days to pass a law to banish a man for using words that may be construed into a tendencff •to bring the members of the king's council into contempt. But we must leave this digrea^n and return to Somerset.

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BOOK OF MARTYRS. 49B

Though his behavioar was of the most haughty nature when in the plenitude of his power^ in his fall he was as abject and crawling. He was told, if he hoped for pardon he must ac- knowledge his guilt. This condition, which a noble mind would have spumed, was accepted with gratitude. He con- fessed his presumption on his knees, subscribed to the charges produced against him, and implored mercy. Life was promised him on condition that he should findPeit all his offices, his goods and chattels. A. bill of pains and penalties was introduced, and, after some opposition, was passed and received the royal assent. In the mean time Somerset plucked up a little courage, and remonstrated against the severity of his punishment ; the council reprimanded him, and drew from him another and still more degrading submis- sion. He was then pardoned and set at liberty, and his goods tmd lands were restored to him by the king^s favour.

The downfall of Somerset was the prehide to the advance- ment and aggrandizement of his enemies. The earl of Warwick was now the greatest man at court, and highest in honours. He was preferred to the office of l<Hrd great master f and lord high admiral ; a sycophant of his, William Lord St. John, was made earl of Wiltshire, and others of his creatures were placed in office br raised in title. But tides without estates w^e considered in those day, as in these, but empty honours. Now, when a po(Mr peer is made, he is fur^ nished with a pension out of the taxes of the labouring people ; ihen, they cast their eyes on the property of the church, out of which the poor, the sick, and the lame were supported. To shew how the poor were robbed in those days, and how some of the present noUe families obtained thmr riches, we will give the following extract from Dr. Heylin's History of the Reformation, *' Furnished with offices and honours," says the doctor, 'Mt b to be presumed, that they would find some way to provide themselves of sufficient means to maintain their dignities. The lord Wentworth, being a younger branch of the Wentworths of Yorkshire, had brought some estato with him to the court ; though not enough to

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]feep him up in equipage, witk so great a title. The want whereof was supplied in part, by the office of lord-chamber- lain, now conferred upon him; but more by the goodly manors of Stebuneth (commonly called Stepney) and Ha<^ney, bestowed upon him by the king, in consideration <^the good and faithful services before performed. For so it hi^pcaied^ that the dean and chifpfer of St. Paul's, laying at llie mercy of the times, as before was said, conveyed over to the king the said two manors, on the twelfth day after ChrisUnas now ]ast past, with all the members said appurtenances thereunto belonging. Of which, the last named was valued at the yearly rent of £41 9s. 4d. The other at £140 8s. 1 Id. ob. And, being thus vested in the king, they were by letters patents,, being dated the sixteenth of April then next follow- ing (1550), transfeiTed upon the said lord Wentworth. Bj means whereof he was possessed of a goodly territory, ezr tending on the Thames from St. Katharine's, near the Tower of Ixmdon, to the borders of Essex, near filackwall : from "thence along the river Lea, to Stratford-le-Bow : and fetching a great compass on that side of the city, contains in all no fewer thfm six and twenty townships, streets, amd hamlets ; besides such rows of building as have since been added in these lalter times. The like provision was made by ihe new lord Paget, a Londoner by birth, but l^ good fortune mixed with merit, preferred by degrees, to one of the principal secretaries to the late kii^ Henry ; by whom be was employed in many embassies and negociations. Being thus raised, and able to set up for himself, he had his share in the division of the lands of chimtry, free chapels, <&c., and got into his hands the episcopal house belonging to the bishop of Exeter, by him enlarged and beautified, and called Paget *s bouse ; sold afterwards to Rob^, earl of Leicester : fr(Hn wIkhh it <3ame to the late earls of Essex, and from them took the name ^of Essex-house, by which it is now best known. But being « great house, is not able to keep itself; he i^ayed his game so well, that he got into his possession tiie manor of Beau- .desart (of which he was created baron), and many other fair

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estates in the county of Stafibrd^ bdonging partly to the dean and chi^r of Licbfidd: neither of which was able to contend with so great a courtier, who hM the see, and had the ear of the protector, and the king's to boot. What other course he took to improve his fortunes, we shall see hereafter, when we come to the last part of the tragedy of the duke of

We will here remind the reader that the modem editors, on concluding the first book of Fox's work, make some *' re- marks on the vengeance of God towards the persecutors of the Christians," in which they shew that most of the perse- cuting Eoman emperefe« met with«an untimdy end, as a punish- ment for their cruelty ; and that the Jews, for their obstinacy and wickedness, were annihilated as a nation, and became the scorn and reproach of every people on the earth. (See our first vdume of this work.) With equal force do these observations apply to the princ^>al actors in the dismal and destructive tragedy of Enj^and*8 Reformation. Of the first promoter of the sacrilegious drama, H^iry YIII., we have before spoken. From' the time he rejected the spiritual authority of the pope, under which England was free in her domestic affairs, and renowned among the nations abroad, the kingdom became a prey to faction and misery, and the life of Harry was one continued scene of. suspicion, caprice, cruelty, and injustice. He spared neithw woman in his lust, nor man in his ang^ ; his wives were sent to the block with as little ceremony as cattle are sent to the slaughter-house ; his chief motive f<n: seeking a divcnrce from his virtuous queen CaUMuine, was that he might have a male heir to succeed him, and secure the crown of England to his fiunily ; but in this he was doomed to disappointment. He had a son, it is true, but liiat son succeeded him when he was inoapi^le of ruling himself, and was, therefore, a tool in tbe hands of the most impious and unprincipled m^i that ever cursed an un- fortunate country. We have seen that this unhappy youth was constrained to sign the death warrant of a fanatical old woman for heresy ^ at th^ instigation of Tom Oranmer, who

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afterwards met the B^me fate himself ; we have se^i the same Cranmer signing, in conjunction with the hrother of the culprit, the sentence of death against an uncle of the king, who had to sign the death warrant himself, and we have now to shew the untimely fate of this unnatural hrother himself, aft^ having escaped for a short period, through the hasest and most servile submission to the dictation of his enemies. Before, however, this act of the tragedy was performed. Dr. Heylin says that several presages occurred in the year 1551, which were looked upon as prognosticating the con- cussions which afterwards happened in the court, which led to the fall of Somerset and several other noted Beformers, and ended in the death of the king. The first of these prognostics was a terrible earthquake which happened on the 25th of May, at Croydon^ and some villages adjoining in Surrey ; another was the appearance of six dolphins in the Thames, three of which were taken at Queenborough, and three near Greenwich ; but the most extraordinary aind ca- lamitous scourge was the breaking out of a disease called the sweating sickness : ** appearing first," writes Dr. Heylin, ** at Shrewsbury, on the 15th of April, and after spreading by degrees over all the kingdom, ending its progress in the north, about 4he beginning of October. Described by a very learned man to be a new, strange, and violent disease ; wherewith if any man were attacked, he died or escaped within nine hours, or ten at most ; if he slept (as most men desired to do), he died within six hours ; if he took cold, be died in three. It was observed to rage chiefly amongst m^i of sl^ongest constitution and years ; few aged men or women, or young children, being either subject to it, or dying of it Of which last sort, those of most eminent rank were two of the sons of Charles Brandon; both dying at Cambridge, both Dukes of Suffolk (as their father had been before), but the youngest following his dead brother so close at the heels, that he only out-lived him long enough to enjoy that title* And that which was yet most strange of all, no fc^eigner which was then in England (four hundred French attending

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here, in the hottest of it^ on that king's ambassadors), did perish by it. The English being singled out, tainted, and dying of it in all other countries, without , any danger to the natives ; called, therefore, in most Latin writers, by the name of Sudor AngUcuSy or The JSnglish Sweat, First known amongst us in the beginning of the reign of king Henry Vn. ; and then beheld as a presage of that troublesome and laborious reign which after followed ; the king being for the most part in continual action ; and the subjects either sweating out their blood or treasure. Not then so violent and extreme, as it was at the present ; such infinite multi- tudes being at this day swept away by it, that there died eight hundred in one week in London only." The singularity of this disease being confined exclusively to Englishmen, must carry conviction to the mind of every sensible reader, that it was a mark of God's judgment on the nation, for the many impieties and abominable outrages which had been com- mitted by the pretended reformers against his justice and religion.

While the nation was thus sufiering by religious quarrels, fomented by imperious demagogues, and the awful visitations of God's anger, the court was thrown into confusion by a new quarrel between Somerset and Warwick. The former had recovered somewhat of his influence over the king, and aspired again to the office of protector, which it was, of course, the interest of the latter to prevent. Accordingly, a renewal of the previous jealousies and dissensions between these two ambitious men and their partisans took place, and conspiracies and cabals became the order of the day. Each party beset the other with spies and informers, and both were deceived and inflamed by false friends and interested ad- visers. Warwick, however, possessed the advantage over his adversary in the council, and, to strengthen his interest, a new promotion of titles and places was made in favour of his friends. He was himself created duke of Northumberland ; the marquis of Dorset was made duke of Suffolk ; the earl of Wiltshire, marquis of Winchester; Sir William Herbert,

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baron of Cardiff and earl of Pembroke ; and others had the honour of knighthood conferred upon them. These pro- ceedings alarmed Somerset, and he began to suspect that some designs were in agitation against his person. These suspicions he soon found confirmed, for on Hie 16th of October, as he was going to court at Westminster, he was arrested, with Lord Gray, and sent to the Tower. The day foDowing, his duchess and her favourites, Mr. and Mrs. Grane^ Sir Thomas Holcroft, Sir Michael Stanhope, Sir Thomas Arundel^ Sir Miles Partridge, with two others of the Sey- mours, and Hammond, and Newdigate, were ccHumitted to the same prison. Soon after, they were followed by the liOrd . Paget, the earl of Arundel, and Lord Dacres of the north. Preparations were soon made for the trial of the prison^:^ ; and we must not here forget the inscrutable designs of Divine Providence. The late lord protector, with unnatural cruelty, refused his unfortunate brother a trial by his peers, was present in the House of Lords when the bill of attainder was in progress against him, and signed the order of coonoil for his death. Now, when arraigned himself, among other charges, for attempting the life of Northumberland, under the act just passed, he found Northumberland, Northampton, and Pembroke^ his known enemies, among his judges. Dr. Heylin observes, that these, *' being parties to the charge, ought, in all honesty and honour, to have excused themselves from sitting in judgment on him at the time of his trial." This is very true, but the same remaric wiU apply to Siwaerset himself in his conduct towards his brother, and clearly ^lews that there was neither honesty nor honour in the transactions of those days. Another proof of this may be foxmd in the mode of Seymour's trial. Although he was brought before his judges (twenty-seven peers, with the new marquis of Wiltshire as lord-steward), yet he was not confronted wkh the witnesses ; only their depositions were produced agiunst him, which had be^n taken the day preceding the trial. His judges deliberated some time on their verdict, and at length pronounced him guilty of fdony, for which he was sentenced

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to be hangedy but in consideraticm of his rank, the sentence was changed to that of beheading. As soon as the sentence was pronounoedy this once proud and haughty courtier again fell on his knees, thanked the lords for their impartial con- duct during the trial, though he had requested to have the witnesses confronted with hira and was denied, asked pardon of Northumberland, Northampton, and Pembroke, whose lives he acknowledged he had sought to take, begged them to solicit the king for mercy in his behalf, and recom- mended his duchess and children to tlie pity of the young monarch, his nephew.

Six weeks after his condemnation, Somerset was led out to the scaffold on Tower-hill, on which his brother had suf- fered through his machinations, but three years before. The modem editors of the Book of Marty n tell us, that '* Mr. Fox, the author of this work, was present at the execution,'' Bud they favour their readers with his account of the execu^- tion. It is too long and tedious for us to give in full, but the following extract will give our readers some idea of Fox's love of truth and his proneness to romancing. In detailing the duke's speech, which he commences by avowing his in- nocence. Fox makes him say : " * Moreovw, dearly-beloved friends, there is yet somewhat that I must put you in mind of, as touching Christian religion ; which so long as I was in authority, I always diligently set forth and furthered to my power. Neither do I repent me of my doings, but re- joice therein, sith that now the state of Christian religion oometh most near unto the form and order of the primitive church. Which thing I esteem as a great benefit given of God both unto you and me ; most heartily exhorting you aD, that this, which is most purely set forth unto you, you will with like thankfulness accept and embrace, and set out the same in your living. Which thing if you do not, without doubt greater mischief and calamity wDl follow.' When he had spoken these words, there was suddenly a terrible noise heard ; whereupon there came a great fear upon all men. This noise was as it had been the noise of some great storm

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or tempest, which to some seemed to be from above ; as if ft great deal of manpower being inclosed in an armoorj, and having caught fire, had violently broken out. But unto some it seemed as though it had been a great multitude of horse- men running together or coming upon them. Such a noise then was in the ears of all, although thej saw nothing. Wh^^bjr it happened that all the people being amazed with- out any evident cause, they ran away, some into the ditches and puddles, and some into the houses thereabouts ; others fell down grovelling unto the ground, with their poUaxes and halberds; and most of them cried out, ^ Jesus save us! Jesus save us !' Those who remained in their places, for fear knew not where they were ; and I myself, who was there among the rest, being also afraid in this hurly-burly, stood still amazed. It happened here, as the evangelist wrote of Christ, when as the officers of the high priests and pharisees, coming with weapons to take him, being astonished, ran back- wards and fell to the ground.''

Fox then goes on to relate the remainder of the '* meek and gentle " duke's speech, as he calls him, and would make it appear, if he could, that this destroyer of churches, this invader of the property of the poor, this despoiler of the livelihoods of learned men, this murderer of his own broths in cold blood, was an innocent sufferer for the cause of re- ligion, and as pure and pious a martyr as those who suffered under the heathen persecutors. "His regard for religion must have been truly great, when it was modelled and remodelled according to the interest and caprice of himself and those who acted under him. But what shall we say to the blas- phemy and impiety of this eulogist of the Beformation, and recorder of lies, in comparing the accident which occurred at the death of this offender against GKkI's laws, to the supernatural fear which struck the guards who were sent to apprehend the Saviour of mankind ! Was ever anything so outrageously impious ! so shockingly disgusting ! He repire- sents the noise as terrible and somewhat miraculous upon hia own view ; let us now hear what another eye-witness, whose testimony is less tainted, says of this occurrence.

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Stowe, in his C^ronieUs, thus relates the matter: — ^* Before eight of the clock the duke was hrought to the scaffold inclosed with the king's guard, the sheriffs' officers, the warders of the Tower, and others with halherds, the duke heing readj to have been executed ; suddenly the people were driven into a great fear, few or none knowing the cause ; whereof I think it good to wrilie what I saw concerning that matter. The people of a certain hamlet, which were warned to be there by seven of the clock, to give their attendance on the lieutenant, now came through the postern, and perceiving the duke to be already on the scaffold, the foremost began to run, crying to their fellows to follow fast after, which sudden- ness of these men, being weaponed with bills and halberds, thus running, caused the people which first saw them to think some power had come to have rescued the duke from execution, and therefore to cry* away, away;' whereupon the people ran some one way, some another, many fell into the Tower ditch, and they which tarried thought some pardon had been brought, some said it thundered, some that a great rumbling was in the earth under them, some that the ground moved ; but there was no such matter,, more than the tramp* ling of their feet, which made some noise.*' Compare this plain statement, reader, with the fanatical blasphemy of Fox, and the true merits of the author of the Booh of Martyrs will soon become manifest.

The confusion occasioned by this sudden movement had scarcely been allayed, when the duke was again interrupted in his speech by the appearance of Sir Anthony Brown- on horseback, which caused some of the populace to shout ** A pardon, a pardon." The shout reached the scaffold, but the duke soon learned its inaccuracy, and the disappointment called a hectic colour up to his cheeks ; he however resumed his address, which having concluded, he laid his head on the block, and at one stroke it was severed from his body. Thus fell the second uncle of the young king Edward, and a great promoter of the deformation of religion and destroyer of the nation's happiness and riches, under the sign manual of his

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own nepliew. Nor did the veng^nce of his enemies forsake him here, hut extended to his friends and children after his death. This Seymour had two wives, and a son hy each. Through the instigation of the second wife, she who plotted the death of his hrother the lord admiral, he had procured an act of parhament to be passed in the 32kid year of Henry, for entailing on the son by his second wife all his honours and estates. This act was now repealed, and the duchess and her son were divested of their property and he of his titles, so truly did the hand of God feJl upon the guilty in these atrocious deeds.

There was another brother of these Seymours, named Henry y who, though he has not made a conspicuous figure in history, and was only a knight, yet being a partaker in the spoils of the church, the fatality of his family was such, that we should not do justice to the puUio were we to omit flie account as we find it related in Heylin's History. Having given the pedigree of Edward the eldest, and Thomas the youngest, whose fate we have juet recorded, the doctor writes : " As for Sir Henry Seymour, the second son of Sir John Seymour, he was not found to be of so fine a metal as to make a courtier, aud was therefore left unto the life of a country gentleman ; advanced by the power and favour of his elder brother to the order of knighthood ; and afterwards estated in the manors of Marvell and Twyford, in the county of Southampton, dismembered in those broken times from the see of Winchester. To each of these belonged a park, that of the first containing no less than four miles ; that of the last, but two in compass ; the first being also honoured with a goodly mansion-house, belonging anciently to those bishops, and little inferior to the best of the wealthy bishoprica. There goes a story, that the priest officiating at the altar in the church of Ouslebury (of which parish Marvell was a part), after the mass had been abolished by the king's authority, was violently dragged thence by this Sir Henry, beaten, and most reproachfully handled by him, his servants universally refusing to serve him, as the instruments of his rag© and

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fiiry ; and that the poor priest having after an opportunity to get into the church, did openly curse the said Sir Henry, and his posterity, with bell, book, and candle, according to the use observed in the church of Boifie ; which, whether it were 80 or not, or that the main foundation of this estate being laid on sacrilege, could promise no long blessing to it; certain it is, that his posterity are brought beneath the degree of poverty. For, having three nephews by Su: John Seymour, his only son ; that is to say, Edward, the eldest, Henry and Thomas, younger sons, besides several daughters, there remains not to any of them one foot of land, or so much as a penny of money to supply their necessities, but what they have from the munificence of the marquis of Hertford, or the charity of other well disposed people, which have affection or relation to them."

It is now time to notice the fate of the other individuals accused as the accomplices of the late protector Somerset. Four only were selected for capital punishment, namely, Partridge, Vane, Stanhope, and Arundel. The two first died under the gallows, the last on the scaffold. Of these. Partridge was the most despised, as he was the individual who won the beautiful ring of bells called Jesus' bells, at a cast of dice with king Harry, and caused them to be taken down and melted for his own advantage. Paget was never brought to trial, but made his submission, was degraded from the order of the garter, and paid a considerable fine. The earl of Arundel gained his liberty after an imprisonment of twelve months, but not till he had bound himself to pay annually to the king, for six years, the sum of one thousand pounds.

We shall now close our account of the punishmtfents which fell on the guilty actors in this scene of devastation in Edward's reign, for some were allowed to fall in Mary's time, with the premature end of the young king himself. Warwick having dispatched his rival, Seymour, now meditated the se-* cm-ing of the crown of England to his own family ; and having procured a marriage between his fourth son, Lord

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Ihidlejy and Lady Jane Grej, the daughter of the duke of Suffolk, he persuaded the young king to make a will, setting aside the right of his sisters, Mary and Elizaheth, and con- lerring the sceptre on the said Lady Jane, and the heirs male of her hody. This end was no sooner accomplished than the king hegan to increase in weakness, and his disease soon haffled the skill of his physicians. During his illness, Dr. Heylin says, he prepared himself for his end with the prayer subjoined, and other meditations. We give it as a curious specimen of the plans devised by the reformers, as they called themselves, to instil prejudice into the youthful mind of the monarch, and to remind the reader how much the nation has gained by its being defended from Papistry, if we compare the present misery of the labouring classes, and the happy state of plenty they enjoyed before the thing called the Beformation was known. Here, then, is the prayer, taken, as Dr. Heylin says, from his dying mouth.

" Lord God deliver me out of this miserable and wretched life, and take me among the chosen. Howbeit, not my will, but thine be done. Lord, I commit my spirit to thee. 0 Lord, thou knowest, how happy it were for me to be with thee: yet for thy Chosen's sake, send me life and health, that I may truly serve thee. Oh, my Lord God ! bless my people and save thine inheritance. O Lord God ! save thy chosen people of England. O Lord God ! defend this realm from Papistry f and maintain thy true religion, that I and my people may praise thy holy name, for Jesus Christ his sake."

We must admire the devotion and ardour of the young pope in fevour of " true religion," which, by the by, it was impossible for any one to discover amongst the reformers, as it was changed with the same facility as the chameCon does the colour of his skm. The realm has been defended from Papistry, with as ranch zeal and vigour as penal laws and proscription were capable of, and yet it is now gaining ground, to the dismay of the intolerants, while the system of

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Protes^Mitism^ if duoh k ean be coll^, ia itt a rapid Btato of deeay. The itnmende load oi debt and iU neceeaary atten- daaty taxation^ e^ppotteid by a base {Mtpev cafrency, have i^duoed the 'notking classes te a state of pauperism^ and the nation itself is on the verge of bankruptoy. The religion established by law in Edward's reign, and afterwards by his sister Elizabeth, has bnt few profbssors, many of its ministers being ktitudinarians and free^inkers. It is only supported by test oatlis and proscripttve laws, and shonld any sudden convulsion take place in the state, its dissolution will follow. Bat let US return to the young king. If mrtbnmberland having obtained his consent to dbfosb his two sisters, ^e boy- pope did not survive the deed many days, as death overtook him, after suffering much pain and torture ; not without strong suspicions of his having been poisoned by Northumberland. Thus feH the sen of the first pope of the churdi of En^and, who was the victim of the most unpnndpled men ; of whom it may be said, he caused the death of his own mother on ooming into the world, she being ripped open to give him birth ; that he sent his two uncles to liie scaffold under the royal warrant ; and was himself snatched away by a violent death in the sixteenth year of his age. O Gtod, how inscrutable are thy judgments I how unsearchable thy ways !

Here, then, we close our view of the fate of the prindpal characters in the dismal scenes of spoliation and sacrilege which accompanied the introduction of that change in the religion of the country, which brought so many evfls in its train. If the miserable and untimely death of the Eoman persecutors of the primitive C^stiatts Were " manifestations of the great displeasure of the Almighty against the perse- cutors,^ the same observation nrast be equally applicable to the violent ends which swept from this wwld the great de- stroyers of everything truly reHgious, and the persecutors of those who stood steadfastly to the faith planted by the i^ostles, and fbr which, like the primitive Obrisfiatis, diey suflsred martyrcfom with the most heroie fortitude. We hate shewn hi the pneceding^ pages, ho^ the JProtestant; or reformed, re-

VOL. II. X

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ligion was first broached in England under Henrj, and pro- pagated by the evil counsellors of his son Edward. We have also shewn, at the commencement of this volume, how the Catholic religion was j^nted by the holy monk Augustin and his pious associates, and the blessings which attended the people on submitting to this divine system of faith and morals. The reader can now see the vast difference between the introduction of the Catholic religion and the destruction of it, with all its beneficent and useful institutions, by Oran- mer, Cromwell, Seymour, and others. We have laid bare who and what the men were who preached the pretended doctrines of reform ; the means prescribed, and the effects produced ; we will here add, in corroboration, the words of father Parsons, taken from the second part of his Three Con- versions. He writes : '* As for the men that first and prin- cipally broached these doctrines, they were, for the most part, married friars and apostate priests, that, liying in concu- piscence of women, and other sensuality, desired to maintain and continue the same by the liberty of this new gospel. The promoters and fevourers of these men were such espe- cially of the laity and clergy as had more interest, by the change, for their own promotion and adyancement, than con- science, or persuasion of judgment, for the truth of their religion ; as would appear, if we should name them one by one that then were of the council and chief authority. The effects and spiritual fruits of this first change were (as yon have seen and heard) the most notorious vices of ambition, dissimulation, hatred, deceit, tyranny, and subversion one of another; together with division, dissension, garboils, and desolation of the realm ; yea, plain atheism, irreligion, and contempt of all religion that over was known to have risen up in any kingdom of the world, within the compass of so few years ; and (that which is most remarkable) there fol- lowed presently die overthrow of all the principal actors and authors of these innovations, by God's own wonderful hand ; and ihii more in these six years, than in sixty, or six score, or perhaps six hundred, hal^ been seen to have fallen out in

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England in other times. And no doubt but it is of singular consideration, that whereas true Christian religion (but es- pecially any change or reformation to the better part) is ad- mitted, there presently do ensue, by usual consequence, great effects of piety, devotion, charity, and virtuous life, if the reformation be sincere, and come from God indeed ; here, on the contrary side, the providence of God did shew a notorious document to the whole world, of the falsehood and wicked- ness of this new gospd, in that the first professors and pro^ meters thereof in our land fell-to more open wickedness in these five years, than in so many fifties before, as hath been said."

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EEPORMATION M IBELANP.

* We ap& UM %j> ibe^ modem^ edit(nr»» timt ^ ihis. jear/^ but no jear id speeifi^Bd^ '^tbe Hefopmatum^ had gained more ground ioi Ireland' tban ibrmerlj. Henrjr Y HI. had aBsnnaed to himself, hy oeos(»nt of tb» parliament? of ^bat kii^dom, the title of king of it ; the former kings 6# England hmng ' only been called lords of Ireland ; and though they were obeyed within the English pale, yet the native Irish con- tinued barbarous and uncivilized, were governed entirely by the heads of their names or tribes, and were obedient or re-- bellious, as they directed them, The Keformation was set on foot in the English pale, but made small progress among the Irish. At length Bale was sent over to labour among them. He was an eager writer, and a learned, zealous man. Goodacre was made primate of Armagh, and Bale was to be bishop of Ossory. Two Irishmen were also promoted with them ; who undertook to advance the Reformation there. The archbishop of Dublin intended to have ordained thenoi by the old pontifical, and all, except Bale, were willing it should be so, but he prevailed that it should be done accord- ing to the new book of ordinations ; he then went into his diocess, but found all there in dark Popery, and before he could make any progress, the king's death put an end to his designs."

Such is the account given by the modern editors ; and we must here observe, that it is somewhat contradictory, inas- much as it says that the Eefortnation '^ had gained more ground," and a few sentences after, that it ^' made small progress," in Ireland. How these contradictions are to be reconciled, we must leave to the advocates of Burnet and Fox. The duke of Wellington, who is an opposer of the rights of his Catholic countrymen, though his honours were

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^9^n by thdr eDura^ and MeKty, tidsertod in the House of Lords that the BefoAaaticm wm iiirt^oduced iEflo Ireland % the mouth ef the eannea and the poin^ ef ihe ktyonet ; but tills oew mode «f pr(^gatm^ the g^pel our modem editoi^ Jiave ftuippreesed. Th€{y tell us th^ Bale wa& sent over to labour among the Xrish^ who afre <ldscribed as beiag ^^ bar- barous «n3 unciTiliied^" but thcgr should ajso have stated that the lord proteotor, ^m^:s^ sent ovet 600 horsO, and 4yOOO iboty to dvili^e this 'unfortunate people* And how did thej proceed to enlighten th» darkness of Popery ? His- torians inform us, by those disgracehil praotioes whieh marked the ^^ progress of the ^Beforma1ion/'-^-&aud and violenoe. Having succeeded in kdliog the suspiiueas of the two most «nunent chieftains^ O 'Moore and O'Connor, who (Surrendered on ihe pledged faith of the English eommander ; they had no sooner arrived in England thaji they ^ere cast into prison, their lands declared forfeited, and bestowed on the very men who had thus viUaaously violated their plighted troth. Churches were despoiled of their sacred ornaments, which were exposed £&c sale> and the laost fertile <^tricts w4»e laid waste bj the ruthless hands of men ^ho pretended to be the bearers of a rel^ion that was to 3?emove the Cimmerian darkness which had so long bounfd the Irish Papists. We at& told ^baX Bale was sent over to labour at&ong the Irish ; that '< he was an ^eager writer, and a learned and zealous man ;" thibt he ^' was to he bishop of Ossory ; that ike archbish(^ of Dublin intended to have oi^lned him by the old pontifical, but he prevailed upon the archbishop to haVe the ceremony perfbrmed according to the new book of ^rdinaticfei j" that he went into his diocess ; that he ** iwLud all there ua dark Popeiy ;" and that ^^ bef^e he could make auy progress, the king's death* put an end to his design." The only audierity we have £»r this very pretty relation is Gilb^t Burnet, who produces no testimony to corroborate his statetnenth We believe it to be a &bricatioft, e^d it sdetlis to ^arry with it its own confutation* Why not give Us a few rfsasons whidi in- duced the archbiahop to throw aside the ancient form and

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adopt the new ceremonial ? Why saj( that Bale w€u to be bishop, and then make him actoallj so ? Why not name the two Irishmen, and the sees they were promoted to? And, how lucky it was that death should take away the king, to sare the credit of Bale. The modem editors, who have copied, or rather selected, their account of '' the progress of the Reformation" from Burnet, make a little free, we see, with their authority, in order to suit their own purposes of deception. Burnet says, that Bale '^ was a busy writer, and a learned, zealous man, hut did not write wiih that temper and DECENCY tliat became a divineJ^ This latter part of his character the modem editors have suppressed. Father Tarsons, the able and learned detector of Fox's lies, in- forms us that this John Bale, for we suppose there was but one learned man of that name in those days, was an apostate iriar, and chief gospeller in the times of Henry and Edward ; and that he defended the Jewish custom of keeping Easter, in treating on a disputation between Colman, the Scottish bishop, and St. Wilfred, the English abbot, in a council heM in Northumberland, in the year 664. Parsons proves Bale guilty of misrepresentation, falsehood, and scurrility, and quotes his own words to shew that he was a jester. ** I haye," says Bale, " Written jests and pastimes without any certain number." — {Bal, cent, t. descript, BriL) He is also represented by the same grave authority, as taking an active ^art in the contention between the lord proteetor, Somerset, and the lord high admiral, and their wives, befcn^ noticed^ in which dispute many other apostate friars, and among the rest, Hugh Latimer, were great sticklers. Lati- mer inveighed, with much bitterness, in his sermons, aguBst the admiral ; and, on the other side, John Bale took tbe part of the admiral's wife, queen Catharine, whom he set forth, in his book before quoted, as one of the miracles ef womankind.

So respectable a divine as John Bale must have performed wonders in enlightening the darkness of Ireland, had Provi*- dence thought it wise to prolong the Hfe of the young pope.

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BOOK OF MABTYKS. 511

But allowing this Bale to have been what he is here repre- sented by the modem editors, of what use could his writings be to a people who could not read, and, if they could, were not acquainted with the language of his writings ? In whal way could an Englishman con?ert the Irish from their ancient faith, unless he had the gift of tongues, and was able to preach to them in their native language ? And here we may be allowed to remark the inconsistency of these pre- tended reformers in regard to their propagating the newly invented forms and doctrines in Ireland. One of the charges brought by them against the Catholic church was, that she kept the people in ignorance by praying in a language which they did not understand, and consequently one of their first measures of reform was to have the I|^urgy in the English language. For the natives of Jersey and Guernsey a French translation was made ; but it does not seem to have entered the heads of the reformers that the Irish required to have an edition in their own language. If it were necessary that the English shoidd have the benefit of a form of worship in their own tongue, had not the king's subjects in Ireland an equal right to the same benefit ? But strange to say, the very men who reproached the Catholic church with performing her service in a foreign language, issued a proclamation, by which the Irish were commanded to attend the English church service in a language they did not understand. The result was, that in Dublin, where the English language was some- what familiar. Brown, the archbishop of Dublin, and four of his brethren, yielded submission to the order ; but Dowdal, archbishop of Armagh, and the other prelates, stoutly resisted the decree, and the ancient service was retained, and has been preserved almost universally to this day. The modem editors say, " Goodacre was made primate of Armagh ; '* but this is another mistake or wilful misrepre- tation of an historical fact. Dowdal, for his adherence to the faith of which he was appointed a guardian, was perse- euted by the government, who took from him the title of jprimute of all Ireland^ and transferred it, not to his successor

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in th« ^ee of Ammigb, bui to hU more i ervfle l»ot1ierr itei »rcbl»8h(^ of Pmblin* Dowdal wm obliged ^ fly the teelmy but recovered Ub ae^ on Ae iK^eessioii of Ifwry.

The aacrilegions and mfaiBoue robberies of Hie ^Murcbet in Ireland, begun by ibe reformers in Edward's reigo^ met^ «f course, a ebeck by tbe tueoesMon of bi6 M^ter Mary. Sbe* bowever, W9« no soonw dead, and ber plaee occupied bj tbat vtr^n lady, who ie called by the ba>e writere He " good qveea Bes9»" though a more meitdleM tyrant never wielded a seeptre> than the y^oji. of deYastation was agaui xeMunedt and earned to a piteb that was Be?er exceeded by Uie Gote and Vandals in tbear inroads on Christian ktfigdoma. We will here give tibe testimony of Speiftoery Sy^ey^ Hook^> Davies, and Straffor<L who Ured in the time of the traxisac* tions desiH^ibed, and which embraoed a period of geven^ years, commencing in 1560 and ^ding m 1^30. From these witnesses the reader will lettm the groes abuses piaetiaed by the newly estaUished church, the complete negleet of duty by the bishops, and the utter want <^ persons to rap^y the churches, or the t^pointment of illiterate inoambente of the most dissolute monds.

Leland writes : "The clergy, who refused to conform, abandoned their cures* Ifo reformed mmistera eauld be/bund to supply their places. The churches fell to rains. The people were left without any religious worship or imtrucHon*** —(Vol. ii. p. 174.)

'* The prejudices oonoeired against tiie BeformatSon, by the Irish natives more especially, were still further iaereased by the conduct of those who were commissioned to remove the objects and instruments of popular superstition* Undei^ pretence of obeying the orders of stat4, they seiied aU th4 most valuable furniture of the churches, which they exposed to sale without decency or reserve. The Insh amudists pathetically describe the garrison of Athlone issuing Ibrth, with a barbarous and heathen fmry, and pillaging the famous church of Olonmaonoise, tearing away the most inoffensive ornaments, books, bells, plate^ windows, funutmre of every

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BOOK OP M1UTYB«. 51^

Idndj 60 &a to l«aVe the ahriaie Of iheir ^Toiirito saint, KieraDy a bidaotui monomeat of sacrilege. "^/iM. 287.)

Spacer iftites: '^Sonie of tikem {the bishops) whose diocesses aeraia retiMte parto^ somewhat out of the world's eye, doe not at aU bestow the benefices^ tckich are in their e>ybni$ donation^ itpon 0991/, hU keep them m their ottme hands, and set their awne eervante and hofee-hoye to take vp the tithes mid/ruites qfthem, with the which^ some of them purchase great lands, and b«ild/Bfire cas4el9 upon the same. Of which abuse if any question kB moved> itiey have a yery seemly oolour aud excuse^ thai they have no worthy minista^ to bestow upon theniy but keepe them so bestowed for any such sufficient person as any shall bring unto them/'-^(p. 140.)

*' Whatever disorders you see in the church of England, y06 may fbde there> and many more. Namely^ grosse simony f gtsedy eovetotisnesse, fleshly ineontinency^ careless^ shath, and yeneraUy all disordered life in the common dUnrgymm, And besides all these, they have their partiouhr enormi^s ; for all Irish pnests, which now enjoy the church Kiingi, they are in a manmr meere laymen, saving that they have taken holy orders ; but otherwise they doe goe and live Mke laymen; Mow all kinde of husbandry, and othw worldly affaires, as other Irii^men doe. They neUher read scriptures^ nor preach to the people, nor admiwister the communion^ baptisms (hey eloe, for they christen yet after the Bopieh fashion ; only tJ^ take the tithes and ojferinys, and gather Ufhatfr%iite else ihey mmy of their livings.'' *-^{^, 189.)

^' It is great wonder to see the oddes which ia between the xeale of Popish priesta^ and the ministers of the gospell ; for they spare not to come out of Spaine, from Kome, and from Eeiiies, by long toyla and daungerous travayling hither^ where they k]K>w p^ill of death awayteth them, and no re«> ward or riehesse la to be founds onely to draw the people imto the itshuroh of Rome *, whereas some of our idle minis'* ters, having a way for oredke and estimalaiHi thereby opened Unto them, and having the living of the (sountrey efiered unto theoa^ without paioes^and without perill, trill nadiet for

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the same, nor any love of God, nor zeale of religion, or fat all the good they may doe, by winning seules to God, beo: drawne foorth from Iheir warme neastes, to looke out into God's harvest, which is even ready for the rackle, and idl the fields yellow long agoe." — (p. 254.)

