1561.

AN. REG.3, master of the company, and still lives in the charity of so good a work1. The day of the foundation is affirmed by Stow 2 to have been the 21st of March, and so may either fall in the year 1560 or 1561, according to the several computations which are now in use; but howsoever within the compass of this third year of the Queen. And it is probable that it may be fixed by him upon that day, either because the purchase of the house doth bear date upon it, or because it was then first opened for a grammar-school. And of this kind, but of a far more private nature, was the foundation of another grammarschool in the town of Sandwich, built at the charge of Sir Roger Manwood, and endowed with 407. per annum, which was a very large allowance as the times then were3.

1 The name of Hills is familiar to the readers of the Zurich Letters, as a correspondent of Bullinger and other reformers, and a benefactor to the exiles in the reign of Mary.

2 Chron. 647. Survey, 64.

3 See Hasted's Hist. of Kent, iv. 273-4; Strype's Parker, 138-9. Manwood was a barrister when he set the design on foot, with the assistance of others, about 1563. His monument, in St Stephen's Church, Hackington, near Canterbury, states that he became a judge of the Queen's Bench in 1567, chief baron of the Exchequer in 1578, and died in 1592. A letter from Parker to Cecil, in favour of the design, dated Aug. 27, 1563, is printed by Ellis, Orig. Letters, 2nd Series, ii. 268.

ANNO REGNI ELIZ. 4.

ANNO DOM. 1561, 1562.

AN. REG. 4, 1561-2.

146 1. 318

same.

bling of the

Trent.

YREAT preparations had been made in the former year Re-assem in order to the holding and continuance of the Council Council of of Trent,—many Italian Bishops (which were to be maintained at the Pope's charge) being sent before, and the Pope's Legates hastening after, to be there in readiness when the Embassadors and Prelates of foreign nations should give attendance on the After long expectation it begins at the last on the 18th of January, the Legates having first obtained in a private session, that nothing should be discussed in the Council but what should be first proposed by them1; which in effect was to subvert the whole hopes of that Reformation which was desired by many pious men amongst them. Which day being come, a procession was made of the whole Clergy of the city, of the Divines and Prelates, (who, besides the Cardinals, were 112 that did wear mitres) accompanied by their families, and by many country people armed, going from St Peter's Church to the cathedral, where the Cardinal of Mantua sung the mass of the Holy Ghost, and Gasparo del F'osso, Archbishop of Rheggio, made the sermon. His subject was the Authority of the Church, Primacy of the Pope, and Power of Councils. He saidThat the Church had as much authority as the Word of God; that the Church hath changed the Sabbath, ordained by God, into Sunday, and taken away circumcision, formerly commanded by [his] Divine Majesty; and that these precepts are changed, not by the preaching of Christ, but by the authority of the Church. Turning himself unto the fathers, he exhorted them to labour constantly against the Protestants, being assured, that, as the Holy Ghost could not err, so neither could they be deceived. And, having sung the hymn of "Come, Holy Ghost, the secretary, who was Bishop of Tilesie, read the Bull of the

1 Sarpi, 469. The words Proponentibus Legatis-which gave rise to
much fruitless negotiation and discussion-were not agreed to in the
preliminary session, but were part of a form drawn up after it, and voted
next day, as stated in the text below.
2 Ibid.

1561-2.

AN. REG. 4, Convocation, and the foresaid Archbishop propounded the decree for opening the Council, saying, "Fathers, doth it please you that the general Council of Trent should be celebrated from this day, all suspension whatsoever being removed, to handle with due order that which shall seem fit to the Synod, the Legates and Presidents proposing, to remove the controversies of religion, correct manners, and reconcile the peace of the Church?" to which they answered Placet, with so full a vote that there were found no more than four Bishops, and those four all Spaniards, who stumbled at the clause about discussing nothing in the time of that Council but what the Legates should propose; so servile were the rest in prostituting the authority of the Council to the lust of the Pope1.

2. In the first opening of the Council it was propounded by the Legates amongst other things-" Whether a safe conduct should be given unto those who were fallen into heresy, with a large promise of great and singular clemency, so that they would repent, and acknowledge the power of the Catholic Church2." In the discussing of which point, the Cardinal of Mantua was for the affirmative, being that it was a remedy used by all Princes, in seditions or rebellions, to pardon those whom they could not overcome, because by that means those which were least faulty did retire, and the other did remain more weak. But as for the safe conduct, after it had been considered of and resolved at Rome, it was again disputed in the Council on the third of March, whether it was to be given by name to the French, English, and Scots; and some spake of the Greeks and other nations of the East. It was presently seen, that these poor men, afflicted in servitude, could not without danger and assistance of money think of Councils; and some said, that, there being a division of the Protestants, it was good to let them alone, and not to name them, alleging the danger of moving ill humours in a body which was then quiet. To give a safe conduct to the Englishmen, which neither they nor any of them did require, would be a great indignity. They were content it should be given to the Scots, because their Queen would demand it; but so as that the demand should first be made. For France there was a doubt 147 made whether the King's Council would take it ill or not, 319

1

Sarpi, 469.

