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ird Volume 

O F T H E 

STORY 

OF THE 

ilEFORMATION 

O F T H E 

C?)Urcl) of England. 



By Gilbert Burnet, M. A, 



Being a Supplement to the Abridg- 
ment of the ^wo former Volumes. 

The Second Edition. 



LONDON: 

Printed for 7. Wahhoey J. and J, Knaporty 
D. Alid'wintery A. Bettefivorthy R. Robinfony 
y. Oshorn and T". Longman^ B, Motte, and 
A. Ward, Mdccxxviii. 



■l?# 




].,"hh<ii riii'h'.fli,;t In- hViirr^., 



C, THE 

P HISTORY 

OF 

THE REFORMATION 

OF THE 

CHURCH OF ENGLAND. 



GILBERT BURNET, D.D. 

LATE LORD BISHOP OF SARUM. 



IN SIX VOLUMES : 

VOL. IL — PART L 



LONDON: 

PRINTED FOR W. BAYNES AND SON, 

PATERNOSTER BOW ; AND 

H. S. BAYNES AND CO., EDINBURGH. 
1825. 



37S' 



LONDON : 

PUINTBD BY CHARLES WOOD, 

Poppin's Coart, Fleet Street. 



HISTORY 



T HE REFORMATION 



CHURCH OF ENGLAND. 



PART n. 



OF THE PROGRESS MADE IN IT TILL THE. 
SETTLEMENT OF IT IN THE BEGINNING OF 
QUEEN ELIZABETH'S REIGN. 



PREFACE. 



The favourable reception which the former part of this work 
bad, together with the new materials that were sent me from 
noble and worthy hands, have encouraged me to prosecute 
it, and to carry down the History of the Reformation of this 
church, till it was brought to a complete settlement in the 
beginning of Queen Elizabeth's reign, which I now offer to 
the world. 

The great zeal of this age for what was done in that, 
about religion, has made the History of it to be received 
and read with more than ordinary attention and care : and 
many have expressed their satisfaction in what was formerly 
published, by contributing several papers of great conse- 
quence to what remained : and since I found no part of the 
first volume was more universally acceptable, than that 
wherein I was only a transcriber, I mean the Collection of 
Records and Authentic Papers, which I had set down in 
confirmation of the more remarkable and doubtful parts of 
the History, I continue the same method now. I shall 
repeat nothing here that was in my former preface ; but refer 
the reader to such things as concern this History in general, 
and my encouragement in the undertaking and prosecution 
of it, to what is there premised to the whole work : and 
therefore I shall now enlarge on such things as do more 
particularly relate to this volume. 

The papers that were conveyed to me from several hands 
are referred to, as the occasion to mention them occurs in 
the History, with such acknowledgments as I thought best 
became this way of writing, though far short of the merits 
of those who furnished me with them. But the storehouse 
from whence I drew the greatest part both of the History 
and Collection, is the often-celebrated Cotton Library ; out 
of which, by the noble favour of its truly learned owner, 
Sir John Cotton, I gatheted all that was necessary for com- 
posing this part, together with some few things which had 
escaped me in my former search, and belong to the first 
part : and those I have mixed in the Collection added to 
this volume upon such occasions as I thought most pertinent. 
But among all the remains of the last age, that are with 
great industry and order laid up in that treasury, none pleased 
me better, nor were of more use to me, than the journal of 

b 



vi PREFACE. 

King Edward's reign, written all with his own hand, with 
some other papers of his, which I have put by themselves in 
the beginning of the Collection : of these I shall say nothing 
here, having given a full account of them in the history of 
his reign, to which 1 refer the reader. I find most of our 
writers have taken parcels out of them, and Sir John Hey- 
ward has transcribed from them the greatest part of his book ; 
therefore I thought this a thing of such consequence, that 
upon good advice I have published them all, faithfully copied 
from the originals. 

But as others assisted me towards the perfecting this part, 
so that learned divine, and most exact inquirer into historical 
learning, Mr. Fulman, rector of Hampton Meysey in Glou- 
cestershire, did most signally oblige me, by a collection of 
some mistakes I had made in the former work. He had for 
many years applied his thoughts with a very searching care 
to the same subject, and so was able to judge more critically 
of it than other readers. Some of those had escaped me, 
others had not come within my view ; in some particulars 
my vouchers were not good, and in others I had mistaken my 
authors. These I publish at the end of this volume, being 
neither ashamed to confess my faults, nor unwilling to ac- 
knowledge from what hand 1 received better information. 
My design in writing is to discover truth, and to deliver it 
down impartially to the next age ; so I should think it both 
a mean and criminal piece of vanity to suppress this dis- 
covery of my errors. And though the number and conse- 
quence of them had been greater than it is, I should rather 
have submitted to a much severer penance, than have left 
the world in the mistakes I had led them into : yet I was not 
a little pleased to find that they were neither many nor of im- 
portance to the main parts of the History ; and were chiefly 
about dates, or small variations in the order of time. I hope 
this part has fewer faults, since that worthy person did pur- 
sue his former kindness so far as to review it beforehand : 
and with great judgment to correct such errors as he found 
in it : those I had formerly fallen into made me more careful 
in examining even the smallest matters. Yet, if after all 
my care, and the kind censures of those who have revised 
this work, there is any thing left that may require a further 
retractation, I shall not decline to make it so soon as I see 
there is need of it, being, I hope, raised above the poor 
vanity of seeking my own reputation by sacrificing truth 
to it. 

Those to whose censure I submitted this whole History in 
both its parts, were chiefly three great divines, whose lives 
are such examples, their sermons such instructions, their 
writings such unanswerable vindications of our church, and 



PREFACE. vii 

their whole deportment so suitable to their profession, that 
as I reckon my being admitted into some measure of friend- 
ship with them among the chief blessings of my life, so I 
know nothing can more effectually recommend this work, 
than to say that it passed with their hearty approbation, 
after they had examined it with that care, which tlieir great 
zeal for the cause concerned in it, and their goodness to the 
author, and freedom with him, obliged them to use. They 
are so well known, that, without naming them, those of this 
age will easily guess who they are ; and they will be so well 
known to posterity, by their excellent writings, that the 
naming them is so high an advantage to my book, that I 
much doubt whether it is decent for me to do it. One of 
them, Dr. Lloyd, is now, while I am writing, by his majesty's 
favour promoted to the bishopric of St. Asaph : a dignity to 
which how deservedly soever his great learning, piety, and 
merit, have advanced him, yet I particularly know how far 
he was from any aspirings to it. It was he I described in 
my former preface, that engaged me first to this design, and 
for that reason he has been more than ordinarily careful to 
examine it with that exactness that is peculiar to him. The 
other two are the reverend, learned, and judicious deans of 
Canterbury and St. Paul's, Dr. Tillotson and Dr. Stilling; 
fleet, too well known to receive any addition from the cha- 
racters I can give of them. 

Others gave me supplies of another sort, to enable me to 
go through with an undertaking that put me to no small 
expense. I am not ashamed to acknowledge, that the strait- 
ness of my condition made this uneasy to me, being destitute 
of all public provision : but I should be much ashamed of 
my ingratitude, if 1 did not celebrate their bounty who have 
taken such care of me as not to leave this addition of charge 
on one who lives not without difficulties. 1 must again 
repeat my thanks for the generous kindness, protection, and 
liberal supplies, of Sir Harbottle Grimstone, master of the 
rolls, this being the sixth year of my subsistence under him, 
to whom I must ever acknowledge that I am more beholden 
than to all men living. The noble Mr. Boyle, as he employs 
both his time and wealth for the good of mankind, for which 
he considers himself as chiefly born, and which he has pro- 
moted, not only in his own excellent writings, that have 
made him so famous over all the world, but in many other 
designs that have been chiefly carried on at his cost), so 
hath he renewed his kindness to me in largesses suitable to 
so great a mind. Others were also pleased to join their 
help. The Right Honourable the Lord Finch, now lord high 
chancellor of England, whose great parts, and greater virtues, 
are so conspicuous, that it were a high presumption in me 



riii PKEFACE. 

to say any thing in his commendation, being in nothing more 
eminent than in his zeal for and care of this church, thought 
it might be of some importance to have its history well 
digested, and therefore, as he bore a large share of my ex- 
pense, so he took it more particularly under his care, and 
under all the burthens of that high employment which he 
now bears, yet found time for reading it in manuscript, of 
which he must have robbed himself, since he never denies 
it to those who have a right to it on any public account: 
and hath added such remarks and corrections as are no small 
part of any finishing it may be judged to have. The Lord 
Russel, the inheritor of that zeal for true religion, and the 
other virtues that have from the first beginnings of the 
Reformation, in a continued entail, adorned that noble 
family of Bedfoid, beyond most others of the kingdom, did 
espouse the interests of the protestant religion in this par- 
ticular, as he has done on all other more public occasions ; 
and by a most liberal supply encouraged me to prosecute 
this undertaking. That worthy counsellor, whose celebrated 
integrity and clear judgment have raised him so high in his 
profession, Anthony Keck, Esq., did also concur in easing me 
of the charge that searching, copying, and gathering materials,, 
put me to : and having received as much from these my noble 
benefactors, as did enable me to carry on my design, I did 
excuse myself at other persons' hands, who very generously 
offered to supply me in the expense which this work brought 
with it. That was done in a most extraordinary manner by 
the right honourable the earl of Halifax ; whom, if 1 reckon 
among the greatest persons this age has produced, 1 am sure 
all that know him will allow that I speak modestly of him : 
he, indeed, offered me the yearly continuance of a bounty 
that would not only have defrayed all this expense, but have 
been an entire and honourable subsistence to me ; and 
though my necessities were not so pressing as to per- 
suade me to accept it, yet so unusual a generosity doth 
certainly merit the highest acknowledgments 1 can make 
for it. 

But I now turn to that which ought to be the chief subject 
of this preface, to remove the prejudices, by which weak 
and unwary persons have been prepossessed in their judg- 
ments concerning the Reformation, during that period of it 
that falls within this volume. I know the duty of an his- 
torian leads him to write as one that is of neither party, and 
I have endeavoured to follow it as carefully as I could, neither 
concealing the faults of the one party, nor denying the just 
praises that were due to any of the other side ; and have 
delivered things as I found them, making them neither better 
nor worse than indeed they were : but now that I am not 



PREFACE. ix 

yet entered into that province, and am here writirig my owa 
thoughts, and not relating the actions of other men, 1 hope 
it will be judged no indecent thing to clear the reader's 
mind of those impressions, which may either have already 
biassed him too much, or may, upon a slight reading of what 
follows, arise in his thoughts ; unless he were prepared and 
armed with some necessary reflections, which every one that 
may possibly read this History has not had the leisure, or 
other opportunities, to make to such a degree as were needful. 

It is certainly an unjust way of proceeding, in any that is 
to be a judge, to let himself be secretly possessed with such 
impressions of persons and things as may bias his thoughts : 
for where the scales are not well adjusted, the weight can- 
not be truly reckoned. So that it is an indirect method to 
load men's minds with prejudices, and not to let them into 
the trial of truth, till their inclinations are first swayed such 
a way. I deny not but in matters of religion most com- 
monly men receive such notions, before they can well ex- 
amine them, as do much determine them in the inquiries 
they make afterwards, when their understandings grow up 
to a fuller ripeness : but those preoccupations, if rightly 
infused, are rather such as give them general notions of 
what is good and honest in the abstracted ideas than con- 
cerning matters of fact : for every wise and pious man must 
avoid all such methods of instruction as are founded on 
falsehood and craft : and he that will breed a man to love 
truth, must form in him such a liking of it, that he may 
clearly see he would bribe him into no opinion or party by 
false or indirect arts : but since men are generally so apt to 
let some easy notions enter into their minds, which will pre- 
engage their affections, and for most part those who set 
themselves to gain proselytes do begin with such arts, it will 
not be amiss to give the reader such an account of these as 
may prepare him against them, that so he may with a clearer 
mind consider what is now to be delivered to him, concern- 
ing the reformation of religion among us. 

1 shall begin with that which is most commonly urged : 
that the whole church being one body, the changes that 
were made in religion did break that unity, and dissolve the 
bond by which the catholic church is to be knit together, 
and that therefore the first reformers began, and we still 
continue, a schism in the church. 

In answer to this it is to be considered, that the bishops 
and pastors of the church are obliged to instruct their peo- 
ple in the true faith of Christ, according to the Scriptures : 
the nature of their function, being a sacred trust, binds them 
to this ; they were also at their consecration engaged to it, 
by a formal sponsion, according to the questions and answers 

63 



X PREFACE. 

that are in the Roman pontifical to this day. Pastors owe 
it as a debt to their people, to teach them according to the 
Scriptures : they owe a charity to their brethren, and are 
to live with them in the terms of brotherly love and friendly 
correspondence ; but if that cannot be had on easier terms 
than the concealing necessary truths, and the delivering 
gross errors to those committed to their charge, it is certain 
that they ought not to purchase it at so dear a rate. When 
the pastors of this church saw it overrun with errors and 
corruptions, they were obliged by the duty they owed to 
God and to their people to discover them, and to undeceive 
their misled flocks. It is of great importance to maintain 
peace and unity ; but if a party in the church does set up 
some doctrines and practices that do much endanger the 
salvation of souls, and make advantages by these, so that 
there is no hope left to gain them by rational and softer 
methods, then, as St. Peter was to be withstood to his face 
in a lesser matter, much more are those, who pretend no 
higher than to be his successors, to be withstood, when the 
things are of great moment and consequence. When here- 
sies sprung up in the primitive church, we find the neigh- 
bouring bishops condemned them without staying for the 
concurrence of other churches ; as in the case of Samosate- 
nus, Arius, and Pelagius : and even when the greatest part 
of the church was become Semi-arian, and many great 
councils, chiefly that at Arminum, consisting of above eight 
hundred bishops, as some say, had through ignorance and 
fear complied, the orthodox bishops did not forbear to in- 
struct those committed to their care according to the true 
faith. A general concurrence is a thing much to be laboured 
for ; but when it cannot be had, every bishop must then do 
his duty so as to be answerable to the chief bishop of souls. 
So that, instead of being led away by so slight a prejudice, 
we must turn our inquiries to this, Whether there were 
really such abuses in the church as did. require a reforma- 
tion "{ and whether there was any reason to hope for a more 
general concurrence in it? In the following History, the 
reader will see what corruptions were found to be both in 
the doctrine and worship of this church : from whence he 
may infer what need there was of reformation. And it is 
very plain, that they had no reason to expect the concurrence 
of other churches ; for the council of Trent had already 
made a great progress, and it was very visible, that, as the 
court of Rome governed all things there, so they were re- 
solved to admit of no effectual reformation of any consider- 
able matters ; but to establish, by a more formal decision, 
those errors and abuses, that had given so much scandal to 
the Christian world for so many ages. 



PREFACE. xi 

Tfak being the true state of the case, it is certaia, that if 
there were really great corruptions, either in belief or man- 
ners in this church, then the bishops were bound to reform 
them : since the backwardness of others in their duty could 
not excuse them from doing theirs, when they were clearly 
convinced of it. So that the reader is to shake off this pre- 
judice, and only to examine whether there was really such 
need of a reformation? Since, if that be true, it is certain 
the bishops of this as well as of other churches were bound 
to set about it ; and the faultiness of some could be no ex- 
cuse to the rest. 

The second prejudice is, that the Reformation was begun 
and carried on, not by the major part of the bishops and 
clergy, but by a few selected bishops and divines, who, 
being supported by the name of the king's authority, did 
frame things as they pleased ; and by their interest at court 
got them to be enacted in parliament : and after they had 
removed such bishops as opposed them, then they procured 
the convocation to consent to what was done : so that, upon 
the matter, the Reformation was the work of Cranmer, with 
a few more of his party, and not of this church, which never 
agreed wholly to it, till the bishops were so modelled as to 
be compliant to the designs of the court. In short, the 
resolution of this is to be taken from a common case ; when 
the major part of a church is, according to the conscience of 
the supreme civil magistrate, in an error, and the lesser part 
is in the right. The case is not hard, if well understood ; 
for in the whole Scripture there is no promise made to the 
major part of the pastors of the church ; and there being no 
Divine promise made about it, it is certain that the nature 
of man is such, that truth separated from interest hath few 
votaries : but when it is opposite to it, it must have a very 
small party. So that most of those things which needed re- 
formation, being such as added much to the wealth and 
power of the clergy, it had been a wonder, indeed, if the 
greater part had not opposed it. In that case, as the smaller 
part were not to depart from their sentiments, because op- 
posed in them by a more numerous party that was too 
deeply concerned in the matter; so it was both natural for 
them, and very reasonable, to take sanctuary in the authority 
and protection of tlie prince and the law. That princes 
have an authority in things sacred, was so universally 
agreed to in King Henry's reign, and was made out upon 
such clear evidence of reason and precedents, both in the 
Jewish state, and in the Roman empire when it turned 
Christian, that this ground was already gained. It is the 
first law in Justinian's code, made by Theodosius when he 
came to the empire, That all should everywhere, under 



xii PREFACE. 

severe pains, follow that faith which was received by Da- 
masus, bishop of Rome, and Peter of Alexandia. And why 
might not the king and laws of England give the like autho- 
rity to the archbishops of Canterbury and York 1 

When the empire, and especially the eastern part of it, 
had been, during the reign of Constantius, and Valens suc- 
ceeding him after a short interval, so overspread with Arian- 
ism, it is scarce to be imagined hovv it could have been re- 
formed in any other manner : for they durst not, at first, trust 
it to the discretion of a synod ; and yet the question then on 
foot was not so linked with interest, being a speculative 
point of divinity, as those about which the contests were in 
the beginning of the Reformation. 

It is not to be imagined how any changes in religion can 
be made by sovereign princes, unless an authority be lodged 
with them of giving the sanction of a law to the sounder 
though the lesser part of a church : for as princes and law- 
givers are not tied to an implicit obedience to clergymen, 
but are left to the freedom of their own discerning, so they 
must have a power to choose what side to be of,where things 
are much inquired into. The jurisdiction of synods or 
councils is founded either on the rules of expediency and 
brotherly correspondence, or on the force of civil laws ; for 
when the Christian belief had not the support of law, every 
bishop taught his own flock the best he could, and gave his 
neighbours such an account of his faith, at or soon after his 
consecration, as satisfied them, and so maintained the unity 
of the church. The formality of synods grew up in the church 
from the division of the Roman empire, and the dignity of 
the several cities ; which is a thing so well known, and so 
plainly acknowledged by the writers of all sides, that it 
were needless imposing on the reader's patience to spend time 
to prove it. Such as would understand it more perfectly, will 
find it in De Marca the late archbishop of Paris's books, 
De Concordia Imperii and Sacerdotii, and in Blondell's 
works, De la Piimaute de I'Eglise. None can imagine there 
is a Divine authority in that which sprung from such a be- 
ginning. The major part of synods cannot be supposed to 
be, in matters of faith, so assisted from Heaven, that the 
lesser part must necessarily acquiesce in their decrees, or 
that the civil powers must always measure their laws by 
their votes : especially where interest does visibly turn the 
scales. And this may satisfy any reasonable man as to this 
prejudice ; that if Archbishops Cranmer and Holgate, the 
two primates and metropolitans of this church, were in the 
right in the things that they procured to be reformed, though 
the greater part of the bishops, being biassed by base ends, 
and generally both superstitious and little conversant in 



PREFACE. xin 

the true theological learning, did oppose them, and they 
were thereby forced to order matters so, that at first they 
were prepared by some selected bishops and divines, and 
afterwards enacted by king and parliament, this is no just 
exception to what was so managed. And such a reforma- 
tion can no more be blasted by being called a parliament- 
religion, than the reformations made by the kings of Israel, 
without or against the majority of the priests, could be ble- 
mished by being called the king's religion. 

A third prejudice is, that the persons who governed the 
affairs at court were weak or ill men : that the king being 
under age, things were carried by those who had hirn in 
their power. And for the two great ministers of that reign, 
or rather the administrators of it, the duke of Somerset and 
Northumberland, as their violent and untimely deaths may 
seem to be effects of the indignation of Heaven for what 
they did ; so they were both eminently faulty in their admi- 
nistration, and are supposed to have sought too much their 
own ends. This seems to cast a blemish on their actions, 
and to give some reason to suspect the things were not good, 
which had such instruments to advance them. 

But this prejudice, compounded of many particulars, 
when taken to pieces, will appear of no force to blast the 
credit of what they did. By our law the king never dies, 
and is never young nor old ; so that the authority of the king^ 
is the same, whether administered by himself or by his go- 
vernors, when he is under age: nor are we to judge of mea 
by the events that befal them. These are the deepest se- 
crets of Divine Providence, into which it is impossible for 
men of limited understandings to penetrate : and if we 
make judgments of persons and things by accidents, we shall 
very often most certainly conclude falsely. Solomon made 
the observation, which the series of human affairs ever since 
hath fully justified, that there are just men to whom it hap- 
pens according to the work of the wicked ; and wicked men 
to whom it happens according to the work of the righteous : 
and the inquirmg into these seemingly unequal steps of 
God's governing the world is a vanity. As for the duke of 
Northumberland, the Reformation is not at all concerned in 
him : for if we believe what he said, when there was the 
least reason to suspect him, on the scaffold, he was all the 
while a papist in his heart. And so no wonder if such a 
man, striking in for his own ambitious aads with that which 
was popular, even against the persuasions of his conscience, 
did very ill things. The duke of Somerset was indeed 
more sincere ; and though he was not without his faults 
(which we may safely acknowledge, since the man of infal- 
libility is not pretended to be without sin), yet these were 



xiv PREFACE. 

not such heinous transgressions, but rather such as human 
infirmity exposes most men to when they are raised to a 
high condition. He was too vain, too much addicted to his 
own notions, and, being a man of no extraordinary parts, he 
was too much at the disposal of those who by flatteries and 
submissions insinuated themselves into him ; and he made 
too great haste to raise a vast estate to be altogether inno- 
cent : but 1 never find him charged with any personal disor- 
ders, nor was he ever guilty of falsehood, of perverting jus- 
tice, of cruelty, or of oppression. He was so much against 
the last of these, that he lost the affections of the nobility 
for being so careful of the commons, and covering them 
from the oppression of their landlords. The business of his 
brother, though it has a very ill appearance, and is made 
to look worse by the lame account our books give of it, 
seems to have been forced on him : for the admiral was a 
man of most incurable ambition, and so inclined to raise dis- 
turbance, that, after so many relapses and such frequent 
reconciliations, he still breaking out into new disorders, it 
became almost necessary to put him out of a capacity of 
doing more mischief. But if we compare the duke of So- 
merset with the great ministers even in the best courts, we 
shall find him better than most of them ; and if some few 
have carried their prosperity better, many more, even of 
those who are otherwise recorded for extraordinary persons, 
have been guilty of far greater faults. He who is but a 
little acquainted with history, or with the courts of princes, 
must needs know so much of this argument, that he will 
easily cure himself of any ill effects which this prejudice 
may have on him. 

A fourth prejudice is raised from the great invasions 
which were then made upon the church-lands, and things de- 
dicated to pious uses ; which is a thing hated by men of all 
religions, and branded with the odious names of sacrilege 
and robbing of God ; so that the spoils of religious houses 
and churches seem to have been the secret motives that at 
first drew in and still engage so many to the Reformation. 
This has more weight in it than the former, and therefore 
deserves to be more fully considered. 

The light of nature teaches, that those who are dedi- 
cated to the service of God, and for instructing the people, 
ought to be so well provided for, that they may be delivered 
from the distractions of secular cares, and secured from 
the contempt which follows poverty ; and be furnished with 
such means as may both enable them to know that well 
wherein they are to instruct others, and to gain such an in- 
terest in the affections of those among whom they labour, 
as modest hospitality and liberal alms-giving may procure. 



PREFACE. XV 

In this all nations and religions have so generally agreed, 
that it may be well called a law of nations, if not of nature. 
Had churchmen been contented with this measure, it is very 
probable things had never run to the other extreme so much 
as they have done. But as the pope got to himself a great 
principality, so the rest of his clergy designed to imitate 
him in that as much as was possible : they spared no pains, 
nor thought they any methods too bad that could set foi-ward 
these projects. The belief of purgatory, and the redeeming 
of souls out of it by masses, with many other public cheats 
imposed on the world, had brought the wealth of this and 
other nations into their hands. Upon the discovery of this 
imposture, it was but a reasonable and just proceeding of 
the government to reassume those lands, and dispose other- 
wise of them, which had been for most part fraudulently 
drawn from the former ages : for indeed the best part of the 
soil of England being in such ill hands, it was the interest 
of the whole kingdom to have it put to better uses. So that 
the abbeys being generally raised and endowed by the effi- 
cacy of those false opinions, which were infused into the 
people, I can see no just exception against the dissolu- 
tion of them, with the chantries, and other foundations of 
like superstition ; and the fault was not in taking them away, 
but in not applying a greater part of them to uses truly re- 
ligious. 

But most of these monasteries had been enriched by that 
which was indeed the spoil of the church : for in many 
places the tithes which belonged to the secular clergy were 
taken from them, and by the authority of papal bulls were 
given to the monasteries. This was the original of the great- 
est mischief that came on this church at the Reformation : 
the abbots having possessed themselves of the tithes, and 
having left to those who served the cure, either some small 
donative or stipend, and at best the small tithes or vicarage, 
those whc purchased the abbey-lands from the crown in the 
former reign had them with no other charge reserved for 
the incumbents but that small pittance that the abbots had 
formerly given them : and this is now a much less allowance 
than the curates had in the times of popery : for though 
they had now the same right by their incumbency that they 
then had, yet in the time of superstition, the fees of obits, 
exequies, soul-masses, and such other perquisites, did fur- 
nish them so plentifully, that, considering their obligation 
to remain unmarried, they lived well, though their certain 
maintenance v/as but small : but these things falling off by 
the Reformation, which likewise leaves the clergy at liberty 
in the matter of marriage, this has occasioned much igno- 
rance and scandal among the clergy. I shall not enter into 



xvi PREFACE. 

the debate about the Divine right of tithes : this I am sure 
of, a decent maintenance of the clergy is of natural right, 
and that it is not better looked to is a public reproach to the 
whole nation ; when, in all other religions and nations, 
those who serve at the altar live by it. The ancient allow- 
ances for the curates in market-towns being generally so 
small, because the number and wealth of the people made 
the perquisites so considerable, has made those places to be 
too often but ill supplied : and what way this makes for the 
seducers of all hands, when the minister is of so mean a 
condition, and hath so incompetent a maintenance, that he 
can scarce secure himself from extreme want and great 
contempt, 1 leave it to every man to judge. 

This is as high a contempt of religion and the gospel as 
any can be, and is one of those things for which this nation 
has much to answer to God ; that now, in one hundred and 
twenty years time, so little has been done by public autho- 
rity for the redress of such a crying oppression. Some pri- 
vate persons have done great things this way, but the pub- 
lic has yet done nothing suitable to the occasion : though 
their neighbour nation of Scotland has set them a very good 
example ; where, by the great zeal and care of King James, 
and the late blessed king, acts and orders of parliament have 
been made for examining the whole state of the clergy, and 
for supplying all poor livings so plentifully, that in glebe 
and tithes ail benefices are now raised to at least fifty 
pounds sterling yearly. What greater scorn can be put on 
religion, than to provide so scantily for those that are trusted 
with the care of souls, that some hundreds of parishes in 
England pay not 10/. a year to their pastors, and perhaps 
some thousands not fifty 1 This is to be numbered among 
those crying sins that are bringing down vengeance on us, 
since by this many souls are left to perish, because it is not 
possible to provide them with faithful and able shepherds. 
I shall not examine all the particular reasons that have ob- 
structed the redress of this mischief, but those concerned in 
it may soon find some of them out in themselves. And here 
I acknowledge a great and just prejudice lies against our 
Reformation, which no man can fully answer. But how 
faulty soever we may be in this particular, they of the 
church of Rome have little reason to object it to us, since 
the first and true occasion of it was of their own doing. 
Our fault is, that, at the dissolution of the monasteries, res- 
titution was not made to the parish priests of what the popes 
had sacrilegiously taken from them. And now that we are 
upon the utter extirpation of popery, let us not retain this 
relic of it. And I pray God to inspire and direct his majesty 
and his two houses of parliament effectually to remove this 



PREFACE. xvn 

just, and, for aught I know, only great scandal of our 
English Reformation. 

A fifth prejudice, which seems to give ill impressions of 
our Reformation, is, that the clergy have now no interest in 
the consciences of the people, nor any inspection into their 
manners ; but they are without yoke or restraint. All the 
ancient canons for the public penance of scandalous offen- 
ders are laid aside, and our clergy are so little ad nitted to 
know or direct the lives and manners of their flocks, that many 
will scarce bear a reproof patiently from them : our ecclesias- 
tical courts are not in the hands of the bishops and their 
clergy, but put over to the civilians, where too often fees 
are more strictly looked after than the correction of manners. 
I hope there is not cause for so great a cry ; but so it is, these 
courts are much complained of; and public vice and scan- 
dal are but little inquired after, or punished ; excommunica- 
tion is become a kind of secular sentence, and is hardly now 
considered as a spiritual censure, being judged and given 
out by laymen, and often upon grounds which, to speak mo- 
derately, do not merit so severe and dreadful a sentence. 
There are, besides this, a great many other abuses, brought 
in in the worst times, and now purged out of some of the 
churches of the Roman communion, which yet continue, 
and are too much in use among us ; such as pluralities, non- 
residences, and other things of that nature • so that it may 
be said, that some of the manifest corruptions of popery, 
where they are recommended by the advantages that accom- 
pany them, are not yet thoroughly purged out, notwithstand- 
ing all the noise we have made about reformation in mat- 
ters much more disputable, and of far less consequence. 

This whole objection, when all acknowledged, as the 
greatest part of it cannot be denied, amounts indeed to this, 
that our Reformation is not yet arrived at that full perfec- 
tion that is to be desired. The want of public penance, and 
penitentiary canons, is indeed a very great defect : our 
church does not deny it, but acknowledges it in the preface 
to the Office of Commination. It was one of the greatest 
glories of the primitive church,- that they were so governed, 
that none of their number could sin openly without public 
censure, and a long separation from the holy communion ; 
which they judged was defiled by a promiscuous admitting 
of all persons to it. Had they consulted the arts of policy, 
they would not have held in converts by so strict a way of 
proceeding, lest their discontent might have driven them 
away, at a time when to be a Christian was attended with 
so many discouragements, that it might seem dangerous, by 
so severe a discipline, to frighten the world out of their com- 
munion- But the pa&tora of that time resolved to follow 

c 



xviii PREFACE. 

the rules delivered them by the apostles, and trusted God 
with the success, which answered and exceeded all their 
expectations : for nothing convinced the world more of the 
truth of that religion, than to see those trusted with the care 
of souls watch so effectually over their manners, that for some 
sins, which in these loose ages in which we live pass but 
for common effects of human frailty, men were made to ab- 
stain from the communion for many years, and did cheer- 
fully submit to such rules as might be truly medicinal for 
curing those diseases in their minds. 

But, alas ! the churchmen of the latter ages being once 
vested with this authority, to which the world submitted as 
long as it saw the good effects of it, did soon learn to 
abuse it ; and to bring the people to a blind subjection to 
them. It was one of the chief arts by which the papacy 
swelled to its height : for confessors, instead of bringing 
their penitents to open penance, set up other things in the 
room of it ; pretending they could commute it, and in the 
name of God accept of one thing for another ; and they 
accepted of a penitent's going, either to the holy war, or, 
which was more holy of the two, to one of the pope's wars 
against heretics, or deposed princes ; and gave full pardons 
to those who thus engaged in their design. Afterwards 
(when the pope had no great occasion to kill men, or the 
people no great mind to be killed in his service) they ac- 
cepted of money, as an alms to God : and so all public 
penance was laid down, and murder or merchandise was set 
up in its room. This being the state of things at the Re- 
formation, it is no wonder if the people could not be easily 
brought to submit to public penance ; which had been for 
some ages entirely aside : and there was reason why they 
should not be forward to come under the yoke of their 
priests, lest they should have raised upon that foundation 
such a tyrannical dominion over them as others had for- 
merly exercised. This made some reformed churches be- 
yond sea bring in the laity with them into their courts ; 
which if they had done merely as a good expedient, for re- 
moving the jealousy which the world then had of ecclesias- 
tical tyranny, there was no great objection to have been 
made to it; but they made the thing liable to very great 
exception, when they pretended a divine institution for 
those lay- elders. Here in England, it is plain the nation 
would not bear such authority to be lodged with the clergy 
at first ; but it will appear, in the following work, that a 
platform was made of an ecclesiastical discipline, though the 
bishops had no hope of reducing it into practice till the king 
should come to be of age, and pass a law for the authorizing 
of it : but he dying before this was effected, it was not pro- 



PREFACE. xix 

secuted with that zeal that the thing required in Queen 
Elizabeth's time : and then those who in theirexile were taken 
with the models beyond seas, contending more to get it put 
in the method of other churches, than to have it set up in 
any other form, that contention begat such heat, that it took 
men off from this and many other excellent designs. And 
whereas the presbyters were found to have had anciently a 
share in the government of the churches, as the bishop's 
council and assistants, some of them that were of hot tem- 
pers demanding more than their share, they were by the im- 
moderate use of the counterpoise kept out of any part of 
ecclesiastical discipline ; and all went into those courts 
commonly called the spiritual courts ; without making dis- 
tinction between those causes of testaments, marriages, and 
such other suits, that require some learning in the civil and 
canon law, and the other causes of the censures of the 
clergy and laity, which are of a more spiritual nature, and 
ought indeed to be tried only by the bishops and clergy ; for 
they are no small part of the care of souls, which is in- 
cumbent on them : and by them only excommunications 
ought to be made, as being a suspension from the sacred 
rights of Christians, of which none can be the competent 
judges but those to whom the charge of souls is committed. 
The worst that can be said of all these abuses is, that they 
are relics of popery, and we owe it to the unhappy contests 
among ourselves that a due correction has not been yet given 
to them. 

From hence one evil has followed, not inferior to those 
from whence it flows, that the pastoral charge is novv looked 
on by too many, rather as a device only for instructing peo- 
ple, to which they may submit as much as they think fit, 
than as a care of souls, as indeed it is; and it is not to be de- 
nied, but the practice of not a few of us of the clergy has 
confirmed the people in this mistake ; who consider our 
functions as a method of living, by performing divine offices, 
and making sermons, rather than as a watching over the 
souls of the flocks committed to us, visiting the sick, reprov- 
ing scandalous persons, reconciling differences, and being 
strict at least in governing the poor, whose necessities will 
oblige them to submit to any good rules we shall set them 
for the better conduct of their lives. In these things does the 
pastoral care chiefly consist, and not only in the bare per- 
forming of offices, or pronouncing sermons, which every one 
almost may learn to do after some tolerable fashion. If men 
had a just nation of this holy function, and a right sense of 
it before they were initiated into it, those scandalous abuses 
of plurality of benefices with cure (except where they are so 
poor and contiguous, that both can scarce maintain one in- 



Kx PREFACE. 

cumbent, and one man can discharge the duty of both very 
well), non-residences, and the hiring out that sacred trust to 
pitiful mercenaries at the cheapest rates, would soon fall off. 
These are things of so crying a nature, that no wonder if the 
wrath of God is ready to break out upon us. These are 
abuses that even the ch urch of Rome , after all her impudence, 
is ashamed of; and are at this day generally discounte- 
nanced all France over. Queen INIary here in England, in 
the time of popery, set herself effectually to root them out : 
and that they should be still found among protestants, and in 
so reformed a church, is a scandal, that may justly make us 
blush. All the honest prelates at the council of Trent en- 
deavoured to get residence declared to be of divine right, and 
so not to be dispensed with upon any consideration whatso- 
ever : and there is nothing more apparently contrary to the 
most common impressions which all men have about matters 
of religion, than that benefices are given for the office to 
which they are annexed : and if in matters of men's estates, 
or of their health, it would be a thing of high scandal for one 
to receive the fees, and commit the work to the care of some 
inferior or raw practitioner, how much worse is it to turn 
over so important a concernment, as the care of souls must 
be confessed to be, to mean hands 1 And to conclude, those 
who are guilty of such disorders have much to answer for, 
both to God, for the neglect of those souls for which they 
are to give an account, and to the world, for the reproach 
they have brought on this church and on the sacred functions, 
by their ill practices. Nor could the divisions of this age 
ever have risen to such a height, if the people had not been 
possessed with ill impressions of some of the clergy, from 
those inexcusable faults, that are so conspicuous in too many 
that are called shepherds ; "who clothe themselves with the 
wool, but have not fed the flock ; that have not strengthened 
the diseased, nor healed the sick, nor bound up that which 
was broken, nor brought again that which was driven away, 
nor sought that which was lost, but have ruled them with 
force and cruelty." And if we would look up to God, who 
is visibly angry with us, and has made us base and con- 
temptible among the people, we should find great reason to 
reflect on those words of Jeremy, " The pastors are become 
brutish, and have not sought the Lord ; therefore they shall 
not prosper, and all their flocks shall be scattered." 

But I were very unjust if, having ventured on so plain and 
necessary a reprehension, I should not add, that God has 
not so left this age and church, but there is in it a great 
number in both the holy functions, who are perhaps as emi- 
nent in the exemplariness of their lives, and as diligent in 
their labours, as has been in anyone church in any age since 



PREFACE. xxi 

miracles ceased. The humility and strictness of life in many 
of our prelates, and some that were highly born, and yet 
have far outgone some others from whom more might have 
been expected, raises them far above censure, though per- 
haps not above envy. And when such think not the daily 
instructing their neighbours a thing below them, but do it 
with as constant a care as if they were to earn their bread 
by it ; when they are so affable to the meanest clergymen 
that come to ihem ; when they are so nicely scrupulous 
about those whom they admit into holy orders ; and so large 
in their charities, that one would think they were furnished 
with some unseen ways ; these things must raise great 
esteem for such bishops, and seem to give some hopes of bet- 
ter times. Of all this I may be allowed to speak the more 
freely, since I am led to it by none of those bribes, either of 
gratitude, or fear, or hope, which are wont to corrupt men 
to say what they do not think : but I were much to blame 
if, in a work that may perhaps live some time in the world, 
I should only find fault with what is amiss, and not also ac- 
knowledge what is so very commendable and praiseworthy. 
And when I look into the inferior clergy, there are, chiefly 
about this great city of London, so many, so eminent, both 
for the strictness of their lives, the constancy of their la- 
bours, their excellent and plain way of preaching (which 
is now perhaps brought to as great a perfection as ever was 
since men spoke as they received it immediately from the 
Holy Ghost), the great gentleness of their deportment to 
such as differ from them, their mutual love and charity, and, 
in a word, for all the qualities that can adorn ministers or 
Christians, that if such a number of such men cannot prevail 
with this debauched age, this one thing to me looks more 
dismally than all the other affrighting symptoms of our con- 
dition — that God having sent so many faithful teachers, 
their labours are still so ineffectual. 

I have now examined all the prejudices that either occur 
to my thoughts, or that I have not met with in books or dis- 
courses, against our Reformation ; and 1 hope, upon a free 
inquiry into them, it will be found that some of them are of 
no force at all, and that the other, which are better grounded, 
can amount to no more than this, that things were not 
managed with that care, or brought to that perfection, that 
were to be desired : so that all the use we ought to make of 
these objections, is to be directed by them to do those things 
which may complete and adorn that work, which was 
managed by men subject to infirmities, who neither could 
see every thing, nor were able to accomplish all that they 
had projected, and saw fit to be done. 

But from the matter of the following history another ob- 

c 3 



xxii PREFACE. 

jection of another sort may arise, which, though it has no 
relation to the reformation, yet leaves no small imputation 
on the nation, as too apt to change, and be carried about 
with every religion in vogue ; since, in little more than 
twenty years time, there were four great changes made in 
religion ; and in all these the main body of the nation 
turned with the stream : and ft was but a small number that 
stood firm, and suffered for their: consciences. But if the 
state of the nation be well considered, there will be nothing 
in all this so strange as at first view it may perhaps appear : 
for in the times of popery the people were kept in such pro- 
found ignorance, that they knowing nothing of religion be- 
yond the outward forms and pageantry, and being liighly 
dissatisfied with the ill lives of the clergy, and offended with 
their cruelty against those that contradicted their opinions, 
it is no wonder that they were inclined to hear preachers of 
any sort, who laid out to them the reasons of the doctrine 
they delivered, and did not impose it on them in gross, as 
the others had done. These teachers, being also men of in- 
nocent tempers and good lives, and being recommended to 
the compassion of the nation by their sufferings, and to their 
esteem by their zeal and readiness to run all hazards for 
their consciences, had great advantages to gain on the be- 
lief and affections of the people. And, to speak freely, I 
make no doubt but if the Reformation had been longer a 
hatching under the heat of persecution, it had come forth 
perfecter than it was. This disposition of the people, and 
King Henry's quarrelling with the pope, made the way easy 
for the first change : but then the severities about the supre- 
macy on one hand, and the six articles on the other, made 
people to stagger and reel between the two religions. And 
all people being fond of new things, and the discoveries of 
the impostures of the priests and lewdness of the monks in- 
creasing their dislike of them, it was no wonder the Reforma- 
tion went on with so little tumult and precipitation till King 
Edward's time. But though there were then very learned 
and zealous divines, who managed and carried on the 
changes that were made, yet still the greater part of the 
clergy was very ignorant and very corrupt ; which was oc- 
casioned by the pensions that were reserved out of the rents 
of the suppressed monasteries to the monks during their 
lives, or till they were provided with livings. The abbey- 
lands that were sold, with the charge of these annexed to 
them, coming into the hands of persons who had no mind to 
have that burthen lie longer on them, they got these monks 
provided with benefices, that so they might be eased of that 
charge. And for the other abbeys that still remained with 
the crown, the same course was taken : for the monks w«re 



PREFACE. xxiii 

put into all the small benefices that were in the king's gift. 
So that the greatest part of the clergy were such as had been 
formerly monks or friars, very ignorant for the most part, and 
generally addicted to their former superstition, though other- 
wise men that would comply with any thing rather than 
forfeit their livings. Under such incumbents nothing but 
ignorance and unconcernedness in religion could prevail. 
By this means it was that the greater pait of the nation was 
not well instructed, nor possessed with any warmth and sin- 
cere love to the Reformation, which made the following 
change under Queen Mary more easily effected. The pro- 
ceedings in King Edward's time were likewise so gentle and 
moderate, flowing from the calm temper of Archbishop 
Cranmer, and the policy of others, who were willing to ac- 
cept of any thing they could obtain, hoping that time would 
do the business, if the overdriving it did not precipitate the 
whole affair : that it was an easy thing for a concealed pa- 
pist to weatner the difficulties of that reign. There were 
also great scandals given by the indiscretion of many of the 
new preachers. The misgovernment of affairs under the 
duke of Somerset, with the restless ambition of the duke of 
Northumberland, did alienate the nation much from them ; 
and a great aversion commonly begets an universal dislike 
of every thing that is done by those whom we hate. 

All these tilings concurred to prepare the minds of the 
people to the change made by Queen Mary : but in her 
reign popery did more plainly discover itself in the many 
repeated burnings, and the other cruelties then openly exer- 
cised : the nation was also in such danger of being brought 
under the uneasy yoke of Spanish government, and they 
were many of them in fear of losing their new-gotten church- 
lands. These things, together with the loss of Calais in the 
end of her reign, which was universally much resented as a 
lasting dishonour to the nation, raised in them a far greater 
aversion to her government, and to every thing that had 
been done in it, than they had to the former. The genius 
of the English leads them to hate cruelty and tyranny : and 
when they saw these were the necessary concomitants of 
popery, no wonder it was thrown out with so general an 
agreement, that there was scarce any considerable oppo- 
sition made to it, except by some few of their clergy, who, 
having changed so often, were ashamed of such repeated re- 
cantations : and so resolved at last to stand their ground ; 
which was the more easy to resolve on under so merciful a 
prince, who punished them only by a forfeiture of their 
benefices : and that being done, took care of their subsistence 
for the rest of their lives ; Bonner himself not being excepted, 
though so de^ly dyed in the blood of so many innocents. 



xxiv PREFACE. 

All these things laid together, it will not seem strange 
that such great alterations were so easily brought about in 
so short a time. But from the days of Queen Elizabeth, 
that the old raonks were worn out, and new men better edu- 
cated were placed in churches, things did generally put on 
a new visage : and this church has since that time continued 
to be the sanctuary and shelter of all foreigners, and the 
chief object of the envy and hatred of the popish church, and 
the great glory of the Reformation ; and has wisely avoided 
the splitting asunder on the high points of the Divine de - 
crees, which have broken so many of the reformed beyond 
sea ; but in these has left divines to the freedom of their 
several opinions : nor did she run on that other rock, of de- 
fining at first so peremptorily the manner of Christ's presence 
in the sacrament, which divided the German and the Hel- 
vetian chnrches ; but in that did also leave a latitude to 
men of different persuasions. From this great temper it 
might have reasonably been expected, that we should have 
continued united at home ; and then for things sacred, as 
well as civil, we had been out of the danger of what all our 
foreign enemies could have contrived or done against us. 

But the enemy, while the watchman slept, sowed his tares 
even in this fruitful field ; of which it may be expected I 
should give some account here, and the rather because 1 end 
this work at the time when those unhappy differences first 
arose ; so that I give them no part in this history : and yet 
I have, in the search I made, seen some things of great im- 
portance, which are very little known, that give me a clearer 
light into the beginnings of these differences than is com- 
monly to be had ; of which I shall discourse so as becomes 
one who has not blindly given himself up to any party, and 
is not afraid to speak the truth even in the most critical 
matters. 

There were many learned and pious divines in the begin- 
ning of Queen Elizabeth's reign, who, being driven beyond 
sea, had observed the new models set up in Geneva, and 
other places, for the censuring of scandalous persons, of 
mixed judicatories of the ministers and laity : and these, re- 
flecting on the great looseness of life which had been uni- 
versally complained of in King Edward's time, thought such 
a platform might be an effectual way for keeping out a re- 
turn of the like disorders. There were also some few rites 
reserved in this church, that had been either used in the 
primitive church, or, though brought in of later time, yet 
seemed of excellent use to beget reverence in holy perform- 
ances ; which had also this to be said for them, that the 
keeping these still was done in imitation of what Christ and 
his apostles did, in symboliring vnth the Jewish rites, to 



PREFACE. XXV 

gain the Jews thereby as much as could be ; so it was judged 
necessary to preserve these, to let the world see, that, though 
corruptions were thrown out, yet the reformers did not love 
to change only for change sake, when it was not otherwise 
needful : and this they hoped might draw in many, who 
otherwise would not so easily have forsaken the Roman com- 
munion. Yet these divines excepted to those, as compliances 
with popery ; and though they professed no great dislike to 
the ceremonies themselves, or doubt of their lawfulness, yet 
were they against their continuance, upon that single ac- 
count, which was indeed the chief reason why they were 
continued. But all this debate was modestly managed, and 
without violent heat or separation : afterwards some of the 
queen's courtiers had an eye to the fair manors of some of 
the greater sees, and, being otherwise men of ill tempers and 
lives, and probably of no religion, would have persuaded the 
queen, that nothing could unite all the reformed churches 
so effectually, as to bring the English church to the model 
beyond sea ; and that it would much enrich the crown, if 
she took the revenues of bishoprics and cathedrals into her 
own hands. This made those on the other hand, who laid 
to heart the true interest of the protestant religion, and 
therefore endeavoured to preserve this church in that strong 
and well-modelled frame to which it was brought (particu- 
larly the Lord Burleigh, the wisest statesman of that age, 
and perhaps of any other), study how to engage the queen 
out of interest to support it : and they demonstrated to her, 
that these models would certainly bring with them a great 
abatement of her prerogative : since, if the concerns of 
religion came into popular hands, there would be a power 
set up distinct from hers, over which she could have no au- 
thority. 

This she perceived well, and therefore resolved to main- 
tain the ancient government of the church : but by this 
means it became a matter of interest ; and so these differ- 
ences, which might have been more easily reconciled before, 
grew now into formed factions ; so that all expedients were left 
unattempted which might have made up the breach : and it 
becoming the interest of some to put it past reconciling, this 
was too easily effected. Those of the division, finding they 
could not carry their main design, raised all the clamours 
they could against the churchmen ; and put in bills into the 
parliament against the abuses of pluralities, non-residences, 
and the excesses of the spiritual courts. But the queen 
being possessed with this, that the parliaments meddling in 
these matters tended to the lessening of her authority, of 
which she was extremely sensible, got all these bills to he 
thrown out. If the abuses, that gave such occasion to the 



xxvi PREFACE. 

malcontented to complain, had been effectually redressed, 
that party must have had little to work on : but these things 
furnished them with new complaints still. The market- 
towns being also ill-provided for, there were voluntary con- 
tributions made for lectures in these places. The lecturers 
were generally men that overtopped the incumbents in dili- 
gent and zealous preaching, and they, depending on the 
bounty of the people for their subsistence, were engaged to fol- 
low the humours of those who governed those voluntary contri- 
butions. All these things tended to the increase of the party ; 
which owed its chief growth to the scandalous maintenance 
of the ministers of great towns, for which reason they were 
seldom of great abilities ; and to the scandals given by the 
pluralities and non-residence of others that were over-pro- 
vided. Yet the government in civil matters was so steady 
all the queen's reign, that they could do no great thing, 
after she once declared herself so openly and resolutely 
against them. 

But upon King James's coming to the crown, and the di- 
visions that came to be afterwards in parliaments, between 
the too too-often-named parties for the court and country, 
and clergymen being linked to the interests of the crown, all 
those who in civil matters opposed the designs of the court 
resolved to cherish those of the division, under the colour of 
their being hearty protestants, and that it was the interest 
of the reformed religion to use them well, and that all pro* 
testants should unite : and indeed the differences between 
them were then so small, that, if great art had not been 
used to keep them asunder, they had certainly united of their 
own accord. But the late unhappy wars engaged those, who 
before only complained of abuses, into a formed separation, 
which still continues, to the greater danger and disgrace of 
the protestant religion. I shall not make any observations 
on latter transactions, which fall within all men's view ; 
but it is plain, that from the beginning there have been la- 
boured designs to make tools of the several parties, and to 
make a great breach between them ; which lays us now so 
open to our common enemy. And it looks like a sad fore- 
runner of ruin, when we cannot, after so long experience of 
the mischievous effects of these contests, learn to be so wise 
as to avoid the running on those rocks, on which our fathers 
did so unfortunately split ; but, on the contrary, many steer 
as steadily towards them, as if they were the only safe har- 
bours where they may securely weather every storm. 

But being now to lead the reader into so agreeable a pros- 
pect, as I hope the Reformation of the church will be to 
him, I will hold him yet a little longer before I open it, and 
desire him, for his bettw preparation to it, to reflect on the 



PREFACE. xxvii 

nature of religion in general, and of the Christian in par- 
ticular. That religion is chiefly designed for perfecting the 
nature of man, for improving his faculties, governing his ac- 
tions, and securing the peace of every man's conscience, and 
of the societies of mankind in common, is a truth so plain, 
that, without further arguing about it, all will agree to it. 
Every part of religion is then to be judged by its relation to 
the main ends of it : and since the Christian doctrine was 
revealed from Heaven, as the most perfect and proper way 
that ever was for the advancing the good of mankind, 
nothing can be a part of this holy faith but what is propor- 
tioned to the end for which it was designed. And all the 
additions that have been made to it, since it was first de- 
livered to the world, are justly to be suspected ; especially 
where it is manifest at first view that they were intended to 
serve carnal and secular ends. What can be reasonably 
supposed in the papacy, where the popes are chosen by such 
intrigues, either of the two crowns, the nephews of the former 
pope, or the craft of some aspiring men, to entitle them to 
infallibility or universal jurisdiction 1 What can we think 
of redeeming souls out of purgatory, or preserving them from 
it by tricks, or some mean pageantry, but that it is a foul 
piece of merchandise 1 What is to be <|aid of implicit obe- 
dience, the priestly dominion over consciences, the keeping 
the Scriptures out of the people's hands, and the worship of 
God in a strange tongue : but that these are so many arts 
to hoodwink the world, and to deliver it up into the hands 
of the ambitious clergy ? What can we think of the super- 
stition and idolatry of images, and all the other pomp of 
the Roman worship, but that by these things the people are 
to be kept up in a gross notion of religion, as a splendid 
business, and that the priests have a trick of saving them, 
if they will but take care to humour them, and leave that 
matter wholly in their hands 1 And, to sum up all, what can 
we think of that constellation of prodigies in the sacrament 
of the altar, as they pretend to explain it, and all really to 
no pujpose, but that it is an art to bring the world by whole- 
sale to renounce their reason and sense, and to have a most 
wonderful veneration for a sort of men, who can with a word 
perform the most astonishing thing that ever was? 

