Abbildungen der Seite
PDF
EPUB

:

On all this the admiral seemed wonderfully set; Paget excused himself from entering further into these matters, and desired that they might be proposed to the king by the French ambassador then at London; yet, being pressed by the admiral, he promised to lay all before the king, and he did it very fully, but with many excuses and much submission. The king's council writ a short answer to this long letter they expressed their confidence in the admiral, with great acknowledgments for his affection to the king; but they seemed to suspect the king of France, that all his professions were only to get money from the king. Two hundred thousand crowns seemed nothing when they were willing to forgive him a million: but by this letter it seems the French ambassadors did still insist on 600,000 crowns to be paid down so this matter was let fall. But to say all that relates to the duke of Orleans at once

:

(1543.) Mr. Le Vassor has published instructions, of which a collated copy was found among Cardinal Granville's papers. It is a question that cannot be answered how he came by it; whether the original was taken with the landgrave of Hesse, or by what other way, is not certain it bears date at Rheims, the 8th of September 1543. "It expresses the great desire that he had, that the holy gospel might be preached in the whole kingdom of France: but the respect that he owed to the king his father, and to the dauphin his brother, made that he did not order it to be preached freely in his duchy of Orleans, that being under their obedience. But he sent to the duke of Saxony, to the landgrave of Hesse, and the other protestant princes, to assure them, that he was resolved, and promised it expressly to them, that he would order that the gospel should be preached in the duchy of Luxemburgh, and in all other, places that should belong to him by the right of war: he desired to be received into their alliance, and to a league offensive and defensive with them. He desired earnestly that they would grant this request, not to be aided by them against any prince, but only on the account of the Christian religion, of which he desired the increase above all things; that by these means light may be spread into other dominions, and into the kingdom of France, when the king his father should see him so allied to those princes, which will be the cause of making him declare the good zeal he has to that matter; and will be able always to excuse it to him, and to defend it against all his enemies. He desires, therefore, that as soon as he shall give order that the gospel shall be preached in the duchy of Luxemburgh, this league and

* Paper-office.

alliance may begin: he hopes this will not be delayed, from the opinion that they may have, that he cannot quickly show what power he has to support the love he bears to this cause; he hopes in a little time to show, if it pleases God, some good effect of it: and he offers at present, not only all his own force, but the whole force of the king his father, who has given him authority to employ it in every thing that he shall judge to be good for them, and in every thing that may concern their welfare, their profit, and freedom."

It is impossible to read this, and to doubt either of his being sincerely a protestant, or at least that he was willing to profess it openly and it can as little be doubted, that in this he had his father's leave to do what he did. The retaking of Luxemburgh put an end to this proposition: but, it seems, the emperor apprehended that the heat of this young prince might grow uneasy to him: therefore he took all methods to satisfy his ambition. For, on the 18th of December 1544, the ambassadors at the emperor's court write over, that he was treating a match between his own eldest daughter and the duke of Orleans; and that he offered to give with her the ancient inheritance of the house of Burgundy, the two Burgundies, and the Netherlands: or, if he would marry his brother Ferdinand's second daughter, to give the duchy of Milan with her. They also mention, in April thereafter, that he came to the emperor, and stayed some days with him at Antwerp, and then went back. On this they all concluded, that the treaty was like to go on, but do not mention which of the two ladies he liked best; for there could be no comparison made between what was offered with them. But all the negotiation, and all the hopes of that prince, vanished on the 11th of September 1545; for Karn, the king's ambassador in Flanders, writ over, that on that day he died of the plague.

I come next to put together all that I find in the minutes of convocation during this reign. The Necessary Erudition was never brought in convocation; but it was treated by some bishops and divines, of both provinces, and published by the king's authority. It seems, when the doctrine was thus settled, there was a design to carry on the Reformatión further. There was a convocation held in January 1541; in the second session of which, the archbishop delivered them a message from the king, that it was his pleasure that they should consult concerning the reforming our errors. And he delivered some books to them, to be examined by them: it does not appear what sort of books or errors those were; whether of papists, sacramentaries, or of anabaptists; for of this last sort some had crept into Eng

land. The business of Munster had made that name so odious, that three years before this, in October 1538, there was a commission sent to Cranmer, Stokesly, Sampson, and some others, to inquire after anabaptists, to proceed against them, to restore the penitent, to burn their books, and to deliver the obstinate to the secular arm: but I have not seen what proceedings there were upon this.

