no prejudice to him. There was also a commission issued out to inquire about inclosures and farms, and whether those who had purchased the abbey-lands kept hospitality, to which they were bound by the grants they had of them, and whether they encouraged husbandry. But I find no effect of this. And indeed there seemed to have been a general design among the nobility and gentry to bring the inferior sort to that low and servile state to which the peasants in many other kingdoms are reduced. In the parliament an act was carried in the house of lords for imparking grounds, but was cast out by the commons; yet gentlemen went on every where taking their lands into their own hands, and inclosing them. ed. In May the commons did rise first in Wiltshire; where sir William Herbert gathered Many are some resolute men about him, and dispersed them, and slew some of them. easily quiet- Soon after that, they rose in Sussex, Hampshire, Kent, Gloucestershire, Suffolk, Warwickshire, Essex, Hertfordshire, Leicestershire, Worcestershire, and Rutlandshire; but by fair persuasions the fury of the people was a little stopped till the matter should be represented to the council. The protector said, he did not wonder the commons were in such distempers, they being so oppressed; that it was easier to die once than to perish for want; and therefore he set out a proclamation, contrary to the mind of the whole council, against all new inclosures; with another, indemnifying the people for what was past, so they carried themselves obediently for the future. Commissions were also sent everywhere, with an unlimited power to the commissioners, to hear and determine all causes about inclosures, highways, and cottages. The vast power these commissioners assumed was much complained of; the landlords said it was an invasion of their property, to subject them thus to the pleasure of those who were sent to examine the matters, without proceeding in the ordinary courts according to law. The commons being encouraged by the favour they heard the protector bore them, and not able to govern their heat, or stay for a more peaceable issue, did rise again, but were anew quieted. Yet the protector being opposed much by the council, he was not able to redress this grievance so fully as the people hoped. So in Oxfordshire and Devonshire they rose again, and also in Norfolk and Yorkshire. Those in Oxfordshire were dissipated by a force of fifteen hundred men, led against them by the lord Gray. Some of them were taken and hanged by martial law, as being in a state of war ; the greatest part ran home to their dwellings. In Devonshire the insurrection grew to be better formed; for that county was not only But those of far from the court, but it was generally inclined to the former superstition, and Devonshire grew formiduble, many of the old priests ran in among them. They came together on the 10th of June, boing Whit-Sunday; and in a short time they grew to be ten thousand strong. At court it was hoped this might be as easily dispersed as the other risings were; but the protector was against running into extremities, and so did not move so speedily as the thing required. He, after some days, at last sent the lord Russel with a small force to stop their proceedings. And that lord, remembering well how the duke of Norfolk had with a very small army broken a formidable rebellion in the former reign, hoped that time would likewise weaken and disunite these; and therefore he kept at some distance, and offered to receive their complaints, and to send them to the council. But these delays gave advantage and strength to the rebels; who were now led on by some gentlemen: Arundel of Cornwall being in chief command among them; and in answer to the lord Russel, they agreed on fifteen articles, the substance of which was as follows. "1. That all the general councils, and the decrees of their forefathers should be observed. Their Demands. receive. 66 "2. That the act of the Six Articles should be again in force. "3. That the mass should be in Latin, and that the priests alone should "4. That the sacrament should be hanged up, and worshipped; and those who refused to do it should suffer as heretics. "5. That the sacrament should only be given to the people at Easter in one kind. ་ : "6. That baptism should be done at all times. Before this they drew up their demands in seven articles.-STRYPE's Correct, "7. That holy bread, holy water, and palms, be again used; and that images be set up, with all the other ancient ceremonies. "8. That the new service should be laid aside, since it was like a Christmas game: and the old service again should be used with the procession in Latin. "9. That all preachers in their sermons, and priests in the mass, should pray for the souls in purgatory. 10. That the Bible should be called in, since otherwise the clergy could not easily confound the heretics. "11. That Dr. Moreman, and Crispin, should be sent to them, and put in their livings. "12. That cardinal Pole should be restored, and made of the king's council. "13. That every gentleman might have only one servant for every hundred marks of yearly rent that belonged to him. "14. That the half of the abbey and church-lands should be taken back, and restored to two of the chief abbeys in every county: and all the church-boxes for seven years should be given to such houses, that so devout persons might live in them, who should pray for the king and the commonwealth. 