I should grow too large for a preface, if I would pursue 
this argument as far as it will go. But if, on the other 
hand, we reflect on the true ends of this holy religion, we 
must needs be convinced that we need go nowhere else out 
of this church to find them ; but are completely instructed 
in all parts of it, and furnished with all the helps to advance 
us to that which is indeed " the end of our faith, the salva- 
tion of our souls." Here we have the rules of holy obedience, 



xxviii PREFACE. 

and the methods of repentance and reconciliation for past 
sins, clearly set before us : we believe all that doctrine which 
Christ and his apostles delivered, and the primitive' church 
received : we have the comfort of all those sacraments which 
Christ instituted, and in the same manner that he appointed 
them : all the helps to devotion that the gospel offers are in 
every one's hand. So what can it be that should so extra- 
vagantly seduce any who have been bred up in a church so 
well constituted, unless a blind superstition in their tem- 
per, or a desire to get heaven in some easier method than 
Christ has appointed, do strangely impose on their under- 
standings, or corrupt their minds. Indeed, the thing is so 
unaccountable, that it looks like a curse from Heaven on 
those who are given up to it for their other sins ; for an or- 
dinary measure of infatuation cannot carry any one so far 
in folly. And it may be laid down for a certain maxim, that 
such as leave us have never had a true and well-formed no- 
tion of religion, or of Christianity in its main and chief de- 
sign^; but take things in parcels, and, without examining 
them, suffer themselves to be carried away by some preju- 
dices, which only darken weaker judgments. 

But if it is a high and unaccountable folly for any to 
forsake our communion, and go over to those of Rome, it is 
at the same time an inexcusable weakness in others, who 
seem full of zeal against popery, and yet upon some incon- 
siderable objections do depart from the unity of this body, 
and form separated assemblies and communions; though 
they cannot object any thing material, either to our doctrine 
or worship : but the most astonishing part of the wonder is, 
that in such differences there should be so little mutual for- 
bearance or gentleness to be found ; and that these should 
raise such heats, as if the substance of religion were con- 
cerned in them. This is of God, and is a stroke from Heaven 
on both sides for their other sins : we of the church-com- 
munion have trusted too much to the supports we receive 
from the law, we have done our duties too slightly, and 
have minded the care of souls too little ; therefore God, to 
punish and awaken us, has suffered so many of our people 
to be wrested out of our hands : and those of the separation 
have been too forward to blood and war, and thereby have 
drawn much guilt on themselves, and have been too com- 
pliant with the leaders of their several factions, or rather 
apt to outrun them. It is plain, God is offended with us 
all, and therefore we are punished with this fatal blindness, 
not to see at this time the things that belong to our peace. 

And this leads me to reflections of another sort, with 
which I shall conclude this preface, which I have now drawn 
out to a greater length than at first I intended. It is appa- 



PREFACE. xxix 

rent the wrath of God hangs over our heads, and is ready to 
break out upon us. The symptoms of our ill condition are as 
sad as they are visible : and one of the worst is, that each 
sort and party is very ready to throw the guilt of it off them 
selves, and cast it on others with whom they are displeased : 
but no man says, What have I done ? The clergy accuse 
the laity, and the laity condemn the clergy. Those in the 
city charge the country, and the country complains of the 
city : every one finds out somewhat wherein he thinks he is 
least concerned, and is willing to fix on that all the indig- 
nation of Heaven, which, God knows, we ourselves have 
kindled against ourselves. It cannot be denied, since it is 
so visible, that universally the whole nation is corrupted, 
and that the gospel has not had those effects among us 
which might have been expected, after so long and so free a 
course as it has had in this island. Our wise and worthy 

Erogenitors reformed our doctrine and worship ; but we 
ave not reformed our lives and manners. What will it 
avail us to understand the right methods of worshipping 
God, if we are without true devotion, and coldly perform 
public offices without sense and affection, which is as bad 
as a bead-roll of prayers, in whatever language they be pro- 
nounced 1 What signifies our having the sacraments purely 
administered among us, if we either contemptuously neglect 
them, or irreverently handle them, more perhaps in com- 
pliance with law, than out of a sense of the holy duties in- 
cumbent on us 1 For what end are the Scriptures put in our 
hands, if we do not read them with great attention, and 
order our lives according to them 1 And what does all preach- 
ing signify, if men go to church merely for form, and hear 
sermons only as set discourses, which they will censure or 
commend as they think they see cause, but are resolved 
never to be the better for them? ]f to all these sad con- 
siderations we add the gross sensuality and impurity that is 
so avowedly practised that it is become a fashion, so far is 
it from being a reproach ; the oppression, injustice, intem- 
perance, and many other immoralities, among us ; what can 
be expected, but that these abominations, receiving the 
highest aggravation they are capable of from the clear light 
of the gospel, which we have so long enjoyed, the just judg- 
ments of Heaven should fall on us so signally as to make us 
a reproach to all our neighbours. But as if all this were 
not enough to fill up the measure of our iniquities, many 
have arrived at a new pitch of impiety, by defying Heaven 
itself, with their avowed blasphemies and atheism : and if 
they are driven out of their atheistical tenets, which are in- 
deed the most ridiculous of any in the world, they set up 

d 



3txx PREFACE. 

their rest on some general notions of morality and natural 
religion, and do boldly reject all that is revealed : and 
where they dare vent it (alas .' where dare they not do hi) 
they reject Christianity and the Scriptures with open and 
impudent scorn, and are absolutely insensible of any obli- 
gation of conscience in any thing whatsoever : and even in 
that morality which they, for decency's sake, magnify so 
much, none are more barefacedly and grossly faulty. 'I'his 
is a direct attempt against God himself; and can we think 
that he will not visit for such things, nor be avenged on 
such a nation 1 And yet the hypocrisy of those who disguise 
their flagitious lives with a mask of religion, is perhaps a 
<legree above all ; though not so scandalous till ihe mask 
falls off, and that they appear to be what they truly are. 
When we are all so guilty, and when we are so alarmed by 
the black clouds that threaten such terrible and lasting 
storms, what may be expected but that we should be gene- 
rally struck with a deep sense of our crying sins, and turn to 
God with our whole souls ? But if, after all the loud awaken- 
ings from Heaven, we will not hearken to that voice, but 
will still go on in our sins, we may justly look for unheard-of 
calamities, and such miseries as shall be proportioned to our 
offences ; and then we are sure they will be great and won- 
derful. 

Yet if, on the other hand, there were a general turning to 
God, or at least if so many were rightly sensible of this, as, 
according to the proportion that the mercies of God allow, 
did some way balance the wickedness of the rest, and if 
these were as zealous in the true methods of imploring 
God's favour, as others are in procuring his displeasure ; 
and were not only mourning for their own sins, but for the 
sins of others ; the prayers and sighs of many such might 
dissipate that dismal cloud which our sins have gathered ; 
and we might yet hope to see tlie gospel take root among us ; 
since that God, who is author of it, is merciful, and full of 
compassion, and ready to forgive ; and this holy religion, 
which by his grace is planted among us, is still so dear to 
him, that if we by our own unworthiness do not render our- 
selves incapable of so gi'eat a blessing, we may reasonably 
hope that he will continue that which at first was by so 
many happy concurring providences brought in, and was, 
by a continued series of the same indulgent care, advanced 
by degrees, and at last raised to that pitch of perfection 
which few things attain in this world. But this will best 
appear in the ensuing history, from which I fear I may have 
too long detained the reader. 
10th September, 1680. 



CONTENTS. 



BOOK I. 

Of the Life and Reign of King Edward the Sixth, 

Page 

KING Edward's birth and baptism 1 

His education and temper , 2 

Cardan's character of him ib . 

A design to create him prince of Wales 3 

King Henry dies and he succeeds ' 4 

King Henry's will ib. 

Debate about choosing a protector 5 

The earl of Hertford is chosen 6 

It is declared in council ib. 

The bishops take out commissions 7 

Reasons for a creation of peers 8 

Affairs of Scotland 10 

Laymen in ecclesiastical dignities ib. 

Images taken away in a church in London 11 

The progress of image-worship 12 

Many pull down images 14 

Gardiner is offended at it , ib. 

The protector writes about it ib. 

Gardiner writes to Ridley about them 15 

Commissions to the justices of peace 16 

The form of coronation changed ib. 

King Henry's burial 17 

Soul-masses examined ib. 

A creation of peers 19 

The king is crowned ib. 

The lord chancellor is turned out ib. 

The protector made by patent 22 

The affairs of Germany 24 

Ferdinand made king of the Romans 25 

The diet at Spire ib. 

Emperor makes peace with France and with the Turk ib. 

And sets about the ruin of the protest ib. 

Protestant princes meet at Frankfort 27 

Duke of Saxe, and Landgrave of Hesse, arm 29 



xxxii CONTENTS. 

Pa?e 

Peace between England and France 29 

Francis the First dies 30 

A reformation set about in England 31 

A visitation resolved on 33 

Some homilies compiled 35 

Injunctions for the visitation 36 

Injunctions for the bishops 37 

Censures passed upon them 38 

Protector goes into Scotland 40 

Scotland said to be subject to England ib. 

Protector enters Scotland 43 

Makes offers to the Scots ib. 

The Scots' defeat at Musselburgh 44 

Protector returns to England 46 

The visitors execute the injunctions 47 

Bonner protests and recants ib. 

Gardiner would not obey ib. 

His reasons against them ib. 

He complains to the protector 49 

The Lady Mary complains also ,51 

The protector writes to her ib. 

The parliament meets ib. 

An act repealing severe laws ' 52 

An act about the communion 53 

Communion in both kinds 54 

Private masses put down 55 

An act about the admission of bishops 56 

Ancient ways of electing bishops ...• 57 

An act against vagabonds 69 

Chantries given to the king 60 

Acts proposed, but not passed 61 

The convocation meets ib. 

And makes some petitions ib. 

The clergy desire to have representatives in the house of 

commons 62 

The grounds of that , ,.,... ib. 

The affairs of Germany 66 

Duke of Saxe taken ib. 

The archbishop of Cologn resigns 67 

A decree made in the diet 68 

Proceedings at Trent ,69 

The council removed to Bologna ib. 

The French quarrel about Bulloigne 70 

The protector and the admiral fall out ib. 

Anno 1548. 

Gardiner is set at liberty ,73 

Marquis of Northampton sues a divorce ib. 



CONTENTS. xxxiii 

Page 

The arguments for it. 74 

A progress in the Reformation 77 

Proclamation against innovation 78 

All images taken away 79 

Restraints put on preachers 80 

Some bishops and doctors examine the public offices 

and prayers ib. 

Corruptions in the office of the communion 82 

A new office for the communion 84 

It is variously censured 85 

Auriculai confession left iiidifFerent ib. 

Chantry lands sold 88 

Gardiner falls into new ti oubles 89 

He is ordered to preach 91 

But gives offence, and is imprisoned 92 

A catechism set out by Cranmer 93 

A further reformation of public offices 94 

A new Liturgy resolved upon 95 

The changes made in it 96 

Preface to it 103 

Reflections made on it 105 

All preaching forbid for a time 106 

Affairs of Scotland ib. 

The queen of Scots sent to France 108 

The siege of Hadingtoun ib. 

A fleet sent against Scotland 109 

But without success ib. 

The siege of Hadingtoun raised 110 

Discontents in Scotland HI 

The affairs of Germany 112 

The book of the Interim .^ 113 

Both sides offended at it . . . i ib. 

Calvin writes to the protector 115 

Bucer writes against Gardiner ib. 

A session of parliament 116 

Act for the marriage of the clergy ib. 

Which was much debated , 117 

Arguments for it from Scripture ib. 

And from the fathers 118 

The reasons against it examined 120 

An act confirming the Liturgy 122 

Censures passed upon it 123 

The singing of psalms set up ib , 

Anno 1549. 

An act about fasts 124 

Some bills that did not pass 126 

A design of digesting the common law into a body .... ib. 



xxxlv CONTENTS. 

The admiral's attainder .* 127 

He was sent to the Tower 128 

The matter referred to the parliament 129 

The bill against him passed 130 

The warrant for his execution 131 

It is signed by Cranmer ib. 

Censures upon that 132 

Subsidies granted 133 

A new visitation , ib 

All obey the laws except Lady Mary 135 

A treaty of marriage for her ib. 

The council required her to obey 136 

Christ's presence in the sacrament examined ib. 

Public disputations about it 138 

The manner of the presence explained 140 

Proceedings against anabaptists 145 

Of these there were two sorts ib. 

Two of them burnt 146, 147 

Which was much censured 147 

Disputes concerning infant baptism 148 

Predestination much abused ib. 

Tumults in England 149 

Some are soon quieted 150 

The Devonshire rebellion 151 

Their demands ib. 

An answer sent to them 152 

They make new demands 153 

"Which are rejected ib. 

The Norfolk rebellion 154 

The Yorkshire rebellion ib. 

Exeter besieged 155 

It is relieved, and the rebels defeated 156 

The Norfolk rebels are dispersed ib. 

A general pardon 157 

A visitation of Cambridge ib. 

Dispute about the Greek pronunciation 158 

Bonner in new troubles 159 

Injunctions are given him ib. 

He did not obey them ib. 

He is proceeded against 160 

He defends himself 161 

He appeals 165 

But is deprived 166 

Censures passed upon it ib. 

The French fall into Bulloigne 168 

111 success in Scotland 169 

The affairs of Germany 170 

A faction against the protector 171 



CONTENTS. Mxv 

Page 

Advices about foreign afftdrs J27 

Paget sent to the emperor 173 

But can obtain nothing 175 

Debates in council ib. 

Complaints of the protector 176 

The counsellors leave him 177 

The city of London joins with them 178 

The protector offers to submit 179 

He is accused, and sent to the Tower 181 

Censures passed upon him 182 

The papists much lifted up ib. 

But their hopes vanish 183 

A treaty with the emperor ib. 

A session of parliament 184 

An act against tumults ib. 

And against vagabonds ib. 

Bishops move for a power of censuring 185 

An act about ordinations 186 

An act about the duke of Somerset ib. 

The Reformation carried on 187 

A book of ordinations made 188, 

Heath disagrees to it, and is put in prison ib. 

Interrogations added in the new book 190 

Bulloigne was resolved to be given to the French 191 

Pope Paul the Third dies 192 

Cardinal Pole was elected pope ib. 

Julius the Third chosen 193 

Anno 1550. 

A treaty between the English and French 194 

Instructions given to the English Ambassador ib. 

Articles of the treaty 195 

The earl of Warwick governs all 196 

Ridley made bishop of London ib. 

Proceedings against Gardiner 197 

Articles sent to him ib. 

He signed them with exceptions 198 

New articles sent him ib. 

He refuses them, and is hardly used 199 

Latimer advises the king about his marriage ib. 

Hooper made bishop of Gloucester 200 

But refuses the episcopal garments ib. 

Upon that, great heats arose ib. 

Bucer's opinion about it 201 

And Peter ^Martyr's ib. 

A German congregation at London , 203 

Polydore Virgil leaves England ib 

A review made of the Common Prayer-Book ib. 



xxxvi CONTENTS. 

Bucer's advice concerning it 203 

He writ a book for the king 205 

The king studies to reform abuses 206 

He keeps a Journal of his reign 207 

Ridley visits his diocess ib. 

Altars turned to communion tables 20ft 

The reasons given for it 209 

Sermons on working-days forbidden 2 10 

The affairs of Scotland ib. 

And of Germany 211 

Anno 1551. 

The compliance of the popish clergy 213 

Bucer's death and funeral 215 

His character , 216 

Gardiner is deprived , . . . ib. 

Which is much censured 217 

Hooper is consecrated ^ 218 

Articles of Religion prepared ib. 

An abstract of them , 219 

Corrections in the Common Prayer-Book 222 

Reasons of kneeling at the communion 224 

Orders for the king's chaplains 225 

The Lady Mary has mass still ib. 

The king is earnest against it 227 

The council w^rote to her about it ib. 

But she was intractable 228 

And would not hear Ridley preach 230 

The designs of the eavl of Warwick 231 

The sweating sickness 232r 

A treaty for a marriage with the daughter of France. . ib. 

Conspiracy against the duke of Somerset 233 

The king is alienated from him 285 

He is brought to his trial ib. 

Acquitted of treason, but not of felony 237 

Some others condemned with him 238 

The seal is taken from the Lord Rich 239 

And given to the bishop of Ely ib. 

Churchmen being in secular employments much cen- 
sured ib. 

Duke of Somerset's execution 242 

His character 244 

Affairs of Germany 245 

Procceedings at Trent 246 

Anno 1552. 

A session of parliament 248 

The Common Prayer-Book confirmed ib^ 



I 



CONTENTS. xxxTii 

Pju?e 

Censures passed upon it 249 

An act concerning treasons 250 

An act about fasts and holy-days ib. 

An act for the married clergy 252 

An act against usury ib. 

A bill against simony not passed 254 

The entail of the duke of Somerset's estate cut off ib. 

The commons refuse to attaint the bishop of Duresme 

by bill 255 

The parliament is dissolved i . . . . 256 

A reformation of the ecclesiastical courts is consi- 
dered 257 

The chief heads of it 259 

Rules about excommunication 264 

Projects for relieving the poor clergy 265 

Heath and Day deprived 266 

The affairs of Ireland 267 

A change in the order of the garter 269 

Paget degraded from the order 271 

The increase of trade ib. 

Cardan passes through England 275 

The affairs of Scotland ib. 

The affairs of Germany 275 

Proceedings at Trent 276 

An account of the council there 278 

A judgment of the histories of it ib. 

The freedom of religion established in Germany 279 

The emperor is much cast down 280 

Anno 1553. 

A regulation of the privy council 281 

A new parliament ib. 

The bishopric of Duresme suppressed, and two new 

ones were to be raised 282 

A visitation for the plate in churches 283 

Instructions for the president in the north 284 

The form of the bishops' letters patents 285 

A treaty with the emperor 287 

The king's sickness 289 

His care of the poor ib. 

Several marriages 290 

He intends to leave the crown to Lady Jane Gray .... ib. 

Which the judges opposed at first 291 

Yet they consented to it, except Hales 292 

Crannier is hardly prevailed with ib. 

The king's sickness becomes desperate ib. 

His last prayer 293 

His death and character ib. 



xxxviii CONTENTS, 

BOOK 11. 

The Life and Reign of Queen Mary. 

Page 

Queen Mary succeeds, but is in great danger 297 

And retires to Suffolk ib. 

She writes to the council 298- 

But they declare for the Lady Jane. , ib. 

The Lady Jane's character ib. 

She unwillingly accepts the crown 29& 

The council write to Queen Mary ib. 

They proclaim the Lady Jane queen 300 

Censures passed upon it ib. 

The duke of Northumberland much hated 302 

The council send an army against Mary ib. 

Ridley preaches against her 303 

But her party grows strong 2K)4 

The council turn, and proclaim her queen ib. 

The duke of Northumberland is taken 3C'5 

Many prisoners are sent to the Tower ib. 

The queen comes to London , ib. 

She was in danger in her father's time 306 

And was preserved by Cranmer ib. 

She submitted to her father , 307 

Designs for changing religion ► ib. 

Gardiner's policy ib. 

He is made chancellor 308 

Duke of Northumberland and others attainted 309 

He at his death professes he had been always a papist. . 310 

His character. . , ib. 

King Edward's funeral 311 

The q'.een declares she will force no conscience 312 

A tumult at Paul's ib. 

A proclamation against preaching . . , 313 

Censures passed upon it , ib. 

She uses those of Suffolk ill ib. 

Consultations among the reformed 315 

Judge Hales barbarously used ib. 

Jsonner's insolence 316 

Cranmer declares against the mass 317 

Cranmer and Latimer sent to the Tower , 318 

Foreigners sent out of England ib. 

Many English fly beyond sea 319 

The queen rewards those who had servad her i 320^ 

She is crowned, and discbarges a tax ,. 32i 



CONTENTS. xxxix 

Page 

A parliament summoned 321 

The reformed bishops thrust out of the house of lords. . 322 

Great disorders in elections ib. 

An act moderating severe laws 323 

The marriage of the queen's mother confirmed 324 

Censures passed upon it 325 

The queen is severe to the Lady Elizabeth ib. 

King Edward's laws about religion repealed ib. 

An act against injuries to priests 326 

An act against unlawful assemblies ib. 

Marquis of Northampton's second marriage broken. . . . 327 

The duke of Norfolk's attainder annulled '. . ib. 

Cranraer and others attainted 328 

But his see is not declared void ib. 

The queen resolves to reconcile with Rome 329 

Cardinal Pole sent legate 330 

But is stopped by the emperor 331 

The queen sends to him ib. 

His advice to the queen . * 332 

Gardiner's methods are preferred 333 

The house of commons offended with the queen's mar- 
riage then treated about 334 

The parliament is dissolved ib. 

1,200,000 crowns sent to corrupt the next parliament . . ib. 

Proceedings in the convocation 335 

Disputes concerning the sacrament 336 

Censures passed upon them 341 

Anno 1554. 

Ambassadors treat with the queen for her marriage. ... ib. 

Articles agreed on 342 

The match generally disliked ib. 

Plots to oppose it are discovered 343 

Wiat breaks out in Kent ib. 

His demands , 344 

He is defeated and taken 345 

The Lady Jane and her husband executed 346 

Her preparations for death 347 

The duke of Suffolk is executed 348 

The Lady Elizabeth is unjustly suspected 349 

Many severe proceedings « ib. 

The imposture in the wall ib. 

Instructions for the bishops 350 

Bishops that adhere to the reform deprived 352 

The mass everywhere set up 353 

Books against the married clergy , 354 

A new parliament 355 

The queen's regal power asserted ib. 



xl CONTENTS. 

Page 

The secret reasons for that act 355 

Great jealousies of the Spaniards 357 

The bishopric of Duresme restored ib. 

Disputes at Oxford 358 

With Cranmer 359 

And Ridley 360 

And Latimer 361 

Censures passed upon them 362 

They are all condemned ib. 

The prisoners in London give reasons why they would 

not dispute 364 

King Philip lands 365 

And is married to the queen 366 

He brings a great treasure with him ib. 

Acts of favour done by him 367 

He preserves the Lady Elizabeth ib. 

He was little beloved 368 

But much magnified by Gardiner ib. 

Bonner's carriage in his visitation 369 

No reordination of those ordained in King Edward's 

time 370 

Bonner's rage 371 

The sacrament stolen 372 

A new parliament ib. 

Cardinal Pole's attainder repealed ib. 

He comes to London . . i 373 

And makes a speech to the parliament ib. 

The queen is believed with child ib. 

The parliament petition to be reconciled 374 

The cardinal absolves them " 375 

Laws against the see of Rome repealed ib. 

A proviso for church-lands 376 

A petition from the convocation ib. 

An address from the inferior clergy 377 

Laws against heretics revived 378 

. An act declaring treasons ib. 

Another against seditious words 379 

Gardiner in great esteem 380 

The fear of losing the church-lands ib. 

Consultations how to deal with heretics 381 

Cardinal Pole for moderate courses ib. 

But Gardiner is for violent ones 382 

To which the queen is inclined 383 

Anno 1555. 

They begin with Rogers and others 384 

Who refusing to comply are judged ib. 

Rogers and Hooper burnt 386 



CONTENTS. x\i 

Page 

Sanders and Taylor burnt 387 

These cruelties are much censured 388 

Reflections made on Hooper's death ib. 

The burnings much disliked 389 

The king purges himself 390 

A petition against persecution ib. 

Arguments to defend it 391 

More are burnt 392 

Ferrar and others burnt 393 

The queen gives up the church-lands 394 

Pope Julius dies, and Marcellus succeeds 395 

Paul the Fourth succeeds him 396 

English ambassadors at Rome ib. 

Instructions sent for persecution 397 

Bonner required to burn more 398 

The queen's delivery in vain expected ib. 

Bradford and others burnt 399 

Sir Thomas More's works published 404 

His letter of the nun of Kent ib. 

Ridley and Latimer burnt 406 

Gardiner's death and character 410 

The temper of the parliament is much changed 411 

The queen discharges tenths and first-fruits 412 

An act against those that fled beyond sea rejected 413 

An act debarring a murderer from the benefit of clergy 

opposed 414 

Sir Anthony Kingston put in the Tower ib. 

Pole holds a convocation 415 

The heads of his decrees ib. 

Pole's design for reforming of abuses 417 

Pole will not admit the Jesuits to England 419 

Philpot's martyrdom 420 

Foreign aff'airs ib. 

Charles the Fifth's resignation 421 

Cranmer's trial 423 

He is degraded 425 

He recants 426 

He repents of it 428 

His martyrdom 429 

His character. ib. 

Others suffer on the like account 431 

A child born in the fire, and burnt 432 

The Reformation grows 434 

Troubles at Frankfort among the English there ib. 

Pole is made archbishop of Canterbury 435 

Some religious houses are endowed 436 

Records are razed 437 

Vol. II, Part 1. e 



xlii CONTENTS. 

Page 

Endeavours for the abbey of Glastonbury 437 

Foreign affairs 439 

The pope is extravagantly proud ib. 

He dispenses with the French king's oath 440 

And makes w3.t with Spain 441 

Anno 1557. 

A visitation of the universities 442 

The persecution set forward ib. 

A design for setting up the Inquisition 444 

Burnings for religion 445 

Lord Stourton hanged for murder 448 

The queen is jealous of the French 449 

The battle of St. Quintin 451 

The pope offended with Cardinal Pole ib. 

He recals him 452 

The queen refuses to receive Cardinal Peito 453 

A peace between the pope and Spain ib. 

A war between England and Scotland 454 

The affairs of Germany 455 

A persecution in France 456 

Anno 1558. 

Calais is besieged 457 

And it and Guisnes are taken 458 

Sark taken by the French 460 

And retaken strangely ib. 

Great discontents m England • • ib. 

A parliament is called 461 

King of Sweden courts the Lady Elizabeth 463 

But is rejected by her ib. 

She was ill used in this reign 464 

The progress of the persecution 466 

The methods of it 467 

An expedition against France 468 

Many strange accidents '. . . ib. 

A treaty of peace 469 

The battle of Graveling 476 

Many protestants in France ib. 

Dolphin marries the queen of Scots ib. 

A convention of estates in Scotland 471 

A parliament in England 472 

The queen's sickness and death ib. 

Cardinal Pole dies ib. 

His character 473 

The queen's character 474 



CONTENTS. xliii 



BOOK III. 

Of the settlement of the Reformation of Religion in the beginning 
of Queen Elizabeth's reign. 

Page 

Queen Elizabeth succeeds 476 

And comes to London 477 

She sends a dispatch to Rome ib. 

But to no effect ib. 

King Philip courts her 478 

The queen's council 479 

A consultation about the change of religion ib. 

A method proposed for it 480 

Many forward to reform 482 

Parker named to be archbishop of Canterbury 483 

Anno 1559. 

Bacon made lord keeper 484 

The queen's coronation ib. 

The parliaments meets 485 

The treaty of Cambray 486 

A peace agreed on with France 487 

The proceedings of the parliament 488 

An address to the queen to marry 489 

Her answer to it ib. 

They recognize her title 490 

Acts concerning religion ib. 

The bishops against the supremacy 492 

The beginnning of the high commission 493 

A conference at Westminster 494 

Arguments for the Latin service 495 

Arguments against it 496 

The conference breaks up 498 

The liturgy corrected and explained 499 

Debates about the act of uniformity 500 

Arguments for the changes then made 501 

Bills proposed, but rejected 503 

The bishops refuse the oath of supremacy 504 

The queen's gentleness to them ib. 

Injunctions for a visitation 505 

The queen desires to have images retained , ib. 

Reasons brought against it 506 

The heads of the injunctions 507 

Reflections made on them 508 

The first high commission < 509 

f 



xliv CONTENTS. 

Page 
Parker's unwillingness to accept of the archbishopric of 

Canterbury 611 

His consecration •• 513 

The fable of the Nag's-head Confuted 614 

The articles of religion prepared 516 

An explanation of the presence in the sacrament ib. 

The translation of the Bible 617 

The beginnings of the divisions 519 

The Reformation in Scotland ib. 

Mill's martyrdom 6"20 

It occasions great discontents 521 

A revolt at St. John's Town 522 

The French king intends to grant them liberty of reli- 
gion 523 

But is killed 524 

A truce agreed to ib. 

The queen regent is deposed ib. 

The Scots implore the queen of England's aid 525 

Leith besieged by the English ib. 

The queen regent dies 526 

A peace is concluded 527 

The Reformation settled by parliament ib. 

Francis the Second dies 529 

The civil wars of France ib. 

The wars of the Netherlands 530 

The misfortunes of the queen of Scotland 631 

Queen Elizabeth deposed by the pope 532 

Sir Fr. Walsingham's letter concerning the queen's pro- 
ceeding with papists and puritans ib. 

The conclusion 536 



THE 

HISTORY 

OP 

THE REFORMATION. 



PART II. 



OF THE PROGRESS MADE IN IT TILL THE SETTLEMENT 
OF IT IN THE BEGINNING OF QUEEN ELIZABETH'S 
KEIGN. 



BOOK I. 

Of the Life and Reign of King Edward the Sixth. 

(1547.) EDWARD, the sixth king of England of that name, 
was the only son of King Henry the Eighth, by his best be- 
loved Queen Jane Seymour, or St. Maur, daughter to Sir 
John Seymour, who was descended from Roger St. Maur, 
that married one of the daughters and heirs of the Lord 
Beauchamp. of Hacche. Their ancestors came into Eng- 
land with William the Conqueror; and had, at several 
times, made themselves considerable by the noble acts they 
did in the wars. He was born at Hampton Court, on the 
I2th day of October, being St. Edward's eve, in the year 
1537, and lost his mother the day after he was born* ; who 
died, not by the cruelty of the chirurgeons ripping up her 
belly to make way for the prince's birth (as some writers 
gave out, to represent King Henry barbarous and cruel in 
all his actions ; whose report has been since too easily fol- 
lowed) ; but, as the original letters that are yet extant, 
show, she was well delivered of him, and the day following 

• The Queen died on the 14th, say Hall, Stow, Speed, and Herbert- 
on the 15th, saith Heminings; on the 17fh, if the letter of the physil 
clans be tme in Fuller's Church History, p. 422, which was copied froni 
its original, in the Cotton Library: on the 24th of October, jn » 
journal written by Cecil; that was.'in twelve days after King Edward's 
birth ; so it is in the Herald's Office. 

Vol. II, Part I. B 



2 HISTORY OF 

was taken with a distemper, incident to women in that con- 
dition, of which she died. 

He was soon after christened, the archbishop of Canter- 
bury and the dukes of Norfolk and Suffolk being his god- 
fathers, according to his own Journal ; though Hall says, 
the last was only his godfather when he was bishopped. 
He continued under the charge and care of the women till 
he was six years old. and then he was put under the govern- 
ment of Dr. Cox and Mr. Cheek : the one was to be his pre- 
ceptor for his manners, and the knowledge of philosophy 
and divinity ; the other for the tongues and mathematics. 
And he was also provided with masters for the French, and 
all other things becoming a prince the heir of so great 
a crown. 

He gave very early many indications of a good disposition 
to learning, and of a most wonderful probity of mind ; and, 
above all, of great respect to religion, and every thing re- 
lating to it. So that, when he was once in one of his child- 
ish diversions, somewhat being to be reached at, that he and 
his companions were too low for, one of them laid on the 
floor a great Bible that was in the room to step on ; which 
he beholding with indignation, took up the Bible himself, 
and gave over his play for that .time. He was in all things 
subject to the orders laid down for his education, and pro- 
fited so much in learning, that all about him conceived 
great hopes of extraordinary things from him, if he should 
live : but such unusual beginnings seemed rather to threaten 
the too early end of a life, that, by all appearance, was 
likely to have produced such astonishing things. He was 
so forward in his learning, that, before he was eight years 
old, he wrote Latin letters to his father, who was a prince 
of that stern severity, that one can hardly think those about 
his son durst cheat him by making letters for him. He used 
also at that age to write both to his godfather, the arch- 
bishop of Canterbury, and to his uncle, who was first made 
Viscount Beauchamp, as descended from that family, and 
soon after earl of Hartford. It seems Queen Catherine 
Parr understood Latin, for he wrote to her also in the same 
language. But the full character of this young prince is 
given us by Cardan, who wrote it after his death, and in 
Italy, where this prince was accoimted a heretic, so that 
there was nothing to be got or expected by flattering him ; 
and yet it is so great, and withal so agreeing in all thmgs to 
truth, that as I shall begin my Collection of Papers at the 
end of this volume with his words in Latin (Collect. No. i), 
so it will be very fit to give them here in English. 
" All the graces were in him. He had many tongues when 



THE REFORMATION. 3 

he was yet but a child : together with the English, his natu- 
ral tongue, he had both Latin and French ; nor was he igno- 
rant, as I hear, of the Greek, Italian, and Spanish, and per- 
haps some more. But for the English, French, and Latin, 
he was exact in them ; and apt to learn every thing. Nor 
was he ignorant of logic, of the principles of natural philo- 
sophy, nor of music. The sweetness of his temper was 
such as became a mortal ; his gravity becoming the majesty 
of a king ; and his disposition suitable to his high degree. 
In sum, that child was so bred, had such parts, was of such 
expectation, that he looked like a miracle of a man. These 
things are not spoken rhetorically, and beyond the truth, 
but are indeed short of it." And afterwards he adds, " He 
was a marvellous boy : when 1 was with him, he was in the 
fifteenth year of his age, in which he spoke Latin as politely 
and as promptly as I did. He asked me, what was the sub- 
ject of my books, de Rerum Varietate, which I had dedicated 
to him 1 I answered, that in the first chapter I gave the 
true cause of comets, which had been long inquired into, 
but was never found out before. What is it 1 said he. I said, 
it was the concourse of the light of wandering stars. He 
answered, how can that be, since the stars move in different 
motions 1 how comes it that the comets are not soon dissi- 
pated, or do not move after them according to their motions 1 
To this I answered, they do move after them, but much 
quicker than they, by reason of the different aspect, as we 
see in a crystal, or when a rainbow rebounds from the wall ; 
for a little change makes a great difference of place. But 
the king said, how can that be, where there is no subject to 
receive that light, as the wall is the subject for the rainbowl 
To this I answered, that this was as in the milky way, or 
where many candles were lighted, the middle place where 
their shining met was white and clear. From this little 
taste it may be imagined what he was. And, indeed, the' 
ingenuity and sweetness of his disposition had raisfed in all 
good and learned men the greatest expectation of him pos- 
sible. He began to love the liberal arts before he knew 
them, and to know them before he could use them : and in 
him there was such an attempt of nature, that not only Eng- 
land, but the world, has reason to lament his being so early- 
snatched away. How truly was it said of such extraordinary 
persons, that their lives are short, and seldom do they come 
to be old ! He gave us an essay of virtue, though he did not 
live to give a pattern of it. When the gravity of a king was 
needful, he carried himself like an old man ; and yet he was 
always affable and gentle, as became his age. He played 
on the lute ; he meddled in affairs of state ; and for bounty. 



4 HISTORY OF 

he did in that emulate his father ; though he even, when he 
endeavoured to be too good, might appear to have been bad : 
but there was no ground of suspecting any such thing in the 
son, whose mind was cultivated by the study of philosophy." 

It has been said, in the end of his father's life, that he 
then designed to create him prince of Wales : for though he 
was called so, as the heirs of this crown are, yet he was not 
by a formal creation invested with that dignity. This pre- 
tence was made use of to hasten forward the attainder of the 
duke of Norfolk, since he had many offices for life, which 
the king intended to dispose of, and desired to have them 
speedily filled, in order to the creating of his son prince of 
Wales. In the mean time his father died, and the earl of 
Hartford and Sir Anthony Brown were sent by the council 
to give him notice of it, being then at Hartford, and to bring 
him to the Tower of London ; and having brought him to 
Enfield, with his sister, the Lady Elizabeth, they let him 
know of his father's death, and that he was now their king. 
On the 3Ist of January the king's death was published in 
London, aifd he proclaimed king. 

At the Tower, his father's executors, with the rest of the 
privy council, received him with the respects due to their 
king : so tempering their sorrow for the death of their late 
master with their joy for his son's happy succeeding him, 
that by an excess of joy they might not seem to have forgot 
the one so soon, nor to bode ill to the other by aii extreme 
grief. The first thing they did was the opening King 
Henry's will ; by which they found he had nominated six- 
teen persons to be his executors, and governors to his son, 
and to the kingdom, till his son was eighteen years of age. 
These were the archbishop of Canterbury ; the Lord 
Wriothesley, lord chancellor ; the Lord St. John, great 
master of the household ; the Lord Russel, lord privy-seal ; 
the earl of Hartford, lord great chamberlain ; the Viscount 
Lisle, lord admiral ; Tonstall, bishop of Duresme ; Sir 
Anthony Brown, master of the horse ; Sir William Paget, 
secretary of state ; Sir Edward North, chancellor of the 
court of augmentations; Sir Edward Montague, lord chief 
justice of the common pleas ; Judge Bromley, Sir Anthony 
Denny, and Sir W'illiam Herbert, chief gentlemen of the 
privy -chamber ; Sir Edward Wotton, treasurer of Calais; 
and Dr. Wotton, dean of Canterbury and York. These, or 
the major part of them, were to execute his will, and to ad- 
minister the affairs of the kingdom. By their consent were 
the king and his sisters to be disposed of in marriage : but 
with this difference, that it was only ordered that the king 
should marry by their advice ; but the two sisters were so 



THE REFORMATION. 5 

limited in their marriage, that they were to forfeit their 
right of succession if they married without their consent ; 
it being of far greater importance to the peace and interest 
of the nation who should be their husbands if the crown did 
devolve on them, than who should be the king's wife. And 
by the act passed in the thirty- fifth year of King Henry, he 
was empowered to leave the crown to them, with what limit- 
ations he should think fit. To the executors, the king 
added, by his will, a privy-council, who should be assisting 
to them. These were, the earls of Arundel and Essex ; Sir 
Thomas Cheyney, treasurer of the household ; Sir John 
Gage, comptroller ; Sir Anthony Wingfield, vice-chamber- 
lain ; Sir William Petre, secretary of state ; Sir Richard 
Rich, Sir John Baker, Sir Ralph Sadler, Sir Thomas Sey- 
mour, Sir Richard Southwell, and Sir Edmund Peckham. 
The king also ordered, that if any of the executors should 
die, the survivors, without giving them a power of substi- 
tuting others, should continue to administer affairs. He 
also charged them to pay all his debts, and the legacies he 
left, and to perfect any grants he had begun, and to make 
good every thing that he had promised. The will being 
opened and read, all the executors, Judge Bromley and the 
two Wottons only excepted, were present, and did resolve 
to execute the will in all points, and to take an oath for their 
faithful discharge of that trust. 

But it was also proposed, that for the speedier dispatch 
of things, and for a more certain order and direction of all 
affairs, there should be one chosen to be head of the rest, to 
■whom ambassadors and others might address themselves. 
It was added, to caution this, that the person to be raised to 
that dignity should do nothing of any sort without the 
advice and consent ofthe greater part of the rest. But this 
was opposed by the lord chancellor ; who thought that the . 
dignity of his office, setting him next the archbishop of Can- 
terbury, who did not much follow secular affairs, he should 
have the chief stroke in the government ; therefore, he 
pressed that they might not depart from the king's will in 
any particular, neither by adding to it, nor taking from it. 
It was plain, the late king intended they should be all alike 
in the administration, and the raising one to a title or 
degree above the rest was a great change from what he had 
ordered. And whereas it was now said, that the person to 
be thus nominated was to have no manner of power over the 
rest, that was only to exalt him into a high dignity with the 
less envy or apprehension of danger ; for it was certain 
great titles always make way for high power. But the earl 
of Hartford had so great a party among them, that it was 

B3 



6 HISTORy OF 

agreed to, the lord chancellor himself consenting, when he 
saw his opposition was without effect, that one should be 
raised over the rest in title, to be called the protector of the 
king's realms, and the governor of his person. The next 
point held no long debate, who should be nominated to thfs 
high trust ; for they unanimously agreed, that the earl of 
Hartford, by reason of his nearness of blood to the king, and 
the great experience he had in affairs, was the fittest person. 
" So he was declared protector of the realm, and governor 
to the king's person ; but with that special and express 
condition, that he should not do any act but by the advice 
and consent of the other executors, according to the wilt 
of the late king." Then they all went to take their oaths ^ 
but it was proposed, that it should 'be delayed till the next 
day, that so they might do it upon better consideration. 
More was not done that day ; save that the lord chancellor 
was ordered to deliver up the seals to the king, and to 
receive them again from his hands 5 for King Henry's seal 
was to be made use of, either till a new one was made, 
or till the king was crowned: he was also ordered to renew 
the commissions of the judges, the justices of peace, the 
presidents of the North and of Wales, and of some other 
officers. This was the issue of the first council day under 
this king : in which the so easy advancement of the earl of 
Hartford to so high a dignity gave great occasion to censure, 
it seeming to be a change of what King Henry had designed, 
But the king's great kindness to his uncle made it pass 
so smoothly ; for the rest of the executors, not being of 
the ancient nobility, but courtiers, were drawn in easily to 
comply with that which was so acceptable to their young 
king : only the lord chancellor, who had chiefly opposed 
it, was to expect small favour at the new protector's hands. 
It was soon apparent what emulation there was between 
them : and the nation being then divided between those 
who loved the old superstition, and those who desired a 
more complete reformation, the protector set himself at 
the head of the one, and the lord chancellor at the head 
of the other party. 

The next day the executors met again, and first took their 
oaths most solemnly for their faithful executing the will : 
they also ordered all those who were by the late king named 
privy-councillors to come into the king's presence, and there 
they declared to the king the choice they had made of his 
uncle ; who gave his assent to it: it was also signified to the 
lords of the council, who likewise, with one voice, gave 
their consent to it : and dispatches were ordered to be sent 
to the emperor, the French king, and the regent of Flanders, 



THE REFORMATION. 7 

giving notice of the king's death, and of the constitution of 
the council, and the nomination of the protectar during the 
minority of their young king. All dispatches were ordered 
to be signed only by the protector ; and all the temporal 
lords, with all the bishops about the town, were commanded 
to come and swear allegiance to the king. On the 2d 
of February, the protector was declared lord treasurer 
and earl marshal, these places having been designed for 
him by the late king upon the duke of Norfolk's attainder. 
Letters were also sent to Calais, Builoigne, Ireland, the 
marches of Scotland, and most of the counties of England, 
giving notice of the king's succession, and of the order 
now settled. The will was also ordered to be enrolled, and 
every of the executors was to have an exemplification 
of it under the great seal ; and the clerks of council were 
also ordered to give to every of them an account of all things 
done in council under their hands and seals : and the 
bishops were required to take out new commissions of 
the same form with those they had taken out in King 
Henry's time, (for which see page 345 of the former Part), 
only with this difference, that there is no mention made of 
a vicar-general in these commissions, as was in the former, 
there being none after Cromwell advanced to that dignity. 
Two of these commissions are yet extant ; one taken out by 
Cranmer, the other taken out by Bonner. But this was 
only done by reason of the present juncture, because the 
bishops being generally addicted to the former superstition, 
it was thought necessary to k-cep them under so arbitrary a 
power as that subjected them to ; for they hereby held their 
bishoprics only during the king's pleasure, and were to 
exercise them as his delegates in his name, and by his 
authority. Cranmer set an example to the rest, and took 
out his commission, which is in the Collection (No. ii) : but 
this was afterwards judged too heavy a yoke, and therefore 
the new bishops that were made by this king were not put 
under it (and so Ridley , w hen made bishop of London m Bon- 
ner's room, was not required to take out any such commis- 
sion) ; but they were to hold their bishoprics during life. 

There was a clause in the king's will, requiring his execu- 
tors to make good all that he had promised in any manner of 
ways. Whereupon Sir William Paget, Sir Anthony Denny, 
and Sir William Herbert, were required to declare what 
they knew of the king's intentions and promises ; the former 
being the secretary, whom he had trusted most, and the 
other two those that attended on him in his bedchamber 
during his sickness ; though they were called gentlemen of 
the privy-chamber ; for the service of the gentlemen of the 
bedchamber was not then set up. Paget declared, that, 



8 HISTORY OF 

when the evidence appeared against the duke of Norfolk, 
and his son the earl of Surrey, the king, who used to talk 
oft in private with him alone, told him, that he intended to 
bestow their lands liberally ; and since, by attainders and 
other ways, the nobility were much decayed, he intended 
to create some peers ; and ordered him to write a book 
of such as he thought meetest : who thereupon proposed the 
earl of Hartford to be a duke ; the earl of Essex to be 
a marquis ; the Viscount Lisle to be an earl ; the Lords St. 
John, Russel, and Wriothesley to be earls ; and Sir Thomas 
Seymour, Sir Thomas Cheyney, Sir Richard Rich, Sir 
William Wiiloughby, Sir Thomas Arundel, Sir Edmund. 

Sheffield, Sir John St. Leiger, Sir Wymbish, Sir 

Vernon of the Peak, and Sir Christopher Danby, 

to be barons. Paget also proposed a distribution of the 
duke of Norfolk's estate: but the king liked it not, and 
made Mr. Gates bring him the books of that estate ; which 
being done, he ordered Paget " to tot upon the earl of 
Hartford" (these are the words of his deposition) a thousand 
marks ; on the Lord Lisle, St. John, and Russel, 200/. 
a year ; to the Lord Wriothesley 100/. and for Sir Tho- 
mas Seymour 300/. a year ; but Paget said it was too little, 
and stood long arguing it with him ; yet the king ordered 
him to propose it to the persons concerned, and see how 
they liked it. And he putting the king in mind of Denny, 
who had been oft a suitor for him, but he had never yet 
in lieu of that obtained any thing for Denny ; the king 
ordered 200/. for him, and four hundred marks for Sir 
William Herbert, and remembered some other likewise : 
but Paget having, according to the king's commands, spoken 
to those who were to be advanced, found that many of them 
desired to continue in their former ranks, and thought 
the lands the king intended to give were not sufficient 
for the maintenance of the honour to be conferred on them j 
which he reported to the best advantage he could for every 
man, and endeavoured to raise the king's favour to thein as 
high as he could. But while this was in consultation, 
the duke of Norfolk, very prudently apprehending the ruin 
of his posterity, if his lands were divided into many hands, 
out of which he could not so easily recover them ; whereas, 
if they continued in the crown, some turn of affairs might 
again establish his family ; and, intending also to oblige the 
king by so unusual a compliment, sent a desire to him that 
he would be pleased to settle all his lands on the prince 
(the now king), and not give them away : for, said he, 
according to the phrase of that time, " they are good and 
stately gear." This wrought so far on the king, that he 
resolved to reserve them for himself, and to reward his 



THE REFORMATION. 9 

seivants some other way. Whereupon Paget pressed him 
once to resolve on the honoui-s he would bestow, and what 
he would give with them, and they should afterwards con- 
sider of the way how to give it. The king, growing still 
worse, said to him, " that, if aught came to him but good, as 
he thought he could not long endure, he intended to place 
them all about his son, as men whom he trusted and loved 
above all other ; and that, therefore, he would consider them 
the more." So, after many consultations, he ordered the 
book to be thus filled up : " The earl of Hartford to be earl 
marshal and lord treasurer, and to be duke of Somerset, 
Exeter, or Hartford, and his son to be earl of W iltshire, 
with 800/. a year of land, and 300/. a year out of the next 
bishop's land that fell void ; the earl of Essex to be marquis 
of Essex ; the Viscount Lisle to be earl of Coventry ; 
the Lord VVriothesley to be earl of Winchester ; Sir Thomas 
Seymour to be a baron and lord admiral ; Sir Richard 
Rich, Sir John St. Ledger, Sir William Willoughby, Sir 
Edward Sheffield, and Sir Christopher Danby, to be 
barons; with yearly revenues to them, and several other 
persons," And having, at the suit of Sir Edw. North, 
promised to give the earl of Hartford six of the best 
prebends that should fall in any cathedral, except deaneries 
and treasurerships ; at his suit he agreed that a deanery and 
a treasurership should be instead of two of the six preben- 
daries. And thus, all this being written as the king had 
ordered it, the king took the book and put it in his pocket, 
and gave the secretary order to let every one know what he 
had determined for them : but before these things took 
effect the king died. Yet being, on his death-bed, put in 
mind of what he had promised, he ordered it to be put 
in his will, that his executors should perform every thing 
that should appear to have been promised by him. All 
this Denny and Herbert confirmed, for they then waited in 
his chamber ; and, when the secretary went out, the king 
told them the substance of what had passed between them, 
and made Denny read the book over again to him ; where- 
upon Herbert observed, that the secretary had remembered 
all but himself: to which the king answered, he should not 
forget him ; and ordered Denny to write 400/. a year for 
him. All these things being thus declared upon oath, 
and the greatest part of them having been formerly signified 
to some of them, and the whole matter being well known and 
spread abroad, the executors, both out of conscience to - 
the king's will, and for their own honours, resolved to fulfil 
what the king had intended, but was hindered by death to 
accomplish. But, being apprehensive both of wars with 
the emperor and French king, they resolved not to lessen 



10 HISTORY OF 

the king's treasure nor revenue, nor to sell his jewels 
or plate, but to find some other ways to pay them ; and this 
put them afterwards on selling the chantry-lands. 

The business of Scotland was then so pressing, that 
Balnaves, who was agent for those that had shut themselves 
within the castle of St. Andrew's, had this day 1180/. 
ordered to be carried to them for a half year's pay to the 
soldiers of that garrison : tl\ere were also pensions appointed 
for the most leading men in that business. The earl of 
Rothes' eldest son had 280/., Sir James Kircaldy had 200/., 
and many others had smaller pensions allowed them, " for 
their amity," as it is expressed in the council- books. That 
day (Feb. 6) the lord protector knighted the king, being 
authorized to do it by letters-patents. So it seems, that 
as the laws of chivalry required that the king should receive 
knighthood from the hand of some other knight; so it 
was judged too great a presumption for his own subject 
to give it, without a warrant under the great seal. The 
king, at the same time, knighted Sir John Hublethorn, 
the lord mayor of London. When it was known abroad 
what a distribution of honour and wealth the council had re- 
solved on, it was much censured ; many saying, that it was 
not enough for them to have drained the dead king of all his 
treasure, but that the first step of their proceedings in their 
new trust was to provide honour and estates for themselves ; 
whereas it had been a more decent way for them to have 
reserved their pretensions till the king had come to be 
of age. Another thing in the attestations seemed much 
to lessen the credit of the king's will, which was said to be 
signed the 30th of December, and so did bear date : whereas 
this narration insinuates, that it was made a very little 
while before he died, not being able to accomplish his 
design in those things which he had projected ; but it was 
well known that he was not so ill on the 30th of December. 

It may perhaps seem strange, that the earl of Hart- 
ford had six good prebends promised him ; two of these 
being afterwards converted into a deanery and a trea- 
surership. But it was ordinary at that time : the Lord 
Cromwell had been dean of Wells ; and many other secular 
men had these ecclesiastical benefices without cure con- 
ferred on them ; for which, there being no charge of souls 
annexed to them, this might seem to be an excuse. Yet 
even those had a sacred charge incumbent on them ia 
the cathedrals ; and were just and necessary encourage- 
ments, either for such as by age or. other defects were 
not fit for a parochial charge, and yet might be otherwise 
capable to do eminent service in the church; or for the 
support of such as in their parochial labours did serve 



THE REFORMATION. 11 

so well as to merit preferment, and yet perhaps were so 
meanly provided for as to need some farther help for their 
subsistence. But certainly they were never intended for 
the enriching of such lazy and sensual men, who, having 
given themselves up to a secular course of life, had little of 
a churchman but the habit and name ; and yet used to 
rail against sacrilege in others, not considering how guilty 
themselves were of the same crime, enriching their families 
with the spoils of the church, or with the goods of it, which 
were put into their hands for better uses : and it was no 
wonder, that, when clergymen had thus abused these endow- 
ments, secular men broke in upon them ; observing plainly, 
that the clergy who enjoyed them made no better use 
of them than laics might do. Though, instead of reforming 
an abuse that was so generally spread, they, like men 
that minded nothing more than the enriching of themselves, 
took a certain course to make the mischief perpetual, by 
robbing the church of those endowments and helps it 
had received from the munificence of the founders of its 
cathedrals, who were generally the first Christian kings 
of this nation ; which, had it been done by law, would have 
been a thing of very bad consequence ; but as it was done, 
was directly contrary to the Magna Charta, and to the 
king's coronation oath. 