In October 1545, there was an order of council published to take away shrines and images: several commissions were granted for executing this; in some, they add bones to images. The archbishop did likewise move the covocation, in the king's name, to make laws against simony, and to prepare a book of homilies, and a new translation of the Bible for, it seems, complaints were made of the translation then printed and set up in churches. The several books of the Bible were parcelled out, and assigned to several bishops to translate them. This came to nothing during this reign; but this same method was followed in Queen Elizabeth's time. In the fifth session, the persons were named for this translation. Cranmer had, some few years before this, parcelled out an old translation of the New Testament to several bishops and divines, to be revised and corrected by them but it was then much opposed. The Acts of the Apostles was assigned to Stokesly; but he sent in no return upon it so the archbishop sent to him for it. His answer was sullen *: "He wondered what the archbishop meant, thus to abuse the people, by giving them liberty to read the Scripture, which did nothing but infect them with heresy. He had not looked on his portion, and never would so he sent back the book, saying, He would never be guilty of bringing the simple people into error. Notwithstanding this, Cranmer had published a more correct New Testament in English; which is referred to in the injunctions that were formerly mentioned, but now he designed a new translation of the whole Bible. In the sixth session, which was on the 17th of February, a statute against simony was treated of: there was also some discourse about the translating the Lord's Prayer, the Creed, and the Ten Commandments, in the vulgar tongue: and it was considered, how some words in them ought to be translated; but what these were is not mentioned only, it seems, there was a design to find faults in every thing that Cranmer had done.

[ocr errors]

(1544.) On the 24th of February, several matters were treated of; that in particular is named, that none should let leases beyond the term of twenty-one years. They treated * Memor. of Cranmer, Strype, ch. 8.

VOL. III, PARt I.

[ocr errors]

about many of the rituals, and of Thomas Becket, and of the adorning of images, and about reforming some scandalous comedies. On the 3d of March, the archbishop told them from the king, that it was his pleasure that the translation of the Bible should be revised by the two universities. But all the bishops, except Ely and St. David's, protested against this; and, it seems, they insisted much upon trifles. For they treated of this, whether, in the translation of the Bible, the Lord or our Lord, should be the constant form. On the same day, the lord chancellor exhibited to them an act, allowing that the bishops' chancellors might marry. To this the bishops dissented. Some other matters were proposed; but all was referred to the king, upon the convocation's being assembled on the 16th of Feb. 1542. Some homilies were offered on different subjects, but nothing is marked concerning them. The archbishop also told them, that the king would have the books of the several offices used in churches to be examined and corrected. In particular, that, both at matins and vespers, one chapter of the New Testament should be read in every parish. Some petitions were offered by the clergy: the first was, for making a body of the ecclesiastical laws. Of this we hear no more in this reign: but we are assured, that there was a digested body of them prepared; probably it was very near the same that was also prepared in King Edward's time. Cranmer, in a letter that he wrote to the king out of Kent, on the 24th of January, 1545-6, which I did put in my second volume*, tells him," that, according to his commands, he had sent for the bishop of Worcester (Heath), to let him know, that the king's pleasure was, to have the names of such persons sent him, as he had formerly appointed to make ecclesiastical laws for the realms." The bishop promised with all speed to inquire out their names, and the book which they made, and to bring both the names and the book to the king; which, he writes, he had done before that time. By this it appears, that persons had been named for that; and that a commission was granted, pursuant to which the work had been prepared for things of this kind were never neglected by Cranmer. It seems, it had been done some years before, so that it was almost forgotten; but now, in one of King Henry's lucid intervals, it was prepared, as Mr. Strype has published. But how it came to pass that no further progress was made during this reign, in so important and so necessary a work, is not easily to be accounted for; since it must have contributed much to

* 2d vol. Coll. of Rec: No. xi.

the exaltation of the king's supremacy, to have all the ecclesiastical courts governed by a code authorised by him. In the convocation, in the year 1543, we have only this short word, That on the 29th of April the archbishop treated of the sacraments, and, on the next day, on the article of freewill. This is all that I could gather from the copy of the minutes of the convocations, which was communicated to me by my most learned and worthy brother, the lord bishop of London, who assured me it was collated exactly with the only ancient copy that remains, to give us light into the proceedings in the convocations of those times.

It does not appear to me what removed Bell, bishop of Worcester, to resign his bishopric. Rymer has printed his resignation; in which it is said, that he did it simply of his own accord. He lived till the year 1556, as his tombstone in Clerkenwell-church informs us. Whether he inclined to a further reformation, and so withdrew at the time; or whether the old leaven yet remaining with him made it uneasy for him to comply, does not appear: if his motives had been of the former sort, it may be supposed he would have been thought of in King Edward's time; and if of the latter, then in Queen Mary's reign he might again have appeared; so I must leave it in the dark what his true mo

tive was.

Audley, who had been lord chancellor from the time that Sir Thomas More left that post, fell sick in the year 1544, and sent the great seal to the king, by Sir Edward North and Sir Thomas Bland. The king delivered it to the Lord Wriothesly, and made him lord-keeper during the Lord Audley's infirmity †, with authority to do every thing that the lord chancellor might do; and the duke of Norfolk tendered him the oaths. It seems, there was such a regard had to the Lord Audley, that, as long as he lived, the title of lord chancellor was not given with the seals; but, upon his death, Wriothesly was made lord chancellor. This seems to be the first instance of a lord-keeper, with the full authority of a lord chancellor.

I have not now before me such a thread of matters as to carry me regularly through the remaining years of this reign; and, therefore, hereafter I only give such passages as I have gathered, without knitting them together in exact series. The breach between England and France was driven on by the emperor's means, and promoted by all the popish party. So the king, to prevent all mischief from Scotland, during this war with France, entered into an agreement with the † Rymer, ib.

* Rymer. to. 15.

« ZurückWeiter »