Sydney writes thus : — " The first is, the churche is nowe so spoyled, as well by the mine of the temples, as the disci- pacion and imbeaselinge of the patrimonye, and most of all^ for want of sufficient ministers ; as so deformed and over ihrowen a churche there is not, I am sure, in wny region where Christ is professed ; and preposterous it seameth to me, to begin reformacion of the pollitique parte, and to neg* lect the religious."— (Vol. i. p. 109.)

*' I was advertized of the perticuler estate of ech churche in the bishopricke of Meithe (being the best inhabited coun- trie of all this realme), by the honest, zealous, and learned bishop of the same, Mr. Hugh Brayde, a godlye minister of the gospell, and a good sarvaunt to your highnes, who went from churche to churche hym selfe, and found that there are within his diocess 224 parrishe churches, of which number one hundred and Jive are impropriated to sondrie. possessiene nowe of your highnes, and all leased out for yeares, or in fee farme, to severall farmers, and great gayne reaped out of theim above the rent, which your majestie receivethe ; nopar^ son or vicar, resident upon any of theim, and a very simple cr sprrye curat, for the most parte, appointed to serve theim : amonge which nomber of curatts, onely eightene werefounde able to speake English.*' — (p. 112.)

" No one bowse standinge for any of theim to dwell in. In maney places, the very walles of the churches doune ; verie few chauncells covered, wyndowes and dores ruyned or spoyled. There are 52 other parishe churches in the same diocess, who have viccars, indued upon theim, better served and maynteined then the other, yet but badlye. There are 52 parishe churches more, residue of the first nomber of 224, which perteine to dyvers perticuler lords, and these, though in better estate then the lest commonlye are, yet fiirre fr^

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BOOK OF BIABTYRS. 515

well. If this be the eetate of the churche in ihe best peopled tUoeese, and best governed eounirie, of this your reahne (as IB troth it is) : easye it is for your majestie to conjecture, in what case the rest is, where little or no reformation, either of religion or manne];s, hath jet hene planted^ and contjnued Mn<mge thdm." — (ibid, vol. i. p. 112.)

*^ Uppon the &ce of the earthe, where Christ is professed, there is not a churohe in so miserahle a case ; the miserje of vhiche condstetho in thiese three particulars, the rujne of the Torie temples theimselves ; the want of good mynisters to serve in theim, when they shall he reedified ; competent lyvinge for the ministers heing wel chosen." — (Ibid.)

'< And though the outrages in the civil government were ^eat, yet nothing to he compared to the ecclesiasticle state, for that was too far out of order, the temples all ruined, the parish churches for the most part without curates and pastors, no service said, no God honoured^ nor Christ preached, nor sacraments ministered" — (Hooker, apud Hollinshed, vol. vi» p, 382.)

" There has heen so litUe care taken, as that the greatest part of the churches within the pale he still in their ruins ; so as the common people (whereof many, without doubt^ would conform themselves) Tiave noplace to resort to, where they may hea/r divine service J'* — (Davies, p. 240.)

** For the holding of two livings, and but two with cure, since you approve me in the substance, I will yield to you in the circumstance of time. Indeed, my lord, I knew it was bad, very bad in Ireland; but that it was so stark nought I did not believe, six benefits not able to find the minister cloths. In six parishes scarce six to come to church.*' — (Strafford, vol. i. p. 254.)

" The bes^ entrance to the cure will be clearly to discover the state of the patient, which I find many ways distem- pered ; an unlearned clergy ^ who have not so much as the outward form of churchmen to cover themselves with, nor their persons any ways reverenced or protected ; the churches unbuilt, the parsonage and vicarage houses utterly ruined ;

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the p€opU unUmpht, through th& non-midmcy of the clergy ^ occasioned by the unlimitBd ehamefiU numdere of epirkmed promotions with tnre of mntUy which thoy hold by oam^ mertdama / the rites and ceremonies of the ehmreh rwn oeer ivithout all deoeneg of habii, order f or grmfiiy^ in theconrse of their service ; the posBessicms of tbo ehuroh, to a great proportion, in hj httids; the bishops aUenimg their very principal houses and demesnes to their ehikkw^ to strangers, farming out their Jttrisdictiens te mean and unworihy jMf- sons; the Popish titulara ^zeroising tho whilst a fereign jurisdiotion much greater tlian their8."-^/6t4/« toL i pw 187.)

** There are seven or eight ministers in each dioeosB^ of good snffieieney, atid (which is no small cause of the con- tinuance of the people in Popery still) English, whidi har^ not the tongue of the people, nor can perform any divime offices, or convert with them ; and which hold, numy of them^ two or three, four or more vicarages apiece; even the elerhshipe thema^lvei are in like mann^ ooniiired upon the English, and sometimes two or three or more upon one maiit and ordinarily bought end sold, or let to farm** — (Burnet's Life of Bedell, p. 46.)

<< As scandalous livings natttrally make scandalons minis^ X&[%9 the clergy of the established ehurch were generally f^* norant and unlearned, loose and irregular in their Uves mnd sonversations, negligent of their cures, and very careless of observing uniformity and decency in divine vforsMp.''*^ (Carte, vol. i. p. 68.)

'* Nor were the parochial churches in a better cofidiikm than the cathedral. They had most of them in the country been destroyed in the troubles, or fallen down for want of covering ; the livings were very small, and either kept in the bishops' hands by way of commendams and sequestrations, or else filled with ministers as scandalous as their incMne ; so thai scares any care was taken to cateMse the Mldren, or ineir%tet others in the grounds of religion ; and f<yr years together, divine service had not been used in any parit^ i^ureh throughout Ulster, except tti some city or principal --{Ibid. vol. i. p. 17.)

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BOOK OF MASTTR8« 517

" There were few churches to resort to ; few teachers to exhort and instruct ; fewer still who could he understood ; and almost all, at least for the greater part of this reign (Elizabeth* s) of scandalous insufficiency J* — (Iceland, vol. ii. p. 459.)

We are indehted to the researches of Mr. Carey, of Phila- delphia, for these extracts, whidi we hare taken from hfs able and Taloable woi^^ entitled, VtndicuB Hiberf^iae ; or, Ireland Vindicated, in which he has most feelingly and for- cibly pourtrayed the horrible barbarities and outrages which marked the blood-stained progress of the Reformation in Ireland. Our blessed Saviour told his disciples that the tree would be known by its fruits ; pernicious, then, must that tree have been which produced such fruits as are here de- scribed. And yet we have men iut^the nineteenth century — in an age that boasts of its learning and enlightenedness — extolling this work of devastation and slaughter as the off- spring of Heaven I Was ever such blasphemy and impiety before known ?

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518 RBYIIW OF FOX'8

ACCESSION OF QUEEN MARY.

SUBVERSION OF BEUGION, AND PEBSECUTIONS OF THB CHURCH OF ENGLAND, DURING HER REIGN.

This is the most interesting period of the work we are reviewing, and we beg the serious attention of the reader to it. Under the above head the modem editors of Fox have introduced the following account of the accession of Mary to the throne of her father and brother. We give the whole of it, that we may not be accused of partiality, as it will be our duty to detect and expose the barefaced fedsehoods, and the many misrepresentations of historical facts it contains. The editors say : —

*« We now call the attention of the British Protestants to a period of their church history that canfiot fail to awaken in their hearta that love for their ancestors, which at present, we fear, lies dormant in too ftinny. A long career of ease appearH to have obliterated from their minds the troubles of their generous fore&thers, who, for thenoy bled in every vein— for them, were censigned to the devouring flames in every part of the country ; preparing and establishing for their descendants, by the sacrifice of themselves, political and religious liberty. And while we behold, with gratitude and admiration, the effects of their noble self-devotion, let us thence learn to appreciate those blessings which, by the continued providence of God, we Ikave so long enjoyed ; and let us be confirmed more and more in our determination to resist every ettempt, whetber by open force or secret fraud, to deprive us and our descendants of the privileges bo dearly purcliased.

" It has been asserted by the Roman Catholics, ' That all those who suffered death, during the reign of queen Mary, had been ad- judged guilty of high treason, in consequence of their rising in defence of lady Jane Grey's title to the crown.' To disprove this, however, is no difficult matter, since every one conversant in Eng- lish history must know, that those who are found guilty of high treason are to be hanged and quartered. But how can even « Papiiit affirm, that ever a man in England was burned for high trea-

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BOOK 09 MA.KTYR8. 519

son ? We fkdmit, that some few suffered death in the ordinary way of process at common law, for their adherence to lady Jane ; but none of those were burned. Why, if traitors, were they taken beforv the bishops, who have no power to judge in criminal cases ? Even allowing the bishops to have had power to judge, yet their bloody statute did not empower them to execute. The proceedings against the martyrs are still extant, and they are carried on directly accord- ing to the forms prescribed by their own statute. Not one of those who were burned in England was ever accused of high treason, much less were they tried at common law. And this should teaeh the reader to value a history of transactions in his own country, particularly as it relates to the sufferings of the blessed martyrs in defence of the religion he professes, in order that he may be able to remove the veil which falsehood has cast over the face of truth. Having said thus much, by way of introduction, we shall proceed with the Acts and Monuments of the British Martyrs.

'' By the death of king Edward the crown devolved, according to law, on his elder sister. Mary, who was within half a day's journey to the court, when she had notice given her by the earl of Arundel of her brother's death, and of the patent for lady Jane's succession. Upon this she retired to Framlingham, in Suffolk, to be near the, sea, that she might escape to Flanders, in case of necessity. Before she an-ived there, she wrote, on the 9th of July, to the council, telling them, that ' she understood, that her brother was dead, by which she succeeded to the crown, but wondered that she heard not from them ; she well understood what consultation they had engaged in, but she would pardon all such as would return to their duty, and proclaim her title to the crown.' -

«< It was now found, that the king's death could be no longer kept a secret ; accordingly some of the privy council went to lady Jane, and acknowledged her as their queen. The news of the king's death afflicted her much, and her being raised to the throne rather in- creased than lessened her trouble. She was a person of extraordinary abilities, acquirements, *and virtues. She was mistress both of the Greek and Latin tongues, and delighted much in study. Ab she was not tainted with the levities which usually accompany her age and station, so she seemed to have attained to the practice of the highest fortitude ; for in those sudden turns of her condition, as she was not exalted with the prospect of a crown, so she was little cast down, when her palace was made her prison. The only passion she shewed was that of the noblest kind, in the concern she expressed for her father and husband, who fell with her, and seemingly on her account; though, in reality, 14 orthamberland's ambition and her father's weakness ruined her.

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<' She reacted the erown, when it was firat offered her ; ebe taM^ die knew that of right it beloi^ed to the late king's aisten^ an4 therefore could not with a ge<»d conscience assntne its but Ae waa toldy that both the jadgee and pri? y connseUora had deelaredi that it fell to her according to laiw. This* joined with the lililKirtiinitiM oC her hnabandy her fitther, and &ther-in-law, made her submit. Upon this, twenty-one prity counsellors set their hands to a letter to Xary^ telling her that queen Jane waa now their soYereign, and that aa tha marriage between her father and mother had been declared nnll^ so ^le ooakl not succeed to the crown; they therefore requhwd her to lay down her preteaslonS| and to submit to the settlement now made ; and if she gave a ready obedience, promised her mneh favour* The day after this they proclaimed Jane.

'< Northumberland's known enmity to the late doke of Somaraet, and the suspicions of his being the author of Bdward*s untimely de^th, begot a great aversion in the people to him and his limily, and dispoeed them to fevour Mary $ who, in the meantime, was very active in raising forces to support her claim. To attaeh the Pro^ testants to her cause, she promised not to make any change in the reformed worship, as establithed under her brother ; and on this assurance a large body of the men of Sufblk joined her standanL

'< If orthumberknd waa now perpleted between his wish to asauma the command of an army raised to oppose Mary, and his fear of leaving Loadoo to the government of the ooaneil, of whose fidelity be entertained great doubts. He was, however, at length obliged to adopt the latter coarse, uid before his departure from the metropoUsi be at^nred the members of the oouncil, and all persona in anthorityy to be steadfiist in their attachment to the cause of queen Jane, on whose success, he assured them, depended the continuance of the Protestant religion in England. They promised all ha required, and he departed, encouraged by their protestations and apparent aeaL

'* Mary's party in the mean time continQed dimy to augment* HastiDgs went over to her with 4000 men out of BudLiaghamshire^ and she was proclaimed queen in many plaees. At length the privy cooneil began to see their danger, and to tidnk bow to avoid it ; and besides fears for their personal safety, other motives opwated with many of the members. To make their escape from the Tovrer, where they were detained, ostensibly to give dignity te the court of queeft Jane» but really as prisoners, they pretended it was necessary to give an audience to the foreign ambassadors, who would not meet thena fh the Tower ; and the mtk of Pembrokels house was appointed §» theandienoe*

^< When they met there they resolved to dedare 1w qaaea Marj, and rid themselves of Northumberhmd's yoke^ ^rtiieh th^ knew tbaf

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BOOK OF MABJYMS. SH

mmt hear, if he were victorious. They sent for the lord mayor and aldermen^ and easily gained their concurrence ; and Mary was pro- claimed queen on the 19th of July. They then sent to the Tower« requiring the duke of Suffolk to quit the government of that place, •ud the lady Jane to lay down the title of queen. To this she sub*^ mitted with much greatness of mind« and her iather with abjectness.

'* The council next sent orders to Northumberland to dismiss his forces, and to obey the queen. When Northumberland heard this^ he disbanded his forces, went to the mai'ket-place at Cambridge^ where he then was, and proclaimed Mary as quean. The earl of Arundel was sent to apprehend him, and when Northumberland was brought before him, he, in the most servile manner, fell at his feet to beg his favour. He, with three of his sons, and Sir Thomas Pakner (his wicked tool in the destruction of the duke of Somerset), were aU sent to the Tower.

** Every one now flocked to implore the queen's favour, and Ridley among the rest, but he was committed to the Tower ; the queen being resolved to put Bonner again in the see of London. Some ci the judges, and several noblemen, ware also sent thither, among the rest the duke of Suffolk ; who was, three days after, set at liberty. He was a weak man, could do little harm, and was consequently selected as the first person towards whom the queen should exert her clemency.

<* M ary came to London on the drd of August, and 6u the way waa mec by her sister, lady Elizabeth, with a thousand horse, whom she had raised to assist the queen. On arriving at the Tower, she liberated the Duke of Noifolk, the duchess of Somerset, and Gardiner ; also the lord Courtney, son to the marquis of Exeter, who had been kepi there ever since his father's attainder, and whom she now made earl of Devonshire.

« Thus was seated on the throne of England the lady Mary, who, to a disagreeable person and weak mind, united bigotry, superstition, and cruelty. She seems to have inherited more of her mother's than her father's qualities. Henry was impatient, rough, and ungovern- able ; but Catherine, while she assumed the character of a saint, harboured inexorable rancour and hatred against the Protestants. It was the same vrith her daughter Mary, as appears fi'om a letter in her own handwriting, now in the British Museum. In this letter, which is addressed to bishop Gardiner, she declares her fixed inten- tion of burning every Protestant ; and there is an insinuation, that as soon as circumstances would permit, she would restore back to the church the lands that had been taken from the convents. This was the greatest instance of her weakness that she could shew : for in the fli'st place the convents had been all demolished, except a few of their

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charchet; and the rents were in the hands of the first nobility, who, rather than part with them, would have overturned the ^vemment both in church and state.

"Mary was crowned at Westminster in the usual form; but dreadful were the consequences that followed. The narrowness of spirit which always distin^ishes a weak mind from one that has been enlarge by education, pervaded all the actions of this princes. Unacquainted with the constitution of the country, and a slave to superstition, she thought to domineer over the rights of private judgment, and trample on the privileges of mankind. The first exertion of her regal power was to wreak her vengeance upon all who had supported the title of lady Jane Grey.

'' The first of these was the duke of Northumberland, whu was beheaded on Tower-hill, and who, in consequence of his crimes, arising from ambition, died unpitied ; nay, he was even tauntod on the scaffold by the spectators, who knew in what manner be had acted to the good duke of Somerset.

*' The other executions that followed were numerous indeed, bnt as they were all upon the statute of high treason, they cannot, with any degree of propriety, be applied to Protestants, or, as tbey were then called, heretics. The parliament was pliant enough to cooaply with all the queen's requests, and an act passed to establish the Popish religion. This was what the queen waited for, and power being now put into her hands, she was determined to exercise it in the most arbitary manner. She was destitute of human compassion, and without the leasi reluctance could tyrannize over the consciences of men.

'*This leads us to the conclusion of the first year of her reign; and we consider it the more necessary to take notice of these trans- actions, although not, strictly speaking, martyrdoms, that our readers might be convinced of the great difference there is between dying for religion and for high treason. It is history alone that can teach them such things, and it is reflection only that can make history useful. We frequently read without reflection, and study without considera- tion ; but the following portions of our history, in particular, will furnish ample materials for serious thought to our readers, and we entreat their attention to them."

This account is in part emitted from the pericraniiims of the modem editors, and in other part selected from the Abridgment of Bumefs History. The exordium is genuine, and a delectahle specimen of Protestant veracity it is. The attention of British Protestants is called to '< a period of their

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church history that cannot fail to awaken in their hearts that love for their ancestors, which at present [they say] we fear, lies dormant in too many." Yes, we helieve it ; the " de- vouring flames " so long fanned hy lying historians hegin to smoulder, and we are happy to say there is not an appearance that any efforts of higotry will succeed in rekindling the dying emhers. The modem editors talk of the sacrifices made by their ancestors in favour of political and religious liberty ; but where are we to go for proofs of this spirit of patriotism ? If we look into the pages of history, we see nothing but factious contentions and persecutions of the weaker by the stronger party. We see the church-ascendancy party perse- cuting those who dissent from her ; we see the Puritan covenanters breathing nothing but fire and fury against church of England men ; then the Independents succeeded and persecuted the Puritans ; while the poor Papists were the victims of every faction. If we examine the statute book, we shall find that penal laws kept increasing in every succeed- ing reign ; and as every penal law must be a restriction on the freedom of every one affected by it, the share of liberty now enjoyed by Englishmen is merely nominal, and therefore it is no wonder that they are so backward in listening to the warwhoop of hot-headed fanatics. The sensible Protestant is not now to be deluded by the empty boastings of imaginary blessings under a Protestant system, which takes away more than one-third of the profits of the labourer to bestow them upon a set of lazy and wealthy sinecurists, pensioners, and half-pay officers, composed in a great measure of the sons of parsons and bastards of the nobility. He ha-s now no relish for that system which upholds a rich and idle clergy in some measure without flocks, and careless whether those that re- main secede to some neighbouring dissenting congregation. He is too well aware that the blessings which the Catholic labourer really enjoyed before the Keformation are never tasted by him, since he has to plod and toil every day to increase the luxuries of others, whereas the Catholic, having only to labour for himself and his family, did not want to toil

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inoessautly ihrdugh ^xb week^ b)A hfid Im^utot dflj& of re*» which weire tpeiit in dof^tioaaHd iterthM ceeveaftion. Undat- these ekvumstftnoes) when s^n iti these 4aj« talk «f {irivi- leged 4eari J puMhased, and p(re8emng them iE^dnlt £>roe or irmd^ tliey akould have Ike 4eoenc>j to teU m what privUegee «ve ^j«;jed, and likelj to be wrested from dieoi ; when thejr are to be found* and by whom Wd.

The od^tord next tdl nsi <^ It has been asserted hj the Roman Catholics, ' That all those who suffwed deaths daiiag iht reign of queen Mary, had been adjudged gufltj of Jdgh treason, in oonseqnenee of their miug in defenee of lady Jane Grey's title to the arowa ;' " and th£^ then proceed to prove the falsity <of tins asserlton by eome oufMbs logieL But the etaAemeot is itself /al$6t and theirefore reqidres no refutation. Wl^ did they not naim the Catholic who made the aaaerti^m ? Beoa«uie thegr coidd net* Again^ th^ s^y : '' Not one of those who were burned iu Eeglaad was ever accused oi high treteoii» much Jess wtere they triad at oom* mon law." Now this is another barefaced falsehood^ :for the most prominent character who su^ared^ and of ^^hom we ahall have to si^ much hereafter^ naaen^^y, Totei Qranmer, was not only Htcm&d of high treason> but Was actually irisd and condemned &r that erifM, on the 14th of Se^ember, i55iy according to the testimony of Dr. EJeylixu Ridley wab aent to the Tower also on lite same charge. So much for ihlb Accuracy of the modem editors^

Before we enter into tlie transactions <A lius short but interesting reign, we must nolace another vile insinuation which the modem editors have cast on the memoiy of Mary's mother, the unfortunate but magnanimous Catharine. De« scribing, or rather professing to describe, the qualities of Mary, these unfeeling bigots say : << She seems to hato inherited more of her mother's than her Other's qualkiee. Henqr was impatient, roughs and ungovernable [fine qualities for a Protestant pope]; but Catharine, while she assumed the character of a saint, hai'bottred inexorable rancour Mid hatred against the Protestants, It was the same with her dao^ter

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Marj> aB appeovs ftom » leMssr ia ber iiwa bandwritrDg, now in the Bvkish MoseuiD. la Mb letter, wbieb is addressed to Yishoip GardSner, she dedaves herded tnteHtion of burning evmy Ph>tBslianL'^ Whai unblas^ng aesertors ef falsehood ! We xm^t have rapposedf l^mt the lies we h»re^ detected fronf the writing of Fbx and Burnet would httm eontented these modem editers^ without adding diabolical inrenliens ef their own^ which stand refuted l^ eyexj historian of credit and respectability. But what can be expeeted ft*om men, who, in their preface to this B00h ofLiee, thus speaks of our Heview of it. <♦ But a few weeks/' they say, '* had elapsed from our first pul^catio», when the enemies of the Protestant religion, alairmed at the sensation created by our work, set their usual engines in motion, and announced a Revufyr, of what i^j anac pkased to. term it^t S(mk oflAw. Accordingly, in due time, thisnotobla pei-feitaance made kc( appearasee; and al:tlioqgh itis^ aa nsight be expected, a mass of Tulgar abnse> gross perrersion, bareikoed f^E^sehoods, and unsupported asser* troiuv yet, such is die inftoence exercised by the Popish priests o^r the. deluded and ignorant creatures whom ^ey pretend to teachp titat the publication sHll continues, and a sufficient number are disposed of ia def^y the expenses, and to pay the wages of the mism^e ha^ who puts tegetiier this farragor of trac^, destined (as he modesify says) to en^

** It may naturally be inquured, if l^is book be so utteiiy unworthy, how does it meeA witli pmrchasers? To tfiis we reply, those who purchase it, ta:e^ ecmpelkdix> do so; it is a kind ofaoeoffuiih^ enjoined by thepriestsv and, of oourse, submitted to by their fiscks^ with the same willingnefls (tboi^h with Uses' pleasure) a» they would, had they the power, perform a real) Inqutsitorial^ttA) daFS, iff which the editors of the Booh ofMkrt^ should be eon^gned to the &mes>^ amidst* the savage y^ngs of thebigotted andi in^ furiated multitude ! That the. sale of <he Review among these poor creatures arises from a notion of its being neees*- seryfer tho|)re8er?ationofitheir souls from purgatoiy, and not

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from ^ny poedibility of amusement or instruction to be de- rived from its perusal, is evident from the fact, that ihree- fourtha of its ' inlightened ' purchasers ar^ not su£Scient1j skilful to read it; and of the remaining fourth, if ten per- sons were to come forward and swear that thej had read this erudite performance through, we should certainly suspect that the dispensing power of his ' Holiness ' had been exerted to relieve their consciences from the guilt oi perjury. We have ourselves tried to wade through it, and are confident that it would be almost impossible to persevere through two pages, such is the soporific dulness of the matter, were it not that the attention is ever and anon aroused by a daring excursion beyond the bounds of truth, or, to speak in plain terms, a shameless and outrageous falsehood! Sincerely do we pity those who can be imposed on by so gross an imposture ; and we consider ourselves, and the cause we have espoused, doubly honoured by this attack; for while the abuse. and impotent malignity levelled at our work, from such a quarter, is its highest eulogium, the countenance a£fbrded to our adversary by the Papist, is the best proof of the veracity of our asser- tions as to the ignorance and besotted bigotry of the present, as well as former, professors of that belief. This is ihefir^ and last notice we shall ever take of this work, although we are personally abused in almost every one of its pages. The intolerant and malignant spirit displayed throughout the whole should be an additional inducement to Protestants to guard a^inst the possibility of power being intrusted to such per- sons as the patrons of the Review,**

We have here a specimen of the sectarian art of lying, only to be equalled by the gullibility of those who give cre- dence to such monstrous assertions. Are the editors and publishers— are the patronizers of such outrageous violations of common sense and decency — in sane mind ? Or are they not rather fit candidates for Bedlam? To diarge us with ** personally** abusing anonymous scribblers is paying no great compliment to the sapiency of their readers ; and to assert that ihree- fourths of * the purchasers of our Beviern

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cannot read it, and those who can do not, though they con- tinue to encourage it, is stretching even heyond the capacity of Munchausen. But the priests compel them to puichase ! Do they, and for what ? Merely for the sake, we suppose, of paying us wages for rendering no service, since no one, ac- cording to their account, reads the Review. Admiral logi- cians ! you have here shewn your capacity for the trade of falsehood not to be surpassed by Fox himself, and from our hearts we pity, most sincerely do we pity, those poor deluded mortals, whose want of penetration and blind credu- lity subject them to such gross and abominable impositions. But we must return to the subject from which we have digressed. The ill-fated Catharine, the modem editors say, '' harboured inexorable rancour and hatred against the Pro- testants ! " Base libellers of a suffering queen and virtuous woman ! where is your authority for this infamous accusation ? Even Burnet stands to confront you in this falsehood, for he says " she was a devout and exemplary woman ; " that '^ she used to work with her own hands, and kept her women at work with her ; '' that she practised severities and devotions, and gave almsdeeds ; and that all sorts of people had a high esteem of her ; and you have acknowledged his testimony in the preceding pages of your work. Catharine had too many misfortunes to afflict her, and was too helpless in her situation, to gratify the rancour you charge her with, had she even entertained it ; but this charge springs from the malice and rancour of your own hearts against Papists and Popery, which is manifest in every line of your work. Again, we ask you on what authority do you state that there is a letter in the handwriting of Mary, deposited in the British Museum, in which she declares her fixed intention of burning every Pro- testant ? By whom Was it deposited ? Who vouches for the handwriting ? To whose possession can it be traced before the Museum obtained possession of it ? These questions must be answered, modem editors, before the sensible part of the community will believe you; but this you will never do, because it is out of your power. . Anticipating these awkward

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difficulties, you "fery wisely announce in yotrr prefece that the only notice you will take of the detections of your base false* hoods is the rodomontade we have just quoted. But if Mary was so firmly fixed in her cruel intentions towards Ph}te8tant8; how came Burnet to tell us that she dedared in council, on t1ie 22i3d of August, 1553, ♦" that Aongh she was fixed in her own religion, TBT site would kot compel othees to IT ; -but would leave that to the motions of God's spiiit, and the Mours of good preacherz?^ This does not look like ** a ffxed intention of burning every Protestant." That Mary had •* more of her mother's than her fiather^b qualities *' we do not deny ; but they were qualities the very opposite to those which are imputed to her by the modem editors. We know that Protestants have been taught from their infancy to look upon this princess as a woman of sanguinary disposition^ and we never hear her name pronounced without the epithet of *' bloody *' prefixed to it ; but we shall shew that Protes- tant historians, who, having soared above the vulgar preju- dices of education, have calmly considered the circnmstances of her reign, have done justice to her memory. Collier, in Ms Ecclesiastical Bistory, says : " It may be affirmed, withont panegyric, th^t the queen's private Iffe was ail along strait and' unblemished. It must be said that religion had the overbalance : the other world was uppermost wJlJi her, anxl she valued her conscience more than her crown..,. That she was not of a vindictive rmplacaible spirit may be inferred from her pardoning most of the grea<? men in Northumberhmd'a rebellion."— Tof. ir. b. 6. p. 400. Camden, m his introAic- tion ft) the j^nals of Qixeen BHzc^sth, writes : " A princess never to be sufficiently commended for her pious and religious demeanour, her commfeeration towards the poor, and her magnificence and liberality towards the nobility and church- men."— p. 10. Echard' says : ** She was a woman of a strict and severe Kb : who allttwed herself ffew of those diversfDns

belonging to courts : was constant' at her devotions, &c

She much end^vonred to expiate and restore the sacrH^es of the two last? reigns."— p. 327. Firil'er/in his CAw^ch

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History f states, that ^ She hated to equiyooate in her own religion ; and always was what she was, without dissembling her judgment or practice for fear or flattery*... She had been * a worthy princess, had as little cruelty been done under her as was done by her,"— B.xiii. p. 42. Baker, in his Chronicle^ says : " We shall not do her right, if we deny her to he of a merciful disposition, seeing oftentimes she pitied the person where she shed the blood.'* With these testimonies in her favour, let the reader decide between Mary and the b^kse libbers of her character. We shall now proceed to detail some of the most prominent events in her reign, which the modem editors have carefully and craftily suppressed ; and when the reader has gone over our account, he will be able to say whether Mary was '* unacquainted with the constitu- tion of the country," or whether she was not one of the most constitutional sovereigns that ever reigned over this once happy and Catholic country.

The reader has been already apprized of the design of Dudley, duke of Korthumberland, to set aside the two sisters of' the young king Edward, and get the lady Jane Grey, the wife of his son, lord Dudley, exalted to the throne. This young lady was daughter to the duke of Suffolk, who was the son of Mary, sister to Henry VIII., by Charles Brandon, whom she married on the death of her husband, Louis XII., king of France, and who was afterwards created duke of Suffolk. The pretext for transferring the crown from the rightful heir to that of a. pretender was that of religion, it being well known that Mary was rigidly attached to the Ca- tholic faith, and the chief reformers therefore saw that if she came to the throne there was little chance for them to come off scot &ee. Accordingly, they worked upon the feelings of the young and weakly sovereign and prevailed upon him to sign an instrument, whereby the crown was conferred upon lady Jane, contrary to the constitutional privileges <^ parlia- ment, which was not consulted <m the occasion. The young king did not live more than a fortnight after signing this instrument, and every means were used to teep his death

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secret till Northumberland had got his projects into proper training ; but in this they were frustrated, as on the very night while the lords were sitting in council, the princess Mary was informed of the event, as well as the intentions of the con- spirators. She was then at Hoddesdon, in the neighbourhood of London, and without losing a moment she mounted her horse and rode with her household servants to Kenninghally in Norfolk. On the fourth day after the king's death, the same was announced to lady Jane, who was conveyed to the Tower in full state, and the next day proclaimed queen. The people heard the proclamation with silence : a vintner's boy had the hardihood to give his dissent, and the next day he lost his ears for his folly. The morning following, a letter from the princess Mary was delivered to the council, in which she assumed the style and dignity of the sovereign, reproached them with witholding from her the intelligence of her brother's death, intimated that she was acquainted with their disloyal intentions to oppose her rights, and commanded them to proclaim her accession to the throne immediately. This letter was dated from Kenninghall, the 9th of July, 1553; but the document seemed to give the traitors no uneasiness : they looked upon themselves safe, as Mary was but a single and defenceless woman, but they reckoned with- out their host. To this letter the lords in council returned an insulting answer, in which they upbraided her with illegiti- macy, and called upon her to submit to their and her lawful sovereign, lady queen Jane, and abandon her fabe claim. This answer, the reader must bear in remembrance, was signed, in the first instance, by the hoary and lecherous old scoundrel, Tom Cranmer, and twenty other members of the council.

While these traitorous proceedings were concerting in the council, a different turn of affairs was going on abroad. The people knew nothing of lady Jane, but were not ignorant of the princess Mary and her rights. They hated Northom* berland for his ambition, and there were strong suspicions that he had^poisoned the young king to make way for his

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daughter-in-law, who eventuallj might be made to yield the crown to the aspiring duke. The yerj day on which they sent their insolent letter to Mary, intelligence reached the council, that she had been joined by some of the nobility, and that the gentry and people of the neighbouring counties of her residence were flocking round her standard. This put the conspirators into dreadful alarm, and Northumberland found himself sadly perplexed. He saw the necessity of making head against Mary ; but how could he leave the capital, where his presence was necessary to secure the fidelity of his colleagues. They, on the other hand, wished to gain a point of safety in case of a reverse of fortune. Northum- berland proposed that the duke of Suffolk should command the forces destined against Mary, while the secret partisans of that princess urged the propriety of Northumberland's taking the command upon himself, as the most proper t)f the two, in consequence of bis great skill, valour and good fortune. NorthumbeHand found himself constrained to consent, though reluctantly, and he took leave of his colleagues with a heavy heart. As he rode through the city at the head of his troops, he found the street thronged with people, but heard no excla- mations for success, on which he despondently remarked to Sir John Gates : ** The people crowd to look upon us ; but not one says, God speed ye ! "

From the outset of these doings, Northumberland suspected the fidelity of the citizens of London, and therefore, before his departure, he requested the assistance of the preachers, and exhorted them to appeal from the pulpit in favour of the reformed faith and lady Jane's cause. " By no one," writes Dr. Lingard, " was the task performed with greater zeal than by Ridley, bishop of London, who, on the following Sunday, preached at St. Paul's Cross before the lord mayor, the alder- men, and a numerous assemblage of the people. He main- tained that the daughters of Henry VIII. were, by the illegitimacy of their birth, excluded from the succession. He contrasted the opposite characters of the present competitors, Uie gentleness, the piety, the orthodoxy, of the one, with the

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liaughtinei», the foreign connectioDS, and the Popish ereed, gi the other. As a proof of Mary's higotry, he narrated a chivahrous hut unsuccessful attempt which he had made within the last year, to withdraw her from the errors of Popery : and, in conclusion y he conjured the audience^ as they prized the pure light of the gospel, to supp<Hli the cause of the lady Jane, and to oppose the claim of her idolatrous rival. But the torrent of his eloquence was poured in vain." As Ridley's attempt to make a convert of the princess Mary, which he here alludes to in his sermon, is not without interest, we insert it for the amusement of the reader, who will not fail to per- ceive the mental superiority of Mary over the apostate prelate. " Eidley waited on Mary, September 8, 1562, and was courteously received. After dinner, he offered to preach before her in the church. She begged him to mi^e the answer himself. He urged her again : she replied, that he might preach ; but that neither she, nor any of hers, would hear him. Ridley : ' Madam, I trust you will not refuse God's wwd.' Mary : * I cannot tell what you call God's word. That is not God's word now which was God's word in my father's time.' Ridley : * God's word is all one in all times ; but is better understood and practised in some ages than in others.' Mary : • You durst not for your ears have preached that for God*s word in my father's time, which you do now. As for your new books, thank God, I never read them, I never did, nor ever will do.' Soon afterwards she dismissed him with these words: ' My lord, for your gentle- ness to come and see me, I thank you ; but for your offer to preach before me, I thank you not.' As he retired, he drank, according to custom, with Sir Thomas Wharton, the steward of her household ; but suddenly his conscience smote him : * Surely,' he exclaimed, ' I have done wrong. I have drunk in that house in which Gt)d's word hath been refused. I ought, if I had done my duty, to have shaken the dust off my shoes for a testimony against this house.' " — (Fox, ii. 131.) Northumberland, before his departure, requested and obtained a commission, signed and sealed by the lords of the

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council, at the head of which was Cranmer, in which were certain instructions, and the marches laid out and limited irom one to another. Thus fortified, NorUiumherland set out for St. Edmund's Bury, where, instead of hearing of the sup- plies that were to he se^t him, he received letters from some of the lords of the council, full of trouhle and discomfort, which placed him hetween hope and despair. In the mean time, the princess Mary was not idle. She unexpectedly left Eenninghall for the castle of Framlingham, in Suffolk, a distance of forty miles, which she rode without rest. Here, in a few days, she found herself surrounded hy more than thirty thousand men, all volunteers in her cause, who refused to receive pay, and served, to their immortal honour, through the sole motive of loyalty. An attempt has heen made by Fox and the modem editors to stain Mary's character with having forfeited her word, but no proof whatever is produ^d to substantiate the charge. The latter say : *' To attach the Protestants to her cause, she promised not to majke any altera- tion in the reformed worship, as established under her brother ; and, on this assurance, a large body of men of Suf- folk joined her standard." This is another of the countless lies to be found in this mass of falsehoods. By the most unquestionable authority, it appears that Mary made no such promise. Dr. Heylin makes the earl of Arundel, in his speech to the lords of the council, thus allude to this matter : " Yet how doth it appear that the princess Mary intends any . alteration in religion ? Certainly, having been lately petitioned to on this point by the Suffolk men, she gave them a very Twpeful answer.'* Here then it is clear there was no distinct promise made on the part of the queen, and therefore she could not be guilty of a breach of her word. Nay, Fox him- self, like all other liars, bears witness to the falsity of his own statement. ** During the persecution," observes Dr. Lingard, in a note to Mary's reign, *' these very persons presented to the queen's commissioners a long petition in favour of their religion. It was certainly the time for them to have urged' <^e promis^, if any had been given. But they appear to have

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no knowledge of any such thing. They do not make the remotest alhision to it. They speak, indeed, of their services : but instead of attributing them to the promise of the queen, they insinuate the contrary, by asserting that they supported her claim, because their religion taught them to support the rightful heir."— (i?bd?, iii. 578-583.) Mr. Collier remarks : '* If they engaged upon condition, and articled with their sovereign, their caution went too far. For either she had a right, or she had none : if she had none, their correspondence was criminal ; if they believed she had a right, they ought »o have run the risk of her government and served her without terms, and rested the event with Providence.'^ From all this testimony it is evident that Mary did not commit ha*8^, but that she intended to leave all these matters to the wisdom and deliberation of parliament, as we shall hereafter shew.