But now, they that were weary of the popish superstitions 
observing that Archbishop Cranmer had so great a share of 
the young king's affection, and that the protector and 
he were in the same interests, began to call for a further 
reformation df religion ; and some were so full of zeal for it, 
that they wonld not wait on the slovi^ motions of the state. 
So the curate and churchwardens of St. Martin's, in Iron- 
monger-lane, in London, took down the images and pictures 
of the saints, and the crucifix out of their church, and 
painted many texts of Scripture on the walls ; some of them, 
'' according to a perverse translation," as the complaint has 
it ; and in the place where the crucifix was, they set up the 
king's arms, with some texts of Scripture about it : upon 
this the bishop and lord mayor of London complained 
to the council. And the curate and churchwardens, being 
cited to appear, answered for themselves ; that the roof 
of their church being bad, they had taken it down, and that 
the crucifix and images were so rotten, that when they 
removed them they fell to powder : that the charge they had 
been at in repairing their church was such, that they could 
not buy new^ images : that they had taken down the images 
in the chancel, because some had been guilty of idolatry 
towards them. In conclusion, they said, what they had 
done was with a good intention, and if they had in any 



12 HISTORY OF 

thing done amiss, they asked pardon, and submitted them- 
selves. Some were for punishing them severely ; for all 
the papists reckoned that this would be a leading case to all 
the rest of this reign; and if this was easily passed over, 
others would be from that remissness animated to attempt 
such things everywhere. But, on the other hand, those at 
court who had designed to set forward a reformation, had a 
mind only so far to check the heat of the people as to keep 
it within compass, but not to dishearten their friends too 
much. Cranmer and his party were for a general removing 
of all images ; and said, that, in ihe late king's time, order 
being given to remove such as were abused to superstition ; 
upon that there were great contests in many places what 
images had been so abused, and what not ; and that these 
disputes would be endless unless all were taken away. 

In the purest times of Christianity they had no images at 
all in their churches. One of the first councils, namely, 
that at Elvira, in Spain, made a canon against the painting 
what they worshipped on the walls. Epiphanius was highly 
offended when he saw a veil hanging before the door of 
a church with a picture on it, which he considered so little 
as not to know well whose picture it was, but thought 
it might be Christ's, or some other saint's ; yet he tore 
it, and gave them of that place money to buy a new veil in 
its room. Afterwards, with the rest of the pomp of hea- 
thenism, images came to be set up in churches ; yet so 
as that there was no sort of worship paid to them. But 
in the time of pope Gregory the First, many went into 
extremes about them ; some were for breaking them, and 
others worshipped them ; that pope thought the middle way 
best, neither to break, nor to worship them, but to keep 
them only to put the people in mind of the saints. After- 
wards, there being subtle questions started about the unity 
of Christ's person and will, the Greek emperors generally 
inclined to have the animosities, raised by these, removed 
by some comprehensive words to which all might consent ; 
which the interest of state, as T/ell as religion, seemed 
to require: for their empire every day declining, all methods 
for uniting it were thought good and prudent : but the 
bishops were stiff and peremptory ; so in the sixth general 
council they condemned all who differed from them : upon 
this the emperors that succeeded would not receive that 
council, but the bishops of Rome ordered the pictures of all 
the bishops, who had been at that council, to be set up 
in the churches ; upon which the emperors contended 
against these or any pictures whatsoever in churches : 
and herein that happened which is not unusual, that one 
controversy rising occasionally out of another, the parties 



THE REFORMATION. 13 

forsake the first contest, and fall into sharp conflicts about 
the occasional differences. For now the emperors and popes 
quarrelled most violently about the use of images, and 
ill names going a great way towards the defaming an opinion, 
the popes and their party accused all that were agailst 
images as favouring Judaism, or Mahometanism, which 
was then much spread in Asia and Africa : the emperors 
and their party accusing the others of gentilism and hea- 
thenish idolatry. Upon this occasion, Gregory the J bird 
first assumed the rebellious pretension to a pov/er to depose 
Leo, the emperor, fiom all his dominions in Italy. There 
was one general council at Constantinople that condemned 
the use or worship of images ; and soon after another at 
Nice did establish it ; and yet, at the same time, Charles 
the Great, though not a little linked in interest to the bishops 
of Rome, holding both the French and imperial crowns by 
the favour of the popes, wrote, or employed Alcuinus (a 
most learned countryman of ours, as these times went), 
to write in his name against the worship of images. And in 
a council at Frankfort it was condemned, which was also 
done afterwards in another council at Paris. But in such 
ages of ignorance and superstition, any thing that wrought 
so much on the senses and imaginations of the people was 
sure to prevail in conclusion : and this had, in a course 
of seven more ages, been improved, by the craft and 
impostures of the monks, so wonderfully, that there was no 
sign of Divine adoration that could be invented that was 
not applied to these images. So in King Henry's time that 
temper was found, that such images, as had been abused to 
superstition, should be removed ; and, for other images, 
external worship, such as kneeling, censing, and piaying 
before them, was kept up ; but the people were to be taught 
that these were not at all intended to the image, but to that 
■which was represented by it ; and upon this there was 
much subtle arguing. Among Cranmer's papers, 1 have 
seen several arguments for a moderate use of images. But 
to all these they opposed the second commandment, as 
plainly forbidding all visible objects of adoration, together 
with what was in the Scriptures against the idolatry of 
the heathens, and what the fathers had written against 
the gentiles ; and they added, that how excusable soever 
that practice might have been in such dark and barba- 
rous ages, in which the people knew little more of Divine 
matters than what they learned from their images, yet 
the horrible abuses that followed on the bringing them into 
churches, made it necessary now to throw them all out. It 
was notorious that the people every where doted on them. 
Vol.. IT, Part I. C 



14 HISTORY OF 

and gave them divine honour : nor did the clergy, who were 
generally too guilty themselves of such abuses, teach them 
now to distinguish aright ; and the acts of worship that 
that were allowed were such, that beside the scandal such 
worship had in it, and the danger of drawing people into 
idolatry, it was in itself inexcusable to cfFer up such external 
parts of religious adoration to gold or silver, wood or stone. 
So Cranmer, and others, being resolved to purge the church 
of this abuse, got the worst part of the sentence, that some 
had designed against the curate and churchwardens, to be 
mitigated into a reprimand ; and, as it is entered in the 
council-books, " In respect of their submission, and of some 
other reasons which did mitigate their offence (these were 
Cranmer's arguments against images), they did pardon their 
imprisonment, which was at first determined, and ordered 
them to provide a crucifix, or at least some painting of it till 
one were ready, and to beware of such rashness for the 
future." But no mention is made of the other images. 

The carriage of the council in this matter discovering the 
inclinations of the greatest part of them ; and Dr. Ridley 
having in his Lent sermon preached against the superstition 
that was generally had to images and holy-water, it raised 
a great heat over England : so that Gardiner, hearing that, 
on May-day, the people of Portsmouth had removed and 
broken the images of Christ and the saints, writ about it, 
with great warmth, to one Captain Vaughan, that waited on 
the protector, and was then at Portsmouth. " He desired to 
know whether he should send one to preach against it; 
though he thought that was the casting precious stones to 
hogs, or worse than hogs, as were these Lollards. He said, 
that Liither had set out a book against those who removed 
images, and himself had seen them still in the Lutheran 
churches ; and he thought the removing images was on de- 
sign to subvert religion and the state of the world : he argues 
for them from the king's image on the seal, Caesar's image 
on the coin brought to Christ, the king's arms carried by the 
heralds : he condems false images : but for those that were 
against true images, he thought they were possessed with 
the devil." Vaughan sent his letter to the protector, with 
one from Gardiner to himself*, who finding the reasoning 
in it not so strong but that it might be answered, wrote to 
him himself: " That he allowed of his zeal against innova- 
tions, but that there were other things that needed to be 
looked to as much. Great difference there was between the 
civil respect due to the king's arms, and the worship given 

* The letters are in Fox'g Acts aod Monuments. 



THE REFORMATION. 15 

to images. There had been a time in which the abuse of 
the Scriptures was thought a good reason to take them from 
the people, yea, and to burn them : though he looked on 
them as more sacred than images : which, if they stood 
merely as remembrances, he thought the hurt was not 
great ; but it was known that for the most part it was other- 
wise ; and, upon abuse, the brazen serpent was broken, 
though made at God's commandment: and it being pre- 
tended that they were the books of the people, he thought 
the Bible a much more intelligible and useful book. There 
were some too rash, and others too obstinate. The magi- 
strate was to steer a middle course between them ; not con- 
sidering the antiquity of things so much, as what was good 
and expedient." Gardiner writ again to the protector, com- 
plaining of Bale and others, who published books to the 
dishonour of the late king ; and that all were running after 
novelties; and often inculcates it, that things should be 
kept in the state they were in, till the king were of age ; 
and, in his letters, reflects both on the aichbishop of Can- 
terbury and the bishop of Duresme, for consenting to such 
thinr.s. 

But finding his letters had no effect on the protector, he 
wrote to Ridley : " That, by the law of Moses, we were no 
more bound not to have images than not to eat blood- 
puddings. Image and idol might have been used promiscu- 
ously in former times, as king and tyrant were ; yet there 
was a great difference between these, according to the 
notions we now have. He cites Pope Gregory, who was 
against both adoring and breaking them ; and says, the 
worship is not given to the image, so there is no idolatry, 
but to him represented by it; and as the sound of speech 
did by the ear beget notions in us, so he did not see but the 
sight of an image might stir up devotion. He confessed there 
had been abuses, as there is in every thing that is in men's 
hands : he thinks imagery, and graving, to be of as good use 
for instruction, as writing or printing : and because Ridley 
had also preached against the superstition of holy-water to 
drive away devils, he added, that a virtue might be in water, 
as well as in Christ's garment, St. Peter's shadow, or Elisha's 
staff. Pope Marcellus ordered Equitius to use it : and the 
late king used to bless cramp-rings both of gold and silver, 
which were much esteemed everywhere; and when he was 
abroad, they were often desired from him. This gift he 
hoped the young king would not neglect. He believed the 
invocation of the name of God might give such a virtue to 
holy-v/ater as well as to the water of baptism." For Rid- 
ley's answer to this, I never saw it ; so these things must 



16 HISTORY OF 

here pass without any reply : though it is very probable an 
ordinary reader will, with a very small measure of common 
sense and learning, see how they might have been answered. 
The thing most remarkable here is about these cramp-rings, 
which King Henry used to bless, of which I never met with 
any thing before I saw this letter ; but since I understand 
the office of blessing of these rings is extant, as it was pre- 
pared for Queen Mary's use, as shall be told in her reign, it 
must be left to conjecture, whether he did it as a practice of 
former kings, or whether, upon his being made supreme 
head, he thought fit to take on him, as the pope did, to con- 
secrate such things, and send them about ; where, to be 
sure, fancy and flattery would raise many stories of the won- 
derful effects of what he had so blessed : and, perhaps, these 
might have been as true as the reports made of the virtues 
of Agnus Dei's, touched beads, blessed pebbles, with such 
other goodly ware, which the friars were wont to carry about 
and distribute to their benefactors as things highly sanctified. 
This I set down more fully, and have laid some things 
together that fell not out till some months after this, being 
the first step that was made towards a reformation in this 
reign. 

Upon this occasion, it is not unlikely, that the council wrote 
their letters to all the justices of peace of England, on the 
12th of February, letting them know that they had sent down 
new commissioners to them, for keeping the peace: order- 
ing them to assemble together, and first to call earnestly on 
God for his grace to discharge their duties faithfully, accord- 
ing to the oaths which they were to take ; and that they 
should impartially, without corruption or sinister affection, 
execute their office, so that it might appear that they had 
God and the good of their king and country before their 
eyes : and that they should divide themselves into the several 
hundreds, and see to the public peace ; and that all vaga- 
bonds anil disturbers of the peace should be duly punished ; 
and that once every six weeks they should write to the lord 
protector and council, the state in which the county was, 
till they were otherwise commanded. That which was sent 
into the county of Norfolk will be found in the Collection 
(No. iii). 

But now the funeral of the deceased kin<r, and the corona- 
tion of his son, were to be dispatched. In the coronation 
ceremonies that had been formerly used, there were some 
things that did not agree with the present laws of the land ; 
as the promise made to the abbots for maintaining their lands 
and dignities. They were also so tedious, that a new form 
was ordered to be drawn, which the reader will find in the 



THE REFORMATION. 17 

Collection (No. iv). The most material thing in it is the first 
ceremony, whereby the king being showed to the people at 
the four corners of the stage, the archbishop was to demand 
their consent to it ; and yet in such terras as should demon- 
strate he was no elective prince ; " for he being declared 
the rightful and undoubted heir, both by the laws of God 
and man, they were desired to give their good wills and 
assents to the sarae,,as by their duty of allegiance they were 
bound to do." This being agreed on the 13th of February, 
on the day following King Henry's body was, with all the 
pomp of a royal funeral, removed to Syon, iu the way to 
Windsor. There great observation was made on a thing that 
was no extraordinary matter : he had been extreme corpu- 
lent ; and dying of a dropsy, or something like it, it was no 
wonder if, a fortnight after, upon so long a motion, some 
putrid matter might run through the coffin. But Syon having 
been a house of religious women, it was called a signal 
mark of the displeasure of Heaven, that some of his blood 
and fat dropped through the lead in the night : and to make 
this work mightily on weak people, it was said, that the dogs 
licked it next morning. This was much magnified in com- 
mendation of Friar Peto, afterwards made cardinal, who (as 
was told in page 200 of the former Part) had threatened him 
in a sermon, at Greenwich, " that the dogs should lick his 
blood." Though, to consider things more equally, it had 
been a wonder indeed if it had been otherwise. But having 
met with this observation in a MS, written near that time, I 
would not envy the world the pleasure of it. Next day he 
was brought to Windsor, and interred in St. George's chapel. 
And he having by his will left that church 6001. a yeai for 
ever for two priests to say mass at his tomb daily, for four 
obits yearly, and a sermon at every obit, with 10/. to the 
poor, and for a sermon every Sunday, together with the 
maintenance of thirteen poor knights ; the judges were con- 
sulted how this should be well settled in law : who advised, 
that the lands which the king had given should be made over 
to that college by indentures tripartite ; the king being one 
party, the protector and other executors a second, and the 
dean and chapter of Wmdsor a third party. These were to 
be signed with the king's hand, and the great seal put to 
them, with the hands and seals of all the rest; and then 
patents were to be given for the lands, founded on the king's 
testament, and the indentures tripartite. 

But the pomp of this business ministered an 0( casion of 
inquiring into the use and lawfulness of soul-masses and 
obits, which came to be among the first things that were re- 
formed. Christ had instituted the sacrament to be cele- 

C3 



18 HISTORY OF 

brated in remembrance of his death ; and it was a sacrament 
only to those who did participate in it : but that the conse- 
crating the sacrament could be of any use to departed souls, 
seemed a thing not easy to be conceived : for if they are the 
prayers of the living that profit the dead, then these would 
have done as well without a mass. But the people would 
not have esteemed bare prayers so much, nor have paid so 
dear for them. So that the true original of soul-masses was 
thought to have been only to increase the esteem and wealth 
of the clergy. It is true, in the primitive church, there was 
a commemoration of the saints departed in the daily sacri- 
fice (so they termed the communion), and such as had given 
any offence at their death were not remembered in it : so 
that for so slight an offence as the leaving a priest tutor to 
one's children, which might distract them from their spiritual 
care, one's name was to be left out of that commemoration 
in Cyprian's time ; which was a very disproportioned punish- 
ment to that offence, if such commemorations had been 
thought useful or necessary to the souls departed. But all 
this was nothing to the private masses for them, and was 
indeed nothing at first but an honourable mention of such as 
had died in the faith. And they, believing then generally 
that there was a glorious thousand years to be on earth, and 
that the saints should rise, some sooner and some later, 
to have their part in it, they prayed in general for their quiet 
rest, and their speedy resurrection. Yet these prayers grow- 
ing, as all superstitious devices do, to be more considered, 
some began to frame an hypothesis to justify them by ; that 
of the thousand years being generally exploded. And in St. 
Austin's lime they began to fancy there was a state of punish- 
ment even for the good in another life, out of which some 
were sooner and some later freed, according to the measure 
of their repentance for their sins in this life. But he tells us, 
this was taken up without any sure ground, and that it was 
no way certain. Yet by visions, dreams, and tales, the 
belief of it was so far promoted, that it came to be generally 
received in the next age after him ; and then, as the people 
were told that the saints interceded for them, so it was 
added, that they might intercede for their departed friends. 
And this was the foundation of all that trade of soul masses 
and obits. Now the deceased king had acted like one who 
did not believe that these things signified much : otherwise 
he was to have but ill recei)tion in purgatory, having, by the 
subversion of the monasteries, deprived the departed souls 
of the benefit of the many masses that were said for them in 
these houses : yet it seems, at his death, he would make the 
matter sure ; and to show he intended as much benefit to the 



THE REFORMATION. 19 

liviDs as to himself, being dead, he took care that there 
should be not only masses and obits, but so many sermons 
at Windsor, and a frequent distribution of alms for the relief 
of the poor. But, upon this occasion, it came to be examined 
what value there was in such things. Yet the archbishop 
plainly saw, that the lord chancellor would give great oppo- 
sition to every motion that should be made for any further 
alteration ; for which he and all that party had this specious 
pretence always in their mouths. That their late glorious 
king was not only the most learned prince, but the most 
learned divine in the world (for the flattering him did not 
end with his life), and that therefore they were at least to 
keep all things in the condition wherein he had left them, 
till the king were of age. And this seemed also necessary 
on considerations of state ; for changes in matter of religion 
might bring on commotions and disorders, which they, as 
faithful executors, ought to avoid. But to this it was an- 
swered, that as their late king was infinitely learned (for 
both parties flattered him, dead as well as living), so he had 
resolved to make great alterations, and was contriving how 
to change the mass into a communion : that therefore they 
were not to put off a thing of such consequence, wherein the 
salvation oi people's souls were so much concerned, but 
were immediately to set about it. But the lord chancellor 
gave quickly great advantage against himself to his enemies, 
who were resolved to make use of any error he might be 
guilty of, so far as to ease themselves of the trouble he was 
like to give them. 

The king's funeral being over, order was given for the 
creation of peers. The protector was to be duke of Somerset ; 
the earlof Essex to be marquis of Northampton; the Viscount 
Lisle to be earl of Warwick ; the Lord W riothesley, earl of 
Southampton : beside the new creation of the Lords Seymour, 
Rich, Willoughby of Parham, and Sheffield : the rest, it 
seems, excusing themselves from new honours, as it appeared 
from the deposition of Paget, that many of those, on whom 
the late king had intended to confer titles of honour, had 
declined it formerly. On the 20th of February, being 
Shrove-Sunday, the king was crowned by the archbishop of 
Canterbury, according to the form that was agreed to. The 
protector serving in it as lord steward, the marquis of Dorset 
as lord constable, and the earl of Arundel as earl marshal, 
deputed by the protector. A pardon was proclaimed, out of 
V. hicb the duke of Norfolk, Cardinal Pole, and some others, 
were excepted. 

The first business of importance, after the coronation, was 
the lord chancellor's fall ; who, resolving to give himself 
wholly to matters of state, had, on the IBth of February, 



20 HISTORY Of 

put the great seal to a commission, *' directed to Sir Robert 
Southwell, master of the rolls, John Tregonnel, Esq. master 
of chancery, and to John Oliver, and Anthony Bellasis, 
clerks, masters of chancery ; setting forth, that the lord 
chancellor being so employed in the affairs of state that 
he could not attend on the hearing of causes in the court of 
chancery, these three masters, or any two of them, were 
empowered to execute the lord chancellor's office in that 
court, in as ample manner as if he himself were present ; 
only their decrees were to be brought to the lord chancellor 
to be signed by him, before they were enrolled." This 
being done without any warrant from the lord protector, 
and the other executors, it was judged a high presumption 
in the lord chancellor thus to devolve on others that power 
which the law had trusted in his hands. The persons 
named by him increased the offence which this gave, two 
of them being canonists, so that the common lawyers looked 
upon this as a precedent of very high and ill consequence. 
And being encouraged by those who had no good will 
to the chancellorj they petitioned the council in this matter, 
and complained of the evil consequences of such a com- 
mission, and set forth the fears that all the students of the 
law were under, of a change that was intended to be made 
of the laws of England. The council remembered well 
they had given no warrant at all to the lord chancellor 
for the issuing out any such commission • so they sent 
it to the judges, and required them to examine the com- 
mission, with the petition gounded upon it ; who delivered 
their opinions on the last of Februajy, that the lord chan- 
cellor ought not, without warrant from the council, to have 
set the seal to it ; and that by his so doing he had by 
the common law forfeited his place to the king, and was 
liable to fine and imprisonment at the king's pleasure. 
This lay sleeping till the 6th of March, and then the judges' 
answer being brought to the council, signed with all their 
hands, they entered into a debate how far it ought to be 
punished. The lord chancellor carried it very high : and 
as he had used many menaces to those who had petitioned 
against him, and to the judges for giving their opinions 
as they did ; so he carried himself insolently to the pro- 
tector, and told him, he held his place by a better authority 
than he held his ; that the late king, being empowered to it 
by act of parliament, had made him not only chancellor, 
but one of the governors of the realm during his son's 
minority ; and had by his will given none of them power 
over the rest, to throw them out at pleasure ; and that, 
therefore, they might declare the commission void if they 
pleased, to which he should consent ; but they could not 



THE REfORiMATION. 21 

for such an error turn him out of his office, nor out of 
his share of the government. To this it was answered, that, 
by the late king's will, they, or the major part of them, 
were to administer till the king was of age : that this 
subjected every one of them in particular to the rest : that 
otherwise, if any of them broke out into rebellion, he might 
pretend he could not be attainted, nor put from the govern- 
ment. Therefore it was agreed on, that every of them 
in particular was subject to the greater part. Then the 
lord chancellor was required to show what wan ant he 
had for that he had done. Being now driven from that 
which he chiefly relied on, he answered for himself, that he 
had no warrant ; yet he thought by his office he had power 
to do it : that he had no ill intention in it, and therefore 
submitted himself to the king's mercy, and to the gracious 
consideration of the protector and the council ; and desired, 
that, in respect of his past services, he might forego his 
office with as little slander as might be ; and that as to 
his fine and imprisonment, they would use moderation : 
so he was made to withdraw. "The counsellors (as it 
is entered in the council book) considering in their con- 
sciences his abuses sundry ways in his office, to the great 
prejudice and utter decay of the common laws, and the 
prejudice that might follow by the seals continuing in 
the hands of so stout and arrogant a person, who would 
as he pleased put the seals to such commissions without 
warrant, did agree, that the seal should be taken from 
him, and he be deprived of his office, and be further fined, 
as should be afterwards thought fitting ; only they excused 
him from imprisonment." So he being called in, and heard 
say all he could think of for his own justification, they 
did not judge it of such importance as might move them 
to change their mind. Sentence was therefore given, that 
he should stay in the council -chamber and closet till the 
sermon was ended ; that then he should go home with 
the seal to Ely House, where he lived ; but that after 
supper, the Lord Seymour, Sir Anthony Brown, and Sir 
Edward North, should be sent to him, and that he should 
deliver the seal into their hands ; and be from that time 
deprived of his office, and confined to his house during 
pleasure, and pay what fine should be laid on him. To all 
which he submitted, and acknowledged the justice of their 
sentence. So the next day, the seal was put into the Lord 
St. John's hands *, till they should agree on a fit man to be 

• " 29 Jiinii sigillum magnum Will. Pawlet Militi Domino S. Jo. de 
Basing, liberatum fecit. Fat. I, Edw. VI, p. 4." — Dugdal. Orig. Jurid. 



22 HISTORY OF 

lord chancellor ; and it continned with him several months^ 
On the day following, the late king's will being in his hands 
for the granting of exemplifications of it under the great 
seal, it was sent for, and ordered to be laid up in the 
treasury of the Exchequer : and the earl of Southampton 
continued in his confinement till the ^Qth of June ; but then 
he entered into a recognizance of 4000/. to pay what fine 
they should impose on him, and upon that he was dis- 
charged of his imprisonment. But in all this sentence they 
made no mention of his forfeiting his being one of the 
late king's executors, and of the present king's governors ; 
either judging, that, being put in these trusts as he was 
lord chancellor, the discharging him of his office did by 
consequence put an end to them ; or, perhaps, they were 
not willing to do any thing that might seem to change 
the late king's will ; and therefore, by keeping him under 
the fear of a severe fine, they chose rather to oblige him 
to be absent, and to carry himself quietly, than by any 
sentence to exclude him from his share in that trust ; which 
I incline the rather to believe, because 1 find him afterwards 
brought to council without any order entered about it; 
so that he seems to have come thither rather on a former 
right than on a new choice made of him. Thus fell the 
lord chancellor, and in him the popish party lost their chief 
support, and the protector his most emulous rival. The 
reader will find the commission, with the opinion of the 

J'udges about it, in the Collection (No. v), from which 
le will be better able to judge of these proceedings against 
him ; which were summary, and severe, beyond the usage 
of the privy-council, and without the common forms of 
legal processes. But the council's authority had been 
raised so high, by the act mentioned in page 340 of the 
former Part, that they were empowered sufficiently for 
matters of that nature. 

That which followed, a few days after, made this be 
the more censured, since the lord protector, who hitherto 
held his office but by the choice of the rest, and under great 
restrictions, was now resolved to hold it by patent, to which 
the late chancellor had been unwilling to consent. The 
pretence for it was, that the foreign ministers, the French 
ambassador in particular, desired to be satisfied concerning 
his power, and how far they might treat with him, and 
depend on the assurances and promises he gave. So the 
protector and council did, on the 13th of March, petition 
the king that they might act by a commision under the 
great seal, which might empower and justify them in what 
they were to do. And that was to be done in this manner : 



THE REFORMATION. 23 

the king and the lords were to sign the warrant for it, upon 
which the Lord St. John (who, though he had the keeping 
of the great seal, was never designed to be lord keeper, nor 
was empowered to hear causes) should set the seal to it. 
The original warrant was to be kept by the protector, 
and exemplifications of it were to be given to foreign minis- 
ters. To this order Sir Thomas Cheyney set his hand, upon 
what authority I do not so clearly see, since he was none of 
the executors. By this commission (which will be found in 
the Collection, No. vi) it is set forth, " That the king, being 
under age, was desired by divers of the nobles and prelates 
of the realm to name and authorize one above all others 
to have the charge of the kingdom, with the government 
of his person : whereupon he had formerly, by word of 
mouth, named his uncle to be protector and governor of his 
person; yet, for a more perfect declaration of that, he 
did now ratify and approve all he had done since that 
nomination, and constituted him his governor, and the 
protector of his kingdom, till he should attain the full age of 
eighteen years ; giving him the full authority that belonged 
to that office, to do every thing as he by his wisdom should 
think for the honour, good, and prosperity of the king and 
kingdoms ; and, that he might be furnished with a council 
for his aid and assistance, he did, by the advice of his uncle 
and others, nobles, prelates, and wise men, accept of these 
persons for his counsellors, the archbishop of Canterbury, 
the Lord St. John, president, the Lord Russell, lord privy- 
seal, the marquis of Northampton, the earls of Warwick 
and Arundel, the Lord Seymour, the bishop of Duresme, 
the Lord Rich, Sir Thomas Cheyney, Sir John Gage, Sir 
Anthony Brown, Sir Anthony Wingfield, Sir William 
Paget, Sir William Petre, Sir Ralph Sadler, Sir John Baker, 
Doctor Wotton, Sir Anthony Denny, Sir William Herbert, 
Sir Edward North, Sir Edward Montague, Sir Edward Wot- 
ton, Sir Edmund Peckham, Sir Thomas Bromley, and Sir 
Richard Southwell : giving the protector power to swear 
such other commissioners as he should think fit : and that 
he, with so many of the council as he should think meet, 
might annul and change what they thought fitting ; re- 
straining the council to act only by his advice and consent." 
And thus was the protector fully settled in his power, and 
no more under the curb of the co-executors, who were now 
mixed with the other counsellors, that, by the late king's 
will, were only to be consulted with as they saw cause. But 
as he depressed them to an equality with the rest of the 
counsellors, so he highly obliged the others, who had been 
formerly under them, by bringing these equally with thera 



24 HISTORY OF 

into a share of the government. He had also obtained to 
himself a high authority over them ; since they could do no- 
thing without his consent ; but he was only bound to call for 
so many of them as he thought meet, and was not limited 
to act as they advised, but clothed with the full regal power ; 
and had it in his hands to oblige whom he would, and to 
make his party greater by calling into the council such as he 
should nominate. How far this was legal I shall not inquire. 
It was certainly contrary to King Henry's will. And that 
being made upon an act of parliament, which empowered 
him to limit the crown and the government of it at his 
pleasure, this commission, that did change the whole govern- 
ment during the king's minority, seems capable of no other 
defence, but that, it being made by the consent of the major 
part of the executors, it was still warrantable even by the 
will, which devolved the government on them, or the major 
part of them. 

All this I have opened the more largely, both because 
none of our historians have taken any notice of the first con- 
stitution of the government during this reign, and being 
ignorant of the true account of it, they have committed 
great errors : and because, having obtained, by the favour of 
that most industrious collector of the transactions of this age, 
Mr. Rushworth, the original council-book, for the two first 
years of this reign, I had a certain authority to follow in it ; 
the exactness of that book being beyond any thing lever met 
with in all our records. For every council-day the privy- 
counsellors that were present set their hands to all that was 
ordered, judging so great caution necessary when the king 
was under age. And therefore 1 thought this a book of too 
great consequence to lie in private hands : so the owner 
having made a present of it to me, I delivered it to that 
noble and virtuous gentleman. Sir John Nicolas, one of the 
clerks of the council, to be kept with the rest of their 
books. 

And having now given the reader a clear prospect of 
the state of the court, I shall next turn to the affairs that 
were under their consideration. That which was first 
brought before them was concerning the state of Germany. 
Francis Burgartus, chancellor to the duke of Saxe,with others 
from the other princes and cities of the empire, were sent 
over, upon the news of the former king's death, to solicit for 
aids from the new king toward the carying on the war with 
the emperor. In order to the clearing of this, and to give a 
just account of our councils in reference to foreign affairs, 
especially the cause being about religion, I shall give a short 
view of the state of Germany at this time. The emperor, 



THE REFORMATION. 25 

having formed a design of an universal monarchy, laid hold ' 
on the differences of religion in Germany, as a good mean to 
cover what he did, with the specious pretence of punishing 
heresy, and protecting the catholics. But before he had 
formed this design, he procured his brother (Jan. 11, 1531) 
to be chosen king of the Romans, and so declared his succes- 
sor in the empire : which he was forced to do, being obliged 
to be much in Spain and his other hereditary dominions ; 
and being then so young as not to enter into such deep 
counsels as he afterwards laid. But his wars in Italy put 
him oft in ill terms with the pope ; and being likewise 
watched over in all his motions by Francis I and Henry VIII, 
and the Turk often breaking into Hungary and Germany, he 
was forced to great compliances with the princes of the 
empire ; who, being animated by the two great crowns, did 
enter into a league for their mutual defence against all ag- 
gressors. And at last, in the year 1544 (Feb. 20), in the 
diet held at Spire, the emperor, being engaged in war with 
France and the Turk, both to secure Germany, and to ob- 
tain money of the princes, was willing to agree to the edict 
made there ; which was, that till there was a free council in 
Germany, or such an assembly, in which matters of reli- 
gion might be settled, there should be a general peace, and 
none was to be troubled for religion; the free exercise of 
both religions being allowed ; and all things were to continue 
in the state they were then in. And the imperial chamber 
at Spire was to be reformed : for the judges of that court be- 
ing all papists, there were many processes depending at the 
suit of the ecclesiastics against the protestant princes, who 
had driven them out of their lands : and the princes ex- 
pecting no fair dealing from them, all these processes were 
now suspended, and the chamber was to be filled up with 
new judges, that should be more favourable to them. They, 
obtaining this decree, contributed very liberally to the wars 
the emperor seemed to be engaged in ; who, having his trea- 
sure thus filled, presently made peace both with France, 
and (Sept. 24, 1544) the Grand Signior (Oct. 1545), and 
resolved to turn his wars upon the empire, and to make use 
of that treasure and force they had contributed, to invade 
their liberties, and to subdue them entirely to himself. Up- 
on this, he entered into a treaty with the pope, that a coun- 
cil should be opened in Trent ; upon 'which he should re- 
quire the princes to submit to it, which, if they refused to 
do, he should make war on them. The pope was to assist 
him with ten thousand men, besides heavy taxes laid on his 
clergy ; to which he willingly consented. But the emperor, 
knowing that if religion were declared to be the ground of 
Voi,. II, Pakt I. D 



26 HISTORY OF 

the war, all the protestants would unite against him, who 
were the much greater number of the empire ; resolved to 
divide them among themselves, and to pretend somewhat 
else than religion as the cause of the war. There were then 
four of the electors of that religion; the count palatine, the 
duke of Saxe, the marquis of Brandenburg, and the arch- 
bishop of Colen ; besides the landgrave of Hesse, the duke 
of Wirtemberg, and many lesser princes ; and almost all the 
cities of the empire. Bohemia, and the other hereditary 
dominions of the house of Austria, were also generally 
of the same religion. The northern kings and the Swiss 
cantons were firmly united to them : the two crowns of 
England and France were likewise concerned in interest to 
support them against the Austrian family. But the emperor 
got France and England engaged in a war between them- 
selves : so that he was now at leisure to accomplish his de- 
signs on the empire ; where some of the princes being ex- 
tremely old, as the count palatine, and Herman, archbishop 
of Colen; others being of soft and inactive tempers, as .the 
marquis of Brandenburg ; and others discontented and am- 
bitious, as Maurice of Saxony, and the brothers of Branden- 
burg ; he had indeed none of the first rank to deal with, 
but the duke of Saxe and the landgrave of Hesse, who were 
both great captains, but of such different tempers, that, 
where they were in equal command, there was no great pro- 
bability of success. The former was a prince of the best 
composition of any in that age : he was sincerely religious, 
and one of the most equally tempered men that was then 
alive ; neither lifted up with success, nor cast down with 
misfortunes : he had a great capacity, but was slow in 
his resolutions. The landgrave, on the other hand, had 
much more heat, was a quicker man, and of an impatient 
temper, on which the accidents of life made deep impressions. 
When the emperor began to engage in this design, the 
pope, being jealous of his greatness, and desirous to entangle 
him in a long and expenseful war, published the secret 
ends of the league ; and opened the council in Trent in No- 
vember, 1545, where a few bishops and abbots, with his 
legates presiding over them, usurped the most glorious title 
of the most holy ecumenical council, representing the catholic 
church. They entered, by such slow steps as were directed 
from Rome, into the discussion of articles of doctrine ; 
which were, as they were pleased to call it, explained to 
them by some divines, for most part friars, who amused the 
more ignorant bishops with the nice speculations with 
which they had been exercised in the schools ; where hard 
and barbarous words served in good stead to conceal some 



THE REFORMATION. 27 

things not so fit to be proposed barefaced, and in plain 
terms. The emperor, having done enough towards his de- 
sign, that a council was opened in Germany, endeavoured 
to keep them from determining points of doctrine, and 
pressed them to examine some abuses in the government of 
the church, which had, at least, given occasion to that great 
alienation of so many from the see of Rome and the clergy. 
There were also divers wise and learned prelates, chiefly 
of Spain, who came thither full of hopes of getting these 
abuses redressed. Some of them had observed, that, in all 
times, heresies and schisms did owe their chief growth to the 
scandals, the ignorance, and negligence of the clergy, 
which made the laity conceive an ill opinion of thera, and 
so disposed them both in inclination and interest to cherish 
such as opposed them ; and therefore they designed to have 
many great corruptions cast out: and observing that 
bishops' non-residence was a chief occasion of all those 
evils, they endeavoured to have residence declared to be of 
Divine right ; intending thereby to lessen the power of the 
papacy, which was grown to that height, that they were 
slaves to that see, taxed by it at pleasure, and the care of 
their dioceses extorted out of their hands by the several 
ranks of exempted priests ; and also to raise the episcopal 
authority to what it was anciently, and to cut off all those 
encroachments which the see of Rome had made on them, 
at first by craft, and which they still maintained by their 
power. But the court of Rome was to lose much by all re- 
formations, and some cardinals openly declared, that every 
reformation gave the heretics great advantages, and was a 
confession that the church had erred, and that these very 
things so much complained of were the chief nerves of the 
popedom, which, being cut, the greatness of their court 
must needs fall : and therefore they did oppose all these 
motions, and were still for proceeding in establishing the 
doctrine. And though the opposing a decree to oblige all to 
residence was so grossly scandalous that they were ashamed 
of it, yet they intended to secure the greatness of the court 
by a salvo for the pope's privilege and dignity in granting 
dispensations. These proceedings at Trent discovered what 
was to be expected from that council, and alarmed all the 
protestants to think what they were to look for, if the em- 
peror should force them to submit to the decrees of such an 
assembly ; where those, whom they called heretics, could 
expect little, since the emperor himself could not prevail so 
far as to obtain or hinder delays, or to give preference for 
matters of discipline to points of doctrine. So the pro- 
testants met at Frankfort, Jan. 1546, and entered into coun- 



28 HISTORY OF 

cils for their common safety, in case any of them should be 
disturbed about religion ; chiefly for preserving the elector 
of Colen, whom the pope had cited to Home for heresy. 
They wrote to the emperor's ministers, that they heard from 
all hands that the emperor was raising great forces, and de- 
signing a war against them ; who thought themselves 
secured by the edict of Spire, and desired nothing but the 
confirmatioh of that, and the regulation of the imperial 
chamber, as was then agreed on. A meeting being proposed 
between the emperor and the landgrave, the landgrave went 
to him to Spire, where the emperor denied he had any 
design of a war, with which the other charged him : only he 
said he had, with great difficulty, obtained a council in Ger- 
many, and therefore he hoped they would submit to it. 
But after some expostulations on both hands, the landgrave 
left him ; and now the thing was generally understood, 
though the emperor did still deny it, and said he would 
make no war about religion, but only against the disturbers 
of the peace of the empire. By this means he got the 
elector palatine to give little or no aid to the other princes. 
The marquis of Brandenburg was become jealous of the 
greatness of Saxe, and so was at first neuter ; but after- 
wards openly declared for the emperor : but Maurice, the 
duke of Saxe's near kinsman, who, by that duke's means, 
was settled in a fair principality, which his uncle George 
had left him, only on condition that he turned papist, 
notwithstanding which he got him to be possessed of it, was 
inade use of by the emperor as the best instrument to work 
his ends. To him, therefore, he promised the electoral 
dignity, with the dominions belonging to the duke of Saxe, 
if he would assist him in the war against his kinsman, the 
present elector ; and gave him assurance, under his hand 
and seal, that he would make no change in religion, but 
leave the princes of the Augsburg Confession the free exer- 
cise of their religion. And thus the emperor singled out the 
duke of Saxe and the landgrave from the rest, reckoning 
wisely, that if he once mastered them, he should more easily 
overcome all the rest. He pretended some other quarrels 
against them, as that of the duke of Brunswick, who, 
having begun a war with his neighbours, was taken prisoner, 
and his dominions possessed by the landgrave. That, with 
some old quarrels, was pretended the ground of the war : 
upon which the princes published a writing, to show that it 
was religion only, and a secret design to subdue Germany, 
that was the true cause of the war ; and those alleged were 
sought pretences to excuse so infamous a breach of the faith, 
and of the public decrees : that the pope, who designed the 



THE REFORMATION. 29 

destruction of all of that confession, had set on the emperor 
to this, who easily laid hold on it, that he might master the 
liberty of Germany : therefore ihey warned all the princes 
of their danger. I'he emperor's forces being to be drawn to- 
gether out of several places in Italy, Flanders, Burgundy, 
and Bohemia, they whose forces lay nearer had a great 
advantage, if they had known how to use it : for in June 
(1546) they brought into the field seventy thousand foot 
and fifteen thousand horse, and might have driven the 
emperor out of Germany had they proceeded vigorously at 
first. But the divided command was fatal to them ; for 
when one was foi action, the other was against it. So they 
lost their opportunity, and gave the emperor time to gather 
all his forces about him, which were far inferior to theirs in 
strength : but the emperor gained by time, whereas they, 
who had no great treasure, lost much. All the summer, and 
a great deal of the winter, was spent without any consider- 
able action, though the two armies were often in view one 
of another. But in the beginning of the winter (July 20, 
1546), the emperor having proscribed the duke of Saxe, and 
promised to bestow the principality on Maurice, he fell into 
Saxony, and carried a great many of the cities, which were 
not prepared for any such impression. This made the 
duke separate his army, and return to the defence of his 
own country (Nov. 23), which he quickly recovered, and 
drove Maurice almost out of all his own principality. The 
states of Bohemia also declared for the elector of Saxony 
(Jan. 7, 1546). 

This was the state of affairs there. The princes thought 
they had a good prospect for the next year, having medi- 
ated a peace between the crowns of England and France, 
whose forces falling into Flanders, must needs have bred a 
great distraction in the emperor's councils. But King 
Henry's death gave them great apprehensions, and not with- 
out cause : for when they sent hither for an aid in money to 
carry on the war, the protector and council saw great dan- 
gers on both hands : if they left the Germans to perish, the 
emperor would be then so lifted up, that they might expect 
to have an uneasy neighbour of him ; on the other hand, 
it was a thing of great consequence to engage an infant king 
in suclj a war. Therefore their succours from hence were 
like to be weak and very slow. Howsoever, the council or- 
dered Paget to assure them, that within three or four months 
they should send fifty thousand crowns to their assistance ; 
which was to be covered thus : — the merchants of the Still- 
yard were to borrow so much of the king, and to engage to 
bring home stores to that value ; they, having the money 

D3 



30 HISTORY OF 

should send it to Hamburgh, and so to the duke of Saxe. But 
the princes received a second blow in the loss of Francis I 
of France ; who, having lived long in a familiarity and 
friendship with King Henry, not ordinary for crowned heads, 
was so much affected with the news of his death, that he was 
never seen cheerful after it. He made royal funeral rites to 
be performed to his memory in the church of Notre Dame ; 
to which the clergy (who, one would have thought, should 
have been glad to have seen his funeral celebrated in any 
fashion) were very averse. But that king had emancipated 
himself to a good degree from a servile subjection to them, 
and would be obeyed. Pie outlived the other not long, for 
he died the last of March (1547). He was the chief patron 
of learned men, and advancer of learning, that had been 
for many ages. He was generally unsuccessful in his wars, 
and yet a great commander. At his death he left his son an 
advice to beware of the brethren of Lorraine, and to depend 
much on the counsellors whom he had employed. But his son, 
upon his coming to the crown, did so deliver himself up to 
the charms of his mistress, Diana, that all things were or- 
dered as men made their court to her ; which the ministers 
that had served the former king scorning to do, and the bro- 
thers of the house of Lorraine doing very submissively, the 
one were discharged of their employments, and the other 
governed all the councils. Francis had been often fluctuat- 
ing in the business of religion. Sometimes he had resolved 
to shake off the pope's obedience, and set up a patriarch in 
France ; and had agreed with Henry VIII to go on in the 
same councils with him. But he was first diverted by his 
alliance with Clement VII ; and afterwards by the ascend- 
ant which the cardinal of Toumon had over him, who en- 
gaged him at several times into severities against those that 
received the Reformation : yet he had such a close eye up- 
on the emperor's motions, that he kept a constant good 
understanding with the protestant princes, and had no doubt 
assisted them if he had lived. But upon his death new 
counsels were taken ; the brothers of Lorraine were furiously 
addicted to the interests of the papacy, one of them being a 
cardinal, who persuaded the king rather to begin his reign 
with the recovery of Bulloigne out of the hands of the 
English ; so that the state of Germany was almost desperate 
before he was aware of it. And, indeed, the Germans lost 
so much in the death of these two kings, upon whose assist- 
ance they had depended, that it was no wonder they were 
easily overrun by the emperor. Some of their allies, the 
cities of Dim and Frankfort, and the duke of Wirtemberg, 
submitting themselves to the emperor's mercy, the rest were 



THE REFORMATION. 31 

much disheartened ; which is a constant forerunner of the 
ruin of a confederacy. Such was the state of religion 
abroad. 

At home men's minds were much distracted. The people, 
especially in market towns and places of trade, began ge- 
nerally to see into many of the corruptions of the doc- 
trine and worship, and were weary of them. Some preached 
against some abuses : Glasier, at Paul's-cross, taught that 
the observance of Lent was only a positive law ; others 
went further, and plainly condemned most of the former 
abuses : but the clergy were as ranch engaged to defend 
them. They were for the most part such as had been bred 
in monasteries and religious houses. For, there being 
pensions reserved for the monks, when their houses were 
surrendered and dissolved, till they should be otherwise pro- 
vided, the court of augmentations took care to ease the 
king of that charge, by recommending them to such small 
benefices as were at the king's disposal ; and such as pur- 
chased those lands of the crown, with that charge, of pay- 
ing the pensions to the monks, were also careful to ease 
themselves by procuring benefices for them. The benefices 
were generally very small, so that in many places three or 
four benefices could hardly aflford enough for the mainten- 
ance of one man : and this gave some colour for that abuse 
of one man's having many benefices that have a care of 
souls annexed to them ; and that not only where they are so 
contiguous, that the duty can be discharged by one, and so 
poor that the maintenance of both will scarce serve for the 
encouragement of one person, but even where they are vei^y 
remote, and of considerable value. This corruption, that 
crept in, in the dark ages of the church, was now practised 
in England out of necessity. By an act made in King 
Henry the Eighth's time, none might hold two benefices with- 
out a dispensation ; but no dispensation could enable one to 
hold three : yet that was not at this time much considered. 
The excuses made for this were, that, in some places, they 
could not find good men for the benefices ; but in most places 
the livings were brought to nothing : for while the abbeys 
stood, the abbots allowed those whom they appointed to 
serve the cure in the churches that belonged to them (which 
were in value above the half of England) a small stipend, 
or some little part of the vicarage tithes ; and they were 
to raise their subsistence out of the fees they had by the sa- 
craments, and other sacramentals ; and chiefly by the sing- 
ing masses for the poor that died ; for the abbeys had the 
profit of it from the rich : and masses went generally for two- 
pence, a groat was thought a great bounty : so they all con- 



32 HISTORY OF 

eluded themselves undone, if these things were withdrawn. 
This engaged them against any reformation, since every step 
that was made in it took their bread out of their mouths ; but 
they, being generally very ignorant, could oppose nothing 
with the force of reason or learning. So, although they were 
resolved to comply with any thing rather than forfeit their 
benefices, yet in their hearts they abhorred all reformation, 
and murmured against it where they thought they might do 
it safely : some preached as much for the old abuses as 
others did against them. Dr. Peru, at St. Andrew's Under- 
shaft, justified the worsjiip of images on the 23d of April : 
yet on the 19th of June he preached a recantation of that 
sermon. Besides these, there were great prelates, as Gardi- 
ner, Bonne/, and Tonstall, whose long experience in affairs, 
they being often employed in foreign embassies, together 
with their high preferment, gave them great authority ; and 
they were Jigainst all alterations in religion. But that was 
not so decent to profess ; therefore they set upon this pre- 
tence, that, till the king, their supreme head, were of age, so 
as to consider things himself, all should continue in the state 
in which King Henry had left them : and these depended on 
the Lady Mary, the king's eldest sister, as their head, who 
now professed herself to be in all points for what her father 
had done ; and was very earnest to have every thing enacted 
by him, but chiefly the six articles, to continue in force. 

On the other hand, Cranmer, being now delivered from 
that too awful subjection that he had been held under by 
King Henry, resolved to go on more vigorously in purging 
out abuses. He had the protector firmly united to him in 
this design. Dr. Cox and Mr. Cheek, who were about the 
young king, were also very careful to infuse right principle* 
of religion into him ; and as he was very capable of under- 
standing what was laid before him, so he had an early liking 
to all good and generous principles, and was of so excellent 
a temper of mind, that as he naturally loved truth, so the 
great probity of his manners made him very inclinable to 
love and cherish true religion. Cranmer had also several 
bishops of his side ; Holgate, of York ; Holbeck, of Lincoln ; 
Goodrick, of Ely; and, above all, Ridley*, elect of Ro- 
chester, designed for that see by King Henry, but not con- 
secrated till September this year. Old Latimer was now 

* In the commission granted for the examination, whether the mar- 
quis of Northampton could lawfully marry after the divorcement of his 
wife, Anne, for adultery, bearing date three months after the death of 
Kintv Henry, even May 7, 1 Edward VI, Holbecli was bishop of Ro- 
chester, and not at Uiat time translated to Lincoln, 



THE REFORMATION. 33 

discharged of his imprisonment, but had no mmd to relurn 
to a more public station, and did choosffe rather to live 
private, and employ himself in preaching. He was kept by 
Cranmer at Lambeth, where he spent the rest of his days, 
till he was imprisoned in Queen Mary's time, and attained 
the glorious end of his innocent and pious life. But the ap- 
prehensions of his being restored again to his old bishopric, 
put Heath, then bishop of Worcester, into great anxieties; 
sometimes he thought, if he consented to the Reformation, 
then Latimer, who left his bishopric on the account of the six 
articles, must be restored, and this made him join with the 
popish party : at other times, when he saw the house of 
commons moved to have Latimer put in again, then he 
joined in the councils for the Reformation, to secure friends 
to himself by that compliance *. Others of the bishops were 
ignerant and weak men, who understood religion little, and 
valued it less ; and so, although they liked the old supersti- 
tion best, because it encouraged ignorance most, and that 
was the only sure support of their power and wealth, yet 
they resolved to swim with the stream. It was designed by 
Cranmer and his friends to carry on the Reformation but by 
slow and safe degrees, not hazarding too much at once. 
They trusted in the providence of God, that he would assist 
them in so good a work. They knew the corruptions they 
were to throw out to be such that they should easily satisfy 
the people with what they did ; and they had many learned 
men among them, who had now, for divers years, been 
examining these matters. There were also many that de- 
clared they had heard the late king express his great regret 
for leaving the state of religion in so unsettled a condition ; 
and that he had resolved to have changed the mass into a 
communion, besides many other things. And in the act of 
parliament which he had procured (see page 340, first Part), 
for giving force and authority to his proclamations, a pro- 
viso was added, that his son's counsellors, while he should 
be under age, might set out proclamations of the same 
authority with those which were made by the king himself. 
This gave them a full power to proceed in that work ; in 
which they resolved to follow the method begun by the late 
king, of sending visitors over England, with injunctions and 
articles. They ordered them six several circuits or precincts. 
The first was London, Westminster, Norwich, and Ely : 
the second, Rochester, Canterbury, Chichester, and Win- 
chester: the third, Sarum. Exeter, liath, Bristol, and 
Gloucester: the fourth, York, Durham, Carlisle, and 

• Journal of the House of Coinmons. 



34 HISTORY OF 

Chester : the fifth, Peterborough, Lincoln, Oxford, Coventry, 
and Litchfield : and the sixth, Wales, Worcester, and 
Hereford. For every circuit there were two gentlemen, a 
civilian, a divine, and a register*. They were designed to 
be sent out in the beginning of May ; as appears by a letter 
to be found in the Collection (No. vii), written the 4lh of 
May, to the archbishop of York. (There is also in the re- 
gisters of London another of the same strain.) Yet the vi- 
sitation being put off' for some months, this inhibition was 
suspended on the 16th of May, till it should be again re- 
newed. The letter sets forth, that the king being speedily 
to order a visitation over his whole kingdom, therefore 
neither the archbishop nor any other should exercise any 
jurisdiction while that visitation lasted. And since the 
minds of the people were held in great suspense by the con- 
troversies they heard so variously tossed in the pulpits, that, 
for quieting these, the king did require all bishops to preach 
nowhere but in their cathedrals; and that all other clergy- 
men should not preach but in their collegiate or parochial 
churches, unless they obtained a special licence from the 
king to that effect. The design of this was to make a dis- 
tinction between such as preached for the reformation of 
abuses, and such as did it not. The one were to be 
encouraged by licences to preach wherever they desired to 
do it ; but the others were restrained to the places where 
they were incumbents. But that which, of all other things, 
did most damp those who designed the Reformation, was 
the misery to which they saw the clergy reduced, and the 
great want of able men to propagate it over England : for 
the rents of the church were either so swallowed up by the 
suppression of religious houses, to whom the tithes were ge- 
nerally appropriated, or so basely alienated by some lewd 
or superstitious incumbents, who, to preserve themselves, 
being otherwise obnoxious, or to purchase friends, had given 
away the best part of their revenues and benefices ; that 
there was very little encouragement left for those that 
should labour in the work of the Gospel. And though many 
projects were thought on for remedying this great abuse, 
yet those were all so powerfully opposed, that there was no 
hope left of getting it remedied, till the king should come to 
be of age, and be able, by his authority, to procure the 
churchmen a more proportioned maintenance. 

