and so continue to the end. That they should not discourage any laymen from reading the Bible, but encourage them to it. And to read it for the reformation of their lives, and knowledge of their duty; and not 71 to be bold and presumptuous in judging of things before they have perfect knowledge. That they should, both in their preachings and confessions, and in other their doings, excite their parishioners unto such works as are commanded by God expressly: adding, that for this God should demand of them a strict reckoning. And to teach them, that other works, which they do of their own devotion, are not to be so highly esteemed as the other and that for the not doing them, God will not ask any account. That no friar have any cure or service in their churches, unless he were dispensed withal and licensed by the ordinary. That they admit no young person to the sacrament, who never received it before, unless such person openly in the church, after mass upon a holy day, say the Lord's Prayer, the Creed, and the Ten Commandments. That they twice a quarter declare the bands of matrimony, and the danger of using their bodies but with such persons as they might by the law of God; and that no privy contracts be made, as they would avoid the extreme peril of the laws of the realm.” No diocesan bishop consecrated this year. BISHOPS SUFFRAGANS. crated. Robert bishop of St. Asaphy recommended to the king Bishops John Bradley, abbot of the monastery of Milton, of the conse order of St. Benedict, or William Pelles, both bachelors of divinity, to the dignity of suffragan within the diocese [province rather] of Canterbury, mentioning no particular see. The bishop of Bath and Wells also recommended Cranm. two to the king, out of which to nominate a suffragan to z [John Clerk.] y [Robert Warton.] Regist. William John some see within the province of Canterbury, viz. William Finch, late prior of Bremar, and Richard Walshe, prior of the hospital of St. John Baptist of Bridgewater. April the 7th, William Finch was nominated by the king to the archbishop to be consecrated for suffragan of Taunton; and then consecrated in the chapel of St. Mary's, in the conventual church of the Friars Preachers, London, by John bishop of Rochester, by virtue of letters commissional from the archbishop, Robert bishop of St. Asaphb, and William suffragan of Colchester, assisting. And, March the 23rd, John Bradley was consecrated suffragan of Shaftesbury, in the chancel of the parish church of St. John Baptist in Southampton, by John bishop of Bangore, by the letters commissional of Thomas, archbishop of Canterbury, John Ipolitanen. and Thomas suffragan of Malborough, assisting. a [John Hilsey.] [Robert Warton.] C [John Salcot.] CHAPTER XIX. THE ACT OF SIX ARTICLES. Wotton Faculties. THIS year, October the 6th, I meet with a commission, The archbishop ad facultates, granted from the archbishop to a famous makes Nic. man, Nicholas Wotton, LL.D.d a man of great learning, commisand made use of by the king afterwards in divers em- 72 bassies, and a privy counsellor to king Henry, and his sary of his three children successively princes of the realm, and dean Cranm. Regist. of Canterbury and York. This commission was in pursuance of a late act of parliament to this tenor; that in whatsoever cases, not prohibited by divine right, in which the bishop of Rome, or Roman see, heretofore accustomed to dispense, and also in all other cases in which the bishop, or see of Rome accustomed not to dispense, if so be they were not forbid by divine right; in these cases the archbishop had power granted him to dispense. In this office he constituted Wotton his commissary or deputy for the term of his natural life. He succeeded Edmund Boner, Ath. Oxon. master of the archbishop's faculties, now preferred to the P. 124. bishopric of Hereford. So that Cranmer took notice of the merits of this man, who was so much made use of afterwards in the church and state; and was of that great esteem and reputation, that he was thought on, in the beginning of queen Elizabeth's reign, for archbishop of Canterbury. In the year 1528, he was doctor of laws, and the bishop of London's official. In the year 1540, he was resident for the king in the duke of Cleves' court; and d [See Chalmer's Biog. Dict. art. Wotton, and Le Neve's Fasti, p. 104. ed. Lond. 1716. The act of parliament referred to was 28° Hen. VIII. [A. D. 1536.] c. 16. See Statutes at large, vol. iii. p.672.] e [See Wood's Athenæ Oxon. vol. i. col. 368–370. ed. Bliss, 1812-20. See also Le Neve's Fasti, pp. 10, 315.] had been employed in the match between the king and , the lady Ann of that house the year before; and perhaps this might be the first time he was sent abroad in the king's business. Ann.1539. offended with the and some other bishops. In the year 1539, the king took occasion to be displeased The king with the archbishop and the other bishops of the new learning, as they then termed them, because they could not archbishop be brought to give their consent in the parliament that the king should have all the monasteries suppressed to his own sole use. They were willing he should have all the lands as his ancestors gave to any of them; but the residue they would have had bestowed upon hospitals, grammar-schools for bringing up of youth in virtue and good learning, with other things profitable in the commonwealth. The king was hereunto stirred by the crafty inter Foxii insinuations of the bishop of Winchester, and other old dissembling papists. And as an effect of this displeasure, as it was thought, in the parliament this year, he made the terrible bloody act of the Six Articles: whereby none of Christ were present. Life of MSS. f [Stephen Gardiner. See Foxe's Acts and Monuments, pp. 1121, 2. ed. Lond. 1583.] g [Harl. MSS. 417. Plut. lxiv. F. fol. 91. British Museuin. Original. The following are the Six Articles, which were "resolved by the convocation the old popish way," and enacted by the parliament, under the title, "An act for abolishing diversities of opinions." Cranmer and other divines argued boldly against them, but unsuccessfully. First. "That in the sacrament of the altar, after the consecration, there remained no substance of bread and wine, but under these forms the natural body and blood were suffered to speak a word against the doctrine of transubstantiation upon pain of being burnt to death as an heretic, and to forfeit all his lands and goods, as in Sixthly. That auricular confession was expedient and necessary, and ought to be retained in the church." be "The parliament thanked the king for the pains he had taken in these articles and enacted, that if any, after the twelfth of July, [A. D. 1539.] did speak, preach, or write against the first article, they were to judged heretics, and to be burnt without any abjuration, and to forfeit their real and personal estate to the king. And those who preached, or obstinately disputed against the other articles, were to be judged felons, and to suffer death as felons, without benefit of clergy. And those who, either in word or writing, spake against them, were to be prisoners during the king's pleasure, and forfeit their goods and chattels to the king, for the first time and if they offended so the second time, they were to suffer as felons. All the marriages of priests are declared void: and if any priest did still keep any such woman, whom he had so married, and lived familiarly with her, as with his wife, he was to be judged a felon and if a priest lived car : nally with any other woman, he was upon the first conviction to forfeit his benefices,goods and chattels, and to be imprisoned during CRANMER, VOL. I. : the king's pleasure; and upon the second conviction was to suffer as a felon. The women so offending were also to be punished in the same manner as the priests and those who contemned or abstained from confession or the sacrament at the accustomed times, for the first offence, were to forfeit their goods and chattels, and be imprisoned; and for the second were to be adjudged of felony. And, for the execution of this act, commissions were to be issued out to all archbishops and bishops, and their chancellors and commissaries, and such others in the several shires as the king should name, to hold their sessions quarterly or oftener; and they were to proceed upon presentments, and by a jury. Those commissioners were to swear, that they should execute their commission indifferently, without favour, affection, corruption, or malice. All ecclesiastical incumbents were to read this act in their churches once a quarter. And, in the end, a proviso was added, concerning vows of chastity that they should not oblige any, except such as had taken them at or above the age of twenty-one years; or had not been compelled to take them."See Burnet's Hist. of Reformat. vol. i. pp. 518-20. ed. Oxon. 1829. Collier's Eccl. Hist. vol. v. M : |