1556-7. place, and the common schools, requiring the said Martin AN. REG.4, Bucer and Paulus Fagius, or any other in their names or in their behalf, to appear before the Lords Commissioners on Monday the 18th of that month, to answer to such articles as then and there should be objected against them. But the dead bones not being able to come unless they were carried, and nobody daring to appear as their proctor or advocate, they might have been taken pro confessis, but that the court was willing to proceed by witnesses; and to that end they took the depositions of several persons touching the doctrine taught by the said two heretics; and then upon mature deliberation they condemned them of heresy, ordered them to be taken out of their graves, degraded from all holy Orders, and delivered to the secular magistrate. Of all this an account is given to the Cardinal Legate, who is desired to take some course that the ordinary writ (de comburendo Hæretico) for the burning of heretics might be taken out, and sent unto the Mayor of Cambridge; without which nothing could be done in order to the execution of the rest of the sentence. The writ accordingly comes down, and Saturday the sixth day of February is appointed for the burning of the two dead bodies; which, being taken out of their graves and laid in their coffins on men's shoulders, are carried to the market-place, with a guard of men well armed and weaponed for fear of making an escape; chained unto several posts, as if still alive, the wood and fire put to them, and their bodies burned, together with as many of their books as could be gotten, which were cast into the same flames also. Oxford. 12. And because one University should not mock the Visitation of other, the like cruelty was also exercised upon the dead body of Peter Martyr's wife at Oxford,-a godly, grave, and sober matron while she lived, and to the poor people there exceeding charitable. It was supposed that Oxon stood as much in need of a visitation as Cambridge did. A commission is therefore granted by the Cardinal Legate to Doctor James Brooks, Bishop of Glocester, Ormanete, the Pope's Datary, Cole and Wright, Doctors of the Civil Law, &c., to rectify such things as they found amiss in that University, or in any College of the same. It was given them also in charge amongst other things, that they should take the body of this good 1556-7. AN.REG. 4, woman out of her grave, into which she had been laid, anno 1552, and to consume the same with fire, not doubting but she was of the same religion which her husband had professed before. But when the Commissioners came to execute that part of their business, they could find no witness to depose any thing for certain touching her religion; such as were brought before them agreeing generally in this answer, That they did not understand her language, and therefore could not tell of what religion she was1. It was therefore signified to 71 the Cardinal, that for want of legal evidence against her they 241 could not lawfully proceed in burning her body, as they had done the bodies of Bucer and Fagius, against whom there was evidence enough to be found in their writings, besides that which was given in from the mouths of witnesses. The Cardinal thereupon gives order to Doctor Marshal, Dean of Christ Church, to take up her body (which had been buried near to that of St Frideswide), and to lay it out of Christian burial; who very readily obeyed, took up the bones of that virtuous woman, and most profanely buried them in a common dunghill. But long they lay not in that place; for Queen Elizabeth, coming to the Crown within two years after, gave order that this body should be decently interred, as became the quality of her person and the reverence due unto her husband; as also that Bucer and Fagius should in the other University be publicly restored to their former honours. In obedience unto whose commands, the body of the one is taken out of the dunghill, and laid into the grave of St Frideswide,—their bones so intermingled with one another, that there could be no fear of offering the like inhumanity to them for the time to come'. And, that the like honour might be done to Bucer and Fagius, a solemn commemoration of them was held at Cambridge; the sermon preached by Mr. James Pilkington, who not long after was preferred to the See of Durham; the panegyric made by Ackworth, Orator of that University, who spared no part of a good orator in setting forth their due praises and deserved commendations 3. 1 Fox, viii. 296. 2 Fox, viii. 296-7. 3 The sermon and the panegyric are both given by Fox, viii. 287– 295; and in the Appendix to Bucer's Scripta Anglicana, there is a full history of the Commemoration. The materials of the narrative were 1556-7. Arrival of Ambassador. 13. But we must now look back again on the reign of AN. REG. 4, Queen Mary; in which we find little more to do than the magnificent reception of Osep Napea, Embassador from the great a Muscovite Duke of Muscovy, upon this occasion:-The English merchants, at the solicitation of Sebastian Cabot, had furnished out some ships for the discovery of a North-East passage towards the rich countries of Cathai and China; in which they made so good a progress, that they attained as far as the port of St Nicholas, one of the principal port-towns of the empire of Russia, and laid the first foundation of a wealthy trade with that mighty empire'. For their encouragement therein, the privileges of the Easterlings, commonly called the Merchants of the Steelyard, (who before had managed all the trade of the NorthEast parts), were seized by King Edward the Sixth2, and the way thereby laid open to the merchant-adventurers to increase their shipping with their wealth. For the continuance of which trade betwixt the nations, the emperor John Basiliwits sends his Embassador above named, embarked in one of the English ships, under the conduct and government of Richard Chancellor, the