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Which was granted her by the Lord Protector. And in October she sent a letter to Paget, the Comptroller, that one George Brigus, whose wife brought the letter to him.
92 MEMORIALS ECCLESIASTICAL BOOK might be now placed, and have his fee accordingly. To- wards Christmas, the King invited her most courteously to Anno i547.l^eep her holydays with him, together with his other sister, the Lady Elizabeth. Yet if she were indisposed in her health, as she had lately been, or if it were any otherwise inconvenient for her to come now, the King very obligingly left it to her liberty, and invited her at any other time, when she pleased herself, to resort to him. This invitation of his by writing was signed by divers Lords of the Council ; as may be seen by this transcript of it ensuing :
" Arundel. T. Wentworth. " A. Wyngfeld. Rich. South wel." She cen- Yet she took upon her to censure the King's proceedings, i)roceedings. and carried herself with some haughtiness of stomach to- ward the Counsellors for the present management of affairs. Indeed the stiff Papists, such as Bishop Gardiner, were very much offended to see the reformation proceed, as it did, under this good King : and they gave out, that herein the
OF KING EDWARD VI. 93 King's Ministers, that forwarded these proceedings, brake CHAP. the late King Henry's will, and were not faithful to their ^^^' trust. And they set on the Lady Mary (who was of her Anno 1547. own nature forward enough to it) to charge these things home to the Counsellors. And to this purpose she wrote Writes to somewhat sharply to the Protector : charging him and the tecto/.°' other executors of King Henry's last testament, that they did not faithfully fulfil it by their present doings and proceed- ings. She told him, that the most part of the realm, through a naughty liberty and presumption, were now brought into such a division, as if they, who were the executors of the King's last will, went not about to bring them to that stay, that the King their late master left them in, they would forsake all obedience, unless they had their own will and fantasy. And then it would follow that the King should not be well served, and that other realms would have them of this realm in obloquy and derision ; and that not without just cause, as she said. She added, that there was a godly order and quietness left by the King, their late master and her father, in this realm, at the time of his death ; and that the spiritualty and temporalty of the whole realm did not only, without compulsion, fully assent to his doings and proceedings, specially in matters of religion, but also in all kind of talk, whereof she herself could partly witness. The present proceedings she esteemed nothing but fantasy and neivfangledness.
answer told her, " that neither he nor any other of the swerlnd"" " executors, as he knew of, would willingly neglect the full vindication " execution of every jot of King Henry's will, as far as it coiinseiio*rs. " might stand with the King their present master's honour " and surety. And otherwise he was sure that her Grace " would not have it take place. They doubted not, but " that their doings therein, and in all other things com- " mitted to their charge, should be such as they should be " able to answer to the whole world, both in honour and " discharge of their consciences. That her words sounded " so ill, that he could not persuade himself but she was set 94 MEMORIALS ECCLESIASTICAL BOOK " on by some uncharitable and malicious persons : of which • " sort there were, he said, too many. That they were not Anno 1547." SO simple to Weigh and regard the sayings of evil disposed OO a persons, nor the doings of other countries, as to neglect " their duty to God, to their Sovereign, and native country. " And that, thanks be to God, such had been the King's " proceedings, their young noble master, that all his faith- " ful subjects had more cause to render to God their hearty " thanks for the manifold benefits shewed to the King, and " to the people and realm, since the first day of his reign " to that hour, than to be offended with it: and to judge " and think that God was contented and pleased with them, " the King's ministers ; who sought nothing but the true " glory of God, and the surety of the King's person, with " the quietness and wealth of his subjects. " That it was so far from a godly and quiet order which " was left by the late King, and that the spiritualty and " temporal ty all agreed and assented to that King's doings " and proceedings, that, as she might call to remembrance, " great were the labours and travails that King had, before " he could reform some of those stiffnecked Romanists and " Papists, that they caused his subjects to rise and rebel " against him. That some of them, viz. the Romanists' " sect, within his realm, as well as without, conspired often- " times his Majesty's death. Which was manifestly and " often proved, to the confusion of some of their iprivy as- " sisters. He appealed then to her, whether all the spi- " ritualty or temporalty did fully consent to his godly or- " ders. He put it to her, as well knowing it, if that King " did not depart this life before he had fully finished such " orders as he minded to have estabhshed among his people, " if death had not prevented him. And that it was most '' true, that no kind of religion was perfected at his death, " but left all uncertain ; most likely to have brought in " parties and divisions, if God had not helped. He and " others could witness, what regret and sorrow their late " master had at the time of his departure, for that he " knew religion was not established, as he purposed to have
OF KING EDWARD VI. 95 " done: and a great many knew, and so did he, what that CHAP. " King would have done further in it, if he had hved/' ^^^' The letter is of that import, and openeth so much the con- Anno 1547. elusion of that Prince's reign, and his mature and last mind in religion, that it deserves to stand upon record to pos- terity ; and I had entered it here from a Cotton volume, but find it done already by the right reverend author of the History of the Reformation, among the Collections. Page 115.