• This rule was not observed ; in some circuits there were four visi- 
tors; in others six; in some no civilians; in some two divines; in 
some one gentleman; and in some three. — See Cranmer's Men. 
p. 146, 



THE REFORMATION. 36 

Two things only remained to be done at present. The 
one was, to draw up some homilies for the instruction of the 
people, which might supply the defects of their incumbents, 
together with the providing them with such books as might 
lead them into the understanding of the Scripture. The 
other was to select the most eminent preachers they could 
find, and send them over England with the visitors, who 
should, with more authority, instruct the nation in the 
principles of religion. Therefore some were appointed to 
compile those homilies: and twelve were at first agreed on, 
being about those arguments which were in themselves of 
the greatest importance. The first * was about the use of the 
Scriptures. The second, of the misery of mankind by sin. 
Third, of their salvation by Christ. Fourth, of true and 
lively faith. Fifth, of good works. Sixth, of Christian love 
and charity. Seventh, against swearing, and chiefly per- 
jury. Eighth, against apostacy, or declining from God. 
Ninth, against the fear of death. Tenth, an exhortation to 
obedience. Eleventh, against whoredom and adultery, 
setting forth the state of marriage, how necessary and 
honourable it was. And the twelfth, against contention, 
chiefly about matters of religion. They intended to set out 
more afterwards ; but these were all that were at this time 
finished. The chief design in them was to acquaint the 
people with the method of salvation, according to the Gos- 
pel ; in which there were two dangerous extremes, at that 
time, that had divided the world. The greatest part of the 
ignorant commons seemed to consider their priests as a sort 
of people, who had such a secret trick of saving their souls, 
as mountebanks pretend in the curing of diseases ; and that 
there was nothing to be done but to leave themselves in their 
hands, and the business could not miscarry. This was the 
chief basis and support of all that superstition which was so 
prevalent over the nation. The other extreme was of some 
corrupt gospellers, who thought, if they magnified Christ 
much, and depended on his merits and intercession, they 
could not perish, which way soever they led their lives. In 
these homilies, therefore, special care was taken to rectify 
these errors. And the salvation of mankind was, on the 
one hand, wholly ascribed to the death and sufferings of 
Christ, to which sinners were taught to fly, and to trust to it 
only, and to no other devices, for the pardon of sin. They 
were, at the same time, taught that there was no salvation 
through Christ, but to such as truly repented, and lived ac- 

* These titles are not as they are in the original book ; they are only 
abridged. 



36 HISTORY OF 

cording to the rules of the Gospel. The whole matter was 
so ordered, to teach them, that, avoiding the hurtful errors 
on both hands, they might all know the true and certain way 
of attaining eternal happiness. For the understanding the 
New Testament, Erasmus's Paraphrase, which was trans- 
lated into English, was thought the most profitable and 
easiest book. Therefore, it was resolved, that, together with 
the Bible, there should be one of these in every parish church 
over England. They next considered the articles and in- 
junctions that should be given to the visitors. I'he greatest 
part of them were only the renewing what had been ordered 
by King Henry, during Cromwell's being vicegerent, which 
had been much neglected since his fall : for as there was no 
vicegerent, so there were few visitations appointed after his 
death by the king's authority ; but the executing former in- 
junctions was left to the several bishops, who were, for the 
most part, more careful about the six articles than about 
the injunctions. 

" *So now, all the orders about renouncing the pope's 
power, and asserting the king's supremacy, about preach- 
ing, teaching the elements of religion in the vulgar tongue, 
about the benefices of the clergy, and the taxes on them for 
the poor, for scholars, and their mansion-houses, with the 
other injunctions for the strictness of churchmen's lives, and 
against superstitions, pilgrimages, images, or other rites of 
that kind, and for register books, weie renewed. And to 
these, many others were added : as that curates should take 
down such images as they knew were abused by pilgrimages 
or offerings to them ; but that private persons should not do 
it: that, in the confessions in Lent, they should examine all 
people, whether they could recite the elements of religion in 
the English tongue : that at high mass they should read the 
epistle and gospel in English ; and every Sunday and holy- 
day they should read at matins one chapter out of the New 
Testament, and at even-song another out of the Old, in 
English : that the curates should often visit the sick, and 
have many places of the Scripture in English in readiness 
wherewith to comfort them : that there should be no more 
processions about churches, for avoiding contention for pre- 
cedence in them : and that the Litany, formerly said in the 
processions, should be said thereafter in the choir in 
English, as had been ordered by the late king : that the 
holy-day being instituted at first that men should give them- 
selves wholly to God, yet God was generally more dis- 
honoured upon it than on the other days, by idleness, 

* Tho injunctions are abstracted only, not the articles. 



THE REFORMATION. 37 

drunkenness, and quarrelling, the people thinking that they 
sufficiently honoured God by hearing mass and matins, 
though they understood nothing of it to their edifying : 
therefore, thereafter the holy-day should be spent according 
to God's holy will, in hearing and reading his holy word, in 
public and private prayers, in amending their lives, receiv- 
ing the communion, visiting the sick, and reconciling them- 
selves to their neighbours ; yet the curates were to declare 
to their people, that in harvest- time they might, upon the 
holy and festival days, labour in their harvest : that curates 
were to admit none to the communion who were not recon- 
ciled to their neighbours : '^that ail dignified clergymen 
should preach personally twice a year: that the people 
should be taught not to despise any of the ceremonies not 
yet abrogated, but to beware of the superstition of sprinkling 
their beds with holy-water, or the ringing of bells, or using 
of blessed candles for driving away devils: that all monu- 
ments of idolatry should be removed out of the walls or 
windows of churches, and that there should be a pulpit in 
every church for preaching : that there should be a chest 
with a hole in it for the receiving the oblations of the people 
for the poor, and that the people should be exhorted to 
alms-giving, as much more profitable than what they for- 
merly bestowed on superstitious pilgrimages, trentals, and 
decking of images : that all patrons, who disposed of their 
livings by simoniacal pactions, should forfeit their right for 
that vacancy to the king: that the homilies should be read: 
that priests should be used charitably and reverently for 
their office sake : that no other primer should be used but 
that set out by King Henry : that the prime and the hours 
should be omitted where there was a sermon or homily : 
th^t they should, in bidding the prayers, remember the king 
their supreme head, the queen dowager, the king's two sis- 
ters, the lord protector, and the council, the lords, the 
clergy, and the commons of the realm : and to pray for souls 
departed this life, that, at the last day, we with them may 
rest both body and soul. All which injunctions weie to be 
observed, under the pains of excommunication, sequestra- 
tion, or deprivation, as the ordinaries should answer it to 
the king, the justices of peace being required to assist 
them." 

Besides these, there were otl^er injunctions given to the 
bishops, " that they should see the former put in execution, 
and should preach four times a year in their dioceses ; once 
at their cathedral, and three times in other churches, unless 
they had a reasonable excuse for their omission. That 
their chaplains should be able to preach God's word, and 
Vol. II, Part I. E 



38 HISTORY OF 

should be made labour oft in it: that they should give 
orders to none but such as would do the same ; and if any 
did otherwise, that they should punish him, and recal their 
licence." These are the chief heads of the injunctions, 
which being so often printed, I shall refer the reader, that 
would consider them more carefully, to the collection of 
these and other such curious things made by the right reve- 
rend father in God, Anthony Sparrow*, now lord bishop of 
Norwich. 

These being published, gave occasion to those who 
censured all things of that nature to examine them. 

The removing images that had been abused, gave great 
occasion of quarrel ; and the thing being to be done by the 
clergy only, it was not like that they, who lived chiefly by 
such things, would be very zealous in the removing them. 
Yet, on the other hand, it was thought necessary to set 
some restraints to the heats of the people, who were 
otherwise apt to run too far, where bounds were not set 
to them. 

The article about the strict observance of the holy-day 
seemed a little doubtful, whether by the holy-day was to be 
understood only the Lqrd's-day, or that and all other church 
festivals. The naming it singularly the holy-day, and in the 
end of that article adding festival days to the holy- day, 
seemed to favour their opinion that thought this strict ob- 
servance of the holy-day was particularly intended for the 
Lord's-day, and not for the other festivals. And, indeed, 
the setting aside of large portions of time on that day for 
our spiritual edification, and for the service of God, both in 
public and private, is so necessary for the advancement of 
true piety, that great and good effects must needs follow on 
it. But some came afterwards, who, not content to press 
great strictness on that day, would needs make a con- 
troversy about the morality of it, and about the fourth com- 
mandment, and framed many rules.for it, which were stricter 
than themselves or any other could keep, and so could only 
load men's consciences with many scruples. This drew an 
opposition from others, who could not agree to these severities, 
and these contests were, by the subtlety of the enemies of the 
power and progress of religion, so improved, that instead of 
all men's observing that time devoutly as they ought, some 
took occasion, from the strictness of their own way, to cen- 
sure all as irreligious, who did not in every thing agree to 
their notion concerning it : others, by the heat of contradic- 

* These articles are not in Bishop Sparrow's collection, but were 
printed anno 1547. 



THE REFORMATION. 39 

tion, did too much slacken this great bond and instrument of 
religion ; which is since brought under so much neglect, 
that it is for the most part a day only of rest from men's bodily 
labours, but perhaps worse employed than if they were at 
work : so hard a thing it is to keep the due mean, between 
the extremes of superstition on the one hand, and of irreli- 
gion on the other. 

The corruption of lay patrons, in their simoniacal bar- 
gains, was then so notorious, that it was necessary to give a 
check to it, as we find there was by these injunctions. But 
whether either this, or the oath afterwards appointed to be 
taken, has effectually delivered this church of that great 
abuse, I shall not determine. If those who bestow benefices 
did consider, that, the charge of souls being annexed to them, 
they shall answer to God severely for putting so sacred a 
trust in mean or ill hands, upon any base or servile accounts, 
it would make them look a little more carefully to a thing 
of so high consequence ; and neither expose so holy a thing 
to sale, nor gratify a friend or servant by granting them the 
next advowson, or be too easily overcome with the solicita- 
tions of impudent pretenders. 

The form of bidding prayer was notbegun by King Henry, 
as some have weakly imagined ; but was used in the times 
of popery, as will appear by the form of bidding the beads in 
King Henry the Seventh's time, which will be found in the 
Collection (No. viii) , where the way was, first for the 
preacher to name and open his text, and then to call on the 
people to go to their prayers, and to tell them what they 
were to pray for ; after which, all the people said their beads 
in a general silence, and the minister kneeled down like- 
wise, and said his. All the change King Henry the Eighth 
made in this was, that the pope and cardinals' names being 
left out, he was ordered to be mentioned with the addition 
of his title of supreme head, that the people hearing that oft 
repeated by their priests, might be better persuaded about 
it, but his other titles were not mentioned. And this order 
was now renewed. Only the prayer for departed souls was 
changed from what it had been. It was formerly in these 
words: "Ye shall pray for the souls that be departed, 
abiding the mercy of Almighty God, that it may please him, 
the rather at the contemplation of our prayers, to grant them 
the fruition of his presence ;" which did imply their being 
in a state where they did not enjoy the presence of God ; 
which was avoided by the more general words now pre- 
scribed. 

The injunctions given the bishops directed them to that, 
which, if followed carefully, would be the most effectual 



40 HISTORY OF 

means of reforming, at least the next age, if not that 
wherein they lived. For if holy orders were given to none, 
but to those who are well qualified, and seem to be inter- 
nally called by a Divine vocation, the church must soon 
put on a new face : whereas, when orders are too easily 
given, upon the credit of emendicated recommendations or 
titles, and after a slight trial of the knowledge of such can- 
didates, without any exact scrutiny into their sense of 
things, or into the disposition of their minds ; no wonder if, 
by the means of clergymen so ordained, the church lose 
much in the esteem and love of the people, who, being pos- 
sessed with prejudices against the whole society for the 
faults which they see in particular persons, become an easy 
prey to such as divide from it. 

Thus were the visitors instructed, and sent out to make 
their circuits,, in August, about the time that the protector 
made his expedition into Scotland. For the occasion of it I 
shall refer the reader to what is already said in the former 
part of this work. Before they engaged deeper in the war. 
Sir Francis Brian was sent over to France, to congratulate 
the new king, and to see if he would confirm those proposi- 
tions that were agreed to during his father's life, and if he 
would pay the pension that was to be given yearly till 
BuUoigne was restored ; and chiefly to obtain of him to be 
neutral in the war of Scotland ; complaining of that nation, 
that had broken their faith w ith Engl and in the matter of the 
marriage *. To all which the French king answered, that 
for these articles they mentioned, he thought it dishonourable 
for him to confirm them , and said his father's agent, 
Poligny, had no warrant to yield to them ; for by them the 
Epglish were at liberty to fortify what they had about 
Bulloigne, which he would never consent to ; that he was 
willing to pay what was agreed to by his father, but would 
have first the conditions of the delivery of Bulloigne made 
more clear ; as for the Scots, they were his perpetual allies, 
whom he could not forsake if they were in any distress. 
And when it was pressed on him, and his ambassador at 
London, that Scotland was subject to the crown of England, 
they had no regard to it. When the council desired the 
French ambassador to look on the records which they should 
bring him for proving their title, he excused himself, and 
said, his master would not interpose in a question of that 
nature, nor would he look back to what was pretended to 
have been done two or three hundred years ago, but was to 
take things as he found them ; and that the Scots had re- 

• Thuanus. 



THE REFORMATION. 41 

cords likewise to prove their being a free kingdom. So the 
council saw they could not engage in the war with Scotland, 
without drawing on a war with France ; which made them 
try their interest with their friends, this year, to see if the 
marriage could be obtained. But the castle of St. Andrew's 
was now lost, by the assistance that Leo Strozi brought from 
France. And though they in England continued to send 
pensions to their party (for in JMay 1300/. was sent down 
by Henry Balnaves, and in June 125/. was sent to the earl 
of Glencairn for a half year's payment of his pension), yet 
they could gain no ground there ; for the Scots now thought 
themselves safer than formerly ; the crown of England being 
in the hands of a child, and the court of France being much 
governed by their queen dowager's brothers. They gave 
way to the borderers to make inroads ; of whom about two 
thousand fell into the western marches, and made great de- 
predations. The Scots in Ireland were also very ill neigh- 
bours to the English there. There were many other com- 
plaints of piracies at sea, and of a ship royal that robbed 
many English ships ; but how these came to be* complained 
of, I do not see, for they were in open war, and I do not find 
any truce had been made. The French agent at London 
pressed much that there might be a treaty on the borders 
before the breach were made wider. But now the protector 
had given orders for raising an army, so that he had no 
mind to lose that summer ; yet to let the French k'ng see 
how careful they were of preserving his friendship, they ap- 
pointed the bishop of Duresme and Sir Robert Bowes, to 
give the Scotch commissioners a meeting on the borders the 
4th of August ; but with these secret instructions, that if 
the Scots would confirm the marriage, all other things should 
be presently forgiven, and peace be immediately made up ; 
but if they were not empowered in that particular, and 
offered only to treat about restitutions, that then they should 
immediately break off the treaty. The bishop of Duresme 
was also ordered to carry down with him the exemplifica- 
tions of many records, to prove the subjection of the crown 
of Scotland to England ; some of these are said to have been 
under the hands and seals of their kings, their nobles, their 
bishops, abbots, and towns. He was also ordered to search 
for all the records that were lying at Duresme, where many 
of them were kept, to be ready to be showed to the Scots 
upon any occasion that might require it. The meeting on 
the borders came to a quick issue, for the Scottish commis- 
sioners had no power to treat about the marriage. But 
Tonstall, searching the registers of his see, found many 
writings of great consequence to clear that subjection, of 

£3 



42 HISTORY OF 

which the reader will see an account, in a letter he writ to 
the council, in the Collection of papers (No. ix). The most 
remarkable of these was, the homage King William of Scot- 
land made to "Henry the Second, by which he granted, that 
all the nobles of his realm should be his subjects, and do 
homage to him : and lliat all the bishops of Scotland should 
be under the archbishops of York ; and that the king of Eng- 
land should give all the abbeys and honours in Scotland, at 
the least they should not be given without his consent, with 
many other things of the like nature. It was said, that the 
monks in those days, who generally kept the records, were 
so accustomed to the forging of stories and writings, that 
little credit was to be given to such records as lay in their 
keeping. But having so faithfully acknowledged what was 
alledged against the freedom of Scotland, 1 may be allowed 
to set down a proof on the other side, for my native country, 
copied from the original writing yet extant, under the hands 
and seals of many of the nobility and gentry of that king- 
dom. It is a letter to the pope ; and it was ordinary, that 
of such public letters there were duplicates signed ; the one 
of which was sent, and the other laid up among the records, 
of which I have met with several instances : so that of this 
letter the copy which was reserved, being now in noble 
hands, was communicated to me, and is in the Collection 
(No. x) : it was upon the pope's engaging with the king of 
England to assist him to subdue Scotland that they writ to 
him, and did assert most directly that their kingdom was at 
all times free and independent. But now, these questions 
being waved, the other difi'erence about the marriage was 
brought to a sharper decision. 

On the 21st of August the protector took out a commission 
to be general, and to make war on Scotland, and did devolve 
his power during his absence on the privy-council : and ap- 
pointed his brother to be lord lieutenant for the south, and 
the earl of Warwick (whom he carried with him) lord lieu- 
tenant for the north ; and left a commission of array to the 
marquis of Northampton for Essex, Suffolk, and Norfolk; 
to the earl of Arundel, for Sussex, Surry, Hampshire, and 
"Wiltshire ; and to Sir Thomas Cheyney, for Kent : all this 
was in case of any invasion from France. Having thus 
settled affairs during his absence, he set out for Newcastle, 
having ordered his troops to march thither before ; and 
coming thither on the 27th of that month, he saw his army 
mustered on the 28th, and marched forward to Scotland. 
The Lord Clinton commanded the ships that sailed on as 
the army marched; which was done, that provisions and 
ammunition might be brought by them from Newcastle or 



THE REFORIVIATION. 43 

Berwick, if the enemy should at any time fall in behind 
their army. He entered into Scotch ground the 2d of Sep- 
tember, and advanced to the Paths the 5th ; where the 
passage being narrow and untoward, they looked for an 
enemy to have disputed it, but found none ; the Scots haying 
only broken the ways, which in that dry seasori signified 
not much, but to stop them some hours in their march. 
When they had passed these, some little castles, Dunglas, 
Thornton, and Innerwick, having but a few ill-provided 
men in them, surrendered to them. On the 9th they came 
to Falside, where there was a long fight m several parties, 
in which there were one thousand three hundred of the 
Scots slain.* And now they were in sight of th^ Scotch 
army, which was for numbers of men one of the greatest 
that they had ever brought together, consisting of thirty 
thousand men ; of which ten thousand were commanded 
by the governor, eight thousand by the earl of Angus, eight 
thousand by the earl of Huntley, and four thousand by the 
earl of Argyle, with a fair train of artillery, nine brass, and 
twenty-one iron guns. On the other side, the English army 
consisted of about fifteen thousand foot, and three thousand 
horse, but all well appointed. The Scots were now heated 
with the old national quarrel to England. It was given out, 
that the protector was come with his army to carry away 
their queen, and to enslave the kingdom. And for the en- 
couraging of the army it was also said, that twelve galleys 
and fifty ships were on the sea from France, and that they 
looked for them every day. 

The protector, finding an army brought together so soon, 
and so much greater than he expected, began to be in some 
apprehension, and therefore he writ to the Scots to this 
effect ; that they should remember they were both Chris- 
tians, and so should be tender of the eflPusion of so much 
blood ; that this war was not made with any design, but for 
a perpetual peace, by the marriage of their two princes, 
which they had already agreed, and given their public faith 
upon it ; and that the Scots were to be much more gainers 
by it than the English : the island seemed made for one 
empire ; it was pity it should be more distracted with such 
wars, when there was so fair and just a way offered for 
uniting it ; and it was much better for them to marry their 
queen to a prince of the same language, and on the same 
continent, than to a foreigner.; but if they would not agree 
to that, he offered that their queen should be bred up among 
Ihera, and not at all contracted, neither to the French, nor 
to any other foreigner, till she came of age, that by the 
consent of the estates she might choose a husband for her- 



44 HISTORY OF 

self: if they would agree to this, he would immediately 
return with his army out of Scotland, and make satisfaction 
for the damages the country had suffered by the invasion. 
This proposition seems to justify what the Scotch writers 
say, though none of the English mention it, that the pro- 
tector, what for want of provisions, and what from the 
apprehensions he had of so numerous an army of the Scots, 
was in great straits, and intended to have returned back to 
England, without hazarding an engagement; but the Scots 
thought they were so much superior to the English, and that 
they had them now at such a disadvantage, that they re- 
solved to fall upon them next day. And that the fair offers 
made by the protector might not raise division among them, 
the governor, having communicated these to a few whom 
he trusted, was by their advice persuaded to suppress them : 
but he sent a trumpeter to the English army, with an offer 
to suffer them to return without falling upon them ; which 
the protector had reason to reject, knowing that so mean an 
action, in the beginning of his administration, would have 
quite ruined his reputation ; but to this, another that came 
with the trumpeter added a message from the earl of Hunt- 
ley, that the protector and he, with ten or twenty of a side, 
or singly, should decide the quarrel by their personal valour. 
The protector said, this was no private quarrel, and the 
trust he was in obliged him not to expose himself in such a 
way ; and therefore he was to fight no other way but at the 
head of his army. But the earl of Warwick offered to accept 
the challenge. The earl of Huntley sent no such challenge, 
as he afterwards purged himself when he heard of it. For 
as it was unreasonable for him to expect the protector should 
have answered it, so it had been an affronting the governor 
of Scotland to have taken it off of his hands, since he was 
the only person that might have challenged the protector 
on equal terms. The truth of the matter was, a gentleman, 
that went along with the trumpeter, made him do it without 
warrant, fancying the answer to it would have taken up 
some time, in which he might have viewed the enemy's camp. 
On the 10th of September the two armies drew out, and 
fought in the field of Pinkey near Musselburgh. The Eng- 
lish had the advantage of the ground. And in the begin- 
ning of the action, a cannon ball from one of the English 
ships killed the Lord Grames' eldest son, and twenty-five 
men more, which put the earl of Argyle's highlanders into 
such a fright, that they could not be held in order. But 
after a charge given by the earl of Angus, in which the 
English lost some few men, the Scots gave ground ; and the 
English observing that, and breaking in furiously upon 



THE REFORMATION. 46 

them, the Scots threw down their arms and fled : the Eng- 
lish pursued hard, and slew them without mercy. There 
were reckoned to be killed about fourteen thousand, and 
one thousand five hundred taken prisoners, among whom 
was the earl of Huntley, and five hundred gentlemen ; and 
all the artillery was taken. Tliis loss quite disheartened 
the Scots, so that, they all retired to Strivling, and left the 
whole country to the protector's mercy ; who, the next day, 
went and took Leith ; and the soldiers in the ships burnt 
some of the sea towns of Fife, and retook some English 
ships that had been taken by the Scots, and burnt the rest. 
They also put a garrison in the isle of St. Columba in the 
Frith, of about two hundred soldiers, and left two ships to 
w^ait on them. He also sent the earl of Warwick's brother. 
Sir Ambrose Dudley, to take Broughty, a castle in the mouth 
of Tay ; in which he put two hundred soldiers. He wasted 
Edinburgh, and uncovered the abbey of Holyrood-house, 
and carried away the lead and the bells belonging to it : 
but he neither took the castle of Edinburgh, nor did he go 
on to Strivling, where the queen with the stragglers of the 
army lay. And it was thought, that, in the consternation 
wherein the late defeat had put them, every place would 
have yielded to him ; but he had some private reasons that 
pressed his return, and made him let go the advantages that 
were now in his hands, and so gave the Scots time to bring 
succours out of France ; whereas he might easily have made 
an end of the war now at once, if he had followed his suc- 
cess vigorously. The earl of Warwick, who had a great 
share in the honour of the victory, but knew that the errors 
in conduct would much diminish the protector's glory, which 
had been otherwise raised to an unmeasurable height, was 
not displeased at it. So on the 18th of September the pro- 
tector drew his army back into England ; and having re- 
ceived a message from the queen and the governor of Scot- 
land offering a treaty, he ordered them to send commissioners 
to Berwick to treat with those he should appoint. As he 
returned through the Merch and Teviotdale, all the chief 
men in those counties came in to him, and took an oath to 
King Edward, the form whereof will be found in the Col- 
lection (No. xi), and delivered into his hands all the places 
of strength in their counties. He left a garrison of two 
hundred in Home Castle, under the command of Sir Edward 
Dudley ; and fortified Roxburgh, where, for encouraging 
the rest, he wrought two hours with his own hands, and put 
three hundred soldiers and two hundred pioneers into it, 
giving Sir Ralph Bulmer the command. At the same time 



46 HISTORY OF 

the earl of Lenox and the Lord Wharton made an inroad by 
the west marches, but with little effect. 

On the 29th of September the protector returned into 
England full of honour, having in all that expedition lost 
not above sixty men, as one that then writ the account of it 
says • the Scotch writers say he lost between two and three 
hundred. He had taken eighty pieces of cannon, and bridled 
the two chief rivers of the kingdom by the garrisons he left 
in them ; and had left many garrisons in the strong places 
on the frontier. And now it may be easily imagined how 
much this raised his reputation in England ; since men 
commonly make auguries of the fortune of their rulers, from 
the successes of the first designs they undertake. So now 
they remembered what he had done formerly in Scotland ; 
and how he had in France, with seven thousand men, raised 
the French army of twenty thousand, that was set down 
before Bulloigne, and had forced them to leave their ord- 
nance, baggage, and tents, with the loss of one man only, 
in the year 1544 ; and that next year he had fallen into 
Picardy, and built Newhaven, with two other forts there : 
so that they all expected great success under his govern- 
ment. And, indeed, if the breach between his brother and 
him, with some other errors, had not lost him the advantages 
he now had, this prosperous action had laid the foundation 
of great fortunes to him. 

He left the earl of Warwick to treat with those that should 
be sent from Scotland ; but none came, for that proposition 
had been made only to gain time. The queen-mother there 
was not ill pleased to see the interest of the governor so 
much impaired by that misfortune, and persuaded the chief 
men of that kingdom to cast themselves wholly into the 
arms of France, and to offer their young queen to the Dau- 
phin, and to think of no treaty with the English : so the 
earl of Warwick returned to London, having no small share 
in the honour of this expedition. He was son to that Dud- 
ley, who was attainted and executed the first year of King 
Henry the Eighth's reign: but whether it was that the king 
afterwards repented of his severity to the father, or that he 
was taken with the qualities of the son, he raised him by 
many degrees to be admiral and Viscount Lisle. He had 
defended Bulloigne, when it was in no good condition, 
against the Dauphin, whose army was believed fifty thousand 
strong ; and when the French had carried the basse-town, 
he recovered it, and killed eight hundred of their men ; the 
year after that, being in command at sea, he offered the French 
fleet battle ; which they declining, he made a descent upon 



THE REFORMATION. 47 

Normandy with five thousand men, and having burnt and 
spoiled a great deal, he returned to his ships with the loss 
only of one man. And he showed he was as fit for a court 
as a camp ; for being sent over to the French court upon 
the peace, he appeared there with much splendour, and 
came off with great honour. He was indeed a man of great 
parts, had not insatiable ambition,with profound dissimula- 
tion, stained his other noble qualities. 

The protector at his return was advised presently to meet 
the parliament (for which the writs had been sent out before 
he went into Scotland), now that he was so covered with 
glory, to get himself established in his authority, and to do 
those other things which required a session. He found the 
visitors had performed their visitation, and all had given 
obedience. And those who expounded the secret provi- 
dences of God with an eye to their own opinions, took great 
notice of this ; that on the same day in which the visitors 
removed, and destroyed most of the images in London, their 
armies were so successful in Scotland, in Pinkey field *. It 
is too common to all men to magnify such events much, 
when they make for them ; but if they are against them, 
they turn it off by this, that God's ways are past finding 
out : so partially do men argue where they are once engaged. 
Bonner and Gardiner had showed some dislike of the in- 
junctions. Bonner received them with a protestation that 
he would observe them, if they were not contrary to God's 
law and the ordinances of the church. Upon which Sir 
Anthony Cook, and the other visitors, complained to the 
council ; so Bonner was sent for, where he offered a submis- 
sion, but full of vain quiddities (so it is expressed in the 
council book). But they not accepting of that, he made 
such a full one as they desired, which is in the Collection 
(No. xii) : yet, for giving terror to others, he was sent to lie 
for some time in the prison called the Fleet. Gardiner see- 
ing the Homilies, was also resolved to protest against them. 
Sir John Godsave, who was one of the visitors, wrote to him 
not to ruin himself, nor lose his bishopric by such an action : 
to whom he wrote a letter, that has more of a Christian and 
of a bishop in it, than any thing I ever saw of his. He ex- 
presses, in handsome terms, a great contempt of the world, 
and a resolution to suflfer any thing rather than depart from 
his conscience : besides that (as he said), the things being 
against law, he would not deliver up the liberties of his 
country, but would petition ap;ainst them : this letter will be 
found in the Collection (No. xiii) ; for I am resolved to sup- 

* Acts and Monuments. 



48 HISTORY OF 

press nothing of consequence, on what side soever it maybe. 
On the 25th of September it being informed to the council, 
that Gardiner had written to some of that board, and had 
spoken to others many things in prejudice and contempt of 
the king's visitation, and that he intended to refuse to set 
forth the homilies and injunctions, he was sent for to the 
council ; where, being examined, he said, he thought they 
were contrary to the word of God, and that his conscience 
would not suffer him to observe them. He excepted to 
one of the homilies, that it did exclude charity from justify- 
ing men, as well as faith ; this he said was contrary to the 
book set out in the late king's time, which was afterwards 
confirmed in parliament in the year 1542 : he said further, 
that he could never see one place of Scripture, nor any an- 
cient doctor that favoured it : he also said, Erasmus's Para- 
phrase was bad enough in Latin, but much worse in English, 
for the translator had oft out of ignorance, and oft out of de- 
sign, misrendered him palpably, and was one that neither 
understood Latin nor English well. He offered to go to Ox- 
ford to dispute about justification with any they should send 
him to, or to enter in conference with any that would under- 
take his instruction in town. But this did not satisfy the 
council ; so they pressed him to declare what he intended to 
do when the visitors should be with him: he said, he did 
not know ; he should further study these points, for it would 
be three weeks before they could be with him ; and he was 
sure he would say no worse, than that he should obey them 
as far as could consist with God's law and the king's. The 
council urged him to promise that he would, without any 
limitation, set foith the homilies and the injunctions ; 
which he refusing to do, was sent to the Fleet. Some days 
after that, Cranmer went to see the Dean of St. Paul's, hav- 
ing the bishops of Lincoln and Rochester, with Dr. Cox and 
some others with him. He sent for Gardiner thither, and 
entered into discourse with him about that passage in the 
homily, excludingcharity out of our justification ; and urged 
those places of St. Paul, " that we are justified by faith 
without the works of the law :" he said his design in that 
passage was only to draw men from trusting in any thing 
they did ; and to teach them to trust only to Christ. But 
Gardiner had a very diflTerent notion of justification : for, as 
he said, infants were justified by baptism, and penitents by 
the sacrament of penance ; and that the conditi ns of the 
justifying of those of age were charity as well as faith, as 
the three estates make a law, all joined together ; for by this 
simile he set it out in the report he writ of that discourse to 
the lord protector, reckoning the king one of the three estates 



THE REFORMATION. 49 

(a way of speech very strange, especially in a bishop, and a 
lawyer). For Erasmus it was said, that though there were 
faults in the paraphrase, as no book besides the Scriptures is 
without faults, yet it was the best for that use they could 
find ; and they did choose rather to set out what so learned 
a man had written, than to make a new one, which m-^ht 
give occasion to more objections ; and he was the most in- 
different writer they knew. Afterwards Cranmer, knowing 
what was likely to work most on him, let fall some words 
(as Gardiner writ to the protector) of bringing him into the 
privy- council, if he would concur in what they were carry- 
ing on : but that not having its ordinary effect on him, he 
was carried back to the Fleet. 

There were also many complaints brought by some clergy- 
men, of such as had used them ill for their obeying the king's 
injunctions, and for removing images. Many were upon 
their submission sent away with a severe rebuke ; others, that 
offended more heinously, were put in the Fleet for some 
time, and afterwards, giving bond for their good behaviour, 
were discharged. But upon the protector's return, the 
bishop of Winchester writ him a long letter in his own vin- 
dication. " He complained of the visitors proceeding in his 
absence in so great a matter. He said the injunctions were 
contrary to themselves, for they appointed the homilies to 
be read, and Erasmus's paraphrase to be put in all churches : 
so he selected many passages out of these, that were con- 
trary to one another. He also gathered many things out of 
Erasmus's Paraphrase that were contrary to the power of 
princes, and several other censurable things in that work, 
which Erasmus wrote when he was young, being of a far 
different strain from what he writ when he grew older, and 
better acquainted with the world. But he concluded his 
letter with a discourse of the extent of the king and council's 
power (Collect. No. xiv), which is all I transcribed of it, 
being very long, and full of things of no great consequence. 
He questions how far the king could command against com- 
mon or statute laws ; of which himself had many occasions 
to be well informed. Cardinal \\ olsey had obtained his 
legantine power at the king's desire ; but notwithstanding 
that, he was brought into a praimtnire ; and the lawyers, 
upon that argument, cited many precedents of judges that 
were fined when they transgressed the laws, though com- 
manded by warrants from the king : and Earl Typteft, who 
was chancellor, lost his head for acting upon the king's 
warrant against law. In the late king's time, the judges 
would not set fines on the breakers of the king's proclama- 
tions, when they were contrary to law, till the act concern- 

VoL. 11. Part I. F 



50 HISTORY OF 

ing them was passed, about which there were many hot words 
whcQ it was debated. He mentions a discourse that passed 
between him and the Lord Audley in the parliament, con- 
cerning the king's supremacy. Audley bid him look at the 
act of supremacy, and he would see the king's doings 
were restrained to spiritual jurisdiction : and by another act 
no spiritual law could take place against the common law, 
or an act of parliament : otherwise the bishops would strike 
in with the king, and, by means of the supremacy, would 
order the law as they pleased : but we will provide, said he, 
that the prosmunire shall never go off of your backs. In some 
late cases he heard the judc^es declare what the king might do 
against an act of parliament, and what danger they were in, 
that meddled in such matters. These things being so fresh 
in his memory, he thought he might write what he did to the 
lords of the council." But by this it appears, that no sort 
of men is so much for the king's prerogative, but, when it 
becomes in any instance uneasy to them, they will shelter 
themselves under the law. He continued afterwards, by 
many letters to the protector, to complain of his ill usage : 
*' That he had been then seven weeks in the Fleet vsathout 
servants, a chaplain, or a physician : that, though he had his 
writ of summons, he was not suffered to come to the parlia- 
ment, which might be a ground afterwards of questioning 
their proceedings. He advised the protector not to make 
himself a party in these matters, and used all the insinua- 
tions of decent flattery that he could invent, with many sharp 
reflections on Cranmer, and stood much on the force of 
laws, that they could not be repealed by the king's will. 
Concerning which, he mentions a passage that fell out be- 
tween Cromwell and himself before the late king. Crom- 
well said, that the king might make or repeal laws as the 
Roman emperors did, and asked his opinion about it, whe- 
ther the king's will was not a law 1 To which he answered 
facetiously, that he thought it was much better for the king 
to make the law his will, than to make his will a law." But 
notwithstanding all his letters (which are printed in the 
second volume of Acts andMonum. edit. 1641), yet he con- 
tinued a prisoner till the parliament was over, and then, by 
the act of pardon, he was set at liberty. This was much cen- 
sured as an invasion of liberty ; and it was said, those at 
court durst not suffer him to come to the house, lest he had 
confounded them in all they did : and the explaining justifi- 
cation with so much nicety, in homilies that were to be read 
to the people, was thought a needless subtlety. But the 
former abuses, of trusting to the acts of charity that men 
did, by which they fancied they bought heaven, made 



THE REFORMATION. 61 

Cranmer judge it necessary to express the matter so nicely ; 
though the expounding those places of St. Paul was, as 
many thought, rather according to the strain of the Ger- 
mans, tlian to the meaning of those Epistles. And, upon 
the whole matter, they knew Gardiner's haughty temper, 
and that it was necessary to mortify him a little, though the 
pretence on which they did it seemed too slight for such 
severities. But it is ordinary, when a thng is once re- 
solved on, to make use of the first occasion that offers for 
effecting it. The party that opposed the Reformation, find- 
ing these attempts so unsuccessful, engaged the Lady 
Mary to appear for them : she, therefore, wrote to the pro- 
tector, that she thought all changes in religion, till the king 
came to be of age, were very much contrary to the respect 
they owed the memory of her father, if they went about to 
shake what he had settled ; and against their duty to their 
young master, to hazard the peace of his kingdom, and en- 
gage his authority in such points before he was capable of 
judging them. 1 gather this to have been the substance of 
her letter, from the answer which the protector wrote, which 
is in the Collection (No. xv). In it he wrote, " That he be- 
lieved her letter flowed not immediately from herself, but 
from the instigation of some malicious persons. He protests 
they had no other design, but the glory of God, and the 
honour and safety of the king ; and that what they had 
done was so well considered, that all good subjects ought 
rather to rejoice at it, than find fault with it. And whereas 
she had said, that her father had brought religion to a godly 
order and quietness, to which both spirituality and tempo- 
rality did, without compulsion, give their assent ; he remem- 
bers her what opposition the stiff-necked papists gave him, 
and what rebellions they raised against him, which he won- 
ders how she came so soon to forget ; adding, that death had 
prevented him before he had finished those godly orders 
which he had designed ; and that no kind of religion was 
perfected at his death, but all was left so uncertain, that it 
must inevitably bring on great disorders, if God did not help 
them ; and that himself and many others could witness 
what regret their late master had, when he saw he must die 
before he had finished what he intended. He wondered that 
she, who had been well bred, and v;as learned, should 
esteem true religion, and the knowledge of the Scriptures, 
newfangledness or phantasy. He desired she would turn 
the leaf, and look on the other side, and would, with an 
humble spirit, and by the assistance of the grace of God, 
consider the matter better." 
Thus things went on till the parliament met, which was 



52 HISTORY OF 

summoned to meet the 4th of November. The day before it 
met, the protector gave too public an instance how much 
his prosperous success had lifted him up. For, by a patent 
under the great seal*, he was warranted to sit in parliament 
on the right hand of the throne, and was to have all the 
honours and privileges that, at any time, any of the uncles 
of the kings of England, whether by the father's or mother's 
side, had enjoyed ; with a non obstante to the statute of pre- 
cedence. The Lord Rich had been made lord chancellor on 
the •24th of Octobert. On the 10th of November, a bill was 
brought in for the repealing several statutes. It was read 
the second time on the 12th, and the third time on the 16th 
day. On the 19lh, some provisoes were added to it, and it 
was sent down to the commons, who sent it up the 24th of 
December, to which the royal assent was given. The com- 
mons had formed a new bill for repealing these statutes, 
which, upon some conferences, they were willing to let fall ; 
only some provisoes were added to the old one ; upon which 
the bishops of London, Duresme, Ely, Hereford, and Chi- 
chester, dissented. The preamble of it sets forth, "That 
nothing made a government happier, than when the prince 
governed with much clemency, and the subjects obeyed out 
of love. Yet the late king, and some of his progenitors, 
being provoked by the unruliness of some of their people, 
had made severe laws ; but they, judging it necessary now 
to recommend the king's government to the affections of the 
people, repealed all laws that made anything to be treason, 
but what was in the act of 25 Edward the Third ; as also 
two of the statutes about Lollardies, together with the act of 
the six articles, and the other acts that followed in explana- 
tion of that. All acts in Kin^ Henry the Eighth's time, declar- 
ing any thing to be felony that was not so declared before, 
were also repealed, together with the acts that made the 
king's proclamations of equal authority with acts of parlia- 
ment. It was also enacted, that all who denied the king's 
supremacy, or asserted the pope's, in words, should, for the 
first offence, forfeit their goods and chattels, and suffer impri- 
sonment during pleasure ; for the second offence should in- 
cur the pain of prcrmunire ; and for the third offence, be at- 
tainted of treason. But, if any did in writing, printing, or 
by any overt act or deed, endeavour to deprive the king of 
his estate, or titles, particularly of his supremacy ; or to con- 
fer them on any other, after the 1st of March next, he was 

• Rot. Pat. 1. Reg. 7. Part. 
■ t " Rich Miles Domiims Rich constitutus Cancellarius Angliffi 
30 Nov. Pat. 1 Edw. VI, P. 3. M. 14." Vugdal, Orig. Jurid, 



THE REFORMATION. 63 

to be adjudged guflty of high treason : and if any of the heirs 
of the crown should usurp upon another, or did endeavour to 
break the succession of the crown, it was declared high trea- 
son ia them, their aiders and abettors ; and all were to enjoy 
the benefit of clergy, and the privilegesof sanctuary, as they 
had it before King Henry the Eighth's reign, excepting only 
such as were guilty of murder, poisoning, burglary, robbing 
on the highway, the stealing of cattle, or stealing out of 
churches or chapels. Poisoners were to suffer as other mur- 
derers. None w ere to be accused of words, but within a 
month after they were spoken. And those who called the 
French king by the title of King of France, were not to be 
esteemed guilty of the pains of translating the king's autho- 
rity or titles on any other." This act was occasioned by a 
speech that Archbishop Cranmer had in convocation*, in 
which he exhorted the clergy to give themselves much to 
the study of the Scripture, and to consider seriously what 
things were in the church that needed reformation, that so 
they might throw out all the popish trash that was not yet 
cast out. Upon this, some intimated to him, that, as long as 
the six articles stood in force, it was not safe for them to de- 
liver their opinions. This he reported to the council,* upon 
which they ordered this act of repeal. By it, the subjects 
were delivered from many fears they were under, and had 
good hopes of a mild government ; when, instead of procur- 
ing new severe laws, the old ones were let fall. The council 
did also free the nation of the jealousies they might have of 
them by such an abridgment of their own power ; but others 
judged it had been more for the interest of the government to 
have kept up these laws still in force, but to have restrained 
the execution of them. This repeal drew on another, which 
was sent from the commons on the 20th of December, and 
was agreed to by the lords on the 21st. It was of an act in 
the twenty-eighth year of the last king, by which all laws 
made while his son was under twenty-four years of age, 
might be, by his letters-patents, after he attained that age, 
annulled, as if they had never been: which they altered 
thus — that the king, after that age, might, by his letters- 
patents, void any act of parliament for the future ; but could 
not so void it from the beginning as to annul all things done 
upon it between the making and annulling of it, which were 
still to be lawful deeds. 

The next bill of a public nature was concerning the sacra- 
ment, which was brought in, and read the first time, on the 

* In Cor. Ch. Coll. Canib. among Parker's papers. 

F3 



54 HISTORY OF 

12th of November ; the second time on ^he 15th, and was 
twice read on the 17th. And on the 24lh a bill was brought 
in for the communion to be received in both kinds ; on the 
3d of December it was read the second time, and given to the 
protector ; on the 5th read again, and given to two judges ; 
on the 7th it was read again, and joined to the other bill 
about the sacrament : and on the 10th the whole bill was 
agreed to by all the peers, except the bishops of London, 
Hereford, Norwich, Worcester, and Chichester, and sent 
down to the commons. On the 17th, a proviso was sent 
after it, but was rejected by the commons, since the lords 
had not agreed to it. On the 20th it was sent up agreed to, 
and had afterwards the royal assent. " By it, first, the value 
of the holy sacrament, commonly called the sacrament of 
the altar, and in the Scripture the supper and table of the 
Lord, was set forth, together with its first institution ; but it 
having been of late marvellously abused, some had been 
thereby brought to a contempt of it, which they had ex- 
pressed in sermons, discourses, and songs (in words not fit 
to be repeated) ; therefore, whosoever should so oflfend after 
the Jst of May next, was to suflfer fine and imprisonment at 
the king's pleasure ; and the justices of the peace were to 
take information, and make presentments of persons so of- 
fending, within three months after the oflfences so committed, 
allowing them witnesses for their own purgation. And it 
being more agreeable to Christ's first institution, and the 
practice of the church for five hundred years after Christ, 
that the sacrament should be given in both the kinds of 
bread and wine, rather than in one kind only ; therefore it 
was enacted, that it should be commonly given in both kinds, 
except necessity did otherwise require it. And it being also 
more agreeable to the first institution and the primitive 
practice, that the people should receive with the priest, than 
that the priest should receive it alone ; therefore, the day 
before every sacrament, an exhortation was to be made to 
the people, to prepare themselves for it, in which the bene- 
fits and danger of worthy and unworthy receiving were to be 
expressed ; and the priests were not without a lawful cause 
to deny it to any who humbly asked it." 

This was an act of great consequence, since it reformed 
two abuses that had ciept into the church. The one was, 
the denying the cup to the laity ; the other was, the priest's 
communicating alone. In the first institution it is plain, 
that, as Christ bade all drink of the cup, and his disciples 
all drank of it, so St. Paul directed every one to examine 
himself, that he might " eat of that bread, and drink of that 



THE REFORMATION. 55 

cup." From thence the church, for many ages, continued 
this practice ; and the superstition of some, who received only 
in one kind, was severely censured ; and such were appointed 
either to receive the whole sacrament, or to abstain wholly. 
It continued thus till the belief of the corporal presence of 
Christ was set up ; and then the keeping and carrying 
about the cup in processions not being so easily done, some 
began to lay it aside. For a great while the bread was given 
dipped in the cup, to represent a bleeding Christ, as it is in 
the Greek church to this day. In other places the laity had 
the cup given them, but they were to suck it through pipes, 
that nothing of it should fall to the ground. But since they 
believed that Christ was in every crumb of bread, it was 
thought needless to give the sacrament in both kinds ; so in 
the council of Constance, the cup was ordered to be denied 
the laity, though they acknowledged it to have been insti- 
tuted and practised otherwise. To this the Bohemians 
would never submit ; though to compel them to it much 
blood was shed in this quarrel. And now in the Reforma- 
tion, this was everywhere one of the first things with which 
the people were possessed, the opposition of the Roman 
church herein to the institution of Christ being so mani- 
fest. 

At first this sacrament was also understood to be a com- 
munion of the body and blood of Christ, of which many 
were to be partakers : while the fervour of devotion lasted, 
it was thought a scandalous and censurable thing if any had 
come unto the Christian assemblies, and had not stayed to 
receive these holy mysteries ; and the denying to give any 
one the sacrament was accounted a very great punishment ; 
so sensible were the Christians of their ill condition when 
they were hindered to participate of it. But afterwards, 
the former devotion slackening, the good bishops in the 
fourth and fifth centuries complained often of it, that so few 
came to receive ; yet the custom being to make oblations be- 
fore the sacrament, out of which the clergy had been main- 
tained during the poverty of the church, the priests had 
a great mind to keep up the constant use of these obla- 
tions, and so persuaded the laity to continue them, and to 
come to the sacrament, though they did not receive it : and, 
in process of time, they were made to believe, that the 
priest received in behalf of the whole people. And whereas 
this sacrament was the commemoration of Christ's sacrifice 
on the cross, and so, by a phrase of speech, was called a 
sacrifice, they came afterwards to fancy, that the priest's 
consecrating and consuming the sacrament was an action of 



56 HISTORY OF 

itself expiatory, and that both for the dead and the living-. 
And there rose an infinite number of several sorts of masses ; 
some were for commemorating the saints, and those were 
called the masses of such saints; others for a particular 
blessing, for rain, health, &c., and indeed for all the acci- 
dents of human life, where the addition or variation of a col- 
lect made the difference: so that all that trade of massing 
was now removed. An intimation was also made of exhort- 
ations to be read in it, which they intended next to set 
about. These abuses in the mass gave great advantages to 
those who intended to change it into a communion. But 
many, instead of managing them prudently, made unseemly 
jests about them, and were carried by a lightness of temper 
to make songs aud plays of the mass ; for now the press 
went quick, and many books were printed this year about 
matters of religion ; the greatest number of them being con- 
cerning the mass, which were not wiitten in so decent and 
grave a style as the matter required. Against this act only 
live bishops protested. Many of that order were absent 
from the parliament, so the opposition made to it was not 
considerable. 

The next bill brought into the house of lords was concern- 
ing the admission of bishops to their sees by the king's let- 
ters-patents ; which, being read, was committed to the arch- 
bishop of Canterbury's care on the 5th of November, and 
was read the second time on the 10th, and committed to 
some of the judges ; and was read the third time on the 28th 
of November, and sent down to the commons on the 5th of 
December. There was also another bill brought in, con- 
cerning the ecclesiastical jurisdiction in the bishops' courts, 
on the 17th of November, and passed, and sent down on the 
13th of December. But both these bills were put in one, 
and sent up by the commons on the 20th of that month, and 
assented to by the king. By this act it was set forth, " that 
the way of choosing bishops, by congt d'tlire, was tedious 
and expenseful ; that there was only a shadow of election in 
it ; and that therefore bishops should thereafter be made by 
the king's letters-patents, upon which they were to be con- 
secrated : and whereas the bishops did exercise their autho- 
rity, and carry on processes in their own names, as they were 
wont to do in the time of popery ; and since all juris- 
diction, both spiritual and temporal, was derived from 
the king, that therefore their courts and all processes should 
be from henceforth carried on in the king's name, and be 
sealed by the king's seal, as it was in the other courts of 
common law, after the 1st of July next ; excepting only the 



THE REFORMATION. 67 

archbishop of Canterbury's* courts, and all collations, 
presentations, or letters of orders, which were to pass under 
the bishops' proper seals as formerly." Upon this act great 
advantages were taken to disparage the Reformation, as sub- 
jecting the bishops wholly to the pleasure of the court. 

At first, bishops were chosen and ordained by the 
other bishops in the countries where they lived. The apos- 
tles, by that spirit of discerning, which was one of the ex- 
traordinary gifts they were endued with, did ordain the first 
fruits of their labours ; and never left the election of pas- 
tors to the discretion of the people : indeed, when they were 
to ordain deacons, who were to be trusted with the distri- 
bution of the public alms, they appointed such as the peo- 
ple made choice of; but when St. Paul gave directions to 
Timothy and Titus, about the choice of pastors, all that de- 
pended on the people by them was, that they should be 
"blameless and of good report:" but afterwards, the 
poverty of the church being such, that churchmen lived 
only by the free bounty of the people, it was necessary to 
consider them much ; so that, in many places, the choice 
began among the people ; and, in all places, it was done by 
their approbation and good liking. But great disorders 
followed upon this, as soon as, by the emperors turning 
Christians, the wealth of church benefices made the pastoral 
charge more desirable ; and the vast numbers of those who 
turned Christians with the tide brought in great multitudes 
to have their votes in these elections. The inconvenience 
of this was felt early in Phrygia, where the council of 
Laodicea made a canon against these popular elections : 
yet, in other parts of Asia, and at Rome, there were great 
and often contests about it. In some of these many men 
were killed. In many places the inferior clergy chose their 
bishops ; but in most places the bishops of the province 
made the choice, yet so as to obtain the consent of the clergy 
and people. The emperors, by their laws, made it neces- 
sary that it should be confirmed by the metropolitans : 
they reserved the elections of the great sees to themselves, 
or at least the confirmation of them. Thus it continued 
till Charles the Great's time , but then the nature of church 
employments came to be much altered : for though the 
church had predial lands, with the other rights that be- 
longed to them, by the Roman law, yet he first gave bishops 
and abbots great territories, with seme branches of royal 
jurisdiction in them, who held these lands of him, according 

• The archbishop might only use Wb own name and seal for faculties 
aod dispensations, being, in all other cases, as much restrained as other 
bishops. 



58 HISTORY OF 

to the feudal laws. This, as it carried churchmen off from 
the humility and abstraction from the world, which became 
their function, so it subjected them much to the humours and 
interests of those princes on whom they had their depend- 
ence. The popes, who had made themselves heads of the 
hierarchy, could not but be glad to see churchmen grow rich 
and powerful in the world ; but they were not so well 
pleased to see them made so much the more dependent on 
their princes ; and, no doubt, by some of those princes that 
were thus become patrons of churches, the bishoprics were 
either given for money, or charged with reserved pensions. 
Upon this, the popes filled the world with the complaints of 
simony, and of enslaving churchmen to court interests ; and 
so would not suffer them to accept of investitures from their 
princes, but set up for free elections, as they called them, 
which, they said, were to be confirmed by the see apostolic. 
So the canons, secular or regular, in cathedral churches, 
were to choose the bishops, and their election was to be con- 
firmed at Rome : yet princes, in most places, got some hold 
of those elections, so that still they went as they had a mind 
they should ; which was often complained of as a great 
slavery on the church, and would have been more univer- 
sally condemned, if the world had not been convinced that 
the matter would not be much the better, if there should 
have been set up either the popular or synodical elections, in 
which faction was like to sway all. King Henry had conti- 
nued the old way of the elections by the clergy, but so 
as that it seemed to be little more than a mockery ; but now 
it was thought a more ingenuous way of proceeding to have 
the thing done directly by the king, rather than under the 
thin covert of an involuntary election. 