This disposition of the people alarmed Northumberland and made him irresolute. The lords of the council too were by no means easy at the progress of Mary's cause. On the 18th of July, it was resolved to send for a body of mercenary slaves, raised in Picardy, and to levy troops in the vicinity of the metropolis ; but these measures were found too tardy, and on the day following, Mary was proclaimed queen at St. Patd's Cross, amidst the acclamations of the people, which drowned the voice of the herald. Thus ended the nine days' reign of lady Jane Grey. The lords of the council now sent an order to Northumberland to disband his forces and acknowledge Mary for his sovereign, but the duke had taken the only part which prudence suggested to save himself. He was at this time at Cambridge, and, sending for the vice-chancellor^ ho proceeded to the market-place, where, with tears running down his cheeks, he proclaimed Mary sovereign of England, and threw his cap into the air in token of joy. The next morning the duke was arrested by the earl of Arundel, on a charge of high treason, together with several of hb associates, and conducted to the Tower. So incensed were the people at their disloyalty, that it required a strong guard to protect them from their vengeance. Bonfires, lUuminatiohs, and all

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the customaiy. demonstrations of public joj took place on the accession of Mary to the throne of her ancestors. On her public entrance into the metropolis^ accompanied by her sister Elizabeth, their ears were stunned with the acclamations of the people, and when they entered the Tower, they found kneeling on the green, as state prisoners, the duchess of Somerset (widow of the late lord protector), the duke of Nor- folk, the son of the late marquis of Exeter, and Gardiner, the depriyed bishop of Winchester. The prelate pronounced a congratulatory address, and Mary was moved to tears. She bade them rise, and haying kissed them, she set them at liberty. The same day she ordered a distribution of eight- pence to every poor householder in the city. Of the prisoners before mentioned, there were twenty- seven for trial ; namely, the dukes of Suffolk and Northumberland ; the marquis of Northampton ; the earls of Huntingdon and Warwick ; the lords Robert^ Henry ^ Ambrose, and Guilford Dudley (sons of Northumberland) ; the lady Jane Dudley Grey (the pre- tended queen, and daughter of S\i£folk) ; the archbishop of Canterbury (old Cranmer) ; the bishops oi London (Ridley) find Ely: the lords Ferrers^ Clinton^ and Cohham ; the judges Montaguey and Chomely, and the chancellor of tlie augmentations ; sirs Andrew Dudley, John Gates, Henry Gates, Henry Palmer, John Cheke, John TorJce, and Thomas Palmer ; and Dr. Cocks. When the list was given to the queen, she struck out all the names in italics, and reduced the number from twenty-seven to eleven, which act of mercy cannot surely be construed into cruelty and vindictiveness of temper. Of the eleven thus left to be put upon their trial only seven were immediately tried : these were the duke of Northumberland, the chief contriver of the plot ; the earl of W^arwick, his son ; the marquis of Northampton, sir John Gates, sir Henry Gktes, sir Andrew Dudley, and sir Thomas Palmer, who had been Northumberland's principal counsellors and constant associates. Though urged to include the lady Jane Grey, who had been her rival, Mary would not listen to the proposal, and even undertook her defence, contending

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that she was not an accomplice of NorUiumberiancl, but merely a puppet in his hands. Neither was the hoary old toaitor, Cranmer, who had been the instrument of diTorcing Mary's mother, had assisted to illegitimate the daughter, and afterwards did all he could to deprire her of the crown, included among the seven ; an astonishing instance of the lenity of Mary's disposition, and how much she acted on the charitable principles of that religion to which she was stead- fostly fixed, and for which she had already suffered perseoution herself.

On the 1 8th of August, the three noblemen, Northumber- land, Warwick and Northampton, were brought before their peers, and pleaded guilty; the first petitioned that mercy might be extended to his children, and requested an able divine to prepare him for death, and that he might be allowed to confer with two lords of the council on certidn secrets of state, which had come to his knowledge while he was prime minister. To these requests Mary assented. The four commoners also pleaded guilty, but only Nortbumberiand, Sir John Gates, and Sir Henry Palmer were ordered for execution. On the morning of their execution they attended a solemn mass, and were afterwards led out to the scaffold. The modem editors say that Northumberland died unpitied ; nay, that '^ he was even taunted on the scaffold by the specta- tors, who knew in what mfinner he had acted to the ffood duke of Somerset." From whom they borrowed this tale they do not tell us ; we conjecture it to be an invention of theit own. Bapin, a CaJvinist writer, speaks very strongly of the unpopularity of the duke for hb haughtiness and cruelty, but ' we do not see any statement of his being taunted by the people at his death. That he was generally disliked there can be no doubt, and it is stated by Stow and Br. Heylki, that when he and his fellow sufferers were on the way to execution, some words arose between them, each laying the blame of theur treason on the other; but afterwards tliej forgave each other, and died in mutual charity. That the modem editors have violated the truth we think is maxaSmt,

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as all historians agree that Northumberland, preyious to suffering, addressed the spectators in a long speech, which he "v^ould not ha?e done had they been in the temper described. After expatiating on the nature of his offence, and acknow- ledging his guilt, he concluded by admonishing the people, '^ to stand to the religion of their ancestoi*s, rejecting that of later date, which had occasioned all the misery of the/ore^ going thirty years; and that for prevention for the future, if they desired to present their souls unspotted in the sight of God, and were truly affected to their coimtry, they should expel those trumpets of sedition, the preachers of the re- formed 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 con- tented to make a wreck of his conscience by temporising, for which he professed himself a sincere repentant, and so ac- knowledged the justice of his death.*' Thus fell the duke of Northumbeiiand, another of the great actors in the tragedy of the Beformation. By Protestants his declaration as to religion is looked upon with suspicion; by Catholics his previous life is looked upon with detestation. He was the eldest son of that Dudley, who, with Empson, pillaged and oppressed the people under Henry VII., for which crimes they suffered under Henry YIII., and here we have the son of the first offender meeting an untimely end under Mary, the daughter of the last Henry, under strong suspicions of having poisoned the son of his greatest benefactor and sove- reign. Heylin remarks, that though this duke had six sons^ all of them living to be men, and all of them married, yet not one of them had lawful issue, as if, saya the doctor, the curse of Jeconiah had been laid upon them.

Sir John Gates and Sir Henry Palmer both addressed the

spectators before they were beheaded. The speech of the

former, relating to bible reading, which is now the favourite

project of the silly fjonatics of the day, we will here give from

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Stow, and recommend it to the carefdl perosat of those who are advocates for the indiscriminate circulation o( the bible. Thej will here see the use made of the sacred word in the early dajs of what is called the Reformation, and history points out to us that it has been equally abused down to our own days. " My coming here this day," said Sir John, " is to die; whereof, I assure you all, I am well worthy : for I have liyed as viciously and wickedly as any man hath done in the world. I was the greatest reader of scripture that might be, of a man of my degree; and a worse follower thereof there was not living. For I did not read to be edified thereby, nor to seek the glory of God : but contrari- wise, arrogantly to be seditious, and dispute thereof: and privately to interpret it after my own brain and affection. Whereof, I exhort you all, to beware how, and after what sort you come to read God's holy word. For it is not a trifle, or playing-game, to deal with God*s holy mysteries. Stand not too much in your own conceits. Yor like as a bee of one flower gathers honey, and the spider poison of the same : even so you, unless you humbly submit yourselves to God, and charitably read the same to the intent to be edified thereby, it is to you as poison, and worse ; and it were better to let it alone."

The rest of the prisoners condemned were reprieved, and afterwards pardoned, so that only three individuals suffered the loss of life for this great conspiracy to deprive a princess of her throne. An act of clemency unparalleled in the history of the world, and yet this is the queen only known to Pro- testauts as the ** bloody queeti MaryJ^ On the 3rd of Novem- ber following, the lady Jane Grey, with her husband the lord Guilford Dudley, his brother the lord Ambrose Dudley, and the pliable Tom Cranmer, archbishop of Cant«rb«ry» were brought to trial at the Guildhall, in London, on a charge of high treason, to which they all pleaded guilty, and sub- mitted themselves to the queen's mercy. Sentence was passed upon them as a matter of course, but execution was stayed, and, in all probability, had not the lady Jane's \

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again engaged in an insurrection to dethrone Mary, and Cranmer not issued seditious papers, neither of these prisoners would have been brought to execution. Stow tells us the lady Jane had the liberty of the Tower, to walk in the queen's garden and on the hill ; and the lords Ambrose Dudley and Guilford Dudley had the liberties of the ports where they were lodged. Does this look like a cruel and bloody dis- position ?

We roust return again to the modem editors, who, though they copy in a great measure from Burnet in this account of Mary's reign, have taken care to «wpprc«s every circumstance that would tell against the traitors or in favour of the libelled queen. They say: " Every one now flocked to implore the queen's mercy, and BidUy among the rest, but he was com- mitted to the Tower ; the queen being resolved to put Bonn^ again into the see of London." Burnet is more candid, for he adds, after " he was sent to the Tower ; for she teas both offended with him FOR his sermon, and resolved to put Bon- ner," &c. The words in italics and small capitals, which bear materially on the case, inasmuch as they shew the reason why Ridley was committed, these instructors of Christian know- ledge have wilfully suppressed. They have c^lso omitted in their relation of the " Accession of Mary," the treasonable act of Ridley's preaching against Mary's right to the throne, and calling upon the people to rise in arms to opposeher, and support a pretender. Let us suppose that a Catholic bishop could have been found disloyal enough to have preached against the right of his present majesty to the throne of these realms, and when he found his treasonable practices abortive, throwing himself at the feet of the mcmarch to implore his favour: is any one so stupid as to imagine that he would obtain his request ? Would not the modem editors be the loudest to call for his punishment ? Mary sent Ridley to the Tower certainly, and had he received his deserts, he would have been immediately tried for his treason and sent to the scaffold along with Northumberland and his two associates . But Mary was lenient to the extreme, and to Hm clemency

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of disposition we may attribute much of the inquietude she afterwards suffered in her goremment, as we shall soon prove.

We are next told, that Miairy, on her way to Londony *' was met by her sister, lady Elizabeth, with a thousand horse, whom she had raised to assist the queen" This is stated on the authority of Burnet, but Dr. Lingard gives a different version of Elizabeth's conduct. This able writer says : '' The lady Elizabeth had taken no part in thb contest. To a messenger, indeed, from Northumberland, who offered her a large sum of money, and a valuable grant of lan^ as the price of her voluntary renunciation of all right to the succession, she replied, that she had no right to renounce, as long as her elder sister was living. But, if she did not join tte lady Jane, she did nothing in aid of the lady Mary. Under the excuse of a real or feigned indisposition, she con* fined herself to her chamber, that, whichever pwty proved victorious, she might claim the negative merit of non-resist- ance. Now, however, the contest was at an end ; the new queen approached her capital, and Elizabeth deemed it pru- dent to court the favour of the conqueror. At the head of a hundred and fifty horse, she met her at Aldgate. They rode together in triumphal procession through the streets, which were lined with the difierent crafts in their gayest attire. Every eye was directed towards the royal sisters." So much for the veracity of Burnet and his copyists, as regards the sister of Mary ; we must now point out another base false- hood, the invention of the modem editors, to injure the charac- ter of the queen. Alluding to the death of Northumber- land, they say : " The other executions that followed were numerous indeed, but as they were all upon the statute of ' high treason, they cannot with any degree of proprie^ be applied to Protestants, or, as they were then called, here- tics," Of the persons engaged in the conspiracy to prevent Mary from ascending the throne, only the three before named were brought to execution, on her gaining the crown. All the others were either set at liberty or reprieved ; no mxxe

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blood was shed during the first year of her reign, nor until a rebellion had been set on foot by the father of the late pre- tender, lady Jane, and Sir Thomas Wyat, which had nearly cost Mary her crown and liberty too. But of this affair we shall haTe to treat more largely as we proceed. The modem editors would have their readers believe the whole reign of Mary was one of bloodshed and cruelty, whereas there were, as we have before said, only three executed in her first year, and there is every reason to believe, if the reformers had not been guilty of sedition and rebellion, that no more would have suffered during her whole reign.

proofs of Mary's tolerant disposition, and

THE restless, SEDITIOUS ' SPIRIT OF THE FANATICAL REFORMERS.

We agree with the modem editors, that there is a very great difference " between dying for religion »id for high treason,'^ That " it is history alone that can teach them [their readers} such things, and it is reflection alone that can make history useful." But when we speak of history, we mean a plain and honest narration of FACT&, not a jumble of LIES and misrepresentations, such as these modem editors have dressed up from Fojc and Burnet ; perverting circumstances to mislead their readers, and suppressing othei^ to prevent them from coming to a ckar conviction of the truth. This is not history, and reflections on such produc- tions only increase the mischief, by poisoning, instead of instmcting, the mind. The editors of this Book of Martyrs say : " Mary was crowned at Westminster in the usual form, but dreadful were the consequences that followed. The narrowness of spirit which always distinguishes a weak mind from one that has been enlarged ^ by education^ per- vaded all the actions of this princess. Unacquainted with the cofistitution of the country, and a slave io superstition, she sought to domineer over the rights of private judgment, and trampU on the privilege of mankind. The first ezer'^ tion of her regal power was^ to wreak vengeance upon all

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those who had supported the title of lady Jane Grej." And this, we suppose, these learned instructors of iheir readers call history. This is the sort of stuff that is to teach them the differenoe between dying for rdigion [read fanaticism] and high treason. Bless us I how wonderfully wise must that generation be that has to rely solely upon this kind of infor- mation for reflection to become useful members of society ! We do not recollect meeting, even in this production of lies, such a string of falsehoods in so small a compass. If Mary did wreak her vengeance on all those who supported lady Jane, it must be admitted that her vengeance was soon satis- fied, and partook more of mercy than of rancour. We haye proved that of *' all those" engaged in the support of lady Jane, only three suffered death, and even the father of I2ie ei'devant queen was set at liberty. This is a kind of ven- geance seldom practised by narrow minds, and could only arise from a heart filled with benevolence and compassion. That Mary possessed a noble mind, and was well educated, is incontestible, from the public proceedings in the early part of her reign ; nor was she ignorant of the constitution of the country, as she governed only by constitutional measures, which we shall now proceed to shew.

Mary was proclaimed on the 19fh of July, 1553 ; Nor-- thumberland was arrested on the 20th, and taken to the Tower on the 22nd. On the Slst the queen made her «i- traoce into London, and immediately afterwards appointed her council, some of whom had been employed in offices of trust under her father, and bad filled them faithfully. Of these, Gardiner, bishop of Winchester, was made lord-chancfellor on the 21st of September. On coming to the crown, Mury found herself in debt, from the policy of Northumberland, who had kept the officers of the state Ihree years in arrear of their salaries ; yet she issued two proclamations which drew upon her the applause and blessings <^ the whole people, with the exception of the rascally crew of evangeH- •eals. "By the first," writes Dr. Lingard, " she restored a .depreciated currency to its original value ; ordered a new

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coinage of sovereigns and balf-sovereign9> angels and half*- angels, of fine gold ; and of silver groats, half-^groats, and pennies, of the standard purity ; and charged the whole Iosb and expense to the treasury. By the other, she remitted to her people, in gratitude for their attachment to her right, the subsidy of four shillings in the pound on land, and two shillings and eight>-pence on goods, whieh had been granted to the crown by the late parliament. At the same time, she introduced, within the palace, an innovation highly gratifying to the younger branches of the nobility, though it forebode little good to the reformed preachers. Under Edward, their fanaticism had given to the court a sombre and funereal ap- pearance. That they might exclude from it the pomps of the devil, they had strictly forbidden all richness of apparel, and every fashionable amusement. But Mary, who recolr lected with pleasure the splendid gaieties of her father's reign, appeared publicly in jewels and coloured silks ; the ladies, emancipated from restraint, copied her example; and th^ courtiers, encouraged by the approbation of their sovereign, presumed to dress with a splendour that became their rank in the state. A new impulse was thus communicated to all classes of persona; and considerable sums were expended by the citizens in public and private deeorations, preparatory to the coronation. That ceremony was performed after the ancient rite, by Gardiner, bishop of Winchester, and was concluded, in the usual manner, with a magnificent banquet in Westminster-hall. The same day a general pardon was proclaimed, with the exception, by nanae, of sixty individuals who had been committed to prison, or ccmfined to their own houses^ by order of council, for treasonable or seditious ounces committed since the queen's accession.*' These pro»- ceedings by no means exhibit an ignoraw^e of the principles of the constitution, nor do they display a narrewness of mind, ' arising ftom a oontracted education.

While these sahitary proceedings were going on in the state, Mary was not unmindful of the afiairs of the church. .It must here be observed^ that this princess was finnlj

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attached to the faith of her forefathers, and that the Catholic church, to which she belonged, was always unconnected with the state in all ecclesiastical matters. Bj. the first clause in Magna Oharta, it was stipulated that the church should be free, and secured in all her rights and privileges. These rights and privileges were invaded and destroyed by Mary's father and brother, when they robbed and despoiled the chordi of that property which she held, in trust for die benefit of the poor, the sick, the stranger, the widowed, and the fatherless. When Mary ascended the throne she restored the church to her rights, and placed those bishops in their sees who had been illegally deposed from them, and expelled those who had been improperly thrust into their places. In doing this she proceeded as cautiously as she could, in order to avoid any ex- citation to tumult and confusion of the discontented fanatical jparty, who saw all their hopes lost while Mary was safely seated on the throne. But careful as she was, the seditious spirit of the evangelicals was too forward to be kept within the bounds of peace and good order. On the 13th of Au- gust, Dr. Bourn, the archdeacon of London, was grossly assaulted while preaching at St. Paul's cross, and a daggor was flung at his head. A riot was also occasioned by the celebration of mass in a church in the horse-market. These seditious and disorderly outrages were occasioned by the in- flammatory language of the reformed preachers fixmi the pulpit, whose example is followed by the bigotted and intol- erant preachers of the present day. These instigators to violence, clothed in the garb of ministers of peace, alarmed the passions of their hearers by inveighing against the Catholics and their church, which they stigmatized as idola- trous and tyrannical. Their turbulence occasioned tiie queen to forbid th^ preaching in public without a license, in which order she only followed the example of her two predecessors. She also issued a proclamation on the 18th of the same month, the tenor of which is thus given bj Dr. Heylin : — << The queen's highness^ well remembering what great bk^

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BOOK OP MARTYRS. 645

convenience and daiSgers have grown to this her realm in times past, through the diversities of opinion in questions of religion ; and hearing also that now of late, since the he- ginning of her most gracious reign, the same contention he again much revived, through certain false and untrue reports and rumours, spread by some 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 of her said subjects thereunto, 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 fancies, but quietly to con- tinue for the time, till (as before said) further order may be taken ; and therefore willeth, and straightly chargeth and commandeth, all her good and loving subjects, to live to- gether 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 travel, to live in the fear of God, exercising their conversations in such charitable and godly doing, as their lives may indeed expresi^ the great hunger and thirst of God's glory, 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>

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and maintain the tranquillity of the realm. Whereof, as her highness shall be most glad, so if any man shall rashly pre- sume to make any assemblies of people, or at any public as- semblies, 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 rumours hare been nourished and main- tained in this realm, by the subtility and malice of some evil disposed persons, which take upon them, without sufficient authority, to preach and interpret the word of God aft^ 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 <fther 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 luere, and covetousness of vile gain: Her highness, therefore, straightly chargeth and comroandeth all and every of her said subjects, of whatever state, condition, or degree they be, that none of them presumeth from thenceforth to preach, or by way of reading in churches, or other public or private places, except in schools of the university, to interpret or preach any scriptures, or any manner of points of doctrine concerning religion. Neither abo to print any book, matter, ballad, rhyme, interlude, process, or treatise, nor play any interlude, except they have her grace's special license in writing for the same, upon pam to incur her highnesses in- dignation and displeasure."

We have quoted, this document at length, because much of our defence of this caluipniated princess will hinge upon it. We defy the bitterest enemy of the Catholic religion to shew anything lil^e '^ a narrowness of spirit," or a wish " to domi- neer over the rights of private judgment^" or a desire to

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BOOK OF MARTYBS. 647

*' trample on the privileges of , mankind," in this proclamation of Mary, after the provocation she had received from the restless and seditious spirit of the reformers. We see through- out the whole of her anxiety was, that order and confidence should he restored between the different factions : that party spirit sjid/alse teaching should cease : that irritating language and epithets should be laid aside : that, though she openly and candidly declared her attachment to the Catholic faith, and her wish that all should think with her, yet, following the footsteps of her Saviour, she declared that she would not force the conscience of any individual, but leave the grace of God to work their conversion ; but» at the same time, as the first magistrate of the realm, and the chief conservator of the peace of the kingdom, she apprized the people of her deter- mination to punish severely those who should rashly disturb the peace and order of society, by exciting disturbances and violating the laws. Dr. Heylin admits that this proclamation commanded nothing contrary to the laws established, which might give trouble or offence to the reformed party, How unlike was the conduct of Elizabeth, her sister, who succeeded her on the throne. This lady has been extolled by bigots and hireling writers as the most illustrious and amiable of monarchs, and the most accomplished and virtuous of her sex ; while her whole life was a continued « scene of hypocrisy, de- bauchery, and cruelty. We have shewn her duplicity during the conspiracy to prevent her sister from ascending the throne ; we shall now notice another instance of her deceitful conduct. As the reformed faction knew that Anne Boleyn, Elizabeth's mother, was the prop of their party in Harry's time, they now fixed their hopes on the daughter to oppose her sister Mary's intention. When the council were informed of these designs, they advised Mary to put Elizabeth under a tempo- rary arrest, but she refused her consent to the measure, and endeavoured, by persuasion and kind treatment, to wm Elizabeth over to the Catholic faith, and thus frustrate the expectations of the reformers. Bess made a shew pf resist- ance at first, but when she learned that her repugnance was

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suspected not to arise from conscience, but from tbe intrigues of the factious, she threw herself on her knees before Marj, excused her obstinacy, and requested to be instructed in the Catholic faith, that she might see her errors, and embrace the faith of hw fathers. From this time, she accompanied her sister Marj to mass, opened a chapel in her own house, and outwardly demeaned herself as a Catholic. On coming to the throne she was crowned according to the Catholic ritual, and took an oath to maintain the Catholic religion ; yet no sooner was she invested with the sceptre, than she resolved to abolish that religion which she had solemnly sworn to cherish and protect And how did she proceed to accomplish her designs? Not in the benevolent and charitable footsteps of her sister Mary, so basely and unjustly termed " bloody, who did not enact a single new law nor create a smgle new offence to entrap her subjects into punishment : she did not, as Mary did, issue a proclamation, exhorting *^ all her good and loving subjects to live together in quiet sort and Christian charity, leaving those devilish terms of Papist and heretic, and such like ; and applying t)ieir whole care, study, and travel to live in the fear of God, exercising their conver- sation in such charitable and goodly doing : *' no, no ; this half-royal perjurer, this consummate hypocrite, this disgrace to her sex, who is known to few in this country but as the ''good queen Bess,'* the**v«»^n queen,'' the '' «/^/runis Elizabeth," through the gross lies of the vilest press that ever cursed and hoodwinked a nation ; this hysena in human shape, regardless of the rights of her people, secured to them by the maxims of the constitution and the stipulations of the Great Charter, resorted to the most compulsory and uncon- stitutional means to make the people forsake lliat fmth whidi she had sworn to her sister Mary (who doubted her sincerity) she believed truly and conscientiously, and had given the same sacred pledge at her coronation to protect. Elisabetli ascended the throne on the 17th of November, 1558, and her first parliament was opened on the 25th of January following, at which the queen assisted in state by attending a soleinn

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high mass^ after which a sermon was delivered hy a reformed preaeher. In this parliament a hill was passed for suppres- sing the monasteries which Mary had re-estahlished, and another was introduced for annexing the spiritual supremacy to the kingly authority. This hill met with mudi oppositiouy especially in the House of Lords ; hut it was carried hy a court majority. By this act, Hume says, the crown was vested with the whole spiritual power, to he exercised with- out THE CONCURRBNCE OF HER PARLIAMENT, or even of the convocation ; it might repress all heresies, might establish or repeal all canons, might alter every point of discipline, might ordain or abolish any religious rite or ceremony ; and this at the mere whim or caprice of a lascivious and perfidious woman. If Mary was unacquainted with the constitution of the country, it is clear that Elizabeth and her myrmidons were totally disregardless of its principles, by* rendering her independent of parliament, and making her an absolute despot. You tell US', modem editors of the Book of Martyrs, t^iat Mary was <' a slave to superstition ; " that <' she thovght to«domineer over the rights of private judgment, and trample on the privileges of mankind ;'' but shew us the age or country when a pope or council usurped such an unlimited power as was here granted to an unprincipled woman, thus constituted ^ head of the church of England ! You may talk of priestcraft, of tyranny, of domineering over the rights of private judg- ment, and trampling on the privileges of mankind ; but you cannot produce such an instance of venal dependence and base slavish submission to spiritual and temporal thraldom in the records of Catholic history, as this nation was reduced to by the corrupt parliament of the falsely called ^'goodqaeen Bess."

This measure being carried, it was now determined by Elizabeth and her ministers, who were certainly some of the ablest, but the most wicked and diabolical that ever directed the councils of England, to extirpate the Catholic faith out of the island, not by preaching and persuasion, but by the most sanguinary laws and proceedings that could be devised by

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human beings. It was made death to exercise the in- alienable privilege of mankind, freedom of oonscience, by attending or celebrating mass. Fines were imposed for absence from the new-fangled church worship, which Catho- lics cquld not attend without a yiolation of conscience. Thus £t was Elizabeth, and not Mwry, that actually ^ not in thought, domineered ''over the rights of private judgment,*' and trampled upon " die privileges of mankind." We have before said that Mary invented no new laws or offences to punish her subjects, but Elizabeth added numberless penal statutes to the code of laws existing, all of which were in- fringements upon the rights of conscience and the principles of the British constitution. It was not tffl her reign that per- sons were liable to punishment for what was called constructive treason ! while it was made high treason to profess the same faith that was preached by the apostles of Christ, that was introduced into tliis island by one of their successc^rs, the holy monk Augustin, and had continued to be professed by our forefathers for one thousand years. We will here re- state our former words from the Orthodox Journal for Dee., 1816, taken from an article in which we proved Uiat Elizabeth was an Odious persecutor of conscience. '^ In framing these merciless laws, the artful ministers had bo interwoven religion and civil allegiance togeth^, that an impeachment in either kind was equally serviceable to their purpose. The consequence was, no less than 200 persons suffered deadi in this reign only, many of them und^ circumstances of shocking barbarity, merely for exercising or embracing the Oadiolic faith ; for their lives were offered them on condition of renouncing their religion and conform- ing to the established church, an evident proof that the mme for which they were executed was not for conspiring against the state, but for refusing to submit to an arbitrary and unjust control over their minds. Besides these, many Catholics were doomed to pine in loathsome prisons, others were driven out of the kingdom to avoid the like confine- ment; and the rack is acknowledged by unimpeachable

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historians, to have been in constant use, to extort confession of treasons that were never thought of. It is computed that before the year 1538, which was anterior to the greatest heat of the persecutions, the number of persons who suffered death, banishment, imprisonment, or loss of estate, purely for their religion, amounted to about twelve hundred I Whilst Elizabeth was thus persecuting with cold-blooded cruelty her Catholic subjects in England, she was engaged in stirring up the Belgian Calvinists to revolt against the king of Spain ; and encouraged the rebellion of Knox and his associates against the queen of Scotland, whom she looked upon as her rival for the sceptre ; and enforcing the new doctrines of the Keformation in Ireland, bv military slaughter and butchery, as well as exterminating penal statutes. To enter into a detail of the horrid atrocities committed on the people of Ireland by the agents of this queen and her wicked counsel- lors, would only disgust and tire the reader, but we cannot refrain from noticing a few facts, as they clearly demonstrate that religious persecution was not exclusively practised by Catholic governments. It is stated by the historians of that country, that thousands of the natives were swept off by the strict enforcement of the penal laws, whose only crime was the serving their Maker in the simplicity of their hearts, and presuming to exercise their own choice of the road to heaven. The heat of persecution, and the disorder occasioned by civil disturbances, prevented the obtaining a regular list of all the sufferers ; but an account has been preserved of about two hundred Irish Catholics who underwent the punishment of death during this reign, solely for the profession of their religion. Of these six were prelates, namely, Patrick O'Kelly, bishop of Mayo ; Dermot O'Hurle, archbishop of Oashel ; Hichard Creagh, archbishop of Armagh, and Edmund Magauran, his successor; Cornelius O'Duane, bishop of Down ; and Edward O'Callagher, bishop of Derry. The two first of these are reported to have suffered the most excru- ciating tortures previous to their execution, the former having his legs broken with hammers, and needles thinist under his

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nails ; the other had his legs imme^rsed in jaok-boots filled with lime and water, until his flesh was humt to the hone, in order to compel him to take the oath of supremacy^ It was a common thing to heat with stones the shorn heads of the clergy until their hrains gushed out ; and ipany were stretched on the rack, or pressed under weights. The year hefore Elizabeth's death about fifty of the monks and clergy obtained permission of her majesty to retire from Irekmd to the continent, and a vessel was appointed to convey them. They embarked at Slattery, as they were ordered, but had not proceeded far on their voyage, when they were all thrown overboard and drowned. The captain and officers of the ship were confined for a time, by order of the queen, to cover her from the disgrace attendant upon such an atrocious deed, performed by her directions, and were afterwards rewarded with a grant of the lands belonging to the murdered individuals. !Nor was this benignant sovereign less kind to Protestant nonconformists than to Popish recusants. By looking into Stow, Brandt, Limborch, Collier, Neale, and other Protestant historians, it will be found that in the year 1573, one Peter Burchet was examined on the score of heresy ^ by Sands^ Bishop of London, but he recanted his errors. Two years afterwards, twenty-seven heretics were at one time, eleven at. another, and five at a third, condemned, most of them by Uie same Protestant prelate, for their erroneous doctrines. Of these twenty were whipped and banished, others bore their fagots, and two of them, John Peterson, and Henry Tarwort, were burnt to death in Smithfield. In 1583, John Lewis was burnt at Norwich^ for denying the divinity of GUI' Saviour ; and Francis Kett, M.A.^ suffered the same kind of death at the same place, for similar opinions, in 1589. Two years afterwards, William Hackett was hanged for heTe6j^ in Cheapside. Five others were also put to death in this reign, fbr being Brownists. Most of the executions took place in consequence of Elizabeth's issuing an ecclesiastici^ c<Mnmission, hitherto unparalleled for its arbitrary and exten- sive powers. This commission consisted of forty-four menir

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ben, of whom only twelve were clergjmen, and the rest laymen ; and any three were authorized to exercise the whole power of the commission. 'Their jurisdiction,' says Mr. Reeve, who takes his account from Hume and Neale, ' ex- tended over ^e whole kingdom, and over ail orders of men ; their power was to visit and reform all errors, heresies, and schisms, to regulate aU opinions^ and to punish every breach ef uniformity in ^epublie worship ; and their ^wer was SUBJECT TO NO CONTROL. They had directions to proceed in the execution of their office, not only by the legal methods of juries and witnesses, but by any other means they should judge fit ; that is, by the rack, by tortures, and imprisonment. The punishments they inflicted were arbitrary, and directed by no rule. Their fines were so heavy as to bring total ruin upon those who had the misfortune to offend. The very suspicion of being an oflender was enough to make any man such in the eyes of those inquisitors, who in that case were authorized to administer an official oath, which compelled the suspected person to answer all questions, though tending to criminate himself or his dearest friends. So cruel and so despotic were the powers which the supremacy was supposed in that age to confer upon the crown, and which Elizabeth exennsed to their full extent.' "

These atrocious cruelties have been carefully concealed from the people of England by the bigotted adherents of the Reformation, as it is called, while the actions of the upright and honest Mary, whose heart was truly Catholic and English, have been blackened, vUified, aud misrepresented. But the day is come when the veil of hypocrisy and falsehood shall be removed from the eyes of a blinded and misguided people, and they will tken see the Truth in all her glorious attributes, and Mary's character will ap^ar more brilliant than it has hitherto been disfigured. Let it always be borne in mind, that Mary did not begin to exercise coercive measures until the peace of her kingdom was broken by insurrection, and her life was menaced by the enthusiastic reformers. That she did not reqiure them to embrace a faith of her own coining

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but to return to tbat faith which 1m4 beea the creed ci the whole kingdom for one thousand jeara. before^ and waa then the creed of the most illustrioua and yirtuous monaifidiay statesmen, generals, and divines, in Christendom. Elizabetby on the other hand, persecuted the professors of the old faith, because they would not consent to relinquish doctrines which they knew were of divine authority^ for opinions merelj human and liable to change. She began her persecuti^na without any provocation on their part, for while she waa harassing the Catholics with tortures and oonfiscationSy thej. were not only submissive to the laws of the state» but they actually took up arms in her defence, when the kingdom waa threatened with invasion by a Catholic sovereign,, the hjoaband of Mary, and such as had property left were prodigal in their offers to equip men and fit out vessels for the defence of her throne and their country's independence^ Such base ingratitude«-such remorseless injustice — such unparalleled cruelty — was the base and tiger-hearted Elizabeth guillj^ of towards her loyal Catholic subjects ; yet is she styled the " yooc? queen Bess/' while her truly virtuous sister Mary, whose private life was unspotted and blameless, and who had to deal with a people heated by fanatical opinions, and urged to insubordination by the most perfidious demagogues^ is re-* presented as the ^' bloody queen Mary," and her reign as one continued scene of persecutions, though two years had elapeed from her coming to the throne before any one suffered on the score of religion. " Compare," we say, to repeat our owu words in the Orthodox Journal for November, 1818, " thia conduct of the virgin queen with the declaration of her bloody sister, before quoted, in which the latter assures bee subjects, that, although she could not dissemblei nor hide that religion which she had always professed, she did not intend to compel any of her subjects thereunto, but leave it to their own common consent ; exhorting them, at the same ^m% to lay aside all uncharitable terms, towards each other, such as Papist a.d heretic^ carrying themselves peaceably, and in Christian charity with alL The yood^ Bess^ hoTrrYnr, pftinonicrt

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no sucb merciM and laudable feeling. She eotild dtssefnble her religion in the reign of her sister^ and conspire with others to dethrone her. She coold submit to be crowned ac- cording to the Popish custom ; oould ttoear to protect the church in all her rights and privileges, and almost instantly violate the obligation of her oath. She coiuld cause kws to be passed which intrenched upon the liberty of conscience^ by making it high treason to exercise the right of it ; she oould hang, embowel dive, and quarter, innocent victims for canetrucHve treason ; she could encourage rebellion in states at perfect peace with her, under j^etence of extending the Kght of evangelical liberly, but which was nothing less than irreligious intolerance and lawless despotism; witness the sanguinary massacres oi the Catholics by the Huguenots of France, the pillaging and burning of churches, and civil wars in that country and in Germany and Flanders ; the rebellions, murders, and sacrileges committed in Scotland, by Ejiox and his bloody associates ; all which were connived at and aided by Elizabeth and her ministers. Mary, on the contrary, as we have seen above, incited her people to charity ; she repealed obnoxious laws, and contented herself with govoming under those of her predecessors ; she attempted •not to force the consciences of the ignorant and deluded, nor would the blood of her subjects have been spilt, had they not proved ungrateful and rebellious to her mild and equitable admonitions. Were the Puritan revilers <rf Popery to con- duct themselvea against the present govemment of this coun- try as Cranmer, Kidley, Latimer, and other rebels, behaved themselves towards their lawful sovereign, Mary, they would certainly and justly experience a fate similar to that which some of their brethren met under the idol of their adoration, Elizabeth, for daring to profess a faith contrary to her com- mands. Yet such is liie perversion of our Puritan bigots, that this sweet lady, who is described by Protestant historians as revengeful, cruel, and vindictive in her disposition, is es- teemed by them the patroness and protectress of liberty of conscience agaioat Popery and slavery ; whilst, on the other

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hand, Her sister Mary, who is described, by the same his- torians, to have possessed a merciful disposition, is condemned as a bloody tyranty because she found it necessary to consign some turbulent subjects to the offended laws of the country !" But we must return to the reign of Mary, and produce evidence to illustrate the cause which led to the execution of so many unhappy beings in the latter part of her sway^ whilst she was influenced by every desire to augment the honour, the glory, and the happiness of her kingdom. The pop^, on hearing of the accession of Mary, and forejudging the result, appointed cardinal Pole, an Englishman of royal descent, as legate to the queen, but the cardinal hesitated to accept the appointment until he had more satisfactory information as to the disposition of the people of England. It was evident that the queen wished the nation to be reconciled to the holy see, and the people to return to the faith of their forefathers. In this disposition the queen met her first parliament on the 10th of October, when both peers and commoners, according to ancient usage, accompanied their sovereign to a solemn mass of the Holy Ghost. This religious ceremony is still followed in Catholic countries, both monarchical and republican, on the meeting of legislative bodies. Gardiner, the lord chancellor, made a speech to the two houses, and the speaker, in his address' to the throne, enlarged on the piety, the clemency, and other virtues of Mary, whose ears were greeted with the loudest demonstrations of loyalty and attachment. A hill was introduced of a comprehensive nature, intending to repeal, at once, all the acts that had been passed in the two last reigns, affecting either the marriage of the queen's motiier, or the exercise of religion as it stood in the first year of the reign of her father. By the lords, this bill met with no <^por sition, but it was objected to in the commons rather strongly ; however, with some modifications, and a little manoeuvering on the part of the ministry, the bill was divided into two, and finally carried. The opposition to the measure for restoring the ancient form of worship was confined to the commcHis, and though the members in fieivour of the new doctrines

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appeared to be one-tbird of the house, yet after a de« bate of two dajs* oontinuance, it was carried without a divicHon. Thus fell, by a vote in parliament, that fabrio raised by the hands of wicked and intriguing men, of whom Tom Oranmer was the head, though they had the blasphemy to assert that it arose by the inspiration of the Holy Ghost. The bill for confirming the marriage between Henry and Catherine stated, writes Dr. Lingard, " that, after the queen's father and mother had lived together in lawful matrimony for the space of twenty years, unfounded scruples and projects of di?<H:ce had been suggested to the kmg by interested indi- Tiduals, who, to accomplish their design, procured in their &your the seals of foreign universities by bribery, of the national universities by intrigues and threats; and ^t Thomas, then newly made archbishop of Canterbury, most ungodlily, and against all rules of equity and conscience, took upon himself to pronounce, in the absence of the queen, a judgment of divorce, which was afterwards, on two occasions, confirmed by parliament ; but that, as the said maixiage was not prohibited by the law of God, it could not be cBsBohftd by any such authority : wherefore it enacted, that all statutes, confirmatory of the divorce, should be repealed, and the mar- riage between Henry and Catherine should be adjudged to stand with God's law, and should be reputed of good effect and validity, to all intents and purposes whatsoever. Against this bni, though it was equivalent to a statute of bastardy in respect of Elizabeth, not a voice was raised in either house of parliament."

