Search York

sentence, contrary to all laws and right; without any ci-

tation or calling him to appear, without any conviction

of crimes, or confession of the party. Besides all this

wrong, that he threatened that he would not yet make

an end with him, but bring him into further trouble :

which was the cause of his appeal to the Queen's Majesty,

whom he styled, Defender of the Faith, and supreme Head

in earth of the Church of England and Ireland : and to

the court of Parliament, or to any other competent judge,

to which by right and the statutes of this realm he might

appeal : which appeal, being somewhat remarkable, I do

N°. XIII. reposit in the Catalogue. For the further hearing and ex-

amination of this business, there seemed to be a commission

1 10 sent down to several divines and lawyers in the neighbour-

ing dioceses ; whose names were, as they are written on the

back-side of this appeal, John Wyat, B. D. rector of the

parish church of Kegworth, in the diocese of Lincoln:

UNDER QUEEN MARY I. 171

Rob. Patchet, LL. B. and commissary of John bishop of CHAP.

Lincoln, Will. Weston, M. A. in the county of Leicester. XIL

Also the Rector of the church of St. Michael of Buntington, Anno 1553.

in the diocese of York ; John Rookesby, George Palmes,

and John Dakyns, &c.
Thus all the married clergy were thrust out of their The injus-

livings for this most grievous crime of matrimony, though ^prh^atbn

allowed them by the laws of the land : which act was and the cm-

horribly severe and unnatural, and turned some thousand 6 y

of men, women, and children a begging. And which was

worst, the married priests had no other callings to betake

themselves to, to get food to feed themselves and families.

But little regard was had hereto. Only here was a harvest

for other Popish curates, to get into benefices and livings.

Of this, thus did a grave writer in those very times, and

suffered in this kind, express his mind: " They that enjoy Ponet «-

" the profits of their possessions [that were married] I ^ a n inst Mar "

" would should right well note, that like as princes and

" rulers be subject to changes, and that death as soon

" knocketh at the door of the rich as of the poor, so a

" man's right dieth not ; and law in another world will

" charge the transgressor, though ease in this world so flat-

" ter the conscience, that God is forgotten, and the flesh

" maketh full merry. What is extortion, if this be not ?

" to put out of goods and living one without a cause, and

" to thrust in another without a just title? But all this

" cannot suffice you, unless you may please your throats

" and ears with crying out upon us, thieves, heretics, and

" traitors, when you have taken from us both our country,

" our goods, and most lawful possessions ; yea, and all that

" we have, saving God alone, whom with his word ye have

" left to us, and driven away from you, to our comfort,

" and your eternal shame and perpetual infamy." Thus

the losers would, at least, have leave to talk and complain.
However strictly the married priests were looked after Some priests

and punished by divorce and loss of their livings, yet some e y s ™£?

escaped this inquisition; being the less suspected when

they complied and conformed themselves to the religion of

172 MEMORIALS ECCLESIASTICAL

CHAP, the State. Such an one was Fairbank, a curate of War-
__belton in Sussex. He had not put away his wife, notwith-
Anno 1553. standing the Queen's injunctions, but kept her secretly.

This man had preached in his parish in King Edward's

time, that none of them should believe any other doctrine

than he did preach and teach them, according to the doc-

trine set forth in that King's days. But, in the beginning

of Queen Mary, he preached doctrine clean contrary. This

gave great offence to some of the soberest of his parish-

ioners, and created a contempt of his person and ministry.

And one Woodman, a parishioner of this man's, would not

suffer him to christen his child, and charged him not to be

lawfully called, he meant, to officiate as a priest under

Queen Mary, since none were to do so, but those that were

divorced from their wives, which he was not.

The priests The Romish clergy, that now came into play, mightily

unclean. valued themselves for their being unmarried, and for having

no wives, as the Protestant divines had. Yet they were

men, even the Bishops and dignitaries not excepted, scan-

dalously addicted to uncleanness; and the loose women they

consorted with well known. And sometimes their adulteries

111 and fornications so notorious, that they underwent public

shame and punishment. And as they were of unclean lives,

so many of them were uncleanly and basely begotten, to the

disparagement of the church wherein they were preferred.

