1560. AN. REG. 2, Calvin's doctrine, which Knox had brought with him from Geneva; but being put unto the vote, it was opposed by no more than three of the temporal Lords, that is to say, the Earl of Athol, and the Lords Somervil and Borthwick, who gave no other reason for it, but that "they would believe as their fathers did." The Popish prelates were silent in it, neither assenting nor opposing: which being observed by the Earl-Marshal, he is said to have broke out into these words following;-"Seeing" (saith he) " that my Lords the Bishops (who by their learning can, and for the zeal they should have to the truth ought, as I suppose, to gainsay anything repugnant to it), say nothing against the confession we have heard; I cannot think but that it is the very truth of God, and that the contrary of it false and deceivable doctrine1." Affairs of 14. Let us now cross over into Ireland, where we shall find the Queen as active in advancing the reformed religion, as she had been in either of the other kingdoms. King Henry had first broke the ice, by taking to himself the title of Supreme Head on earth of the Church of Ireland, exterminating the Pope's authority, and suppressing all the monasteries and religious houses. In matters doctrinal, and forms of worship, as there was nothing done by him, so neither was there much endeavoured in the time of King Edward; it being thought perhaps unsafe to provoke that people in the King's minority, considering with how many troubles he was elsewhere exercised. If anything were done therein, it was rather done by toleration than command; and whatsoever was so done, was presently undone again in the reign of Queen Mary. But Queen Elizabeth, having settled her affairs in England, and undertaken the protection of the Scots, conceived herself obliged in point of piety that Ireland also should be made partaker of so great a benefit. A Parliament is therefore held on the 12th of January, where passed an Act restoring to the Crown the ancient jurisdiction over all ecclesiastical and spiritual persons2. By which statute were established both the Oath of Supremacy and the High Commission, as before in England. There also passed an Act for the Uniformity of Common Prayer, &c., with a permission for saying the same in Latin, in such Church or place where the Minister had not 1 Spottisw. 150. 22 Eliz. c. 1. Irel. 1560. the knowledge of the English tongue'. But for translating it AN. REG. 2, 15. There also passed another statutes for restoring to the Crown the first-fruits, and twenty parts of all ecclesiastical promotions within that kingdom; as also of all impropriate parsonages, which there are more in number than those rectories which have cure of souls. King Henry had before united the first-fruits, &c., to the Crown Imperial, but Queen Mary, out of her affection to the Church of Rome, had given them back unto the Clergy, as before was said. The like act passed for the restitution of all such lands belonging to the knights of St John of Jerusalem, as by that Queen had been regranted to the order; with the avoidance of all leases and other grants which had been made by Sir Oswald Massingberd, the late Prior of the same. Who, fearing what was like to follow, had voluntarily forsook the kingdom in the August foregoing, and thereby saved the Queen the charge of an 129 yearly pension, which otherwise he might have had, as his pre301 decessors had before him in the time of King Henry7. During 1 2 Eliz. c. 2. Irel. See above, i. 260. 2 In the note at the end of the History, Heylyn corrects the state- 5 Sup. p. 194. 7 The act for dissolution of the Order, 32 Hen. VIII. c. 24, allowed 1560. AN. REG.2, the reign of which King, a statute had been made in Ireland (as in England also) for the electing and consecrating of Archbishops and Bishops,—repealed in the first year of Queen Mary, and now revived by her sister; in which there is nothing more memorable than that, amongst many other ceremonies therein directed, there is mention of giving the pall to a new Archbishop, that being an ornament or habit peculiar only unto those of the highest rank in the holy hierarchy1. And that she might not only take care for the good of the Church, without consulting her own safety, she caused an act to pass for the recognition of her own just title to the Crown, as before in England. All which being done, she left the prosecution of the work to her Bishops and Clergy,—not so well countenanced by power as they were by law, and yet more countenanced by law than they made good use of. For many of them, finding how things went in England, and knowing that the like alterations would ensue amongst themselves, resolved to make such use of the present times as to enrich their friends and kindred by the spoil of their churches. To which end they so dissipated the revenues of their several Bishopricks, by long leases, fee farms, and plain alienations, that to some of their sees they left no more than a rent of five marks per annum, to others a bare yearly rent of forty shillings, to the high displeasure of Almighty God, the reproach of re Sir W. Weston, the Prior of England, a pension of £1000. Sir John Rawson, Prior of Ireland, had 500 marks, and the other members had allowances according to their standing, the least being £10 a-year. Massingberd was at that time among those to whom the lowest rate of pension was assigned. Gibson, Codex. 1243. 