1555. AN. REG. 3, bill of the subsidies in the end of October, propounds three points unto their lordships, which much conduced to the establishment and advantage of the prejudiced Clergy. The first was, That all such of the Clergy as, building on the common report that the tenths and first-fruits were to be released in the following Parliament, had made no composition for the same with her Majesty's officers, might be discharged from the penalty inflicted by the laws in that behalf1. The second, That their lordships would be pleased to intercede with the Lord Cardinal Legate for settling and confirming them in their present benefices by some special Bull. The third, That by their lordships, means an Act may be obtained in the present Parliament, for the repealing of the statute by which the citizens of London, which refused to make payment of their tithes, were to be ordered at the discretion of the Lord Mayor of that city; and that from thenceforth all such censures as concerned tithes might be heard and determined by the Ordinary, as in other places. To all which propositions the bishops cheerfully consented, and so adjourned the Convocation from St. Paul's to Westminster, that they might have the better opportunity of consulting the Lord Cardinal in the business. Of whom it was no hard matter to obtain the second, and by his power to secure the Clergy in the first; but as for the removal of the cognizance of the London tithes from the Lord Mayor unto the bishops, there was nothing done, that statute still remaining as before it did, to the continual impoverishing and vexation of the city Clergy. Nothing New Bishops. else memorable in this Convocation but the coming in of the two new bishops which had never voted there before. Purefew, the Bishop of St Asaph, being translated unto Hereford in the former year, had made such havock of the patrimony of the Church of St Asaph2, that it lay void above a twelvemonth before any became suitor for it. But being a bishoprick, though impoverished, and consequently a step to some richer preferment, it was desired and accepted by Mr Thomas Goldwel3, a right zealous Romanist, consecrated Bishop hereof in the beginning of October, anno 1555, not many days before "Non obligarentur rependere duplum, etc., pro quo in fisco regio multi conqueruntur se conventos." Wilkins, iv. 120. 2 Sup. p. 133. 3 Edd. "Goldnel." 55 1555. the opening of the Parliament and Convocation. And, being AN. REG.3, Bishop here, he procured many indulgences and other graces from the Pope then being, for all such persons of each sex as went on pilgrimage, or for health, to St Winifred's Well1. The like havock had been made of the lands and patrimony of the Church of Bangor by Buckley2, the present Bishop of it, preferred unto the See anno 1541, and continuing on it till this year; who, not content to alienate the lands and weaken the estate thereof, resolved to rob it of its bells, for fear per225 haps of having any knell rung out at the Church's funeral. And, not content to sell the bells, which were five in number, he would needs satisfy himself with seeing them conveyed on ship-board, and had scarce given himself that satisfaction but he was presently struck blind, and so continued from that time to the day of his death. To whom succeeded Doctor William Glyn, a Cambridge man, but one of the disputants at Oxford, who received his episcopal consecration (if I guess aright) on the same day with Bishop Goldwel3. tion and of Cranmer. 10. And now it will be time to look back on Cranmer, Condemnawhom we left under a citation to the Court of Rome, without martyrdom which nothing could be done: for by an ancient privilege no judgment could be past upon the person of a Metropolitan before the Pope have taken cognizance of the cause; and eighty days had seemingly been given to Cranmer for making his appearance in the Court of Rome. And though the Pope knew well enough as well the Archbishop's readiness to appear before him, if he were at liberty, as the impossibility of making any such appearance as the case then stood; yet at the end of the said eighty days he is pronounced by the Pope to be con Godw. de Præsul. 642. 2 Rather Bulkley. The story which follows is from Godwin De Præsulibus, 626, but the editor, Richardson, remarks: "In MS. Anstis hoc scriptum legi,-Arthurus Bulkeley optime meruit de Episcopatu, et fuit præcipuus Benefactor Sedi et Ecclesiæ Bangorensi; sed nunquam fuit cæcitate percussus, ut false narrat Godwinus: in tota Diœcesi Bangor. sunt in nulla Eccl. quinque nolæ, nisi in Cathedrali Bang. duntaxat, et nunquam ibi ante annum 1687." There is no note on Godwin's statement (p. 627) that Bp Rowlands, (1598–1618) “ecclesiæ suæ campanile, quod Bulkleius expilaverat, quatuor nolis instruxit." * Edd. "Goldnel." Glyn was consecrated Sept. 8; Godw. de Præsul. 626. The date of Goldwell's consecration is not given. 