cities with the like instructions, though they have not come in my way. I have put them in the Collection (No. xxx). By these,

"Their old friendship was desired to be renewed; the rather because the king saw they were setting themselves to find out the truth of God's word, and the justice of his laws; and the extirpation of such corrupt errors and abuses, by which the world has been kept slaves under the yoke of the bishop of Rome, more than the Jews were under the ceremonies of Moses's law. The king orders Paget to let them understand his great desire to promote, not only a friendship with them, but the common good of all Christendom he orders him to give them an account of the whole progress of his cause of matrimony, with the intolerable injuries done him by the bishop of Rome, and the state in which that matter then stood. He was first to show them the justice of the king's cause, then to open the steps in which it had been carried on. Here all the arguments against his marriage are stated, to make it appear to be contrary both to the laws of God, of nature, and of men. In this the king did not follow his own private opinion, nor that of the whole clergy of his realm; but that of the most famous universities of Christendom: and therefore, by the consent of his whole parliament, and by the sentence of the archbishop of Canterbury, he has, for the discharge of his own conscience, and the good of his people, and that he might have a lawful successor to rule over them, separated himself from the Princess Dowager, and was then married to Queen Anne; of whom follows a very exalted character, setting forth the purity of her life, her constant virginity, her maidenly and womanly pudicity, her soberness, her chasteness, her meekness, her wisdom, her descent of noble parentage, her education in all good and lawful shows and manners, her aptness to procreation of children, with her other infinite good qualities, which were more to be es teemed than only progeny. If any should object to this second marriage, as contrary to the pope's laws; he asserts, that every man's private conscience is to him the supreme court of judgment: so the king was satisfied in his own conscience, that, being enlightened by the Spirit of God, and afterwards by the means formerly set forth, he was judged to be at liberty from his former marriage, and free to contract a new one. The king also took great pains to satisfy the world, by long travel and study, with inestimable cost and charges, though he had no fruit from it all. Upon this head, Paget was to set forth the pope's ungodly demeanour, in the whole progress of the king's cause; keeping

him off by delays for seven years and more. At first the pope, instead of judging the matter himself, sent a commission to England, to try it, with full powers, pretending that it could not be judged at Rome. He gave with these a decretal bull, in which he pronounced sentence, that the king might (convolare ad secundas nuptias) marry another wife; yet he gave the legate secret directions not to proceed by virtue of the decretal bull, nor to give sentence. He wrote a letter to the king with his own hand, in which he approved of the king's cause, and promised to the king, on the word of the pope, that he would not advocate the cause, but leave it in its due course; yet afterwards, contrary to his conscience and knowledge, he decreed several citations against the king to appear at Rome, to the subversion of the royal dignity or to send a proxy, which cannot be justified by any colour of reason. He cites the council of Nice, Africa, and Milevi, against appeals to remote places. It was not reasonable to send original instruments, and other documents, to a distant place; nor in a matter of conscience, could a man give such power to a proxy, by which he was bound to stand to that which he should agree to it was fit that all princes should consider what an attempt this made upon their dignity, for the pope to pretend that he could oblige them to abandon their kingdoms, and come and appear before him; by which he might depose kings, or rule them according to his own pleasure. So that all this was not only unjust, but null of itself. Dr. Karn being then at Rome as the king's subject, he offered a plea excusatory; yet this was not regarded by the dean of the Rota, who in that acted as he was directed by the pope: pretending he had no powers from the king, which by law was not necessary for an excusator. Karn had appealed to the pope to this Capisucchi gave an ambiguous answer, promising to give a more determinate one afterwards, which yet he never did; but upon a second appeal the cause was brought into the consistory, and there it was judged that Karn could not be heard, unless he had a proxy from the king; and when Karn objected that such proceeding was against law, the pope answered, that he might judge all things according to his own conscience; and so they resolved to proceed in the main cause. At that time the king's ambassadors at Rome showed the pope the determination of the universities of Paris and Orleans, with the opinions of the most learned men in France and Italy, condemning the pope's proceedings as unjust and null; the words of their opinion being inserted in the instructions: yet the pope still went on, and sent out slanderous breves against the king, and designed to

excommunicate hiin. To prevent that the king did order a provocation and appeal to be made from the pope to a general council, and caused it to be intimated to the pope, but he would not admit it; and pretended, that, by a bull of Pope Pius's, that was condemned: and that he was superior to all general councils. He rejected it arrogantly, saying, they were heretics and traitors to his person who would appeal from him to any general council. It appeared evidently that the pope, for the defence of his own glory and ambition, regarded not what injuries he did to Christian princes: so they were all obliged now to be on their guard, against such invasions of their authority. For these reasons the king was resolved to reduce that exorbitant power which the pope had assumed within due limits; so that in his dominions he shall exercise no other jurisdiction than what is granted to him by express words of Scripture. Paget was to open all these things to those princes and states, desiring that they would,adhere to the king in this matter, till it should come to be treated of in a general council and in the mean time to give him their best assistance and advice, especially in some articles, of which a schedule was to be given him, signed with the king's hand, which he was to communicate to them as he should find it convenient. They related to some abuses and customs which seemed necessary to be reformed: and if they would propose any other, Paget was to receive their mind, and to assure them, that the king, as he desired their assistance in his causes and quarrels, so he would kindly admit of whatsoever they should propose; and would endeavour to extirpate all abuses against God's word and laws and to do all that lay in him for the reformation thereof, for the maintenance of God's word, the faith of Christ, and the welfare of Christendom."