The other bills passed by this parliament were indicative of the constitutional disposition of Mary and her regard for the welfare of the people. All contracts entered into by individuals during the usurpation of lady Jane were legalized ; all treasons created since the reign of Edward III., with the new felonies and cases of prsamunire, introduced by Henry YIII., were abolished ; at the same time, the act of Edward YI., agamst riotous assemblies, was mjpart revived, and ex- tented to such meetmgs as should have for their object to

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thvDge, BT FORCE, the exMug laws in matters of religion. To this last act the modem editors and No-Poperj men cannot ohject, as there are laws now existing of the Bame tendency, to preterre the chnrch of En^and, by law esta- blished, ^m an J attempts that may be eontemplated of a similar strong natur^. Bills restoring in blood those persons viho had been iniqnitonsly deprived of their hereditary rights were likewise passed ; and one for attaining the ehief avi^iors and abettors of the late coni^racy to exclude Mary from the throne ; but its operation was limited to Tom Oranmer, lady Jane Dudley, her husband, Guilford Dudley, and his brother Ambrose, who had, it must be obserred, been before arrugned and convicted on their own confeBsions, Mary had' no inten- tion, however, that they should suffer ; what she hoped was, that while she kept the sentence suspended over their heads she should secure the loyidty of their friends, and aooordingly she gave orders that they should be treated witli as mu^ indulgence as liieir situation would allow.

The next object to which Mary turned her attention was that of a marriage, by which a successor in a direct line might be secured to the realm. During her brother's life, Mary voluntarily fH'eferred a single life, and tlie breath of eahunn j has not dared to stain her continency ; but she was no sood^ seated on the throne, than she avowed her intention to many. The selection of her choice lay between the cardinal^ Pole, and Courtney, die son of the oountess of Exeter, who had been the individual companion oi the queen. The latter she bad recently released from the Tower, where he had been unjustly imprisoned from his youth : both were descended from the house of York. The other competitor was the prince of Spain, son of ihe emperor Charles V. Courtney, by kb giddy and intemperate conduct, soon lost the affectiona of Mary ; the cardinal, besides being an ecclesiastic, and thes^- fore requiring a dispensation from the vows of celibacy, was deemed too old ; the choice Uierefore fell on Philip. There were also many political motives whidi induced Mary to select ^e latter, which the French mmister as strenuously en-

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deavottfed, but inreffeetnaUy, to counteract. The queen wisely judged that a union with a foreign prince would add to th^ security of her people, and it wb& manifest by the negociations that her happiness was centred in the happiness Of her people and the honour of her country. In this resolution Mary experienced much opposition ; the commons addressed her, requesting her to marry , but not to select her husband from a foreign family, but irom some of the native nobility. The queen, however, was not to be moved, and secretly vowed to be 1^0 wife of Philip. And now may be said to commence the troubles that continued during the rest of the reign of this noble-mill^ but unfortunate sovereign. The reformers were well awi^e that ^3Kmld Mary Un^ herself to Philip, who was a stttmch Oalliolie prince, there was no diatnce of their new doetrmes ; they therefore began that system of sedMon, cabal, insorreo^n, and treason, which marked their steps wherevw the executive authority was opposed to their views. Courtney, who ^owed so much to l^e queen, who had made him eait of BevoMhne, was i^stiga^ to rebel against her, and pre^r his suit to ber nster Elizabeth. The latter was also worked upon, and while she became an object of suspicion to the friends of the Spanish match^ she was the idol of those who opposed it. Hht greatest pains were taken to create dissensKm between two sisters, and awaken jealously on the part of the queen, but Mary would not listen to t^ir repre* sentations, at least she shewed as much by her carriage towards EUzabedi ; i&r though she kept her near her person tiH the dissolution <^ parliament, she treated her with the greatest kindness, and wh^i she let ber depart to one of her country seats, she made her a present of two sets of valuable pearls.

G«rdmer, the lord chancellor and bishop of Winchest^, had opposed, the ^anish match and supported the claim of Oourtney ; but finding that Mary was resolute in rejecting the latter, whose conduct had been chikUsh and disgusting, he consented to negeciate the treaty oi marriage bet?reen the queen aad Philip on sudi tenna aa would secure the righta

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and libertiAS, and of coarse the honour of the nation* Gardiner, it will be obserred, was a Catholie bishop* and by his civil situation of lord chancellor, the keepar of the queen's conscience, according to the notions of Protestant statesmen now-a-dajs. Well, this English Catholic prdate had to negociate with the ambassadors from the Catholic emptor of Germany, in favour of an English Catholic queen, who had given them all a spice of her own determinadon. When the four ambassadors were admitted to an audience in presence of the whole court, they made an offer to Maiy of the i^nee of Spain for her husband. She replied^ says Dr. lingard, ** that it became not a female to speak in pnUic on so ddicato a subject as her own marriage : they were at liberty to confer with her ministers, who would make known her intentionB ; but this she would have them bear in mind (fixing at the same time her eyes on the ring on h&t finger) ihai her rtfolm was her first htubandf and that no eotmtUraHan $hayU induce Tier to violate that faith which $he hadpkdged at ihe time of her coronations^ Do these noMe sentim^its <rf Mary exhibit a ^' narrowness of spirit,'' or an ignorance of the constitution of the country, or a desire to ** trample ou the privileges of mankind?" Oh! much abased and calumniated princess ! how well would it have been for tins country, and for Christendom in general, if thy successor had imbibed the same patriotic and disinterested fe^ings, the same real love of the people, and the same adherence to the fundamental principles of the constitution, which thoa manifested throughout the whole of thy reign !

The terms of the treaty were soon settled between the lord chancellor and tjhe resident ambassador from tiie imperial court, and the conditions agreed to were the following, ae* oording to the testimony of Dr. Heylin. << 1. That it dionld 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 foil and ^ee distribution of bishoprics, benefices, &yours, and offices*

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iJways remaining entire in the qneen. £• That the queen should also carry the titles of all those realms, into which Philip either then was, or should he afterwards invested. 3. That if the queen survived Philip, sixty thousand pounds p^ annum should he assigned to her for her jointure, as had been ^rmerly assigned to the lady Margaret, sister to king Edward IV., 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 other- wise 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. 9. And finally, that if the said Charles should depart this life without lawful issue, that then the heir sur- viving 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." ^

These conditions must appear to every unprejudiced mind to be by far more advantageous to the realm of England than to the crown of Spain. In fact, every advantage was on the side of this country. Had there been issue between the parties, the territories of England would have been consider- ably extended, and, as it was, she obtained the most powerful alliances by the match. But Philip was a Catholic, and it was not in the nature of the disciples of the new doctrines, as we shall soon shew, to be satisfied with the political advan- tages of the country, when their fanatical notions on religion were likely to be superseded by a return to sound sense and an mierring rule of faith. Gardiner explained the articles to the lord mayor and aldermen, in an eloquent discourse, ici

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which he pointed out the many Talaahle benefits to be antici- pated from such a union with the heir apparent-»-f<nr Philip was only prince of Spain at the time of the treaty— ^to eo many rich and powerful territories. The pubiic announce- ment of the match, however, was far from satisfying the opponents of the measure, whose restless and unprincipled disposition began to display itself by the practice of the most abominable artifices. They circulated the most incredible stories ; the private character of Philip was loaded with the basest imputations that could disgrace the lowest of mankind^ much more a prince ; it was given out at one time that an army of Spaniards and imperialtsts was coming to take absolute possession of the kingdom : at anoUier, that Edward was still alive ; that the queen had broken her promise to the Suffolk men not to alter the religion settled in Edward's time ; that the marriage would be but an introduction to a second vassalage to the popes of Rome ; and that Mary had there- fore forfeited her right to the crown. By these and such like reports, the leading conspirators against the queen and the realm had prepared the ignorant and fanatical people fwr rebellion, and it was agreed that the duke of Suffdlk, who still had the ambition of seeing his daughter replaced on the throne, should arm his tenants in Warwickshire; l^at Courtney should raise the discontented in Devonshire, under the assurance of marrying the lady Elizabeth; and Sir Thomas Wyat was to put himself at the head of the male- contents in Kent. The conduct of the duke of Suffdk in this business was most base and ungrateful. Though impli- cated with Northumberland in the first conspiracy against Mary's claim, instead of suffering with him, he was allowed to rejtire to his own house, afiter a detention of three days in the Tower ; his duchess was received i^ court with a diatinc* tion which excited the jealousy of Elizabetli ; the fcrfdtQre of his property and honours had belen preserved to him by the clemency of Mary ; and he had giv^ to her tibe most solemn assurances of his approbation of her marriage. Such was the vile ungenerous conduct of this predaian in vdigioiiy

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diis disciple of Ptfritanism and treason. The lad; ElizabeA, too, was not an unconcerned observe of this ccmspiracy. A letter to her ^m Wjat, recommending her rem oral from the Ticinitj of the metropdis to Dunningt<m castle, was inter- cepted hj the council, and Mary sent an order for her to return to court ; but she neither followed the advice of the conspirators nor the order of the queen ; feigning indispo'^ sition, she removed to Ashridge, where she shut herself up in her chamber, ordered her servants to fortify the house, and called upon h^ iriends to arm in her defence. This state^^ ment is made by Dr. Lingard on tile authority of Noailles, the Eren<^ ambassador to the court of Mmry, who took too great a part in the conspiracy, in the hope of frustrating the projected marriage, whidi could but be injurioua to his mastw, the king of France.

Su^lk, on his way to his estates, called upon the inhabi- tants of the towns through which he passed to arm in de- fsnce of their liberties, which, he said^ had been betrayed by the match to the Spaniards. He found, however, that the people did not think with him, and that his cause was hope- less ; hd abandoned it, therefore, and trusted himself to one of his tenants, who betrayed Mm, and in less than a fort- night from the commencement of his treasonable crusade he found himsdf prisoner in the Tower. Courtney, through timidity and cowlftrdioe, seceded from the conspiracy; whfle Wyat, with a courage and address ^at gained him the ap- plause of hisen^nies, drew the sword, and soon found him- self at the head of Efbeen hundred armed men, while others w^re ready to join his standard on notice being given. He was joined by 500 Londoners, sent to oppose him, and began his march towards London. Wyat's force was now about fifteen thousand men, while the ministers were in a dreadful state of alarm and distrust Mary alone appeared firm and undaunted. She ordered her ministors to provide means of d^enoe, and undertook herself to &x the wavering loyalty of the citizens. She desired the lord mayor to call an extra-* ordinary meeting of the livery, and at three o'dock in the

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afternoon of Febraary the 2nd, 1534, Mary, withihe sceptre in her hand, accompanied bj her kdies and officers of state, entered the Guildhall. She was received with becoming respect, and in a firm and dignified tone she coniplidned of the disloyalty of the men of Kent, and expressed her convic- tion that her people, especially her good city of Lcmdon, loved her too well to surrender her into the hands of rebels. ^* As for this marriage," she said, '' ye shall understand that I enterprized not the domg thereof, without the advice of all our privy council ; nor am I, I assure ye, so bent to my own will, or so affectionate, that for my own pleasure I would choose where I lust, or needs must have a husband. I have hitherto lived a maid, and doubt not but, with God's grace, I am able to live so still. Certainly, did I think that this marriage were to the hurt of you, mj subjects, or to the impeachment of my royal estate, I woidd never consent thereunto. And I promise you, on the word of a queen, that if it shall not appear to the lords and commons in par- liament to be for the benefit of the whole realm, I will never marry while I live. Wherefore stand fa&t against these rebels, your enemies and mine ; fear them not, for, I assure ye, I fear them nothing at all ; and I will leave vdth you my lord Howard, and my lord admiral, who will be assistant with the mayor for your defence." With these words she took her departure, and we need not add — for base must have been the hearts of those who could not feel for such a sove- reign— that the hall shook with acclamations of loyalty and transport. By the next morning more than twenty thousand men had enrolled themselves for the prQtection of the city« We must here add, that Fox allows that the queen spoke with so much ease in delivmng this speech, that *^ she seemed to have perfectly conned it with book."

On that day Wyatt entered Southwark, but his followers had begun to forsi^e him, and his numbers were dwindled down to seven thousand men, who were hourly deserting. Upon his coming into Southwark, Stow says : ** He made proclamation that no soldier should take anything, but that

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he should pay for it ; and that his coming was to resist the Spanish king. Notwithstanding, forthwith divers of his company, heing gentlemen (as they said), went to Win>- chester-place, made havock of the hish^p's goods (he heing lord-chancellor), not only of his victuals, whereof there was plenty, hut whatsoever else, not leaving so much as one lock of a door, hut the same was taken off and carried away, nor a hook in his gallery uncut, or rent into pieces^ so that men might have gone up to the knees in leaves of hooks cut out and thrown under feet." Such were the Vandalic ppoceed- ings of these defenders of the new light and learning. Catholics are reproached for their presumed ignorance and, distaste of letters and the sciences, while they have the morti- fication to know that many of the choicest volumes of the classics, history, and the aids — the toil of the calumniated and ahused monks, before the art of printing was discovered •»— were laid waste and destroyed by the ruthless hands of their savage and unlettered accusers. After loitering two days in South wark, '' to no purpose at all," writes Dr. Heylin, " more than the sackuig of Winchester-house, and the de- facing of the bishop's library there, unless it were to leave a document to posterity that Grod infatuates the counsels of those wretched men who take up arms against their princes," Wyatt marched to Kingston, and thence to Brentford, to- wards London, and soon after made his appearance at Hyde- park comer. Mary then occupied the palace of St. James. The court was in the utmost consternation ; the ministers, on their knees, implored the queen to seek her safety by retiring to the Tower. Mary, however, scorned the pusillanimity of her advisers, and announced her fixed determination to con- tinue at her post. A council of war was held, and it was determined to place a strong force at Ludgate, and allow Wyatt to advance to this post. In the mean time, Wyatt» who seemed to be under a spirit of infatuation, wasted his time in the repair of a carriage of one of his pieces, which had been dismounted by the breaking down of a wheel. This delay prevented him from keeping his appointment with his

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associates at Ludgate, which eaased the chief of his advises to abandon him in despair. Among these was Pojnet, the Protestant bishop of Winchester, who fled with idl speed to the continent. Another of them, sir George Harper, rode to St. James's and announced the approach of Wjatt. At fbor in the morning of the 7th February, 1554, the dram beat to arms, and in a few hours the royalists were in motion. Wyatt reached Hyde-park corner at nine, and though he found hinself deserted by many of his followers, he resolved to make a desperate effort, and rushed forward to chaige a body of cavalry, posted to intercept his progress. They opened and allowed a body of three or four hundred to pass^ and while they engaged the rear of the rebels, Wyatt, re- gardless of the battle that raged behind him, passed hastily ^ through Piccadilly, and, without noticing the palace of St. James, hurried on through the Strand to Ludgate, where he found himself hemmed in on both sides, and oonstramed te yield himself prisoner, afi;er making a stout resistance witii forty of his followers. Wyatt was taken fii«t to St. James's, and then conveyed to the Tower, where he was rejoined bj &e chief of the surviving conspirators.

Bnmet says : '^ The Popish authors studied to cast the blame of Ihis on the reformed preachers ; but did not naxne any one of them that was in it ; so it appears that what some later writers have said of Poynet's having been in it is folae; otherwise his name had certainly been put in the number of those that were attainted for it." This attempt of the bisliop of Sarum to screen the reformed preachers firom reb^JUaug praeHees is congenial to his character. Su: John Dabymple, in his Memoirs, says t *' I have never tried Burnet's fiicts hj the test of dates and original papers without finding them wrong." Who the Popish authors were Burnet does not say ; we, however, can produce Protestant authoritiea te substantiate the fact that some of the reformed preachers did take an active part in this coni^uracy. Dr. Heylin eaya : *^ It cannot be denied but that the restitution of the reformed reKgion was the matter principally aimed at in this rebdlioa.

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though nothing but the match irith Spain appeared in the outside of it. Which appears jJainly by a book imt 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 magistraUs ought to he obeyed. "Fcft having filled almost every diapter of it with railing speeches against the queen, and stirred up the people to rebel against her, he falleth amongst the rest upon this expression, viz. : * Wyatt did but his duty, and it was but the duty of all others that profess the gospd, to h»re risen with him for maintenance of the same. His ca«se was just, and they were all traitors that took no part with him. O noble Wyatt, 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 AmoSy he entituleth by the name of Proserpine, and saith, that she exceeded in her crudties all the devils in hell. Much more it is to be admired, that Dr. John Poynet, the late bishop of Winchester, should be of counsel in the plot, or put himsdf into their camp, and attend them unto the place where the carriage brake. Where, when he could not work on Wyatt to desist from that unprofitable labour in remounting the cannon, he counselled Vanham, Bret, and oth^s, to shift for th^HHsehres, 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."

Thus, then, it stands confessed by a Protestant historian, that the reformers sought to re-establish their religion by the power of the sword, and not by the force of reason, while the queen .herself had, during this period, abstained from any harsh or severe measures towards her enemies. When the former conspiracy was subdued, she would not allow more than three persons to be put to death, an instance of lenity unparalleled in the history of any age, and a damning refh- tation of the base statement made by &e modem editors of

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FoXy that '^ the first exertion of her regal power was to wreak vengeance upon all those who had supported the title <^ ladj Jane Grey." Marj was proclaimed in July, 1553, consequently seven months of her reign had passed over since the first attempt to deprive her of the crown, and only three traitors Had suffered for it. Others who had incurred the guilt of treason in that plot had heen sentenced to death, but were respited through the clemency of Mary. Of these were Tom Oranmer, lady Jane Grey, and her husband, the lord Dudley. While Mary is represented by the niodem editors of this Book of Martyrs as trampling on the privi- leges of mankind, other and more correct historians state^ that she was reproved by the emperor and some of her own counsellors for her too great love of mercy. They argoed, that impunity would encourage the factious to a repetition of their treasonable practices, and that if they chose to brave the authority of their sovereign and the laws, it ought to be at the peril of their lives. The queen herself began to feeL the truth of the maxims ; she considered her former lenity as the cause of the insurrection just suppressed, from which sbe had narrowly escaped with her life, and in the moment of irritation, and while she was agitated with her late escape from danger, she was induced to sign a warrant for the exe- cution of Guilford Dudley and his wife at the expiraticm of three days. Much opprobrium has been cast by Protestant writers on this cnrder for executing so young an offender as the Jady Jane Grey, and she is looked upon as a martyr for the Protestant religion. TIad she been termed a martyr to her father's treasonable ambition, the truth would not have been outraged ; for had the duke of Suffolk remained faithful to his promise, after having been pardoned his first traitorous designs towards his good but maligned queen^ his daughter might have followed her reli^on and died a natural death, as well as her husband, so little mclined was Mary to shed their blood. But the guilt of the duke, her father, brought on the punishment of his daughter, the lady Jane, which his ambition had first caused her to incur. The sentence; as we before

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observed, had been pat off above a half-a- year, and it was not until the duke of Suffolk, with his brothers, the lords Thomas and Leonard Grey, had endeavoured to raise the counties of Warwick and Leicester for the purpose of de- throning Mary herself, that she consented to the lady Jane's death, to prevent any further pretext for turbulent and fanatic spirits to rise against their lawful sovereign, and disturb the peace of the community. No part of the late conspu^acy was in^puted to the lady Jane, but she stood legally convicted, and was under sentence of death for assuming royalty at king Edward's death. The order for execution being intimated to her, she rec^ved it with much composure, and said she had deserved it for usurping a crown which belonged to another ; but, at the same time, she related the little share she had ia that transaction, and the constraint put upon her by her &mily ; i^at it was no easy matter for a person so young as she was to withstand the authority of a father and a husband, and of so many of the nobility ; and it would be her peculiar fate to be justly condemned, and yet die innocent. On the 12ih of February, after her husband had been beheaded on Tower hill, she was led out to a scaffold which had been erected on the green within the Tower, where, after a few words to the spectators, she laid her head on the block, and it was severed from her body at one stroke of the executioner* We agree with I>r. Lingard, that '* it would perhaps have been to the honour of Mary if she had overlooked the pro- Tocation, and refused to visit on the daughter the guilt of the father. Her youth ought to have pleaded most powerfully in her favour ; and, if it were feared that she would again be set up by the &otious as a competitor with her sovereign, the danger might certainly have been removed by some expedient less cruel than the inflidion of death." Still, we must observe that Mary could not act without her counsellors, and probably could they have foretold the handle that would have been made of their decision, to blacken and defame the religion of Ohrist, they would have decided differently. One thing is certam, namely, that the death of this lady did not proceed

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from religions bigotrj and intolerance on the part of Mary ttnd her adTisers, as the people of England have been bo Iob^ led to believe by the intolerant haters of Popery. Even Burnet admits that it was rather a reason of state than prtrmte resentment that instigated the queen to consent to the exe* cution.

The trial of the Buke ef Suffolk soon followed the exeou* tion of his daughter. He was ^nd guilty, condemned aad executed. Burnet says: << He was the leas pitied, beeause by his means his dau^ter was brought to her untimely end.'' Dr. Lingard likewise obi^rves, *' that his ingratitude to the queen, his disregard for his daughter's safety, and his Bie&n«- ness in seeking to purchase forgiveness by the accusadon of others, had sharpened public indignation against him." He was followed by his brother, the lord Thomas Grey. Wm, Thomas, Esq. stabbtd himself in prison, but died <ni ^be scaffold. To these three followed Sir ThomiEa Wyatt, irfiose weak and waverang conduct in prison brought discredit iipOA him. Croft, anotlier of the principal conspirators, obtained his pardon, and Sir Nicholas Throgntorton pleaded his own cause vrith su^ success, that he obtained a verdict in his &voia: from the jury. About fifty of the common men were hanged m the different parts of t^ metropolis : half^a^oaen suffered in Kent, and four hundred of the remainder were marched up to the palace with halters round their necks, where Mary appeared at the balcony, pronounced their pardon herself, and desired them to go home in peace. ^' Thaw executions,*' writes Dr. Lingard, *' have induced some writere to charge Mary with unnecessary cruelty ; perhi^ those who eompare her with her contemporaries in similar ctreumstenoee will hesitate to subscribe to that opinion. If, on <his oocaaioDy sixty of the insurgents were sacrificed to lier justice or re- sentment, we shall find in the history of lite next reign tliat, aftw a rebellion of a less formidable ai^iect, some hundreds of victims were required to appease the offended majesty of Elizabeth." This learned historian, in a note, further re^ marks: *^ If we look at the conduct of the government after

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ihe rebellions of 1715 and 1745, we shall not find that ihe praise of superior lenity is due to more modern times ;" or, he might have added, to Protestant rulers.

We have previously noticed that the princess Elizab^ was BOt an tmconoemed spectator in this conspiracy against her queen and sister, any more than Courtney, the earl of Devon- shire. The latter was committed to the Tower, and three members of the council were ordered to repair to Ashbridge to conduct Elizabeth to court. The modem editors, we see, have devoted nearly seventeen pages of their work to relate the '^miraculous preservation of the lady Elizabeth fitmi extreme oalasmity and danger in the time of queen Mary, her sidter," as detailed, "we bdieve, by John Fox himself, and worthy it is of <^t celebrated inventor of lies. It is no* to 1m expected that we can enter into a complete refiH»tion of this farrago of cant and fiction ; suffice it to say, that the extreme calamity and danger of lady Elizabeth lay in her Wng a suspected traitoress, and being ill, or pretending to be ill at the time these messengers were sent to bring her up to town. She received them in bed, complaining of severe illness; but two physicians attesting that she was able to travel, she was reluctantly obliged to accompany her twisty guides to liondon by short stages, not however, as a prisoner, but in state, in a litter, attended by two hundred gentlemen. What dreadful calamity and danger this lady traitw must have been in from her sister, queen Mary t She appeared unwell, and it was reported that she had been poisoned ; but a wed£ restored her to hei^th, and she demanded an audience of her sister. Mary returned for answer, that she must first establi^ her innocence. The council was in possession of a eonstderable mass of presumptive evidence against Elizabeth; the duke of Suffolk and Wyatt declared against her and Courtney, and though both declared their innocence, a war- rant was made out for the committal of Elizabeth, who received the intelligence with terror, and stamped and swore with fury. She was however compelled to submit, and took possession of hepr cell, under the fear that she would soon

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Bbare the fate of her mother. From this state of '^ extreme calamity and danger" she was saved bj the man who is represented by the miprincipled bigots of the day as thirsting for her blood. Gardiner, while he acknowledged that Eliza- beth and Courtney had been priry lo the designs of the rebels, and deserved punishment for their treason, yet con- tended they had not implicated themselves by any overt act, and therefore could not be convicted legally. His enemies seized the opportunity to ruin Gardiner with the queen, but Mary listened to the reasoning of her chancellor, found he was correct in his exposition of the law, and the next day Elizabeth was released from the Tower. Does this shew a narrowness of spirit, or an ignorance of the constitutiony which the modem editors accuse this injured queen of? Courtney was sent to Fotheringay castle, tibere to remain in custody.

Wyatt's rebellion occasioned a delay of the intended mar- riage between Mary and Philip for a few weeks, but the restless spirit of the fanatical reformers was still active in shewing itself. Three days before the execution of Wyatt, namely, on the 8th of April, << being then Sunday,^ says Stow^ " a cat, with her head shorn, and the likeness of a vestment cast over her, with her fore feet tied together, and a round piece of paper like a singing cake betwixt them, was hanged on a gallows in Cheap, near to the cross in the parish of St. Matthew, which cat being taken down, was carried to the bishop of London, and he caused the same to be shewed at Paul's Cross by the preacher, Dr. Pendleton." On the 10th of June following, the same historian says: '^Dr. Pendleton preached at Paul's Cross, at whom a gun was shot, the pellet whereof went very near him, and lit on the church wall. But the shooter could not be found." This daring attempt at assassination by the evangelical religionists was followed by a proclamation, forbidding the shooting of hand- guns and the bearing of weapons. These outrageous pro- ceedings arose not only from the intended marriage with the prince, but likewise from the desire the queen had alwaya

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expressed tliat the people should return to the ancient faith and join the bosom of the universal church, under which their ancestors had enjoyed so much glory* and happiness. In order to prepare the way for this wished-for event, the queen, about the 15th of March, in this year, issued out a commission, by which all the marbied clergy were deprived of their benefices, being unqualified to possess them. This inability was founded on the constant practice of the western church, on the wnanimotu atUhoriti/ of the canons, and the solemn engagement made by every ecclesiastic at his ordina- tion : likewise on the 4th of Henry VIII.'s six articles, which the parliament had passed into a law, and a late statute of Mary*s parliament, which recalled all religious matters to their condition at that prince's death, had ratified. So that Mary, instead of being " unacquainted with the constitution of the country,*' as the modem editors shamelessly assert, did nothing but in the most constitutional manner ; for this injunction was as legal and parliamentary as it was just and canonical. In consequence of these orders, Holgate, arch- bishop of Yoik, and the bishops of St. David's, Chester, and Bristol, who had been regulars, and, besides the promise made at their ordination, had broken the solemn vows made on entering a religious state, and those of Gloucester and Hereford, who were of the secular clergy, were deprived. Scory and Barlow, bishops of Chichester and Bath, who were in the same predicament, fled the kingdom. As vmuch calumny and misrepresentation have been resorted to b^ the advocates of Protestantism and the enemies of Catholicism to extol the character of the early reformers, so called, and brand the opposers of religious innovations and defenders of truth and unity with cruelty and love of blood, we deem it our duty to give the reader some account of the chief of these deposed bishops, from the testimony, observe, of Pro- testant historians.

Holgate, archbishop of York, not only made use of the indulgent doctrine, which, in Edward's reign, allowed the clergy to marry, but extended the licence to take another man's wife.^Collier*s Eccles. Hist. vol. ii. if. 5. p. 349,

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Edbert Farrar waa, firsi;, eha^aia to Cranmt^y and tlieiiy by the protector Sejmoulc's &vouj:, promoted to the btshoprie of St David ; but, on that, nobleman 'a fall, fiftj-six lurtidea were exhibited against him, for which he was coo&ied duxiiig the remainder of Edward's reign, and now d^raded. — Atk, Oxon. p. 679,

John Bird, bishop of Chester, was a Carmelite Ariar, and for his obsequiousness to the court measures at the dissolu- tion of the monasteries, and a remarkable sermon in support of tile lay supremacy, was promoted to a see in Ireland ; from whence he was translated to BangOT, and in 1514 to Chester. He went all the lengths of Henry's and Edward's reigns, and made use of die indulgence^ which the latter allowed of taking a wife. Being deprived of his bishopric^ he lived privately at Chester till his death,, in 1556. — Bale, cent, iu No. 41»— P»^, de lUusL^-^Angt* Script,'^ Godwin, de PrasuL Ang.

PmiI Bu^, bishop of Bristol^ was an Augustine friar, and had been chaplain to Henry YIIL, who promoted him to that see for his compliance with the court measures. But thougk he betrayed the same passive disposition during Edward'b reign, and took a wife, he «as never known either to preaeh or write against the ancient religion. He readily gave up his bishopric at the queen's command, and parted from his wife, and lived privately in Bristol till his death, in 1558.'^- Godwin de PrtBsuL Ang^ — Ath. Oxon.

William Barlow, bishop of Bath and Wells, was a Canon Regular, and very active, both in promoting the dissolutibn of religious houses in Henry's reign, and forwarding the various fnnovations of Edward's. Bdng deprived of his bishopric on account of marriage, he fled to Qenoany.-— Godwin, de PrasuL Atfg.^ — Ath, Oxon* voL i. p. 156.

Such were some of the chief performers in the work <^ doctrinal novelty and ministerial rapacity ; with what dis'^ cernment their places were supplied, so fkr as firmness and interest of principle were concerned, the event verified. Q^ the queen's death, when her succesBor, alter swearing topio-

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teot the Catbolie religioa^ tbou|^t proper to restore the new^ form of public worship, only Kitchin, bishop of LlandafiT, whO) Proteus like, had put on all the forms of religion in tiie three last reigns, could be induced, of that venerable bench, to submit to the change. Neither loss of wealth and dignitj, nor the hardships of imprisonment or deportation^ shook their constancy to the true faith ; and Dr. Heath, archbishop of York, and lord- chancellor, having succeeded Holgate in the one» and Gardiner in the other, made a dis- course, at the (^ning of the first parliament of Elizabeth^ on that lady^s assuming the AptW/eia/supremacy of theking-^ dom, which, for clearness and solidity, may vie with any of the pleadings of Tully and Demosthenes.

These proceedings alarmed the already discontented and turbulent leaders of evangelism, who, to their outrages al- ready mentioned, and finding they were not likely to succeed by open force and rebellion, had recourse to stratag^n and artifice, thinking thus to befool the people, and work them into hatred against Mary's government. This devioe we shall give in Dr. Heylin's words. " A young maid^" writes the doctor, '^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 ordijuaryy a strange whistle was devised for her, out of which her words proceded in such a tone as seemed to have nothing mortal in it. And thereupon it was afBmrad by some of iiya people, — great multitudes whereof resodrted daily to the plac^, ^that it was an angel, or, at least, a voice &om heaven ; by others, it could be nothing but the Holy Ghost ;f but, generally, she passed by ike name of the Spirit in ike 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 ttking on them to expound what the spirit said, delivered many dangerous and seditious w<»nds against ^e queen, her marriage with

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the prince of Spain, the mass, confessiony and the like^ The practice was first set on fodt on the 14th of March^ which was within ten days after the publishing of the artioks, and for a while it went on fortunately enough, according to the purpose of the chief contrirers. But the abuse being seardied into, and the plot discoT^ed, the wench was ordered to stand upon the 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 dedaration of that lewd imposture. Let not the Papists be from henceforth chiurged wiUi Elizabetii Barton, whom they called the Holy Maid of Kent ; since now the Zuinglian gospellers, (for 1 cannot but consider this a plot of theirs), have raised up their Elizabeth Crofts, whom they called die JSpirit in the Wall, to draw aside the people from their due allegiance.'' Another of the inconsistencies of these pretended reformers was, the inter* pretation of the scriptures against the right of the queen to rule| over them. Before Mary ascended the throne they had no objection to a female for their sovereign, because she happened to have been brought up in the new doctrines ; but now they had a constitutional and religious queen, whose sole object was the happiness of her people — but, at the same time, was persuaded, from the experience of history, that there was no permanent foundation for that happiness but in following the precepts of the Catholic ffdth — they turn th^ backs upon their own proceedings, and pretend that as scrip- ture declared man b the head of woman, it was contrary to the written word that awoman should possess the supreme authority over man.

Heretofore, be it observed, not an act had passed to in- fringe on the rights of conscience, or make new ofilmoes to come at the fanatical disturb^s of the peace. The prepara- tions for the marriage proceeded with activity, and on llie 19th of July, the prince of Spain landed at Southamptoo« and preeeded to Winchester, where he was met by the queen, and on the 25th the nuptual cer^nony was porfdMined in the

thedral of that city, by Gardmer, the bishi^ <if that <

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Philip was in tke tweDty-seventb year of his age, and the queen in her thirty-eighth. As soon as the ceremony was concluded, the imperial ambassador, in the name of the emperor, presented Philip with an instrument, by which he conferred upon him the kingdom of Naples. This proceeding put the royal pair upon a footing of equality, and they were proclaimed by the following style : — Philip and Mary, by the grace of Ood, king and q%ieen of England, France, Jfaples, Jerusalem^ and Ireland; defenders of the faith; princes of Spain and Sidlg ; archdukes qf Austria ; dukes of MUan, Burgundy, and Brabant ; counts of Hapsbourg, Flanders and Tyrol. Such were the high and honourable titles affixed to the crown of England by the marriage of Mary to Philip ; but, notwithstanding, she did not give satis- faction to the malcontents, because she and her royal husband were Catholics. The immense wealth brought over by Philip, and sent to the Tower to be coined, which filled ninety-seven chests, each chest being a yard and four inches long, and required twenty carts to convey it, we might have supposed would have softened down tlie antipathy to Catholicism. Could England obtain such a treasure at the time we are writing (Dec. 15, 1825), when the banks in the city and country are daily smashing, we really believe the Jews on the Stock Bzchange would embrace Catholicism, did the aid come Ax>m a Catholic country; however, the fanatics of old were incorrigible, and every engine was called into requisition to keep alive religious rancour. But Mary had taken her measures, and was resolved to pursue them.

