Lord Burleigh, marked with that lord's hand on it *. It seems the priests at this time understood the interests of their cause better than others did above an age after. For they moved the queen to show a signal act of mercy, and to pardon all that had been engaged in this rising.

Only it gave a colour to the severity against the Lady Jane Gray and her husband. She was the wonder and delight of all that knew her. I have two of her letters in Latin, writ to Bullinger, copied from the originals, all in her own hand, written in a pure and unaffected style. She was then entering on the study of the Hebrew, in the method that Bullinger advised her. She expresses in her letters a wonderful respect and submission to him, with a great strain of modesty, and a very singular zeal for religion. There being nothing in those letters that is in any sort historical, I thought it was not proper to put them in my Collection; though one cannot read them, without a particular veneration for the memory of so young and so rare a creature.

And now the government, finding all things under their feet, did begin to show to the whole nation what was to be expected. All that adhered to the Reformation were sure to be excluded from all favour; commissions were sent over the whole kingdom, to proceed, as upon other points, so particularly against the married clergy. These came to York, directed to the guardian of the spiritualities in that place : and the dean and chapter were authorized by the queen to act pursuant to their instructions. And they acted as in a vacancy: though the commission to proceed against the archbishop bears date the 16th of March; yet, on the 9th of March, they sent out a general citation of the clergy, to appear before them on the 12th of March t. They did not, indeed, begin to deprive any before the 27th of April: and from that day to the 20th of December they deprived oneand-fifty, of whom several were prebendaries.

I will here insert a short account of the unjust and arbitrary deprivations of the married clergy, that was published by Parker, afterwards archbishop of Canterbury. "What examples have they in stories before-time, that deprivations have been thus handled before our days? I will not speak of particular cases; where some men have been deprived, never convict, no, nor never called: some called, that were fast locked in prison; and yet they were nevertheless deprived immediately. Some were deprived without the case of marriage after their order: some induced to resign, upon promise of pension, and the promise as yet never performed.

*Ex, MS. Petyti.

Reg. Ebor. Sede Vac. f. 65, 66.

Some so deprived, that they were spoiled of their wages, for the which they served the half-year before; and, not ten days before the receipt, sequestered from it: some prevented from the half-year's receipt, after charges of tenths and subsidies paid, and yet not deprived six weeks after. Some deprived of their receipt somewhat before the day, with the which their fruits to the queen's majesty should be contented; and some yet in the like case chargeable hereafter, if the queen's merciful grace be not informed thereof, by the mediation of some charitable solicitor. And a little after, there were deprived, or driven away, twelve of sixteen thousand, as some writer maketh his account." But there are good reasons to think, that numbers have been wrong taken of this. Among other suggestions, Dr. Tanner has sent me this; that the diocess of Norwich is reckoned almost an eighth part of all England: and he finds there were only three hundred and thirty-five clergymen deprived on that account: by this, the whole number will fall short of three thousand. This, it is true, is but a conjecture; yet it is a very probable one: and the other account is no way credible.

I shall to this only add another short account of the proceedings at that time, published by Ailmer, afterwards bishop of London. The bishops that were married were thrust out of the parliament-house; and all married deans and archdeacons out of the convocation. Many put out of their livings, and others restored, without form of law.— Many churches were changed, many altars set up, many masses said, many dirges sung, before the law was repealed." From these accounts we may easily believe, that, when the laws were altered, there was a vigorous and a speedy execution of them.

After all matters relating to the queen's marriage were settled, the emperor sent a fleet for the prince of Spain: and upon that occasion the queen was prevailed on to break through all forms, and to write the first love letter to him; of which, having met with the original, I have put it in the Collection (No. xiii), as a singularity in such matters. She tells him, that she understanding that the emperor's ambassador was sending the bearer to him, though he had not written since their alliance had been a treating; yet she, thinking herself obliged by the sincere affection that he had for her, confirmed by good effects, and by the letters that he had written to the emperor's ambassador, could not restrain herself from letting him know the duty, in which she intended to correspond always with him and she thanked him for all his good offices. She acquainted him, that her parliament

had, without any opposition, agreed to the articles of their marriage, and thought them honourable, advantageous, and more than reasonable. This gave her an entire confidence, that his coming to England should be safe, and agreeable to him. She ends, recommending herself most affectionately and humbly to his highness, as being his entirely assured and most obliged ally.'

But, the matter of the marriage being settled, and afterwards executed, I will now look again into the proceedings of the council. On the 16th of January, one Wotton, called an esquire, was committed to be close prisoner in the Fleet, for his obstinate standing against matters of religion. On the 14th of February, letters were written to the Lord Rich, and to Sir John Wentworth, to punish some in Colchester, Coxall, and other places, who dissuaded people from frequenting such Divine service as was then appointed by law to be observed. Upon this, many were committed, and others put under recognizances to appear. On the 8th of March, an order was sent to the lieutenant of the Tower, to deliver Cranmer, Ridley, and Latimer, to Sir John Williams, who was to carry them to Oxford. On the 26th of March, an order was given to send up Taylor, parson of Hadley, and Askew of West Hillesly. Barlow, bishop of Bath and Wells, was carried beyond sea, by one Williams, a mariner of Bristol, who, returning to Pembrokeshire, some gentlemen there seized on him, and sent him to London: so he was sent to the Marshalsea, and a letter of thanks was written to those who had seized on him; so careful were they to encourage every officious show of zeal.

