signify what had moved them to stay the executions of such persons as had been delivered to them by the ordinaries, being condemned for heresy. One letter, of a more singular strain, was wrote to the lord mayor, and the sheriffs of London, to give substantial orders (I give the words in the council-book), "that when any obstinate man, condemned by order of the law, shall be delivered to be punished for heresy, there be a good number of officers and other men appointed to be at the execution, who may be charged to see such as shall misuse themselves, either by comforting, aiding, or praising the offenders, or otherwise use themselves to the ill example of others, to be apprehended and committed to ward; and besides, to give commandment that no householder suffer any of his apprentices, or other servants, to be abroad, other than such as their masters will answer for; and that this order be always observed in like cases hereafter." Such pains were taken to extinguish all the impressions of humanity, or at least to punish every expression of it; and this was so constantly pursued, that three men and two women were burnt at Canterbury on the 10th of November, a week before her death; for she died on the 17th.

Nor were they satisfied with all these arts of cruelty in England; but hearing that there were some of that sort in Ireland, one Cole was sent over, with a commission to set a persecution on foot there*. When he was at Chester, the corporation waited on him, in respect to his being sent by the queen he showed them his powers and letters to the government of Ireland; but leaving his papers on the table when he went, in respect to this body, to conduct them down stairs, the mistress of the house, being secretly a zealous woman, did, with a particular address, make up a packet like his, in which she put a pack of cards, the knave of clubs being turned uppermost; and so she took away his papers, putting this instead of them. He suspecting nothing, nor looking into them, went over to Dublin, and delivered his message and packet to the council there, which was certainly received with scorn and indignation. came back to London, and got new powers, a few days before the queen's death; for the news of it overtook him before he had his passage. The levity of this story made me at first suspect it, till I found it in several books, in which it is said that the woman had, for this service, a pension from Queen Elizabeth.

He

I have, in my former History, showed what steps were made in that reign towards the setting up an inquisition in

* Cox's History of Ireland.

England, which was very probably suggested by King Philip, and some of his Spaniards, as the only sure method to extirpate heresy ; but I have since seen some further steps made towards it. Ratcliffe, earl of Sussex, was in high favour; and he, who saw what was the method to secure and advance it, moved, that, instead of the dilatory proceedings in the ordinary courts, such offenders should be proceeded against by martial law. To this the council wrote answer, they commended his zeal, and acknowledged that such persons deserved to be so used; yet it was not thought the best way; but they were to be punished as the laws did order. But when they had had their punishment, he was ordered to keep them in prison and in irons, till they came to know themselves and their duty. I have also found what he did towards the setting up an Inquisition. I did formerly print the instructions that were sent to the county of Norfolk*. Of these, the sixth did run thus: "They shall procure to have in every parish, or part of the shire, as near as may be, some one or more honest men, secretly instructed, to give information of the inhabitants amongst or about them." I find, in a register of the earl of Sussex, that, to the sixth article, it is agreed, "That the justices of the peace, in every of their limits, shall call secretly before them one or two honest and secret persons, or more, by their discretions, and such as they shall think good; and command them by oath, or otherwise, as the same justices shall think good, that they shall secretly learn and search out such person or persons as shall evil behave themselves idly at church, or despise openly by words the king and queen's proceedings, or go about to make or move any stir, commotion, or unlawful gathering together of the people; or that shall tell any seditious or lewd tales, rumours, or news, to move or stir any person or persons to rise, stir, or make any commotion or insurrection, or to consent to any such intent or purpose. And also, that the same persons so to be appointed, shall declare to the same justices of the peace the ill behaviour of lewd, disordered persons; whether it shall be for using unlawful games, idleness, and such other light behaviour, of such suspected persons as shall be within the same town, or near thereabouts. And that the same information shall be given secretly to the justices; and the same justices shall call such accused persons before them, and examine them, without declaring by whom they be accused. And that the same justices shall, upon their examinations, punish the offenders according as their offences

* Hist of the Reform. Vol. II, Part II, Book II, Collect. No. 19.

shall appear to them upon the accusement and examination, by their discretion, either by open punishment or good abearing." Here are sworn spies appointed, like the familiars of the Inquisition; secret depositions, not to be discovered; and upon these, further proceedings are ordered. If this had been well settled, what remained to complete a court of Inquisition would have been more easily carried.

Here is that which those who look towards a popish successor must look for when that evil day comes. All this will make little impression on those who have no fixed belief of any thing in religion themselves, and so may reckon it a small matter to be of any religion that comes to have the law and the government on its side; and resolve to change with every wind and tide, rather than put any thing to hazard by struggling against it. Yet some compassion to those who have a more firm belief of those great truths might be expected from men of the same country, kindred, and who have hitherto professed to be of the same religion. The reviving the fires in Smithfield, and from thence over the whole nation, has no amiable view to make haste to it; and least of all to those, who, if they have any principles at all, must look for nothing less than the being turned out of their livings, or forced to abandon their families, and, upon every surmise or suspicion, to be hunted from place to place, glad if they can get out of the paw of the lion into parts beyond the seas; and then they may expect to meet with some of that haughty contempt with which too many have treated foreigners who took sanctuary

among us.