For the other branch, about ecclesiastical courts, the 
causes before them, concerning wills and marriages, being 
matters of a mixed nature, and which only belong to these 
by the laws of the land, and being no parts of the sacred 
functions, it was thought no invasion of the sacred offices to 
have these tried in the king's name. J3ut the collation of 
benefices, and giving of orders, which are the chief parts of 
the episcopal function, were to be performed still by the 
bishops in their own names. Only excommunication, by a 
fatal neglect, continued to be the punishment for contempts 
of these courts ; which, belonging only to the spiritual cog- 
nizance, ought to have been reserved for the bishop, with 
the assistance of his clergy : but the canonists had so con- 
founded all the ancient rules about the government of the 
church, that the reformers being called away by considera- 
tions that were more obvious and pressing, there was not 
that care taken in this that the thing required. And these 



THE REFORMATION. 59 

errors or oversights in the first concoction have, by a con- 
tinuance, grown since into so formed a strength, that it 
is easier to see what is amiss, than to know how to rec- 
tify it. 

. On the 29th of November the bill against vagabonds was 
brought in : by this it was enacted, " That all that should 
anywhere loiter without work, or without offering themselves 
to work, three days together, or that should run avvay from 
work, and resolve to live idly, should be seized on ; and 
whosoever should present them to a justice of peace, was to 
have them adjudged to be his slaves for two yeais; and 
they were to be marked with the letter V, imprinted with a 
hot iron on their breast." A great many provisoes follow 
concerning clerks so convict, which show that this act was 
chiefly levelled at the idle monks and friars, who went about 
the country, and would betake themselves to no employ- 
ment ; but finding the people apt to have compassion on 
them, they continued in that course of life ; which was of 
very ill consequence to the stale. For these vagrants did 
everywhere alienate the people's minds from the govern- 
ment, and persuaded them that things would never be well 
settled, till they were again restored to their houses. Some 
of these came often to London, on pretence of suing for their 
pensions ; but really to practise up and down through the 
country : to prevent this, there was a proclamation set out 
on the 18th of September, requiring them to stay in the 
places where they lived, and to send up a certificate where 
they were to the court of augmentations i who should 
thereupon give order for their constant payment. Some 
thought this law against vagabonds was too severe, and 
contrary to that common liberty, of which the English 
nation has been always very sensible, both in their own and 
their neighbours' particulars. Yet it could not be denied 
but extreme diseases required extreme remedies ; and per- 
haps there is no punishment too severe for persons that are 
in health, and yet prefer a loitering course of life to an 
honest employment. There followed in the act many ex- 
cellent rules for providing for the truly poor and indigent in 
the several places where they were born, and had their 
abode. Of which this can only be said, that as no nation 
has laid down more effectual rules for the supplying the 
poor than England, so that indeed none can be in absolute 
want ; so the neglect of these laws is a just and great re- 
proach on those, who are charged with the execution of 
them, when such numbers of poor vagabonds swarm every- 
where, without the due restraints that the laws have ap- 
pointed. 



60 HISTORY Of 

On the 6th of December the bill for giving the chantries 
to the king was brought into the house of lords : it was read 
the second time on the 12th, the third time on the 13th, and 
the fourth lime on the 14th of that month. It was much 
opposed, both by Cranmer on the one hand, and the popish 
bishops on the other. The late king's executors saw they 
could not pay his debts, cor satisfy themselves in their own 
pretensions, formerly mentioned, out of the king's revenue, 
and so intended to have these to be divided among ;hem. 
Cranmer opposed it long : for the cleigy being much im- 
poverished by the sale of the impropriated tithes, that ought 
in all reason to have returned into the church, but, upon the 
dissolution of the abbeys, were all sold among the laity; he 
saw no probable way remaining for their supply, but to save 
these endowments till the king were of age, being confident 
he was so piously disposed, that they should easily persuade 
him to convert them all to the bettering of the condition of 
the poor clergy, that were now brought into extreme misery : 
and therefore he was for reforming and preserving these 
foundations till the king's full age. The popish bishops 
liked these endowments so well, that, upon far different 
motives, they were for continuing them in the state they 
were in. But those who were to gain by it were so many 
that the act passed ; the archbishop of Canterbury, the 
bishops of London, J)uresme, Ely, Norwich, Hereford, 
Worcester, and Chichester dissenting. So it being sent 
down to the house of commons, was there much opposed by 
some burgesses; who represented that the boroughs, for 
which they served, could not maintain their churches, and 
other public works of the guilds and fraternities, if the rents 
belonging to them were given to the king ; for these were 
likewise in the act. This was chiefly done by the burgesses 
of Lynn and Coventry ; who were so active, that the whole 
house was muchset against that part of the bill for the guild 
lands : therefore those who managed that house for the 
court, took these off by an assurance, that their guild lands 
should be restored to them : and so they desisted from their 
opposition, and the bill passed on the promise given to 
them, which was afterwards made good by the protector. 
In the preamble of the act it is set forth, " That the great 
superstition of Christians, rising out of their ignorance of the 
true way of salvation by the death of Christ, instead of 
which they had set up the vain conceits of purgatory, and 
masses satisfactory, was much supported by trentals and 
chantries. And since the coriverting these to godly uses, 
such as the endowing of schools, provisions for the poor, and 
the augmenting of places in the universities, could not be 



THE REFORMATION. 61 

done by parliament, they therefore committed it to the care 

of the king : and then, reciting the act made in the thirty- 
seventh year of his father's reign, they give the king all such 
chantries, colleges, and chapels, as were not possessed by 
the late king, and all that had been in being any time these 
five years last past ; as also all revenues belonging to any 
church, for anniversaries, obits, and lights; together virith 
all i^uild lands, which any fraternity of men enjoyed, for 
obits, or the like ; and appoint these to be converted to the 
maintenance of grammar schools, or preachers, and for the 
increase of vicarages" After this followed the act giving 
the king the customs known by the name of tonnage and 
poundage, besides Some other laws, of matters that are not 
needful to be remembered in this history. Last of all came 
the king's general pardon, with the common exceptions, 
among which one was of those who were then prisoners in 
the Tower of London, in which the duke of Norfolk was in- 
cluded. So, all business being ended, the parliament was 
prorogued from the 24th of December to the 20th of April 
following. 

But, having given this account of these bills that were 
passed, I shall not esteem it an unfruitful piece of history to 
show what other bills were designed. There were put into 
the house of lords two bills that were stifled ; the one was, 
for the use of the Scriptures, which came not to a second 
reading ; the other was, a bill for erecting a new court of 
chancery for ecclesiastical and civil causes, which was com- 
mitted to some bishops and temporal lords, but never more 
mentioned. The commons sent up also some bills, which 
the lords did not agree to : one was about benefices, with 
cure and residence ; it was committed, but never reported. 
Another was, for the reformation of divers laws, and of the 
courts of common law ; and a third was, that married men 
niight be priests, and have benefices : to this the commons 
did so readily agree, that it being put in on the 19th of De- 
cember, and read then for the first time, it was read twice the 
next day, and sent up to the lords on the 21st : but, being 
read there once, it was like to have raised such debates, 
that, it being resolved to end the session before Christmas, 
the lords laid it aside. 

But while the parliament was sitting, they were not idle 
in the convocation ; though the popish party was yet so 
prevalent in both houses, that Cranmer had no hopes of 
doing any thing, till they were freed of the trouble which 
some of the great bishops gave them. The most im-. 
portant thing they did was the carrying up four petitions 
to the bishops, which will be found in the Collection 
Vol. II, Part I. G 



62 HISTORY OF 

(No. xvi) : — First, that, according to the statute made in 
the reign of the late king, there might be persons empowered 
for reforming the ecclesiastical laws. The- second, that, ac- 
cording to the ancient custom of the nation, and the tenor 
of the bishops' writ to the parliament, the interior clergy 
might be admitted again to sit in the house of commons, or 
that no acts concerning matters of religion might pass with- 
out the sight and assent of the clergy. The third, that, 
since divers prelates, and other divines, had been in the late 
king's time appointed to alter the service of the church, and 
had made some progress in it, that this might be brought to 
its full perfection. The fourth, that some consideration 
might be had for the maintenance of the clergy, the first 
year they came into their livings, in which they were 
charged with the first fruits ; to which they added, a desire 
to know whether they might safely speak their minds about 
religion, without the danger of any law. For the first of 
these four petitions, an account of it shall be given here- 
after. As to the second, it was a thing of great con- 
sequence, and deserves to be farther considered in this 
place. 

Anciently, all the freemen of England, or at least those 
that held of the crown in chief, came to parliament ; and 
then the inferior clergy had writs as well as the superior, 
and the first of the three estates of the kingdom were the 
bishops, the other prelates, and the inferior clergy. But 
when the parliament was divided into two houses, then the 
clergy made likewise a body of their own, and sat in con- 
vocation, which was the third estate : but the bishops hav- 
ing a double capacity, the one of ecclesiastical prelature, the 
other of being the king's barons, they had a right to sit with 
the lords as a part of their estate, as well as in the convoca- 
tion. And though by parity of reason it might seem that 
the rest of the clergy, being freeholders as well as clerks, 
had an equal right to choose, or be chosen, into the house of 
commons ; yet, whether they were ever in possession of it, 
or whether, according to the clause priKinonentes in the 
bishops' writ, they were ever a part of the house of com- 
mons, is a just doubt ; for, besides this assertion in the peti- 
tion that was mentioned, and a more large one in the second 
petition which they presented to the same purpose, which is 
likewise in the Collection (No. xvii), I have never met with 
any good reason to satisfy me in it. There was a general 
tradition in Queen Elizabeth's reign, that the inferior 
clergy departed from their right of being in the house of 
commons, when they were all brought into the pra:munv-e 
upon Cardinal Wolsey's legantine power, and made their 



THE REFORMATION. 63 

submission to the king : but that is not credible ; for as 
there is no footstep of it, which in a time of so much writing 
and printing must have remained, if so great a change had 
been then made ; so it cannot be thought, that those who 
made this address but seventeen years alter that submission 
(many being alive in this who were of that convocation, 
Polydore Virgil in particular, a curious observer, since 
he was maintained here to write the History of England), 
none of them should have remembered a thing that was so 
fresh, but have appealed to writs and ancient practices. 
But though this design of bringing the inferior clergy into 
the house of commons did not take at this time, yet it was 
again set on foot in the end of Queen Elizal^eth's reign, and 
reasons were offered to persuade her to set it forward ; which 
not being then successful, the same reasons were again 
offered to King James, to induce him to endeavour it. The 
paper that discovers this was communicated to me by Dr. 
Borlase, the worthy author of the History of the Irish 
Rebellion : it is corrected in many places by the hand of 
Bishop Eavis, then bishop of London, a man of great worth. 
This, for the affinity of the matter, and the curiosity of the 
thing, I have put into the Collection (No. xviii), with a 
large marginal note, as it was designed to be transcribed for 
King James : but whether tliis matte/ was ever much con- 
sidered, or lightly laid aside, as a thing unfit and impracti- 
cable, does not appear ; certain it is, that it came to nothing. 
Upon the whole matter, it is not certain what was the 
power or right of these proctors of the clergy in former 
times : some are of opinion *, that they were only assistants 
to the bishops, but had no voice in either house of parlia- 
ment ; this is much confirmed by an act passed in the par- 
liament of Ireland in the twenty-eighth year of the former 
reign, which sets forth in the preamble, " That though the 
proctors of the clergy were always summoned to parliament, 
yet they were no part of it ; nor had they any right to vote 
in it, but were only assistants in case matters of controversy 
or learning came before them, as the convocation was in 
England, which had been determined by the judges of 
England after much incjuiry made about it: but the proc- 
tors were then pretending to so high an authority, that no- 
thing could pass without their consents ; and it was pre- 
sumed they were set on to it by the bishops, whose chap- 
lains they were for the most part : therefore they were by 
that act declared to have no right to vote." 
From this some infer, they were no other in England, and 

• Coke, 4 Inst. 3, 4. 



64 HISTORY OF 

that they were only the bishops' assistants and council : 
but as the clause prcemonentes in the writ seems to make 
them a part of the parliament, so these petitions suppose 
that they sat in the house of commons anciently, where it 
cannot be imagined they could sit, if they came only to be 
assistants to the bishops; for then they must have sat in 
the house or" lords rather, as the judges, the masters of 
chancery, and the king's council do. Nor is it reasonable 
to think they had no voice, for then their sitting in parlia- 
ment had been so insignificant a thing, that it is not likely 
they would have used such endeavoars to be restored to it ; 
since their coming to parliament upon such an account must 
have been only a charge to them. 

There is against this opinion an objection of great force, 
from the acts passed in the twenty-first year of Kichard the 
Second's reign. In the second act of that parliament it is 
said, " That it was first prayed by the commons, and that 
the lords spiritual, and the proctors of the clergy- did 
assent to it ; upon which the king, by the assent of all the 
lords and commons, did enact it." The twelfth act of that 
parliament was a repeal of the whole parliament that was 
held in the eleventh year of that reign ; and concerning it, 
it is expressed, " That the lords spiritual and temporal, the 
proctors of the clergy, and the commons, being severally 
examined, did all agree to it." From hence it appears, that 
these proctors were then not only a part of the parliament, 
but were a distinct body of men, that did severally, from all 
the rest, deliver their opinions. It may seem strange, that, 
if they were then considered as a part of either house of 
parliament, this should be the only time in which they 
should be mentioned as bearing their share in the legislative 
power. In a matter that is so perplexed and dark, I shall 
presume to oflfer a conjecture, which will not appear perhaps 
improbable. In the 171st page of the former Part, I gave 
the reasons that made me think the lower house of convo- 
cation consisted at first only of the proctors of the clergy ; 
so that, by the proctors of the clergy, both in the statute of 
Ireland, and in those made by Richard II, is, perhaps, to 
be understood, the lower house of convocation; audit is 
not unreasonable to think, that upon so great an occasion 
as the annulling a whole parliament, to make it pass the 
better, in an age in which the people paid so blind a sub- 
mission to the clergy, the concurrence of the whole repre- 
sentative of the church might have been thought necessary. 
It is generally believed, that the whole parliament sat 
together in one house before Edward the Third's time, and 
then the inferior clergy were a part of that body without 



THE REFORMATION. 65 

question. But when the lords and commons sat apart, the 
clergy likewise sat in two houses, and granted subsidies as 
well as the temporality. It may pass for no unlikely con- 
jecture, that the clause pra:monentes was first put in the 
bishops' writ for the summoning of the lower house of con- 
vocation, consisting of these proctors ; and afterwards, though 
there was a special writ for the convocation, yet this might 
at first have been continued in the bishops' writ by the 
neglect of a clerk, and from thence be still used ; so that it 
seems to me most probable, that the proctors of the clergy 
were, both in England and Ireland, the lower house of con- 
vocation. Now before the submission which the clergy made 
to King Henry, as the convocation gave the king great sub- 
sidies, so the whole business of religion lay within their 
sphere. But after the submission, they were cut off from 
meddling with it, except as they were authorized by the 
king ; so that, having now so little power left them, it is no 
wonder they desired to be put in the state they had been in 
before the convocation was separated from the parliament ; 
or at least that matters of religion should not be determined 
till they had been consulted, and had reported their opinions 
and reasons. The extreme of raising the ecclesiastical power 
too high in the times of popery, had now produced another, 
of depressing it too much. For seldom is the counterpoise 
so justly balanced, that extremes are reduced to a well- 
tempered mediocrity. 

For the third petition, it was resolved that many bishops 
and divines should be sent to Windsor to labour in the matter 
of the church service ; but that required so much considera- 
tion, that they could not enter on it during a session of parlia- 
ment. And for the fourth, what answer was given to it doth 
not appear. 

On the 29th of November a declaration was sent down 
from the bishops concerning the sacraments being to be re- 
ceived in both kinds ; to which Jo. Taylour, the prolocutor, 
and several others, set their hands ; and being again brought 
before them, it was agreed to by all without a contradictory 
vote ; sixty-four being present, among whoni I find Polydore 
Virgil was one. And on the 17th of Deceinber the propo- 
sition concerning the marriage of the clergy was also sent 
to them, and subscribed by thirty-five aflfirmatively, and by 
fourteen negatively; so it was ordered, that a bill should be 
drawn concerning it. I shall not here digress to give an 
account of what was alleged for or against this, reserving 
that to its proper place, when the thing was finally settled. 

And this is all the account I could recover of this convo- 
cation ; I have chiefly gathered it from some notes, and other 

G 3 



66 HISTORY OF 

papers, of the then Dr. Parker (afteiwards archbishop of 
Canterbury), which are carefully preserved with his other 
MSS, in Corpus Christi College library, at Cambridge. I'o 
which library I had free access by the favour of the most 
learned master, Dr. Spencer, with the other worthy fellows 
of that house : and from thence I collected many remarkable 
things in this History. 

The parliament being brought to so good a conclusion, the 
protector took out a new commission, in which all the ad- 
dition that is made to that authority he formerly had is, 
that in his absence he is empowered to substitute another, to 
whom he might delegate his power. 

And thus this year ended in England : but as they were 
carrying on the Reformation here, it was declining apace in 
Germany. The duke of Saxe and the landgrave were this 
year to command their armies apart. The duke of Saxe kept 
within his own country, but having there unfortunately di- 
vided his forces, the emperor overtook him near the Alb at 
Muiberg; where the emperor's soldiers crossing the river, 
and pursuing him with great fury, after some resistance, in 
which he himself performed all that could be expected from 
so great a captain, was taken prisoner (April 24), and his 
country all possessed by Maurice, who was now to be in- 
vested with the electoral dignity. He bore his misfortunes 
with a greatness and equality of mind that is scarce to be 
paralleled in history. Neither could the insolence with 
which the emperor treated him, nor the fears of death to 
which he adjudged him, nor that tedious imprisonment 
which he suffered so long, ever shake or disorder a mind, 
that was raised so far above the inconstancies of human 
affairs. And though he was forced to submit to the hardest 
conditions possible, of renouncing his dignity and dominions, 
some few places being only reserved for his family ; yet no 
entreaties nor fears could ever bring him to yield any thing 
in niatters of religion. He made the Bible his chief com- 
panion and comfort in his sharp afflictions ; which he bore 
so, as if he had been raised up to that end, to let the world 
see how much he was above it. It seemed unimitable ; and 
therefore engage'd Thuanus, with the other excellent writers 
of that age, to set it out with all the advantages that so un- 
usual a temper of mind deserved: yet had those writers 
lived in our age, and seen a great king, not overpowered by 
a superior prince, but by the meanest of his own people, 
and treated with equal decrees of malice and scorn, and at 
last put to death openly, with the pageantry of justice ; and 
yet bearing all this with such invincible patience, herotcal 
courage, and most Christian submission to God, they had 



THE REFORMATION. 67 

yet found a nobler subject for their eloquent pens : but he 
saved the world the labour of giving a just representation of 
his behaviour in his sufferings, having left his own portraiture 
drawn by himself in such lively and lasting colours. 

The landgrave of Hesse saw he could not long withstand 
the emperor's army, now so lifted up with success; and 
therefore was willing to submit to him on the best terms 
that his sons-in-law, the elector of Brandenburg and Mau- 
rice of Saxe, could obtain tor him ; which were very hard, 
only he was to enjoy his liberty, without any imprisonment, 
and to preserve his dominions. But the emperor's minis- 
ters dealt most unfaithfully with him in this ; for in the 
German language there was but one letter difference, and 
that only inverted, between perpetual imprisonment, and 
any imprisonment (ewig for emig) ; so, by this base artifice, 
he was, when he came and submitted to the emperor, de- 
tained a prisoner. He had not the duke of Saxe's temper, 
but was out of measure impatient, and did excl>iim of his ill 
usage ; but there was no remedy, for the emperor was now 
absolute. All the towns of Germany, IMadeburg and Breme 
only excepted, submitted to him, and redeemed his favour 
by great sums of money, and many pieces of ordnance. And 
the Bohemians weie also forced to implore his brother's 
mercy, who, before he would receive them into his hands, 
got his revenue to be raised vastly : and now the empire was 
wholly at the emperor's mercy. Nothing could withstand 
him, who had in one year turned out two electors. For 
Herman, bishop of Colen, as he was before condemned by 
the pope (April 16, 1546), so was also degraded from that 
dignity by the emperor; and Adolph, whom he had pro- 
cured to be made his coadjutor, was declared elector. Many 
of his subjects and neighbour princes offered their service, if 
he would stand to his own defence ; but he was very old, 
and of so meek a temper, that he would suffer no blood to 
be shed on his account ; and therefore withdrew peaceably 
tb a retirement (Nov. 4), in which he lived four years, till 
his death. His brother, that was bishop of Munster and 
dean of Bonne, who had gone along with him in his reform- 
ation, was also turned out; and Gropper was made dean, 
who was esteemed one of the learnedest and best men of the 
clergy at this time. He is said to have expressed a generous 
contempt of the highest dignity the see of Rome could bestow 
on him, for he refused a cardinal's hat when it was offered 
him ; yet in this matter he had not behaved himself as be- 
came so good a man, and so learned a divine : for he had 
consented to the changes which had been made, and was 
in a correspondence with Martin Bucer, whom Heiman 



68 HISTORY OF 

brought to Colen (as will appear by an excellent letter of 
Bucer's to him, which will be found in the Collection, No. xix, 
concerning that matter) ; by which it is plain he went along 
with them from the beginning. But it seems he did it covertly 
and fearfully, and was afterwards drawn off, either by the 
love of the world, or the fears of the cross ; of which it ap- 
pears Bucer had then some apprehensions, though he ex- 
pressed them very modestly. Gropper's memory being in 
such high esteem, and this letter being found among Bucer's 
papers, I thought the publishing of it would not be unac- 
ceptable, though it be of a foreign matter. 

Germany being thus under the power and dread of the 
emperor, a diet was summoned to Augsburg : where the 
chief church was taken from the protestants, and put into 
the cardinal of Augsburg's hands, to have the mass set up 
again in it ; though the town was so much protestant, that 
they could find none that would come to it, but some poor 
people who were hired. The emperor, among other propo- 
sitions he put into the diet, pressed this, that all differences 
in religion, which had so distracted Germany, might be 
removed. Tl e ecclesiastical princes answered, that the 
only way to effect that, was to submit to the general council 
that was at Trent : those that were for the Augsburg con- 
fession said, they could submit to no council where the pope 
presided, and where the bishops were sworn to obey him ; 
but would submit to it, if that oath were dispensed with, 
and their divines admitted to defend their opinions, and all 
the decrees that had been made were again considered. In 
this difference of opinion, the emperor thought, that if the 
whole matter should be left to his discretion, to which all 
should be bound to submit, he would then be able to de- 
termine it as he pleased. So he dealt privately with the 
electors palatine and Saxe ; and, as they published it after- 
wards, gave them secret assurances about the freedom of 
their religion, and that he only desired this to put him in a 
capacity of dealing on other terms with the pope : upon 
which they consented to a decree, referring the matter of 
religion wholly to his care. But the deputies from the cities, 
who looked on this as a giving up of their religion, could 
not be wrought to do it, without conditions, which they put 
into another writing, as explanatory of the submission : but 
the emperor took no notice of that, and only thanked them 
for their confidence in him ; and so the decree was published. 
All this was in some sort necessary for the emperor, who 
was then in very ill terms with the pope about the business 
of Placentia : for the pope's natural son, Petrus Aloisius, 
being killed by a conspiracy (Sept. 10), the governor of 



THE REFORMATION. 69 

Milan had seized on Placentia, which made the pope be- 
lieve the emperor was accessary to it ; for which the reader 
is referred to the Italian historians. The pope saw the em- 
peror in one summer delivered of a war, which he had hoped 
would have entangled him his whole life ; and though in 
decency he could not but seem to rejoice, and did so no 
doubt, at the ruin of those whom he called heretics, yet he 
was not a little grieved to see the emperor so much exalted. 
At Trent the legates had been oft threatened and affronted 
by the emperor's ambassadors and bishops, who were set on 
reforming abuses, and lessening the power of the see of 
Rome : so they had a mind to break up the council ; but 
that would have been so scandalous a thing, and so resented 
by the emperor, that they resolved rather on a translation 
into some town of the pope's, to which it was not likely the 
imperialists would follow them ; and so at least the council 
would be suspended, if not dissolved. For this remove, they 
laid hold on the first colour they could find. One dying of 
a malignant fever, it was given out, and certified by phy- 
sicians, that he died of the plague ; so in all haste they 
translated the council to Bologna (April 21). The imperial- 
ists protested against it, but in vain ; for thither they went. 
The emperor was hereby quite disappointed of his chief 
design, which was to force the Germans to submit to a 
council held in Germany ; and therefore no plague appearing 
at Trent, he pressed the return of the council thither : but 
the pope said, it was the council's act, and not his ; and that 
their honour was to be kept up ; that therefore such as 
stayed at Trent were to go first to Bologna, and acknowledge 
the council, and they should then consider what was to be 
done : so that now all the hope the Germans had was, that 
this difference between the pope and emperor might give 
them some breathing ; and time might bring them out of 
these extremities into which they were then driven. Upon 
these disorders the foreign reformers, who generally made 
Germany their sanctuary, were now forced to seek it else- 
where. So Peter Martyr, in the end of November this year, 
was brought over to England, by the invitation which the 
archbishop of Canterbury sent him in the king's name. He 
was born in Florence, where he had been an Augustinian 
monk. He was learned in the Greek and the Hebrew, which 
drew him on him the envy of the rest of his order, whose 
manners he inveighed oft against. So he left them, and 
went to Naples, where he gathered an assembly of those 
who loved to worship God more purely. This being made 
known, he was forced to leave that place, and went next to 
Lucca, where he lived in society with Trernellius and Zan- 



70 HISTORY OF 

chius : but being also in danger there, he went to Zurich 
with Bernardinus Ochinus, that had been one of the most 
celebrated preachers of Italy, and now forsook his former 
superstitions. From Zurich he went to Basil ; and from 
thence, by Martin Bucer's means, he was brought to Stras- 
burg, where Cranmer's letter found both him and Ochinus. 
The latter was made a canon of Canterbury, with a dis- 
pensation of residence ; and by other letters-patents forty 
marks were given yearly to him, and as much to Peter 
Martyr. 

There had been this year some differences between the 
English and French concerning the fortifications about Bul- 
loigne. 1 he English were raising a great fort by the harbour 
there. This being signified to King Henry by Caspar Co- 
ligny, afterwards the famous admiral of France, then gover- 
nor of the neighbouring parts to Bulioigne, it was complained 
of at the court of England. It was answered, that this was 
only to make the harbour more secure ; and so the works 
were ordered to be vigorously carried on : but this could 
not satisfy the French, who plainly saw it was of another 
sort than to be intended only for the sea. The king of 
France came and viewed the country himself, and ordered 
Coligny to raise a fort on a high ground near it, which was 
called the ChastUian fort, and commanded both the English 
fort and the harbour. But the protector had no mind to 
give the French a colour for breaking with the English ; so 
there was a truce and further cessation agreed on, in the 
end of September. Ihese are all the considerable foreign 
transactions of this year in which England was concerned. 
But there was a secret contrivance laid at home of a high 
nature, which, though it broke not out till the next year, 
yet the beginnings of it did now appear. 

The protector's brother, Thomas Seymour, was brought 
to such a share in his fortunes, that he was made a baron, 
and lord admiral : but this not satisfying his ambition, he en- 
deavoured to have linked himself into a nearer relation with 
the crown, by marrying the king's sister, the Lady Eliza- 
beth ; but, finding he could not compass that, he made his 
addresses to the queen dowager ; who, enjoying now the 
honour and wealth the late king had left her, resolved to 
satisfy herself iir her next choice, and entertained him a 
little too early ; for they were married so soon after the 
king's death, that it was charged afterwards on the admiral, 
that, if she had brought a child as soon as might have been 
after the marriage, it had given cause to doubt whether it 
had not been by the late king ; which might have raised 
great disturbance afterwards. But being thus married to 



THE REFORMATION. 71 

the queen, he concealed it for some time, till he procured a 
letter from the king, recommending him to her for a husband : 
upon which they declared their marriage, with which the 
protector was much offended. Being thus possessed of great 
wealth, and being husband to the queen dowager, he studied 
to engage all that were about the king to be his friends ; and 
he corrupted some of them by his presents, and forced one 
on Sir John Cheek. That which he designed was, that 
whereas in former times, the infant kings of England had 
had governors of their persons, distinct from the pro- 
tectors of their realms ; which trusts were divided between 
their uncles, it being judged too much to join both in one 
person, who was thereby too great ; whereas a governor of 
the king's person might be a check on the protector ; he 
would, therefore, himself be made governor of the king's 
person, alleging, that since he was the king's uncle, as well 
as his brother, he ought to have a proportioned share with 
him in the government. About Easter, this year, he first 
set about this design, and corrupted some about the king, 
who should bring hiin sometimes privately through the gallery 
to the queen's lodgings; and he desired they would let him 
know when the king had occasion for money, and that they 
should not always trouble the treasury, for he would be ready 
to furnish him ; and he thought a young king might be taken 
with this. So it happened, that the first time Latimer 
preached at court, the king sent to him to know what pre- 
sent he should make him : Seymour sent him 40/. but said, 
he thought 20/. enough to give Latimer, and the king might 
dispose of the rest as he pleased. Thus he gained ground 
with the king, whose sweet nature exposed him to be easily 
won by such artifices. 

It is generally said, that all this difference between the 
brothers was begun by their wives ; and that the protector's 
lady, being offended that the younger brother's wife had the 
precedence of her, which she thought belonged to herself, 
did thereupon raise and inflame the differences. But in all 
the letters that I have seen concerning this breach, I could 
could never find any such thing once mentioned : nor is it 
reasonable to imagine, that the duchess of Somerset should 
be so foolish as to think that she ought to have the prece- 
dence of the queen dowager*. Therefore I look upon this 
story as a mere fiction ; though it is probable enough there 
might, upon some other accounts, have been some animosi- 

♦ She is acknowledged to liave been an insolent and ambitious woman, 
and to have liad great, power over her husband; and was the chief cause 
of procuring an act of parliament for the disinheriting, and excluding 
from his honours, his children by his former wife. 



72 HISTORY Of 

ties between the two high-spirited ladies, which might have 
afterwards been thought to have occasioned their husbands' 
quarrel. 

It is plain, in the whole thread of this affair, that the pro- 
tector was at first very easy to be reconciled to his brother, 
and was only assaulted by him ; but bore the trouble he 
gave him with much patnence for a great while ; though in 
the end, seeing his factious temper was incurable, he laid 
off nature too much when he consented to his execution : 
yet all along till then, he had rather too much encouraged 
his brother to go on, by his readiness to be, after every 
breach, reconciled to him. When the protector was in Scot- 
land, the admiral then began to act more avowedly, and 
was making a party for himself; of which Paget took notice, 
and charged him with it in plain terms. He asked him, why 
he would go about to reverse that, which himself and others 
had consented to, under their hands "? Their family was now 
so great, that nothing but their mutual quarrelling could do 
them any prejudice : but there would not be wanting officious 
men to inflame them, if they once divided among them- 
selves ; and the breaches among near friends commonly 
turn to the most irreconcilable quarrels. Yet all was in- 
effectual ; for the admiral was resolved to go on, or to perish 
in the attempt. It was the knowledge of this which forced 
the protector to return from Scotland so abruptly and dis- 
advantageously, for the securing of his interest with the king, 
on whom his brother's artifices had made some impression. 
Whether there was any reconciliation made between them 
before the parliament met is not certain • but during the 
session, the admiral got the king to write, with his own hand, 
a message to the house of commons, for the making of him 
governor of his person ; and he intended to have gone with 
it to the house, and had a party there, by whose means he 
was confident to have carried his business. He dealt also 
with many of the lords and counsellors to assist him in it. 
W^hen this was known, before he had gone v/ith it to the 
house, some were sent to him, in his brother's name, to see 
if they could prevail with him to proceed no further. He 
refused to hearken to them, and said, that if he were crossed 
in his attempt, he would make this the blackest parliament 
that ever was in England. Upon that he was sent for by 
order from the council, bat refused to come. Then they 
threatened him severely, and told him, the king's writing 
was nothing in law, but that he who had procured it was 
punishable for doing an act of such a nature, to the disturb- 
ance of the government, and for engaging the young king in 
it ; so they resolved to have sent him to the Tower, and to 



THE REFORMATION. 73 

have turned him out of all his offices. But he submitted 
himself to the protector and council ; and his brother and 
he seemed to be perfectly reconciled. Yet, as the pro- 
tector had reason to have a watchful eye over him, so it was 
too soon visible that he had not laid down, but only put off 
his high projects till a fitter conjuncture : for he began the 
next Christmas to deal money again among the king's 
servants, and was, on all occasions, infusing into the king a 
dislike of every thing that was done, and did often persuade 
him to assume the government himself. But the sequel of 
this quarrel proved fatal to him, as shall be told in its 
proper place. And thus ended the year 1547. 

(1548.) On the 8th of January next year, Gardiner was 
brought before the council : where it was told him, that his 
former offences being included in the king's general pardon, 
he was thereupon discharged ; a grave admonition was 
given him to carry himself reverently and obediently, and 
he was desired to declare whether he would receive the in- 
junctions and homilies, and the doctrine to be set forth, 
from time to time, by the king and clergy of the realm. He 
answered, he would conform himself as the other bishops 
did, and only excepted to the homily of justification, and 
desired four or five days to consider of it. What he did 
at the end of that time does not appear from the council- 
book, no farther mention being made of this matter ; for the 
clerks of council did not then enter every thing with that ex- 
actness that is since used. He went home to his diocess, 
where there still appeared in his whole behaviour ^reat ma- 
lignity to Cranmer, and to all motions for reformations ; yet 
^e gave such outward compliance, that it was not easy to 
find any advantage against him, especially now since the 
council's great power was so much abridged. 

In the end of January, the council made an order con- 
cerning the marquis of Northampton, which will oblige me 
to look back a little fo5 the clear account of it. This lord, 
who was brother to the queen dowager, had married Anne 
Bouchier, daughter to the earl of Essex, the last of that 
name ; but she being convicted of adultery, he was divorced 
from her; which, according to the law of the ecclesiastical 
courts, was only a separation from bed and board. Upon 
which divorce it was proposed, in King Henry's time, to 
consider what might be done in favour of the innocent 
person, when the other was convicted of adultery. So, in 
the beginning of King Edward's reign, on the 7th of May, a 
commission was granted to the archbishop of Canterbury, 
the bishops of Duresme and Rochester (this was Holbeck, 
who was not then translated to I^incoln), to Dr. Ridley, and 

Vol. 11, Part 1. H 



74 HISTORY OF 

six more, ten in all, of whom six were a quorum, to try 
whether the Lady Anne was not by the word of God so law- 
fully divorced, that she was no more his wife, and whether 
thereupon he might not marry another wife. This being a 
new case, and of great importance, Cranmer resolved to 
examine it with his ordinary diligence, and searched into 
the opinions of the fathers and doctors so copiously, that his 
collections about it grew into a large book (the original 
whereof 1 have perused*); the greatest part of it being 
written, or marked and interlined with his own hand. 
This required a longer time than the marquis of North- 
ampton could stay ; and, therefore, presuming on his great 
power, without waiting for judgment, he solemnly married 
Elizabeth, daughter to Brooke, Lord Cobham. On the 28th 
of January, information was brought to the council of this, 
which gave great scandal, since his first marriage stood yet 
firm in law. So he, being put to answer for himself, said, 
he thought that by the word of God he was discharged of his 
tie to his former wife ; and the making marriages indissolu- 
ble was but a part of the popish law, by which it was 
reckoned a sacrament ; and yet the popes, knowing that 
the world would not easily come under such a yoke, 
had, by the help of the canonists, invented such distinctions, 
that it was no uneasy thing to make a marriage void among 
them : and that the condition of this church was very hard, 
if, upon adulteries, the innocent must either live with the 
guilty, or be exposed to temptations to the like sins, if a se- 
paration was only allowed, but the bond of the marriage 
continued undissolved. But since he had proceeded so far 
before the delegates had given sentence, it was ordered, that 
he and his new wife should be parted ; and that she should 
be put into his sister the queen dowager's keeping, till the 
matter were tried, whether it was according to the word of 
God or not ; and that then further order should be given in 
it. Upon this the delegates made haste, and gathered their 
arguments together : of which I shall give an abstract, both 
for the clearing of this matter (concerning which, not many 
years ago, there were great debates in parliament), and 
also to show the exactness of the proceedings in that 
time. 

Christ condemned all marriages upon divorces, except 
in the case of adultery, which seemed manifestly to allow 
them in that case. And though this is not mentioned by St. 
Mark, and St. Luke, yet it is enough that St. Matthew has 
it. Christ also defined the state of marriage to be that in 

* Ex MSS. D. Stillirigfleet. 



THE REFORMATION. 75 

which " two are one flesh ; " so that when either of the two 
hath broken that union, by becoming one with another per- 
son, then the marriage is dissolved. And it is oft repeated 
in t(xe Gospel, that married persons have power over one 
another's boaies, and that they are to give due benevolence 
to each other ; which is plainly contrary to this way of 
separation without dissolving the bond. St. Paul, putting 
the case of an unbeliever departing from the partner in 
marriage, says, The believing party, whether brother or 
sister, is not under bondage in such a case ; which seems a 
discharge of the bond in case of desertion : and certainly 
adultery is yet of a higher nature. But against this was 
alleged, on the other side, that our Saviour's allowing 
divorce in the case of adultery was only for the Jews, to 
whom it was spoken, to mitigate the cruelty of their law, by 
which the adulteress was to be put to death ; and therefore 
he yielded divorce in that case, to mitigate the severity of 
the other law. But the apostle, writing to the Gentile 
Christians at Rome and Corinth, said, the wife was " tied 
by the law to the husband, as long as he lived." And that 
other general rule, " Whom God hath joined together, let 
no man put asunder," seems against the dissolving the bond. 
To this it was answered, that it is against separating as well 
as dissolving ; that the wife is tied to her husband, but if he 
ceaseth to be her husband, that tie is at an end. That our 
Saviour left the wife at liberty to divorce her husband for 
adultery, though the law of Moses had only provided, that 
the adulterous wife, and he who defiled her, were to die ; 
but the husband who committed adultery was not so pu- 
nishable : therefore our Saviour had, by that provision, de- 
clared the marriage to be clearly dissolved by adultery. 

From hence they went to examine the authorities of the 
fathers. Hermes was for putting away the adulteress, but so 
as to receive her again upon repentance. Origen thought 
the wife could not marry again after divorce. Tertullian 
allowed divorce, and thought it dissolved the marriage as 
much as death did. Epiphanius did also allow it. And 
Ambrose, in one place, allows the husband to marry after 
divorce for adultery, though he condemns it always in the 
wife. Basil allowed it on either side upon adultery. 
Jerome, who condemns the wife's marrying, though her hus- 
band were guilty of adultery, and who disliked the husband's 
marrying again, though he allowed him to divorce upon 
adultery, or the suspicion of it ; yet, when his friend Fabiola 
had married after a divorce, he excuses it, saying, it was 
better for her to marry than to burn. Chromatins allowed 
of second marriages after divorce : and so did Chrysostome, 



76 HISTORY OF 

though he condemned them in women so divorcing. St. 
Austin was sometimes for a divorce, but against marriage 
upon it ; yet in his Retractations, he writ doubtfully of his 
former opinion. In the civil law the Christian emperors 
allowed the power of divorcing both to husband and wife, 
with the right of marrying afterwards. Nor did they re- 
strain the grounds of divorce only to adultery, but permitted 
it in many other cases ; as, if the wife were guilty of treason, 
had treated for another husband, had procured an abortion, 
had been whole nights abroad, or had gone to see the public 
plays without leave from her husband, besides many other 
particulars ; against which, none of the fathers had writ, 
nor endeavoured to get them repealed. All these laws 
were confirmed by Justinian, when he gathered the laws 
into a body, and added to it where they were defective. In 
the canon law, it is provided, that he whose wife is defiled 
must not be denied lawful marriage. Pope Gregory denied 
a second marriage to the guilty person, but allowed it to the 
innocent after divorce. Pope Zachary allowed the wife of 
an incestuous adulterer to be married, if she could not con- 
tain. In the canon law, the council of Tribury is cited, for 
allowing the like privilege to the husbands. By the council 
of Elvira, a man that finds that his wife intends to kill him 
may put her away, and marry another ; but she must never 
marry. The council of ArleS recommended it to husbands, 
whose wives were found in adultery, not to marry during 
their lives. And that at Elvira denied the sacrament to a 
wife who left an adulterous husband, and married another ; 
but she might have the communion when her first husband 
died : so the second marriage was accounted good, but only 
indecent. But the council of Milevi forbids both man and 
wife to marry after divorce. All these were collected by 
Cranmer, with several very important reflections on most of 
the quotations out of the fathers. With these there is another 
paper, given in by one who was against the dissolving the 
bond, in which there are many quotations brought, both 
from the canon law and the fathers, for the contrary opinion. 
But most of the fathers there cited are of the latter ages : in 
which the state of celibate had been so exalted by the 
monks, that, in all doubtful cases, they were resolved still 
to prefer that opinion which denied liberty for further 
marriages. In conclusion, this whole question was divided 
into eight queries, which were put to some learned men 
(who these were does not appear) ; and they returned their 
answer in favour of the second marriage^ which will be 
found in the Collection (No. xx). In the end, sentence was 
given, allowing the second marriage in that case ; and by 



THE REFORMATION. 77 

consequence confirming the marquis of Northampton's 
marriage to his second wife, who, upon that, was suffered to 
cohabit with him. Yet, four years aftfer, he was advised to 
have a special act of parliament for confirming this sen- 
tence ; of which mention shall be made in its due time and 
place. 

The next thing that came under consideration, was the 
great contradiction that was in most of the sermons over 
England. Some were very earnest to justify and maintain 
all the old rites that yet remained ; and others were no less 
hot to have them laid aside. So that in London, especially, 
the people were wonderfully distracted by tliis variety 
amon^' their teachers. The ceremonies of Candlemas, and 
their observance of Lent, with the rites used on Palm-Sun- 
day, Good-Friday, and Easter, were now approaching. 
Those that were against them, condemned them as super- 
stitious additions to the worship of God, invented in the 
dark ages, when an outward pageantry had been the chief 
thing thai was looked after. But others set out the good use 
that might be made of these things, and taught, that, till they 
were abolished by the king's authority, they ought to be still 
observed. In a visitation that had been made (when I can- 
not learn, only it seems to have been about the end of King 
Henry's reign), it had been declared, that fasting in Lent 
was only a positive law. Several directions were also given 
about the use of the ceremonies, and some hints, as if they 
were not to be long continued : and all wakes and Plough- 
Mondays were suppressed, since they drew great assemblies 
of people together, which ended in drinking and quarrelling. 
These I have also inserted in the Collection (No. xxi), 
having had a copy of the articles, left at the visitation of the 
deanery of Doncaster, communicated to me by the favour of 
a most learned physician, and curious antiquary. Dr. Na- 
thaniel Johnston, who sent me this with several other papers, 
out of his generous zeal for contributing every thing in his 
power to the perfecting of this work. 

The country people generally loved all these shows, 
processions, and assemblies, as things of diversion ; and 
judged it a dull business only to come to church for 
divine worship, and the hearing of sermons; therefore they 
were much delighted with the gaiety and cheerfulness of 
those rites. But others, observing that they kept up all 
these things, just as the heathens did their plays and festi- 
vities for their gods, judged them contrary to the gravity 
and simplicity of the Christian religion, and therefore were 
earnest to have them removed. This was so effectually re- 
pre%ented to the council by Cranmer, that an order was 

H3 



78 HlSrORY OF 

sent to him about it. He sent it to Bonner, who, being 
dean of the college of bishops, in the province of Canter- 
bury, was to transmit all such orders over the whole pro- 
vince. By it, the carrying of candles on Candiemas-day, 
of ashes on Ash-Wedndesday, and palms on Palm,-Sunday, 
were forbid to be used any longer. And this was signified 
by Bonner to Thirleby, bishop of \\ estminster, on the 28th 
of June, as appears by the register. 

After this, on the 6th of February, a proclamation was 
issued out against such as should, on the other hand, rashly 
innovate, or persuade the people from the old accustomed 
rites, under the pains of imprisonment and other punish- 
ments, at the king's pleasure ; excepting only the formerly- 
mentioned rites; to which are added, the creeping to the 
cross on Good-Friday, taking holy bread and water, and any 
othei, that should be afterwards, at any time, certified by 
the archbishop of Canterbury to the other bishops, in the 
king's name, to be laid aside. And for preventing the mis- 
chiefs occasioned by rash preachers, none were to preach 
without licence from the king or bis visitors, the archbishop 
of Canterbury, or the bishop of the diocess where they 
lived ; excepting only incumbents preaching in their own 
parishes. Those who preached otherwise were to be impri- 
soned till order was given for their punishment : and the in- 
ferior magistrates were required to see -to the execution of 
these orders. This proclamation, which is in the Collection 
(No. xxii), was necessary for giving authority to the arch- 
bishop of Canterbury's letters, which were censxu-ed as a 
great presumption for him, without any public order, to 
appoint changes in saered rites. Some observed, that the 
council went on making proclamations with arbitrary punish- 
ments, though the act was repealed that had formerly given 
so great authority to them. To this it was answered, that 
the king, by his supremacy, might still, in matters of re- 
ligion, make new orders, and add punishments upon the 
transgressors ; yet this was much questioned, though univer- 
sally submitted to. 

On the IJth of February, there was a letter sent from the 
council to the archbishop, for a more considerable change 
(No. xxiii). There were everywhere great heats about the 
removing of images, which had been abused to superstition : 
some afhrming, and others denying, that their images had 
been so abused. There were, in the churches, some images 
of so strange a nature, that it could not be denied that they 
had been abused. Such was the image of the blessed 
Trinity, which was to be censed, on the day of the Innocents, 
by him that was made the bishop of the children: tkis 



THE REFORMATION. 79 

ahows it was used on other days, ia which it is like it was 
censed by the bishop where he was present. How this 
image was made, can only be gathered from the prints that 
were of it at that time : in which the Father is represented 
sitting, on the one hand, as an old man with a triple crown 
and rays about him ; the Son, on the other hand, as a young 
man with a crown and rays ; and the blessed Virgin be- 
tween them, and the emblem of the Holy Ghost, a dove, 
spread over her head : so it is represented in a fair book of 
the Hours according to the use of Sarum, printed anno 1526. 
The impiety of this did raise horror in most men's minds, 
when that inconceivable mystery was so grossly expressed. 
Besides, the taking the Virgin into it was done in pursu- 
ance to what had been said by some blasphemous friars, of 
her being assumed into the Trinity. In another edition of 
these, it is represented by three faces formed in one head. 
These things had not been set up by any public warrant ; 
but having been so long in practice, they stood upon the ge- 
neral plea, that was for keeping the traditions of the church : 
for it was said, that the promises made to the church were 
the same in all ages ; and that therefore every age of the 
church had an equal right to them. But for the other 
images, it was urged against them, that they had been all 
consecrated with such rites and prayers, that it was certain 
they were every one of them superstitious ; since it was 
prayed, that they might be so blessed and consecrated, that 
whosoever worshipped them might, by the saints' prayers 
and aid, whom they represented, obtain every thing that he 
desired. So they resolved on an entire removal of all 
images. And the protector, with the council, wrote to 
Cranraer, that for putting an end to all these contests, and 
that the living images of Christ might not quarrel about the 
dead ones, it was concluded they should all of them be 
taken down : and he was to give order to see this executed 
in his own diocess, and to transmit it to the other bishops, 
to be in like manner executed by them. There were also 
orders given, that all rich shrines, with all the plate belong- 
ing to them, should be brought into the king's use ; and that 
the clothes that covered them should be converted to the use 
of the poor. This gave Gardiner, and those of his party, a 
new affliction : for in his diocess he had been always on their 
side that were for keeping up the images. But they all sub- 
mitted ; and so the churches were emptied of all those pic- 
tures and statues which had been for divers ages the cnief 
objects of the people's worship. 

. And now the greatest care of the reformers was, to find 
the best men they could, who should be licensed by the 



80 HISTORY OF 



king's authority to preach. To whom the council sent 
letter, ia the beginning of May (No. xxiv), intimating, that, 
by the restraint put on preaching, they only intended to put 
an end to the rash contentions of indiscreet men, and not to 
extinguish the lively preaching of the pure word of God, 
made after such sort as the Holy Ghost should, for the time, 
put in the preacher's mind. They are therefore charged to 
preach sincerely ; and with that caution and moderation, 
that the time and place shall require : and, particularly, 
that they should not set on the people to make innovations, 
or to run before those whom they should obey ; but should 
persuade them to amend their lives, and keep the command- 
ments of God, and to forsake all their old superstitions. 
And for the things not yet changed, they ought to wait 
patiently, and to conclude that the prince did either allow 
or suffer them : and in delivering things to the people, they 
were ordered to have a special regard to what they could 
bear. 

But this temper was not observed. Some plainly con- 
demned it as a political patching, and said, why should not 
all these superstitions be swept away at once 1 To this it 
was answered by others, that, as Christ forbade the pulling 
up of the tares, lest with them they should pull up good 
wheat ; so, if they went too foiwardly to the changing of 
things, they might in that haste change much for the worse. 
And great care was to be had not to provoke the people too 
much, lest, in the infancy of the king, or in some ill con- 
juncture of affairs, they might be disposed to make commo- 
tions. And the compliances that both Christ and his 
apostles gave to the Jews, when they were to abrogate the 
Mosaical law, were often insisted on. It was said, if they, 
who were clothed with a power of miracles, for the more 
effectual conviction of the world, condescended so far, it was 
much more reasonable for them, who had not that autho- 
rity over men's consciences, and had no immediate signs 
to show from heaven, to persuade the people rather by de- 
grees to forsake their old mistakes, and not to precipitate 
things by an over haste. 

This winter there was a committee of selected bishops 
and divines appointed for examining all the offices of the 
church, and for reforming them. Some had been, in King 
Henry's time, employed in the same business, in which they 
had made a good progress, which was now to be brought to 
a full perfection. Therefore the archbishops of Canterbury 
and York, the bishops of London, Duresme, Worcester, 
Norwich, St. Asaph, Salisbury, Coventry, and Litchfield, 
Carlisle, Bristol, St. David's, Ely, Lincoln, Chichester, 



1 

Lit I 

Lo 1 



THE REFORMATION. 81 

Hereford, Westminster, and Rochester ; with Doctors Cox, 
May, Tailor, Heins, Robertson, and Redmayn ; were ap- 
pointed to examine all the offices of the church, and to 
consider how far any of them needed amendment. 

The thing they first examined was the sacrarnent of the 
eucharist ; which, being the chief symbol of Christian com- 
munion, was thought to deserve their chief care. And here 
they managed their inquiries in the same manner that was 
used in the former reign ; in which, when any thing was 
considered in order to a change, it was put into several 
queries, to which every one in commission was to give his 
answer in writing. It is no wonder if the confusions that 
followed, in Queen Mary's reign, have deprived us of most 
of these papers ; yet there is one set of thein preserved, re- 
lating to some questions about the priest's single communi- 
cating ; \\ hether one man's receiving it can be useful to 
another? what was the oblation or sacrifice that was made 
of Christ in the mass 1 wherein the mass consisted ? when 
the priest's receiving alone began? whether it was conve- 
nient to retain that, and continue masses satisfactory for 
departed souls 1 whether the gospel ought to be taught at 
the time of the mass ? whether it were convenient to have 
it all in a known tongue, or not 1 and when the reserving or 
hanging up of the sacrament first began '! To these the 
bishops made their several answers. Some answered them 
all : others answered only a few of them ; it is like suspending 
their opinions about those which they answered not. The 
bishops of London, Worcester, Chichester, and Hereford, 
gave in their answers once in one paper together ; but after- 
wards they joined with the bishops of Norwich and St. 
Asaph, and all those six gave a joint answer in one paper. 
Those are not all subscribed, as those which 1 inserted in the 
former volnme were : or at least the papers I have are not 
the originals. But Crann.er's hand is over every one of 
tliem, marking the name of the bishop to whom they be- 
longed ; and Dr. Cox hath set his hand and seal to his 
answer. By tliese, which are in the Collection (No, xsv), 
the reader will perceive how generally the bishops were ad- 
dicted to the old superstition, and how few did agree in all 
things with Craniner. It may be thought, that these ques- 
tions were given out before the act of parliament passed, in 
which the priests' single communicating is turned into a 
communion of more. Yet by that act it was only provided, 
that all who came to receive should be admitted ; but priests 
were not forbid to consecrate, if none were to communicate, 
which was the thing now inquired into. 