But now came on the second convocation in this reign, in which all that was done was, that the prolocutor Weston, with some deputed to go along with him, were ordered to go to Oxford, to dispute with the three bishops. Of which I can add nothing to the account I formerly gave of it. On the 27th of April, Weston returned and reported the conference, or examination of Cranmer and the two other bishops, attested under the seal of the university and soon after that they were dismissed; for the parliament met on the 2d of April, and was dismissed on the 5th of May.

On the 3d of May, Cranmer, Ridley, and Latimer, being judged obstinate heretics, the judges were asked what the queen might do, since Cranmer was attainted. He was a man dead in law, and not capable of any other censure: and this seems to be the true reason that moved the queen to pardon the treason, upon which he was already condemned for though he was very earnest to obtain a pardon for that, it does not appear that there was any regard had to him in granting it; but, on the contrary, it seems it was resolved

that he should be burned as a heretic: and since that could not be done while he stood condemned of treason, this seems to be the only motive of that mercy, which, in this case, was certainly done out of cruelty. On the 20th of May, a servant of the Lady Elizabeth's was brought before the council; but there is nothing in particular mentioned, only he was required to attend. There were suspicions of her being concerned in Wiat's rebellion, as appeared in the account given of Wiat himself. It is alleged, that Gardiner studied to suborn false witnesses to charge her with that; and that this went so far, that a warrant was brought to Bridges, the lieutenant of the Tower, for her execution; but that he would not obey it, until he knew the queen's pleasure *. Some credit seems due to this, since it was published in her reign, and was not contradicted, nor denied, as far as I can find. But it seems to be denied in a declaration set forth many years after by herself when she was queen; which shall be mentioned in its proper place. On the 25th of May, some in Stepney were ordered to be set on the pillory for spreading false news; the ears of one were ordered to be nailed to the pillory, and then cut off. On the 26th of May, Sir Henry Bedingfield was sent with instructions, signed by the queen, for the ordering the Lady Elizabeth.

On the 1st of June, an order was sent to the bishop of London, to send discreet and learned preachers into Essex, to reduce the people there. Bonner seemed to think of no way of reducing any, but by severity and force; so that the council found it necessary to put him in mind of his pastoral care. Orders were then given for the reception of the prince of Spain. Some were ordered to be set on a pillory, and their ears were to be nailed to it, and cut off. The duchess of Northumberland desired that her sons might hear mass in the Tower; this was granted, but order was given that none might speak with them. On the 11th of June, orders were given to receive the duke of Savoy at Dover. And on the 5th of July, order was given to punish those who were concerned in the imposture called the Spirit of the Wall. On the 6th of July, some of the Lady Elizabeth's servants were committed for lewd words of the state of the kingdom: on the 24th July, two treaties for the queen's marriage, made by the Lord Fitzwater, who had been ambassador in Spain, were given to the lord treasurer.

Now the marriage was made, and the jollities on such occasions put some stop to severities: but it was a short one; for, on the 15th of August, letters were writ to the justices of peace in Sussex, to punish those who railed at

* Reply to Parsons, p. 84.

the mysteries of Christ's religion. I must observe here once for all, that the letters themselves, writ by the council, are not entered in the book: these would have set out particulars much more clearly than those short entries do but there were forms of those letters put in a chest, and the council-book refers us often to the letter in the chest. On the 19th of August, letters of thanks are ordered to Tirrell, and others, for their care, ordering them to imprison all such as came not to Divine service; and to keep them in prison until they had the comfort of their amendment: several men and women were imprisoned in Huntingdonshire. The 20th of August, mention is made of some in prison for words. On the 21st of August, an order was sent to examine into a conspiracy in Suffolk, by certain lewd persons. On the 16th of September, a letter was ordered to the lord mayor and aldermen of London, to punish the spreaders of false ru

mours.

But now came on the great affair of the reconciling the nation to the see of Rome. The two former parliaments could not be brought up to that; so the court was willing to accept all that they could be brought to; but when they saw at what they stuck, they were sent home: and some were so weak as to think, that, by yielding in some things, they should give the court such content, as to save the rest. They were willing to return back to that state of religion in which King Henry left it; and did not rightly apprehend that nothing could give the queen an entire content, but a total reconciliation with the pope: whereas those who could not come up to this ought to have stood firm at first, and not, by giving ground, have encouraged the court to compass their whole design. The queen was more than ordinarily solicitous to get a parliament chosen to her mind. She wrote a letter to the earl of Sussex, and probably she wrote to all those in whom she confided, in the same strain. It will be

found in the Collection (No. xiv). "She had now summoned a parliament to the 12th of November, in which she expected to be assisted by him; and that he would admonish her good subjects, who had a right to elect the members, to choose men of the wise, grave, and catholic sort; such as indeed meant the true honour of God, and the prosperity of the commonwealth; which she and the king her husband did intend, without the alteration of any particular man's possession, which, among other false rumours, the hinderers of her good purposes, and the favourers of heretics, did most untruly report. She desired him to come up against the feast of All-Saints, at the furthest, that she might confer with him about those matters, that were to be treated of in