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Who this
Lawney

was.

which were simple poor fellows, and therefore my lord of London disdained to have to do with any of them.' Whereat my lord of Canterbury, and others that stood by, could not forbear from laughter."

This Lawney was a witty man, and chaplain to the old duke of Norfolk, and had been one of the scholars placed by the cardinal in his new college at Oxon, [A. D. 1525.] where he was chaplain of the house, and prisoner there with Frith, another of the scholars ", [A. D. 1526.] In the time of the Six Articles he was a minister in Kent, placed there, I suppose, by the archbishop. When that severe act was passed, more by the authority of a parliament than by the authority of the word of God, it chanced that my lord of Norfolk meeting with this his chaplain said, 'O, my Lawney,' (knowing him of old much to favour priests' matrimony,) whether may priests now have wives or no?' 'If it please your grace,' replied he, 'I cannot well tell whether priests may have wives or no: but well I wot, and am sure of it, for all your act, that wives will have priests.' Hearken, masters,' saith the duke, 'how this knave scorneth our act, and maketh it not worth a fly. Well, I see by it that thou wilt never forget thy old tricks.' And so the duke, and such gentlemen as were with him, went away merrily, laughing at Lawney's sudden and apt answer. The reader will excuse this digression.

P [See Anderson's Annals of the English Bible, vol. i. p. 454ed. Lond. 1845.]

CHAPTER IX.

MONASTERIES VISITED.

ries visited.

their dis

THIS year the monasteries were visited by Crumwel, Monastechief visitor who appointed Leighton, Legh, Petre, Lon- The archdon, his deputies, with Injunctions given them to be bishop for observed in their visitation. Indeed the king now had solution. thoughts of dissolving them, as well as visiting them: whose ends herein were, partly because he saw the monks and friars so untoward towards him, and so bent to the pope; and partly to enrich himself with the spoils. Archbishop Cranmer is said also to have counselled and pressed the king to it: but for other ends, viz. That out of the revenues of these monasteries the king might found more bishoprics; and that, dioceses being reduced into less compass, the diocesans might the better discharge their office according to the Scripture and primitive rules and because the archbishop saw how inconsistent these foundations were with the reformation of religion; purgatory, masses, pilgrimages, worship of saints and images, being effectual to their constitution, as the bishop of Sarum hath observed. And the archbishop hoped that from Hist. Ref. these ruins there would be new foundations in P. i. p. 189. every 190. cathedral erected, to be nurseries of learning, for the use of the whole diocese. But however short our arch- 36 bishop fell of his ends, desired and hoped for by these dissolutions, the king obtained his. For the vast riches

[Burnet's Hist. of Reformat. vol. i. pp. 382–384. ed. Oxon. 1829.]

No. XIV.
Thevisitors'

informa-
tions.

Second ser

mon.

that the religious houses brought in to the king may be guessed by what was found in one, namely, St. Swithin's, Winchester. An account of the treasures whereof, I having once observed from a manuscript in the Benet library, thought not amiss here to lay before the reader; which he may find in the Appendix'.

When these visitors returned home from their visitation, they came well stocked with informations of the loose, wicked, and abominable lives, and irregularities of the chief members of these houses of religion, having by diligent inquisition throughout all England collected them. These enormities were read publicly in the parliament house, being brought in by the visitors. When they were first read, nothing was done with these unclean abbots and priors: "But within a while," saith Latimer in a sermon before king Edward, "how bad soever the reports of them were, some of them were made bishops, and others put into good dignities in the church: that so the king might save their pensions, which were otherwise to be paid them "."

1694.]

["Note, that the dissolution tions of the first edition. Lond. of St. Swithin's in Winchester, (though laid here under the year 1535,) happened not that year, but about five years after, viz. 1540. But the occasion of the discourse there, which was of the vast wealth obtained to the king by the fall of religious houses, made the author produce it in this place, as an instance thereof." From the errata and emenda

s["But I fear one thing; and it is, lest for a safety of a little money, you will put in chantry priests to save their pensions*.I would not that ye should do with chantry priests as ye did with the abbots, when abbeys were put down. For when their enormities were first read in the parliament house, they were so

* [The Act 1 Edw. VI. c. 14. which made over the chantries to the crown, provided that yearly premiums should be paid to the priests, and others connected with those foundations: but it was found more convenient to turn those priests into beneficed clergymen than to pay their pensions.]

diocesan

Now I will, at the conclusion of my collections for this year, set down the names of the bishops this year consecrated, both diocesan and suffragan: there having been Bishops an act of parliament made in the six and twentieth of and sufthe king, (that is, the last year), for furnishing the dioceses fragan conwith six and twenty suffragans, for the better aid and comfort of the diocesans: the sees whereof are all set

down in the said act t.

ever so many made.