others, in the city of Westminster, where the King now was, and a great resort of the nobility and gentry, a Parliament being now sitting. Therefore, that as much care as could be, might be taken against the spreading of it, and that in- fected houses might be known, and so avoided, the King therefore, Nov. 18, set forth by proclamation a charge and A prociama- command to all persons, inhabiting as well within the said jj^" city, as in other places adjoining to the same, in whose houses the said infection reigned, or hereafter should reign, that they forthwith set forth a cross upon their street doors, whereby the King's subjects might know that the infection was or had been in their houses : and moreover, that no manner of person, in whose houses the said infection was, or hath been, or had resorted to any such infected person, by 61 the space of three months last past, should from thenceforth repair to the Court, or suffer any of the attendants of the said Court, or other gentlemen's servants, whose masters attended the said Court, to enter their house where the said infection of the plague had been, upon pain of his high in- dignation and displeasure, and farther to be punished, &c.
96 MEMORIALS ECCLESIASTICAL BOOK 1. CHAP. VIII. Anno 1547.^ Parliament. Communion in both kinds enacted. The act for chantries. The abuse thereof. Other acts. Letters and disputations between Bishop Gardiner and Martin Bucer. They and Aless meet together in Ger- many.
munion in and continued sitting till December 24 following. When, est^ibHshed ^^^ng Other memorable things which they did, viz. when they had enjoined the Sacrament to be received in both kinds, and that the Priests should give notice to the people as often as it should be celebrated, and some such things mentioned in the act ; the King had certain Bishops, and other learned Divines sitting, to draw an office in Eng- lish, to be used for that purpose : which being finished The Com- was called. The Communion ; and is printed in Bishop Book''" Sparrow's Collections. This Communion Book was set abroad the beginning of March, with the King's proclama- tion before it, dated March 8. And the Privy Council sent their letters missive to all the Bishops, together with the said Communion Book, to be distributed to them for their use against Easter next. Which letters were dated March 13, and signed by the Archbishop of Canterbury, Rich. Lord Chancellor, Lord St. Johns, Lord Russel, Lord Arundel, Sir Ant. Wyngfeld, Sir W. Petre, Sir Edw. North, Sir Edw. Fox, Wotton. Therein it was said, " how the King, upon that
" prelates, and other men learned in the Scriptures, to as- " semble together; and that they, after long conference, " with deliberate advice, agreed upon that order to be used " in all places, in the distribution of the holy Sacrament.*" How ob- But the issue of this was, that there arose a marvellous served. schism and variety of factions, in celebrating the Communion Service : some followed the King's proceedings ; others ad- mitted them, but did patchingly use but some part of the
OF KING EDWARD VI. 97 book. But many carelessly contemned all, and would ex- CHAP. ercise their old wonted popish mass. ^^^^' The words of this law for communicating in both kinds Anno 1547 being so properly and well expressed, and the penning ^^" ^^^ P'"^ thereof seeming to me to have been done by the Archbi- Cranmer shop himself, it may not be amiss to take some particular 5^"" ^^^ notice of it here. The whole act was made for three in- tents ; 1. For the checking and restraint of many, who, be- 62 cause the Sacrament had been so abused in former times to superstition and idolatry, began now to speak very irreve- rently of the sacred ordinance, giving it many rude and ridiculous names. Such, upon information, were to be pu- nished by fine and imprisonment. 2. To bring in a due use of this Sacrament among the people, empowering them to receive the cup as well as the wafer, according to the in- stitution of Scripture. 3. To break off that unwarrantable practice brought into the Church in the corrupt times of it, for the priest to communicate by himself. And it is to be noted of this act, that it was made before the law for the abolishing of the mass. This remarkable act, both of Cran- mer's procuring and drawing up too, as I conjecture, began thus :