On the 12th of November the second parliament .of this queen met for the dispatch of business ; and on the 24th of the same month cardinal Pole arrived at Westminster, as legate from the holy see, with powers to reconcile the nation to the universal church. An act, by which the cardinal was restored to blood, the attainder reversed, and he reinstated in all his rights and honours, had previously passed, and was presented to him at Qravesend on the foregoing day by the earl of Shrewsbury and the bishop of Purham. On the

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moning of the 28th of November, the legate paid a visit to the king and queen, when the accomplishment of the great work of the nation's reconciliation with the Catholic chnrch was brought about. The incidents attending this most important event are so truly interesting to Englishmen, that we shall give them in the words of Dr. Lingard, not being willing to trust our pen with the narration. " In consequence of a royal message," writes the learned historian, ** the lords and commons repaired to the court : and, after a few words from the chancellor, Pole, in a long harangue, returned them thanks for the act which they had passed in his favour; ex- horted them to repeal, in like manner, all the statutes enacted in derogation of the papal authority ; and assured them of every facility on his part to effect the reunion of the cbnrdi of England with that of Home. The chancellor, having first taken the orders of the king and queen, replied, that the two houses would deliberate apart, and signify their determination on tha following morning.

*' The motion for the reunion was carried almost by ac- clamation. In the lords every voice was raised in its favonr : in the commons, out of three hundred members, two only demurred, and these desisted from their opposition the next day. It was determined to present a petition in the name of both houses, to the king and queen, stating that they looked back with sorrow and regret on the defection of the realm from the communion of the apostolic see : that they were ready to repeal, as far as in them lay, every statute which had either caused or supported that defection : and that they hoped, through the mediation of their majesties, to be ab- solved from all ecclesiastical censures^ and to be received into the bosom of the universal church.

^' On the following day, the feast of St. Andrew, the queen took her seat on the throne. The king was placed on her left hand, the legate, but at greater distance, on her right. The chancellor read the petition to their majesties: they spoke to the cardinal : and he, after a speech of some dura- tion, absolved all those present, and the whole nation, and the

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dominions thereof, horn all heresy and schism, and all judg- ments, censures, and penalties for that cause incurred: and irestored them to the communion of the holj church, in the name of the Father, Son, and Holj Ghost. *Amen' resounded from every part of the hall : and the members, rising from their knees, followed the king and queen into the chapel, where a Te Deum was chanted in thanksgiving for the event. The next Sunday the legate, at the invitation of the citizens, made his public entry into the metropolis ; and Gardhier preached at St. Paul's Cross the celebrated sermon in which he lamented in bitter terras his conduct under Henry VI JI. ; and exhorted all, who had fallen through his means, or in his company, to rise with him and seek the unity of the Catholic church.

" To proceed with this work, the two houses and the con- vocation simultaneously presented separate petitions to the throne. That from the lords and commons requested their majesties to obtain from the legate all those dispensations and indulgences, which the innovations made during the schism had rendered necessary, and particularly such as might secure the property of the church to the present possessors without scruple of conscience, or impeachment froin the ecclesiastical courts. The other, from the clergy, stated their resignation of all right to those possessions of which the church had been deprived ; and their readiness to acquiesce in every arrangement to be made by the legate. His decree was soon afterwards published: — 1 . That all cathedral churches hospitals, and schools, founded during the scbism, should be preserved ; 2. That all persons, who had contracted marriage within the prohibited degrees, without dispensation, should remain married ; 3. That all judicial processes ma&e before the ordinaries, or an appeal before delegates, should be held valid ; and 4. That the possessors of churih property should not, either now or hereafter, be molested, under pretence of any canons of councils, decrees of popes, or censures of the church ; for which purpose, in virtue of the authority vested in him, he took from all spiritual courts and judges the

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cognizance of these matters, and pronotmced, beforehand, aQ such processes and judgments invalid and of no effect.

** In the mean time a jonit committee of lords and com- mons had been actiyelj employed in framing a most import- ant and comprehensive bill, which deserves the attention of the reader, from the accuracy with which it distinguishes between the civil and ecclesiastical jurisdictions, and the care with which it guards against any encroachment on the part of the latter. It first repeals several statutes by name, and then, in general, all clauses, sentences, and articles in every other act of parliament made since the 20th of Henry VIII., against the supreme authority of the pope's holiness, or see apostolic. It next recites the two petitions, and the dispensation of the legate ;• and enacts, that every artide in that dispensation shall be reputed good and effectual in law, and may be alleged and pleaded in all courts, spiritual and temporal. It then proceeds to state, that though the legate hath by his decree taken away all matter of impeachment, trouble, or danger to the holders of church property ; yet, because the title of lands and hereditaments in this realm is grounded on the laws and customs of the same, and to be tried and judged in no other courts than those of their ma- jesties, it is therefore enacted, by authority of parliament, that all such possessors of church property shall hold the same in manner and form as they would have done, had this act never been made ; and that any person who shall mdest such possessors by process out of any ecclesiastical court, either within or without the realm, shall incur the penalty <d prsdmunire. Next, it provides, that all papal bulls, dispen- sations, and privileges, not containing matter prejudicial to the royal authority, or to the laws of the realm, may be pot in execution, used; and alleged in all courts whatsoever ; and concludes by declaring, that nothing in this act shall be ex- plained to impair any authority or prerogative belonging to the crown, in the 20th year of Henry YIII. ; that the pope shall have and enjoy, without diminution or enlargement, the same authority and jurisdiction, which he might then

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have lawfully exercised; and that the jurisdiction of the bishops shall be restored to that state in which it existed at the same period. In the lords, the bill was read thrice in two days ; in the coq^ods, it was passed^ after a sharp debate, on the third reading. Thus was re-established, in England, the old system of religious polity, which had ^evailed for so many centuries before Henry VIII."

The same writer observes, in a note on the 20th of Henry TIU. : '^ Most readers have very confused and incorrect no- tions of the jurisdiction which the pontiff, in virtue of his supremacy, claimed to exercise within the realm. From this act, and the statutes which it repeals, it follows, that that jurisdiction was comprised under the following heads : 1. He was acknowledged as chief hishop of the Christian churchy .with authority to reform and redress heresies, errors, and abuses, within the same. 2. To him belonged the institu- tion or confimation of bishops elect. 3. He could grant to clergymen licenses of non-residence, and permission to hold more than one benefice, with cure of souls. 4. He dispensed in the canonical impediments to matrimony; and 5. He xeceived appeals from the spiritual courts."

We cannot pass ovw this memorable event, without taking a slight review of some of the causes which seem to have prepared the nation for so speedy and universal a revolution ; one of which seems to have been the shortness of time— not more than twenty years — since England had renounced the religion to which she had now returned, and which had heen her faith for above nine centuries. Another was, probably, 80 far as the great body of the people was concerned, the deplorable state of misery and starvation to which the poor had been reduced by the dissolution of monasteries and re- ligious houses, which it was hoped, no doubt, would be re- moved by the re-establishment of those receptacles of virtue and charity. To these facts we shall add the authority of witnesses who, in this case, being Protestant, must be above all question : one of them assigns very natural reasons for the little satisfaction which sensible and well-disposed minds

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could find in such novelties ; and the other sets forth, in a very impartial light, some arguments, ** which," as ho ex- presses himself, " may prevail on men of much reason, and more pietj," to entertain a favourable opinion of the religion which the nation now embraced.

The first acknowledges, ** that the licentious and dissipate life of many of the professors of the gospel, and — which was but too visible in some of the more eminent among them — the open blemishes of some of the clergy who promoted the Eeformation, contributed to alienate the people, to raise a general aversion, and to make the nation entertain as advan- tageous a notion of the religion they had quitted, as their prejudices had been strong against it ; and to^look upon all the innovations that had been made as so many inlets into all manner of vice and wickedness.'* — Bishop Burnetts History of (he Reformation^ vol. iii. p. 217.

" The members of the Boman Catholic communion," says the other author, " whose authority I have pleaded, may say, that their religion was that of their forefathers, and had the actual possession of men's minds before the opposite opinions had even a name ; and having continued in it through such a length of time, it would be objected to them with an iU grace, that this was the effect of invention or design ; be- cause it was not likely that all ages should have the same purposes, or that the same doctrine should serve the different ends of several ages. This prescription, moreover, rests on these grounds : that truth is more ancient than falsehood ; and that God would not, for so many ages, have forsaken bis church, and left her in error. To this antiquity of doctrme is annexed an uninterrupted succession of their bishops from the apostles, and particularly of their superior bishop from St. Peter, whose personal prerogatives were so great, and the advantageous manner in which many eminent prelates of other sees have expressed themselves with regard to tbe church of Rome. This prerogative includes the advantages of monarchy, and the constant benefits which are derived from that form of government. Nor does the multitude and

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tarietj of people who are of that persuasion, their apparent consent with elder ages, and their agreement with one another, form a less presimiption in their favour. The same conclusion [he says] must he inferred from the differences which have arisen amongst their adversaries, and from the casualties which have happened to many of them ; from the ohlique and sinister proceedings of some who have left their communion ; from the appellation of heretic and schismatic, which they fix on all who dissent from them." To these negative arguments he adds those of a more positive kind : viz., " The heauty and splendour of the church of Rome, her solemn service, the stateliness and magnificence of her hierarchy, and the name of Catholic, which she claims as her own due, and to concern no other sect of Christianity. It has been their happiness to he instrumental to the con- version of many nations. The world is witness to the piety and austerity of their religious orders ; to the single life of their priests and bishops ; the severity of their fasts and observances; to the great reputation of many of their bishops for faith and sanctity, and the known holiness of some of those persons, whose institutes the religious orders follow." — Dr. Jeremy Taylor on the Liberty of Prophesying. The renouncement of the supremacy of the see of Rome was the first breach of this nation with the Catholic church, and the acknowledgment of it was the first step of a return to the ancient faith. We are aware that there is much difficulty to satisfy the Protestant reader of the expediency, and much more the necessity^ of such a measure ; however, we will here^ quote the authority of a learned Protestant writer on the subject, and leave it to his own common sense to decide the point. ** It is well known,*' says Grotitcs, speaking of him- self, in his last reply to Eivet, written a short time before his death, '^ that I have always wished to see Christians reunited in the same body ; and I once thought this conjunction might be begun by an union of Protestants among themselves. I have since perceived that this is impossible, not only because the Calvinists are averse to all such agreements, but because

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Protestants are not associated tinder any one form of govern- ment, and therefore cannot be united iii one body, but must necessarily be separated into other new sects and divi^ons. I therefore, and many others with me, plainly see that this concord of Protestants can never be effected, unless they are united to the Boman see, without which no common church government can take place : for which reason I wish thttt the separation which has been made, and the causes of it, may cease. Now, amongst these, the canonical primacy of the bishop of Home cannot, as Melancthon himsdf confesse^j, be placed ; for he judges that very primacy necessary, in order to maintain and preserve unity." If this testimony is not sufficient to convince the reader of the necessity of having a supreme head to preserve unity in the body, let him ccmsolt Dr. Field's preface to his Book on the Church ; ]>)r. Ham- mond, in his Treatise on Heresy, § 13, Nos. 2, 3, and his Comment, on 1 Tim. iii. 15 ; Br. Jackson on the Creed, b. 2, chap. iv. p. 165, and Br. Feme ; who alt seem tooxtort from their readers the same concession in this article of the Catholic faith, which St. Paul drew from Agrippa With respect to the Christian religion in general : <* Thou periuadest nu almost to he a Christian,** Acts, xxvi. 28»

The reconciliation was concluded by a general pardon for offences against the queen, and among other prisoners were, according to Stow, the late archbishop of York, Sir John Bogers, Sir James a Crofts, Sir Nicholas Throgmorton, Sir Nicholas Arnold, Sir Edward Warwick, Sir George Harper, Sir William Sentlow, Sh: Andrew Budley, and Sir Gavin Carew, knights. These prisoners were set at liberty on the 18th of January, 1555, and it clearly shews that Mary did not then seek " to domineer over the rights of private judg- ment, and trample on the liberties of mankind.^ N'^, no, Inodem editors of Foa^s Book of Martyrs ; it was not Mary that sought to play the tyrant, but tiie pretended martyrs of John Fox and their confederates at home and abroad, who, by their plottings and preachings, sapped the basis of social order and ciril liberty, and compelled dae Catholic sovereigns

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of Europe to resort to harsh measures, to presenre the rights and priyileges of mankind. We have seen that Poynef, Ushop of Winchester, fled to the continent, after engaging in Wyatt's rebellion. Others of the reforming party betook themselves likewise to flight ; some to Frankfort, and some to Qenera, where they fu'actised their treasons underhand. Of these, were Whittiugham, Goodman, Scory, Wood, Knox, JoHK Fox, Jewel, Horn, Sands, and Grindal, and they had not long been at the first mentioned place, before they began to wrangle about the Book of Common Prayer, and other matters, as well as to hatch up treason. " When Whittiug- ham, and divers others of a more violent humour," says the author of The Survey of the pretended Holy Diidpline, '* came first to Frankfort, i^ej fell presently into a very special liking of ihe Geneva discipline, as finding it to contain such rules and practices as did greatly concur with their own dispositions, viz : that if bishops and princes refused to admit of the gos- pel, ihey might be used by their subjects as the bishop of Geneva was used, that is, deposed. And that every particular minister mth assistants, according to the platform of liiat discipline, was himself a bishop, and had as great an authority widiin his own parish as any bishop in the world ; might lawfully challenge, even to the excommunication of the best, as well princes as peasants, &o, Howbeit, many there were, as Dr. Oox, Dr. Horn, Mr. Jewel, with sundry others, who, perceiving the tricks of that discipline, did utterly dislike it." (pp. 45, 46.) So, in the History of the Troubles <U Frankfort (pp. 44, 45), we find Ejiox making use of the following language towards this country : ^' Oh, England ! England! if thou wilt obstinately return into Egypt, that is, if thou contract marriage, confederacy, or league wi]l^ such princes as do maintun and advance idolatry, such as the emperor, who is not less than an enemy to Christ than was Nero ; if for the pleasure and friendship, I say, of such princes, thou return to thine old abominations before used under papistry, then, assuredly. Oh England ! thou shalt be plagued and brought to desolation by the means of those whose favonr

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thou seekest, and by whom tboa art procured to fall from Christ, and serve antichrist." For these and such-like trea- sonable sentiments against the emperco', his son PhiHp, and queen Mary, Knox was compelled to fly to Frankfort, and was followed by some of his party. These turbol^it spirits were in correi^ndence with their co-mates in Eng- land. It may here be proper to remark, that the reformers or gospellers were themsdves the assertors of the right of the civil power to punish evil doers, and Calvin set the example by burning Servetus. It must not be forgotten too, that Craumer was consenting to the death of Lambert and Anne Askew, under Henry the Eighth, and urged the young prince to sign the death warrant of Joan Bocher and Yon Paris for HEREST. Nay, in a code of ecclesiastical disdpline, compiled by Cranmer for the government of the reformed church of England, it was ordained that indiriduals accused of holding "heretical opinions should be • arraigned before the spiritual courts ; should be excommunicated on conviction ; and, after a respite of sixteen days, should, if they continued obstinate, be delivered to the civil magistrate, to suffer T(fE pukish- HENT PROVIDED BY THE LAW. This codc was levelled against the professors of the ancient faith, for, by this new oode^ the doctrines of transubstantiation and supremacy, and the denial of justification by faith oiily, were made heresy, and of course would have subjected every Catholic to the punish- ment of death. The demise of Edward YI. put an end to this scheme of Cranmer to wreak his vengeance on ^ believers of that faith which he had repeatedly sworn to teach when it was his interest, and basely violated his solemn pledges when he could do it with safety to his neck. But only think, reader, of the consistency of those writers who clamour so loudly against the persecuting spirit of die Catholics, when the page of genuine history proves that the gospellers were as sanguinary towards Catholics as ever Catholics could be towards them. Besides, the CatholicB did not invent their religion, but received it from th^ apostieaand their successors, which religion^ the scripture says^ is on-

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changeable and immutaWe. Whereas the religion, if such it can be called, of Cranmer and the gospellers was of human invention, ever varying and unsettled ; jet did he propose a code to bum those who should constantly adhere to the one invariable faith professed in England for nine hundred years before him ; but, in a short time, he and his associates fell into the trap he had contrived for others.

With whom the persecution originated in Mary's reign is, according to Dr. Liugard, a matter of uncertainty. Gar- diner and Bonner have both been charged with cruelty, and as being the instigators of these lamentable proceedings ; but this learned writer has ably rescued the character of Gardiner from being of a mercenary disposition, and though it must be admitted that Bonner, from his situation, was compelled to pronounce a decree of heresy against a great number of the gospellers, yet it does not appear that he was a persecutor from choice, or went in search of victims, as the Protestants did, and were encouraged to do so, by rewards, in the time of Elizabeth, the " glorious" queen Bess, who was a more merciless tyrant than her father Henry. All that is known for certainty is, that the question of severe measures to reduce the restless spirit of the new preachers was frequently debated in council after the queen's marriage, but she was not apprized of their final resolution before the beginning of November, when she returned the following answer in writing : — " Touching the punishment of heretics, we thinketh it ought to be done without rashness y not leaving, in the mean time, to do justice to such as, by learning, would seem to deceive the simple ; and the rest so to be used, that the people will perceive them not to be condemned without just occasion; by which they shall both understand the truth, and beware not to do the like. And especially within London, I would wish none to be burnt without some of the council's presence, and both there and every where good sermons at the same time." This we have on the authority of Collier, and certainly here is nothing of a spirit indicating a desire " to domineer over the rights of private judgment,

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and trample on the priyileges of mankind," which the modem editors charge this queen with harbouring. While these discussions were going on in council, an act was brought into parliament to reviTC the statutes which had formerly been enacted to suppress the doctrine of the Lol- lards. Every voice was in its favour, and, in the course of four days, it had passed the two houses. Here, then, was no shew of ignorance, nor any desire to violate the consititution of the country ; on the contrary, the proceedings were per- fectly constitutional and regular. The passing of this act alarmed the reformed preachers, maiiy of whom were, at the time, in custody. They composed and forwarded petitions, including a confession of their faith, to the king and queen^ and to parliament, and in which they made professiona of loyalty. But while the preachers in prison professed sub- mission to the laws, those who were at large acted with in- temperance and outrage. On the 81 st of December, one Boss, a celebrated preacher, openly prayed for the death of the queen. He was surprised in the fact, and taken to prisob, with some of his disciples. Parliament immediately passed a law, making it treason to pray for the queen's death; while lyiug John Fox eulogizes these traitors as honest citizens, and bishop Hooper considered them as suf- fering saints.

We have seen, in our own days, the dreadful evils arising from heated imaginations, and the want of sterling rdigious principles to guide the opinions of political theorists. The horrors and dreadful outrages arising from the French revo- lution are fresh in every one's memory ; nor can the modern editors of Fox be ignorant of the penal statutes that have been passed within the last forty years, to stop the progress of philosophical and unbelieving sophistry. £[ave not the British parliament made new laws of treason and sedition, and have not numerous individuals been punished with death and banishment under them ? We have had gagging bills, power-of-imprisonment bills, sunset and sunrise biUs, for Ireland, under which the poor peasant may be transported.

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without trial bj jury, for being out of his house a quarter- of-an-hour, and a distance of a quarter-ofa-mile, before sun- rise or after sunset. We have had individuals tried and imprisoned for years for writings and publications tending to bring the Christian religion into contempt. We have had all these things done bj our Protestant government, and in our own times : and are Catholics to be insulted by exagger- ated tales of cruelty said to have been done three hundred years ago? The alleged motive of these modem proceed- ings was the preservation of " social order and holy re- ligion ;" the same motives were alleged by Mary's counseUors. The latter contended, that rigid justice was absolutely ne- cessary to overawe that fanatical mob, and to quell the spirit of sedition.

Mary's counsellors, it must be observed, did not make new laws, nor forge new crimes, to punish her refractory subjects, as was the case with her father and brother, whose example was followed by her sister £lizabeth. These usurpers of the spiritual authority coined creeds as well as crimes, from mere caprice, and punished men, not for doing wrong, but for be- lieving and adhering to that faith which was the right one. Mary's advisers contented themselves with reviving the an- cient statutes of the land, which we will explain hereafter. The religion which the nation had again embraced, was the religion of their ancestors, and of the whole world. It had been introduced nine hundred years, by the force of persuasion and miracles, and was nurtured by the blood of the saints. Under it the most wholesome and equitable laws had been enacted to secure the rights and properties of every class of the community, both ecclesiastical and civil, and at no time was England more powerful and happy than when she sub- mitted to the spiritual supremacy of the head of the Ca- tholic church, and preserved the people from religious feuds and fanaticism. Until the time of WicklifPe, no penal law was passed concerning religious opinions, nor would there have been even after his doctrines began to 8pread,had they not been the cause of rebellion and bloodshed. We have, in the pre-

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ceding part of this work, shewn the eril results of the Wick- liffite heresy, but these results are carefully kept from the people by mterested or prejudiced writers, who represent the professors of truth as cruel and sanguinary for attempting to stop the progress of error and delusion, and the disciples of error as the champions of truth. It was only on the 15th of December, 1825 (our birth-day, and St. Eusebius's day), that a London paper put forth an article which was headed, ** Penal Laws against Protestants, or Specimens of Ancient Chtholic Legislation,^^ The acts passed at the period alluded to might as well be alleged to have been passed against the modem philosophers of France as against Protestants, for there was not a Protestant in existence at the time the acts were made, as Wickliffe held the doctrine of the Mass, which Protestants deny, and swear that it is damnable idolatry. Consequently, Wickliffe was not a Protestant, though he and his disciples were condemned for preaching heterodoxy.

But allowing that Wickliffe was a Protestant, and ** the true author of the Reformation,*' the Protestantism which he preached would no more be tolerated by our present Pro- testant government than it was by the government of the Plantagenets and Tudors. Most of our readers are ac- quainted with the insurrection of Wat Tyler and Jack Cade, but they are not so well acquainted with the cause of their rebellion. It arose chiefly from the pernicious notions imbibed by the people through the means of ignorant preachers, who went about the country dogmatizing against the clergy and their possessions, and instigating the people to dispossess them of their benefices. All men of letters were objects of hatred with these precursors of the Beformation, and it was found necessary to repress their tumultuous conduct by the strong arm of the law. On this occasion an act was passed in the year of Bichard II. cap. i., which says : *' Forasmuch as it is openly known, that there be divers evil persons within the realm, going from county to county, and ftom town to town, in certain habits, under dissimulation of great holiness^ and without the licence of our holy father the pope, or other

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sufficient authority ^ preaching daily, not only in churches and church -yards, hut also in markets, fairs, and other open places, where a great congregation is, divers sermons, con- taining heresies and notorious errors, to the great hlemish- ing of the Christian £uth, and destruction of the laws and of the estate of the holy church, to the great peril of the souls oi the people and of all the realm of England, <&c, — which preachers, cited or summoned before the ordinaries of the places, there to answer of that whereof they be impeached, will not obey to their summons and commandments; nor care not for their monitions, nor the censures of the holy church, but expressly despise them ; and moreover by their subtle and ingenious words, to draw the people to hear their sermons, and maintain them in their errors by strong hand, and by great routs, &c. —Enacts, that persons indicted and accused of such heresy, should be committed to the ordinaries, and openly tried, and being convicted, should abjure and do penance, or suffer imprisonment, &e.**

We take this extract on Protestant authority, and we should be glad to know what objection can be made to the tenour of this act which will not apply to the penal statutes passed by Protestant parliaments ; unless, indeed, it should be contended that people may act with impunity against Catholic rulers, but must be obedient in all things when Protestants are set over them. This law was not intended against men of god- liness, but'against " evil persons," who affected great holiness, and harangued the people without authority, insinuating heresy among the ignorant, which, according to Dr. Johnson, means " an opinion of private men different from that of the Catholic and orthodox church," and consequently were, as the act sets forth, '^ notorious errors," disfiguring the truth, and menacing '* destruction to the laws." And is there a man of common sense, in this enlightened age, to be found condemning this statute of our Catholic forefathers, when the very same proceedings would be punished at this day, in this Protestant country, were the modem editors or any other stanch Protestants to tread in the steps of Wickliffe's disciples.

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Yesj in the United States of America would these pre- cursors of the Reformation meet with a little wholesome castigation, though there is no state religion in that repuUie, if any of them were to act idth open force as the ^Vickliffites were known to do, though tlus important fact is studiously suppressed hj those writers who arraign the conduct of ^xe Catholics in what they call ihe ** dark ages.'' Does not this very law specify that these new pretenders to holiness and truth, after drawing the people into error hy subtle, t^t is, sly, artful, cunning words, instigating ihem to maintain ** their errors by strong hand and by great routs,** whidi is manifestly contrary to the spirit of the Oal^lic religion, as that religion was spread, in every case, by tibe very opposite means to force and commoticm, and when it was persecuted, those who professed it surrendered their lives rather than dishonour their faith by being guilty of the least violence.

But before we {proceed further in our remarks, we must give from the same authority two extracts from the 2nd of Henry FV., who forcibly d^)osed the former sovereign, but fbnn^ it necessary to guard against the evil doings c^ tiie precursors of the Reformation. The writer of the article says, this act of the last named monarch ''more particularly defines the persons here spoken to be," it says, " a new sect of the fiaith, of the sacraments of the church, And of the authority of the same damnable thinking, and against the law of God and of the churchy usurping the offices of preaching, and who do perversely and maliciously, in divera places within the said realm, imder f^ colour of dissembled holiness, preach and teach these days, openly and privily, divers new doctrines, and wicked heretical and erronetnu opinions, contrary to the same faith and blessed detenmna- tions of the holy church; and of sudi sect and wicked doctrine and opinions, they make unlawful conventicles and confederacies, they hold and exercise schools, &ey do make and write books, they do wickedly instruct and inform people, and as much as they may ea?cite and stir them to BBDntON and msuRBBCTiON/' Sec. And it ** ordains, that persoaB i

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victed of such offences, and who shall refuse duly to abjure the same ; or who, after abjuration shall be pronounced, do fall into relapse, so that according to ihe holy canons he ought to be left to the semdar court ; after due process, the mayor, sheriff or sheriffs, dec., of the place where the offence shflJl be committed, shall, after sentence, receive them before the people in a high pktee, to he burnt; that such punish- ment may strike fear into the minds of others, whereby no such heretical doctrine, nor their authors and fkuters in the said realm against the Catholic hi^, Christian law, and determination of the holy church, which Ood prohibit, be sustained or in any wise suffered. '^

From these extracts we find the same crimes of sedition and insurrection made the groundwork of the punishment, and the same cause named as jmHlucing these crimes, namely, hypocrisy in affecting piety, and perversity and malice in spreading their errors. The doctrines and opmions are de^ nominated wicked, and the conventicles unlawful ; now, had not our ancestors, Plough they n&ce Catholics, as much right to guard agunst wicked errors as our Protestant government ? We have had several acts passed within tiie last twenty years to prevent the holding of unlawful and seditious assemblies ; and why should not Gadiolic pariiaments be allowed to pro* tect the peace and safety of the realm at the dose of the fourteenth and beginning of ihe fifteenth centuries, against similar disturbers of the common weal, as Protestant parlia- ments in the nineteenth century ? If the Protestant reader would divest himself of that prejudice imbibed by his educa-* tion, and look to the two cases, wiUi religion substracted &om the first, he would find that had not our Catholic ancestors taken the precautions which they did to resist and destroy the pemieious subtilties and seditious practices of the Wickliffites, more generally known by the name of Lollards, the Protestants would not now have had any privileges to be alarmed for, lest the Catholics should regain the ascendancy and take away these rights from them. A circumstance which, if attempted in our time, we would oppose with all the energy of our mind.

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We have shewn, to demonstration, that the two statutes of Bichard II. and Henry lY. were not directed to invade the right of conscience, but to repress the exercise of force to benight and hold the mind in wtot^ and prevent those dire calamities which naturally follow a state of insubordination and licentiousness among the people. Although punishment was enacted in the case of obstinacy and depravity^ yet it does not follow that mild means were not resorted to, for the prevention of crime; and in fact no endeavour was left untried to bring the mistaken disciples of the new doctrines and wicked practices to a sense of their duty. That preven- tion, and not punishment, was the object of the rulers of those days, is unanswerably proved by the few executions that occurred under these two acts, which have been so much re- probated by Protestant writers, during the reign of the Catholic sovereigns, till the rule of that merciless bloody tyrant, Henry YIII., who became the first Protestant head of the church of England. WickMe himself died a natural death, the mischievous efiect of his doctrines not appearing till after he had passed into tilie grave ; of his followers not more than twenty-two suffered under the above laws, which were found necessary to be enacted, during the long space of 113 years, even according to John Fox himself, who includes in this number Sir John Oldcastle, a notorious traitor. Nor did Mary's advisers recommend the renewal of these laws, to glut their vengeance with the blood of the misguided and turbulent victims of delusion, but with a view to intimidate and restrain those tumultuous ebullitions which the seditious writings and preachings of the gospellers were fanning to a flame. We have before shewn that the queen received the greatest provocations to resort to harsh measures, which she forbore with a lenity hitherto unparalleled, and never yet followed. To this period not one had been punished for an offence touching religion. Those who Quffered were convicted traitors, and but one, namely lady Jane Grey, was an object of pity with the people. This merciful forbearance, however, instead of gaining on the affections of the infatuated dis«

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ciples of the gospellers, only tended to embolden them in their outrageous conduct ; but what was evidently the feeling of charity, inspired by true religion, was mistaken for the effect of fear. Fresh provocations were given, and it was at length resolved to try what coercion would do to heal the disorders which now raged with so much excess. But this determination was not come to without opposition from some of the council. Cardinal Pole, who, as legate to the pope, represented the head of the Catholic chiu*ch, was strenuous for mild measures. Dr. Heylin says the cardinal ^'was clearly of opinion, that they should rest themselves contented with the restitution of their own religion ; that the said statutes should be held forth as 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." Dr. Lingard also bears testimony to the clemency of the legate's disposition. '^ In a confidential letter to the cardinal of Augsburgh," writes that historian, '' he has unfolded to us his own sentiments without reserve. He will not, he says, deny that there may be men, so ad- dicted to the most pernicious errors themselves, and so apt to seduce others, that they may justly be put to death, for the same purpose as we amputate a limb to preserve the body. But this is an extreme case : and, even when it happens, every gentler remedy should be applied before such punish- ment is infiicted. In general/ lenity is to be preferred to severity: and the bishops should remember that they are fathers as well as judges, and ought to shew the tenderness of parents, even when they are compelled to punish. This has always been his opinion ; it was that of his colleagues, who presided with him at the council of Trent, and also of the prelates who composed that assembly." The lord chan- cellor, Gardiner, is said by Dr. Heylin to have differed from the legate, and to have contended for the enforcing of the statutes on the principal supporters of the heretics, whether

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they were of the eedesiastieal hierarchy or the lay nohility ; and hishop Bonner is repres^ited hy the same authority as forioas in favour of perseottti<m> which he justified, the doctor says, hy precedent from the evan g^elists or go^llers them- aelves. ''Have I not seen [suth he] that the h^etics them-*> selves have broke the ice, in putting one of their own number (I think tiiey called him by name of Serretus) to a cruel death ? Could it be thought no crime in them to take that more seYere course against one of their Inrethren, 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 reck<m 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 ? " Oranmer too, be it observed and never forgotten, was an advocate for persecution even of Pro- testants, or sudi as are now called so, he having laboured with Bidley to instil into the youthful mind of Sdward, '' that as Moses ordered blasphemers to be pot to death, so it was the duly of a Christian prince, and more so of one who bore the title of d^fmdor of ihefaUk^ to eradicate the cockle from the field of God's church, to cut out the gangrene that it might not spread to the sounder parts."— (i^sfwk xv. 182.) Elisa- beth, abo—* that darling she-pope and foundress of the esta- blished church ; she who is hailed with the title of '' virgin queen,'' and '' glorious Bess," while h^ sister Mary is deno- minated the ** bloody " queen— this sweet lady could issue oat her commisfflons for hwmvng heretieB, in one of whidi, to Sir Nicholas Bacon, she says : '' They have been justly declared heretics, and therefore, as corrupt members, to be cat off from the rest of the flock of Ohrist, lest they should d^nipt

others professing the true Christian faith We, thorefoa^

according to regal function and Moe, minding the execatioii of justice in this behalf, require you to award and mi^e out our writ of execution," ^.— >(id^m. xv. 740.) From these facts it is clear l^t both parties seem to have been agreed in the right of the semlar power to put heretics to death, and as we have proved that the legate, cardinal Pole, as well as

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Others, was opposed to severe meatures, it is not too much to expect of the Protestant reader, that he will acquit the Catholic ehvreh of holding persecuting doctrines, which she reall J does not admit, when persecution has heen practised to a much greater degree and with less shew of justice hj Fro-* testants than hj Catholics. Because the latter adhere to one only divbe ftdth, whereas the former admit the right of every individual to choose his own individual opinion^ and then prmish him for so doing !

The council having decided on strong measures, on the 22nd of January, 1555, the chancellor called hefore him the cliief of the prisoncH^, put them in mind of the tendency of tbe statutes revived in the last parliament, and admonished them to avoid the punishment that would succeed a spirit of contumacy. A few days after the court was opened, at which Gardiner presided, and thirteen l»shops yrere present, with a numher of lords and knights. The presence of the latter plainly shews that the court was not exclusively ecclesiastic. Six prisoners were called before them ; of these, Hooper, the deprived bishop of Gloucester ; Rogers, a prebendary of St. Paul's ; Saunders, rector of Allhallows, in London ; and Taylor, rector of Hadley, in Sufblh, according to Dr« Lingard's testimony, but of Hertford^ if we are to eredk Heylin ; reiused to subscribe to the Catholic doctrine. One of the others feigned a recantation ; and the sixth petitioned for time, which was granted. A delay of twenty-four hours was allowed the first four ; and on their second refusal they were excommunicated. The excommunication was followed by the delivery of the prisoners to the civil power. Here we will just observe, that the proceedings do not appear to have been conducted with haste and severity. Although we dis*- approve of the mixing up religious questions with pditical crimes, stUl justice ought to be done to the persecutors as well as to the persecuted, and sudi was the nature of the doctrines taught by the gospellers that it was next to an im- possibility to separate the two subjects in t^e case of these offenders. Bogers was the first of the four that was executed,

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and he was burned in SmitMeld on the 4th of February* Gardiner from this time declined all further attendance, and his place was occupied by Bonner. This latter prelate, on the 9th of the same month, accompanied by the lord mayor and sheriffisy ahd several members of the council, excommu- nicated six other prisoners, and turned them over to the civil power. On the day following, however, a circumstance occurred which should never be forgotten, in justice to the parties, but which is wilfully suppressed by those who are led by their prejudices to calunmiate and vilify the Catholic church. A Spanish Mar, named Alphonso di Castro, and confessor to king Philip, was ordered to preach before the court, and to the astonishment of his hearers, but to his own immortal honour, condemned the harsh proceedings just adopted in the most pointed and severe manner. He pro- nounced them to be in direct opposition not only to the text, but to the spirit of the gospel : it was not by severity, he said, but by mildness, that men were to be brought into the fold of Christ ; and it was the duty of the bishops not to seek the death, but to instruct the ignorance, of their misguided brethren. " Men were at a loss,*' says Dr. Lingard, " to account for this discourse, whether it were the spontaneous effort of the friar, or had been suggested to him by the policy of Philip, or by the humanity of the cardinal, or by the re- pugnance of the bishops. It made, however, a deep impres- sion: the execution of the prisoners was suspended: the question was again debated in the council ; and five weeks elapsed before the advocates of severity could obtain per« mission to rekindle the fires of Smithfield." Nor would thej in all probability have been rekindled, had not the turbulent spirit of the gospellers provoked the court to resume harah measures. That Mary had no desire to *' domineer over the right of private judgment, and trample on the privileges of mankind,'' as the modem editors of Fox unjustly accuse her of, she about this time released Courtney, the earl of Devon- shire, from confinement, and he, with Elizabeth, repaired to Hampton Court, to enjoy the festivities of Easter with the

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queen The bidhops too were very reluctant to take upon themselves the odious task of calling the prisoners before them, and it was not till Bonner had received a reprimand, through the instigation of the new marquis of Winchester, who, in the former reign, was a pious gospeller, but had now become the most furious persecutor, that the fires were again lighted. And they were made to blaze more freely from the riotous proceeding of the fanatical imbibers of evangelism.