But I doubt whether there were

At least the mention of the acts

of the consecration of some of the suffragans in the province of Canterbury are omitted in the register.

secrated.

usual in the

realm.

Before this act of parliament enjoining the number Suffragan bishops of suffragans, suffragans were not unusual in the realm. Whom the bishops diocesan, either for their own ease, or because of their necessary absence from their dioceses. in embassies abroad, or attendance upon the court, or civil affairs, procured to be consecrated to reside in their steads. Thus to give some instances of them as I have met with them. About the year 1531, I find one Underwood, suffragan in Norwich, that degraded Bilney"

great and abominable, that there was nothing but Down with them.' But within a while after, the same abbots were made bishops, as there be some of them yet alive, to save and redeem their pensionst." Latimer's Sermons. Park. Soc. ed. p. 123.]

t

[Viz. Thetford, Ipswich, Colchester, Dover, Guilford, Southampton, Taunton, Shaftesbury, Molton, Marlborough, Bedford,

Leicester, Gloucester, Shrewsbury,
Bristowe, Penrith, Bridgewater,
Nottingham, Grantham, Hull,
Huntingdon, Cambridge, Perth,
Berwick, St. Germains' in Corn-
wall, (interlined in the original
act,) and the Isle of Wight. 26.
Hen. VIII. cap. 14. See Statutes
of the Realm, vol. iii. p. 509.]

u [See Foxe's Acts and Mo-
numents, p. 1012. edit. Lond.
1583.]

+ [e. g. Chambers, bishop of Peterborough, who died 1556; Rugg or Reppes, bishop of Norwich; Salcot bishop of Salisbury; died 1559; Wakeman, first bishop of Gloucester. Godwin de Præsulibus, pp. 353, 440, 551, 558, 612, &c.]

before his martyrdom. Certain, bearing the title of bishops of Sidon, assisted the archbishops of Canterbury. One of these was named Thomas Wellys, prior of St. Gregory's by Canterbury: he, being archbishop Warham's chaplain, was sent by him to cardinal Wolsey, to expostulate with him in his lord's name for encroaching upon his prerogative court. There was afterwards one Christopher, that bore that title, and assisted archbishop Cranmer about these times in ordinations; and another Thomas, entitled also of Sidon, succeeded. Long before these, I find one William Bottlesham, Episcopus Navatensis, anno 1382, at the convocation house in London, summoned against the Wicklivites, who then shewed Ex Regist. themselves at Oxford. Robert King, abbot of Oseney, archbishop Courtney. while abbot, was consecrated titular bishop, and called

Episcopus Roannensis, a see in the province of the arch37 bishopric of Athens. This is he that resigned Oseney

and Tame, under the name of bishop of Reonen: of which Hist. Ref. see the bishop of Sarum was at a stand". He was

Coll. P.

148.

Godwin's
Catal.x

Ath. Oxonien.

translated from his imaginary bishopric to be bishop of Oxford in the year 1541. One John Hatton had the title of Episcopus Negropont: he was suffragan nnder the archbishop of York. John Thornden, who was several times commissary of Oxon, while archbishop Warham was chancellor of that university, was styled Episcopus Syrinensis y. And hereafter in the progress of this book, we shall meet with a bishop of Hippolitanum, who assisted archbishop Cranmer at his ordinations. These were but titulary bishops; and the use of them was, to supply the

V

["What this see was I cannot conjecture." Burnet's Hist. of Reformat. vol. i. part ii. p. 234. ed. Oxon. 1829.]

of England, p. 404, 5. ed. Lond. 1601.]

y [See Wood's Athenæ Oxon. vol. ii. pp. 40. ed. Bliss. 1813

x [Godwin's Cat. of the Bishops 20.]

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