It is certain there was no part of worship more corrupted 



82 HISTORY OF 

than this sacrament was. The first institution was so plain 
and simple, that, except in the words, " This is my body," 
there is nothing which could give a colour to the corruptions 
that were afterwards brought in* The heathens had their 
mysteries, which the priests concealed with hard and dark 
words, and dressed up with much pomp ; and thereby sup- 
ported their own esteem with the people ; since they looked 
on these to be of so high a nature, that all those who had 
the ordering of them were accounted sacred persons. The 
primitive Christians retained the first simplicity of Divine 
institutions for some ages ; but afterwards, as their number 
increased, they made use of some things not unlike those 
the heathens had practised, to draw the Gentiles more easily 
into their belief ; since external shows made deep impres- 
sions in the vulgar. And those that were thus brought over 
might afterwards come to like these things for their own 
sakes, which were at first made use of only to gain the 
world. Others, finding some advantage in such services, 
that were easy, and yet appeared very pompous, that they 
might cover great faults by countenancing and comply- 
ing with the follies that were in vogue, contributed liberally 
to the improvement of them. And after the Roman em- 
perors turned Christians, much of that vast wealth, of 
which they and their people were masters, was brought into 
the church, and applied to these superstitions. Yet it be- 
came not so universally corrupted till, by the invasion of the 
Goths, Vandals, and other barbarous nations, the Roman 
empire was broken and divided into many kingdoms. These 
new conquerors were rude and ignorant, wholly given to 
sensible things ; and learning being universally extinguished, 
gross superstition took place ; for more refined superstitions 
would not serve the turn of darker ages. But as they 
grew in ignorance, they continued in the belief and prac- 
tice of more absurd things. 

The high opinion they justly had of this sacrament being 
much raised by the belief of the corporal presence of Christ 
in it, which came in afterwards, then the dull wits of the 
priests, and the wealth of the people, were employed to 
magnify it with all the pomp possible. All the vessels and 
garments belonging to it were consecrated and anointed 
with much devotion ; the whole office was in an unknown 
tongue : a great part of it was to be secretly whispered, to 
make it appear the more wonderful charm : but chiefly the 
words of consecration were by no means to be heard by the 
people ; it being fabled, that when the words were spoken 
aloud, some shepherds had repeated them over their bread, 
which was thereupon presently turned into flesh. Besides 



THE REFORMATION. 83 

that, it was but suitable that a change which was not to be 
seen, should be made by words not to be heard. The priest 
was not to approach it, but after so many bowings, crossings, 
and kissings of the altar ; and all the while he went through 
with the office, the people were only now and then blessed 
by a short blessing, "The Lord be with you," and even 
that in Latin. Then, after consecration, the bread was 
lifted up, and all the people worshipped it, as if Christ had 
appeared in the clouds. It was oft exposed on the altar, 
and carried about in processions, with the ceremonies of 
carrying flambeaux before it, which the greatest persons 
accounted it an honour to do ; the priest that carried it all 
the while going pompously under a rich canopy. 

This was also thought most effectual for all the accidents 
of life. And whereas it was first only intended to be a com- 
memoration and communion of the death of Christ ; that 
seemed almost forgotten, but it was applied to all other ends 
imaginable. That which brought in most custom was tren- 
tals, which was a method of delivering souls out of pur- 
gatory, by saying thirty masses a year for them. And 
whereas it was observed, that men, on the anniversaries of 
their birth-days, wedding, or other happy accidents of 
their lives, were commonly in better humour, so that favours 
were more easily obtained ; they seemed to have had the 
same opinion of God and Christ. So they ordered it, that 
three of these should be said on Christmas-day, three on 
Epiphany, three on the Purification of the blessed Virgin, 
three on the Annunciation, three on the Resurrection, three 
on the Ascension, three on Whit Sunday, three on Trinity- 
Sunday, three on the Assumption of the blessed Virgin, and 
three on her birth day ; hoping that these days would be the 
mnUia tempora, when God and Christ, or the blessed Virgin, 
Avould be of easier access, and more ready to grant their de- 
sires. Yet the most unaccountable part of all was the 
masses on the saints' days, praying that the intercession of 
the saint might make the sacrifice acceptable ; that the 
saint, for whose honour these oblations were solemnly 
offered, would by his merits procure them to be accepted, 
and that the sacrifice might bring to them a greater indul- 
gence, being offered up by the suffrages of the saint. If the 
sacrifice was of Jesus Christ, and was of its own nature ex- 
piatory, how this should be done in honour to a saint, and 
become of greater virtue by his intercession, was a thing very 
hard to be understood. There were many pieces of ridi- 
culous pageantry also used in it, as the laying the host in the 
sepulchre they made for Christ on Good-Friday ; and that, 
not only the candles that were to burn at the Easter cele- 



84 _ HISTORY OF 

bration, but the very fire that was to kindle them, was par- 
ticularly consecrated on Easter-eve. Some masses were be- 
lieved to have a peculiar virtue in them : for, in the mass- 
book printed at London, anno 1500, there is a mass for 
avoiding sudden death, which Pope Clement made in the 
college with all his cardinals, and granted to all who heard 
it two hundred and seventy days of indulgence, charging 
them that they should hold in their hand a burning candle 
all the while it was saying, and for five days after should 
likewise hold a candle, kneeling during the whole mass ; 
and to those that did so, sudden death should do no harm. 
And it is added, that this was certain and approved ia 
Avignon, and all the neighbouring places. All this I have 
opened the more largely, to let the reader plainly under- 
stand, what things were then in this sacrament that required 
reformation : and I have gathered these things out of the 
mass-book then most used in England, and best known 
by the name of the " Missal after the use of Sarum." 

The first step these deputed bishops and divines made, 
was to reform this. But they did not at once mend every 
thing that required it, but left the oflfice of the mass as it 
was, only adding to it that which made it a communion. It 
began first with an exhortation, to be used the day before, 
which differs not much from that now used ; only, after the 
advice given concerning confession, it is added, that such as 
desired to make auricular confession, should not censure 
those who were satisfied with a general confession to 
God ; and that those who used only confession to God 
and to the church, should not be offended with those who 
used auricular confession to a priest ; but that all should 
keep the rule of charity, every man being satisfied to follow 
his own conscience, and not judging another man's in things 
not appointed by God. After the priest had received the 
sacrament, he was to turn to the people and read an eKhor- 
tation to them ; the same we now use, only a little varied in 
words. After that followed a denunciation against sinners, 
requiring them who were such, and had not repented, to 
withdraw, lest the devil should enter into them as he did 
into Judas : then, after a little pause, to see if any would 
withdraw, there was to follow a short exhortation, with a 
confession of sins, and absolution, the very same which we 
do yet retain. Then those texts of Scripture were read which 
we yet read ; followed with the prayer, " We do not pre- 
sume," &c. After this, the sacrament was to be given in 
both kinds : first, to the ministers then present, and then to 
all the people, with these words, " The body of our Lord 
Jesus Christ, which was given for thee, preserve thy body 



THP: rvEFORMATION. 85 

unto everlasting life ; " and " The blood of our Lord Jesus 
Christ, which was shed for thee, preserve thy soul unto 
everlasting life." ^Vhen all was done, the congregation was 
to be dismissed with a blessing. The bread was to be such 
as had been formerly used, and every one of the breads so 
consecrated was to be broken in two or more pieces ; and 
the people were to be taught, that there was no diifereuce in 
the quantity they received, whether it were small or great ; 
but that in each of them they received tiie whole body of 
Christ. If the wine that was at first consecrated did not 
serve, the priest was to consecrate more ; but all to be with- 
out any elevation. This office, being thus finished, was 
set forth with a proclamation, reciting, that whereas the 
parliament had enacted that the communion should be 
given in both kinds to all the king's subjects, it was now 
ordered to be given in the form here set forth, and all were 
required to receive it with due reverence, and Christian be- 
haviour, and with such uniformity as might encourage the 
king to go on in the setting forth godly orders for reforma- 
tion, which he intended most earnestly to bring to effect by 
the help of God : willing his subjects, not to run before his 
direction, and so by their rashness to hinder such things : 
assuring them of the earnest zeal he had to set them 
forth, hoping they would quietly and reverently tarry for it. 

This Avas published on the 8th of March ; and on the 
13th, books were sent to all the bishops of England, requir- 
ing them to send them to every parish in their diocess, that 
the curates might have time, both to instruct themselves 
about it, and to acquaint their people with it ; so that by the 
next Easter it might be universally received in all the 
churches of the n?tion. This was variously censured. 
Those that were for the old superstition were much troubled 
to have confession thus left indiflferent, and a general con- 
fession of sins to be used, with which they apprehended the 
people would, for the most part, content themselves. 'In the 
Scripture there was a power of binding and loosing sins 
given to the apostles. And St. James exhorted those to 
whom he wrote, to confess their faults to one another. 
Afterwards penitents came to be reconciled to the church, 
when they had given public scandal, either by their apostacy 
or ill life, by an open confession of their sins ; and after some 
time of separation from the other pure Christians in. worship, 
and an abstention from the sacrament, they were admitted 
again to their share of all the privileges that were given in 
common to Christians. But, according to the nature of their 
sing, they were, besides the public confession, put under 
tuch rules as might be most proper for curing these ill indi- 

VoL. IT, PartI. I 



86 HISTORY OF 

nations in them ; and according to the several ranks of sins, 
the time and degrees of this penitence was proportioned. 
And the councils that met in the fourth and fifth centuries 
made the regulating these penitentiary canons the chief 
subject of their consultations. In many churches there 
were penitentiary priests, who were more expert in the 
knowledge of these rules, and gave directions about them, 
which were taken away in Constantinople upon the indis- 
cretion of which one of them had been guilty. For secret 
sins there was no obligation to confess, since all the canons 
were about public scandals; yet for these, the devout 
people generally went to their priests for their counsel, but 
were not obliged to it ; and so went to them for the distem- 
pers of their minds, as they did to physicians for the dis- 
eases of their bodies. 

About the end of the fifth century, they began, in some 
places, to have secret penances, either within monasteries, 
or other places which the priests had appointed ; and upon 
a secret confession and performing the penance imposed, 
absolution was also given secretly : whereas, in former 
times, confession and absolution had been performed openly 
in the church. In the seventh century it was everywhere 
practised, that there should be secret penance for secret 
sins ; which Theodore, archbishop of Canterbury., did first 
bring into a method, and under lules. But about the end 
of the eighth century, the commutation of penance, and ex- 
changing it for money, or other services to the church, came 
to be practised ; and then began pilgrimages to holy places, 
and afterwards the going to the holy war ; and all the seve- 
rities of penance were dispensed with to such as undertook 
these. This brought on a great relaxation of all ecclesiasti- 
cal discipline. Afterwards croisades came in use, against 
such princes as were deposed by popes ; and to these was 
likewise added, to encourage all to enter into them, that all 
rules of penitence were dispensed with to such as put on 
that cross. But penitence being now no more public, but 
only private, the priests managed it as they pleaseeK and so 
by confession entered into all men's secrets, and by abso- 
lution had their consciences so entirely in their power, that 
the people were generally governed by them. Yet, because 
the secular priests were commonly very ignorant, and were 
not put under such an association as was needful to manage 
those designs, for which this was thought an excellent 
engine ; therefore the friars were employed everywhere to 
hear confessions, and to give absolutions. And to bring in 
customers to them, two new things were invented : the one 
was, a reserving of certain cases, in which such as were 



THE REFORMATION. 87 

guilty of theui could not be absolved but by the popes, or 
those deputed by them ; and the friars had faculties in the 
pope's name to absolve in these cases : the other was, on 
some occasion the use of certain new secrets, by which men 
were to obtain great indulgences; either by saying such 
prayeis, or performing such impositions ; and these were all 
trusted to the friars, who were to trade with them, and 
bring all the money they could gather, by that means, to 
Home. They being bred up to a voluntary poverty, and 
expecting great rewards for their industry, sold those secrets 
with as much cunning as mountebanks use in selling their 
tricks ; only here was the difference, that the ineffectualness 
of the mountebanks' medicines was soon discovered, so their 
trade must be but short in one place; whereas the other 
could not be so easily found out ; the chief piece of the reli- 
gion of those ages being to believe all that their priests 
taught them. Of this sort the reader will find in the Collec- 
tion (No. xxvi) an essay of indulgences, as they were 
printed in the Hours after the use of Sarum, which were set 
down in English, though the prayers be all Latin, that 
so all the people might know the value of such ware. Those 
had been all, by degrees, brought from Rome, and put into 
people's hands, and afterwards laid together in their offices. 
By them, indulgences of many years, hundreds, thousands, 
and millions of years, and of all sins whatsoever, were 
granted to such as devoutly said such collects ; but it was 
always understood, that they must confess and be absolved, 
which is the meaning of those expressions concerning their 
being in a state of grace. And so the whole business was a cheat. 
And now all this trade was laid aside, and confession of 
secrets sins was left to all men's free choice ; since it was 
certain that the confession to a priest was nowhere enjoined 
in the Scriptures. It was a reasonable objection, that, as 
secret confession and private penance had worn out the 
primitive practice of the public censuring of scandalous 
persons, so it had been well if the reviving of that discipline 
had driven out these later abuses ; but to let that lie unre- 
stored, and yet to let confession wear out, was to discharge 
the world of all outward restraints, and to leave them to 
their full liberty, and so to throw up that power of binding 
and loosing, which ought to take place, chiefly in admitting 
them to the sacrament. This was confessed to be a great 
defect, and effectual endeavours were used to retrieve it, 
though without success ; and it was openly declared to be a 
thing which they would study to repair; but the total disuse 
of all public censure had made the nation so unacquainted 
with it, that, without the effectual concurrence of the civil 



08 HISTORY OF 

authority, they could not compass it. And though it wa« 
acknowledged to be a great disorder in the church, yet, as 
they could not keep up the necessity of private conlession, 
since it was not commanded in the gospel ; so the generality 
of the clergy being superstitious men, whose chief influence 
on the people was by those secret practices in confession, 
they judged it necessary to leave that free to all people, and 
to represent it as a thing to which they were not obliged, and 
in the place of that ordered the general confession to be made 
in the church, with the absolution added to it. For the 
power of binding and loosing, it was by many thought to be 
only declarative , and so to be exercised, when the gospel 
was preached, knd a general absolution granted, according 
to the ancient forms. In which forms the absolution was a 
prayer that God would absolve ; and so it had been still 
used in the absolution which was given on Maunday-Thurs- 
day ; but the formal absolution given by the priest in his 
own name, " I absolve thee," was a late invention to raise 
their authority higher, and signified nothing distinct from 
those other forms that were anciently used in the church. 

Others censured the words in distributing the two kinds 
in the Lord's supper : the body being given for the preserv- 
ing the body, and the blood of Christ for preserving the soul. 
1 his was thought done on design to possess the people with 
a high value of the chalice, as that which preserved their 
souls ; whereas the bread r/as only for the preservation of 
their bodies. But Cranmer, being ready to change any 
thing for which he saw good reason, did afterwards so alter 
it, that in both it was said, " Preserve thy body and soul :" 
and yet it stands so in the prayer, ** We do not presume," 
&c. On all this I have digressed so long, because of the 
importance of the matter, and for satisfying the scruples that 
many still have upon the laying aside of confession in our 
reformation. 

Commissions were next given to examine the state of the 
chantries and guildable lands : the instruction about them 
will be found in the Collection (No. xxviii ), of which I need 
give no abstract here ; for they were only about the methods 
of inquiring into their value, and how they were possessed, 
or what alienations had been made of them. 

The protector and council were now in much trouble. 
The war with Scotland they found was like to giow charge- 
able, since they saw it was supported from France. There 
was a rebellion also broke out in Ireland ; and the king was 
much indebted: nor could they expect any subsidies from 
the parliament ; in which it had been said, that they gave 
the chantry lands, that they might be delivered from aH 



THE REFORMATION. 89 

subsidies : therefore the parliament was prorogued till win- 
ter. Upon this the whole council did, on the 17th of April, 
unanimously resolve, that it was necessary to sell 5000/. a 
year of chantry lands for raising such a sum as the king's 
occasions required ; and Sir Henry Mildmay was appointed 
to treat about the sale of them. 

The new communion book was received over England 
without any opposition. Only complaints were brought of 
Gardiner, that he did secretly detract from the king's pro- 
ceedings : upon v/hich the council took occasion to reflect 
on all his former behaviour : and here it was remeinbered, 
how, at tirst, upon his refusing to receive the king's injunc- 
tions, he had been put in the Fleet ; where he had been as 
well used as if it had been his own house (which is far 
contrary to his letters to the protector, of which mention 
has been already made) ; and that he, upon promise of 
conformity, had been discharged. But when he was come 
home, being forgetful of his promises, he had raised much 
strife and contention, and had caused all his servants to be 
secretly armed and harnessed, and had put public affronts 
on those whom the council sent down to preach in his dio- 
cess; for in some places, to disgrace them, he went into the 
pulpit before them, and warned the people to beware of such 
teachers, and to receive no other doctrine but what he had 
taught them. Upon this he had been sent for a second time, 
but again, upon his promise of conformity, was discharged, 
and ordered to stay at his own house in London. That 
there he had continued still to meddle in public matters ; of 
which, being again admonished, he desired that he might be 
suffered to clear himself of all misrepresentations that had 
been made of him, in a sermon which he should preach be- 
fore the king, in which he should openly declare how well 
he was satisfied with his proceedings : yet it is added, that 
in his sermon, where there was a wonderful audience, he 
did most arrogantly meddle with some matters that were 
contrary to an express command given him both by word of 
mouth and by letters ; and, in other matters, used such 
words as had almost raised a great tumult in the very time, 
and had spoken very seditiously concerning the policy of 
the kingdom. So they saw that clemency wrought no good 
effect on him ; and it seeming necessary to terrify others by 
their proceedings with him, he was sent to the Tower, and 
the door of his closet was sealed up : thus it is entered in 
the council book, signed E. Somerset, T. Cantuarien, W. St. 
John's, J. Russel, and T. Cheyney. Yet, it seems, this order 
was not signed when it was made, but some years after : for 
the Lord Russel signed first Bedford, but remembering, that, 

13 



m HISTORY OF 

at the time when this order was made, he had not that title, 
therefore he dashed it out (but so as it still appears} and 
signed, J. Russel. 

The account that Gardiner himself gives of this business 
is*, that being discharged upon the act of pardon, he was 
desired to promise that he would set forth the Homilies ; and 
a form was given him to which he should set his hand ; but 
he, considering of it a fortnight, returned, and said he could 
not subscribe it: so he was confined to his house. Then 
Ridley and Mr. Cecil (afterwards the great Lord Burleigh, 
lord treasurer to Queen Elizabeth, at that time secretary to 
the protector) were sent to him, and so prevailed, that he 
did set his hand to it. But, upon some complaints that were 
made of him, he was sent for after Whit-Sunday, and ac- 
cused, that he had carried palms, had crept to the cross, and 
had a sepulchre on Good-Fiiday, which was contrary to the 
king's proclamations ; all which he denied, and said, he had 
and would still give obedience to what the king should com- 
mand. That of afironting the king's preachers was objected 
to him ; to which he answered, telling matter of fact how it 
was done, but he does not in his writing set it down. Then 
it was complained, that, in a sermon, he had said. The 
apostles came away rejoicing from the council, the council, 
the council ; repeating it thus, to make it seem applicable 
to himself: this he denied. Then it was objected, that he 
preached the real presence in the sacrament, the word real 
not being in Scripture ; and so it was not the setting forth 
the pure word of God : he said, he had not used the word 
real, only he had asserted the presence of Christ, in such 
words as he had heard the archbishop of Canterbury dis- 
pute for it against Lambert, that had been burnt. He was 
commanded to tarry in London : but he desired, that, since 
he was not an offender, he might be at his liberty. He com- 
plained much of the songs made of him, and of the books 
written against him, and particularly of one Philpot, in 
Westminster, whom he accounted a madman. 

Then he relates, that Cecil came to him, and proposed to 
him to preach before the king, and that he should write his 
sermon ; and also brought him some notes which he wished 
him to put in his sermon ; he said, he was willing to preach, 
but would not write it, for that was to preach as an offender ; 
nor would he make use of notes prepared by other men. 
Then he was privately brought to the protector, none but 
the Lord St. John being present, who showed him a paper 
containing the opinion of some lawyers, of the king's power, 
and of a bishop's authority, and of the punishment of dis- 
• Fox'k Act» «nd Monnment*. 



THE REFORMATION. 91 

obeylag the king ; but he desired to speak with those law- 
yers, and said, no subscription of theirs should oblige him 
to preach otherwise than as he was convinced. The pro- 
tector said, he should either do that, or do worse. Secretary 
Smith came to him to press him further in some points, but 
what they were is not mentioned. Yet, by the other papers 
in that business, it appears, they related to the king's autho- 
rity when under age, and for justifying the king's proceed- 
ings in what had been done about the ceremonies, and that 
auricular confession was indifferent. So the contest between 
him and the protector ended ; and there was no writing re- 
quired of him, but he left the whole matter to him, so that 
he should treat plainly of those things mentioned to him by 
Cecil. He chose St. Peter's day, because the gospel agreed 
to his purpose. Cecil showed him some notes, written with 
the king's hand, of the sermons preached before him ; espe- 
cially what was said of the duty of a king; and warned 
him, that, whenever he named the king, he should add, 
" and his council." To this he made no answer ; for though 
he thought it wisely done of a king to use his council, yet 
being to speak of the king's power according to Scripture, 
he did not think it necessary to add any thing of his coun- 
cil ; and hearing by a confused report some secret matter, 
he resolved not to meddle with it. Two days before he 
preached, the protector sent him a message, not to meddle 
with those questions about the sacrament, that were yet in 
controversy among learned men ; and that therefore he was 
resolved there should be no public determination made of 
them beforehand in the pulpit. He said, he could not forbear 
to speak of the mass, for he looked on it as the chief foundation 
of the Christian religion ; but he doubted not that he should 
so speak of it, as to give them all content: so, the day follow- 
ing, the protector writ to him (as will be found in the Col- 
lection, No. xxviii), requiring him, in the king's name, not 
to meddle with those points, but to preach concerning the 
articles given him, and about obedience, and good life, 
which would afford him matter enough for a long sermon ; 
since the other points were to be reserved to a public con- 
sultation : the protector added, that he held it a great part 
of his duty, under the king, not to suffer wilful persons to 
dissuade the people from receiving such truths as should be 
set forth by others : but Gardiner pretended that there was 
no controversy about the presence of Christ. And so, the 
next day, he took his text out of the gospel for the day, 
•' Thou art Christ," &c. In his sermon (of which 1 have 
seen large notes*) he expressed himself very fully concern- 
* Parker'i MSS Ex ('. Ch. Col. Cant. 



9-2 HISTORY OF 

ing the pope's supremacy as justly abolished, and the sup- 
pression of monasteries and chantries ; he approved of the 
king's proceedings ; he thought images might have been 
well used, but yet they might be well taken away. He ap- 
proved of the sacrament in both kinds, and the taking away 
that great number of masses satisfactory, and liked well the 
new order for the communion : but he asserted largely the 
presence of Christ's flesh and blood in the sacrament : upon 
which many of the assembly, that were indiscreetly hot on 
both sides, cried out, some approving, and others disliking 
it. Of the king's authority under age, and of the power of 
the council in that case, he said not a word ; and upon that 
he was imprisoned. 

The occasion of this was, the popish clergy began gene- 
rally to have it spread among them, that, though they had 
acknowledged the king's supremacy, yet they had never 
owned the council's supremacy. That the council could 
only see to the execution of the laws and orders that had 
been made, but could not make new ones ; and that, there- 
fore, the supremacy could not be exercised till the king, in 
whose person it was vested, came to be of age to consider of 
matters himself. Upon this the lawyers were consulted ; 
who did unanimously resolve, that the supremacy being an- 
nexed to the regal dignity, was the same in a king under 
age, when it was executed by the council, that it was in a 
king at full age ; and therefore, things ordered by the council 
now, had the same authority in law that they could have 
when the king did act himself. But this did not satisfy the 
greater part of the clergy ; some of Avhom, by the high 
flatteries that had been given to kings in King Henry's time, 
seemed to fancy that there were degrees of divine illumina- 
tion derived unto princes by the anointing them at the coro- 
nation ; and these not exerting themselves till a king attained 
to a ripeness of understanding, they thought the supremacy 
was to lie dormant while he was so young. The protector 
and council endeavoured to have got Gardiner to declare 
against this, but he would not meddle in it : how far he 
might set forward the other opinion, I do not know. These 
proceedings against him were thought too severe, and with- 
out law ; but he being generally hated, they were not so 
much censured as they had been, if they had fallen on a 
naore acceptable man. 

And thus were the orders made by the council generally 
obeyed ; many being terrified with the usage Gardiner met 
with, from which others inferred what they might look for, 
if they were refractory, when so great a bishop was so 
treated. 



THE REFORMATION. 98 

Tha next thing Cranmer set about was the compil- 
ing a Catechism *, or large instruction of young persons in 
the grounds of the Christian religion. In it, he reckons 
the two first commandments but one ; though he says many 
of the ancients divided them in two : but the division was of 
no great consequence, so -no part of the decalogue were 
suppressed by tlie church. He showed, that the excuses 
the papists had for images were no other than what the 
heathens brought for their idolatry ; who also said, they did 
not worship the image, but that only which was repiesented 
by it. He particularly takes notice of the image of the Tri- 
nity. He shows how St. Peter would not suffer Cornelius, 
and the angel would not suffer St. John, to worship them. 
The believing that there is a virtue in one image more than 
in another, he accounts plain idolatry. Ezekias broke the 
brazen serpent, when abused, though it was a type or image 
of Christ, made by God's command, to which a miraculous 
virtue had been once given. So now there was good reason 
to break images, when they had been so abused to supersti- 
tion and idolatry ; and when they gave such scandal to Jews 
and Mahometans, who generally accounted the Christians 
idolaters on that account. He asserts, besides the two sacra- 
ments of baptism and the Lord's supper, the power of re- 
conciling sinners to God, as a third ; and fully owns the 
Divine institution of bishops and priests ; and wishes that 
the canons and rights of public penitence were again restored ; 
and exhorts much to confession, and the people's dealing 
with their pastors about their consciences, that so they 
miglit, upon knowledge, bind and loose according to the gos- 
pel. Having finished this easy, but most useful work, he 
dedicated it to the king : and in his epistle to him complains 
of the great neglect that had been, in former times, of cate- 
chising; and that confirmation had not been rightly admi- 
nistered, since it ought to be given only to those of age, who 
understood the principles of the Christian doctrine, and did 
upon know ledge, and with sincere minds, renew their bap- 
tismal vow. From this it will appear, that, from the begin- 
ning of this reformation, the practice of the Roman church 
in the matter of images was held idolatrous. Cranmer's zeal 
for restoring the penitentiary canons is also clear ; and it is 
plain, that he had now quite laid aside those singular 
opinions which he formerly held of the ecclesiastical func- 
tions ; for now, in a work which was wholly his own, without 

* This C-trechism was first made in Latin by auother, but traodatcd 
by Crauuwr's order, and it was reviewed by him. 



94 HISTORY OF 



the concurrence of any others, he fully sets forth their 
Divine institution. 

All these things made way for a greater work, which these 
selected bishops and divines, who had laboured in the setting 
forth of the office of the communion, were now preparing ; 
which was, the entire reformation of the whole service of 
the church. In order to this, they brought together all 
the offices used in England. In the southern parts, those 
after the use of Sarum were universally received, which 
were believed to have been compiled by Osmund, bishop of 
Sarum. In the north of England they had other offices, 
after the use of York : in South Wales, they had them after 
the use of Hereford : in North Wales, after the use of 
Bangor : and in Lincoln, another sort of an office proper to 
that see. 

In the primitive church, when the extraordinary gifts 
ceased, the bishops of the several churches put their offices 
and prayers into such a method, as was nearest to what 
they had heard or remembered from the apostles. And 
these liturgies were called by the apostles' names, from 
whose forms they had been composed ; as that at Jerusalem 
carried the name of St. James, and that of Alexandria 
the name of St. Mark ; though those books that we have 
now under those names are certainly so interpolated, that 
they are of no great authority ; but in the fourth century we 
have these liturgies first mentioned. The council of Lao- 
dicea appointed the same office of prayers to be used in the 
mornings and evenings. The bishops continued to draw up 
new additions, and to put old forms into other methods; 
but this was left to every bishop's care, nor was it made the 
subject of any public consultation, till St. Austin's time ; 
■when, in their dealings with heretics, they found they took 
advantages from some of the prayers thai were in some 
churches : upon this, he tells us, it was ordered, that there 
should be no prayers used in the church, but upon common 
advice ; after that the liturgies came to be more carefully 
considered. Formerly, the worship of God was a pure and. 
simple thing ; and so it continued till superstition had so in- 
fected the church, that those forms were thought too naked, 
unless they were put under more artificial rules, and dressed 
up with much ceremony. Gregory the Great was the first 
that took much care to make the church music very regular ; 
and he did also put the liturgies in another method than had 
been formerly used: yet he had no such fondness of his 
own composures, but left it to Austin the monk, whom he 
sent over into England, when he consulted him in it, either 



1 



THE REFORMATION. 95 

to use the Roman or French rituals, or any other, as he 
should find they were most likely to edify the people. After 
this, in most sees, there were great variations ; for, as any 
prelate came to be canonized, or held in high esteem by the 
people, some private collects, or particular forms that he 
had used, were practised in his, or perhaps, as his fame 
spread, in the neighbouring dioceses. In every age there 
were notable additions made ; and all the writers almost, in 
the eighth and ninth centuries, employed their fancies to 
find out mystical significations for every rite that was then 
used ; and so, as a new rite v^as added, it was no hard mat- 
ter to add some mystery to il. This had made the office swell 
out of measure, and there was a great variety of them ; 
missals, breviaries, rituals, pontificals, portoises, pies, gra- 
duals, antiphonals, psalteries, hours, and a great many more. 
Every re»igious order had likewise their peculiar rites, with 
the saints days that belonged to their order, and services for 
tliem ; and the understanding hov/ to officiate was become so 
hard a piece of the trade, that it was not easy to learn it 
exactly, without a long practice in it. So now it was re- 
solved to correct and examine these. 

I do not find it was ever brought under consideration, 
whether they should compose a form for all the parts of 
Divine worship, or leave it to the sudden and extemporary 
heats of those who were to officiate, which some have called, 
since that time, the worshipping by the Spirit : of this way 
of serving God they did not then dream ; much less that 
the appointing of forms of prayer was an encroaching on 
the kingly office of Christ ; but thought, whatever praying 
in the Spirit might have been in the apostles' time (where 
yet every man brought his psalms, which are a sort of 
prayers as well as praises, and these look like some written 
composures, as St. Paul expresses it), that now, to pray with 
warm aflfection and sincere devotion was spiritual worship ; 
and that where it was the same thing that was to be daily 
asked of God, the using the same expressions was the sign of 
a steady devotion, that was fixed on the thing prayed for ; 
whereas the heat that new words raised, looked rather like 
a warmth in the fancy. Nor could it agree with the princi- 
ples of a reformation, that was to divest the churchmen of 
that unlimited authority which they had forrnerly exercised 
over men's consciences, to leave them at liberty to make 
the people pray after them, as they pleased ; this being as 
great a resignation of the people, when their devotion de- 
pended on the sudden heats of their pastors, as the former su- 
perstition had made of their faith and conscience to them. 
Ho it being resolved to bring the whole worship of God under 



96 HISTORY OF 

set forms, they set one general rule to themselves (which 
they afterwards declared), of changing nothing for novelty's 
sake, or merely because it had been formerly used. They 
resolved to retain such things as the primitive church had 
practised, cutting off such abuses as the later ages had 
grafted on them ; and to continue the use of such other 
things, which though they had been brought in not so early, 
yet were of good use to beget devotion ; and were so much 
recommended to the people, by the practice of them, that 
the laying these aside would, perhaps, have alienated them 
from the other changes they made. And therefore they re- 
solved to make no change without very good and weighty 
reasons ; in which they considered the practice of our 
Saviour, who did not only comply with the rites of Judaism 
himself, but even the prayer he gave to his disciples was 
framed according to their forms ; and his two great institu- 
tions of baptism, and the eucharist, did consist of rites that 
had been used among the Jews. And since he, who was de- 
livering a new religion, and was authorized in the highest 
manner that ever any was, did yet so far comply with re- 
ceived practices, as from them to take those which he sancti- 
fied for the use of his church ; it seemed much fitter for 
those who had no such extraordinary warrant to give them 
authority in what they did, when they were reforming 
abuses, to let the world see they did it not from the wanton 
desire of change, of any aft'ectation of novelty : and with 
those resolutions they entered on their work. 

In the search of the former offices, they found an infinite 
deal of superstition in the consecrations of water, salt, 
bread, incense, candles, fire, bells, churches, images, altars, 
crosses, vessels, garments, palms, flowers ; all looked like 
the rites of heathenism, and seemed to spring from the same 
fountain. \\ hen the water or salt were blessed, it was ex- 
pressed to be to this end, that they might be health both to 
soul and body, and devils (who might well laugh at these 
tricks which they had taught them) were adjured not to 
come to any place where they were sprinkled ; and the holy 
bread was blessed, to be a defence against all diseases and 
snares of the devil ; and the holy incense, that devils might 
not come near the smoke of it, but that all who smelled at 
it might perceive the virtue of the Holy Ghost ; and the 
ashes were blessed so, that all who were covered with them 
might deserve to obtain the remission of their sins. All 
those things had drawn the people to such confidence in 
them, that they generally thought , that without those harder 
terms of true holiness, they might, upon such superstitious 
observances, be sure of heaven. So all these they resolved to 



THE REFORMATION. 97 

cast out, as things which had no warrant in Scripture, and 
were vain devices to draw men away from a lively applica- 
tion to God through Christ, according to the method of the 
gospel. Then the many rites in sacramental actions were 
considered, all which had swelled up to an infinite heap : 
and as some of these, which had no foundation in Scripture, 
were thrown out, so the others were brought back to a greater 
simplicity. In no part of religion was the corruption of the 
former offices more remarkable, than in the priests' granting 
absolution to the living and the dead. To such as confessed, 
the absolution was thus granted ; " I absolve thee in the 
name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost:" to 
which this was added," And I grant to thee, that all the in- 
dulgences given, or to be given thee, by any prelate, with the 
blessings of them, all the sprinklings of holy water, all the 
devout beatings of thy breast, the contritions of thy heart, 
this confession, and all thy other devout confessions, all thy 
fastings, abstinences, almsgivings, watchings, disciplines, 
prayers, and pilgrimages, and all the good thou hast done, or 
shalt do, and all the evils thou hast suffered, or shalt suf- 
fer, for God ; the passions of our Lord Jesus Christ, the me- 
rits of the glorious and blessed Virgin Mary, and of all other 
saints, and the suffrages of all the holy catholic church, turn 
to thee for the remission of these, and all other thy sins, the 
increase of thy merits, and the attainment of everlasting re- 
wards." When extreme unction was given to dying persons, 
they applied it to the ears, lips, nose, and other parts, with 
this prayer; " By this holy unction, and his own most ten- 
der mercy, and by the intercession of the blessed Virgin, and 
all the saints, may God pardon thee whatever thou hast 
sinned, by thy hearing, speaking, or smelling ;" and so in 
the other parts. And when the dead body was laid in the 
grave, this absolution was said over it ; " The Lord Jesus 
Christ, who gave to St. Peter, and his other disciples, power 
to bind and loose, absolve thee from all the guilt of thy sins ; 
and in so far as is committed to my weakness, be thou 
absolved before the tribunal of our Lord, and may thou have 
eternal life, and live for evermore." This was thought the 
highest abuse possible ; when, in giving the hopes of heaven, 
and the pardon of sins, which were of all the other parts of re- 
ligion the most important, there were such mixtures : and that 
•which the Scriptures had taught could be only attained by 
Jesus Christ, and that upon the sincere belief and obedience 
of his gospel, was now ascribed to so many other procuring 
causes. 'ITiese things had possessed the world with that con- 
ceit, that there was a trick for saving souls, besides that plain 
method which Christ had taught ; and that the priests had 
Vol.. II, Pakt I. K 



98 HISTORY OF 

the secret of it in their hands ; so that those who would not 
come under the yoke of Christ, and be saved that way, 
needed only to apply themselves to priests, and purchase 
their favour, and the business would be done. 

There were two other changes, which run through the 
whole offices ; the one was, the translating them into a 
vulgar tongue. The Jewisii worship was either in Hebrew, 
or, after the captivity, in the Syriac, the vulgar tongues of 
Palestine. The apostles always officiated in the tongues 
that were best understood : so that St. Paul did copiously 
censure those, who, in prayers or psalms, used any language 
that was not understood. And Origen, Basil, with all the 
fathers that had occasion to mention this, took notice, that 
every one in their own tongue worshipped God. After the 
rending of the Roman empire by the Goths, and other bar- 
barous nations, the Roman tongue did slowly mix with their 
tongues, till it was much changed, and altered from itself by 
degrees ; yet it was so long a doing that, that it was not 
thought necessary to translate the liturgy into their lan- 
guages. But in the ninth century, when the Slavons were 
converted, it being desired that they might have divine 
office? in their own language, while some opposed it, a voice 
was said to be heard, "Let every tongue praise God;" 
upon which, Pope John the Eighth writ to Methodius, their 
bishop, that it might be granted ; and founded it on St. 
Paul's Epistle to the Connthi ns, and on these words of 
David, " Let every tongue praise the Lord." And in the 
fourth council of Lateran it was decreed, that bishops, who 
lived in places where they were mixed with Greeks, should 
provide fit priests for performing divine offices, according to 
the rites and languages of those to whom they ministered : 
but the Roman church, though so merciful to the Greeks and 
Slavons, was more cruel to the rest of Europe ; and since 
only Hebrew, Greek, and Latin, had been written on the 
cross of Christ by Pilate, they argued that these lan- 
guages were thereby consecrated ; though it is not easy to 
apprehend what holiness could be derived into these tongues, 
by Pilate', who ordered these inscriptions. It was also pre- 
tended, that it was a part of the communion of saints, that 
everywhere the worship should be in the same tongue. But 
the truth was, they had a mind to raise the value of the 
priestly function, by keeping all divine offices in a tongue 
not understood : which in people otherwise well seasoned 
with superstition, might have that effect ; but it did very 
much alienate the rest of the world from them. There was 
also a vast number of holy-days formerly observed, with so 
many prayers and hymns belonging to them, and so many 



THE REFORMATION. 99 

lessons that were to be lead ; which were many of them 
su^h impudent forgeries, that the whole breviary and missal 
being full of these, a great deal was to be left out. Theie 
is in the whole breviary scarce one saint, but the lessons 
concerning him contain some ridiculous legend, such as 
indeed could not be well read in a vulgar tongue without 
the scorn and laughter of the hearers ; and for most part the 
prayers and hymns do relate to these lying stories. Many of 
the prayers and hymns were also in such a style, that the 
pardon of sin, grace, and heaven, were immediately desired 
from the saints, as if these things had come from their 
bounty, or by their merits, or were given by them only ; of 
which the reader shall have a little tasie in the Collection 
(iSo. xxix), in some of the addresses made to them. 

The reformers having thus considered the corruptions 
of the former offices, were thereby better prepared to frame 
new ones. But the priests had officiated in some garments, 
which were appropriated to that use, as surplices, copes, 
and other vestments ; and it was long under consideration 
whether these should continue. It was objected, that 
these garments had been parts of the train of the mass, 
and had been superstitiously abused, only to set it off with 
the more pomp. On the other hand it was argued, that as 
white was anciently the colour of the priests' garments in 
the Mosaical dispensation, so it was used in the African 
churches in the fourth century : and it was thought a natu- 
ral expression of the purity and decency that became 
priests : besides, the clergy were then generally extreme 
poor, so that they could scarce afford themselves decent 
clothes ; the people also, running from the other extreme of 
submitting too much to the clergy, were now as much in- 
clined to despise them, and to make light of the holy func- 
tion ; so that if they should officiate in their own mean gar- 
ments, it might make the divine offices grow also into con- 
tempt. And therefore it was resolved to continue the use of 
them ; and it was said, that their being blessed, and used 
superstitiously, gave as strong an argument against the 
use of churches and bells ; but that St. Paul had said, 
"That every creature of God was good;" and even the 
meat of the sacrifice offered to an idol, than which there 
could be no greater abuse, might lawfully be eaten ; there- 
fore they saw no necessity, because of a former abuse, to 
throw away habits that had so much decency in them, 
and had been formerly in use. 

In the compiling the offices, they began with morning 
and evening prayer : these were put in the same form they 
are now, only there was no confession nor absolution ; the 



100 HISTORY OF 



ofhce beginning with the Lord's Prayer. In the Commu- 
nion Service, the Ten Commandments were not said, as they 
are now ; but in other things it was very near what it ii 
now. All that had been in the order of the communion for 
merly mentioned was put into it : the offertory was to be 
made of bread, and wine mixed with water. Then was said 
the prayer for the state of Christ's church, in which they 
gave thanks to God for his wonderful grace, declared in his 
saints, in the blessed Virgin, the patriarchs, apostles, 
prophets, and martyrs ; and they commended the saints 
departed to God's mercy and peace, that at the day of the 
resurrection we with them might be set on Christ's right 
hand. To this, the consecratory prayer which we now 
use was joined as a part of it ; only with these words, that 
are since left out, " With thy Holy Spirit vouchsafe to 
bless and sanctify these thy gifts and creaures of bread and 
wine, that they may be unto us the body and blood of thy 
most dearly-beloved Son," &c. To the consecration was 
also joined the prayer of thanksgiving now used. After the 
consecration, all elevation was forbidden, which had been 
first used as a rite expressing how Christ was lifted up on 
the cross ; but was, after the belief of the corporal presence, 
made use of to show the sacrament, that the people might all 
fall down and worship it. And it was ordered, that the 
whole office of the communion, except the consecratory 
prayer, should be used on all holy-days, when there was no 
communion, to put people in mind of it, and of the suffer- 
ings of Christ. The bread was to be unleavened, round, 
but no print on it, and somewhat thicker than it was for- 
merly : and though it was anciently put in the people's 
hands, yet, because some might carry it away and apply it 
to superstitious uses, it was ordered to be put by the priest 
into theirmouths. It is clear that Christ delivered it into 
the hands of the apostles, and it so continued for many 
ages, as appears by several remarkable stories of holy men 
carrying it with them in their journeys. In the Greek 
church, where the bread and wine were mingled together, 
some began to think it more decent to receive it in little 
spoons of gold, than in their hands ; but that was con- 
demned by the council in Ti ullo : yet soon after they began 
in the Latin church to appoint men to receive it with their 
hands, but women to take it in a linen cloth, which was 
called their dominical. But when the belief of the corporal 
presence was received, then a new way of receiving was in- 
vented among other things to support it : the people were 
now no more to touch that which was conceived to be the 
flesh of their Saviour, and therefore the priest's thumb and 



1 



THE REFORMATION. 101 

fingers were particularly anointed, as a necessary disposition 
for so holy a contact ; and so it was by them put into the 
mouths ot the people. A litany was also gathered, consist- 
ing of many short petitions, interrupted by suffrages between 
them : and was the same that we still use, only they had 
one suffrage that we have not, to be delivered from the 
tyranny of the bishop of Rome, and all his detestable 
enormities. 

In baptism there was, besides the forms which we still 
retain, a cross at first made on the child's forehead and 
breast, with an adjuration of the devil to go out of him, 
and come at him no more. Then the priest was to take the 
child by the right hand, and to place him within the font ; 
there he was to be dipped thrice, once on the right side, 
once on the left, and once on the breast, which was to be 
discreetly done ; but if the child were weak, it was sufficient 
to sprinkle water on his face. Then was the priest to put a 
white vestment or chrysome on him, for a token of inno- 
cence, and to anoint him on the head, with a prayer for the 
unction of the Holy Ghost. In confirmation, those that 
came were to be catechised, which, having in it a formal 
engagement to make good the baptismal vow, was all that 
was asked (the Catechism then was the same that is now, 
only there is since added an explanation of the sacraments) ; 
this being said, the bishop was to sign them with the cross, 
and to lay his hands on them, and say, " I sign thee with 
the sign of the cross, and lay my hands on thee, in the name 
of the Father," &c. The sick, who desired to be anointed, 
might have the unction on their forehead, or their breast 
only ; with a prayer, that as their body was outwardly 
anointed with oil, so they might receive the Holy Ghost, 
with health, and victory over sin and death. At funerals, 
they recommended the soul departed to God's mercy, and 
prayed that his sins might be pardoned, that he might be 
delivered from hell and carried to heaven, and that his body 
might be raised at the last day. 

They also took care, that those who could not come, or be 
brought to church, should not therefore be deprived of the 
use of the sacraments. The church of Rome had raised the 
belief of the indispensable necessity of the sacraments so 
high, that they taught they did ex opere operate, by the very 
action itself, without inward acts, justify and confer grace, 
unless there were a bar put to it by the receiver ; and the 
first rise of the questions about justification seems to have 
come from this : for that church teaching that men were 
justified by sacramental actions, the reformers opposed this, 
and thought men were justified by the internal acts of the 

K3 



102 HISTORY OF 



mind ; if they had held at this, the controversy might har 
been managed with much greater advantages ; which they 
lost, in a great measure, by descending to soine minuter 
subtleties. In the church of Rome, pursuant to their belief 
concerning the necessity of the sacraments, women were 
allowed in extreme cases to baptize ; and the midwives 
commonly did it ; which might be the beginning of their 
being licensed by bishops to exercise that calling. And they 
also believed, that a simple attrition with the sacraments 
was sufficient for salvation in those who were grown up ; 
and upon these grounds the sacraments were administered 
to the sick. 

In the primitive church they sent portions of the sacra- 
ment to those who were sick, or in prison ; and did it 
not only without pomp or processions, but sent it often 
by the hands of boys and other laics, as appears from the 
famed story of Serapion ; which, as it shows they did not 
then believe it was the very flesh and blood of Christ ; so, 
when that doctrine was received, it was a natural effect of 
that belief to have the sacrament carried by the priest him- 
self with some pomp and adoration. The ancients thought 
it more decent and suitable to the communion of saints to 
ftonsecrate the elements only in the church, and to send 
portions to the sick, thereby expressing their communion 
with the rest. The reformers, considering these things, 
steered a middle course : they judged the sacraments neces- 
sary, where they could be had, as appointments instituted 
by Christ ; and though they thought it more expedient to 
have all baptisms done in the church at the fonts, than 
in private houses, thereby signifying that the baptized were 
admitted to the fellowship of that church ; yet, since our 
Saviour had said, that " Where two or three are gathered 
together he will be in the midst of them ; " they thought it 
savoured too much of a superstition to the walls or fonts of 
churches, to tie this action so to these, that where children, 
either through infirmity or the sharpness of weather, could 
not be, without danger, carried to church, they should be 
denied baptism. But still they thought public baptism 
more expressive of the communion of the saints, so that they 
recommended it much, and only permitted the other in 
cases of necessity. This has since grown to a great abuse ; 
many thinking it apiece of state to have their children bap- 
tized in their houses ; and so bringing their pride with them 
even into the most sacred performances. There may be 
also a fault in the ministers, who are too easily brought to 
do it : but it is now become so universal, that all the endea- 
vours of some of our bishops have not been able to bring it 



er I 



THE REFORMATION. 103 

back to the first design of not baptizing in private houses, 
excepting only where there was some visible danger in 
carrying the children to church. 

As for the other sacrament, it was thought by our reformers, 
that, according to the mind of the primitive church, none 
should be denied it in their extremities : it never being more 
necessary than at that time to use all means that might 
strengthen the faith, and quicken the devotion of dying per- 
sons ; it being also most expedient that they should then 
profess their dying in the faith, and with a good conscience, 
and in charity with all men : therefore they ordered the 
communion to be given to the sick, and that, before it were 
so given, the priest should examine their consciences : and 
upon the sincere profession of their faith, and the confession 
of such sins as oppressed their consciences, with the doing 
of all that was then in their power for the completing of their 
repentance, as the forgiving injuries, and dealing justly with 
all people, he should give them the peace of the church in 
a formal absolution, and the holy eucharist. But that they 
might avoid the pomp of vain processions on the one hand, 
and the indecencies of sending the sacrament by common 
hands on the other, they thought it better to gather a congre- 
gation about the sick person, and there to consecrate and 
give the sacrament to that small assembly ; where, as Christ's 
promise, of being in the midst of two or three that were 
gathered together in his name, should have put an end to 
the weak exceptions some have made to these private com- 
munions ; so, on the other hand, it is to be feared that the 
greater part retain still too much of the superstition of popery ; 
as if the priest's absolution, with the sacrament, and some 
slight sorrow for sin, would be a sure passport for their 
admittance to heaven ; which it is certain can only be had 
upon so true a faith as carries a sincere repentance with a 
change of heart and life along with it : for to such only the 
mercies of God through the merits of Jesus Christ are ap- 
plied in all ordinary cases. 

To all this they prefixed a preface concerning ceremonies, 
the same that is still before the Common Prayer Book ; in 
which preface they make a difference betvveen those cere- 
monies that were brought in with a good intent, and were 
afterwards abused ; and others that had been brought in 
out of vanity and superstition at first, and grew to be more 
abused ; the one they had quite rejected, the other they had 
reformed, and retained for decency and edification. Some 
were so set on their old forms, that they thought it a great 
matter to depart from any of them ; others were desirous to 
innovate in every thing ; between both which they had kept 



104 HISTORY OF 

a mean. The burthen of ceremonies in St. Austin's days 
was such, that he complained of them then as intolerable, 
by which the state of Christians was worse than that of the 
Jews; but these were swelled to a far greater number since 
his days, which did indeed darken religion, and had brought 
Christians under a heavy yoke : therefore, they had only 
reserved such as were decent, and apt to stir up men's minds 
with some good signification. Many ceremonies had been 
so abused by superstition and avarice, that it was necessary 
to take them quite away ; but since it was fit to retain some 
for decency and order, it seemed better to keep those which 
were old, than to seek new ones. But those that were kept 
were not thought equal with God's law, and so were, upon 
just causes, to be altered ; they were also plain, and easy to 
be understood, and not very subject to be abused. Nor did 
they in retaining these condemn other nations, or prescribe 
to any but their own people. And thus was this book made 
ready against the next meeting of parliament. 

In it, the use of the cross was retained, since it had been 
used by the ancient Christians, as a public declaration that 
they were not ashamed of the cross of Christ. Though they 
acknowledged this had been strangely abused in the latter 
ages, in which the bare use of the cross was thought to have 
some magical virtue in it : and this had gone so far, that in 
the Roman Pontifical it was declared, that the crosier-stafF 
was to be worshipped with that supreme degree of adora- 
tion, called Latvia : but it was thought fit to retain it in some 
parts of worship ; and the rather, because it was made use 
of among the people to defame the reformers, that they had 
no veneration for the cross of Christ : and therefore, as an 
outward expression of that in the sacrament of baptism, and 
in the office of confirmation, and in the consecration of the 
sacramental elements, it was ordered to be retained ; but 
with this difference, that the sign of the cross was not made 
with the opinion of any virtue or efficacy in it to drive away 
evil spirits, or to presei-ve one out of dangers, which were 
thought virtues that followed the use of it in the Roman 
church ; for in baptism, as they used the sign of the cross, 
they added an adjuration to the evil spirit not to violate it j 
and in the making it said, ** Receive the sign of the cross 
both in thy forehead and in thy heart, and take the faith of 
the heavenly precepts." Thus a sacramental virtue was 
pretended to be affixed to it ; which the reformers thought 
could not be done without a warrant from a Divine institu- 
tion, of which it is plain there was none in Scripture : but 
they thought the use of it only as an expression of the belief 
of the church, and as i badge of Christianity, with such 



THE REFORMATION. 105 

words added to it as could import no moro, was liable to 
no exception. This seems more necessary to be well ex- 
plained, by reason of the scruples that many have since 
raised against sircificant ceremonies, as if it were too great 
a presumption iu any church to appoint such, since these 
seem to be of the nature of sacraments. Ceremonies that 
signify the conveyance of a Divine grace and virtue are 
are indeed sacraments, and ought not to be used without an 
express institution in Scripture ; but ceremonies that only 
signify the sense we have, which is sometimes expressed as 
significantly in dumb shows as in words, are of another 
kind ; and it is as much within the power of the church to 
appoint such to be used, as it is to order collects or prayers, 
words and sigus being but different ways of expressing our 
thoughts. The belief of Christ's corporal presence wais yet 
under consideration : and they, observing wisely how the 
Germans had broken by their running too soon into contests 
about that, resolved to keep up still the old general expres- 
. sions, of the sacraments being the whole and true body of 
Christ, without coming to a more particular explanation of 
it. The use of oil, on so many occasions, was taken from 
the ancient Christians, who, as Theophilus says, began early 
to be anointed ; and understood those words of St. Paul, of 
God's anointing and sealing, literally. It was also anciently 
applied to the receiving of penitents : but it was not used 
about the sick, from the apostles' times till about the tenth 
century ; and then, from what St. James writ to those in the 
dispersion, of sending for the elders to come to such as were 
sick, who should anoint them with oil, and their sins should 
be forgiven them, and they should recover ; they came to 
give it to those that were dying, but not while there was 
any hope of life left in them. Though it is clear, that what 
St. James writ related to that extraordinary gift of healing, 
by imposition of hands, and anointing with oil, which yet 
continued in the church when he writ that Epistle. And 
it is plain, that this passage in St. James was not so under- 
stood by the ancients, as it is now in the Roman church; 
since the ancients, though they used oil on many other oc- 
casions, yet applied it not at all to the sick till after so many 
ages, that gross superstition had so disposed the world to 
new rites, that there could be no discovery or invention 
more acceptable than the addition of a new ceremony, 
though they were then much oppressed with the old ones. 