most expert pilot of that age. But so it happened, that the rest of the ships being scattered by a strong tempest on the coast of Norway, the ship which carried the Embassador was wrecked upon the coast of Scotland; the lading for the most part lost, amounting to twenty thousand pounds and upwards, besides many rich presents sent from the Russian Emperor to the King and Queen. The Embassador with much ado was preserved from drowning, but the pilot lost, who, by labouring to preserve the life of the other, neglected the best opportunity to save his own. The news whereof being brought to the merchants of London, (who by this time were grown into a Company of 140,) they procured letters from the King to the Regent of Scotland for the courteous entertainment of the said Embassador, and the restoring of such goods as had collected under the superintendence of Grindal. Comp. Zurich Letters, ed. 2. p. 114. 1 Sup. i. 292-3. Milton's Prose Works, 577-8, ed. 1834. 2 Sup. i. 231. i. e. Chancellor. The scene of this disaster was Pitsligo Bay, in Aberdeenshire. See "Collections on the Shires of Aberdeen and Banff," presented by the Earl of Aberdeen to the Spalding Club, Aberd. 1843. P. 440. 1556-7. AN. REG.4, escaped the wreck; and, having furnished him with money and all other necessaries, caused him to be conducted towards the court'. 1557. 14. Taking his leave of Scotland on the 14th of February, he is brought by easy journeys within twelve miles of London, -honourably entertained in all places as he passed along, and there received by fourscore of the Russian merchants in their chains of gold. Furnished with gold, velvet, silk, and all other things, he is by the whole company of the Russian merchants magnificently brought into London on the last of that month; met on the way by the Lord Viscount Montacute, attended with a gallant train of three hundred horse, at the Queen's command, and received at Smithfield-bars by the Lord Mayor and Aldermen in their scarlet robes. Conducted to his lodg- 72 ings in Fan-Church street, he was there presented in the 242 Queen's name with a piece of cloth of tissue, two pieces of cloth of gold, one whereof was raised with crimson velvet, with many other pieces of the like rich making; which very thankfully he received. Abiding at his lodging till the King's coming back from Flanders, which was not till the 21st of March, he was brought upon our Lady-day by water to the court at Westminster. Received at his landing by six Lords, he was by them brought into a chamber, where he found the Lords Chancellor, Treasurer, Privy Seal, Admiral, Bishop of Ely, and other Councillors; who, having exchanged salutations with him, attended him to the King and Queen, sitting under a rich canopy or cloth of state in the great hall there. Having presented his letters of credence, expressed himself unto their Majesties in a short oration, which was interpreted to them both in English and Spanish, and presented them with two timber of sables, which with much diligence had been recovered out of the wreck, he was by them remitted to his lodging with the like solemnity. Attended shortly after by the Bishop of Ely and Mr Secretary Petre; who, after much communication and several treaties, settled at last a friendly intercourse and commerce betwixt the nations; the articles whereof, engrossed in parchment, were afterwards presented to him, ratified and confirmed by the Great Seal of England. On the 23rd of April he was brought again into the court, where, having seen Stow, p. 629. 1 1557. the pomps and orders of St George's feast, the service of the AN. REG. 4, royal chapel, and the magnificent procession of the Knights of the Garter, he takes his leave of the King and Queen, is reconveyed unto his lodging, and on the 3rd of May embarks for Russia, accompanied with four good ships well fraught with merchandise most proper for the trade of that country to which they were bound. The costly presents sent by him from the King and Queen to the Russian Emperor, and those bestowed upon himself, I leave to be reported by him at his coming home, and the relation of John Stow in his Annals of England, fol. 630. Nor had I dwelt so long upon these particulars, but to set forth the ancient splendour and magnificence of the state of England, from which we have so miserably departed in these latter times. Stafford. 15. Worse entertainment found an agent from the French Attempt of King at his coming hither, because he came on a worse errand. Stafford, an English gentleman of a noble family, having engaged himself in some of the former enterprises against this Queen, and finding no good fortune in them, retired with divers others to the court of France; from whence they endeavoured many times to create some dangers to this realm, by scattering and dispersing divers scandalous pamphlets and seditious papers, tending to the apparent defamation of the King and Queen. And having got some credit by these practices amongst the ministers of that King, he undertakes to seize upon some fortress or port town of England, and put the same into the hands of the French. In prosecution of which plot, accompanied with some English rebels, and divers French adventurers intermingled with them, he seizeth on the strong castle of Scarborough, in the county of York. From thence he published a most traitorous and seditious manifest, in which he traitorously affirmed the Queen neither to be the rightful Queen of this realm, nor to be worthy of the title, affirming that the King had brought into this realm the number of twelve thousand Spaniards, who had possessed themselves of twelve of the best holds in all the kingdom; upbraiding the Queen with her misgovernment, and taking to himself the title of Protector of the realm of England. But the Queen being secretly advertised of the whole design, by the diligence of Dr Nicholas Wotton, Dean of Canterbury, who was then Embassador in that court, |