In the month . of March a new conspiracy was detected, which had been organized in the counties of Norfolk, Suffolk, and Cambridge. On Easter Sunday, Stowe says, a priest, sometime a monk of £ly, and also of Bicester, named William Branch, alieu Flower, woimded another priest with a knife, as he was administering the sacrament to the people in St. Margaret's church at Westminster : for which deed the said William Flower, on the 24th of April, had his right band cut off, and for opinions in matters of religion was burned in St. Margaret's church-yard. Dr. Heylin likewise says : " Though Wyatt'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 affcerwards they trained up one William Constable, aliaa Featherstone^ to take upon himself the name of king Edward, whom he was said to resemble both in age and personage. And this they did in imitation of the like practice used in the time of king Henry VI. by Richard Plantagenet, duke of York, who, when he had a mind to olaini the title to the crown, in regard of his descent by the house of Mortimer, from Lionel of Ant- werp, duke of Clarence, he caused one Jack Cade (a fellow altogether as obscure as this) to take upon himself the same of Mortimer, that he might see how well the people stood affected unto his pretensions, by the discovery which

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might be made thereof, on this fdse alarm. And tlnmgh this Featherstone had been taken and publidy whipped for it, in May last past, and thereupon banished into the north, where he had been bom, yet the confederates resolred to try their fortune with him in a second adventure. The design was to raise the people, under colour of king Edward being alive ; and, at the same time, to rob the exchequer, wherem they knew, by some intelligence or other, that X50,000, in good Spanish money, had been lodged^" To these provo- cations may be added, the licentious spirit of the preachers of the new opinions, who heaped i^>on the queen, the pre- lates, her council, and her religion, every opprobrious and indecent epithet that the fiiry of man, or the malioe of hell, could devise. Tracts, filled with, the most abominaUe and treasonable matter, were industriously s^it ovw by the exiles in Germany, and as sedulously circulated through the king- dom by the disaffected at home. During this period the queen was led to believe, from appearances, that she was pregnant, and preparations were made for hor aceouehement. Prayers were ofSsred for her safe delivery, but it afterwards turned out that her situation was occasioned by bodily disease. This disappointment was the occasion of great rejoicings by her enemies, who indulged themselves in sarcasms, epigrams, and lampoons. Under such circumstances, it cannot be a subject of wonder that the fires of Smithfield and elsewhere were rekindled ; our astonishment is only excited that so great a degree of forbearance was manifested, which, we conoeife, must be taken by every unbiassed mind, as a proof of the great clemency of Mary's disposition*

Exasperated and goaded by the seditious spirit of the new lights, Mary's coundl unfortunately resolved on an endeavour to strike terror into the deluded, and accordingly Ridley and* Latimer were ordered to be burned. These leaders of the new opinions, and instigators to fanaticism, suffered on tlie 16th of October, 1555. Cranmer was next called forth. He had seen his two friends led to execution from the window of his cell, and the sight made him relent ; but he recovered hun-

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selfj and wrote a long letter to the queen in defence of his doctrine, which, at Mary's request, was answered bj cardinal Pole. News was now received from Eome that Cranmer ' had been formally condemned by the pope, Paul IV., in a private consistory, and the usual sentence pronounced. Cran- mer was again alarmed; he had no inclination to meet death* To saye his life, he therefore recanted, and openly condemned his errors. In no less than seven instruments, gentle reader, did this bepraised martyr of the Protes- tant sect or sects abjure the opinions he had taught, and approve of the faith which he had opposed.^ But all would u^t now do. He had been long a convicted traitor, though fais life had been spared. He was now a condemned heretic, and, as such, looked upon as an enemy to God and man. We must give it as our opinion, that it would have been better to have spared his life, that he might have sincerely repented of his errors, but as we did not live in those tur- ^bulent times^ we are not competent to decide whether the mcitements given were not sufficient tp justify the putting .this hoaiy traitor to death. But we here again repeat — and it cannot be too oft^n .impressed upon the mind of the Pro- •testant reader — that heresy, especially when accompanied with sedition and rebellion, as wad the case with the Wick- liffites, and the Protestant gospellers in Mary's reign, was ^ways looked upoQ as a heinous crime against the state, as well as a grievous sin agikiiist Almighty God. That, in con- sequence, the le^slature of this country enacted the civil penalties, alUiough the bishops, as, the judges of doctrine, were called upon to examine thpse who were suspected of it. Th\is, then, thoQO who §pffered were published by the statutes of the realm, and not by the canons of the church ; there- fore, it is both cruel and unjust to charge Catholics, as Ca- tholics, with the severities of Mary's reign, which were caused by motives of policy^ arising out of the commotions and treasons of the guilty parties who suffered. As well might C&tholic nations lay the late massacre at Manchester, or the number of the executions in the last thirty years, at

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the door of the Protestant church of England^ as the modem editors, or any other higotted writers, impute the burnings in Mary's reign to the principles of the Catholic diurdL Even in the case of Oranmer^ the holy father Paul, who was as jealous of his prerogatives as any pontiff that ever filled the papal throne, in his decree of Oranmer's condemnation, directed to Philip and Mary, only requires them ** to deal with him, after he is delivered up to the secular court, as THE LAW directs," without conveying the slightest intimation of any corporeal punishment. Oranmer was judged a fit criminal for THE LAW to take its course, and he was ordered for execution. The writ for this purpose expressly says, that the criminal, being condemned for heresy, and degraded — as the CHURCH neither had, nor ought to proceed any farther in the affair — he was delivered over to the king and queen, according to the laws and customs of the rbalm provided in such caseSy and condemned to be burned, in de- testation of his guilt, and for a warning to oth^ Christians. On the 21st of March, Oranmer was led out to execution, where he recalled, to the astonishment of the people, all his former recantations, which, he said, had been wrung from him by the hope of life. His sufferings were short, as the flames rapidly ascended over his head, and he expired in a few moments. Fox has a story about his heart remaining unconsimied after hb body was reduced to ashes, but there is no authority produced to bear out his assertion. If sodi had been ike case, what had become of it, after such a miraculous preservation? Was there not one disdple to secure the false heart of this falsest of traitors and bishc^ and hand it down for the admiration of Protestant deTotoco and bigots.

Two hundred and seventy persons are stated by Fox to have suffered the same punishment during Mary's reign, bat this account is exaggerated, and many deductions are to be made for those who died as felons and traitors ; also for sndi as were found to be alive after the publication of Fox'l Oalendar ; and likewise those who would have been aent to

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the fire by Cranmer himself, had he been in power. Of the ]aat there was a very great namber, which Father Parsons has pointed out in hb Examination of Foafa Calendar. Of the former were W. Flower, who stabbed the priest at the altar at St. Margaret's ; W. Gardiner, who was executed at Lisbon for attempting to assassinate the cardinal prince Henry while officiating at the altar ; and the three famous Guernsey women, whom Parsons jwoves to have been prosti- tutes and guilty of theft. One of them was the mother of the pretended infant martyr, concerning whom such violent outcries were raised. Of those who were found living after the first edition of Fox's work came out, Anthony Wood, the Oxford historian^ relates, that one Grimwood was actually present in a church when the clergyman was describing, on the authority of Fox's Acts and Monumefits, the circum- stances of his (Grimwood's) supposed miserable and preter- natural death, " his bowels, by the judgment of God, falling out of his body in consequence." Grimwood, however, finding his bowels still in his body, brought an action against the clergyman — for we suppose Fox was out of his reach — for defamation.

. That the persecution was not general, but chiefly confined to the metropolis and its vicmity — the usual seat of restless demagogues and discontented incendiaries^is strikingly clear by the few that sufiered in the different parts of the kingdom. Not one was put to death in the diocess of Can- terbury, after cardinal Pole was appointed to that see ; only one in that of Tork, of which Dr. HJeath was archbishop, and very few in the four Welch diocesses ; one in each of those of Wells, Exeter, Peterborough, and Lincoln ; two in that of Ely; three in each of those of Bristol and Salis- bury J and none in those of Oxford, Gloucester, Worcester, and Hereford, according to the testimony of Dr. Heylin.

While these scenes of death were going on, to str^e awe

among the infatuated gospellers, Mary was not unmindful of

the wants of the church, and accordingly she directed the

attention of her ministers to the condition of the poor clergy.

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On the opening of her parliament, after assuring the lay pos- sessors of church property that they had nothing to apprehaid, she restored the property of the church, then in the hands of the crown, and called upon the commons' house for a subsidy. It was the first that she had ever asked of her subjects, so frugal had she been in her wants. It was proposed to grant two-fifteenths, with a subsidy of four shillings in the pound ; but Mary, by a message, declined the two-fifteentiis, and was content with a subsidy of less amount than what was originally proposed. The editors of Fox may term this a " narrowness of spirit," but it is such a one as the people would be glad to see followed by the present ministers, who, being stanch Protestants, have certainly not exhibited a narrowness of spirit in raising loans, granting pensions, and imposing taxes, by which the people are reduced to a state of poverty and misery , not much unlike the days of Edward YI., when the monas- teries were destroyed, the tithes appropriated solely to the parson, and the poor left to shift for themselyes as well as they could. By the bill introduced and passed, Mary gave up the tenths and first fruits, &c., vested in the crown by the 20th of Henry VIII., producing a yearly revenue. of 60,0002. for the augmentation of small livings, the support of preachers^ and the furnishing of exhibitions to scholars in the univer^- ties. Here was a nobleness of spirit which it would be weQ if Protestant sovereigns were to imitate, as their people would feel less the weight of the state clergy than they do now-a-days. But the delirium into which the people had then been worked would not allow them to appreciate Mary's good intentions towards them. The death of the lord cluui- oellor, Gardiner, emboldened the gospellers to renew their machinations. against the government; secret meetings were i^ow held, infamous libels on their majesties were scattered about the streets, and even in the precincts of the palace ; and a new conspiraoy was formed, which had for its object to depypse Mcu'y and place her sister Elizabetii on the throne. Taking this state of things into consideration, is it, we again ask, any matter for astonishment that severe measures were

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pursued against the gospellers and their preachers ? Eliza- beth was again proTed to have been concerned in this traitor- ous design, and again pardoned. A fresh conspiracy was attempted, and a disposition was shewn by Elizabeth to fly into France, fearing she might be at length detected and punished. Troubles now succeeded troubles, and Mary began to droop in health and spirits. The absence of her husband Philip on the continent, the unquenched fanaticism of the people, the death of her able and honest minister, Gardiner, but, above all, the loss of Calais, which had been 80 long an appendage to the crown of England, preyed on her mkid, and shook a constitution naturally delicate. Like the Catholic sovereigns who preceded her, she had the honour of England at heart, and consequently felt the loss of so important a fortress as Calais most poignantly. Still she met her parliament, she saw the spirit of the nation roused, ^t she could not rally her own fortitude. On her death-bed she told her attendants that if her breast were opened, the word *' Calais '' would be found engraven on her heart. The reign of Mary was now about to close. Exhausted both in mind and body, for the exiles in Geneva continued to increase the number and virulence of their libels against her, she was re- moved from Hampton Court to St* James's, when she was found to be attacked with a fever which had proved fatal to thousands of her subjects. Under this disease she languished for three months, but never recovered sufficiently to leave her apartment.

** During this long confinement,'* writes Dr. Lingard, " Mary edified all around her by her cheerfulness, her piety, and her resignation to the will of Providence. Her chief solicitude was for the stability of that church which she had restored; and her suspicions of Elizabeth's insincerity prompted her to require from her sister an avowal of her real sentiments. In return Elizabeth complained of Mary's incredulity. She was a true and conscientious believer in the Catholic creed ; nor could she do more now than she had repeatedly done before, which was to confirm her assertion

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with her oath. To the duke of Feria, who had come on a Tisit to the queen &om her hushand, the princess made the same declaration : and so convinced was that nohleman of her sincerity, that he not only removed the douhts of Mary, hut assured Philip that the succession of Elizaheth would cause no alteration in the worship now estahlished hy law.^ In a note to this passage, the historian adds, on the authority of the duchess of Feria, that Elizaheth '' prayed Qad that the earth might open and swallow her alive if she were not a true Eoman Catholic." Before Mary's death, which happened on the 17th of November, 1558, she sent one of her maids of honour, Jane Dormer, afiterwards duchess of Feria, to deliver to the princess Elizabeth the jewels in her cnstodyi and to make three requests from her : namely, that she would he good to her servants, would repay the money which had been lent on the privy seals, and would support the Catholic religion. Mass was said on the morning of her death in her chamber, and she expired a few minutes before its oonclusion; Cardinal Pole survived her only twenty-four hours.

We have dwelt long on the reign of this unfortunate qneen, but not longer than was necessary to vindicate her injured character. Though short in duration, the lies and calumnies that have been forged and heaped upon the memory of Mary, and through her cast upon the Catholics and their religion, have been gross and innumerable, and demanded a full refu- tation. In accomplishing this task we are happy in having the assistance of a Protestant writer, Mr. Brewer, who, though not generally known, has most ably defended tiiis virtuous but ill-fated princess, and we think it but justice to the author and our readers to give his letter, or rather* " Hints respecting the real chiracter of Mary, queen of England,^' from the Universal Magazine^ voL ix. 1808, p. 396. He says:—

''The motives for partiality and causes for detractiim among historians of every nation, but particularly England, where convulsions in religion and politics have been perpetu- ally occurring, and where party has raged with proverbial

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illiberality at almost every period, would appear too obvious to admit the possibility of implicit reliance in even the cursory reader, did not experience assure us that not only the interested but dispassionate are hourly the dupes of the vilest calumny or most egregious adulation.

** The increasing candour of the latter eras of literature has nobly endeavoured, in many instances, to remove that meretricious veil from the face of historic truth, with which venality had shaded her instructive features. The spirit of ** Historic Doubts ** (by Lord Orford) has stimulated an in- quiry into the genuine failings and pretensions of the unfor- tunate Scottish beauty, whose head not even a diadem could preserve from the block and scaffold ; but still the English sovereign, of the same name, though of more splendid for- tunes, remains the victim of declamatory detestation and merciless tyranny. The examination of this reign, by some scholar at once inquisitive and unprejudiced, I hold a de- sideratum in English literature ; and should feel particular pleasure if this remonstrance, through the medium of your impartial publication, calls forth a pen adequate to the task, wielded by a hand which knows no enthusiasm^ except such as a love of veracity innoxiously engenders.

" Should a writer generously step forward, he will not droop for want of materials. At the very outset he will perceive the evident possibility of misrepresentation respect- ing this reign, when he finds that its historians have been men of an opposite (though confessedly of a more correct and desirable) religious persuasion. Tidying natural proba- bility for his guide, he will maintain the reasonableness of supposing that a writer, whose aim was the gratification of popular credulity, would rather concentrate his invective on one defenceless head, than venture on the attack of a nu- merous and well-lettered party, whose descendants, if them- selves had sunk to the peaceful bourne where contest is no more, would be found ready to retort the abuse to the vexa- tion, if not discomfiture, of the assailant.

*^ Thus will he be tempted to transfer from queen Mary

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to her advisers a portion of that outcry which party first set up, and which credulity echoes, to the discredit of philan- throphy, good sense, and the mild tenets of the Christian doctrine.

<< When Mary came to the crown she found the state in the most perilous condition (as far as regarded indiiddual c6nduct) that possihly could exist for a zealot in any parti- cular mode of faith. Her father, in the plenitude of his caprice, and at the suggestion of his avarice, had thrown off the papal power, and commenced champion of the new' cause. Not contented with the wealth, he rioted in the hlood, of the overthrown Papists. The scene is too melan- choly to admit an enumeration of the victims. Fire, fagot, and the halter, were administered with an unsparing hand ! As a sample, suffice it to ohserve, that, at one massacre. More, Fisher, and eleven monks, were heheaded for denying the king's supremacy !

" Edward VI., from the simple circumstance of his ado- lescence occurring while his august &ther was in a Prot^tant mood, received an education from persons directed to instruct him in the reformed religion. During his short reign, ac- cordingly, the foot was still kept on the neck of the R<niian Catholic party; and they remained disgraced, in penury, and danger. No scaffolds were huilt for the express purpose of decapitating the nohle Papists, nor gihhets erected for the death of the meaner sort, but an act was passed of the most horrible and oppressive cruelty. The poor wandering monks and ejected friars were, at this time, supported by the private alms of those who did not dare openly to entertain them. To drive them from the miserable comers in which they hovered, it was enacted, that if any person should loiter for three days together without offering himself for hire as a labourer, he should be adjudged as a slave, for two years, to the first informer, and should be marked on the breast with the letter V. for vagabond, The mark to be made with a hot iron. " Whether Protestant or Papist, man is still subject to the

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passions of human nature ; and reyenge, of aU passions the most terrific, and in history the most frequent, even Chris- tianity, under its more favourahle modifieation, is unahle to suppress. Perhaps, therefore, a candid and benignant Pro- testant, now that all violent dissension between the two par- ties has long since ceased, will scarcely feel surprise at the severity with which those of the ejected persuasion conducted themselves, on a sudden and nearly unexpected restoration to power. Be that as it may, humanity had already blushed for the triumphant Protestants ; a blush of a still deeper dye must assuredly glow on her cheek while beholding the un- limited vengeance which their opponents inflicted, when the dangerous talisman of power reversed the tumultuous scene, and recalled the friars from manual labour, or the mortifica- tion of the proscribed brand, to their stalls, their mass-books, and all the scattered parade of their glittering rituals. But in the detestable operations which now took place, why is the torch ever placed by the historian in one hand ? Is it likely that a single female should possess more rancour than all the heads of a disjointed church, inflamed with personal pique, impoverished by expulsion from their benefices, and inflated by a bigotry of the most decisive nature ? Our his- torians, in this instance, have studied, like the tragic poet, to bring one person forward in the drama, in order to exhibit all the tremendous beauties of contrast. In strict conformity to the pernicious system of dressing up their characters like puppets, either strikingly attractive or utterly deformed, the dramatic recorders who assume the name of historians, stu- diously decorate Edward VI, with those clement qualities which they describe his sister as wanting ; and freely place all the ignominy of that unprecedented act, the branding of the ejected friars, to the account of his advisers. In this latter procedure they are unquestionably correct. Few per- sons feel on subjects of religious ascendancy with the acute- ness of those who, by their * sacred calling,* look on church power as the highest object of mundane interest ; and, there- fore, to his advisers let us freely attribute all the asperity of BB 3

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the hostile edicts which passed in the short reign of this juvenile sovereign. But, admitting the justice of this appro- priation, why shall we deny Mary the same indulgence? Edward was surrounded hy churclmien, and as they advised, he acted ; his successor stood in the same predicament, and acted in the same way. If it he objected, that difference of years enabled queen Mary to conduct the government with greater judgment and decision, it may be answered, that her feminine education (for she had not^ in any view, the ad- vantages, in this weighty respect, of Eliaabeth) reduced her nearly to the level of her youthful brother. From infancy to maturity churchmen were her guides and preceptors ; and nearly every action of her life proves that she had learned to sacrifice her opinions habitually to those of her guardians.

^ Our historians have an ungracious custom of illustrating the character of their dramatis persona by comparison. Mary they invidiously place by the side of Elizabeth ; and whOe they lavish panegyric on the brow of the ' Virgin Queen,' they solicit the reader's abhorrence of her unhappy foil — not by argument, but by the epithets of * blood-thirsty Mary ! ' and * sanguinary tyrant ! ' The management of the state this misguided princess appears to have left to the ecclesiastics. The management of her family the bishops likewise im- periously solicited ; but in this solitary instance Marj ¥ras inflexible ; and as I think an examination of her conduct in this particular essential to the right understanding of her character, permit me, from authentic documents, though testimonies too much neglected by our historical writers, to develope it.

•< In regard to Elizabeth, it will be recollected that Mary did not stand in a situation pointedly dissimilar to that in which Elizabeth herself was afterwards placed with Mary Queen of Scots. As it appears to me, the conduct of the two sisters in this predicament would, if related with impartiality, redound, by comparison (to adopt the historical fashion), to the high honour of the elder, *' The behaviour of Elizabeth (though some minute dr-

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curastances may admit of controversy) is too well known to need in this place any resemblance of a prolix detaO. Mary's chief offence, except precedence in personal beauty, was her right of heirship to the crown, for which Elizabeth hated and feared her. Mary threw herself on her kinswoman's pro- tection, and was imprisoned, with circumstances of severity incredible, if not authenticated. A rumour of conspiracy was spread, and she was put to death.

'' Elizabeth was also heir to the crown, and was accused, by Sir Thomas Wyatt, of a conspiracy against her sister's govemment. Thus, even in respect to political motives, was Mary as strongly tempted to rid herself of the danger of a rival caballer, as was afterwards the ' Virgin Queen.' But the first ardent wish of the queen was defeated, and that by her sister, for the earl attached himself to the princess : the queen was slighted, and Elizabeth triumphed.

*' The ancient quarrel between their mothers likewise must be supposed not quite forgotten in the breast of the ruling party : especially when the great share Anne Boleyn took in the Beformation is duly considered : yet these two circum- stances conjoined were inspfficient to provoke her to that foul crime which Elizabeth taught the world, on a future occasion, how to commit without a blush. It is true the rivalry of Elizabeth caused the queen to look with coolness on her ; and therefore the princess retired to her house of Ashbridge, in Hertfordshire, but the style in which she there resided may be gathered from the parade with which she entered London, when summoned thither on account of the accusation of Sir Thomas Wyatt. * Between four and five of the clock at night,' says a MS. quoted in Nichols Progresses, * my lady Elizabeth's grace came to London, through Smithfielde, untoo. Westmmster, with a hundred velvet cotts after her grace* And her grace rode in a charytt open on both sides ; and her grace had ryding after her, a hundred in cotts of fine redde, gardyd with velvett,' &o. With this pomp was the person conducted to London who was accused of conspiring against her sister's life. Surely a sanguinary tyrant should be made of * sterner stu£'

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*' As BO much publicity of grandeur was allowed to the princess on her entry, it is but just to conclude that she could not satisfactorily exonerate herself from the heavy charge preferred against her, when more strenuous measures were resorted to. This supposition is strengthened by the delibera- tion with which the circumstances were investigated, as she remained a fortnight at court before she was orderM to the Tower. While in confinement, under the suspicion of treason- able practices, though at first she was attended duly by the lieutenant's servants^ yet suddenly an order came for her table to be served by a part of her own establishment, viz., two yeomen of her chamber, one of her robes, two of her pantry and ewry, ond of her buttery, one of her cellar, another of her larder, and two of her kitchen. By all but the prejudiced it must be admitted probable that the first indignity offered the princess was by command of the privy council, at whose head was bishop Gardiner ; and that on her applying to the queen for a respecful attendance, her wish was immediately granted. It is certain that Mary received letters from her at this juncture, as one is quoted by Camden in his Elizabeth.

" When Wyalt, at the place of execution, made confer sftms favourable to the ch^^acter of Elizabeth, she was released from the Tower and conveyed to Woodstock, where she was lodged in a chamber * curiously carved and painted blue sprinkled with gold.* We can scarcely avoid supposing that her confinement here was not the most dreary imaginable, since, when queen, she was particularly attached to this palace as a residence, and Bedingfield^ her 'jailor,' whom history represents in all the terrific colours of the hired assassin, with a scowling brow, a curled lip, and a hand ever grasping a . dagger, which points to a poisoned bowl — this horrible janitor she visited during her progress in 1578, and was in the habit of receiving frequently at court ! To common sense I pro- pose the quwies: — Is it likely that a female, possessed of sovereign power, would fondly visit the prison in which ^le had often slept under the horrible dread of assassination ? And could human lenity, so far conquer the natural suggestions

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of repugnanee, as to allow the po&sibilitj of a Toluntary and convivial intercourse with the wretch from whose poinard she had escaped hj chances little short of miracles ? The prison- room, iron-hars, assassin, howl of hemlock, <fcc., were the off- spring of Fox's poetical imagination. From Fox, Holinshed transcrihes ; and Holinshed succeeding historians refer to as an authority ! Such is the basis of historical assertion !

" But the part of queen Elizabeth's story rendered most dramatic "by the legend-bearers is the circumstance of her being removed firom a prison to a throne. Here is a con- trast in perfection. A frightful excavated recess on the one hand, with bolts and bars rusted by noxious vapours : on the other, a crown, the dazzling rays of diamonds, the homage of the world, the possession of absolute power. In the back- ground (a striking figure I) heboid * blood-thirsty Mary ! * In dreadful secresy she sharpens the knife intended to pierce, in the dark solitude of a dungeon^ the bosom of her enchained sister ! The vizor would be highly attractive, says the fable, if it had brains ; and thb story would be extremely interesting, if it were true.

"The prison from which Elizabeth was moved on the death of her sister, was, it may be recollected, the palace of Hatfield. Here she had a retinue and establishment befitting her exalted rank. An extract from a curious MS. chronicle, describes one of her entertainments as ^ a great and rich maskinge, wher the pageants were marvellously fumbhed. There were thar twelve ministrels, anticly disguised, with forty-six, or more, gentlemen and ladies, many of them knights or nobles ; and there was a devise of a castell of cloth of gold, &c. At night the cuppboard in the hall was of twelve stages, mainlie furnished with garnish of gold and silver vessul, and a banket of seventie dishes, <fec. The next day the play of Holophemes was performed.'

" Not only were the personal expenses of the princess unlimited, and her liberty entire, but she was allowed to maintain a sort of court at Hatfield, and possessed a palace in town. Strype tells us, that, on such a day, < the lady

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Elizabeth came riding from her house at Hatfield| to London, attended mth a great companie of hrds^ and noblemen, and gentlemen, nnto her palace, called Somerset place, beyond Strand bridge, to do her dotj to the queen.' In another part he says : ' That aforenoon the lady Mizabeth's grace took her horse, and rode to her palace at Shene, with many lords, knights, ladies, ^and gentlemen, and a goodlie company of horse (i. e. attendants)/

'' Her visits to court were far from infrequent, and her entertainment there, now that she preserved herself from all suspicion of political intrigue, was friendly and magnificent. In one of her visits she went by water in the queen's barge, which was richly hung with garlands of artificial flowers, and covered with a canopy of the most costly description. Six boats attended the procession, filled with her highness's retinue, habited in russet-damask, and blue embroida^ satin, spangled with silver. On Christmas Eve the great hall of the palace was illuminated with a thousand lamps, curiously ^sposed. The princess supped at the same table in the hall with the king and queen, next to the doth of state. On the 29th day of December, she sat with their majesties at a grand spectacle of justing, &c.

''From these brief quotations the nature of Mary's severity towards her sister must fiilly appear ; and the drama of history be proved deficient in all but poeticd justice. Would the woman who treated an offensive sister with so much real generosity, have beheaded Mary, queen of Soots ?

" The invidious comparison between the sister-queens, suggested by most historians, and admired by many readers, surely, in this particular, defeats its own purpose. On a strict and fair parallel, Mary would be found deficient in two instances, which unhappily rendered nearly useless that natural integrity of heart which, from her demeanour to- wards Elizabetii, I must believe she possessed. She was inferior in strength of mind, and in those qualifications which dre the result of instruction. It is well known that the Papists of this distant age were not fond of disseminating

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learniDg among the laity ; and the priests from whom Mary received her education had a particular and obvious interest in preserving her in such a state of mental deficiency as would render her a more obedient instrument of their wishes, should she ever attain supremacy in the state. On every occasion Mary's want of expanded views and extensive in- formation may readily be detected. In no one instance did she ever exhibit proofs even of natural shrewdness, or un- tutored political ability. Is it not then equitable to place her acquiescence in religious cruelty, which marked her reign, rather to her want of independence of sentiment, than to such a constitutional barbarity as would entitle her to the appellation of a sanguinary tyrant? When we view the extreme forbearance with which she acted in regard to Elizabeth, so truly offensive in so many particulars, we must be bigots, though in an opposite direction to Mary, if we persist in thinking otherwise.

'* If (intent on preserving the stigma which historians have affixed to the name of this unfortunate princess) it is con- tended that Elizabeth was saved from destruction purely by the interference of Philip, Mary's husband, I reply, that in no instance, on valid authority, can this be proved the case : but even admitting the possibility of such a presumption being c(»Tect, it must assuredly strengthen the grounds on which I affirm that scarcely an act of Mary's reign was the result of her personal inclination. Since, if she spared her most offensive foe, whether we look on the enmity as re- ligious or otherwise, at the solicitation of a man who had not individual power to command, certainly, without determined to be impartial or unjust, we must suppose that she was equally undeterminate on all other subjects to which her as- sent was necessary.

** But Sir Thomas Wyatt's conspbacy (a rare opportunity for ridding herself of her rival, if such a purpose had occu- pied her mind) occurred before her marriage. From this peril therefore, of course, Elizabeth was not preserved by her brother-in-law. Philip was likewise absent in Spain for a

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considerable period, and a sanguinary tyrant wonid scarcely have failed to profit by his absence. A thousand hands only waited for her signal to stretch Elizabeth a corpse on the floor of that Hertfordshire palace, which, by foyour of a poetical license, our historians are pleased to term a dungeon.

<* Should any writer undertake the history of this reign, with the generous wish of diciting truth, he will find more MS. chronicles to assist his labour than would the narrator of any other remote period of our history; and I repeat that, from Mary's conduct in regard to Elizabeth, accurately in- yestigated, he will be able to exhibit her personal character in a light quite different from that in which it has usuaUy been placed."

The liberal sentiments thus expressed by this Protestant writer do equal credit to his head and heart He has most triumphantly yindicated Mary's character from the charge of blood'ihirstiness, so cruelly and unjustly layished on her by bigotted and unprincipled writers. We must, however, differ from the opinion he has formed of Mary's education, which we think did not restrict her mental faculties, nor did she display any deficiency in the exercise of her intellectual capacities, more than the constitutional sovereign does to the capricious tyrant. Mary followed the principles of justice, according to the rule of her ancestors ; Elizabeth knew no other system than that of expediency and her own despotic will. Mary's letters to her brother Edward, the lords of the council, her discourse with Ridley, and other documents preseryed by Bodd, in his Church History, by no means betray a want of political or theoretical ability.

Desirous to place on record the most unexceptionable testi^ mony in favour of this slandered princess, we shall produce four other Protestant historians as witnesses on her side. Collier writes thus : — " It may be affirmed, without panegyric, that the queen's private life was all along strict and md- blemished. It must be said that religion had the over- balance : the other world was uppermost with her ; and she -^alued her conscience above her crown That she was

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not of a vindictiye, implacable spirit, may be infenled from her pardoning most of tbe great men in Northumberland's rebellion." (EccI. Hist. vol. ii. b. 6. p. 406.) Camden says : " A princess never sufficiently to be commended of all men, for her pious and religious demeanour, her commiseration towards the poor, and her magnificence and liberality towards the nobility and churchmen.'* (Intr. to the Annals of Q.Eliz, p. 10.) Echard testifies ; " She was a woman of a strict and severe life; who allowed herself few of those diversions

belonging to courts : was constant at her devotions, 4rc

She much endeavoured to expiate and restore the sacrileges of the last reigns.'' (Hist of Eng. p. 327.) And Fuller states, that " she hated to equivocate in her own religion ; and always was what she was, without dissembling her judg- ment, or practice, for fear of flattery She had been a

worthy princess, had as little cruelty been done under, as was done by her.'^ {Oh. Hist. b. viii. p. 42.)

We shall close this vindication of the memory of a calum- niated and ill-treated virtuous princess, with Dr. Lingard's vivid delineation df Mary's character : — " The faulest blot [he says] on the character of this queen is her long and cruel persecution of the reformers. The sufferings of the victims naturally beget an antipathy to the woman by whose authority they were inflicted. It is, however, but fair to recollect what I have already noticed, that the extirpation of erroneous doctrine was inculcated as a duty by the leaders of every religious party. Mary only practised what they taught. It was her misfortutie, rather than her fault, that she was not more enlightened than the wisest of her contemporaries.

" With this exception, she has been ranked by the more moderate of the reformed writers among the best, though not the greatest, of our princes. They have borne honourable testimony to her virtues ; have allotted to her the praise of piety and clemency, of compassion for the poor, and liberality to the distressed ; and have recorded her solicitude to restore to opulence the famiKes that had been unjustly deprived of their possessions by her father and brother, and to provide for

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t|ie wanto of the parochial dergy who had heen reduced to penurj bj the spoliations of the last government. It is acknowledged that her moral character was beyond reproof. It extorted respect from all, even the most virulent of her enemies. The ladies of her household copied the coi duet of their mistress, and the decency of Mary's court was often mentioned with applause by those who lamented the dissolute- ness which prevailed in that of her successor.

*' The queen was thought by some to have inherited the obstinacy of her &ther ; but tiiere was this differencOy that before she formed her decisions, she sought for advice and information, and made it an invariable rule to prefer right to expediency. One of the outlaws, who had obtained his pardon, hoped to ingratiate himself with Mary by devising a plan to render her independent of parliament. He submitted it to the inspection of the Spanish ambassador, by whom H was recommended to her consideration. Sending for Grardiner, she bade him peruse it, and then abjured him, as he should answer at the judgment seat of Ood, to speak his real senti- ments. * Madam,' replied the prelate, ' it is a pity that so virtuous a lady should be surrounded by such sycophants. The book is naught : it is filled with things too horrible to be thought of.' She thanked him, and threw the paper into the fire.......

*' It had been the custom of her predecessors to devote the summer months to * progresses ' through different counties. But these journeys produced considerable injury and incon- venience to the farmers, who were not only compelled to furnish provisions to the purveyors at inadequate prices, but were withdrawn from the labours of the harvest to idd with their horses and wagons in the frequent removals of the court, and of the multitude which accompanied it. Mary, through consideration for the interests and comforts of the husbandmen, denied herself this |>leasure; and generallj confined her excursions to Croydon, a manor of the church of Canterbury. There it formed her chief amusement to walk out in the company of her maids, without any distinc-

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BOOK OF MARTYRS. 619

tion of dress, and in this disguise to visit the houses of the neighbouring poor. She inquired into their circumstances; relieved their wants, spoke in their favour to her officers, and often, when the family was numerous, i^prenticed, at her own expense, such of the children as appeared of promising dispositions

'* Though her parliaments were convoked for temporary purposes, they made several salutary enactments, respecting the offence of treason, the office of sheriff, the powers of magistrates, the relief of the pocnr, and the practice of the courts of law. The merit of these may probably be due to her council ; but of her own solicitude for the equal adminis-r tration of justice we have a convincing proof. It had long been complained that in suits, to which the crown was a party, the subject, whatever were his right, had no probability of a favourable decision, on account of the superior advan- tages claimed and enjoyed by the counsel for the sovereign. When Mary appointed Morgan chief justice of the court of common pleas, she took the opportunity to express her dis- approbation of this grievance. ' I charge you, sir,' said she, * to minister the law and justice indifferently, without respect of person ; and notwithstanding the old error among you, which will not admit any witness to speak, or other matter to be heard in favour of the adversary, the crown being a party, it is my pleasure, that whatever can be brought in favour of the subject, may be admitted and heard. You are to sit there, not as advocates for me, but as indifferent judges between me and my people.'

« Mary may also claim the merit of having supported the commercial interests of the country against the pretensions; of a company of foreign merchants, which had existed for centuries in London, under the different denominations of Easterlings, merchants of the Hanse towns, and merchants of the Steelyard. By their readiness to advance loans of money on sudden emergencies, they had purchased the most valuable privileges horn several of our monarchs. They formed a corporation, governed by its own laws : whatever

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duties were exacted from others, they paid no more than ond per oent. on their merchandize : they were at the same time buyers and sellers, brokers and carried: they imported jewels and bullion, cloth of gold and silrer, tapeetry and wrought silk, anns, nayal stores, and household furniture ; and exported wool and woollen cloths, skins, lead and tin, cheese and beer, and Mediterranean wines. Their privileges and wealth gave them a superiority over all other lAerchants which excluded competition, and enabled them to raise or depress the prices almost at pleasure. In the last reign the public feeling against them had been manifested by frequent acts of violence, and several petitions had been presented to the council, complabing of the injuries suffered by Hie English m^xshants. After & long investigation it was de« dared that the company had violated, and consequently had forfeited, its charter : but by dint of remonstrances, of presents, and of foreign intercession, it obtained, in the course of a few weeks, a royal licence to resume the trafiSc under the former regulations. In Mary's first parliament a new blow was aimed at its privileges ; and it was enacted in the bill of tonnage and poundage, that the Basterlings should pay the same duties as other foreign merchants. The queen, indeed, was induced to suspend, for awhile, the operation of the statute ; but she soon discerned the true interests of her subjects, revoked the privileges of the company, and refused to listen to the arguments adduced, or the intercession made, in its favour. Elizabeth followed the policy of her prede- cessor : the steelyard was at length shut up ; and the Hanse townsi after a long and expensive suit, yielded to necessity, and abandoned the contest."