The changes that were made, and those that were de- 
signed to be made, occasioned great heats everywhere. 
And the pulpits generally contending with one another, to 
restrain that clashing, the power of granting licences to 



106 HISTORY OF 

preach was taken from the bishops of each diocess, so that 
none might give them but the king and the archbishop of 
Canterbury : yet that not proving an effectual restraint, on 
the 23d of September a proclamation is said to have come 
out, setting forth, that whereas according to former procla- 
mations none was to preach but such as had obtained licences 
from the king or the archbishop ; yet some of those that were 
so licensed, had abused that permission, and had carried 
themselves irreverently, contrary to the instructions that 
were sent them : therefore the king, intending to have shortly 
an uniform order over all the kingdom, and to put an end to 
all controversies in religion ; about which some bishops and 
other learned men were then assembled ; and though many 
of the preachers so licensed had carried themselves wisely, 
to the honour of God, and the king's great contentation ; 
yet, till the order now preparing should be set forth, he did 
inhibit all manner of persons to preach in any public audi- 
ence ; to the intent that the clergy might apply themselves 
to prayer, for a blessing on what the king was then about to 
do ; not doubting but the people would be employed likewise 
in prayer, and hearing the Homilies read in their churches, 
and be ready to receive that uniform order that was to be 
set forth ; and the inferior magistrates were required to see 
to the execution of this. I never met with any footstep of 
this proclamation, neither in records, nor in letters, nor in 
any book written at that time : but Mr. Fuller has printed 
it, and Dr. Heylin has given an abstract of it from him. If 
Fuller had told how he came by it, it might have been 
further examined. But we know not whether he saw the 
printed proclamation, or only a copy of it : and if he saw 
but a copy, we have reason to doubt of it ; for that might 
have been only the essay of some projecting man's pen. But 
because I found it in those authors, I thought best to set it 
down as it is, and leave the reader to judge of it. 

Having thus given an account of the progress of the Refor- 
mation this summer, I shall now turn to transactions of state, 
and shall first look towards Scotland. The Scots gaining 
time the last winter, and being in daily expectation of suc- 
cours from France, were resolved to carry on the war. The 
governor began the year with the siege of Broughty Castle, a 
little below Dundee : but the English that were in it defended 
themselves so well, that after they had been besieged three 
months, the siege was raised, and only so many were left 
about it as might cover the country from their excursions. 
The English, on the other side, had taken and fortified 
Hadingtoun ; and were at work also at Lauder to make it 
strong : the former of these lying in a plain, and in one of 



THE REFORMATION. 107 

the most fruitful counties of Scotland, within twelve miles 
of Edinburgh, was a very fit place to be kept as a curb upon 
the country. About the end of May, six thousand men 
were sent from France under the command of Dessie ; three 
thousand of these were Germans, commanded by the Rhine- 
grave; two thousand of them were French, and a thousand 
were of other nations : they landed at Leith ; and the gover- 
nor having gathered eight thousand Scots to join with them, 
they sat down before Hadingtoun ; and here the Scottish 
nobility entered into a long consultation about their affairs. 
The protector had sent a proposition to them, that there 
might be a truce for ten years (but whether he offered to 
remove the garrisons does not appear). This he was forced 
to upon many accounts. He saw the war was like to last 
long, and to draw on great expense, and would certainly 
end in another war with France ^ he durst not any more go 
from court, and march himself at the head of the army, and 
leave the king to.the practices of his brother : there were 
also great discontents in England ; many were offended 
with the changes made in religion ; the commons complained 
generally of oppression, and of the enclosing of grounds, of 
which the sad effects broke out next year : he began to la- 
bour under the envy of the nobility ; the clergy were almost 
all displeased with him ; and the state of affairs in Ger- 
many made it necessary to join with the king of France 
against the emperor. All this made him very desirous of 
such a peace with Scotland, as might, at least, preserve the 
queen from being disposed of for ten years. In that time, 
by treaty and pensions, they might hope to gain their ends 
more certainly than by a war, which only inflamed the 
Scots against them ; according to the witty saying of one of 
the Scots, who, being asked what he thought of the match 
with England, said, he knew not how he should like the 
marriage, but he was sure he did not like the way of wooing. 
On the other hand, the French pressed the Scots to send their 
young queen into France, in the ships that had brought 
over their forces ; who should be married to the dauphin, 
and then they might depend on the protection of France. 
Many were for accepting the proposition from England 
(particularly all those who secretly favoured the reforma- 
tion) ; they thought it would give them present quiet, and 
free them from all the distractions which they either felt, or 
might apprehend, from a lasting war with so powerful an 
enemy ; whereas the sending away of their queen would put 
them out of a capacity of obtaining a peace, if the war this 
year proved as unsuccessful as it was the last ; and the de- 
fence they had from France was almost as bad as the inva- 



108 HISTORY OF 

sions of the English, for the French were very insolent, and 
committed great disorders. But all the clergy were so ap- 
prehensive of their ruin by the marriage with England, that 
they never judged themselves safe till the thing was out of 
their power, by the sending their queen into France : and 
it was said, that when once the English saw the hopes of 
the marriage irrecoverably lost, they would soon grow weary 
of the war ; for then the king of France would engage in 
the defence of Scotland with his whole force, so that no- 
thing would keep up the war so much as having their 
queen still among them. To this many- of the nobility 
yielded, being corrupted by money from France; and the 
governor consented to it, for which he was to be made duke 
of Chastelherault in France, and to have an estate of twelve 
thousand livres a year : and so it was agreed to send their 
queen away. This being gained, the French ships set sail 
to sea, as if they had been to return to France ; but sailed 
round Scotland by the Isles of Orkney, and came into Dun- 
briton Frith, near to which the queen was kept, in Dun- 
briton Castle ; and receiving her from thence, with an 
honourable convoy that was sent to attend on her, they 
carried her over to Britaigne in France, and so by easy 

i'ournies she was brought to court, where her uncles received 
ler with great joy, hoping by her means to raise and es- 
tablish their fortunes in France. 

In the mean time the siege of Kadingtoun wz5 carried on 
with great valour on both sides. The French were as- 
tonished at the courage, the nimbleness, and labours, of the 
Scotch highlanders, who were half naked ; but capable of 
great hardships, and used to run on with marvellous swift- 
ness *. In one sally which the besieged made, one of those 
got an Englishman on his shoulders, and carried him away 
with that quickness, that nothing could stop him ; and 
though the Englishman bit him so in the neck, that as soon 
as he had brought him into the camp, he himself fell down 
as dead, yet he carried him off; for which he was nobly 
rewarded by Dessie. The English defended themselves no 
less courageously ; and though a recruit of about one thou- 
sand foot, and three hundred 'horse, that was sent from 
Berwick, led by Sir Robert Bowes and Sir Thomas Palmer, 
was so fatally intercepted, that they were almost all to a 
man killed, yet they lost no heart. Another party of about 
three hundred escaped the ambush laid for them, and got into 
the town, with a great deal of ammunition and provisions, 
pf which the besieged were come to be in want : but at the 

• TTiuanus. 



THE REFORMATION. 100 

same time, both Homecastle and Fascastle were lost : the 
former was taken by treachery ; for some coming in as de- 
serters, seeming to be very zealous for the English quarrel, 
and being too much trusted by the governor, and going often 
out to bring intelligence, gave the Lord Home notice, that, 
on that side where the rock was, the English kept no good 
watches, trusting to the steepness of the place ; so they 
agreed that some should come and climb the rock, to whom 
they should give assistance ; which was accordingly done, 
and so it was surprised in the night. The governor of Fas- 
castle had summoned the country people to bring him in 
provisions ; upon which (by a common stratagem) soldiers 
coming as countrymen, threw down their carriages at the 
gates, and fell on the sentinels ; and so, the signal being 
given, some that lay concealed near at hand, came in time 
to assist them, and took the castle. 

The protector, till the army was gathered together, sent a 
fleet of ships to disturb the Scots, by the descents they 
should make in divers places ; and his brother being ad- 
miral, he commanded him to go to his charge. He landed 
first in Fife, at St. Minins ; but there the queen's natural 
brother, James, afterwards earl of Murray, and regent of 
Scotland, gathered the country people together, and made 
head against them. The English were twelve hundred, and 
had brought their cannon to land ; but the Scots charged 
them so home, that they forced them to their ships : many 
were drowned, and many killed: the Scots reckoned the 
number of the slain to be six hundred, and a hundred pri- 
soners taken. The next descent they made was no more 
prosperous to them : for, landing in the night at Montrose, 
Erskine, of Dun, gathered the country together, and divided 
them in three bodies, ordering one to appear soon after the 
former had engaged : the enemy, seeing a second and a 
third body come against them, apprehending greater num- 
bers, run back to their ships ; but with so much loss, that, 
of eight hundred who had landed, the third man got not 
safe to the ships again. So the admiral returned, having 
got nothing but loss and disgrace by the expedition. 

But now the English army came into Scotland, com- 
manded by the earl of Shrewsbury : though both the Scotch 
writers and Thuanus say, the earl of Lennox had the chief 
command ; but he only came with the earl of Shrewsbury, 
as knowing the country and people best, and so being the 
fitter both to get intelligence, and to negociate, if there was 
room for it. The Scots were by this time gone home for the 
most part ; and the nobility, with Dessie, agreed that it was 
not fit to put all to hazard, and therefore raised the siege of 

Vol. n, Part L L 



no HISTORY OF 

Hadingtoun, and marched back to Edinburgh (Aug. 20). 
The Lord Gray, with a great part of the English anny, fol- 
lowed him in the rear, but did not engage him into any great 
action ; by which a good opportunity was lost, for the 
French were in great disorder. The English army came 
into Hadingtoun : they consisted of about seventeen thou- 
sand men ; of which number seven thousand were horse, 
and three thousand of the foot were German landsknights, 
whom the protector had entertained in his service. These 
Germans were some of the broken troops of the Protestant 
army, who, seeing the state of their own country desperate, 
offered their service to the protector. He too easily enter- 
tained them ; reckoning, that, being Protestants, they 
would be sure to him, and would depend wholly on himself : 
but this proved a fatal counsel to him, the English having 
been always jealous of a standing, but much more of a fo- 
reign, force about their prince : so there was great occasion 
given by this to those who traded in sowing jealousies 
among the people. The English, having victualled Hading- 
toun and repaired the fortifications, returned back into their 
own country ; but had they gone on to Edinburgh, they had 
found things there in great confusion : for DessiC; when he 
got thither, having lost five hundred of his men in the re- 
treat, went to quarter his soldiers in the town ; but the pro- 
vost (so is the chief magistrate there called) opposed it. 
The French broke in with force, and killed him and his son, 
with all they found in the streets, men, women, and chil- 
dren : and, as a spy, whom the English had in Edinburgh, 
gave them notice, the Scots were now more alienated from 
the French than from the English. The French had carried 
it very gently till the queen was sent away ; but reckoned 
Scotland now a conquered country, and a province to 
France : so the Scots began, though too late, to repent the 
sending away of the queen. But it seems the English had 
orders not to venture too far ; for the hopes of the marriage 
were now ^one, and the protector had no mind to engage 
in a war with France. These things happened in the be- 
ginning of October. Dessie, apprehending that at Hading- 
toun they were now secure, the siege being so lately raised^ 
resolved to try if he could carry the place by surprise. The 
English from thence had made excursions as far as Edin- 
burgh ; in one of which the French fell on them, pursued 
them, and killed about two hundred, and took six score pri- 
soners, almost within their works. Soon after, Dessie marched 
in the night, and surprised one of their outworks, and was 
come to the gates ; where the place had been certainly lost, 
if it had not been for a French deserter, who knew, if he 



THE REFORMATION. Ill 

were taken, what he was to expect : he therefore fired one 
of the great cannon, which, being discharged amongst the 
thickest of the French, killed so many, and put the rest in 
such disorder, that Dessie was forced to quit the attempt. 
From thence he went and fortified Leith, which was then but 
a mean village ; but the situation of the place being recom- 
mended by the security it now had, it soon came to be one 
of the best-peopied towns in Scotland. From thence he in- 
tended to have gone on, to take Broughty Castle, and to re- 
cover Dundee, which were then in the hands of the Eng- 
lish : but he was ordered by the queen regent to make an 
inroad into England. There, after some slight engagements, 
in which the English had the worst, the Scotch and French 
came in as far as Newcastle, and returned loaded with 
spoil ; which the French divided among themselves, allow- 
ing the Scots no share of it. An English priest was taken, 
who bore that disgrace of his country so heavily, that he 
threw himself on the ground, and would not eat, nor so much 
as open his eyes, but lay thus prostrate till he died. This 
the French, who seldom let their misfortunes afflict them, 
looked on with much astonishment. But at that time the 
English had fortified Inch-keith, an island in the Frith, and 
put eight hundred men in it. Seventeen days after that, 
Dessie brought his forces from Leith, and recovered it ; 
having killed four hundred English, and forced the rest to 
surrender. 

Thus ended this year, and with it Dessie's power in 
Scotland : for the queen-mother and the governor had made 
great complaints of him at the court of France, that he put 
the nation to vast charge to little purpose ; so that he was 
more uneasy to his friends than his enemies : and his last 
disorder at Edinburgh had, on the one hand, so raised the 
insolence of the French soldiers, and, on the other hand, so 
alienated and inflamed the people, that, unless another were 
sent to command, who should govern more mildly, there 
might be great danger of a defection of a whole kingdom : for 
now the seeds of their distaste of the French government 
were so sown, that men came generally to condemn their 
sending the queen away, and to hate the governor for con- 
senting to it, but chiefly to abhor the clergy, who had 
wrought it for their own ends. 

Monsieur de Thormes u as sent over to command ; and 
Monluc, bishop of V^alence, came with him to govern the 
counsels, and be chancellor of the kingdom : he had lately 
returned from his embassy at Constantinople. He was one 
of the wisest men of that time, and was always for naode- 
rate counsels in matters of religion ; which made him be 



112 HISTORY OF 

sometime suspected of heresy : and, indeed, the whole 
sequel of his life declared him to be one of the greatest men 
of that age ; only his being so long, and so firmly united to 
Queen Katharine IMedici's interest, takes off a great deal of 
the high character which the rest of his life has given of 
him : but he was at this time unknown, and ill represented 
in Scotland ; where they, that looked for advantages from 
their alliance with France, took it ill to feee a Frenchman 
sent over to enjoy the best office in the kingdom. The 
queen mother herself was afraid of him : so to avoid new 
grounds of discontent, he left the kingdom, and returned 
into France. 

Thus ended the war between Scotland and England this 
year, in almost an equal mixture of good and bad success. 
The English had preserved Hadingtoun, which was the 
chief matter of thrs year's action : but they had been at 
great charge m the war, in which they were only on the 
defensive ; they had lost other places, and been unsuccess- 
ful at sea ; and, which was worst of all, they had now lost 
all hopes of the marriage, and were almost engaged in a 
war with France, which was like to fall on the king, when 
his affairs were in an ill condition, his people being divided 
and discontented at home, and his treasure much exhausted 
by this war. 

The state of Germany was at this time most deplorable : 
the pope and emperor continued their quarrelling about the 
translation of the council. Mendoza at Rome, and Velasco 
at Bologna, declared, in the emperor's name, that a council 
being called by his great and long endeavours for the quiet- 
ing of Germany, and he being engaged in a war to get it to 
be received ; and having procured a submission of the em- 
pire to the council, it was, upon frivolous and feigned 
causes, removed out of Germany, to one of the pope's 
towns ; by which the Germans thought themselves disen- 
gaged of their promise, which was to submit to a council in 
Germany ; and therefore that he protested against it, as an 
unlawful meeting, to whose decrees he would not submit ; 
and that if they did not return to Trent, he would take care 
of settling religion some other way. But the pope, being 
encouraged by the French king, was not ill pleased to see 
the emperor anew embroil himself with the Germans, and 
therefore intended the council should be continued at Bo- 
logna. Upon this the emperor ordered three divines. Julius 
Flugius, bishop of Naumburg, Michael Sidonius, and Isle- 
bius Agricola, to draw a form of religion. The" two former 
had been always papists, and the latter was formerly a Pro- 
testant, but was believed to be now corrupted by the em- 






THE REFORM /VTION. U3 

peror, that the name of one of the Augsburg confession 
might make what they were set out pass the more easily. 
They drew up all the points of religion, in a book, which 
was best known by the name of the Interim, because it was 
to last during that interval, till a general council should 
meet in Germany. In it, all the points of the Romish doc- 
trine were set forth in the smoothest terms possible ; only 
married men might officiate as priests, and the communion 
was to be given in both kinds. The book being thus pre- 
pared, a diet was summoned to Augsburg in February, where 
the first thing done was the solemn investiture of Maurice 
in the electorate of Saxony. He had been declared elector 
last year by the emperor, before Wirtemberg; but now it 
was performed with great ceremony on the 24th of February, 
which was the emperor's birth-day : John Frederick looking 
*on with his usual constancy of mind. All he said was, 
" Now they triumph in that dignity, of which they have 
against justice and equity spoiled me ; God grant they may 
enjoy it peaceably and happily, and may never need any 
assistance from me or my posterity." And, without express- 
ing any further concern about it, he went to his studies, 
which were almost wholly employed in the Scriptures. 

The book of the Interim being prepared, the elector of 
Brandenburg sent for Martin Bucer, who was both a learned 
and moderate divine, and showed it him. Bucer having 
read it, plainly told him, that it was nothing but downright 
popery, only a little disguised ; at which the elector was 
much offended, for he was pleased with it ; and Bucer, not 
without great danger, returned back to Strasburg. On the 
15th of March, the book was proposed to the diet ; and the 
elector of Mentz, without any order, did, in all the princes' 
names, give the emperor thanks for it ; which he interpreted 
as the assent of the whole diet ; and after that would not 
hear any that came to him to stop it, but published it as 
agreed to by the diet. 

At Rome and Bologna it was much condemned, as a high 
attempt in the emperor to meddle with points of religion ; 
such as dispensing with the marriage of priests, and the 
communion in both kinds : wherefore some of that church 
writ against it : and matters went so high, that wise men of 
that side began to fear the breach between the emperor and 
them might, before they were aware, be past reconciling ; 
for they had not forgot that the last pope's stiffness had lost 
England, and they were not a little afraid they might now 
lose the emperor. But if the pope were offended for the 
concessions in these two particulars, the protestants thought 
they had much greater cause to dislike it, since in all other 

L3 



114 HISTORY OF 

controverted points it was against them. So that several of 
that side writ likewise against it ; but the emperor was now 
so much exalted with his success, that he resolved to go 
through with it, little regarding the opposition of either hand. 
The new elector of Saxony went home, and offered it to his 
subjects; but they retused to receive it, and said (as Sir 
Philip Hobbey, then ambassador from England at the empe- 
ror's court, writ over (Cotton Library, Titus, B. ii), that they 
had it under the emperor's hand and seal, that he should 
not meddle with matters of religion^^but only with reforming 
the commonwealth, and that if their prince would not pro- 
tect them in this matter, they should find another v\ ho would 
defend them from such oppression. An exhortation for the 
receiving of it was read at Augsburg ; but they also refused 
it. Many towns sent their addresses to the emperor, de- 
siring him not to oppress their consciences. But none was 
of such a nature as that from Linda, a little town near Con- 
stance, which had declared for the emperor in the former 
war : they returned answer, that they could not agree to the 
Interim, without incurring eternal damnation ; but to show 
their submission to him in all other things, they should not 
shut their gates, nor make resistance, against any he should 
send, though it were to spoil and destroy their town. This 
let the emperor and his council see how difficult a work it 
would be to subdue the consciences of the Germans. But 
his chancellor Grandvil pressed him to extreme counsels, 
and to make an example of that town, who had so perempto- 
rily refused to obey his commands : yet he had little reason 
to hope he should prevail on those who were at liberty, when 
he could work so little on his prisoner, the duke of Saxe. 
Tor he had endeavoured, by great offers, to persuade him to 
agree to it, but all was in vain ; for he always told them that 
kept him, that his person was in their power, but his con- 
science was in his own, and that he would not on any terms 
depart from the Augsburg Confession : upon this he was 
severely used, his chaplain was put from him, with most of 
his servants ; but he continued still unmoved, and as cheer- 
ful as in his greatest prosperity. The Lutheran divines 
entered into great disputes how far they might comply. 
Melancthon thought that the ceremonies of popery might 
be used, since they were of their own nature indifferent. 
Others, as Amstorfius, Illiricus, with the greatest part of the 
Lutherans, thought the receiving the ceremonies would make 
way for all the errors of popery ; and though they were of 
their own nature indifferent, yet they ceased to be so, when 
they were enjoined as things necessary to salvation. But 
the emperor going on resolutely, many divines were diiven 



THE REFORMATION. 115 

away ; some concealed themselves in Germany, others fled 
into Switzerland, and some came over into England. 

When the nev\s of the changes that were made here in 
England were carried beyond sea, and, after Peter Martyr's 
being with Cranmer, were more copiously written by him to 
his friends ; Calvin and M. Bucer, who began to think the 
Reformation almost oppressed in Germany, now turned their 
eyes more upon Encland. Calvin writ to the protector oji 
the 29th of October, encouraging him to go on notwithstand- 
ing the wars ; as Hezekias had done in his reformation. He 
lamented the heats of some that professed the gospel, but 
complained that he heard there were few lively sermons 
preached in England ; and that the preachers recited their 
discourses coldly. He much approves a set-form of prayers, 
whereby the consent of all the churches did more manifestly 
appear: but he advises a more complete reformation: he 
taxed the prayers for the dead, the use of chrism and extreme 
unction, since they were nowhere recommended in Scripture. 
He had heard that the reason why they went no further was, 
because the times could not bear it ; but this was to do the 
work of God by political maxims ; which though they ought 
to take place in other things, yet should not be followed in 
matters in which the salvation of souls was concerned. But, 
above all things, he complained of the great impieties and 
vices that were so common in England, as swearing, drink- 
ing, and uncleanness ; and prayed him earnestly that these 
things might be looked after. 

Martin Bucer writ also a discourse, congratulating the 
changes then made in England, which was translated into 
English by Sir Philip Hobbey's brother. In it he answered 
the book that Gardiner had written against him ; which he 
had formerly delayed to do, because King Henry had desired 
he would let it alone till the English and Germans had 
conferred about religion. That book did chiefly relate to 
the marriage of the clergy : Bucer showed from many 
fathers, that they thought every man had not the gift of 
chastity, which Gardiner thought every one might have that 
pleased. He taxed the f pen lewdness of the Romish clergy, 
who being much set against marriage, which was God's or- 
dinance, did gently pass over the impurities which the for- 
bidding it had occasioned among themselves. He particu- 
larly taxed Gardiner himself, that he had his rents payed 
him out of stews : lie taxed him also for his state and pomp- 
ous way of living, and showed how indecent it was for a 
churchman to be sent in embassies : and that St. Ambrose, 
though sent to make peace, was ashamed of it, and thought 
it unbecoming the priesthood. Both Fagius and he being 



116 HISTORY OF 

forced to leave Germany, upon the business of the Interim, 
Cranraer invited them over to England ; and sent them to 
Cambridge, as he had done Peter Martyr to Oxford. But 
Fagius, not agreeing with this air, died soon after ; a man 
greatly learned in the oriental tongues, and a good ex- 
pounder of the Scripture. 

This being the state of affairs both abroad and at home, a 
session of parliament was held in England on the 24th of 
November, to which day it had been prorogued from the 
15th of October, by reason of the plague then in London. 
The first bill that was finished, was that about the marriage 
of the priests. It was brought into tiie house^f commons 
the 3d of December, read the second time on the 5th, and 
the third time the 6th. But this bill being only that married 
men might be made priests, a new bill was framed, that, 
besides the former provision, priests might marry : this was 
read the first time the 7ih, the second time the 10th, and was 
fully argued on the 11th, and agreed to on the 12th, and sent 
up to the lords on the 13th of December. In that house it 
stuck as long, as it had been soon dispatched by the com- 
mons. It lay on the table till the 9th of February, then it 
was read the first time, and the 11th the second time; on 
the 16th it was committed to the bishops of Ely and West- 
minster, the lord chief justice, and the attorney general : 
and on the 19th of February it was agreed to ; the bishops 
of London, Duresme, Norwich, Carlisle, Hereford, Worces- 
ter, Bristol, Chichester, and Landaff, and the Lords Morley, 
Dacres, Windsor, and Wharton, dissenting. It had the royal 
assent, and so became a law. The preamble sets forth, 
" That it were better for priests and other ministers of the 
church to live chaste and without marriage ; whereby they 
might better attend to the ministry of the gospel, and be less 
distracted with secular cares : so that it were much to be 
wished, that they would of themselves abstain. But great 
filthiness of living, with other inconveniences, had followed 
on the laws that compelled chastity, and prohibited marriage ; 
so that it was better they should be suffered to marry than 
be so restrained : therefore all laws and canons that had 
been made against it, being only made by human authority, 
are repealed. So that all spiritual persons of what degree 
soever might lawfully marry, providing they married accord- 
ing to the order of the church : but a proviso was added, 
that, because many divorces of priests had been made after 
the six articles were enacted, and that the women might 
have thereupon married again, all these divorces, with every 
thing that had followed on them, should be confirmed." 
There was no law that passed in this reign with more con- 



THE REFORMATION. 117 

tradiction and censure than this, and therefore the reader 
may expect the larger account of this matter. 

The unmarried state of the clergy had so much to be said 
for it, as being a course of life that was more disengaged 
from secular cares and pleasures, that it was cast on the 
reformers everywhere as a foul reproach, that they could 
not restrain their appetites, but engaged in a life that drew 
after it domestic cares, with many other distractions : this 
was an objection so easy to be apprehended, that the people 
had been more prejudiced against the marriage of the clergy, 
if they had not felt greater inconveniences by the debau- 
cheries of priests, who, being restrained from marriage, 
had defiled the beds, and deflowered the daughters, of their 
neighbours, into whose houses they had free and unsus- 
pected access; and whom, under the cloak of receiving 
confessions, they could more easily entice. This made 
them that they were not so much wrought on by the 
noise of chastity (when they saw so much and so plainly 
to the contrary) as otherwise they would have been by a 
thing that sounded so well : but, on the other nand, there 
was no argument which the reformers had more considered. 
There were two things upon which the question turned : the 
one was, the obligation that priesthood brought with it to 
live unmarried ; the other was, the tie they might be under 
by any vow they had made. For the former, they consi- 
dered, that God, having ordained a race of men to be 
priests under Moses's law, who should offer up expiatory 
sacrifices for the sins of the Jews, did not only not forbid 
marriage, but made it necessary, for that oflfice was to de- 
scend by inheritance ; so that priesthood was not incon- 
sistent with that state. In the IS'ew Testament, some of the 
qualifications of a bishop and deacon are, their being the 
husband of one wife, and their having well ordered their 
house, and brought up their children : St. Peter and other 
apostles were married ; it was thought St. Paul was so like- 
wise ; Aquila was certainly married to Priscilla, and car- 
ried her about with him. Our Saviour, speaking of the help 
that an unmarried state was to the kingdom of God, recom- 
mended it equally to all ranks of men as they could bear it. 
St. Paul said, " Let every man have his own wife; it is 
better to marry than to burn ;" and, " marriage is honour- 
able in all ;" and the forbidding to marry is reckoned by him 
a mark of the apostacy of the latter times ; so that the 
matter seemed clear from the Scriptures. 

In the first ages, Saturninus, Basilides, Montanus, No- 
vatus, and the Eucratites, condemned marriage as a state 
of liberty more than was fit for Christians. Against those 



118 HISTORY OF 

was asserted, by the primitive fathers, the lawfulness of 
marriage to all Christians without discrimination ; and they, 
who entering into holy orders forsook their wives, were se- 
verely condemned by the apostolical canons, and by the 
council of Gangra. in the beginning of the fourth, and the 
council of TruUo in the latter end of the seventh, or rather 
in the beginning of the eighth age. Many great bishops in 
these times lived still with their wives, and had children by 
them; as namely, both Nazianzen's and Basil's fathers: 
and Hilary of Poictiers, when banished to Phrygia, and 
very old, writing to his own daughter Abra, bid her ask her 
mother the meaning of those things which she by reason of 
her age understood not ; by wiiich it appears that his 
daughter was then very young, and by consequence born to 
him after he was a bishop. In the council of Nice, it being 
proposed that clergymen should depart from their wives, 
Paphnutius, though himself unmarried, opposed it as an 
unreasonable yoke. And Heliodorus, bishop of Trica, the 
author of the first of those love fables now known by the 
name of romance's, being suspected of too much lascivious- 
ness, and concerned to clear himself of that charge, did 
first move that clergymen should be obliged to live single, 
vv^hich, the historian says, they were not tied to before, but 
bishops, as they pleased, lived still with their wives. The 
fathers in those times extolled a single life very high, and 
yet they all thought a man once married might be a bishop, 
though his wife were yet living ; they did not allow it, in- 
deed, to him that had married twice ; but for this they had 
a distinction, that if a man had been once married before 
his baptism, and again after his baptism, he was to be 
understood to be in the state of a single marriage : so that 
Jerome, who writ warmly enough against second marriages, 
yet says, ad Oceanum, that the bishops in his age, who 
were but once married in that sense, were not to be num- 
bered ; and that more of these could be reckoned than 
were at the council of Ariminura, who are said to have 
been eight hundred bishops. It is true, that in that age they 
began to make canons against the marriage of those who 
were in orders, especially in the Roman and African 
churches ; but those were only positive laws of the church, 
and the frequent repeating of those canons shows, that even 
there they were not generally obeyed. Of Synesius we 
read, that when he was ordained priest, he declared that 
he would not live secretly with his wife as some did, but 
that he would dwell publicly with her, and wished that 
he might have many children by her. In the eastern church 
all their clergy below the order of bishops are usually mar- 



THE REFORMATION. 119 

ried before they be ordained ; and afterwards live with their 
wives, and have children by them, without any kind of 
prohibition. In the western church the married clergy are 
taken notice of in many of the Spanish and Galilean synods, 
and the bishops'and priests' wives are called episcopal and 
presbyterce. In most of the cathedrals of England, the 
clergy were married in the Saxon times, but, as was shown, 
page 29 of the first Part, because they would not quit 
their wives, they were put out, not of sacred orders, but 
only out of the seats they were in, and those weie given to 
the monks. When Pope Nicholas had pressed the celibate 
of the clergy ia the ninth century, there was great opposi- 
tion made to it, chiefly by Huldericus bishop of Augsburg, 
who was held a saint notwithstanding this opposition. 
Restitutus, bishop of London, lived openly with his wife ; 
nor was the celibate of the clergy generally imposed till 
Pope Gregory the Seventh's time, in the eleventh century ; 
who, projecting to have the clergy depend wholly on him- 
self, and so to separate them from the interests of those 
Erinces in whose dominions they lived, considered, that, by 
aving wives and children, they gave pledges to the state 
where they lived, and reckoned, that, if they were free 
from this incumbrance, then their persons being sacred, 
there would be nothing to hinder, but that they might do 
as they pleased in obedience to the pope's, and opposition 
to their own prince's orders. The writers near Giegory the 
Seventh's time called this a new thing, against the mind of 
the holy fathers, and full of rashness in him, thus to turn 
out married priests. Lanfranc, archbishop of Canterbury, 
did not impose celibate on the clergy in the villages, but 
only on those that lived in towns, and on prebendaries. But 
Anselm carried it further, and simply imposed it on all the 
clergy ; yet himself laments, that sodomy was become then 
very common, and even public ; which was also the com- 
plaint of Petrus Damiani, in Pope Gregory's time. Ber- 
nard said, that that sin was frequent among the bishops in 
his time, and that this, with many other abominations, was 
the natural effect of prohibiting marriage. This made abbot 
Panormitan wish that it were left to men's liberty to marry 
if they pleased. And Pius the Second said, there might 
have been good reasons for imposing celibate on the clergy, 
but he believed there were far better reasons for taking away 
those laws that imposed it. Yet, even since those laws have 
been made, Petrarch had a licence to marry, and keep his 
preferments still. Boniface, archbishop of Canterbury,. 
Richard, bishop of Chichester, and Geofrey, bishop of Ely, 
are said to have had wives ; and though there were not so 



120 HISTORY OF 

many instances of priests marrying after orders, yet if there 
were any thing in the nature of priesthood, inconsistent by 
the law of God with marriage, then it was as unlawful for 
them to continue in their former marriages, as to contract 
a new one. Some few instances were also gathered out of 
church history, of bishops and priests marrying after orders ; 
but as these were few, so there was just reason to contro- 
vert them. 

Upon the whole matter, it was clear that the celibate of 
the clergy flowed from no law of God, nor from any gene- 
ral law of the church ; but the contrary, of clergymen's 
living with their wives, was universally received for many 
ages. As for vov/s, it was much questioned how f^r they 
did bind in such cases. It seemed a great sin to impose 
such on any, when they were yet young, and did not well 
know their own dispositions. Nor was it in a man's power 
to keep them. For continence being one of those graces 
that are promised by God to all that ask it, as it was not in 
a man's power, without extreme severities on himself, to 
govern his own constitution of body, so he had no reason 
to expect God should interpose, when he had provided 
another remedy for such cases. Besides, the promise made 
by clergymen, according to the rites of the Roman ponti- 
fical, did not oblige them to celibate. The words were, 
** Wilt thou fellow chastity and sobriety V to which the 
subdeacon answered, " I will." By chastity, was not to 
be understood a total abstinence from all, but only from un- 
lawful embraces ; since a man might live chaste in a state 
of marriage, as well as out of it. But whatever might be 
in this, the English clergy were not concerned in it ; for 
there was no such question nor answer made in the forms of 
their ordination : so they were not by any vow precluded 
from marriage. And for the expediency of it, nothing was 
more evident, than that these laws had brought in much 
uncleanness into the church, and those who pressed them 
most had been signally noted for these vices. No prince in 
the English history lewder than Edgar, that had so pro- 
moted it. The legate that in King Henry the Second's time 
got that severe decree made, that put all the married clergy 
from their livings, was found the very night after (for the 
credit of the celibate) in bed with a whore. On this sub- 
ject many indecent stories were gathered, especially by 
Bale, who was a learned man, but did not write with that 
temper and discretion that became a divine. He gathered 
all the lewd stories that could be raked together to this pur- 
pose ; and the many abominable things found in the monas- 
teries were then fresh in all men's memories. It was also 



THE REFORMATION. 121 

ftbserved, that the unmarried clergy had been, as much as 
the married could be, intent upon raising the families, and 
the enriching of their nephews and kindred (and sometimes 
of their bastards ; witness the present Pope Paul III, and 
not long before him Alexander VI); so that the married 
clergy could not be tempted to more covetousness than had 
appeared in the unmarried. And for the distraction of do- 
mestic affairs, the clergy had formerly given themselves up 
to such a secular course of life, that it was thought nothing 
could increase it ; but if the married clergy should set them- 
selves to raise more than a decent maintenance for their 
children, such as might fit them for letters or callings, 
and should neglect hospitality, become covetous, and ac- 
cumulate livings and preferments, to make estates for their 
children ; this might be justly curbed by new laws, or 
rather the renewing of the ancient canons, by which clergy- 
men were declared to be only entrusted with the goods of 
the church for public ends, and were not to apply them to 
their own private uses, nor to leave them to their children 
and friends. 

Thus had this matter been argued, in many books that 
were written on this subject, by Poinet and Parker, the one 
afterwards bishop of Winchester, and the other archbishop 
of Canterbury; also by Bale, bishop of Ossory, with many 
more. Dr. Ridley, Dr. Taylor (afterwards bishop of Lin- 
coln), Dr. Benson, and Dr. Redmayn, appeared more con- 
fidently i^ it than many others ; being men that were re- 
solved never to marry themselves, who yet thought it neces- 
sary, and therefore pleaded (according to the pattern that 
Paphnutius had set them), that all should be left to their 
liberty in this matter. 

The debate about it was brought into the convocation, 
where Dr. Redmayn's authority went a great way. He 
was a man of great learning aAd probity, and of so much 
gi eater weight, because he did not in all points agree with 
the reformers : but, being at this time sick, his opinion was 
brought under his hand, which will be found in the Col- 
lection (No. XXX ) copied from the original. It was to 
this purpose, " That though the Scriptures exhorted priests 
to live chaste, and out of the cares of the world, yet the 
laws forbidding them marriage were only canons and con- 
stitutions of the church ; not founded on the word of God : 
and therefore he thought, that a man once married might 
be a priest : and he did not find the priests in the church of 
England had made any vow against marriage ; and there- 
fore he thought, that the king and the higher powers of the 
church might take away the clog of perpetual continence 
Vol. II, Part I. M 



m HISTORY OF 

from the priests, and grant that such as could not, or would 
not contain, might marry once, and not be put from their 
holy ministration." It was opposed by many in both houses, 
but carried at last by the major vote. All this I gather 
from what is printed concerning it ; for I have seen no re- 
mains of this, or of any of the other convocations that came 
afterwards in this reign ; the registers of them being de- 
stroyed in the fire of London. This act seemed rather a 
connivance, and permission of the clergy to marry, than 
any direct allowance of it ; so the enemies of that state of 
life continued to reproach the married clergy still ; and 
this was much heightened by many indecent marriages, 
and other light behaviour of some priests. But these 
things made way for a more full act concerning this mat- 
ter, about three years after. 

The next act that passed in this parliament was about 
the public service ; which was put into the house of com- 
mons on the 9th of December, and the next day was also 
put into the house of lords : it lay long before them, and 
was not agreed to till the 15th of January. The earl of 
Derby, the bishops of London, Duresme, Norwich, Car- 
lisle, Hereford, Worcester, Westminster, and Chichester, 
and the Lords Dacie^ and Windsor, protesting. The pre- 
amble of the act sets forth, " That there had been several 
forms of service, and that of late there had been great 
difference in the administration of the sacraments and 
other parts of Divine worship : and that the most effectual 
endeavours could not stop the inclinations of many to de- 
part from the former customs : which the king had not 
punished, believing they flowed from a good zeal. But, 
that there might be an uniform way over all the kingdom, 
the king, by the advice of the lord protector and his coun- 
cil, had appointed the archbishop of Canterbury, with 
other learned and discreet bishops and divines, to draw an 
order of divine worship, having respect to the pure religion 
of Christ taught in the Scripture, and to the practice of 
the primitive church, which they, by the aid of the Holy 
Ghost, had with one uniform agreement concluded on: 
wherefore the parliament having considered the book, and 
the things that were altered or retained in it, they gave 
their most humble thanks to the king for his care about it : 
and did pray, that all who had formerly offended in these 
matters, except such as were in the Tower of London, or 
the prison of the Fleet, should be pardoned ; and did enact, 
that from the feast of Whit-Sunday next, all divine offices 
should be performed according to it, and that such of the 
clergy as should refuse to do it* or continue to officiate in 



THE REFORMATION. 123 

any other manner, should upon the first conviction be im- 
prisoned six months, and forfeit a year's profit of their be- 
nefice : for the second oflTence forfeit all their church pre- 
ferments, and suflfer a year's imprisonment : and for the 
third offence should be imprisoned during life. And all 
that should write, or put out things in print against it, or 
threaten any clergymen for using it, were to be fined in 10/. 
for the first offence, 20/. for the second, and to forfeit all 
their goods, and be imprisoned for life, upon a third 
offence. Only at the universities they might use it in Latin 
and Greek, excepting the office of the communion. It was 
also lawful to use other psalms or prayers taken out of the 
Bible, so those in the book were not omitted." This act 
was variously censured by those who disliked it. Some 
thought it too much, that it was said the book was drawn 
by the aid of the Holy Ghost : but others said this was not 
to be so understood as if they had been inspired by extra- 
ordinary assistance ; for then there had been no room for 
any correction of what was now done : and therefore it 
was only to be understood in that sense, as all good mo- 
tions and consultations are directed or assisted by the secret 
influences of God's Holy Spirit, which do oft help good 
naeu, even in their imperfect actions, where the good that 
is done is justly ascribed to the grace of God. Others cen- 
sured it, because it was said to be done by uniform agree- 
ment ; and the three bishops that were employed -in the 
drawing of it, protested against it. These were the bishops 
of Hereford, Chichester, and Westminster ; but these had 
agreed in the main parts of the work, though in some few 
particulars they were not satisfied, which made them dis- 
sent from the whole. 

The proviso for the psalms and prayers taken out of the 
Bible, was for the singing psalms, which were translated 
into veise, and much sung by all who loved the Reforma- 
tion, and were in many places used in churches. In the 
ancient church the Christians were much exercised in re- 
peating the Psalms of David : many had them all by 
heart, and used to be reciting them when they went about 
their work ; and those who retired into a monastical course 
of life, spent many of their hours in repeating the Psalter. 
ApoUinaris put them in verse, as being easier for the me- 
mory. Other devout hymns came to be also in use. 
Nazianzen among the Greeks, and Prudentius among the 
Latins, laboured on that argument with the greatest suc- 
cess. There were other hymns that were not put in verse ; 
the chief of which were, that most ancient hymn which we 
use now after the sacrament, and the celebrated Ambrosian 



124 HISTORY OF 

hymn that begins Te Deum laudamus. But as, when the 
worship of the departed saints came to be dressed up with 
much pomp, hymns were also made for their honour ; and 
the Latin tongue, as well as prosody, being then much de- 
cayed ; these came to be cast into rhymes, and were written 
generally in a fantastical affected style : so now at the Re- 
formation, some poets, such as the times afforded, translated 
David's Psalms into verse ; and it was a sign by which 
men's affections to that work were everywhere measured, 
whether they used to sing these, or not. But as the poetry 
then was low, and not raised to that justness to which it is 
since brought, so this work, which then might pass for a to- 
lerable composure, has not been since that time so reviewed 
or changed as perhaps the thing required : heoce it is, that 
this piece of Divine worship, by the meanness of the verse, 
has not maintained its due esteem. Another thing, that 
some thought deserved to be considered in such a work, was, 
that many of the Psalms, being such as related more spe- 
cially to David's victories, and contained passages in them 
not easily understood, it seemed better to leave out these, 
which it was not so easy to sing with devotion, because the 
meaning of them either lay hid, or did not at all concern 
Christians. 

(1549.) The parliament was adjourned from the 22d of 
December to the 2d of January. On the 7th of January 
the commons sent an address to the protector, to restore La- 
timer to the bishopric of Worcester : but this took no effect, 
for that good old man did choose rather to go about and 
preach, than to engage in a matter of government, being 
now very ancient*. A bill was put in by the lords for ap- 
pointing of parks, and agreed to, the earl of Arundel only 
dissenting ; but being sent down to the commons, it was 
upon the second reading thrown out, yet not so unanimously 
but that the house was divided about it. 

On the 4th of February a bill was put in against eating 
flesh in Lent, and on fasting days ; it was committed to the 
archbishop of Canterbury, the bishops of Ely, Worcester, 
and Chichester ; and sent to the commons on the 16th, who 
sent it up on the 7th of March, with a proviso to which the 
lords agreed. In the preamble it is said, " That though it is 
clear by the word of God, that there is no day, nor kind of 
meat, purer than another, but that all are in themselves 
alike ; yet many out of sensuality had contemned such absti- 
nence as had been formerly used ; and since due absti- 
nence was a mean to virtue, and to subdue men's bodies 

♦ Jour. Proc. 



THE REFORMATION. 126 

to their soul and spirit, and was also necessary to encourage 
the trade of fishing, and for saving of flesh ; therefore, all 
former laws about fasting and abstinence were to be after 
the 1st of May repealed : and it was enacted, that from the 
1st of May none should eat flesh on Fridays, Saturdays, 
Ember-days, in Lent, or any other days that should be de- 
clared fkh-days, under several penalties. A proviso was 
added, for excepting such as should obtain the king's 
licence, or were sick, or weak, and that none should be in- 
dicted but within three months after the oflfence." 

Christ had told his disciples, that when he should be 
taken from them, then they should fast. Accordingly the 
primitive Christians used to fast oft, more particularly 
before the anniversay of the passion of Christ, which ended 
in a high festivity at Easter. Yet this was differently ob- 
served, as to the number of days. Some abstained forty 
days, in imitation of Christ's fast ; others only that week ; 
and others had only an entire fast from the time of Christ's 
death till his resurrection. On these fasts they eat nothing 
till the evening, and then they eat most commonly herbs and 
roots. Afterwards the Fridays were kept as fasts, because 
on that day Christ suff'ered. Saturdays were also added in 
the Roman church, but not without contradiction. Ember- 
weeks came in afterwards, being some days before those 
Sundays in which orders were given. And a general rule 
being laid down, that every Christian festival should be pre- 
ceded by a fast*, thereupon the vigils of holy-days came, 
though not so soon, into the number. But this, with the 
other good institutions of the primitive times, became dege- 
nerate ; even in St. Austin's time, religion came to be 
placed in these observances, and anxious rules were made 
about them. Afterwards in the church of Rome they were 
turned into a mockery ; for as on fast-days they dined, which 
the ancients did not, so the use of the most delicious fish, 
dressed in the most exquisite manner, with the richest wines 
that could be had, was allowed ; which made it ridiculous. 
So now they resolved to take off the severities of the former 
laws, and yet to keep up such laws about fasting and absti- 
nence as might be agreeable to its true end: which is, to 
subdue the flesh to the spirit, and not to gratify it by a 
change of one sort of diet into another, which may be 
both more delicate and more inflaming. So fond a thing is 
superstition, that it will help men to deceive themselves by 
the slightest pretences that can be imagined. 

* The festivals between Easter and the Ascension-day were not so, 
on the pretended reawa that tlje bridegroom wem with them; as also 
Michaelmas. 

M3 



126 HISTORY OF 

It Mras much lamented then, and there is as much cause 
for it still, that carnal men have taken advantages from the 
abuses that were formerly practi-ed, to thrown off good and 
profitable institutions : since the frequent use of fasting, 
with prayer and true devotion joined to it, is perhaps one of 
the greatest helps that can be devised, to advance one to a 
spiritual temper of mind, and to promote a holy course of 
life : and the mockery that is discernible in the way of some 
men's fasting, is a very slight excuse for any to lay aside the 
use of that which the Scriptures have so much recom- 
mended. 

There were other bills put into both houses, but did not 
pass. One was, for declaring it treason to marry the king's 
sisters, without consent of the king and his council; but 
it was thought that King Henry's will, disabling them from 
the succession in that case, would be a stronger restraint ; 
and so it was laid aside. Another bill was put in for eccle- 
siastical jurisdiction. Great complaints were made of the 
abounding vices and immoralities, which the clergy could 
neither restrain nor punish ; and so they had nothing left 
but to preach against them, which was done by many with 
great freedom. In some of these sermons, the preachers ex- 
pressed their apprehensions of signal and speedy judgments 
from Heaven, if the people did not repent ; but their sermons 
had no great efiect, for the nation grew very corrupt, 
and this brought on them severe punishments. The temporal 
lords were so jealous of putting power in churchmen's hands, 
especially to correct those vices of which themselves per- 
haps were most guilty, that the bill was laid aside. The 
pretence of opposing it w^as, that the greatest part of the 
bishops and clergy were still papists in their hearts ; so that 
if power were put into such men's hands, it was reasonable 
to expect they would employ it chiefly against those who 
favour the Reformation, and would vex them on that score, 
though with pretences fetched from other things. 

There was also put into the house of commons a bill for 
reforming of processes at common law, which was sent up 
by the commons to the lords ; but it fell in that house. I have 
seen a large discourse written then upon that argument ; in 
which it is set forth, that the law of England was a barba- 
rous kind of study, and did not lead men into a finer sort of 
learning, which made the common lawyers to be generally 
so ignorant of foreign matters, and so unable to negotiate in 
them; therefore it was proposed, that the common and 
statute laws should be, in i litation of the Roman law, 
digested into a body under titles and heads, and put in good 
Latin. But this was too great a design to be set on, or 
finished, under an infant king. If it was then necessary, it 



THE REFORMATION. 127 

will be readily acknowledged to be much more bo now, the 
volume of our statutes being so much swelled since that time : 
besides the vast number of reports and cases, and the plead- 
ings growing much longer than formerly : yet whether this 
is a thing to be much expected or desired, 1 refer it to the 
learned and wise men of that robe. 

The only act that remains of this session of parliament, 
about which I shall inform the reader, is the attainder of the 
admiral. The queen dowager, that had married him, died 
in September last, not without suspicion of poison. She was 
a good and virtuous lady, and in her whole life had done 
nothing unseemly, but the marrying him so indecently, and 
so soon after the king's death. There was found among her 
papers a discourse written by her, concerning herself, enti- 
tled, '* The Lamentation of a Sinner," which was published 
by Cecil, who writ a preface to it. In it she, with great.sin- 
cerity, acknowledges the sinful course of her life for many 
years, in which she, relying on external performances, such 
as fasts and pilgrimages, was all that while a stranger to the 
internal and true power of religion, which she came after- 
wards to feel by the study of the Scripture, and the calling 
upon God for his Holy Spirit. She explains clearly the no- 
tion she had of justification by faith, so that holiness neces- 
sarily followed upon it, but lamented the great scandal given 
by many gospellers : so were all those called, who were given 
to the reading of the Scriptures. 

She being thus dead, the admiral renewed his addresses to 
the Lady Elizabeth, but in vain ; for as he could not ex- 
pect that his brother and the council would consent to it, so 
if he had married her without thaA^, the possibility of suc- 
ceeding to the crown was cut off by King Henry's will. 
And this attempt of his occasioned that act to be put in, 
which was formerly mentioned, for declaring the marrying 
the king's sisters, without consent of council, to be treason. 
Seeing he could not compass that design, he resolved to carry 
away the king to his house of Holt, in the country ; and so 
to displace his brother, and to take the government into his 
own hands. For this end, he had laid in magazines of arras, 
and listed about ten thousand men in several places, and 
openly complained, that his brother intended to enslave the 
nation, and make himself master of all ; and had therefore 
brought over those German soldiers. He had also entered 
into treaty with several of the nobility, that envied his bro- 
ther's greatness, and were not ill pleased to see a breach 
between them, and that grown to be irreconcileable. To 
these he promised, that they should be of the council, and 
that he would dispose of the king in marriage to one of their 
daughters : the person is not named. The protector had 



138 HISTORY OF 

often told him of these things, and warned him of the dan- 
ger into wqich he would throw himself by such ways ; but 
he persisted still in his designs, though he denied and ex- 
cused them as long as was possible. Mow his restless ambi- 
tion seeming incurable, he was on the 19th of January sent 
to the Tower. The original warrant, signed by all the 
privy-couucil, is in the council-book formerly mentioned ; 
where the earl of Southamption signs with the rest : who 
was now, in outward appearance, reconciled to the protec- 
tor. On the day following the admiral's seal of his office 
was sent for, and put into Secretary Smith's hands. And 
now many things broke out against him ; and particularly a 
conspiracy of his with Sir W. Shavington, vice-treasurer of 
the mint at Bristol, who was to have furnished him with 
10,000/. and had already coined about 10,000/. false money, 
and had clipped a great deal more, to the value of 40,000/. 
in all ; for which he was attainted by a process at common 
law, and that was confirmed in parliament, Fowler, also, 
that waited in the privy-chamber, with some few others, 
were sent to the Tower. Many complaints being usually 
brought against a sinking man, the Lord Russell, the earl of 
Southampton, and Secretary Petre, were oidered to receive 
their examinations And thus .the business was let alone 
till the 28th of February, in which time his brother did 
again try if it weie possible to bring him to a better temper : 
and as he had, since their first breach, granted him 800/. a 
year in land, to gain his friendship ; so means were now 
used to persuade him to submit himself, and to withdraw 
from court, and from all employment. But it appeared that 
nothing could be done to him, that could cure his ambition, 
or the hatred he cairied to his brother. And therefore, on 
the •22d of February, a full report was made to the council of 
all the things that were informed against him ; consisting 
not only of the particulars formerly mentioned, but of many 
foul misdemeanours in the discharge of the admiralty : seve- 
ral pirates being entertained by him, who gave him a share 
of their robberies, and whom he had protected, notwith- 
standing the complaints made by other princes ; by which 
the king was in danger of a war from the princes so com- 
plaining. The whole charge consists of thirl y-three articles, 
which will be found in the Collection (No. xxxi). The par- 
ticulars, as it is entered in the council-book, were so mani- 
festly proved, not only by witnesses, but by letters under his 
own hand, that it did not seem possible to deny them. Yet 
he had been sent to, and examined, by some of the council, 
but refused to make a direct answer to them, or to sign those 
answers that he had made. So it was ordered, that the next 
day all the privy-council, except the archbishop of Canter- 



THE REFORMATION. 129 

bury, and Bh John Baker, speaker to the house of commons, 
who was engaged to attend in the house, should go to the 
Tower, and examine hira. On the 23d the lord chancellor, with 
the other counsellors, went to him, and read the articles of 
his charge, and earnestly desired him to make plain answers 
to them, excusing himself where he could, and submitting 
himself in other things ; and that he would show no obsti- 
nacy of mind. He answered them, that he expected an open 
trial, and his accusers to be brought face to face. All the 
counsellors endeavoured to persuade him to be more tract- 
able, but to no purpose. At last the lord chancellor required 
him, on his allegiance, to make his answer. He desired 
they would leave the articles with him, and he would consi- 
der of them, otherwise he would make no answer to them. 
But the counsellors resolved not to leave them with him, on 
those terms. On- the 24th of February, it was resolved in 
council, that the whole board should, after dinner, acquaint 
the king with the state of that affair, and desire to know of 
him whether he would have the law to take place ; and 
since the thing had been before the parliament, whether he 
would leave it to their determination : so tender they were 
of their young king, in a case that concerned his uncle's 
life. But the king had begun to discern his seditious tem- 
per, and was now much alienated from him. 