" men do pervert many things, well and godly instituted ; " and, namely, in the most comfortable Sacrament of the " body and blood of our Saviour Jesus Christ, commonly " called, the Sacrament of the Alta?^, and in Scripture, " the Supper and table of the Lord, the Communion and " partaking of the body and blood of Christ. Which Sa- " crament was instituted of no less author than our Saviour, " both God and man, when at his last supper among his " Apostles he did take the bread into his holy hands, and " did say. Take you and eat : this is my body, which is '' given and broken Jhr you. And taking up the chalice, " or cup, did give thanks and say, This is my blood of the " new testament, which is shed for you and for many, ^^for the remission of sins. That whensoever we should " do the same, we should do it in the remembrance of him,
98 MEMORIALS ECCLESIASTICAL BOOK " and to declare and set forth his death, and most glorious ^' " passion, imtil his coming-. Ofxvhich bread whosoever eat- Aimoi547. " eth, or of the zvhich cup whosoever drinheth, unworthily, " eateth and drinheth condemnation and judgment unto " himself, maUng no difference of the Lord's body. The " institution of which Sacrament being ordained by Christ, ''^ as is aforesaid, and the said words spoken of it here be- " fore rehearsed being of eternal, infallible, and undoubted " truth ; yet the said Sacrament hath been of late marvel- " lously abused by the said persons, contemning the whole " thing for certain abuses heretofore committed therein ; " reviling it, and disputing ungodly of that most holy " mystery, and calling it by vile and unseemly words : for " reformation whereof, be it enacted, &c.
" institution of the said Sacrament of the most precious " body and blood of our Saviour Jesus Christ, and also " more conformable to the common use and practice both « of the Apostles and of the primitive Church, by the space " of five hundred years and more, after Christ's ascension, " that the said holy Sacrament should be ministered to all " Christian people, under both kinds of bread and wine, " than under the form of bread only ;
" Christ, and to the usage of the Apostles, and the primitive " Church, that the people, being present, should receive " the same with the priest, than that the priest should re- " ceive it alone ;
" King, with the consent of the Lords spiritual and tem- 63 " poral, and the Commons of this present Parliament assem- " bled, and by the authority of the same, that the said " most blessed Sacrament be hereafter commonly delivered '' and ministered unto the people, within this Church of " England and Ireland, and other the King's dominions, " under both the kinds, that is to say, of bread and wine, " except necessity otherwise require : and also, that the " priest which shall minister the same, shall at the least OF KING EDWARD VI. 99 '* one day before, exhort all persons which shall be present CHAP. " likewise to resort and prepare themselves to receive the " same: and when the day prefixed cometh, after a godly ^""<^ ^^47. " exhortation by the minister made, (wherein shall be fur- " ther expressed the benefit and comfort promised to them " which worthily receive the said holy Sacrament, and dan- " ger and indignation of God threatened to them which " shall presume to receive the same unworthily ; to the end, ^' that every man may try and examine his own conscience '' before he shall receive the same,) the said minister shall " not, without a lawful cause, deny the same to any per- " son that will devoutly and humbly desire it,"" &c. Another act in this sessions that related to religion, was The act for that which gave the King all the colleges, free chapels, ^^^^jj^^*'"^j^_ chantries, hospitals, fraternities or guilds, which were not in solved. the actual and real possession of the late King Henry VIII. to whom the Parliament in the thirty-seventh year of his reign had made a grant of such like colleges, free chan- tries, &c. not in the possession of the present King. By virtue of which act there accrued to the King all the lands, tenements, rents, and other hereditaments, which had been employed for the finding or maintenance of any anniversary or ohit, or any light or lamp in any church or chapel. And there were two good causes assigned for this gift to the King. The one was, for the dissolving of superstition, which these colleges and chantries were found to be great occa- sions of. The other, for the founding of schools of learn- ing, and providing for the poor ; for so the preamble of the act gives us to understand, " that a great part of supersti- " tion and errors in Christian religion had been brought " into the minds