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Woodgate, William Maynard, and one Harwich ; who went about in that county, and in secret meetings of the gos- pellers preached unto them ; confirming them in the doc- trines they had received, and exhorting them to stand fast in those critical times. In the beginning of April this year, letters were sent from above to the high sheriff to seize these men, and to send them up. And Thomas Rosse, who had been taken on new-year's-day in the meeting at London, where he preached and administered the sacrament to those that assembled there, having laid in the Tower till May,
Musar. La- crymae.
402 MEMORIALS ECCLESIASTICAL CHAP, after divers appearances before the Lord Chancellor and others ; the Council, May 12, ordered him to be delivered Anno 1 555. to the sheriff of Norfolk, to be conveyed to the Bishop of Norwich, of whose diocese he was : and he to reduce him to recant, or else to proceed against him according to the law. Fierce or- T] ie Queen's Council now became strictly Popish, and the S Coun- shewed themselves very active for the taking away the lives cil - of all that professed the gospel, the Queen shewing herself zealous this way ; and thinking, according to Gardiner's suggestion, that these terrible proceedings would soon bring 240 all to her mind. The Council therefore sent away orders abroad for this purpose, as hath been partly seen already, and will further appear by what follows. The Court being now at Hampton Court, and the Lord Treasurer at London, in the month of May the Council sent to him to make a despatch of all that were already condemned for religion ; and to confer with the Bishop of London, and the justices of peace of the respective counties, where they were to be executed ; and to give order for the executions accordingly. And upon the motion of the said Lord Treasurer in the Theirietters same month, letters were sent to all the bishops from the SopVto Council; the contents whereof seem to have been to stir search for them up to be very vigorous in searching for the gospellers, iers. g SP an d bringing them to recantation or execution. And where- as there was one Derick a brewer, and two more, condemned for heresy, that lived in Surrey and Sussex ; the Council sent in the month of June to the said Lord Treasurer, to cause writs to be made to the sheriff of Sussex, for the burning of Derick at Lewis, and the two others, one at Chichester, and the other at Stainings. And a report about this time coming to the Council, of four parishes in Essex that still used the English service, they writ to Bishop Bonner to examine the matter, and to punish the offenders. And in July, Bonner having condemned three more, according to his letters sent to the Council, the Council presently ordered their burning, appointing the places to be Uxbridge, Strat- ford, and Walden: willing him, moreover, to proceed in
UNDER QUEEN MARY I. 403 judgment with the rest. Thus eager was the Council in CHAP, these direful proceedings. Therefore the best prevention of these deaths and cala- Anno 1555. mities was flight; which courses many took, commending jn ^"^ jjj. themselves to the mercies of the seas, and the compassion of countries, strange nations, rather than to their own prince and country ; and so preserved their lives, to do God and the realm service afterward. This the persecutors were much offended with : but seeing the professors were fled out of their bloody hands, they thought to be even with them, by endeavouring to hinder all supplies of money and provisions to be sent them : saying, that they would make them so hungry, that they should eat their fingers' 1 ends. These words, Gardiner, in great passion, had uttered in Calais, being there ambassador with Cardinal Pole and others : but notwithstanding, God so provided for them, that they enjoyed plenty of all things in the places where they came. And so one, who was an piikington, exile himself, wrote soon after his return home : " Although in : ] s „ x "
" more glorious, mighty, and merciful, in strengthening so " many weak ones to die for him, than in providing for " them which were abroad ; although both be wonderful " What glorious cracks made the persecutors, that they " would make God's poor banished people to eat their " fingers for hunger! But they had plenty, for all the " others 1 cruelty : God's holy name be praised therefore. " What a mercy of God is this ! that where we deserved " to be cast from him for ever, because of our wickedness, " he now corrected us gently, and called us into this honour : " that he punished us not so much for our own sins, as " that he called us to the promotion of bearing his cross ; " witnessing to the word of his truth, and vouchsafe to " prove, teach, and confirm others in this his truth by our 241 " witness-bearing. Thus humbly and thankfully did these " pious men take their sufferings, and looked not so much " upon the malice of men, as the correcting hand of God in " them, and that with all thankfulness."