Boner's fa- Boner, bishop of London, was bastard all over. He a

1111 y ' bastard, his father a bastard, his grandfather a notorious
whoremaster. For this was his pedigree, as I find it set
Mr. Petyt's down in a collection of old MSS. " Sir John Savage,

MSS -i i ¦ .

" Knight of the Garter, and of the Privy Council to King
" Henry VII. and after slain at Bulloign, had issue lawful
" Sir John Savage, kt. who dwelt in Worcestershire : base
" issue, Sir John [or George] Savage, priest, parson of
" Danham in Leicestershire : who had bastards, four sons
" and three daughters, by three sundry women." Which
priest, therefore, Bale bestowed this gird upon : " He was
" a good ghostly father, old women said, which were well
" loden with sins, and led away with divers lusts." The

UNDER QUEEN MARY I. 173

names of his children were as follow: " 1. George Wim- CHAP.
" sley, [or Wimbesley,] priest, chancellor of Westchester. XIL
" 2. John Savage, alias Wimsley, archdeacon of London Anno 1553.
" and Middlesex, and parson of Torperley in Cheshire.
" 3. Randolph Savage, of the Lodge in Cheshire. 4. Ed-
" mund Boner, gotten of Eliz. Frodsham : who, when she
" had conceived, was sent to Ehnesley in Worcestershire,
" to one Thomas Savage, and afterwards was married to a
" carpenter [or a sawyer] called Boner, of Potters Handlev,
" by Malvern-hills. 5. Margaret, who married with one
" Claydon of the Wall in Cheshire. 6. Helene, who mar-
" ried to one Hais of Litley in the said county. 7. Eliza-
" beth, who was married to one Goldenstocks in the same
" county ."
This Bishop Boner was father to Dr. Darbyshire, his Boner's

chancellor, as ordinary fame went. And he had another sons "

base son that was steward of his lands : which gave occasion

to a severe repartee Bale made to this Boner, upon his dis-

like of King Edward's Office of Baptism, and the imposing

upon the infants scripture names, which then began to be

given; declaring himself to be for changing the names of

Susanna and Rachel, for Joan and Katharine. " His Lord-

" ship is better acquainted,'' 1 said he, " with Katharine and

" Joan out of the Bible, than with Rachel and Susanna

" within the Bible. And that appeareth well by his fruits

" abroad."

Gardiner, bishop of Winton, and Tonstal of Durham, Bishop

and Oglethorpe of Carlile, were also base born. Of whom ° a T d n ° er

the first, among other women, kept one Mrs. Godsalve. church, un-

His church and college of Winchester was scandalous for

lechery. Simon Palmer, formerly the relic-keeper, in

1551, so abused a wench of twelve years old, that she could

not go for ten days after. His business was brought before

the Bishop's chancellor, Mr. Gascoin, Sir Henry Seimour,

and Mr. John Foster, justices of the peace : but by subtile

contrivances he escaped hanging. To this church belonged

also Sir William Harman, priest, that visited one Daniel's

wife ; and Sir Peter Langrige, priest, that was too free with

174 MEMORIALS ECCLESIASTICAL

CHAP, others. But the foul stories of these, Bale (from whom I

X1L take these informations) reserved to relate in his Roman vo-

Anno 1553. taries.

Deciarat. of D r . Darbyshire, mentioned before, Boner's son and chan-

artkTes. cellor, kept one Anne Caudel, and had children by her.