1555. AN. REG.3, tumacious, and for his contumacy to be degraded, excommunicated, and finally delivered over to the secular magistrate1 According unto which decree, a second commission is directed to Edmond Bonner, Bishop of London, and Thomas Thurlby, Bishop of Ely, to proceed to the degradation of the said Archbishop in which commission it was said with most horrible falsehood, that all things had been indifferently2 examined in the Court of Rome, that is to say, as well the articles laid unto his charge as the answers which he made unto them, together with the allegations, witnesses, and defences, made or produced by the counsel on either side, so that nothing had been wanting which was necessary to his just defence. According to which supposition, the said two Bishops, being commanded to proceed against him, caused him to be degraded on the 14th of February, notwithstanding that he appealed from the Pope and them to a General Council, and caused the said appeal to be drawn and offered in due form of law. During the interval between his degradation and the time of his death, great pains was taken by some learned men in the University to persuade him to a retractation of his former opinions; in which unhappy undertaking no man prevailed so far as a Spanish friar", by whom it was suggested to him how acceptable it would be to the King and Queen, how pleasing to the Lords, who most dearly loved him, and how gainful to himself, in regard both of his soul and his temporal being; assuring him (or at least putting him in good hope) that he should not only have his life, but be restored again to his ancient dignity, and that there should be nothing in the realm which the Queen would not easily grant him, whether it pleased him to make choice of riches and honours, or otherwise [he] should desire the sweet retirements of a private life, without the charge and trouble of a public ministry; and all this to be compassed without putting himself to any more pains than the subscribing of his name to a piece of paper, which was made ready for his hand. 11. By these temptations, and many others of the like alluring and deceitful nature, he suffered himself to be prevailed 1 The sentence is in Fox, viii. 69-71. 2 Edd. "so indifferently." 5 Juan de Villa Garcia. 4 Ibid. 73-6. Fox, viii. 71-2. Divinity from 1556 to 1559. Le Neve, Fasti 471. See Brit. Magazine, xvi. 488. 1555. upon so far as to sign the writing, in which were briefly com- AN.REG. 3, prehended the chief points of doctrine defended in the Church of Rome, and by him formerly condemned both in public and private1. The obtaining whereof occasioned great joy amongst the Papists, and no less sorrow and astonishment in the hearts of those who cordially were affected to the Reformation. But all this could not save him from being made a sacrifice to revenge and avarice. The Queen had still a vindicative spirit against him, for the injury which she conceived had been done to her mother; and the Cardinal, who hitherto had enjoyed the profits of the See of Canterbury as an usufructuary, was altogether as solicitous for getting a right and title to them as the sole proprietary2. No way to pacify the one and satisfy the 56 desires of the other, but by bringing him (when he least looked 226 for it) to the fatal stake. And to the fatal stake they brought him on the 21st of March, when he had for some time flattered 1 Fox, viii. 81. See Brit. Mag. xvii. 6—16.. "One of our learned Church-historians [Burnet] says, it was thought Pole himself hastened Cranmer's execution, longing to be invested in that See. But so dishonourable a practice is foreign to the Cardinal's character: and if we examine the matter farther, it will be found Pole could have no temptation to such extraordinary management: for the See of Canterbury was actually void upon Cranmer's attainder, two years since. Besides, the present Pope, in his Bull of December last, had collated Pole to the archbishoprick of Canterbury. And in this instrument he declares he had solemnly excommunicated and deposed Cranmer. From hence it is evident that Cranmer's life could be no hinderance to Pole's advancement to the See of Canterbury." Collier, vi. 139. Comp. Harmer (Wharton), Specimen of Errors, 145. Godwin states that Pole refused to receive the revenues of Canterbury, while Cranmer lived, except as a sequestrator. Ann. 187. 5 This statement was probably taken from Godwin, De Præsul. p. 144. "But," says Collier, vi. 142, "the truth of this relation may be questioned; for Fox, who never omits anything for the advantage of those who suffered, says nothing of this wonderful circumstance." 1555. AN.REG. 3, possibly may serve as a witness for him, that his heart stood fast unto the truth, though with his hand he had subscribed some popish errors: which, whether it were done out of human frailty, on the hope of life, or out of a desire to gain the more time for finishing his book against Bishop Gardiner, which he alleged for himself in a letter to one of his friends1,-certain it is that it had too much in it of a sinful compliance, so much as might have blasted both his fame and memory to all times succeeding, if he had not taken off the scandal and expiated the offence in so brave a manner. And thus he died, leaving an excellent example to all posterity, as well of man's infirmity in so strange a fall, as of God's infinite grace and mercy, by which he was enabled to recover his former standing. Persecution of the Protestants. 12. These goodly cedars of the forest being thus cut down, it was not to be hoped that any favour could be shown to the shrubs and underwoods, which were grubbed up and felled without any distinction, as well the young sapling as the decayed and withered tree; but more in some parts than in others, according to the sharpness of the tools and the edge of the woodman. The waste so great in no place as in Bonner's Walk, who seemed to be resolved, that whatsoever could not serve for timber (toward the building or re-edifying of the papal palace) should be marked for fuel. No fewer than two hundred are reported to have been burnt within three years by this cruel and 2 1 Collier (vi. 138) observes that the letter, which is addressed to That this is an exaggeration, see Maitland on the Reformation, 408-9. |