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404 MEMORIALS ECCLESIASTICAL
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Anno 1555. their own strength; that hereafter, when the times grew Cranm.Me- better in England, there might be a seminary of pious mor. ministers, scholars, and other good men and women, to furnish the nation again, after the destruction of so many. So that there were great numbers of them dispersed abroad in France, Flanders, Germany, Italy, Helvetia, and other places, both students of divinity and other laymen ; and some with their wives and families ; and many gentlemen of Sir. Fra. good quality ; where, among the rest, Sir Francis Walsing- ham. ' nam was or,e » tne great secretary of state afterwards, being then a young man and a scholar ; which appears by the in- scription that was upon his monument in St. Paul's church ; a part whereof was, Juvenis exilium, Maria regnante, subiit voluntarium, religionis ergo. Thomas Le- Some took this opportunity to travel about from place ver travels , . . . ¦ from place to place, and see towns and cities, especially those that were to place, reformed, for their better inquiry into the doctrines of their learned men. One of these was Thomas Lever, late master of St. John's college in Cambridge, a grave and good man : who gave some account of his travels in a letter to Mr. Bradford, then a prisoner in England : viz. " I have seen " the places, noted the doctrine and discipline, and talked " with the learned men of Argentine, Basil, Zuric, Berne, " Louvain, and Geneva. And I have had experience in all " these places, of sincere doctrine, and godly order, and " great learning; and especially of such virtuous learning, " diligence, and charity, in Bullinger at Zuric, and in Calvin " at Geneva, as doth much advance God's glory, unto the " edifying of Christ's church, with the same religion for " the which ye be now in prison."" Exiles at j w \\\ ma k e a sma ll s top at those of the English nation Frankford. " . r & that placed themselves at Frankford ; some of the chief of whom were Whitehead and Sandes, Noel and Fox, Bale and Horn, Whittingham, and Knox the Scot, Elmer and Bentham, Sampson, Crowley, Thomas Cole, and Kelk, of the clergy ; Chambers and Isaac, Knolles, father and son, UNDER QUEEN MARY I. 405 John and Christopher Hales, and others of the gentry: CHAP, the whole congregation consisting of about sixty-two. It is well known what unhappy contentions fell out there among Anno 1555. themselves, concerning the discipline that was to be set up in their church ; and the alterations to be made in the English Service-Book. In this hot contest some few of the wiser sort would not mingle themselves : among these was John Fox, the famous martyrologist ; who in a letter to Peter Martyr told him, " that he behaved himself as a scep- " tic in that business ; yet that it was hard to be wholly a " neuter. Therefore he added, he could not be altogether " an idle looker on. But for the generality, all the young " men, even such as were but boys, joined themselves to " the one side or the other. Nay, and those that were old " men, and divines, that should have been the promoters of 242 " peace and concord, added more flame to the fire than the " rest. He lamented the hatreds, the envies, the defama-Theirbroiis. " tions, the evil-speakings, the suspicions and jealousies that " were among them ; and he could never have believed, " tantum amari stomachi latere in his, quos assidua sacro- Fox's ad- " rum librorum tractatio ad omnem clementiam mansue-^ m ° "facere debuerat : i. e. that so much of anger and passion " could be in such, whom the daily use of the Scriptures " should have qualified to all gentleness and goodness. Some " at length fled away from Frankford, but left stings be- " hind them : the heats continued all the winter ; at length " they began to be something cooler. 11 The side which Fox took in these indecent sidings was to take no side, nor join himself to any part; but his main business was to be a peace-maker, and to persuade both to concord. And par- ticularly he advised them, that they should come to argue friendly or gently by letters, or conference, rather than by ill words. By which means, he supposed, the fuel being withdrawn, the fire would at last go out of itself. And in- deed by the book of the Troubles of Frankford, we find that Fox had brought them to this, and had prevailed with them to take his counsel, viz. to debate the matter more mildly by letter and conference. And some of the letters
406 MEMORIALS ECCLESIASTICAL CHAP, and conferences are there set down : to some of which Fox subscribed his name among others. But the last means he Anno 1555. contrived for the composing these differences was, that if they could not make them up by themselves, then to refer the matter to the judgment of some chosen men to stand be- tween both in an equal moderation, and to prescribe a li- turgy to which both sides might assent. But to this point of his sober advice, as appeared, they consented not, but instead thereof, many of them separated, and divided asunder.