But when this fatal revolution comes upon us, if God, for our sins, abandons us into the hands of treacherous and bloody men, whither can we hope to fly? for, with us, the whole Reformation must fall under such an universal ruin, that, humanly speaking, there is no view left beyond that.

Yet, since that set of men is so impiously corrupted in the point of religion, that no scene of cruelty can fright them from leaping into it, and perhaps from acting such a part in it as may be assigned them, there are other considerations of another sort, arising from some papers (put in my hands since I wrote the History), that may perhaps affect them deeper, because they touch in a more sensible part.

It is well known how great and how valuable a part of the whole soil of England the abbey lands, the estates of the bishops, of the cathedrals, and the tithes are. I will not enter into any strict computation of what the whole may amount to. The resumption of these would be no easy matter to many families; and yet all these must be thrown

up; for sacrilege, in the church of Rome, is a mortal sin. And therefore Cardinal Pole, even in that pretended confirmation of the grants that were then made, laid a heavy charge on those who had the goods of the church in their hands, to remember the judgments of God that fell on Belshazzar, for profaning the holy vessels, though they had not been taken by himself, but by his father. It is true, this may be supposed to relate only to church plate; though there is no reason to restrain such a solemn charge to so inconsiderable a part of what had been taken from the church, no doubt he had the whole in his view. And this showed, that, though he seemed to secure them from any claim that the church might have, or any suit or proceeding upon that account, yet he left the weight of the sin on their consciences; which a dexterous confessor might manage so as to make the possessors yield up their rights, especially when they themselves could hold them no longer. The thing was still a sin, and the possession was unjust. And, to make it easy to restore in the last minutes, the statute of mortmain was repealed for twenty years; in which time, no doubt, they reckoned they would recover the best part of what they had lost. Besides that, the engaging the clergy to renew no leases was a thing entirely in their own power; and that, in forty years time, would raise their revenues to be about ten times their present value.

But, setting all this aside, it has appeared evidently to me, from some papers sent me some years after I wrote my History, that all that transaction was fraudulent, and had so many nullities in it, that it may be broke through whensoever there is a power strong enough to set about it. In the first powers that are in that collection, all the grace and favour that the pope intended to the possessors of those lands was to indemnify them for the mean profits they had received, and for the goods that had been consumed; "they restoring first (if that shall seem expedient) the lands themselves that are unjustly detained by them." This was only the forgiving what was past; but the right of the church was insisted on for the restitution of those lands. The reservation in these words, "if that shall seem expedient to you," can be understood in no other sense, but that it was referred to his discretion, whether he should insist to have the restitution first made, before he granted the indemnity for the mean profits, or not.

It is true, the council in England, who were in that supported by the emperor, thought these powers were too narrow, and insisted to have them enlarged. That was done; but in so artificial a manner, that the whole settlement

made by Pole signified nothing, but to lay the nation once asleep, under a false apprehension of their being secured in those possessions, when no such thing was intended; nor was it at all granted, even by the latest powers that were sent to Cardinal Pole. For in these, after the pope had referred the settling that matter to him, that he might transact it with such possessors for whom the queen should intercede, and dispense with their enjoying them for the future without any scruple, a salvo is added, by which the whole matter is still reserved to the pope, for his final confirmation, in these words-Salvo tamen in his quibus propter rerum magnitudinem et gravitatem hæc sancta sedes merito tibi videretur consulenda, nostro et præfatæ sedis beneplacito et confirmatione: "Saving always in such things, in which for their greatness and importance it shall appear to you that this holy see ought in reason to be consulted, our and the said see's good pleasure and confirmation." By these words it is very plain, that as in the powers granted they seemed to be limited to a few, to such for whom the queen should intercede, since it is not expressed that the pope thought that he should intercede for all that possessed them, so they were only provisional. And therefore, since no bull of confirmation was ever obtained, all these provisional powers were null and void when the confirmation was asked and denied; as all the historians of that time agree it was. And this was so suitable to Pope Paul the Fourth's temper and principles, that no doubt is to be made of his persisting steadfastly in that resolution.

I know there was a mercenary writer found in King James's reign, who studied to lay all people asleep, in a secure persuasion of their titles to those lands. He pretends there was a confirmation of all that Pole did, sent over to England. He brings, indeed, some proof that it was given out and believed; which might be a part of the fraud to be used in that matter. But as no such thing appears in the Bullary, so he does not tell us who saw it, or where it was laid up. He, indeed, supports this by an argument that destroys it quite: for he tells us, that, two years after this, Secretary Petre had a particular bull, confirming him in his possession of some church-lands. This shows, that either that person, who was secretary of state, knew that no confirmation was sent over, so that it was necessary for him to procure a particular bull for securing his own estate; or whatever might be in Pole's powers, he might think such a general transaction, which the necessity of that time made reasonable, would be no longer stood to than while that necessity continued.