2 Ibid. 471.

* Ibid. 475.

4 Ibid. 482.

1561-2.

because it would be thought to be a declaration that that King AN. REG. 4, had rebels. Of Germany none would doubt, because it had been formerly granted unto them; and if it were granted to that nation alone, it would seem that the others were abandoned. But at the last, all difficulties were resolved into this conclusion, that the safe conduct should be given unto those of Germany in the same words wherein it formerly had passed, anno 1552; and that the like conduct, in the selfsame words wherein it was given to the Germans, should be given to all of every nation, province, city and place, where anything was preached, taught, and believed, contrary to that which was believed in the Church of Rome1.

Jewel's Letter

3. But the Legates might have spared themselves the trouble of these considerations, the Protestant Bishops of England not being so forward to venture themselves into that Council on such weak assurance, considering how ill the safe conduct had been formerly kept to John Hus and Jerom of Prague at the Council of Constance; and as for those of the papal party, though they might have a good will to be gadding thither, yet the Queen kept them safe enough from going abroad: so that there was no hopes for any English Bishops of either party to attend that service. The Queen had absolutely refused to admit the Nuncio, when he was sent on purpose to invite them to it. And some of the most learned of that sacred order had shewn sufficient reasons in their printed Manifest, why no such service or attendance could be looked for from them. One Scipio, a gentle- Bishop man of Venice, who formerly had some acquaintance with to Scipio. Bishop Jewel when he was a student in Padua, had heard of Martiningo's ill success in his negociation; which notwithstanding, he resolved to spend some eloquence in labouring to obtain that point by his private letters which the Nuncio could not gain as a public minister: and to this end he writes. his letters of expostulation to his old friend Mr Jewel, preferred not long before to the See of Salisbury,-in which he seemed to admire exceedingly that England should send no embassador, nor message, or letter, to excuse their nation's absence from the general appearance of Christianity in that sacred Council. In the next place, he highly extolled the antiquity and use of general Councils, as the only means to decide Sarpi, 482 3.

1562.

AN. REG. 4, controversies in religion, and compose the distractions in the Church, concluding it a superlative sin for any to decline the authority of it. But this letter did not long remain unanswered. That learned Prelate was not so unstudied in the nature of councils as not to know how little of a general council could be found at Trent; and therefore he returns an answer to the proposition, so eloquently penned and so elaborately digested, that neither Scipio himself nor any other of that party durst reply upon him; the answer to be found at large in the end of the History of this Council, translated into English by Nathaniel Brent, late warden of Merton College in Oxon, &c.2: which, though it were no other than the answer of one single prelate, and writ on a particular occasion to a private friend, yet since it speaks the sense of all the rest of the Bishops, and to justify the result of the Council-table on the debate about accepting or refusing the Pope's invitation, it will not be amiss to present the sum and substance of it in a short epitome.

These topics are gathered from Jewel's letter.

2 This was the first publication of the letter, A.D. 1629, fifty-eight years after the death of Jewel; and no explanation is given as to the source from which it was derived. It appears, however, to be, as Dr Jelf says, 66 a genuine, though perhaps an unfinished, work of Bp Jewel,” (n. in Jewel, viii. 73),-agreeing with his acknowledged writings in style and in sentiment, and closely resembling the "Apology" both in the choice and in the treatment of topics. Dr Wordsworth suggests that "Seignor Scipio" may have been "probably Scipione Biondi, the son of Michelangiolo Biondi" (Eccl. Biog. iii. 309); and Dr Jelf adopts the suggestion (viii. 73). But why should we suppose him a real person at all, and, by so doing, encumber the argument for the genuineness of the Epistle with the very questionable position that Jewel once resided at Padua? a circumstance for which no evidence has yet been produced (Jelf, i. Pref. xxviii.), while the cause of his exile from England renders it extremely unlikely that he should have ventured into a country of the Roman obedience. The only passage in Jewel's Works which bears on the subject is in a Letter to P. Martyr, of date Feb. 7, 1562; where, after mentioning the publication of his Apologia, he writes-" nos nunc cogitamus publicare causas quibus inducti ad concilium non veniamus." (Zur. Lett. i. 60. Lat.) Perhaps he may have thought of executing this design in the form of a letter to an imaginary friend,-to be published (probably) under a fictitious name; and after having drawn up the tract in question, he may have suppressed it-preferring to rest the defence of the Church in the eyes of foreign nations wholly on the "Apology." Dr Jelf supposes the date to have been July 1562.