When the counsellors waited on him, the lord chancellor 
opened the matter to the king, and delivered his opinion for 
leaving it to the parliament. Then every counsellor by 
himself spake his mind, all to the same purpose. Last of all 
the protector spake : he protested this was a most sorrowful 
business to him ; that he had used all the means in his 
power to keep it from coming to this extremity ; but were it 
son or brother he must prefer his majesty's safety to them, 
for he weighed his allegiance more than his blood : and that 
therefore he was not against the request that the other lords 
had made ; and said, if he himself were guilty of such of- 
fences, he should not think he were worthy of life ; and the 
rather, because he was of all men the most bound to his 
niajesty, and therefore he could not refuse justice. The 
king answered them in these words: " We perceive that 
there are great things objected and laid to my lord admiral, 
my uncle, and they tend to treason ; and we perceive that 
you require but justice to be done : we think it reasona- 
ble, and we will, that you proceed according to your request." 
Which words (as it is marked in the council-book ) coming so 
suddenly from his grace's moulh, of his own motion, as the 
lords might well perceive, they were marvellously rejoiced, 
and gave the king most hearty praise and thanks ; yet re- 



130 HISTORY OF 

solved, that some of both houses should be sent to the admi- 
ral, before the bill should be put ia against him, to see what 
he could or would say. All this was done to try if he could 
be brought to a submission. So the lord chancellor, the earls 
of Shrewsbury, Warwick, and Southampton, and Sir John 
Baker, Sir Thomas Cheyney, and Sir Anthony Denny, were 
sent to him. He was long obstinate, but after much per- 
suasion was brought to give an answer to the first three arti 
cles, which will be found in the Collection at the end of the 
articles : and then on a sudden he stopped, and bade them 
be content, for he would go no further ; and no entreaties 
would work on him, either to answer the rest, or to set his 
hand to the answers he had made. 

On the 25th of February the bill was put in for attainting 
him, and the peers had been so accustomed to agree to such 
bills in King Henry's time, that they did easily pass it. 
All the judges, and the king's douncil, delivered their 
opinions, that the articles were treason. Then the evidence 
was brought : many lords gave it so fully, that all the rest 
with one voice consented to the bill ; only the protector, for 
natural pity's sake, as is in the council-book, desired leave 
to withdraw. On the 27th the bill was sent down to the 
commons, with a message, that if they desired to proceed as 
the lords had done, those lords that had given their evidence 
in their own house, should come down and declare it to the 
commons. But there was more opposition made in the 
house of commons. Many argued against attainders in ab- 
sence, and thought it an odd way, that some peers should rise 
up in their places in their own house, and relate somewhat 
to the slander of another, and that he should be thereupon 
attainted : therefore it was pressed, that it might be done 
by a trial, and that the admiral should be brought to the 
bar, and be heard plead for himself. But on the 4th of 
March a message was sent from the king, that he thought it 
was not necessary to send for the admiral : and that the 
lords should come down and renew before them the evidence 
they had given in their own house. This was done ; and so 
the bill was agreed to by the commons in a full house, 
judged about four hundred, and there were not above ten or 
twelve that voted in the negative. The royal assent was 
given on the 5th of March. On the 10th of March, the 
council resolved to press the king that justice might be done 
on the admiral : and since the case was so heavy and 
lamentable to the protector (so it is in the council-book), 
though it was also sorrowful to them all, they resolved to 
proceed in it so that neither the king, nor he, should be 
further troubled with it. After dinner they went to the 



THE REFORMATION. 131 

king, the protector being with them. The king said, he 
bad well observed their proceedings, and thanked them for 
their great care of his safety, and commanded them to pro- 
ceed in it without further molesting him or the protector : 
and ended, " I pray you, my lords, do so." Upon this they 
ordered the bishop of Ely to go to the admiral, and to in- 
struct him in the things that related to another life ; and to 
prepare him to take patiently his deserved execution. And 
on the 17th of March, he having made report to them of his 
attendance on the admiral, the council signed a warrant for 
his execution, which will be found in the Collection 
(No. xxxii), to which both the lord protector and the arch- 
bishop of Canterbury set their hands. And on the 20th his 
head was cut off. What his behaviour was on the scaffold 
I do not find *. 

Thus fell Thomas Lord Seymour, lord high admiral of 
England, a man of high thoughtsfof great violence of tem- 
per, and ambitious out of measure. The protector was 
much censured forgiving way to hisexecution,by those who 
looked only at that relation between them, which they 
thought should have made him still preserve him. But 
others, who knew the whole series of the affair, saw it was 
scarce possible for him to do more for the gaining his bro- 
ther than he had done. Yet the other being a popular 
notion, that it was against nature for one brother to destroy 
another, was more easily entertained by the multitude, who 
could not penetrate into the mysteries of state. But the 
way of proceeding was much condemned ; since to attaint 
a man without bringing him to make his own defence, or to 
object what he could say to the witnesses that were brought 
against him, was so illegal and unjust, that it could not be 
defended. Only this was to be said for it, that it was a 
little more regular than pailiamentaiy attainders had been 
formerly ; for here the evidence upon which it was founded 
was given before both houses. 

One particular seemed a little odd, that Cranmer signed 
the warrant for his execution ; which being in a cause of 
blood, was contrary to the canon law. In the primitive 
times, churchmen had only the cure of souls lying on them, 
together with the reconciling of such differences as might 
otherwise end in suits of law before the civil courts, which 
were made up of infidels. When the empire became Chris- 

* There is a very remarkable account of his death and behaviour, in 
Bishop Latimer's fourth sermon, edit. 1, p. .56 (left out of the follow- 
ing editions), where, amongst other things, he says, "He [the admi- 
ral] dyed very dangerously, yrksomelye, horryblye." 



132 HISTORY OF 

tian, these judgments, which they gave originally on s6 
charitable an account, were by the imperial laws made to 
have great authority ; but further than these, or the care of 
widows and orphans, they were forbid, both by the council 
of Chalcedon, and other lesser councils, to meddle in secular 
matters. Among the endowments made to some churches, 
there were lands given, where the slaves, according to the 
Roman law, came within the patrimony of these churches, 
and by that law masters had power of life and death over 
their slaves. 

In some churches this power had been severely exercised, 
even to maiming and death, which seemed very indecent in 
a churchman. Besides, there was an apprehension that 
some severe churchmen, who were but masters for life, 
might be more profuse of the lives of such slaves, than those 
that were to transmit them to their families. Therefore, to 
prevent the Avaste that would be made in the church's patr'- 
mony, it was agreed on, that churchmen should not pro- 
ceed capitally against any of their vassals or slaves. And 
in the confusions that were in Spain, the princes that pre- 
vailed had appointed priests to be judges, to give the greater 
reputation to their courts. This being found much to the 
prejudice of the church, it was decreed in the fourth 
council of Toledo, that priests, who were chosen by Christ 
to the ministry of salvation, should not judge in capital 
matters, unless the prince should swear to them, that he 
would remit the punishment : and such as did otherwise, 
were held guilty of blood-shedding, and were to lose their 
degree in the church. This was soon received over all the 
western church ; and arguments were found out afterwards 
by the canonists to prove the necessity of continuing it ; 
from David's not being suffered to build the temple, since 
he was a man of blood ; and from the qualification required 
by St. Paul, in a bishop, that he should be no striker ; since 
he seemed to strike, that did it either in person, or by 
one v^hom he deputed to do it. But when afterwards 
Charles the Great, and all the Christian princes in the 
west, gave their bishops great lands and dominions ; they 
obliged them to be in all their councils, and to do them such 
services as they required of them by virtue of their tenures. 
The popes, designing to set up a spiritual empire, and to 
bring all church lands within it, required the bishops to 
separate themselves from a dependence on their princes, as 
much as it was possible : and these laws, formerly made 
about cases of blood, were judged a colour good enough 
why they should not meddle in such trials ; so they procured 
these cases to be excepted. But it seems Cranmer thought 



THE REFORMATION. 133 

his conscience was under no tie from those canons, and 
so judged it not contrary to his functions to sign that order. 

The parliament was on the 14th of March prorogued to 
the 4th of November, the clergy having granted the king a 
subsidy of six shillings in the pound, to be paid in three 
years. In the preamble of the bill of subsidy they acknowr- 
ledged the great quietness they enjoyed under him, having 
no let nor impediment in the service of God. But the laity 
set out their subsidy with a much fuller preamble, of the 
great happiness they had by the true religion of Christ ; 
declaring that they were ready to forsake all things rather 
than Christ ; as also to assist the king in the conquest of 
Scotland, which they call a part of his dominion : therefore 
they give twelvepence in the pound of all men's personal 
estates, to be paid in three years. 

But now to look into matters of religion : there was, im- 
mediately after the act of uniformity passed, a new visita- 
tion, which, it is probable, went in the same method that 
was observed in the former. There were two things much 
complained of; the one was, that the priests read the 
prayers generally with the same tone of voice that they had 
used formerly in the Latin service ; so that it was said, the 
people did not understand it much better than they had 
done the Latin formerly. This I have seen represented in 
many letters; and it was very seriously laid before Cran- 
mer by Martin Bucer. The course taken in it was, that in 
all parish churches the service should be read in a plain 
audible voice ; but that the former way should remain in 
cathedrals, where there were great choirs, who were well 
acquainted with that tone, and where it agreed better with 
the music that was used in the anthems. Yet even there, 
many thought it no proper way in the Litany, where the 
greatest gravity was more agreeable to such humble ad- 
dresses, than such a modulation of the voice, which to those 
unacquainted with it seemed light, and for others that were 
more accustomed to it, it seemed to be rather xise that had 
reconciled them to it, than the natural decency of the 
thing, or any fitness in it to advance the devotion of their 
prayers. But this was a thing judged of less importance : 
It was said, that those who had been accustomed to read in 
that voice, could not easily alter it : but as those dropped 
off and died, others would be put in their places, who 
would officiate in a plainer voice. Other abuses were more 
important. Some used in the communion service many of 
the old rites, such as kissing the altar, crossing themselves, 
lifting the book from one place to another, breathing on 
the bread, showing it openly before the distribution, with 

Vol. II, Part I. N 



134 HISTORY OF 

some other of the old ceremonies. The people did also 
continue the use of their praying by beads, wliich was called 
an innovation of Peter the Hermit, in the twelfth century. 
By it, ten Aves went for one Paternoster, and the reciting 
these so oft in Latin, had come to be almost all the devotion 
of the vulgar ; and, therefore, the people were ordered to 
leave that unreasonable way of praying, it seeming a most 
unaccountable thing, that the reciting the angel's salutation 
to the blessed Virgin should be such a high piece of divine 
worship ; and that this should be done ten times, for one 
prayer to God, looked so like preferring the creature to 
the Creator, that it was not easy to defend it from an 
* appearance of idolatry. The priests were also ordered to 
exhort the people to give to the poor. The curates were 
required to preach and declare the catechism, at least every 
sixth week : and some priests continuing secretly the use of 
soul masses, in which, for avoiding the censure of the law, 
they had one to communicate with them, but had many of 
these in one day ; it was ordered, that there should be no 
selling of the communion, in trentals, and that there should 
be but one commuaion in one church, except on Easter-day 
and Christmas ; in which the people coming to the sacra- 
ment in greater numbers, there should be one sacrament in 
the morning, and another near noon. And there being great 
abuses in churches, and church-yards, in which, in the times 
of popery, markets had been held, and bargains made, that 
was forbid, chiefly in the time of divine service or sermon. 

These instructions, which the reader will find in the Col- 
lection (No. xxxiii), were given in charge to the visitors. 
Cranmer had also a visitation about the same time, in which 
the articles he gave out are all drawn according to the 
king's injunctions. By some questions in them, they seem 
to have been sent out before the parliament, because the 
book of service is not mentioned : but the last question save 
one being of such as contemned married priests, and refused 
to receive the sacrament at their hands, I conceive that 
these were compiled after the act concerning their marriage 
was passed, but before the feast of Whit-Sunday following, 
for till then the Common -Prayer-Book was not to be re- 
ceived. There were also orders sent by the council to the 
bishop of London, to see that there should be no special 
masses in St. Paul's church ; which, being the mother 
church, in the chief city of the kingdom, would be an ex- 
ample to all the rest ; and that, therefore, there should be 
only one communion at the great altar, and that at the time 
when the high mass was wont to be celebrated, unless some 
desired a sacrament in the morning, and then it was to be 



THE REFORMATION. 135 

celebrated at the high altar. Bonner, who resolved to com- 
ply in every thing, sent the council's letter to the dean 
and residentiaries of St. Paul's, to see it obeyed : and, 
indeed, all England over the book was so universally re- 
ceived, that the visitors did return no complaint from any 
corner of the whole kingdom. Only the Lady Mary con- 
tinued to have mass said in her house ; of which the coun- 
cil being advertised, writ to her to conform herself to the 
laws, and not to cast a reproach on the king's government ; 
for the nearer she was to him in blood, she was to give the 
better example to others ; and her disobedience inight 
encourage others to follow her in that contempt of the king's 
authority. So they desired her to send to them her comp- 
troller, and Dr. Hopton, her chaplain, by whom she should 
be more fully advertised of the king and council's pleasure. 
Upon this she sent one to the emperor to interpose for her, 
that she might not be forced to any thing against her con- 
science. 

At this time there was a complaint made at the emperor's 
court, of the English ambassador Sir Philip Hobby, for using 
the new Common-Prayer-Book there : to which he an- 
swered, he was to be obedient to the laws of his own prince 
and country ; and as the emperor's ambassador had mass at 
his chapel at London, without disturbance, though it was 
contrary to the law of England, so he had the same reason 
to expect the like liberty. But the emperor espousing the 
interest of the Lady Mary, both Paget (who was sent over 
ambassador-extiaordinary to him upon* his coming into 
Flanders) and Hobby promised, in the king's name, that he 
should dispense with her for some time, as they afterwards 
declared upon their honours, when the thing was further 
questioned: though the emperor and his ministers pre- 
tended, that without any qualification it was promised, that 
she should enjoy the free exercise of her religion. The em- 
peror was now grown so high with his success in Germany, 
and that at a time when a war was coming on with France, 
that it was not thought advisable to give him any offence. 
There was likewise a proposition sent over by him to the 
protector and council, for the Lady Mary to be married to 
Alphonso, brother to the king of Portugal (Cotton Lib. 
Galba, B. xii). The council entertained it : and though the 
late king had left his daughters but 10,000/. a-piece, yet 
they offered to give with her 100,000 crowns in money, and 
20,000 crowns worth of jewels. The infant of Portugal was 
about her own age, and offered 20,000 crowns jointure. 
But this proposition fell ; on what hand I do not know. 
The Lady Mary writ on the 22d of June to the council, that 



136 HISTORY OF 



she could not obey their late laws ; and that she dul not 
esteem them laws, as made when the king was not of age, 
and contrary to those made by her father, which they were 
all bound by oath to maintain. She excused the not send- 
ing her comptroller (Mr. Arundel), and her priest : the one 
did all her business, so that she could not well be without 
him ; the other was then so ill that he could not travel. 
Upon this the council sent a peremptory command to these, 
requiring them to come up, and receive their orders. The 
Lady Mary wrote a second letter to them on the 27th of 
June, in which she expostulated the matter with the coun- 
cil. She said she was subject to none of them, and would 
obey none of the laws they made ; but protested great 
obedience and subjection to the king. When her officers 
came to court, they were commanded to declare to the 
Lady Mary, that though the king was young in person, yet 
his authority was now as great as ever : that those who have 
his authority and act in his name are to be obeyed ; and 
though they as single persons were her humble servants, yet 
when they met in council, they acted in the king's name, 
and so were to be considered by all the king's subjects as if 
they were the king himself: they had indeed sworn to obey 
the late king's laws, but that could bind them no longer 
than they were in force ; and being now repealed, they were 
no more laws ; other laws being made in their room : there 
was no exception in the laws, all the king's subjects were 
included in them ; and for a reformation of religion made 
when a king was under age, one of the most perfect that 
was recorded in Scripture was so carried on, when Josiah 
was much younger than their king was : therefore they gave 
them in charge to persuade her grace (for that was her 
title) to be a good example of obedience, and not to 
encourage peevish and obstinate persons by her stiffness. 
But this business was for some time laid aside. 

And now the Reformation was to be carried on to the 
establishing of a form of doctrine, which should contain the 
chief points of religion. In order to which, there was 
this year great inquiry made into many particular opi- 
nions, and chiefly concerning the presence of Christ in the 
sacrament. There was no opinion for which the priests con- 
tended more ignorantly and eagerly, and that the people 
generally believed more blindly and firmly, as if a strong 
belief were nothing else but winking very haid. The 

t)rie>ts, because they accounted it the chief support now 
eft of their falling dominion, which being kept up, might in 
time retrieve all the rest. For while it was believed, that 
their character qualified them for so strange and mighty a 



« 



THE REFORMATION. 137 

performance, they must needs be held in great reverence. 
The people, because they thought they received the very 
flesh of Christ, and so (notwithstanding our Saviour's ex- 
press declaration to the contrary, that "the flesh profiteth 
nothing") looked on those who went about to persuade 
them otherwise, as men that intended to rob them of the 
greatest privilege they had. And therefore it was thought 
necessary to open this fully, before there should be any 
change made in the doctrine of the church. 

The Lutherans seemed to agree with that which had been 
the doctrine of the Greek church, that in the sacrament 
there was both the substance of bread and wine, and 
Chiist's body likewise. Only many of them defended it by 
an opinion that was thought akin to the Eutychian heresy, 
that his human nature, by virtue of the union of the God- 
head, was everywhere : though even in this way it did not 
appear that there was any special presence in the sacrament, 
more than in other things. Those of Switzerland had, on 
the other hand, taught, that the sacrament was only an insti- 
tution to commemorate the suff'erings of Christ. This, 
because it was intelligible, was thought by many too low 
and mean a thing, and not equal to the high expressions 
that are in the Scripture, of its being the communion of the 
body and blood of Christ. The princes of Germany saw 
what mischief was like to follow on the diversity of opinions 
in explaining the sacrament : and as Luther, being impa- 
tient in his temper, and too much given to dictate, took it 
very ill to see his doctiine so rejected ; so, by the indecent 
way of writing m matters of controversy, to which the Ger- 
nians are too much inclined, this difl'erence turned to a diiect 
breach among them. The landgrave of Hesse had laboured 
much to have these diversities of opinion laid asleep, 
since nothing gave their common enemies such advantage as 
their quarrelling among themselves. Martin Bucer was of 
a moderate temper, and had found a middle opinion in this 
matter, though not so easy to be understood. He thought 
there was more than a remembrance, to wit, a communica- 
tion, of the body and blood of Christ in the sacrament ; that 
in general a real presence ought to be asserted, and that the 
way of explaining it ought not to be anxiously inquired 
into : and with him Calvin agreed, that it was truly the body 
and blood of Christ, not figuratively, but really present. 
The advantage of these general expressions was, that 
thereby they hoped to have silenced the debates between 
the German and Helvetian divines, whose doctrine came like- 
wise to be received by many of the civies of the empire, and 
by the Elector Palatine. And among Martin Bucer' s 

N3 



138 HISTORY OF 



papers, I met with an original paper of Luthei's (which will 
be found in the Collection, No. xxxiv), in which he was 
willing to have that difference thus settled : " Those of the 
Augsburg Confession should declare, that in the sacrament 
there was truly bread and wine ; and those of the Helvetian 
Confession should declare, that Christ's body was truly pre- 
sent : and so, without any further curiosities in the way of 
explaining it, in which divines might use their liberty, the 
difference should end." But how this came to take no 
effect, I do not understand. It was also thought that this 
way of expressing the doctrine would give least offence ; 
for the people were scarce able to bear the opinion of the 
sacrament's being only a figure : but wherein this real 
presence consisted was not so easy to be made out. Some 
explained it more intelligibly in a sense of law, that in the 
sacrament there was a real application of the merit of 
Christ's death, to those who received it worthily ; so that 
Christ as crucified was really present : and these had this to 
say for themselves, that the words of the institution do not 
call the elements simply Christ's body and blood, but his 
body broken, and his blood shed, and that therefore Christ 
was really present as he was crucified, so that the import- 
ance of really wdiS effectually. Others thought all ways of 
explaining the manner of the presence were needless curio- 
sities, and apt to beget differences : that therefore the doc- 
trine was to be established in general words; and, to save 
the labour both of explaining and understanding it, it was 
to be esteemed a mystery. This seems to have been 
Bucer's opinion, but Peter Martyr inclined more to the 
Helvetians. 

There were public disputations held this year, both at 
Oxford and Cambridge, upon this matter. At Oxford the 
popish party did so encourage themselves by the indul- 
gence of the government, and the gentleness of Cranmer's 
temper, that they became upon this head insolent out of 
measure. Peter Martyr had read in the chair concern- 
ing the presence of Christ in the sacrament, which he 
explained according to the doctrine of the Helvetian 
churches ; Dr. Smith did upon this resolve to contradict 
him openly in the schools, and challenge him to dispute on 
these points ; and had brought many thither, who should by 
their clamours and applauses run him down ( Antiq. Oxon.) : 
yet this was not so secretly laid, but a friend of P. Martyr's 
brought him word of it before he had come from his house, 
and persuaded him not to go to the schools that day, and so 
disappoint Smith. But he looked on that as so mean a 
thing, that he would by no means comply with it. So he 



? 



THE REFORMATION. 139 

went to the divinity schools : on his way one brought him a 
challenge from Smith to dispute with him, concerning the 
eacharist. He went on and took his place in the chair, 
where he behaved himself with an equal measure of courage 
and discretion : he gravely checked Smith's presumption, 
and said, he did not decline a dispute, but was resolved to 
have his reading that day, nor would he engage in a public 
dispute without leave from the king's council : upon this a 
tumult was like to rise ; so the vice-chancellor sent for 
them before him : P. Martyr said, he was ready to defend 
every thing that he had read in the chair in a dispute ; but 
he would manage it only in Scripture-terms, and not in the 
terms of the schools. 

This was the beating the popish doctors out of that which 
was their chief strength ; for they had little other learning 
but a sleight of tossing some arguments from hand to hand, 
with a gibberish kind of language, that sounded like some- 
what that was sublime ; but had really nothing under it. 
By constant practice they were very nimble at this sort of 
legerdemain, of which both Erasmus and Sir Thomas More, 
with the other learned men of that age, had made such 
sport, that it was become sufficiently ridiculous : and the 
protestants laid hold on that advantage which such great 
authorities gave them to disparage it. They set up another 
way of disputing from the original text of the Scripture in 
Greek and Hebrew, which seemed a more proper thing in 
matters of divinity, than the metaphysical language of the 
schoolmen. 

This whole matter being referred to the privy council, 
they appointed some delegates to hear and preside in the 
disputation : but 33r. Smith being brought into some trouble, 
either for this tumult, or upon some other account, was 
forced to put in sureties for his good behaviour : he, desiring 
that he might be discharged of any further prosecution, 
made the most humble submission to Cranmer that was 
possible ; and being thereupon set at liberty, he fled out of 
the kingdom : it is said he went first to Scotland, and from 
thence to Flanders. But not long after this Peter Martyr 
had a disputation before the commissioners sent by the king, 
who were the bishop of Lincoln, Dr. Cox, then chancellor 
of the university, and some others ; in which Tresham, 
Chadsey, and Morgan, disputed against these three pro- 
positions : — 1. In the sacrament of thanksgiving there is no 
transubstantiation of bread and wine in the body and blood 
of Christ. 2. The body or blood of Christ is not carnally or 
corporally in the bread and wine ; nor, as others use to say, • 
under the bread and wine. 3. The body and blood of Christ 



140 HISTORY OF 

are united to the bread and wine sacraraentally.— -Ridley 
was sent also to Cambridge, with some others of the king's 
commissioners, where, on the 20th, 24th, and 27th of 
June, there were public disputations on these two posi- 
tions : — 

" Transubstantiation cannot be proved by the plain and 
manifest words of Scripture ; nor can it be necessarily 
collected from it, nor yet confirmed by the consent of 
the ancient fathers. 

" In the Lord's supper there is none other oblation and 
sacrifice, than of a remembrance of Christ's death, and of 
thanksgiving." 

Dr. Madew defended these ; and Glyn, Langdale, Sedg- 
wick, and Young, disputed against them the first day ; and 
the second day Glyn defended the contiary propositions, 
and Peru, Grindal, Gest, and Pilkington, disputed against 
them. On the third day the dispute went on, and was sum- 
med up in a learned determination by Ridley against the 
corporal presence. There had been also a long disputation 
in the parliament on the same subject ; but of this we have 
nothing remaining, but what King Edward writ in his jour- 
nal. Ridley had, by reading Bertram's book of the body 
and blood of Christ, been first set on to examine well the 
old opinion concerning the presence of Christ's very flesh 
and blood in the sacrament : and, wondering to find that in 
the ninth century that opinion was so much controverted, 
and so learnedly writ against by one of the most esteemed 
men of that age, began to conclude, that it was none of the 
ancient doctrines of the church, but lately brought in, and 
not fully received till after Bertram's age. He commu- 
nicated the matter with Cranmer, and they set themselves 
to examine it with more than ordinary care. Cranmer after- 
wards gathered all the arguments about it into the book 
which he writ on that subject, to which Gardiner set out an 
answer, under the disguised name of Marcus Constantius ; 
and Cranmer replied to it. I shall offer the reader, in short, 
the substance of what was in these books, and of the argu- 
ments used in the disputations, and in many other books 
which were at that time written on this subject. 

Christ in the institution took bread, and gave it. So that 
his words, " This is my body," could only be meant of 
the bread : now the bread could not be his body literally. 
Jle himself also calls the cup, " The fruit of the vine." St. 
Paul calls it, " The bread that we break," and " the cup 
that we bless ; " and speaking of it after it was blessed, 
calls it, " that bread and that cup." For the reason of that 
expression, " This is my body j " it was considered, that 



THE REFORMATION. 141 

the disciples, to whom Christ spoke thus, were Jews ; and 
that tliey, being accustomed to the Mosaical rites, must 
needs have understood his words in the same sense they 
did JMoses's woids, concerning the paschal lamb, which is 
called the Lord's passover. It was not that literally, for the 
Lord's passover was the angel's passing by the Israelites 
when he smote the first-born of the Egyptians ; so the 
lamb was only the Lord's passover as it was the memorial 
of it : and thus Christ, substituting the eucharist to the pas- 
chal lamb, used such au expression, calling it his body, in the 
same manner of speaking as the lamb was called the Lord's 
passover. This was plain enough, for his disciples could 
not well understand him in any other sense than that to 
which they had been formerly accustomed. In the Scrip- 
ture many such figurative expressions occur frequently. 
In baptism, the other sacrament instituted by Christ, he 
is said to baptize with the Holy Ghost and with fire : and 
such as are baptized are said to put on Christ : which were 
figurative expressions. As also, in the sacrament of the 
Lord's supper, the cup is called " the new testament in 
Christ's blood," which is an expression full of figure. 
Farther, it was observed, that that sacrament was instituted 
for a remembrance of Christ, and of his death : which 
implied that he was to be absent at the time when he was 
to be remembered. Nor was it simply said, that the ele- 
ments were his body and blood ; but that they were his 
body broken, and his blood shed ; that is, they were these, 
as suffering on the cross : which as they could not be un- 
derstood literally, for Christ did institute this sacrament be- 
fore he had suffered on the cross ; so now Christ must be 
present in the sacrament, not as glorified in heaven, but as 
suffering on his cross. From those places where it is 
said, that Christ is in heaven, and that he is to continue 
there ; they argued, that he was not to be any more upon 
earth. And those words in the 6th of St. John, of eating 
Christ's flesh, and drinking his blood, they said were to be 
understood not of the sacrament ; since many receive the 
sacrament unworthily, and of them it cannot be said that 
they have " eternal life in them ; " but Christ there said of 
them that received him in the sense that was meant in that 
chapter, that " all that did so eat his flesh had eternal life 
in them ; " therefore these words can only be understood 
figuratively of receiving him by faith, as himself there 
explains it : and so, in the end of that discourse, finding 
some were startled at that way of expressing himself, he 
gave a key to the whole, when he said " his words were 
spirit and life," and that " the flesh profited nothing, it was 



142 HISTORY OF 

the spirit that quickened." It was ordinary for him to teach 
in parables ; and the receiving of any doctrine, being oft ex^ 
pressed by the prophets by the figure of " eating and drink- 
ing," he, upon the occasion of the people's coming to him 
after he had fed them with a few loaves, did discourse of 
their believing, in these dark expressions ; which did not 
seem to relate to the sacrament, since it was not then insti- 
tuted. They also argued, from Christ's appealing to the 
senses of his hearers, in his miiacles, and especially in his 
xliscourses upon his resurrection, that the testimony of sense 
was to be received, where the object was duly applied, and 
the sense not vitiated. They also alleged natural reasons 
against a body's being in more places than one, or being in 
a place in the manner of a spirit, so that the substance of a 
complete body could be in a crumb of bread or diop of wine ; 
and argued, that since the elements after consecration would 
nourish, might putrefy, or could be poisoned, these things 
clearly evinced, that the substance of bread and wine re- 
mained in the sacrament. 

From this they went to examine the ancient fathers. Some 
of them called it bread and wine ; others said, it nourished 
the body, as Justin Martyr; otheis, that it was digested in 
the stomach, and went into the draught, as Origen. Some 
called it a figure of Christ's body ; so Terlullian, and St. 
Austin : others called the elements types and signs ; so al- 
most all the ancient lituigies, and the Greek fathers gene- 
rally. In the creeds of the church it was professed, that 
Christ still sat on the right hand of God ; the fathers argued 
from thence, that he was in heaven and not on earth. And 
the Marcionites, and other heretics, denying that Christ had 
a true body, or did really sufl^er ; the fathers appealed in 
that to the testimony of sense, as infallible. And St. Austin 
giving rules concerning figurative speeches in Scripture ; one 
IS this, that they must be taken figuratively, where in the 
literal sense the thing were a crime ; which he applies to 
these words of " eating Christ's flesh, and drinking his 
blood." But that on which they put the stress of the whole 
cause, as to the doctrine of the fathers, was the reasoning 
that they used against the Eutychians, who said that Christ's 
body and human nature was swallowed up by his divinity. 
The Eutychians, arguing from the eucharist's being called 
Christ's body and blood, in which they said Christ's presence 
did convert the substance of the bread and wine into his 
own flesh and blood ; so, in like manner, said they, his God- 
head had converted the manhood into itself: against this, 
Gelasius, bishop of Home, and Theodoret, one of the learned- 
est fathers of his age, argue in plain words, that the sub- 



THE REFORMATION. ' 14S 

stance of the bread and wine remained, as it was formerly, in 
its own nature and form ; and from their opinion of the pre- 
sence of Christ's body in it, without converting the elements, 
they turned the argument to show how the Divine and human 
nature can be together in Christ, without the one's being 
changed by the other. Peter Martyr had brought over with 
him tiie copy of a letter of St. Chrysostom's, which he found 
in a iNIS at Florence, written to the same purpose, and on 
the same argument : which was the more remakable, be- 
cause that Chrysostom had said higher things in his sermons 
and commentaries, concerning Christ's being present in the 
sacrament, than any of all the fathers ; but it appeared by 
this letter, thst those high expressions were no other than 
rhetorical figures of speech to beget a great reverence to this 
institution : and from hence it was reasonable to judge, that 
such were the like expressions in other fathers, and that 
they were nevertheless of Chrysostom's mind touching the 
presence of Christ in this sacrament. That epistle of his 
does lie still unpublished, though a very learned man now 
in France has procured a copy of it : but those of that 
church know the consequence that the printing of it would 
have, and so it seems are resolved to suppress it if they can. 
From all these things it was plain, that though the fathers 
believed there was an extraordinary virtue in the sacrament, 
and an unaccountable presence of Christ in it, yet they 
thought not of transubstantiation, nor any thing like it. But 
when darkness and ignorance crept into the church, the 
people were apt to believe any thing that was incredible ; 
and were willing enough to support such opinions as turned 
religion into external pageantry. The priests also, knowing 
little of the Scriptures, and being only or chiefly conversant 
in those writings of the ancients that had highly extolled 
the sacrament, came generally to take up the opinion of the 
corporal presence ; and, being soon apprehensive of the great 
esteem it would bring to them, cherished it much. In the 
ninth century, Bertram, Rabanus, Maurus, Amalarius, AI- 
cuinus, and Joannes Scotus, all writ against it : nor were 
any of them censured or condemned for these opinons. It 
was plainly and strongly contradicted by some homilies that 
were in the Saxon tongue, in which not a few of Bertrams 
words occur: particularly in that which was to be read in 
the churches on Easter-day. But in the eleventh or twelfth 
century it came to be universally received ; as indeed any 
thing would have been that much advanced the dignity of 
priesthood. And it was farther advanced by Pope Innocent 
the Third, and so established in the fourth council of Late- 
ran ; that same council, in which the rooting out of heretics. 



144 HISTORY OF 

and the pope's power of deposing heretical princes, and 
giviug their dominions to others, were also decreed. 

But there was another curious remark made of the pro- 
gress of this opinion. When the doctrine of the corporal 
presence was first received in the western church, they be- 
lieved that the whole loaf was turned into one entire body 
of Jesus Christ : so that in the distribution one had an eye, 
a nose, or an ear; another a tooth, a finger, or a toe ; a 
third a coUop, or a piece of tripe ; and this was supported 
by pretended miracles suited to that opinion, for sometimes 
the host was said to bleed, parts of it were also said to be 
turned to pieces of flesh. This continued to be the doctrine 
of the church of Kome for near three hundred years. It 
appears clearly in the renunciation which they made Be- 
rengarius swear. But when the schoolmen began to form 
the tenets of that church by more artificial and subtle rules ; 
as they thought it an ungentle way of treating Christ to be 
thus mangling his body, and eating it up in gobbets, so the 
maxims they set up about the extension of matter, and of 
the manner of spirits filling a space, made them think of a 
more decent way of explaining this prodigious mystery. 
They taught, that Christ was so in the host and chalice, that 
there was one entire body in every crumb and drop : so that 
the body was no more broken ; but, upon every breaking of 
the host, a new whole body flew oflf from the other parts, 
which yet remained an entire body, notwithstanding that 
diminution. And then the former miracles, being contrary 
to this conceit, were laid aside, and new ones invented, 
fitted for this explanation, by which Christ's body was be- 
lieved present after the manner of a spirit. It was given 
out, that he sometimes appeared as a child all in rays upon 
the host, sometimes with angels about him, or sometimes in 
his mother's arms. And that the senses might give as little 
contradiction as was possible, instead of a loaf they blessed 
then only wafers, which are such a shadow of bread as might 
more easily agree with their doctrine of the accidents of bread 
being only present : and, lest a larger measure of wine might 
have encouraged the people to have thought it was wine 
still, by the sensible effects of it, that came also to be denied 
them. 

This was the substance of the arguments that were in 
those writings. But an opinion that had been so generally 
received was not of a sudden to be altered : therefore they 
went on slowly in discussing it, and thereby did the better 
dispose the people to receive what they intended afterwards 
to establish concerning it. And this was the state of religion 
for this year. 



THE REFORMATION. 146 

At this time there were many anabaptists in several parts 
of England. They were generally Germans, whom the re- 
volutions there had forced to change their seats. Upon 
Luther's first preaching in Germany, there arose many, who, 
building on some of his principles, carried things much fur- 
ther than he did. The chief foundation he laid down was, that 
the Scripture was to be the only rule of Christians. Upon 
this many argued, that the mysteries of the Trinity, and 
Christ's incarnation and sufferings, of the fall of man, and the 
aids of grace, were indeed philosophical subtilties, and only 
pretended to be deduced from Scripture, as almost all opi- 
nions of religion were ; and therefore they rejected them. 
Among these the baptism of infants was one. They held 
that to be no baptism, and so were re-baptized : but from 
this, which was most taken notice of, as being a visible 
thing, they carried all the general name of anabaptists. Of 
these there were two sorts most remarkable. The one was, 
of those who only thought that baptism ought not to be given 
but to those who were of an age capable of instruction, and 
.who did earnestly desire it. This opinion they grounded on 
"the silence of the New Testament about the baptism of 
children : they observed, that our Saviour commanding the 
apostles to baptize, did join teaching with it ; and they 
said, the great decay of Christianity flowed from this way 
of making children Christians before they understood what 
they did. These were called the gentle, or moderate ana- 
baptists. But others, who carried that name, denied al- 
most all the principles of the Christian doctrine, and were 
men of fierce and barbarous tempers. They had broke out 
into a general revolt over Germany, and raised the war called 
the rustic war : and possessing themselves of Munster, made 
one of their teachers, John of Leyden, their king, under the 
title of the king of the New Jerusalem. Some of them set 
up a fantastical, unintelligible way of talking of religion, 
which they turned all into allegories : these being joined in 
the common name of anabaptists with the other, brought 
them also under an ill character. 

On the 12th of April there was a complaint brought to the 
council, that, with the strangers that were come into Eng- 
land, some of that persuasion had come over, 'and were 
disseminating their errors, and making proselytes : so a 
commission was ordered (Rot. Pat. Par. 6. 3. Reg.) for the 
archbishop of Canterbury, the bishops of Ely, Worcester, 
Westminster, Chichester, Lincoln, and Rochester, Sir Wil- 
liam Petre, Sir Thomas Smith, Dr. Cox, Dr. May, and some 
others, three of them being a quorum, to examine and .=earch 
after all anabaptists, heretics, or contemners of the Com- 
VoL. II, Part I. O 



146 HISTORY OF 

mon Prayer. They were to endeavour to reclaim them, to 
enjoin them penance, and give them absolution: or, if they 
were obstinate, to excommunicate and imprison them, and 
to deliver them over to the secular power to be farther pro- 
ceeded against. Some tradesmen in London were brought 
before these commissioners in May, and weve persuaded to 
abjure their former opinions ; which were, " That a man rege- 
nerate could not sin • that though the outward man sinned, 
the inward man sinned not ; that there was no Trinity of 
persons ; that Christ was only a holy prophet, and not at all 
God ; that all we had by Christ was, that he taught us the 
way to heaven ; that he took no flesh of the Virgin ; and 
that the baptism of infants was not profitable." One of 
those who thus abjured was commanded to carry a faggot 
next Sunday, at St. Paul's, where there should be a sermon 
setting forth his heresy. But there was another of these ex- 
treme obstinate ; Joan Bocher, commonly called Joan of 
Kent. " She denied that Christ was truly incarnate of the 
Virgin, whose flesh being sinful, he could take none of it: 
but the Word, by the consent of the inward man in the Vir- 
gin, took flesh of her :" these were her words. They took 
much pains about her, and had many conferences with her ; 
but she was so extravagantly conceited of her own notions, 
that she rejected all they said with scorn : whereupon she 
was adjudged an obstinate heretic, and so left to the secular 
power: the sentence against her will be found in the Col- 
lection (No. xxxv). This being returned to the council, the 
good king was moved to sign a warrant for burning her, but 
could not be prevailed on to do it ; he thought it a piece of 
cruelty, too like that which they had condemned in papists, 
to burn any for their consciences. And in a long discourse 
he had with Sir J. Cheek, he seemed much confirmed in that 
opinion. Cranmer was employed to persuade him to sign 
tke warrant. He argued from the law of Moses, by which 
blasphemers were to be stoned : he told the king, he made a 
great difference between errors in other points of divinity, and 
those which were directly against the Apostles' Creed : 
that these were impieties against God, which a prince, as 
being God's deputy, ought to punish ; as the king's de- 
puties were obliged to punish offences against the king's per- 
son. These reasons did rather silence than satisfy the young 
king, who still thought it a hard thing (as in truth it was) to 
proceed so severely in such cases : so he set his hand to the 
warrant, with tears in his eyes, saying to Cranmer, That if 
he did wrong, since it was in submission to his authority, he 
should answer for it to God. This struck the archbishop 
with much horror, so that he was very unwilling to have the 



THE REFORMATION. 14T 

sentence executed. And both he and Ridley took the 
woman then in custody to their houses, to see if they could 
persuade her: but she continued, by jeers and other inso- 
lences, to carry herself so contemptuously, that at last the 
sentence was executed on her, the 2d of May the next year, 
Bishop Scory preaching at her burning : she carried herself 
then, as she had done in the former parts of her process, 
very indecently, and in the end was burnt. 

This action was much censured, as being contrary to the 
clemency of the gospel ; and was made oft use of by the 
papists, who said, it was plain, that the reformers were only 
against burning, when they were in fear of it themselves. 
The woman's carriage make her be looked on as a frantic 
person, fitter for Bedlam than a stake. People had gene- 
rally believed that all the statutes for the burning heretics 
had been lepealed : but now, when the thing was better con- 
sidered, it was found that the burning of heretics was done 
by the common law, so that the statutes made about it were 
only for making the conviction more easy, and the repealing 
the statutes did not take away that which was grounded on a 
writ at common law. To end all this matter at once : two 
years after this, one George Van Pare, a Dutchman, being 
accused for saying that God the Father was only God, and 
that Christ was not very God, he was dealt with long to ab- 
jure, but would not : so on the 6th of April, 1551, he was 
condemned in the same manner that Joan of Kent was, and 
on the 25th of April was burnt in Smithfield. He suffered 
with great constancy of mind, and kissed the stake and fag- 
gots that were to burn him. Of this Pare I find a popish 
writer saying, That he was a man of most wonderful strict 
life ; that he used not to eat above once in two days ; and 
before he did eat would lie some time in his devotion pros- 
trate on the ground. All this they made use of to lessen 
the credit of those who had suft'ered formerly ; for it was 
said, they saw now that men of harmless lives might be put 
to death for heresy by the confession of the reformers them- 
selves : and in all the books published in Queen Mary's 
days, justifying her severity against the protestants, these 
instances were always made use of : and nopart of Cranmer's 
life exposed him more than this did. It was said, he had 
consented both to Lambert's and Anne Askew's death, in 
the former reign, who both suffered for opinions which he 
himself held now : and he had now procured the death of 
these two persons ; and when he was brought to suffer him- 
self afterwards, it was called a just retaliation on him. One 
thing was certain, that what he did in this matter flowed 
from no cruelty of temper in him, no man being fvirther from 



148 HISTORY OF 

that black disposition of mind ; but it was truly the eflfect 
of those principles by which he governed himself. 

For the other sort of anabaptists, who only denied infant 
baptism, I find no severities used to them : but several books 
were written against them, to which they wrote some an- 
swers. It was said, that Christ allowed little children to be 
brought to him, and said, " of such was the kingdom of 
heaven," and blessed them : now if they were capable of 
the " kingdom of heaven," they must be regenerated ; for 
Christ said none but such as were "born of water and of the 
Spirit" could enter into it, St. Paul had also called the 
children of believing parents holy ; which seemed to re- 
late to such a consecration of them as was made in baptism. 
And baptism being the seal of Christians, in the room of 
circumcision among the Jews, it was thought the one was as 
applicable to children as the other. And one thing was ob- 
served, that the whole world in that age having been bap- 
tized in their infancy, if that baptism was nothing, then 
there were none truly baptized in being ; but all were in the 
state of mere nature : now it did not seem reasonable that 
men who were not baptized themselves should go and 
baptize others: and therefore the first heads of that sect, not 
being rightly baptized themselves, seemed not to act with 
any authority when they went to baptize others. The practice 
of the church, so early begun, and continued without dis- 
pute for so many ages, was at least a certain confirmation of 
a thing which had (to speak moderately) so good foundations 
in Scripture for the lawfulness, though not any peremptory, 
but only probable proof for the practice of it. 

These are all the errors in opinion that I find were taken 
notice of at this time. There was another sort of people, of 
whom all the good men in that age made great complaints. 
Some there were called gospellers, or readers of the gospel, 
who were a scandal to the doctrine they professed. In 
many sermons 1 have oft met with severe expostulations 
with these, and heavy denunciations of judgments against 
them. But I do not find any thing objected to thein, as to 
their belief, save only that the doctrine of predestination 
having been generally taught by the reformers, many of this 
sect began to make strange infererences from it ; reckoning, 
that since every thing was decreed, and the decrees of God 
could not be frustrated, therefore men were to leave them- 
selves to be carried by these decrees. This drew some into 
great impiety of life, and others into desperation. The Ger- 
mans soon saw the ill efiects of this doctrine. Luther 
changed his mind about it, and Melancthon openly writ 
against it : and since that time the whole stream of the Lu- 



THE REFORMATION. 149 

theran churches has run the other way. But both Calvin 
and Bucer were still for maintaining the doctrine of these 
decrees ; only they warned the people not to think much of 
them, since they were secrets which men could not pene- 
trate into ; but they did not so clearly show how these con- 
sequences did not flow from such opinions. Hooper, and 
many other good writers, did often dehort people from en- 
tering into these curiosities ; and a caveat to that same pur- 
pose was put afterwards into the article of the church about 
predestination. 

One ill effect of the dissoluteness of people's manners 
broke out violently this summer, occasioned by the in- 
closing of lands. While the monasteries stood, there were 
great numbers of people maintained about these houses ; 
their lands were easily let out, and many were relieved by 
them. But now, the numbers of the people increased much, 
marriage being universally allowed; they also had more 
time than formerly, by the abrogation of many holidays, 
and the putting down of processions and pilgrimages ; so 
that, as the numbers increased, they had more time than 
they knew how to bestow. Those who bought in the rhurch- 
lands, as they everywhere raised their rents, of which old 
Latimer made great complaints in one of his court sermons, 
so they resolved to inclose their grounds, and turn them to 
pasture : for trade was then rising fast, and corn brought 
not in so much money as wool did. Their flocks also being 
kept by few persons in grounds so inclosed, the landlords 
themselves enjoyed the profit which formerly the tenants 
made out of their estates : and so they intended to force 
them to serve about them at any such rates as they would 
allow. By this means the commons of England saw they 
were like to be reduced to great misery. This was much 
complained of, and several little books were written about it. 
Some proposed a sort of Agrarian law, that none might have 
farms above a set value, or flocks above a set number of two 
thousand sheep ; which proposal I find the young king was 
much taken with, as will appear in one of the discourses he 
wrote with his own hand. Tt was also represented, that 
there was no care taken of the educating of youth, except 
of those who were bred for learning ; ancfraany things were 
proposed to correct this : but in the mean time the commons 
saw the gentry were like to reduce them to a very low con- 
dition. 

The protector seemed much concerned for the commons, 
and oft spoke against the oppression of landlords. He was 
naturally just and compassionate, and so did heartily es- 
pouse the cause of the poor people, which made the nobility 

03 



160 HISTORY OF 

and gentry hate him much. The former year, the commons 
about Hampton-Court petitioned the protector and council, 
complaining, that whereas the late king in his sickness had 
inclosed a park there, to divert himself with private easy 
game, the deer of that park did overlay the country, and it 
was a great burthen to them ; and therefore they desired that 
it might be disparked. The council, considering that it 
was so near Windsor, and was not useful to the king, but a 
charge rather, ordered it to be disparked, and the deer to be 
carried to Windsor ; but with this proviso, that if the king 
when he came of age desired to have a park there, what 
they did should be no prejudice to him. There was also a 
commission issued out to inquire about inclosures and farms, 
and whether those who had purchased the abbey-lands kept 
hospitality, to which they were bound by the grants they 
had of them; and whether they encouraged husbandry. 
But I find no effect of this. And indeed there seemed to 
have been a general design among the nobility and gentry to 
bring the inferior sort to that low and servile state to which 
the peasants in many other kingdoms are reduced. In 
the parliament an act was carried in the house of lords for 
imparking grounds, but was cast out by the commons : yet 
gentlemen went on everywhere taking their lands into their 
own hands, and inclosing them. 

In May the commons did rise first in Wiltshire ; where 
Sir William Herbert gathered some resolute men about him, 
and dispersed them, and slew some of them. Soon after 
that, they rose in Sussex, Hampshire, Kent, Gloucester- 
shire, Suffolk, Warwickshire, Essex, Hertfordshire, Leices- 
tershire, Worcestershire, and Rutlandshire ; but by fair per- 
suasions the fury of the people was a little stopped, till the 
matter should be represented to the council. The protector 
said, he did not wonder the commons were in such distem- 
pers, they being so oppressed, that it was easier to die once 
than to perish for want : and therefore he set out a procla- 
mation, contrary to the mind of the whole council, against 
all new inclosures ; with another, indemnifying the people 
for what was past, so they carried themselves obediently for 
the future. Commissions were also sent everywhere, with 
an unlimited power to the commissioners to hear and deter- 
mine all causes about inclosures, highways, and cottages. 
The vast power these commissioners assumed was much com- 
plained of; the landlords said it was an invasion of their pro- 
perty, to subject them thus to the pleasure of those who were 
sent to examine the matters, without proceeding in the ordi- 
nary courts according to law. The commons being encou- 
raged by the favour they heard the protector bore them, and 



THE REFORMATION. 161 

not able to govern their heat, or stay for a more peaceable 
issue, did nse again, but were anew quieted. Yet the pro- 
tector being opposed much by the council, he was not able to 
redress this grievance so fully as the people hoped. So in 
Oxfordshire and Devonshire they rose again, and also in 
Norfolk and Yorkshire. Those in Oxfordfshire were dissi- 
pated by a force of fifte,en hundred men, led against them by 
the Lord Gray. Some of them were taken and hanged by mar- 
tial law, as being in a state of war ; the greatest part ran 
home to their dwellings. 

In Devonshire the insurrection grew to be better formed ; 
for that county was not only far from the court, but it was 
generally inclined to the former superstition, and many of 
the old priests run in among them. They came together on 
the 10th of June, being Whit-Monday ; and in a short 
time grew to be ten thousand strong. At court it was hoped 
this might be as easily dispersed as the other risings were : 
but the protector was against running into extremities, and 
so did not move so speedily as the thing required. He, after 
some days, at last sent the Lord Russel with a small force to 
stop their proceedings. And that long, remembering well 
how the duke of Norfolk had, with a very small army, 
broken a formidable rebellion in the former reign, hoped 
that time would likewise weaken and disunite these ; and, 
therefore, he kept at some distance, and offered to receive 
their complaints, and to send them to the council. But 
these delays gave advantage and strength to the rebels, who 
were now led on by some gentlemen ; Arundel,' of Cornwall, 
being in chief command among them ; and in answer to the 
Lord Russel, they agreed on fifteen articles (before this they 
drew up their demands in seven articles), the substance of 
which was as follows : — 

" 1. That all the general councils, and the decrees of their 
forefathers, should be observed. 

" 2. That the act of the six articles should be again i» 
force. 

" 3. That the mass should be in Latin, and that the priests 
alone should receive. 

" 4. That the sacrament should be hanged up, and wor- 
shipped ; and those who refused to do it should suffer as 
heretics. 

" 5. That the sacrament should only be given to the people 
at Easter, in one kind. 

" 6. That baptism should be done at all times. 

" 7. That holy bread, holy water, and palms be again 
used ; and that images be set up, with all the other ancient 
ceremonies. 



152 HISTORY OS 

" 8. That the new service should be laid aside, since it 
was like a Christmas game ; and the old servic