Dr. Darby- Wymsley, Boner's base brother, when he was parson of

!l" re ' Torperley, was known to have three or four familiars, and

Dr^WesTon. several children by them. Dr. Weston, dean of Westmin-

ster, and after of Windsor, for his scandalous life in adultery,

1 12 was deprived of his deanery by Cardinal Pole. Bale men-

tions Mary Hugfal of Oxford, his old familiar, and the

goodwife Peerson, his provider, and Christian Thomas, a

widow whom he brent, or sealed with his hot iron, (to use

inbisde- his phrase,) at Oxford. He moreover tells the world in

claration. ^^ concernm g these bishops, Boner, Gardiner, Tonstal,

White, and some others of that function, as Cotes, bishop

of Chester ; also Dr. Weston, Dr. Smith, Young, Martin ;

that he had in his possession a register of their whoredoms,

and of their bastard children. And this he received from

certain of their own familiars, as he called them, and their

privy conveyers ; but now repentant. He means, those that

were their pimps and bawds, that conveyed whores to them,

and their misbegotten children to nurses. Priests within

their own parishes had panders, to procure them loose wo-

men ; which Bale styled, " trusty trulls, known within the

" parishes to be helpers at such needs, and lusty queans,

" which used to walk abroad in beggars apparel, pye-

" wenches, and sausage-makers." And when such as these

were not at hand, too often were these churchmen guilty of

sodomy ; and working that which was unseemly so much as

to utter, with boys, their chamberlains, that made their beds,

and that helped them at mass.

Some priests Dr. Barkley, Queen Mary's chaplain, having to do with

Iham S e h fof an impudent woman at Wells, she lightened him of all he

their un- had : for which act he had her in prison, but could re-

cover nothing but shame. Another priest, called Sir Tho.

Snowdel, whom they nicknamed Parson Chicken, was carted

through Cheapside, for assoiling an old acquaintance of his

UNDER QUEEN MARY I. 175

in a ditch in Finsbury-field : and was at that riding saluted CHAP,

with chamber-pots and rotten eggs. Sir James Tregennow, '__

curate of St. Ives in Cornwall, told Bale, Octob. 1, 1553, AQn0 1553 «

and he reported it also in the presence of several other gen-

tlemen, as a matter of sport, that one day he got two fisher-

men's wives with child, only to uphold the church's profits

of chrisoms and offerings. Harpsfield, Bishop Boner's

chaplain, whom Bale called Dr. Sweetlips, from his smooth

words and fair discourse, and his crosier-bearer in holy

confession, enticed a man's wife in London to uncleanness :

which she, like an honest woman, discovered.

Nor were two eggs more alike than these priests were to Uncnaste

their fellows in former reigns. For, to add a few passages k. Henry's

to shew what they were in King Henry's time : Bale tells rei s n -

us, that he remembered a priest at Maiden in Essex, an un-

learned lusk, that lay long about a young gentlewoman to

have had his lewd pleasure of her. But more for doubt of

hazarding her marriage, than for any true fear of God, she

kept him always back ; till at last she promised to have his

purpose, if he came while the pies were baking. And then he

came upon pretence of confessing her, and had his will of

her. In the year 1530, not far off this town of Maiden,

one came to be confessed at the pardon of the Augustines,

lamenting that she being naught with a priest, which was

by that act the father of her eldest son, was the cause of

disinheriting the right heir, the younger brother, that was

only her husband's son. Much ado there was to keep her

husband from the knowledge of it, and her from despair.

For she was come almost utterly to despair of God's mercy

for so wicked a fact. Mr. Wharton, a justice of peace in

Suffolk, told Bale, that he brought once to the Duke of

Norfolk a wench in man's apparel, with four waiting chap-

lains, good curates, that had one after another bestowed

their chastity upon her.
In Bcndly in the marches of Wales, the curate had a love 113

for an husbandman's wife in the parish : but could never

come at her, till he had caused her to feign herself sick.

And then he came like a religious confessor, with his cake

17G MEMORIALS ECCLESIASTICAL

CHAP, of god in a box, and the parish clerk or sexton, with a bell

] ' and a lantern. Entering the chamber, he bade the sexton

Anno 1553. and all to avoid, that he might commune with the sick

concerning her soul's health, and minister to her the sacra-

ments and sacramentals. The door fast barred, he got to

bed with the woman; and his god stood upon the cupboard,

which he made his bawd. But by a hole in the wall they

were both seen and discovered, the door being broke open

upon them. But the matter coming before the Bishop of

Worcester, he assoiled his chaplain with some little pe-

nance.