and estimation of men, by reason of the " ignorance of their very true and perfect salvation, through " the death of Jesus Christ, and by devising and fantasy- " ing vain opinions of purgatory and masses satisfactory, " to be done for them that were departed. The which doc- " trine and vain opinion, by nothing more was maintained *' and upholden than by the abuse of trentals, chantries, *' and other provisions made for the continuance of the said H 2 100 MEMORIALS ECCLESIASTICAL BOOK " blindness and ignorance. And secondly, that the alter- • " ation and amendment of the same, and the converting Anno 1547." them to good and godly uses, (as in erecting grammar- " schools for the education of youth in virtue and godli- " ness, and for augmenting of the Universities, and better " provision for the poor and needy,) could not in that pre- " sent Parliament be provided and conveniently done ; nor " could not nor ought to be committed to any other per- " sons than to the King"'s Highness." The abuse But this act was soon after grossly abused, as the act in t^hereby!^ the fovmcr King's reign for dissolving religious houses was. For though the public good was pretended thereby, (and intended too, I hope,) yet private men, in truth, had most of the benefit, and the King and commonwealth, the state of learning, and the condition of the poor, left as they were before, or worse. Of this, great complaints were made by 64 honest men : and some of the best and most conscientious preachers reproved it in the greatest auditories, as at Paul's Cross, and before the King himself. Thomas Lever, a Fel- low, and afterwards Master of St. John's college in Cam- bridge, in a sermon before the King, in the year 1550, shewed, " how those that pretended, that (beside the abo- " lishing of superstition) with the lands of abbeys, colleges, " and chantries, the King should be enriched, learning " maintained, poverty relieved, and the commonwealth " eased, purposely had enriched themselves : setting abroad " encloistered Papists, to give them livings by giving them " pensions, yea, and thrusting them into benefices, to poi- " son the whole commonwealth, for the resignation of those " pensions : and so craftily conveying much from the King, " from learning, from poverty, and from all the common- " wealth, unto their own private advantage." Thus he. Schools And bringing in grammar-schools, which these dissolved chantries were also to serve for the founding of, he told the King plainly, " Your Majesty hath given and received, by '^ act of Parliament, colleges, chantries, and guilds, for " many good considerations, and especially, as appears in " the same act, for erecting of grammar-schools, tp the edu-
OF KING EDWARD VI. 101 cation of youth in virtue and godliness, to the further CHAP. augmenting of the Universities, and better provision of 1_ " the poor and needy. But now many grammar-schools, ^""0 1^47. " and much charitable provision for the poor, be taken, " sold, and made away ; to the great slander of you and " your laws, to the utter discomfort of the poor, to the " grievous offence of the people, to the most miserable " drowning of youth in ignorance, and sore decay of the " Universities." And then, for instance, he mentioned a grammar-school founded in the north country among the rude people there, (who yet were most ready to spend their lives and goods in serving the King at the burning of a beacon,) having in the University of Cambridge of the same foundation, eight scholarships and two fellowships, ever replenished with the scholars of that school : which school was now sold, decayed, and lost. And more there were of the like sort so handled. But this, he said, he re- cited, because the sale of it was once stayed for charity sake, and yet afterwards brought to pass by bribery, as he heard say, and believed it, because it was only bribery that customably overcometh charity. " For God sake," as he concluded, " you that be in authority look upon it. For if " you wink at such matters, God will scowl upon you." And whereas also another charitable end of the dissolu- And the tion of these colleges and chantries was for the better sue- ^^^jj^^n made cour of the needy, it was turned much to their damage and worse. prejudice also. Whereof the same reverend man gave one particular instance : namely, that there were in some towns six, in some eight, and in some a dozen kine given unto a Yüklə 12,09 Mb. Dostları ilə paylaş:
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