The modern editors of Fox charge Mary with being *' un- acquainted with the constitution of the country," and that ** (die sought to domineer over the rights of private judgment and trample on the privileges of mankind,^* The above facta, however, prove most incontestibly that Mary was not only a constitutional queen, but that she was carefnl of the privil^;e8 of her subjects, and anxious that justice should be meted out

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BOOK OF MARTYRS. 621

to them. Had these editors applied the charge to their darling Bess, they would not have swerved from the truth. This lady has heen lauded to the skies as a pattern to all sovereigns, though there never was a more merciless tyrant on the throne of England, not even excepting her father Henry. We have given her character from the pen of the last named historian, in the first volume, and we recommend its perusal here, that the unprejudiced Protestant may see how much he has hitherto heen deceived in the conduct of Elizaheth, and be enabled to draw a fair contrast between the qualities of the two sisters. We will say nothing of Elizabeth's birth, but let her be judged by her actions after she came to Uie crown. In the first place, she committed perjury, by swefuring to protect the Catholic religion, and afterwards seeking to destroy it. If she jM^ferred the new doctrines, why not openly avow her sentiments, as her sister did in favour of the old faith, and not call Heaven to witness what she did not intend to perform ? She destroyed most of the ancient nobility of the kingdom by the most unjust and iniquitous means, and created a race of titled upstarts, governed by the worst vices. She persecuted and displaced the old clergy, who were men of learning, and thrust into their places the reftise and scum of the ecclesiastical order, as well as idle tradesmen, who thought they should get more by thumping a cushion than mending a kettle. She sold licenses, pardons, dispensations, &e,, and put military laiw into execution on trivial occasions. In a word, authentic history proves that Elizabeth was a sovereign, regardless of the honour of her crown or the lives and property of her subjects ; yet, being the founder of the church established by law, she is cried up by those interested in its loaves and fishes, and by others out of hatred to the ancient faith, as a glorious que^n, and the honour of her country.

The modem editors, after giving nearly 360 pages of the sufferings of martyrs, as they are dubbed, conclude their tenth book with some remarks on " the severe punishment of God upon the persecutors of his people, and such as have

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been blasphemers^ dbc," which are not worth criticising. We 8hal]> therefore, dismiss this book with one observation. If national calamities are to be considered a mark of God's judgment on the wicked, the broils and civil wars, the exe- cution of a king, the exile of his son for years, the founda- tion of debts, taxes, poor-rates, pauperism, and every evil that can impoverish and enslave a people — all which may be traced in the page of history as progressively befalling this country since the period of the Beformation, so called, and are now nearly arrived at a crisis, threatening the most dreadful results — ^England has most assuredly exp^ienced God*s wrath, for abandoning the religion He came on earth to establish with his bloody and which was the creed of the country for more than nine hundred years*

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BOOK XL

Tlie eleventh book of this work is headed : " A general Account of the Attempts made by the Papists to overturn the Protestant Government of England, from the Accession of Queen Elizabeth to the Reign of George II." It com- mences with '^ The Spanish Armada,'^ of which we shall only say, that if this was an attempt by the Papists to over- turn Elizabeth's government, the Catholics of England were not parties to it, as it is acknowledged by all authorities worthy of credit, that they took the most conspicuous part, and were principally successful in destroying this Spanish Armada. One fact we think quite sufficient to establish this statement, and that is, that the lord high admiral who com- manded the English fleet was a Catholic.

THE GXJNPOWDER PLOT.

The next subject is the " Horrid Conspiracy by the Papists for the destruction of James I., the royal family, and both Houses of Parliament ; commonly known by the name of the Ounpotoder Plot,'' Had the modem editors termed it a horrid conspiracy on the part of the Protestant statesmen for the destruction of the Catholics of England, they would have come much nearer the truth. The father of James' I. was actually blown up with gunpowder, at his house at Kirk- a-field, near Edinburgh, as he lay sick in his bed, by Pro- testant conspirators ; but it was not intended to serve James in like manner. This plot was a sham one, to answer poli- tical purposes, contrived by Cecil, the secretary of stiSte, and the hypocritical celebration of it, with the mockery of a re- ligious ceremony, was jocosely called by James himpelf, Cecil's Holiday, That there were a few desperate Catholics engaged in it we do not deny ; but it should be also known, that to a Catholic lord is attributed the discovery iA it. It

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is admitted by all men of learning and sound understanding at this day, that the plot was a forgery^ palmed upon the people to inspire them with hatred against the Catholics, and conceal the designs which the ministry then entertained, and afterwards put into execution, of harassing, robbing, and per- secuting the remnant of the Catholic aristocracy who had escaped the fangs of Elizabeth's satellites. The author of Tht Political Catechism, printed in ] 658, the Hon. Peter Talbot, an ingenious writer, says, that Cecil was not so secret in his intrigues but that some of his own domestics became acquainted with them, and, in consequence, a friend of one of them, a Catholic, named Buck, was advised, two months before the disclosure of the plot, to be upon his guard, as great mischief was in the forge against the Catholics.

We shall content ourselves, on this subject, with giving the following acute repaarks on the Gunpowder Plot, by Dr. Milner, which we extract from the seventh of his unanswer- able Letters to a Prebendary. " I have mentioned," writes the venerable author, '' some of the reasons there are for supposing that Cecil, earl of Salisbury, was as deep in ^lis plot as his father, lord Burleigh, .is proved to have been in that of Babington. — {Poliiidan's Catechism,) Certain it is that these reasons have had equal weight with mfinj intelli- gent Protestants, as with Catholics. One of them calls it * a neat device of the secretary.' — (^Osborne* s Hist. Memoirs qf James L) Another says^ that he * engaged some Papists in this desperate plot, in order to divert the king from making any advances towards Popery, to which he seemed incUnabloy in l^e minister's opinion.' — {The author of the Politicai Grammar,) James himself was so sensible of the advan- tages which his mi^ister reaped from this plot, that he used afterwards to call the 5th of November CeciVs HoUde^. Finally, a third Protestant writer assures us, * that this deagn was first hammered in the forge of CecU, who intended to

have produced it in Uie time of Elizabeth; that, by his

secret emissaries, he enticed some hot-headed men, who, ignorant whence the design first came, heartily engaged in

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it.' ^ShaH View of Eng. SisL hy Bev. 5t^^on<.)— Thus much seeiDs certain, that the famous letter delivered hj an unknown messenger to Lord Monteagle, never was written by a real conspirator, whose life was concerned in the issue of the plot. Such a character would not unnecessarily, and with infinite risk to his cause and his life, have given his fiiend a written notice not to attend plarliament, at a time when he could not know whether parliament would or would not be further prorogued, and whether a hundred accidents might not otherwise prevent Monteagle from being present at it He would not have given such advice ten days before parliament could possibly meet, when the previous notice of a few hours, or even minutes, would have answered the sup- posed purpose as effectually in his friend*s regard, and en- sured his own safety. In a word, he would not have explained the nature of the horrid scheme, in those significant terms which occur in the letter, to a person who is supposed not to have been sufficiently tried to be admitted into the band of conspirators. But if, on the other hand, we suppose the letter to have been written and sent by Cecil in order to draw that young lord into the punishment, if not into the guilt, of the conspiracy, and that, in case he had not made it known, other Catholic peers, in succession, would have received similar letters, a certain space of time was evidently neces- sary for this purpose, and still more so for devising the means of breaking the matter to James himself, so as to give him- self the credit of first discovering the mystery.

" Secondly, The secretary's delaying for the space of five days to communicate a business of that importance to his master, and his purposely deferring to have the ceUars under the parliament-house examined previous to the very day of opening the. session, provo that he had the management of the plot in his hands, and that he delayed the disclosure of it in order to have time for throwing his net over a greater number of persons, and those of higher quality than were ye engaged in it.*

*'*8ee a reHitioii of the difoorery of Uie gupowder, fco., proflenred in the Paper Oilice, and corrected in the handwriting of Cecil, earl of i$aliii- bnry.-^AscHyCOL. vol. xii. p. 204.)

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** Thirdly, The character and history of Francis Treriiam Esq., one of the conspiratorB, lead as to raspect tlmi heme to the earl of Salisbury in this plot, what Maud and PciUq had been to 4iis father, lord Burleigh and Walsiiighaili, in i former plot, almost twenty years before. Tresham was of i restless and and intriguing disposition, and had been ooseeiaed in the conspiraoy of Uie earl of Essex. He was well aoquaiitBd with Oecil, and is known to have had some cominimicilioB with him conoermng the affisurs of the Catholics. Attis disclosure of the plot he nerer attempted to £j, pieBonmg; no doubt, that he was sufficiently proteeted atcotut; hvA, m the contrary, he offered his services to apprehend the omi^bt- tors. -^Baker^s Chr&n.) Being, howerer, seiaed upon aid committed to the Tower, he met with a sodden death in tfe course of a few days, and before any trial or ozaHunationbad taken place. On Uiis occasion a report was i^read abrot^ that he was carried off by a strangury, which is not a disorier that takes a sudden turn ; whereas the physician who attended him pronoonced that he died of poison.* — (Wi)od, Adm^ Oofon.)

<< Lastly, The fraudulent art and consummate hypocnj with which it is now erident that Cecil acted in dkdosingtfaiE plot, confirms the idea that he had the management of ittoi the beginning. It is proTed, then, from this secretary's on papers, that he had known of a conspiracy amongst the Papnlir of some kind or other, three months before the lelter «« brought to him by Monteagle, Oct. 26.^B«laiiom oftik Discovery, Arohaol. vol. zii. p. 230.) It is proved by ksj own confidential letter to the ambassador at the court of S] written immediately after the breaking out of the plot. Nor. 1605 (Winwood's Memorials, vol. ii. p. 170.), that lie acquainted with the whole diabolical malice of it, viz., that was intended to blow up the parliament with gonpo^ Accordingly, as so<m as he had reoeiyed tke letter, k

<• • Tratham wai.imm tneh tanm with CecU timt he had motmu to Um all hoars, not only of the day. hat also of the night.—rPoLiTioiAii's Cat CHISM, p. 94.) Goodman, bishop of Oloaoestsr, oootod by ¥<m&» in Ua < Fasl Treasons,' exprossly says that Trtsham wrole of the letter to Mnwteagle. Um^ it eannot be qoeationea who dictated it.**

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ccrmmunicated it, forbid own security, to the lord chamberlain, Suffolk, wbose office it was to attend to Uie securitj of tbe parliament-bouse when tbe king was to go tbitber : and tliese two ministers conversed together about tbe different apartments adjoining it, and particularly about tbe great vault under it. '^Winwood's Memorials.) Tbey agreed, however (that is to say, tbe prime minister Hiougbt xt best), that tbe search in it should not be made before the session of parliament, which was not to take place for ten days, in order, as be confesses, that *the plot Blight run to full ripeness' (Belation of the Discovery) ; and to see whether any other * nobleman would receive a similar advertisement ' (Ibid,); that is, to allow him time to send fresh letters to persons of that rank (whom noost of all he wished to entangle), if be found it expedient ; finally, to attack tbe king on his weak side, by making him pass for the Solomon of Great Britain, and to work up tbe nation to a great fiiry against the Papists, by tbe apparently imminent danger to which all that was illustrious in it would appear to have been exposed. Having in his custody a letter of this importance to the nation and the king's persou, he neverthe- less declined giving James information of it, by writing or messenger, where he was at Royston; during five wbde days, that is to say, during half the time that was to run before the wlndmg up of tbe catastrophe ; because he wished to ddliver it in person, in order to guide both the king and the plot to bis intended ends. On the last day of October (Ee- l<xUon of the Discovery), tbe king being then at Whitehall, he presents the lel^r privately ; no one but himself and tbe earl of Suffolk being present. We are told that neither of them delivered any opinion of bis own concerning its contents, attending to hear ^ bis majesty's conceit;* and there is no doubt that Cecil then addressed to him that fulsome and ridiculous compliment, which be afterwards c<«nmitted in writing as his genuine sentiments concerning him, viz., that < his majesty was endued with tbe most admirable guifts of piercing conceit, and a solide judgement, that was ever beard of in any age ; but accompanied also with a kind of divine cc 2

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power in judging of the nature and consequence of such adver- tisements.*— (Ibid, p. 205.) Such a bait was too well seasoned for James's appetite not to be swallowed by him. Accord- ingly, at the opening of parliament, a few days afterwards, the king declared himself to have been supematurallj assisted in detecting the plot (King*8 Speech, Nov. 9, Journal of Lords) y by interpreting the letter in a different manner from any other learned man, however well qualified, would have done. — {Relation, ^c.) His artful minister, still more to in- dulge his vanity, and afford him greater matter of subsequent triumph, affected to ridicule the whole business, telling him that * the letters must be written either by a fool or a madman, because of those words in it, the danger is past as soon as you have burnt this Utter; for if the danger were so soon past, what need of any warning.' — {Echard^s History of Eng- land— Baker's Chronicle,) The king, notwithstanding, persisted in interpreting the letter as every other man, wiA- out his majesty's inspiration, would have done, namdj, he said there was a mine stored with gunpowder under the parliament-house; and, accordingly, he ordered it to be searched for. Cecil, however, makes him in&ensibly fall into the measure which he had previously concerted with the l«d chamberlain, to defer the examipation until the eve of the parliament's meeting. Accordingly, in the evening of that day, the chamberlain surveys the parliament-house and the vault under it, and finds everything just as he expected. He sees the heap of fagots under which the powder was con- cealed, and he meets with Guy Fawkes, who had been engaged to fire it. The moment, however, was not yet come for disclosing the catastrophe of the drama with soitaiUe effect. Hence it was pretended that this visit into the vanhs bejow was made for the purpose of looking for some furniture belonging to the king {Archsol, vol, xii. jp. 206)» aad though the lord chamberlain, as Cecil himself tells us (Ibid. p. 207), 'observed the commodity of the place for devilish purposes,* and suspected Fawkes, on hearing he was the servant of Percy, he neither gave any orders thesi for

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examining the fonner, nor for detaining the latter. (Ihid,) At length, near the solemn hour of midnight, Sir Thomas Knevet, a popular justice of peace, is sent with his attendants to secure that wretch, and to uncover the barrels of powder, bj which means the news of the discoveries would reach the members of parliament in the morning, just as they were preparing to attend it. Thus Oecil gained his second point, that of rousing the nation to a degree of consternation and horror, proportionable to the supposed nearness of its approach to the brink of destruction, and of making its escape appear the ^ect of a particular providence, and absolutely miracu- lous. Accordingly the people were taught to believe, that as nothing less than inspiration had enabled the king rightly to interpret Monteagle's letter; so nothing short of a miracle (Archaol, vol, zii. p. 196) had enabled the ministry to find thirty -> six barrels of gunpowder lying on the ground, and only covered over with fagots a few hours before they were to have been fired ; whereas, we have seen, that they knew of gunpowder being lodged in the very cellar where it was found, at least ten days before, and that they agreed together not to look for it till this very time, that is, till the very day of the parliament's meeting.''

FIRE OF LONDON AND POPISH PLOt.

We are next treated with an *' Account of the Horrid Plot concerted by the Papists for destroying the City of liOndon by Fire, in the year 1666." Of this event we shall say no more than what we have said in our first volume of this EevieWf to which we refer our readers. Next follows the ** Life and Death of Sir Edmundbury Godft*ey ; with an Aoeount of the Popish and Meal Tub Plots." The death of Sir Edmundbury Godfrey is still involved in mystery, but not the odium, which remains to this day fixed upon the Cathdics by bigots, though a slight reflection will satisfy any reasonable man that the Catholics were the last persons in the world, so far as regarded their own interest^ to commit such a crime. Of the Popish or Oates's Plot, no one but

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the most blind and bloated entertain anj donbt of the fU^* tiooB perjuriee that were committed bj the yiUatn Gates and his oolleagoes to swear awaj the Hves of innocent Cafeoika, We hare published a narratiye 9i ^taa plot, to whidi we rd^ our readers for a fuU development of that disgiaoefnl event. The modem editors say, that Oates ^ made the most aolema appeal to heaven, on his trial for perjury, and ^ tftnmgest protestations of 4ke veraeify of hii intimony.^* Thia may be, for the man who could swear away the lives of innoeoit persons wodd not scr^le to swear himself honest to save faimsdf from punishment* But observe, reader, be was iDund guilty on the evidence of sixty persons, nine of th^si Protestants. The Meal-tub Plot is too contemptible to call for a single remark.

It has been well observed that the time of the Stearta was an age of forgery, plots, perjury, and imposture, {waetiaed for the purpose, and but too socoessfuHy, of ezoitiDg piAlie feeing against the Oal^olics and their reHgion. Soino of these were of the most preposteroua nature, and whdEy da^ creditable, yet were they bdieved by the poor ddiuded people^ who were now become as mad as March hares, having baoi bitten with the paperyphohia.

MODBRN FROTB8TANT HARTrRS.

To the martyrs of John Fox we have now a list of traitors graced with that title. The first b Stephen Cdlege, called the Protestant Joimr^ who was a furiona partisan in Oatca's Plot, and was convicted of high treason, for which be was •executed. Of this man the modem editors say:— >< Thus died Mr. College, whose blood, as he himsdf desbed it might, sufficiently spoke the justice of his cause, and who seemed in his speech to have some prophetic intimi^aa that his blood would not be the last which must be shed to satisfy the crcmngs of tyranny and Papistry.** Now, reader, this man's judge, jury, and witnesses were fdl Protestants^ obsetre, and the continuator of Baker's Chromele says :-~'' Dngdale, Turbervillc) and oUiers, swore many dangerous and treasoa*

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able words against lum, which such an indiscreet hot man -was likelj enough to speak, though without any thought of patting them in practice. College was upon a negative ; so that he could only defied himsdf by invaJidating the credit of the witoessea. The famous Titus Oates engaged now openly with his brethren, Dugdale and Turberville : and the poeitiye contradictions upon oath that passed between these men at this trial lessened very mudi the credit of the plot they had bef(M:e sworn to« Oates attested solemnly, ih&t Bugdaie and Turberville had both, denied to him that they knew anything, against College, with some other things to weaken thdr testimony ; while the others in return protested on their oaths, that everything he testified so confidently was utterly false ; so that they fell out in the open court in a very indecent manner^ This made good diversion for those who disbelieved the ]^ot ; but it was very shocking to con- siderate people to see what wretches these were whose testi- mony had ^^1 away so many lives, and thrown the nation into such a dangeroua combustion."

Lord William Bussell is next on the list, as deep a tiaaitor and as intolerant a religionist as could be found in those days. When lord Stafford was found guilty, on the perjuries of Oates, and sentenced to be hanged, the king commuted his punishment to beheading, in consequence of hb rank. This lord William Bussell denied the power of the king to alter the sentence, and actually carried up an address from the commons to that effect. A Vbry charitable saint, truly, but a fit associate for the modem editors. Then comes Alg^sion Sidney, another traitor of the deepest hue; and amongst the rest Alderman Cornish, who was sheriff when lord Stafford was executed, and strove hard to have him hanged like a common person. Monmouth's rebellion is also intro- duced, and the barbarities of Jefferies, a PrategUmt judge, and Eirk, a Frotesiant colonel, are laid to the charge of the Catholics. This is an act of barefaced injustice, too glaring to require comment, and none iMit the most prejudiced would make the charge*

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IRISH MASSACRE.

We are also presented with the '' Rise and Progress of tbe Protestant Religion in Ireland ; with an ACCOUNT OP thb BARBAROUS MASSACRE OP 1641.'' — ^The reader is already in possession of the cruelties, the robberies, the murders, and other horrible crimes which marked the blood-stained progress of the Reformation, as it is called, in Ireland. Of tbe massacre in 1641, on which so much has been sud and written, and on which he may form a correct conclusion, the modem editors say : — ** The design of this horrid con- spiracy was, that a general insurrection should take place at the same time throughout the kingdom ; and that all the Protestants, without exception, should be murdered. Hie day fixed for this horrible massacre was the 23rd of October, 1641, the feast of Ignatius Loyola, founder oi the Jesuits, and the chief conspirators in the principal parts of the king- dom made the necessary preparations for the intended con- flict." Now, unfortunately for the reracity of the modem editors, the feast of Ignatius Loyola is celebrated by tiie Catholic church on the 31 st July, and therefore the Jesuits may stand excused of intending to honour their founder with a general massacre. They further say : — *'The day preceding that appointed for carrying this horrid design into execation was now arrived, when, happily for the metropolis of the kingdom, the conspiracy was discovCTed by one Owen O'OonnaUy, an Irishman, for which most signal service tiie English parliament voted him 5001, and a pension of 20M. during life.'' Fortunately for the cause of truth, we have before us Mr. Carey's admirable work, called Vindicut EihemuB, in which he gives us the examination of thb Owen CConnaUy, and a greater Munchausen tale never was told. This able writer proves, on the authority of Temple, that '< notwithstanding the pretended generality of the plot, tbe lord-justices, by public proclamation, on tbe 29th of Oetober, declared that the insurrection was confined to the mere old Irish of the province of Ulster, and others who adhered to

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tTiem.'* This strong fact proves the inaccuracy of the state- ment as to the general extent of the conspiracy, and the plot *' that all the Protestants, without exception, should be murdered." This writer alsct observes, ** That the original views of the insurgents did not comprehend a general massacre, or even single murders, we have further testimony, clear and decisive, derived even from Temple, as well as Warner and Leland, which independent of all other proof, would be sufficient to settle this question for ever, and utterly overwhelm O'Oonnally's perjured legend. Moreover, if there had been a plot for a general insurrection, and such a massacre as O'Oonndly swore to, there would have been evidence produced from some of the conspirators : but not- withstanding the lord-justices had recourse to the execrable aid of the rack, iind put Mac Mahon and others to the torture, there is not, in the examinations of the former, a single word to corroborate the sanguinary part of 0*Connally's deposi- tion. The examinations of the rest were never published. There is not to be found in Temple, Borlace, Carte, Warner, Leland, Clarendon, nor, as far ad I have seen, in Rushworth, the examination of a single person engaged in a conspiracy vrhich was said to have extended throughout the whole king- dom, except those of Mac Mahon and lord Macguire I That of the latter was not taken tiU March, 1642."

The modern editors follow up their description of a general massacre, which we have shewn to be false, with a detail of particulars, unsupported by authority, purporting to shew that the bloody work was not of one day. but that the Protestants fell victims to the fiiry af the Irish in all parts of the king- dom, day after day. They, however, take care to suppress the cruel acts of tyranny which drove the unfortunate people to deeds which every heart must deplore, and wish for humanity' sake they were buried in oblivion. To exculpate the Catholics of Ireland from the charges brought against them, we shall here enter into some grievances inflicted on them before they resorted to this act of desperation. At the beginning of Charles's reign, the Irish experienced a degree CO 3

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of lenity and toleration to whicb they had been strangers since the era of '< evangelieal lib^y ;" but the clamours of the Puritan party compelled this prince to rectdl his indulgent deputy, Lord Falkland, and entrust the administration of the kingdom to two lord-justices, namely, Tiscount Ely and the earl of Cork. Of these two Protestant statesmen, Leland, the Irirfi historian, says: — " They, withtmi waiting for the king's vuiructioiM, fell at once with great uteritg on the recusants, and $oon extended the moet rigorttue execution of the penal Uw$ to every part of the kingdom^' These m^ci- lees deputies were succeeded by the earl of Sirafibid, then lord Wentworth, who took upon himself the charge of gov^n- ment in 1633, and held it until a ^ort period of hia death, which happened by decapitation, on the 12th of May, 1641* The transactions of this goyemor are thiis spoken of by Mr. W. Parnell, in hb Historical Apology for the Iri^ Catholics. ** Another matmal cause of the rebelliim [says Mr. P.], which had no connection with religion, was k»d Strafford's resumption of the plan for cofifiscaiing the pro- vince of Connaught, The unfortunate landed proprietors had already twice purchased their tities from the cro%bn^ yet btrafford did not hesitate to outrage every feeling of humanity, and every rule of justice, by subverting them a third time. This transaction may not perhaps be the most infamous that ever occurred, but certainly the most infamous act of oppression that was ever perpetrated by a plea of 2at9, under the sanction of juries. It is uncomfortable to dwell on so abominable an outrage : it is sufficient to observe that it was in part carried by violence^ by fining the sherifis, im- prisoning jurors, and fining them to the amount oi 40002. each, by the terrors of the Star-chamber, and the proeoncc of the lord deputy." Another cause, in whi«^ religion was concerned, was the perfidy of the Protestant govemora, in cajoling the Irish parliament to grant subsidies to the king, and after obtaining the money, witholding from the people the promised benefits stipulated in r^um. It must here be observed that the Irish parliament consisted mostly (^ Catholic

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BOOK OF MABTYBS. 63^

noblemen and gentlemen, and as the reiractorj disposition of the Protestant parliament of England prevented the king from sneceeding in gaining the necessary supplies from the Puritan members, he had recourse to his Irish Catholic sub- jects, and the readiness with which thej complied with his demands will be best related by the insertion of the follow- ing letter from the privy counsellors, members of the Irish house of commons, to secretary Windebank, in 1639, taken from lord Straffwd's State Letters, vol. ii. fol. 397:—

" Sib, — ^The happy resolution this day taken in the commops Konseof parliament, and the obeervable circumstances wl^ch occurred therein to our view, who have the houour to serve his majesty as his privy council here ; and who, as members of the house of commons^ were prea^nt, and co-operating in that resolution ; have rendered to us such inward joy and contentment, in the apprehension of the entire affections and great loyalty of this people, abundantly testified thereby, as we esteem it our duties to hasten the glad advertisement thereof to his sacred m^jesty.

" After the proposal of such acts of grace and advantage to the subject, as we conceived most fit to lead, in order to the propounding of the subsidies, six subsidies were demanded for his majesty : where- upon divers members of the house spake thereunto ; some of the tiativea declaring that, as six were granted the last parliament towards enabling the king to pay the debts contracted for the occasions of his crown, and fi>r the better settlement of the revenues; so, at this time, six or more, are fit to be given ; it being apparent that the peace and sa&ty of the kingdom are become so nearly concerned.

*^ Some also of the natives shewing divers precedents in ancient times, and, among these, some, whereby the king, by a mandate from himself alone, without a parliament, caused monies and goods to be taken in Ireland, from merchants and others, towards defraying the charges of his expeditions against the Scots, for the defence of his kingdom; and those having enlarged themselves in that point, mentioned the abundant piety and clemency of his majesty, in being so indulgent to his subjects as to decline that example of his pro- genitors, and to require aid of his subjects in a parliamentary way ; some of them said that his majesty should have a fee simple of sub- sidies in their estates on like occasions^ for the honour of his person, and safety of his kingdoms : it was fit to be done, though it were leaving themselves nothing besides hose and doublet. Some of them with much earnestness, after forward expressions of readiness towards advancjBg the business, concluded, that, as his majesty is the best of

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ktn^, 80 this people should striye to be ranked among the best of subjects.

*' Thus, every of them seemiDg, in a manner, to contend one with another, who should shew most affection and forwardness to comply with his majesty's occasions, and all of them expressing, even with passion, how much they abhor and detest the Scotch covenanters, and how readily every man's hand ought to be laid to his sword, to assist the king in reducing of them by force to the obedience and loyalty of subjects ; they desired that themselves and others of this nation might have the honour to be employed in this expedition, and declared, with very great demonstration of cheerful affections, that their hearts contained mines otsvbaidiee for his majesty; that twenty subsidies, if their abilities were equal with their desires, were too little to be g^ven to so sacred a majesty, from whose -princely clemency, by the ministration of the lords lieutenant, so many and so gracious favours are continually derived unto them.

" — In the end, considering the present condition of the kingdom, and how unable they are, vrithout too much pressure to them to advance more at this time ; they humbly besought that, by the lords lieutenant's interposition to his majesty, four subsidies might be accepted from them at this time ; yet with declaration made by them, tcith as much demonstration of loyalty as ever nation or people ex- pressed towards a king, that, if more than these four should be rrquisite, and the occasions of the war continue, they will be ready to grant more, and tu lay down their persons, lives, and estates, at his majesty's feet, to further his royal design^ for correction of the disordered factions in Scotland, and reducing them to a right under- standing of themselves, and for the defence and safety of his majesty's kingdoms and people. And they earnestly desired us, of the coundt then present, that immediately after the rising of the house* we would represent this from the house to the lord lieutenant ; which they did with genei al acclamations and signs of joy and contentment, eTen to the throwing up of their hats, and lifting up their hands.

'* The question being then put, for the granting of four subsidies, with such a declaration to be made besides the act of subsidies, it was unanimously assented to by the whole house; there being found therein not one negative voice : which we mention for the glory of his majesty, that hath so good and loyal subjects, and for the honour and government of this nation.

'' And because no woi'ds are able fully to set forth the cheerfulness wherewith this people did, in this particular, manifest their sense of his majesty's occasions, their desire to further his majesty's royal intentions, and their entire affections to the honour of his person; &nd all -^ith most lively expressions of duty and loyalty towurdi him;

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we of his council couM have wished, if it had been possible, that his majesty had been in his own person an eye witness of this day's carriage, which we humbly conceive would have been of far more value in nis royal estimation than twenty subsidies."

These demonstrations of sincere loyalty were accompanied with a remonstrance of real grievances, among which the persecutions they had suffered on account of their religion were not the least ; and they solicited the enactment of cer- tain laws, for the security of toleration, property, and justice. The king accepted the grants, and promised that these laws should he assented to ; hut the Puritan faction, alarmed at the unshaken fidelity of the Catholics to the throne, by the hasest and most treacherous arts contrived to render the designs of the monarch abortive, and to foment what they called a Popish rebellion. At the head of this detestable party were the two lord-chief-justices, Borlase and Parsons, who succeeded lord Strafford, and revived the persecutions against the Catholics with unrelenting cruelty, disseminating, at the same time, throughout the kingdom,- the different pe- titions presented by their faction to the English parliament, and calling for the extirpation of the Popish religion^ and the lives and estates of the professors thereof. The intolerant and disgraceful terms of the Scottish covenant, entered into by the Puritans of that country, and afterwards assented to by their brethren in England, we have given in preceding pages ; to alarm the Irish people, as to the designs of the covenanters, it is stated in Carte's Life of the Duke of Ormond, that " a letter was intercepted coming from Scot- land to one Freeman of Antrim, giving an account that a covenanting army was ready to come for Ireland, under the command of general Lesley, to extirpate the Roman Ca- tholics of Ulster, and leave the Scots sole possessors of that province ; and that, to this end, a resolution had been taken in their private meetings and councils, to lay heavy fines upon such as would not appear at their kirks, for the first and second Sunday ; and on failure of the third, to hang, toithout merct/, all such as were obstinate, at thbib own

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DOORS. This notion [adds Mr. Carte]» as i^pean from a multitude of d^KMitions taken before Dr. H. Jones, and other oommissionera, prevailed unitersallj among the reb^, and was chiefly insisted upon bj them» as one of the prin- cipal reasonings of their taking arms.^' Enough has been said to proTO that^ so far from the Irish people Hying in a state of peace, previous to their rising, they were smarting under the basest persecuti<ms, and every engine was set to vfotk by their merciless enemies to infuriate their minds, and urge them to deeds of vengeance. Thus instigated and alarmed for the safety of their lives as well as their con- sciences, some few of the Catholics in the north did take themselves to arms, and committed violences, at all times to be deplored, but not to the extent asserted jby the modem editors.

Notwithstanding the unqualified assertion, that the insur- rection was general, and that nothing less was intended than cutting the throats of all the English Protestants throughout the whole kingdom, it is a fact, incontestibly proved by un- impeachable testimony, that the rising was at first confined to the province of Ulster, and that few or no English Pro- testants were destroyed at its commencement, or during its continuance. It is a farther truth, that upon inteUigrace being received of the commotion, the greater part of the Catholic nobility and gentry proffered theur services to quell the insurrection, yet their offer was not only rejected^ but they were themselves soon obliged to stand upon their own defence agamst the cruel villanies of the two Puritan chief- justices, one of whom, Parsons, had declared at a publio en- tertainment, that *' within a ttvelvemonih, no CaihoHahotdd he 9een in Ireland^*

That we may not be accused of dealing in vague assw- tions in refuting the vile falsehoods advanced by the modem editors, we shall confine ourselves to authenticated documentB, which are the best tests in £ftvour of a legitimate cause. In the first place, however, let the reader bear in mind, that for a considerable time previous to the actual rising of the Irish

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pedple*. which b stated to have happened on the 23rd of October, 1641, the Puritan leaders in the English parlia- ment, ^ose stanch strugglers for liberty of conscience, had been at variance with the king, principally on account of the lenity shewn to his Catholic subjects, and they had, by the most infamous intrigues, perrerted the public mind, inflaming it to a degree of phrensy at the supposed bloody principles of Popery, notwithstanding tisey were constantly assailing the monarch with r^nonstrances to induce him to spill the blood of innoc^it Catholics. During these contentions with ^be BOY&^ga, the Parliamentarians were fully sensible of the faithful and steady loyalty of the Irish Catholics to Charies, although a Protestant, and therefore they were determined to have their revenge. Instigated by this diabolical spirit, the faction kept up a correspondence with the Puritan jus- tices, Pars(ms and Borlase, who, accordingly, by their own authority, commanded many things contrary to the express directi<m of the king, for the douUe purpose of exasperating the Irish Catholics, and driving them to resistance. ^' The favourite object, both of the Irish govemm^t and English parliament," says Leland, '' was the utter extermination of aU the Catholic it^hahitanU of Ireland. Their estates were already marked oilt, and allotted to the conquerors ; so that they and their posterity were consigned to inevitable ruin." And well did these mercenaries play thoir parta The Irish parliament having sent deputies over to England to obtain the consent of the king to some lulls which had been passed by the two houses for the removal of grievances, his majesty expressly commanded the lord-justices, by letter, *' to suffer that parliament to sit until his majesty should think fit to determine the same ;" but, in order to prevent these bills from passing into laws, the lord-justices caused that parlia- ment to be adjourned for three months^ against the declared wii^ of its members, and that» too, but a few days before the arrival of the deputies from England with the royal assent ; nor would they permit proclamation to be made, although urgently solicited so to do, of the gracious intentions of the

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Bovereign to remove every sulject of complaint. On the contrary, they were determined, by the most cruel measures, to drive the Catholics, who were looked upon already as rebels, into a state of insurrection. Accordingly, we find in Carte's CoUeotion of Letters, the following order from these lord-justices and the privy council to the earl of Ormonde, then lieutenant-general of the army, dated at the castle of Dublm, 23rd of February, 1641 :— " It is resolved, that it is fit that his lordship do endeavour with his majesty's said forces to wound, kill, and destroy/, by all the ways and means he may, all the said rebels [meaning the Catholics], and their adherents and relievers, and bum, spoil, waste, con^ sume, destroy, and demolish, all the places, Unions, and houses, where the said rebels are, or have been, relieved and harboured, and all the come and hay there, and kill and DESTROY ALL THE MEN there inhabiting, ABLE TO BEAR ARMS."

On the drd of March following, as we find from the same Collection, the said lord-justices issued further orders to the earl of Ormonde, directing him to march with 3000 foot and 500 horse '' to such places between the Boyne and the sea as his lordship should think fit ; and burn and destroy the rebels of the pale, WITHOUT EXCEPTION OF ANY. That those who should offer to come in should in no other manner be taken in than as prisoners, taken by the power and strength of his majesty^ s army. That, if any of them came to the army, it should be the soldiers that seized on them, before they had access to his lordship ; and that they should be denied access to his person. That no difference should be made between the noblemen that were rebels and other rebels." How these orders were executed may be gathered from Dr. Nalson, a Protestant divine, who, in his Historical Collection, assures us, that ** the severities of the provost- marshals, and the barbarism of the SOLDIERS to the Irish, were such, that he heard a relation of his own, who was a captain in that service, relate that no manner of companhn or discrimination was shewed either to age or sex, but tibat

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the little children were promiscuously sufferers with the guilty ; and that, if any who had some grains of compassion reprehended the soldiers for this unchristian inhumanity, they would scornfully reply, * Why, nils will he lice P and so would dispatch them."