Frankford. noWj ]yf ay gg ? returned in some haste thither again ; for he was the chief opposer of the use of the English Liturgy, averring, that it was a superstitious model, borrowed from the Papists; and refused to celebrate the communion, ac- cording as it was there prescribed to be done. And besides, Knox held and published some dangerous principles about government; which were so disliked by the chief of the English divines there, as Cox, Bale, Turner of Windsor, Jewel, and others, that they thought it fit, and that for their own security, to disown him publicly, not only by dis- charging him of his ministry, but also by making an open complaint against him to the magistrates of the town. And so Mr. Isaac and Parry brought, in writing, several passages taken out of his Admonition to England, as so many arti- cles against him, declaring his ill-will against Queen Mary, King Philip, and the Emperor himself: the congregation His prin- hereby disavowing his book and principles. These passages allowed. were as follow 5 It "If Mary and her counsellors had been " dead before these days, then should not her iniquity and " cruelty so manifestly have appeared to the world. II. " Jezebel never erected half so many gibbets in all Israel, as " mischievous Mary hath done in London alone. III. Would " any of you have confessed, two years ago, that Mary, 243 " their mirror, had been false, dissembling, unconstant, M proud, and a breaker of promises, except such promises as " she had made to her god the Pope, to the great shame
UNDER QUEEN MARY I. 407 " and dishonour of her noble father? IV. The love of her CHAP. " native country could not move that wicked woman's heart. to pity. V. She declared herself an open traitoress to the Anno 1555. " realm of England, contrary to the just laws of the same, " to bring in a stranger, and to make a proud stranger " king, to the destruction of the nobility, and subversion of " the realm. VI. God, for our scourge, suffered her and her " council to come to authority. VII. Under an English " name she hath a Spaniard's heart. VIII. Much trouble " in England for establishing that most unhappy and wicked " woman's authority : I mean, of her that now reigneth in " God's wrath. IX. Marriage ought not to be contracted " with those who do maintain and advance idolatry, such as " the Emperor, who is no less enemy to Christ than ever " was Nero." The magistrates, upon this information, sent for Mr. ^"5°-" Williams and Mr. Whittingham, willing them to advise parture Knox to depart; otherwise they should be constrained to ford deliver him unto the Emperor's Council, which was then at Ausburge ; that, upon this information, sent for him. Knox hereupon makes a sermon in his lodging, to about fifty per- sons, of the death and resurrection of Christ, and of the un- speakable joys prepared for God's elect, and then departed; and was conveyed, by some, three or four miles out of town.
tions, tended to their dispraise. For they sent an earnest ^ Iart y r * J . to come and invitation to Martyr, to come and read divinity to them ; read di- acquainting him with the consent of the magistrates, and ^" n J t a h em< promising him a fair salary. The letter to him was writ by Mr. Elmer, and subscribed by the fraternity, and carried, as it seems, by Whittingham. Fox, in October, (which was but a little after,) urged it, fearing Martyr's non-compliance ; shewing what a means it would prove of uniting and bring- ing the English nation together into one place, that were at present dispersed and scattered about. In this letter Fox styles him the apostle of the English nation. The former d d 4 408 MEMORIALS ECCLESIASTICAL CHAP, letter of Fox to Martyr, concerning their dissensions, and L. this, I have transcribed, and laid in the Repository. Anno 1555. t w hi c h letters I have added a third, written by John xxxvn ^ a ^ e ' ^ ate bishop of Ossory, who was now lately removed xxxviii. from Frankford to Basil, with many others, upon the dis- The exiles sensions there. By whose letter it appears, these fractions at Basil. ... . were also got into this Church of Basil ; the disaffected at Frankford bringing hither with them their dislike to the English Liturgy. They thought it not convenient to have the Ten Commandments, the Epistles, and Gospels repeated in the Communion Office, reckoning them ill placed there : and the communion itself they called a Popish communion, and said, it had a Popish face. This made them labour to set up a new office in this congregation of English exiles at Basil, and wholly to throw out the English book. Many, on the other hand, could not away with this, having a great reverence for the book that had been composed first, and then with all possible care revised and corrected by Arch- bishop Cranmer, Bishop Ridley, and other divines of the 244 greatest reputation ; and was narrowly inspected and ap- proved by those two great learned foreign Protestant doc- tors, Martyr and Bucer ; and lastly, used with such general approbation throughout England under good King Edward. Of this latter sort was the said Bale, the learned antiquary, and late bishop : who wrote some account of these men and their doings, in a letter to Mr. Ashley, a gentleman of quality, then, as