Wickiiff of And that this was the old wont of the priests, appears

ie pn s s. j rom a p assa g e taken out of a book of Wickiiff, DeHypocrisi ;

" That in his time the gentlemen or nobles being occupied

" in the wars, the merchants in their affairs, the plowmen in

" their labours, the priests, monks, and friars most filthily

" abused their wives. They made them believe, in confes-

" sions, that it was very wholesome to be doing with them

" in the absence of their husbands, and very medicinal for

" divers diseases. They affirmed also, that it was a much

*' less sin to have to do with them, than with any laymen;

" promising, in conclusion, that they would make answer to

" God for their sins. And some of those women, he saith,

" certain monks slew, which would in no wise condescend

" to their wicked persuasions."

Considering all which premises, and the shame and sin of
priests and people, by the forbidding marriage to the clergy,
the allowance of it under King Edward must needs, by all
impartial men, be approved ; especially since the woi'd of
God countenanceth it, and the ancient practice of the
Church.
The virtue But besides the honesty of the priests in this Queen's
o" Queen"^ re ^g n ? t^ir virtue and learning was such, [that is, so little,]
Mary's saith our foremcntioned author, that in good King Edward's
pn time they were glad to hide their heads. But now they
swarmed abroad by heaps ; and were admitted for money,
as fit to hold the people in blindness and ignorance. For as
Bale sarcastically expresseth it, " their office now was to

UNDER QUEEN MARY I. 177

" say their prayers in Latin, without understanding, pro- CHAP.

" perly, to bear their candles soberly, and to offer them to

" the saints mannerly, to take their ashes devoutly, to carry Anno 1553.

" their palms discreetly, to creep to the cross on Good-

" Friday featly, and to receive their little white maker on

" Easter-day honourably. 11 And in this also consisted the

complete devotion of a Popish layman, as well as priest.

I leave these passages, before recited in this chapter, upon A censure

the credit of John Bale, from a work of whom I have taken ° * a e '

them : who, though he is sometimes blamed, and blame-

worthy indeed, for his rude and plain language, and some-

times charged for making mistakes, (which, nevertheless,

could hardly be avoided by an historian, as he was, that

was forced to take up many things from the information of

others,) is an author of high esteem, and of commendable

diligence and integrity, and to whom posterity is much be-

holden for preserving from utter perishing much of the

English ecclesiastical history.
And thus was the Church now plentifully furnished with 114

ignorant, scandalous priests, notwithstanding their single The priests'

lives. And being placed in their respective parishes, they f rom the i r

did not seldom quarrel with their parishioners for chrisoms, parishion-

candles, purification-pence, eggs on Good-Friday, the four

offerings, dirge-groats, and such like. For that was the

usual reward for singing a mass for a soul. And some-

times, in lieu of that groat, they had a peck of wheat, or a

cheese, or a pudding given them.
The priests, especially the better sort of them, took much Their ap-

care about the habit and apparel they wore. They went pan

about in side-sweeping gowns, with great wide sleeves,

four-cornered caps, and long tippets, new shaven crowns,

and smooth smirk faces. For they shaved their beards, and

so were bound to do, as well as their crowns.

Bale, to set out the vices of this order of men, according Their nick-

to his way, bestows these nick-names upon them : Sir Lau- names-

rence Loiterer, Sir Peter Pickthank, Sir James the Jangler,

Sir Saunder Swepestreet, Sir Godfrey Goodale, Sir Thomas

Tippler, Sir Quintin Quarreller, Sir Harry Whorehunter,
VOL. III. N

178 MEMORIALS ECCLESIASTICAL

CHAP. Sir Simon Smelsmock, Sir Benet Buggerer, Whirlery-

whisking Weston, Wanton wagtail Winchester.