Gt>aded hy these and numherless other acts of perfidious- ness apd barbarity, can any one think it surprising that some of the Irish people were in the end roused to commit reprisals on their inhuman persecutors ? Is it not rather a matter of surprise that they bore the nefarious practices of their des- potic rulers with such patience and forbearance? Would Protestants have been so quiet under Catholic governors? Pid the German Lutherans, or the French Calvinists, display' such patient suffering under Charles V. and the Bourbons, as the Irish Catholics under Puritan intolerance ? Have we not seen the Protestants repeatedly in arms against Mary, and every artifice used to stir up sedition, while she was sedulously devising, and earnestly desirous, that all her subjects should be governed hy law and justice, and secured in their property and comforts ? Had, in fact, the Puritans in Scotland and England a twentieth part of the grievances to complain of against Charles and his ministers, which the Irish Catholics had against them ? See what Dr. Warner, who was by no means desirous of favouring the Irish, says of the rebellion:— "The arbitrary power exercised by these lord-justices ; their illegal exertion of it by bringing people to the rack to draw confessions from them; then* sending out so many parties from Dublin and the other garrisons to destroy the rebels, in which expeditions care was seldom taken to discriminate, and men, women, and children were promiscuously slain ; but, above all, the martial-law, exe- cuted by Sir Charles Coote, and the burning of the pale for seventeen miles in length and twenty-Jive in breadth^ by the earl of Ormonde. These measures not only exasperated the rebels, and induced them to commit the like or greater cruelties, but they terrified the nobility and gentry out of all thoughts of submission, and convinced them that there was*

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no room to hope for pardon, nor no means of %afdg l^ them hut in the sword,*' Thus the Irish people found them- selves compelled to arm ; and yet this rising is called hj the modem editors and English historians an unnatural and odious insurrection, while the rebellion of the English and Scotch covenanters, fomented by imaginary discontent and religious delusion, is still looked upon as a meritorious strogg^ for civil and religious freedom.

We have thus established, on the clearest evidence, the fact, that this Irish massacre, as it ia called, was originated by Protestants, whose crueltiea and extortions urged Hue Catholics t5 deeds of retaliation. It is now time to retmn' to the modem editors. They proceed, in a strun of unbhirii* ing impudence, and a total disregard of trath, to detail a variety oi instances <A imputed murders and acts of bar- barity, through which it b impossible to follow them, a& thej take care to suppress both dates and authorities, to preveot us from probing their veradty. It b true| they occasionallj give the name of a place to throw dust in the eyes of their readers. We will here ^ve the following for examples : —

" At the town of Lissenskeath they hanged above 100 Scottiah Pro- teetantSy showing them no more mercy than they did the Eng1iah,\ .

'^ Upwards of 1000 men, women, and children, were driven, in different companies, to Portendown Bridge, wideh was broken in the middle, and there eompelled to throw themselves into the water ; and such as attempted to reach tlie shore were knocked on the head.

'' In the same part of the country at least 4000 persons were drowned in different places. The inhuman Papists, after stripping them, drove them like beasts to the spot fixed for their dMtructlon ; and if any, through fatigue or natural infirmities, were slack inth^ pace, they pricked them with their swords and pikes ; and to str&e a fiurther terror on the multttude, they murdered some by the way. Many of these poor creatures, when thrown into the water, e^ deavoured to save themselves by swimming to the shore ; but their merdlesd persecutors prevented their endeavours taking effect, by shooting them in the water. %

** In one pkum 140 English, after being driven for many milea stark naked, and in the most severe weather, were all murdered en the same spot, some being hanged, others burnt, some shot, and many

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of them buried alive; and so cruel were tbeir tormentors, that they would not su£f(Br them to preuf before they robbed them of their miserable existence. . . .

" In Kilkenny all the Protestants* without exception, were put to death ; and some of them in so erael a manner, as perhaps was never before thought of. They beat an RngUshwoman with such savage barbarity^ that she had scarce a whole bone left ; after which they threw her into a ditch ; but not satisfied with this, they took her child — a girl about six years of age — and, after ripping up its belly, threw it to its mother, there to languish till it perished. They forced one to go to mass, after which, they ripped open his body, and in that manner left him. They sawed another asunder, cut the throat of his wife, and after having dashed out the brains of their child— an infhnt— threw it to the swine, who greedily devoured it

** After committing these and many other horrid cruelties, they took the heads of seven Protestants, and among them that of a pious minister, all which they fixed at the market cross. They put a gag into the minister's mouth, then slit his cheeks to his ears, and laying a leaf of a Bible before it, bid him preach, iw his mouth was wide tnough. They did several other things by way of derision, and ex- pressed the greatest satisfhction at having thus murdered and exposed the unhappy Protestants. It is impossible to conceive the pleasure these monsters took in exercising their cruelty ; and to increase the misery of thoee who fell into their hands, while they were butchering them they would cry : ^ Your soul to the devil I ' . . . .

** In 'Munster they put to death several ministers in the most shocking manner. One, in particular, they stripped stark naked, and driving him before them, pricked him with swords and pikes till he fell down and expired."

These examines we think Bofficient to shew the want of truth in the relationa of these modem pretenders to the ^'knowledge of the genuine pnneijdes of Christianity,'' which abhors Ijing as an emanati<m from the evil spirit ; but, to put the question bejond dispute, we shall cite authorities that will dearly prove the accounts to be totally void of foundation. Were credit to be given to the wholesale massacres of the modem editors^ we must believe that the Catholics were the minority of the population, instead of being the vast majority of it We admit the tales are well calculated to excite the prejudices of the ign<»rant, but the time is nearly gone by when such unsubstantiated stories

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could obtain eredence ; and by giving a few unimpeachable facts of an opposite tendency we hope to accelerate the db- persion of those clouds of falsehood which have too long shaded the page of English history. It has been sensibly observed, by a very acute writer, that there have been no bounds to the exaggerations of our historians as to the number of Protestants said to have been massacred by the Irish in this rebellion. Sir John Temple says, that ISO^OOO Protestants were massacred in cold blood in the first two months of it. Sir William Petty coolly calculates 8O9OOO British killed, out of war, in the first year. Lord Clarendon laments, that in the first two or three days of it 40 or 50,000 of them were destroyed. Bapin and Echard both concur in stating the number of Protestants actually mur- dered at 45 or 50,000, and the continuator of BcUker^s Chronicle reckons them at 200,000. The discrepancy of this testimony is sufficient to shake its credit ; for is it to be supposed that men possessing a sincere regard for truth could difier so widely on so important an event ? However, we shall proceed with our evidence, and then leave the reader to decide upon the respective merits due to both. The in- surrection and massacre are stated to have taken place on the i?3rd of October, 1641 ; now, lord Clarendon says, in his Bisfory 0/ the A fairs of Ireland, p. 329:— "About the beginning of November, 1641, the English and Scotch forces in Carrickfergus murthered, in one night, all the inhabit- ants of the island Gee (commonly called Mac Gee), to the number of above 3,000 men, women, and children, all INNOCENT PERSONS, in a time when none of the Catholics of that country were in arms or rebelUon. Note, that tJus was the first massacre committed in Ireland on either side." The same historian records* his testimony of the Irish sufiering, without retaliation, in Munster : — " In Decy*8 county, the neighbouring English garrisons of the county of Cork, after burning and pillaging all that county, murthered above 300 persons, men, women, and children, before oi^ rebellion began in Munster, and led 100 labourers prisimers

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to Caperquine, where, being tried, by couples were cast into the river, and made sport to see them drowned. Observe, that this county is not charged with any murthers to be committed on Protestants." — (Ibid, p. 369.)

To this testimony we shall add the following extract from Carte's Life of the Duke ^ of Ormone^;^" Sir W. Petty computes the British (including therein both English and Scotch) to be, before the rebellion, in proportion to the Irish (in Ireland) as two to eleven ; at which rate, there were about two hundred and twenty thousand in the whole king- doni. Now it is certain that the ffreat hody of the English was settled in Munster and Leinster, where very few murders were committed ; and that in Ulster, which was the dismal scene of the massacre, there were above one hundred thousand Scots, who, before the general plantation of it, had settled in great numbers in the counties of Down and Antrim, and new shoals of them had come over upon the plantation of six escheated counties, and they were so very powerful therein, that the Irish, either out of fear of their numbers, or from some other political reason, spared those of that nation (making proclamation, on pain of death, that no Scotchman should be molested in body, goods, or lands, &e.). It cannot, therefore, be presumed, that there were, at most, above twenty thousand English souls of all ages and sezes in Ulster at this time ; and of these, as appears by the lord- justices* letter, March 4th, 1641-2, there were several thousands got safe to Dublin, ^c, besides six thousand women and children, whom captain Mervyn saved in Ferma- nagh ; and others that got safe to Derry, Colerain, Carrick- fergus, <fec."

This latter evidence is directly at variance with the state- ments of the modem editors, and by far more entitled to credit. The accounts, then, of the hanging of one hundred Scottish Protestants at Lissenskeath^ the drowning of one thousand of both sexes and all ages at Portendown^ the destruction of four thousand in different nameless places, the putting all the Protestants to deaths without exception, at

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Kilkenny, and the murdw of several ministers in Mnnster, must now be given to the winds, since Sir W. Petty states that bnt few, very few, mvrders were committed in the two provinces of Mmister and Leinster, and that l^e Scotch^w^ie exempted from death by proclamation! Oh! Trath! how are thy beauties disfigured ; thy divine attributes f^nsed ! Instead of a general massacre (^ all the Protestants, not one hundredth part of the number stated to have been slain in cold blood met with an untimely fate, and those who did suffer must lay their deaths at the door of the Protestant persecutors, who, by their merciless and inhuman conduct towards the unhappy natives of the country, drove them to a state of madness and desperation, after having borne the persecutions of these monsters in cruelty with unexampled forbearance and patience.

So iar from the Irish CaihoHcs conspiring the destrucHon of the Protestants, the plan was laid by the latter to exter- minate an the Catholics of that unhappy country. Tins state- ment may appear incredible ; it is nevertheless as true as it is horrible. Clarendon, Carte, Warner, Leland, and a host of other writers, concur in proving that the predominant Protestant party in England and Ireland meditated, for a long time, the execrable and diabolical project of an ntter destruction of the Catholics, and colomsing the country with Protestant settlers. The following testimony will shew the infernal spirit ^hich actuated the Protestant party in liiose days.

Lebnd writes: — *' The favourite object of the Irish gover- nors, and the English Parliament, was the uUer bxtebici- NATION of aU the Catholic inhabitants of Ireland ! Their estates were already marked out and allotted to l^eir conque- rors ; so that they and their posterity Were consigned to in- evitable nun.^— (iii. 192.)

Warner says : — ** It b evident from Ifeeb [the lord-jostioes^ last letter to the lieutenant, that they hoped for an extir- pation, not of the mere Irish atihf, but of all the B^IM famOies that were Roman Catholics.^ -^It.)

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Clarendon states: — ^* ThepaiiiameDt party, who had heaped so many reproaches and calumnies upon the king, for his demency to the IxuHn, who had grounded tiieir own authority and strength upon such foundations as were inconsistent with any toleration of the Boman Catholic reli^on, and eyen tinth any humanity to the Irish nation^ and more especially to those of the old native extraction, the whole race whereof ihey had upon the matter sworn to BXTIRPATE,^ &c — (i. 115.)

Carte says :— '^ If it he more needful to dispose of places out of hand, and that it may stand with his majesty's plea- sure to fill some of th^n with Irish that are Protestants, and ihcU have not been for the extirpation of the Papist na^ tives, it will much satisfy botii, and cannot justly he excepted against/Miii- ^26.)

" Mr. Brent landed lately here^ and hatli brought with him such letters as have somewhat changed the face of this government from what it was when the parliament pamphlets were received as oracles, their commui^ obeyed as laws, and EXTIRPATION preached for yospel," — (Idem. 170.)

<< Though extirpation both of nation and religion be not named, yet I conceive it is contrived almost in every propo" sition ; and the consideration thereof confirms me in a full belief of tiie malicious practices of the Cootes and Ormsbyes, in the county of Roscommon.'^ — (Idem* 311.^

** The term of BXTiRPATloir is worn out here, and the in- tention not adcnowledged to me by the prime authors tiierein with whom I have been plain after my blunt way.''— {/liem. 155.)

*^ The reason of their [the justices'] advice is founded upon their darUny stheme of an extirpation of the old English proprietors, amd a general plantation of the whole kingdom with a new eohny ; for this is the meaning of what they allege, to shew it to be ^ nnsafe for his majesty, and destructive to the kingdom, to grant the petitionons' request ; as being altogether inconsistent witii the means of raising a oonsideraUe revenue for his orown, ef settling religion and

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civility/ in the Jcinffdom ; and of establishing a finn and lasting peace, to the honour of his majesty, the safety of his royal posterity, and the comfort of all his faithful subjects/* ---[Lltm. i. 391.)

" These difficulties and considerations were of little weight with the lord-justices; who, having got a thin house of commons to their mind, of persons devoted to their interests and measures, resolved to improve the opportunity offered, and to get such acts passed, as might distress the king, exasperate the hulk of the nation^ spread the rehellian, and so promote their darling scheme of ExriNGUiSHiNa tlu old proprietors, OAnd making a new plantation of the kingdom,^^ -^ildem. 330.)

** Such considerations as these were not agreeable to the views of the lord -justices, who had set their hearts on the EXTIRPATION, not Only of the rHiere Irish, hit likewise of all the old English families that were Boman Catholics, and the making of a new plantation all over the kingdom ; in which they could not fail to have a principal share ; so all their reasonings, upon all occasions, wei*e calculated and intended to promote that their favourite schemes." — {Idem. 293.)

*^ These measures served their own scheme of an extirpa- tion, by racking tfiose gentlemen, whose treatment could not fail of deterring everybody from venturing themselves into their power for the fiiture.'' — {Idem, 301.)

*^ These prppositions certainly came from some of that party of men which first formed the design of an kxhrpa- TioN of the Boman Catholics, and, by puhlisTUng that design, made the rebellion so general as it proved at last. They all breathed the same spirit ; and though extirpation both of nation and religion was not eapressly mentioned, yet it seemed to be contrived effectually in all the propositions. They appeared so monstrous and unreasonable, that it was thought they could proceed from nothing but an high degree of madness or malice." — (Idem, 502.)

<< There is too much reason to think, that, as the lord* justices really wished ike rebellion to spread, and more

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gentlemen of estates to be involved in it, that the for- feitures MIGHT BE THE GREATER, and a general plantation be carried on by anew set of English Protestants, all over the kingdom, TO the ruin and expulsion of all the old English and natives that were Rohan Catholics; so, to promote what they wished, they gave out speeches upon occasions, insinuating such a design, and that in a short time there- would not be a Roman Catholic left in the kingdom. It is no small confirmation of this notion, that the earl of Ormonde, in his letters of January 27th, and February 25th, 1641-2, to Sir W. St. Leger, imputes the general revolt of the nation^ then far advanced, to the publishing of such a design ; and when a person of his great modesty and temper, the most adverse in his nature to speak his sentiments of what he could not but condemn in others, and who, when obliged to do so, does it always in the gentlest expressions, is drawn to express such an opinion, the case must be noto- rious. I do not find that the copies of these letters are preserved : but the original of Sir W. St. Leger's, in answer to them, sufficiently shows it to be his lordship's opinion ; for, after acknowledging the receipt of these two letters, he useth these words: The undue promulgation of that severe de- termination, to extirpate the Irish and Papacy out of this kingdom, your lordship rightly apprehends to be too un- seasonably published.** — (Idem, i. 263.^

We have here produced evidence sufficient to convince «very candid mind that the spirit of Protestantism has been the origin of those evils that have affiicted Ireland for these last three hundred years, and made the people of that country the most miserable of human beings. To a system of mis- rale and proscription, *and not to the pretended arts and intrigues of the Catholic priesthood, are the Irish indebted for the sufferings they have endured, and now endure. The sword and cannon, the knife and gibbet, plunder and de- etraction, were the means used to introduce the Protestant religion into Ireland. • Penal laws and proscription have been continued by every ruling faction to maintam its existence in

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that country ; but neither force nor fraud has succeeded in subduing the invincible constancy of the Irish people to the faith planted by St. Patrick in their green isle. Let us hope, then, that afi;er so long a trial of unshaken constancy, their reward is near at hand, and that they are soon to receive what they have always been ready to grant to others,-— equal civil rights and perfect freedom of conscience.

BEBELLIONS i.ND CONSPIBACIBS OF THE PAPISTS FROM THE REVOLUTION TO THE REIGN OF GEORGE II.

Hard is the case of the poor Papists, who, it seems, are doomed by these modem editors not only to father their own sins, but such as may be imputed to them by any bigot, and those, too, that are actually committed by Protestants. These sagacious writers say : — ** It is now our task to relate another of those horrible plots which will for ever disgrace the name of PoPEav, and render it obnoxious to every one who is not blinded by the specious statements of its supporters — we mean the Assassination Plot, formed for the destruction of that truly great and good monarch, William III.** Now, is it not a little singular that the greatest part of Ohriatians are so blind that they prefer this obnoxious name to the more modem one of Protestantism? But are P^^ists the only plotters ? Did not Protestants conspire against their king, James II ? and is it lawful on the part of Protestants to dethrone their sovereign, and unlawful on the part of Catho- lics only? William assisted to drive his father-in-law from his throne, and James could not be blamed for seeking to regain it. But the scheme was to assassinate William, and, if we are to believe the modem editors, *^ it was first projected by the French king, and fuf thered by the Popish emissaries in England.'' And they further tell us, that the principal persons in England concerned in the plot for assassi- nating the king were the following : — ^* The earl of Aylesbury, lord Montgomery, son to the marquis of Powis, Sir John Fenwick, Sir William Parkins, Sir John Friend, Ci^tain Chamock, Captain Porter, and Mr. GK)odman«" As we are

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desirous of bringing this volume to a close, we must be brief in our notice. Well, then, the majority of these individuals were, we believe, Protestants. Of the plot we have our suspicions that it was not a real one. Of the conspirators tried and executed, three of them, namely, Ohamock, King, and Reyes, acknowledged their guilt, but endeavoured to palliate it. (We quote from the conlinuator of Baker.) Friend denied his knowledge of the assassination, but Parkins ad- mitted something of a design against William, though he was not to act in it. He was absolved, at the place of execution, by three nonjuring clergymen, be it remembered, and they -were Protestant ministers. Bock wood, Lowick, and Oran- bum, were also tried, condemned, and executed. The latter professed himself a Protestant, the other two were Catholics. Sir John Fenwick was tried and acquitted, there being only OQC witness produced ; a bill of attainder, however, was passed against him, and he was beheaded. He was a Protestant, and denied any guilt.

The modem editors, in concluding their account of this plot gay : — « Thus was this horrid conspiracy happily frustrated, and the authors of it brought to that condign punishment which their infamy merited. The king's life was the security of his subjects, who heartily rejoiced, as they had reason to

do, in being THEREBY PRESERVED FROM THE MISERIES

OF Popery, and arbitrary government." We shall say nothing in defence of the conspirators, but content our- selves with protesting against the insinuation, that the Catholics, as a body, had anything to do with it. That William's subjects had occasion to rejoice we have our doubts, and as to their posterity, let the present miseries endured by the people of England bear testimony whether the miseries of Popery could be more afflicting than what are now borne by the nation. When James, a Catholic, filled the throne, there was not a shilling of debt contracted ; but he was a Papist, as Catholics are opprobriously termed, and therefore mti8t be a tyrant. Well, the leaders got rid of him, and in- troduced William, a Dutchman* He soon began to engage

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in wars, which could not be carried on without money ; and money could not be safely raised without borrowing. The money was accordingly borrowed ; a bank was established to manage the money system, and thus was laid the foundation of all the misery, degradation, and porerty, so heavily felt by all classes at this moment, excepting those who lire by the system. At the death of William the nation was in deU about ^14,000,000 sterling ; by this time it has increased to an enormous sum — upwards of BIGHT hundred millions — while the imposts on the people, in taxes, church and poor rates, <fec., amount to sixty millions annually. Blessed effects of excluding the miseries of Popery and arbitrary govern- ment I Of the laws that have been passed since the reign of William, it is impossible to give even an outline ; suffice it to say, they have been so multiplied, that lawyers are not able to become conversant with the whole code. More have been passed within the last reign to restrict the liberty of the subject, than were ever passed by all the Catholic kings of England, previous to the Beformation, for all purposes ; and men are now liable to be sent to confinement for di^leasing a watchman of the night. Oh ! sweet Liberty ! how pre- ferable to the miseries of Popery and arbitrary government I William commenced the debt to preserve the imaginary balance of Europe and Protestant ascendancy ; at the end of one hundred and thirty years, England is so crippled by the accumulation of that debt, that she is now unable to man a ship, or raise a regiment, to resent any insidt that may be offered ; her manufacturers mre starving, because they cannot compete with foreign nations in the articles of trade ; and many of those who live on the taxes have fied to France, there to spend the sweat and labour oi the people of Eng- land, because there they have no taxes to pay, and provbions are less than one-half the pricfe they are in this blessed Protes- tant country. Oh ! the charming effects of being <^ preserved from the miseries of Popery and arbitrary government !"

The next plot mentioned is called Attbrbury*s, who was a bishop of the church of England, namely, of the see of

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Rochester; we may, therefore, hope the sensihle reader will exonerate the Catholics generally from heing implicated in it.

PBHSBCUTIONS IN THE SOUTH OF FRANCE, IN 1814 AND 1820. Our limits are narrowed, and we must he hrief. The mo- dern editors have hestowed eighteen pages on these pretended persecutions, and tliey have served up some of the most de- lectable tales ever invented to gull the voracious appetites of the prejudiced. The whole is a mass of improbabilities, contradictions, and falsehoods. Some of the punishments said to have been inflicted on the female part of the Pro« testants, are grossly indelicate and wholly unworthy of credit. However, there are two or three facts stated that are de- serving a slight notice. The Catholics are said to have been furnished with 1000 muskets and 10,000 cartouches by the ENGLISH (Protestants), of Marseilles* The French Catholic soldiers are represented as devils incarnate in cruelty, while the Austrian troops (Catholics, too) overflowed with the milk of human kindness. The king of France issued a decree in favour of the poor Protestants, which was not at- tended to, and the persecution was put down by the inier^ ference of the British government ! They begin their re- lation with the arrival of Louis XVIII. at Paris, in 1814, which they say was known at Nismes on the 13th of April^ 1814, and was received by the Protestants with every de- monstration of joy ; but they were met by the Catholics with bigotry and intolerance, and who succeeded in procuring an address to the king, in which they stated, '' that there ought to be in France but one God, one King, and one Faith.'* "We do not know how many Gods or kings the Protestants would have, but we think ov^ is sufficient to worship, and one to rule a nation ; as to the number of faiths, there can be only ont that is tbde, and, therefore, the fewer the better; but let no force be made to reduce them. That the Catholics ifrere not intolerant at that period we have the testimony of DD 2

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a Eev. Isaac Cobbin, who published a pamphlet against the Catholics and the pretended persecution, in the month of November, 1815; but he was compelled to acknowledge, that " the Catholics thbmselvks first opened their ahms to THIS PROSCRIBED PEOPLE, [the French Protestants] and ex- claimed : * Lei us embrace — we are now to participate in the same rights — your calamities^ and the abuses ofihe coufdry, are terminated together'-* Vive la Liberty /'" Now this does not look like the spirit of persecution, and is directly opposed to the relation of the modem editorsi By the charter of the French, granted on ihe restoration of Louis XYIII. in 1814, all Frenchmen were made eligible to civil office — the firee exercise of religious worship was granted — ^Protestant Min- isters were paid by the Catholic government, and allowed about twenty pounds a year more than the Catholic rectors, and where there were five hundred Protestants, a church was built and kept in repair for them, at the expense of the government ; nor were the Protestants there, as Catholics are here, called upon to pay tithes to the clergy of the established church. Here, then, is nothing of the spirit of persecution. Let us now see what the modem editors say on the subject of the interference of the BritL^ government.

" To the credit of England, the reports of these cruel persecatioos carried on against our Protestant brethren in France, produced such a sensation on the part of GoTernment as determined them to inter^ fere ; and now the persecutors of the Protestants made this «|>oii- taneous act of humanity and religion the pretext for charging the sufferers with a treasonable correspondence with England; but in this state of their proceedings, to their great dismay, a letter ap- peared, sent some time before to England by the duke of Wellington, stating ' that much information existed on the event of the south.*

'^ The ministers of the three denominations in London, anxioiw not to be misled, requested one of their brethren to visit the seeiies of persecution, and examine with impartiality the nature and extant of the evils they were desirous to relieve. The Rev. Clement Perrot undertook this difficult task, and fulfilled their wishes with a seal, prudence, and devotedness, above all praise. His return furnished abundant and iocontestible proof of a shameful persecution, ma- terials for an appeal to the British parliament, and a printed repwty

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-which was circulated through the conthieDt, and which first con- veyed correct information to the inhabitants of France.

*' Foreign interference was now found eminently useful; and the declarations of tolerance which it elicited from the French govem- xnent, as well as the more cautious march of the Catholic persecu- tors, operated as decisive and involuntary acknowledgments of the importance of that interference which some persons at first censured and despised; but though the stem voice of public opinion* in Eng- land and elsewhere, produced a reluctant suspe^ion of massacre and pillage, the murderers and plunderers were still left unpunished, and even caressed and rewarded for their crimes ; and whilst Protestants in France sufiered the most cruel and degrading pains and penalties for alleged trifling crimes, Cathoiica, covered with blood, and guilty of numerous and horrid murders, were acquitted."

So, then, forbiqn intbrfbrbnce is very useful and beneficial in the case of Protestants ; but why, then, not let the Catholics make the mrne application in their case, to the bouse of Bourbon ? However, the fact is, the British go- Temment did noMnterfere, and though this busy Ferrot, and the secretaries to a London society for protecting religious liberty, made application to the duke of Wellington, at Paris, the noble duke contradicted the charge made against the French government, and denied that there was any perseea- tion of the French Protestants. His grace was corroborated by the French Protestant minister, M. Maron, who published a letter which gave the lie to all the reports spread against the Catholics as persecutors. These documents, with others, may be seen in our Orthodox Journaly for December, 1815, and January, 1816. We have there shewn that the affair at Nismes, which, by the by, took place in 1815, and not 1814, was a political squabble between the Bonapartists and the Bourbonists ; the former being Protestants, and the latter Catholics. The former were assailants when Bona- parte was in power, and a few of the Catholics, of the lowest class, retaliated when the Bourbons were reseated on the throne. We were favoured with an authenticated document, by the late Rev. Peter Gandolphy, taken and attested at Lyons, in December 1815, and we think we cannot do better than lay it before the reader, in order that he may see what

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666 REVIEW OF FOX*S

a trivial political affair has been magnified into a terrible RELIGIOUS persecution^ by these unprjncipled and shameless modem editors : —

'' Religion was no otherwise concerned in the disputes of the in- habitants of Nismes, than inasmuch as it served to distinguish the political principles of the Protestants and Catholics; the former having almost universally professed themselves BonapaTtists, whilst the latter generally embraced the cause of the Bourbons. In such cases animosity usually runs high, and reaction or revenge is almost always the consequence of the return of the proscribed party to power. On the restoration of the Bourbons in 1814, the Protestants at Nismes openly expressed their dissatisfaction at the event, and designated it to the Catholics, as the .signal for a second St. Bartho- lomew's day. At the return, therefore, of Bonaparte from Elba, they all took a most active and decided part in his cause ; and, in the ftiry of their politics, violently assailed the Catholics, plundering their houses, destroying their property, and ill-treating their per- sons. With many others, one Tartalion, of Nismes, became a great sufferer, whilst serving in the army of the duke of Angouleme. On the disbanding of that small royal army, this individual, at his return to Nismes, found his property plundered, his house destroyed, his wife and children forced to conceal themseWes in the woods, de- riving a substance from the commonest herbs and berries, and was himself compelled to subsist in the same manner. When the Bour- bons returned, however, in the summer of 1815, and the Bonapartists became again proscribed, this man, half naked, and with an unshorn beard that gave him all the appearance of a savage, issued from his retreat, and, armed with a carabine, entered the city of Nismes; and, in open day, posting himself in one of the streets, deliberately and repeatedly discharged his piece at those whom he conceived had been active in the destruction of his property. As others took up arms, blood was soon shed on both sides ; the Catholics, howefer, prevailed, being the most numerous; and they concluded the affair by forcibly shutting up the conventicles of the Protestants. In the mean time General Lagard received orders from the duke of An- gouleme to exert himself in protecting the Protestants ; and whilst endeavouring to disperse a body of the royalists assembled before the doors of one of the Protestant churches, he was wounded by a pistol shot fired by one of the Catholic party, whom he had struck with his sabre. The duke on this, observing the determined oppo- sition made to the king's mandates, himself marched with cannon and the national guard of Mon^elier, and re-opened those Protestant conventicles which had been shut up, Tartalion was also aeiiedi and

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BOOK OF MARTYRS. 657

committed to prison. The total number of the sufferera on the side of the Bonapartists was thirty-three, iu whicli only one was of re- spectable condition in life. He was a merchant, had failed, and, without satisfying his creditors, had afterwards realized a consider- able fortune. He was shot in his cabriolet, and is supposed to have lost his life more on account of this private affair than any other of a more public nature. Another Bourbonist, of the name of Pointu, took the same revenge at Avignon as Tartalion at Nismes, and is now in pribon^ waiting the sentence of the law ; but at the latter place only three or four lives were lost. It is acknowledged by the very Protestants, that none but the lowest of the populace were con- cerned in these affairs of Nismes and Avignon, and that the Catholic clergy, as well as the civil authorities, exerted themselves in pro- tecting the Protestants, and bringing the royalist offenders to punish- ment. Such, however, has been the rebellious spirit of the Pro- testants in that part of France, and so determined their opposition to the Bourbons, that the government has been under the necessity of disarming them, and arms to the number of 26,000 have been collected ; whilst it is supposed that as many more remain uudis- covered. Their designs were evidently hostile to the reigning family, which they reproach with bigotry and superstition, because more friendly to the established religion than the family of Bonaparte. The Jacobins of France, as well as some Protestants of England, have equally endeavoured to extract something useful to themselves from the disturbances at Nismes. But in France the plot has com- pletely fidled, and the affair is scarcely ever mentioned. All is now quiet at Nismes, as well as in every other part of France."

Concluding their account, such as it is, of the pretended persecution of French Pi^otestants, and, with it, the work itself, the modem editors say : — " With respect to the conduct of the Protestants, these highly outraged citizens, pushed to extre- mities hy their persecutors, felt, at length, that they had only to choose the manner in which they were to perish.

THKY UNANIJfODSLY DETERMINED THAT THEY WOULD DIE

FioiiTiNO FOR THEIR OWN DEFENCE. This firm attitude ap- prized their butchers that they could no longer murder with impunity. Everything was immediately changed,*^ So, then, these blessed Christian people did not like to die like the primitive martyrs, who endured persecution for conscience pake, according to the precepts of their Divine Master, who Buffered without resistance, to set them an example ; but they

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668 REVIEW OF fox's book of martyrs.

mu8t die like traitors, if their persecutors acted under the authority of the government, which the modern editors have heen labouring to shew. What would be said bj Protestants if such an avowal were made by Catholics ? But enough has been said, and this one fact is sufficient to prove that the SPIRIT OF Protestantism is not the spirit of the Gospel.

the end

K. Andrews, Catholic Printer & Publisher, i3,Dake Street, LitUe BriUla.

Digitized by LjOOQiC

OPINIONS OF THE PRESS.

<< We believe that there are persons still to be found in the world who, in spite of Father Parsons in olden, and Mr. Maitland in modern times, look upon Fox's Book of Martyrs as a veritable history, and not, as the older of theue critics justly described it, ' the fklsest volume that ever was published in any tongue.' To such persons the new edition of Mr. Andrews' Critical and Hiatorical Review of the book in question (London, M.Andrews,) would be a very wholesome medicine, if they could be persuaded to take it. We think the editors would have done well, per- haps, to have omitted the first three books of the review, and begun with the fourth, where Fox's lying begins in good earnest. In the earlier portion of his work his gross mis-statements were mostly the iruit of his intense Ignorance ; it is only after the year 1000 that his history becomes a tissue of malteiotu falsehoods. Mr. Andrews' refutation both of the one and the other is complete." — Pambler, January 1853.

*' We have much pleasure in directing public attention to this re-pub- lication of one of the most valuable Catholic works ever published in the English language. From the day when its able author, the founder (as he is so justly styled in the title page) of the English Catholic press, published this his great refutation of the lying chronicler of the Protes- tant * Martyrs,' the authority of the Elizabethan slanderer, even amongst the ultra-professors of the Reformation, was consideiably shaken. Mr. Andrews* work, besides refuting the infamous Fox, contains a very con- siderable amount of information on the persecution of Catholics during the reign of Elizabeth and her immediate successors, and on other highly interesting cotemporary topics. This work is admirably brought out, in numbers, at two-pence each, and will, we trust, conmiand a large circulation." — Telegraph, Oct. 23, 1852.

•• We return our thanks to Miss Andrews for the cheap reprint of this invaluable work, which is being issued in weekly pans, at two-pence each. Surely there is not a Catholic in the three kingdoms, knowing this fact, but will at once order it, read it carefully, and then lend it to his neighbours, who have b^t^n ,and are, led far away fh>m truth by the instrumentality of the lying fabrications it so ably refutes. We do not know a work better calculated than this, at the present time, to do good ; therefore it is the bounden duty of every Catholic to order as many copies as he can and circulate it far and wide." — Lamp, Oc^.23, 1852

** We are glad to see a reprint, in a cheap readable form, of this cele- , brated work of the late Mr. Andrews, which was now getting scarce. It excited a great deal of attention when it first appeared, and was mainly instrumental in the conversion of many Protestants. It is impossible for a Catholic, who is such by birth and education, to form an adequate idea of the amount of mischief done by that lying ehronicley * Fox's Book of Martyrs,' the hatred to Catholicity it engenders, or the fanatical tenacity vnth which it causes its Protestant readers to cling to heresy and its abettors. Every lie is swallowed devoutly as gospel truth ; every perversion of historic truth received as an established fact; and Catholic faith, and doctrine, and discipline, is looked upon

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OPINIONS OF THE PRESS.

us the incarnation of blasphemous cruelty. This holy wrath, this pions nmcour, is nursed to a white heat, untii it descends with tenfold fury upon the head of some luckless kitchen-maid or cook. She Is discoTered tu be a Papist, She. eschews meat and dripping upon a Friday. She is asked what religion she belongs to; ami, after some shufiSing^, the poor drudge is compelled to say she is a Catholic. The whole house is u|> iu arms against her. She is either snubbed or abused into giyinir a warning, or, as frequently is the case, Hhe reuebes her digmissal on the spot, and is ignomiiiiously expelled the house, with ever}* pro«peet of starvation before her. For if, after a lf>ng and weary search, the poor creature finds another situation vacant, her character is inquilred after. What character will an infuriated Evangelicai mistress give a discanled Papist cook ? — the worst that envenomed bigotry will incite her to give. And so the poor creature is driven from pillar to post, helpless, destitute, starring, and well nigh maddened b^ diaappointtnent and injustice, until, if it were not for that faith for which she is undergoing a martyr- dom, she would be tempted either to apostatize or to iling herself off the nearest bridse into the Thames. I(eader» this is no fancy sketch. We have often listened with almost tears of sorrow and indignation to the pitiful t-ales of these poor Catholic servant girls, as they begged the * price of a night's lodging' to lay down their wearied heada — wearied beyond the thought or the idea of the rich and well-to-do, in the fruit- less search after employment. The same inquiry everywhere, * Arc you a Catholic 1* — the same rejoinder, * We employ no Catholics hens' — meets the baffled suppliant at every turu. We verily believe that of all classes in our community who suffer most for their faith is that of our- poor servant viris, and they of all others the least fitted, by th«ir heiplessuess, to battle with this cruel struirgle for bread. In the most of them, thanks be to God^ their virtue is impregnable» Tben* voaid rather lay their wearied, fainting heads on the cold Atoiies ^d die, than support life by crime. But with some, a>as! their miitery is too gremt for their feeble powers of resistance to endure. They fall. They swell thtf number of those wretched outcasts of the streets, and soon sink, broken-hearted, into a premature grave. Such are the fruits which are gathered from reading * Fox's Book of Martyrs ; ' and it was to dispel this bigoted, hostile feeling that Mr. Andrew^ wrois his learned uA powerful review of this intamous work, j^ftsay infamous; bscmtise it was concocted to give a colouring of necessity for the cru^ penal laws against the Catholics of Bngland, and no worn has rivcttcd tn«t gailing chain of persecution more firmly about the necks of Goglish Catholics, than that rank compound of bigotry and lies^ * Fox's Book of Mmttys.'

*' The reprint of this useful review is neatly got up and extremely cheap. We hope it will meet with an extensive sale."^— CoMolie tUa^uiard^ Oct., dut/*, 1852.

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