1560. reserved1 to posterity. And, being given to understand that AN.REG. 2, 2 24. It was also signified in the said proclamation, "That some patrons of churches and others, who were possessed of impropriations, had prevailed with the parson and parishioners to take or throw down the bells of churches or chapels, and the lead of the same, and to convert the same to their private gain, by which ensued not only the spoil of the said churches, but even a slanderous desolation of the places of prayer." And 135 thereupon it was commanded, "that no manner of person should 307 from thenceforth take away any bells or lead off any church or chapel, under pain of imprisonment during her Majesty's plea Qu. "preserved?" 2 Edd. "nobles, estates." 3 "Using therein the advice of the Ordinary, and, if need shall be, the advice also of her Majesty's Council," &c. 4 * Fuller, iv. 301-5. Wilkins, iv. 221-2. 5 "And make such like alterations, as thereby they seek a slanderous desolation," &c. 1560. AN.REG.2, sure, and such further fine for the contempt as shall be thought meet;" with a charge given to all Bishops and other Ordinaries, "to inquire of all such contempts done from the beginning of her Majesty's reign, and to enjoin the persons offending to repair the same within a convenient time, and of their doing therein to certify the Privy Council, or the Council in the Star-chamber, that order may be taken therein." And in pursuit of this most seasonable and religious act, she did not only sign the said proclamation, one for all, to authorise it for the press, as the custom is, but signed them every one apart (amounting to a very great number) with her own royal hand, that so it might be known rather for her own proper act than an act of the council1. Reform of the coinage. 25. With like care also she provided for the honour and prosperity of her estate in affairs politic and civil. The monies of the realm had been much debased by King Henry the Eighth, to the great disprofit of the merchant and reproach of the kingdom; for which no remedy had been taken by her brother or sister, though they had better opportunities, and more advantages to go through with it2. But this brave Queen, endeavouring nothing more than the restoring of her kingdom to its ancient splendour, first caused all such base monies as were coined by any of her predecessors to be decried to a less value, according to the fineness or alloy thereof; and that being done, by virtue of her proclamation bearing date the 28th of September, she caused all the said base monies, so reduced to a lower value, to be brought in to her Majesty's Mint, for which she gave them money of the purest silver, (such as passed commonly by the name of Easterling or sterling money): since which time, no base money hath been coined in England, but only of pure gold and silver, to pass for current in the same; save that of late times, in relation to the necessity of poor people, a permission hath been given to the coining of farthings, which no man can be forced to accept in satisfaction of a rent or debt: which, as it could not be affirmed of England in the times preceding, so neither can it now be said of any state or nation in the Christian world; in all which there are 1 Fuller, iv. 301. " But we have already had notice of a reform in the reign of Edward i. 232. 1560. Increase of merce. several sorts of copper money, as current with them for public AN. Reg.2, uses as the purest metal1. She provided also in like manner for her people's safety, and the increase of trade and mer- English Comchandize in English bottoms; for, towards the end of this second year, she made great preparation of ordnance, arms, munition, and powder of her own materials, to be in a readiness to defend her realm in all emergencies of danger: for the advancing of which service it so pleased the divine Providence which watched over her actions, that a rich mine of brass was found near Keswick in Cumberland, such as sufficed not only for furnishing her own forts and ships with all manner of ordnance, but for supplying other countries as their wants required. And, to complete so great a mercy in her preservation, the stone called Lapis Calaminaris, exceeding necessary for all brass-works, was at the same time also found in England in most plentiful manner2. And whereas complaint was made unto her by the merchants of the Hans-towns, or merchants of the Steelyard, as then commonly called, that King Edward had first seized their liberties3, and that afterwards Queen Mary had raised their customs upon all sorts of merchandizes from one to twenty in the hundred, her answer was, that, as she was resolved not to innovate any thing, so she could grant no other privileges and immunities to them than those in which she found them when she came to the Crown. Their trading hereupon being intermitted, the English merchants took the managing of it upon themselves, and thrived therein so well after some adventures, that cloth and other manufactures, heretofore transported in the ships of those merchants, were from henceforth fraughted and dispersed in English vessels; by means whereof the English in a very short time attained unto 136 the reputation of being the wealthiest merchants, the most 308 expert mariners, and the ablest commanders for sea-fights, of any nation in the world. tion of West 26. I shall conclude this year with a work of piety in the New Foundafoundation of the Collegiate Church of St Peter in Westminster, minster. which in the space of twenty years had been changed from an abbey to a deanery, from a deanery to a see episcopal, reduced unto a deanery again, and finally restored to the state of an 2 Camd. 70. Lat. 1 Stow, 640. Camden, 61-2. Lat. 3 Sup. i. 230. 1560. AN.REG. 2, abbey1. But the abbey being dissolved in the foregoing Parliament, an offer was made to Fecknam and the rest of the convent (if Sanders2 be to be believed in this particular) for continuing in their places and possessions as before they did, clogged with no other conditions than the taking of the oath of Supremacy, and officiating all divine offices by the English Liturgy. But this offer being by them rejected, the Act of dissolution passed in both houses of Parliament; concerning which there goes a story', that the Lord Abbot being then busied in planting some young elms in the Dean's yard there, one that came by advised him to desist from his purpose, telling him, that the bill was just then passed for dissolving his monastery. To which the good old man replied, that he resolved howsoever to go on with his work, being well assured that that Church would be always kept for an encouragement and seat of learning. And so it proved in the event; for the Queen, having pleased herself in the choice of some of the best lands which remained unto it, confirmed the rest upon that Church, which she caused to be called the Collegiate Church of St Peter in Westminster, as appears by her Letters Patents bearing date in the second year of her most gracious and most prosperous reign. A foundation of a large capacity, and as amply privileged, consisting of a Dean and twelve secular Canons, two schoolmasters and forty scholars, petit Canons and others of the quire to the number of thirty, ten officers belonging to the Church, and as many servants appertaining to the College diet, and twelve alms-men, besides many officers, stewards, receivers, and collectors, for keeping courts, and bringing in of their revenue*: the principal of which, called the High Steward of Westminster, hath ever since been one of the prime nobility, and in great favour at the Court. The Dean entrusted with keeping the Regalia, honoured with a place of necessary service at all coronations, and a commissioner for the peace within the City of Westminster and the liberties of it by Act of Parliament. The Dean and Chapter vested with all manner of jurisdiction both ecclesiastical and 1 Fuller, iv. 312. Camd. 61. Lat. 2 Rishton, in Sanders, 295. 3 See Fuller, v. 96; Heyl. Exam. Hist. Pt. i. 167. 4 Stow, Survey, 500. 1560. civil, not only within the city and liberties of Westminster, but AN. REG. 2, within the precinct of St Martins le Grand' and some towns of Essex,-exempted in the one from the Bishop of London, and in the other from the power of the Archbishop of Canterbury. The scholars annually preferred by election, either to Christ Church in Oxon, or Trinity College in Cambridge, each College being bound by an indenture made with Queen Elizabeth to take off yearly two or three at the least (though since that number is extended to four or five), to be preferred to scholarship and fellowships in their several houses. A College founded, as it proved, in such a happy conjuncture, that since this new foundation of it, it hath given breeding and preferment to four Archbishops, two Lord Chancellors or Lord Keepers of the Great Seal of England, twenty-two Bishops, and thirteen Deans of Cathedral Churches, besides Archdeacons and Prebendaries, and other dignitaries in the Church to a proportionable number; which is more than can be said of either of the two famous Colleges of Eaton and Winchester, or of both together, though the one was founded 168, and the other 114 years before it. Stow, Survey, 330, 917. Sup. i. 124. |