Anno 1553. And now, for a sober, grave, intelligible service of God,

^opisiser- uge( j - n ^ f ormer re ig n> came into use, " blind Latin

" patterings and wawlings, 11 (I use the words of John Bale,

who would call a spade a spade ;) " whereas one priest

" crieth like a pig, another bleats like a sheep, another lows

" like a cow, another grunts like an old sow, another howls

" like an owl, another chatters like a pye. And then step-

" peth forth Sir Laurence Loiterer, and he plays jack

" monkey at the altar, with his turns and half turns, 11 (he

means in regard of the many ceremonious postures then

used,) " and an hundred toys more. 11

Priests To conclude this chapter, and these accounts of Queen
mind se- . . x . . .. .
cuiar em- Mary s priests and mass-sayers. Though these men little

ploys. minded studying the Scripture, or preaching the Gospel, or

improving themselves in divine knowledge ; yet very many

of them were not idle, but addicted themselves to secular

things : divers belonging to noblemen and gentlemen, and

looked some to their hawks, and some to their dogs ; some

were their stewards, others their gardeners, others their ac-

comptants, or the like. But generally they were noted for

their spitefulness, and diligence in informing against the

Gospellers, and bringing them under imprisonment and

suffering. And the more ignorant they were, the more bi-

goted. These matters are more fully related by a sober

and grave man that lived in the midst of these times, and

knew them well enough.

Dr.Piiking- " If," saith he, " ye want one to keep a curre, rather than

hereupon. " a cure, to be a hunter or a faulkner, to be an over-

Exposition « seer f y OUr workmen, to be your steward, or to look to
uponAggee. "* J
" your sheep and cattle, to be your gardener, keep your

" orchard, or write your business ; who is meeter for any of

" these businesses than Sir John Lack Latin ? What

" a wickedness is this, that they should take so much pains

" to be so cunning in these things that God looks not for

" of them ; and in those things that God hath charged

" them withal, they can see nothing at all ? They be dumb

UNDER QUEEN MARY I. 179

"dogs, not able to bark in rebuking of sin; and blind CHAP.
" guides, not able to rule their flock. But if the world be XIL
" on their side, they can then play the wood dogs, biting Anno 1553.
" and snatching at every man near them, and let no honest 115
" man dwell in rest by them, but accuse, burn, and consume
" all that speak against their mischiefs. If there be a
" trental to be said, or any money to be gotten for masses,
" diriges, relics, pardons, &c. who then is so ready as
" they ? They can smell it out a great many miles off. But
" if a man want comfort in conscience, would understand
" his duty towards God, or God's goodness towards us,
" they be blind beasts, ignorant dolts, unlearned asses ; and
61 can say nothing, but make holy water, and bid them say
" a Lady Psalter." So he.
The Popish priests, indeed, made a shew of self-denial Their giut-

and mortification by their abstinence from marriage : but tony ' ldl ?"

* & """ ness, and
beside their known uncleanness, their gluttony, and idle- luxur y«

ness, and luxury was as well known : which thus Ponet sets

forth : " I marvel much that Martin is not ashamed to Book of

" commend his fond opinion [of the single life of priests,! ™ ies * s '

• i 1 • , J Marriages.
" with the feigned austerity and sharpness of the fat-bellied

" priests, whom he would seem to defend. All the world

" seeth, that their whole life is spent in nothing else than in

" eating and drinking, in idle walking and pastimes, and in

" providing for furring of their backs, and fattening of

" their bellies, and in gorgeously decked chambers, and soft

" sleeping. For maintenance whereof I report me to all

" the world, what pains they take in purchasing pluralities,

" totquets, non-residences ; that they may heap prebend

" upon prebend, benefice upon benefice ; lest at any time

" their backs or their bellies should lack of their lusts :

" fearing lest their spare godly diet should cause their

" neighbours to call them niggards. 11
In this year did John Bale aforesaid, late bishop of Bale's Voca-

Ossory, and now an exile, set forth his book, entitled, The tion-

Vocation of John Bale to the Bishopric of Ossory in Ire-

land, and his Persecutions in the same, and his final De-

liverance.
n 2

180 MEMORIALS ECCLESIASTICAL

CHAP. Now also did Dr. White, Bishop Gardiner's chaplain, and

a pretender to poetry, set forth a book in favour of Popery,