1 Heylyn's reference to the act of Henry VIII. for Ireland, as similar to that of England, might mislead the reader as to the purport of the Irish act, 2 Eliz. c. 4, which did not provide for the "electing" of Archbishops and Bishops, but, like the English act of 1 Edw. VI. c. 2 (sup. i. 104), abolished the capitular elections, on the ground that they caused delay and expense to the nominees; "and whereas the said elections be in very deed no elections, but only by a writ of congé d'eslire have colours, shadows, or pretences of elections-serving nevertheless to no purpose, and seeming also derogatory and prejudicial to the Queen's prerogative royal, to whom only appertaineth the collation and gift of all archbishopricks and bishopricks and suffragan bishops within this her Highness' realm." Comp. Mant, i. 263-4. 1560. ligion, the great disservice of the Church, and the perpetual AN. REG. 2, ignominy of themselves for that horrible sacrilege1. Jewel's Chal 16. It is now time that we hoise sail for England, where Bishop we shall find an entertainment made ready for us in a sermon lenge. preached by reverend Jewel, then newly consecrated Bishop of the Church of Sarisbury; the sermon preached at St Paul's Cross on the 31st of March, being Passion-Sunday, or the Sunday fortnight before Easter, the text or theme of his discourse being taken out of St Paul's 1st Epistle to the Corinthians, chap. xi. ver. 23.-" That which I delivered to you I received of the Lord," &c. Which text being opened, and accommodated to the present times, he published that memorable challenge, which so much exercised the pens and studies of the Romish Clergy, by whom the Church had been injuriously upbraided with the imputation of novelty, and charged with teaching such opinions as were not to be found in any of the ancient Fathers, or approved Councils, or any other monument of true antiquity, before Luther's time. For the stopping of whose mouths for ever, this learned prelate made this stout and gallant challenge in these following words3. BISHOP JEWEL'S CHALLENGE. "IF any learned man of our adversaries, or all the learned men that be alive, be able to bring any one sufficient sentence out of any old Catholic Doctor or Father, or general Council, or Holy Scripture, or any one example in the primitive Church, 1 For details of the Irish spoliations, see Mant, i. 280, seqq.; Bramhall, 1. xviii, lxxxi, lxxxix, xc. Heylyn had probably seen in MS. the letter to Laud, in which Bramhall states, A. D. 1633, that "the Earl of Cork holds the whole bishoprick of Lismore, at the rent of 40s., or five marks, by the year." 1. lxxxi. 2 Edd. "30th." "It would appear that this Challenge was first given at Paul's Cross on the 26th of November, 1559, when Jewel was bishop elect of Salisbury, but before his confirmation and consecration, which took place in the following January." (Cardwell, Doc. Ann. i. 255.) "The Sermon, with the Challenge amplified, was preached at the Court, March 17, 1560, and repeated at Paul's Cross, March 31." Note in Jewel, ed. Park. Soc. i. 3. The original Challenge contained only the first fifteen articles, ib. 21. It was on occasion of the second preaching,—that at Court, that Cole's attack was made. Jelf's note on Jewel, i. 3. 3 Jewel, ed. Park. Soc. i. 20-21; ed. Jelf, i. 30-32. 1560. AN. REG. 2, whereby it may clearly and plainly be proved, during the first six hundred years: 1. That there was at that time any private Mass in the world; 2. Or that there was then any Communion ministered unto the people under one kind; 3. Or that the people had their Common Prayer in a strange tongue that the people understood not; 4. Or that the Bishop of Rome was then called an universal Bishop, or the head of the universal Church; 5. Or that the people were then taught to believe that Christ's body is really, substantially, corporally, carnally, or naturally in the Sacrament; 6. Or that his body is or may be in a thousand places or more at one time; 7. Or that the Priest did then hold up the Sacrament over his head; 8. Or that the people did then fall down and worship it with godly honour; 9. Or that the Sacrament was then or now ought to be hanged up under a canopy; 10. Or that in the Sacrament, after the words of Consecration, there remain only the accidents and shews, without the substance, of bread and wine; 11. Or that then the Priest divided the Sacrament into three parts, and afterwards received himself all alone; 12. Or that whosoever had said the Sacrament is a figure, a pledge, a token or a 130 remembrance of Christ's body, had therefore been judged for 302 an heretic; 13. Or that it was lawful then to have thirty, twenty, fifteen, ten, or five masses said [in one Church] in one day; 14. Or that images were then set up in the Churches, to the intent the people might worship them; 15. Or that the lay people were then forbidden to read the word of God in their own tongue; 16. Or that it was then lawful for the Priest to pronounce the words of Consecration closely, or in private2 to himself; 17. Or that the Priest had then authority to offer up Christ unto his Father; 18. Or to communicate and receive the Sacrament for another, as they do; 19. Or to apply the virtue of Christ's death and passion to any man by the means of the Mass; 20. Or that it was then thought a sound doctrine to teach the people, that Mass ex opere operato, that is, even for that it is said and done, is able to remove any part of our sin; 21. Or that any Christian man called the Sacrament the Lord his God3; 22. Or that the people were then taught to believe that the body of Christ remaineth in the Sacrament, as long as the accidents of bread and wine remain 1 "they." 2 "and in silence." 3 "his Lord and God." |