But because the king did not know what the mind of those princes might be, nor how far they were devoted to the pope, Paget was to try to find out their inclinations, before he should deliver the king's letters to them; and so to proceed according to his discretion, to deliver or not to deliver his letters, or to show his instructions to them. What followed upon this, and how it was executed, does not appear.

The judicious and diligent Sechendorf, in his history of Lutheranism*, gives an account of a negociation of Paget's, two years before this. Cranmer, who was then the king's ambassador at the emperor's court, met with John Frederick, elector of Saxony, at Noremberg, who had secretly left the

* L. iii, s. 6. Par. 16. Add.

diet of Ratisbon; and there he delivered letters from the king, both to the elector, to the duke of Lunenberg, and to the prince of Anhalt; which contained only a general offer of friendship. Cranmer came the next day to the elector, who had two of his ministers about him; and asked him many questions concerning their agreement with the state of religion, the Turkish war, and the church-lands, which (as they heard) they had seized on. He said great things of the king, and of the aid he had offered the emperor against the Turk, in conjunction with the French king. He asked where Paget was; whom the king had sent to the elector. General answers were made to all his questions; and for Paget, he had been with the elector the former year. This passed on to the 15th of July, 1532. Four days after this he came privately to Spalatin, one of the elector's secretaries, and assured him, that both the king and the French king would assist the elector and his allies in the matter of religion. In August after that Paget came to the elector, who proposed many things to him concerning religion; but the princes had then come to an agreement with the emperor; so they could enter into no treaty at that time. Only John Frederick did, in a writing under his own hand, offer the scheme of that which was afterwards proposed in their name to the king.

All these negociations were set on foot, pursuant to a paper of advices offered to the king by Cromwell; in which there are divers marginal notes writ in the king's own hand, which will be found in the Collection (No. xxxi). First, "all the bishops were to be sent for, especially those nearest the court; to examine them, whether they can prove that the pope is above the general council, or the council above him; and whether, by the law of God, he has any authority in England? Next, they are to be charged to preach this to the people: and to show that the pope's authority was an usurpation, grown up by the sufferance of princes. This ought to be preached continually at Paul's Cross; and the bishop of London was to suffer none to preach there but those who will set this forth. The same order was to be given to all other bishops, and to the rulers of the four orders of friars, particularly to the friar observants, and to all abbots and priors. The king's appeal was also to be set up on every church-door in England, that so none may pretend ignorance; as also the act against appeals to Rome. It was also proposed, that copies of the king's appeal might be sent to other realms, particularly to Flanders. A letter was also proposed, complaining of all the injuries done the king by the pope to be written to him. by all the

lords spiritual and temporal. The king writes on the margin, Not yet done; nor can it well be done before the parliament. To send spies into Scotland, to see what practices were there on the margin the king's orders; Letters to be written to the Lord Ducres, the Duke of Norfolk, and Sir Thomas Clifford. To send to the kings of Poland and Hungary, the dukes of Saxony and Bavaria, the landgrave of Hesse, and the three ecclesiastical electors: on the margin the king writes, In the King's arbitrement. This, it seems, gave the occasion of sending Paget. The like proposed for the Hans Towns: on the margin, in the king's hand, To know this of the king. To remember the merchant adventurers, chiefly those of Brabant; on the margin, This is already done. Then it is proposed, that an order be given for establishing the princess dowager's house, and the Lady Mary's, and for my lady princess's house: this was Elizabeth's. To this, on the margin, it is written by the king, The order is taken."

In June, in the year 1535, after the parliament had settled every thing demanded of them, the king published a circular letter, which will be found in the Collection (No. xxxii), taken from the original. "In which, after he had set forth that both clergy and temporalty had abolished the bishop of Rome's usurpations, and had united to the crown the dignity of supreme head in earth of the church of England; which was also approved in convocation, and confirmed by their oaths and subscriptions: he adds, that, considering what quiet would follow in the nation, if the bishops and clergy would sincerely, and without dissimulation, publish the many and great abuses of the pope's usurpation; he had sent letters to all bishops, charging them, not only in their own persons, but by their chaplains, to preach the true and sincere word of God to the people, and to give warning to all ecclesiastical persons to do the same; and to cause the pope's name to be rased out of all the books of Divine service. He had also required the justices of peace to exaamine whether the bishops and clergy did this sincerely; or whether they did it coldly, or feignedly; or used any addition or gloss to it. Upon all this, the king requires them, at their assizes and sessions, to make diligent search, whether the bishops and clergy do their duty sincerely. Likewise, at their meetings, they were to set the same forth to the people; and also declare the treasons committed by the bishop of Rochester and Sir Thomas More, who by divers secret practices intended to breed among the people most mischievous opinions; for which they, with some others, had suffered as they deserved. He requires them, if