it seems, at Frankford : who had wrote letters to him to know the state of the church there, being himself minded, upon some disgust between him and Horn the pas- tor, to remove to them. Bale, accordingly, in the year 1556, let him understand in what troubles their church was at that time, by reason of certain men, that, to such as required the common prayer according to the English order, denied it, pretending the magistrates would not suffer it; which, Bale said, was manifestly false : adding, " that they blas- " phemed the communion, and mocked at the things in it: UNDER QUEEN MARY I. 409 " ings; and that with these they triumphed, and laboured CHAP. " to erect their Church of the purity ; terming them new '__ " CatharitesT But in this letter he shewed his friend how Anno 1555. vastly different the communion, as it was appointed in the book, was from the Popish mass, and that in many particu- lars. But I betake the reader to the letter itself, which may Number XXXIX be worth the perusing, (allowing Mr. Bale's broad words and angry way of writing,) to let some light into the causes of these unhappy animosities among the professors at Basil, as well as at Frankford. Many of the English, especially students, settled them- The exiles selves at another place, namely, Tygur, or Zuric, in Helvetia, a for the sake of Bullinger and other learned men there. Here were Jewel, Horn, Lever, Parkhurst, Humphrey, Beau- mont, Mullings, and others, men of great note and eminency afterwards in the Church of England. To these exiles, both Peter Martyr from Strasburgh, and John Calvin from Ge- neva, wrote comfortable letters. That of Martyr bore this title, Omnibus Anglis, qui Tiguri degunt in sancta socie- tate, dilectis Deo, et mihi in Christo charissimis ; and was brought by Horn. That from Calvin was thus superscribed, Letters Doctis et piis, qui nunc exules ab Anglia, se ad Christi tyr an( j ministerium comparant in ecclesia Tygurina,fratribus cha- Calvi " to rissimis ; dated from Geneva, in June 1554, and brought by Lever. In this letter " he advised them to constancy, " until God stretched forth his hand from heaven ;" and said, " that certainly God would at length look upon his " people, of whom there were no small numbers, and re- " strain the pride of their enemies, who did therefore so " much insult, that their fury would not be possible to be " borne long. And exhorting them to follow their studies, " he spake of God's reserving them for his service. For he " doubted not, but that the Lord, in his wonderful counsel, " would have them thus exercised in the studies of godly " learning under a shadow, that a little while after he might " bring them forth into the light, and into a serious war- " fare. Therefore he bade them earnestly ply their studies, " as though matters were well composed, and their country 410 MEMORIALS ECCLESIASTICAL CHAP. " had now wanted their assistance. For although the gate XXXI " was then shut to Christ's servants, yet he hoped in a short Anno 155-s." time there would be use of them:" and so there was. 245 Both these letters are extant in the Life of Bishop Jewel, wrote by Dr. Humfrey ; whither they may repair that desire to read them. The exiles There was another company of English good people got together at Wezel in Cleves, occasioned chiefly by the coming thither of Mr. Berty, and the Duchess of Suffolk his wife, both serious professors of religion : which coming of theirs being heard of, many others flocked thither. And Mr. Coverdale lately escaped out of England, by the King of Denmark's intercession, came from that King, and was sometime preacher to this company at Wezel. But this congregation soon brake up, the Lady Duchess and her husband going away, and the English depending upon their favour and charity : some followed them, others went to Basil ; Coverdale to Geneva, and others to other places. Grindaito Lastly, to all this I will add what one of these exiles, cerningtbe viz- Mr. Grindal, at Frankford, wrote from thence to his exiles. patron, Bishop Ridley, then at Oxford, in May 1555. Martyrs' a g n . ? j thought good to advertise you in part of our
" several places. Certain be at Tigury ; good students of " either University a number ; very well entreated of Master " Bullinger, of the other ministers, and of the whole city. " Another number of us remain at Argentine, and take the " commodity of Master Martyr's lessons, who is a very " notable father ; Mr. Scory, and certain others that be " with him, be in Friseland, and have an English Church " there, [at Embden,] but not very frequent. The greatest " number is at Frankford, where I was at this present by " occasion ; a very fair city. The magistrates favourable " to our people, with so many other commodities as exiles " can well look for. Here is also a Church, and now, God " be thanked, well quieted by the prudency of Master Cox " and others, which met here for that purpose. So that " now we trust God hath provided, for such as will flee UNDER QUEEN MARY f. 411 " forth of Babylon, a resting place, where they may truly CHAP. " serve Him, and hear the voice of their true Pastor. I sup-. Yüklə 12,09 Mb. Dostları ilə paylaş:
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