15. And that for their particular grievances, they should be redressed, as Humphrey Arundel and the mayor of Bodmin should inform the king, for whom they desired a safeconduct." Cranmer drew an an These articles being sent to the council, the archbishop of Canterbury was ordered to draw an answer to them, which I have seen corrected with his own hand. The substance of it was, that their demands were insolent, such as were dictated to swer to them. them by some seditious priests: they did not know what general councils had Ex. MS. Col. decreed; nor was there anything in the church of England contrary to them, C. C. Cantab. though many things had been formerly received which were so: and for the decrees, they were framed by the popes to enslave the world, of which he gave several instances. For the Six Articles, he says, they had not been earried in parliament if the late king had not gone thither in person, and procured that act; and yet of his own accord he slackened the execution of it. To the third, It was strange that they did not desire to know in what terms they worshipped God; and for the mass, the ancient canons required the people to communicate in it, and the prayers in the office of the mass did still imply that they were to do it. For the hanging up and adoring the host, it was but lately set up by pope Innocent, and Honorius, and in some places it had never been received. For the fifth, The ancient church received that sacrament frequently and in both kinds. To the sixth, Baptism in cases of necessity was to be administered at any time: but out of these cases it was fit to do it solemnly; and in the ancient church it was chiefly done on the eves of Easter and Whit-Sunday, of which usages some footsteps remained still in the old offices. To the seventh, These were late superstitious devices: images were contrary to the Scriptures, first set up for remembrance, but soon after made objects of worship. To the eighth, The old service had many ludicrous things in it; the new was simple and grave; if it appeared ridiculous to them, it was as the gospel was long ago, foolishness to the Greeks. To the ninth, The Scriptures say nothing of it; it was a superstitious invention derogatory to Christ's death. To the tenth, The Scriptures are the word of God, and the readiest way to confound that which is heresy indeed. To the eleventh, These were ignorant, superstitious, and deceitful persons. To the twelfth, Pole had been attainted in parliament for his spiteful writings and doings against the late king. To the thirteenth, It was foolish and unreasonable; one servant could not do a inan's business; and by this, many sorvants would want employment. To the fourteenth, This was to rob the king, and those who had these lands of him; and would be a means to make so foul a rebellion be remembered in their prayers. To the fifteenth, These were notorious traitors, to whom the king's council was not to submit themselves. After this they grew more moderate, and sent eight articles: 1. Concerning baptism. 2. About confirmation. 3. Of the mass. They mado 4. For reserving the host. 5. For new Deholy bread and water. 6. For the old service*. 7. For the single lives of mands. priests. 8. For the Six Articles; and concluded, God save the king, for they were his, both body and goods. To this there was an answer sent in the king's name on the 8th of July (so long did the treaty with them hold), in which, after expresWhich were also rejected. sions of the king's affection to his people, ho taxes their rising in arms against him their king as contrary to the laws of God: he tells them, that they are abused by their priests, as in the instance of baptism, which according to the book might, necessity requiring it, be done at all times; that the changes that had been set out were made after long and great consultation; and the worship of this church, by the advice of many bishops and learned men, was reformed, as near to what Christ and his apostles had taught and done as could be: and all things had been settled in parliament. But the most specious thing that misled them being that of the king's age, it was showed them that his blood, and not his years, gave him the crown; and the state of government requires, that at all times there should be the same authority in princes, and the same obedience in the people. It was all penned in a high threatening style, and concluded with an earnest invitation of them to submit to the king's mercy, as others that had risen had also done, to whom he had not only showed mercy, but granted redress of their just grievances: otherwise they might expect the utmost severity that traitors deserved. The Rebellion in Norfolk headed by Ket a Tanner. But nothing prevailed on this enraged multitude, whom the priests inflamed with all the artifices they could imagine; and among whom the host was carried about by a priest on a cart, that all might see it. But when this commotion was thus grown to a head, the men of Norfolk rose the 6th of July, being led by one Ket a tanner. These pretended nothing of religion, but only to suppress and destroy the gentry, and to raise the commons, and to put new councillors about the king. They increased mightily, and became twenty thousand strong, but had no order nor discipline, and committed many horrid outrages. The sheriff of the county came boldly to them, and required them in the king's name to disperse, and go home; but had he not been well mounted, they had put him cruelly to death. They came to Moushold Hill above Norwich, and were much favoured by many in that city. Parker, afterwards archbishop of Canterbury, came among them, and preached very freely to them, of their ill lives, their rebellion against the king, and the robberies they daily committed; by which he was in great danger of his life. Ket assumed to himself the power of judicature, and under an old oak, called from thence the Oak of Reformation, did such justice as might be expected from such a judge, and in such a camp. The marquis of Northampton was sent against them, but with orders to keep at a distance from them, and to cut off their provisions; for so it was hoped that without the shedding much blood they might come to themselves again. When the news of this rising came into Yorkshire, the commons there rose also; being further encouraged by a prophecy; that there should be no king nor nobility in England, that the kingdom should be ruled by four governors chosen by the commons, who should hold a parliament, in commotion, to begin at the south and north This they applied to the Devonshire men on the south scas, and themselves on the north seas. They at their first rising fired beacons, and so gathered the country, as if it had been for the defence of the coast; and meeting two gentlemen, with two others with The French them, they without any provocation murdered them, and left their naked bodies unburied. At the same time that England was in this commotion, the news Boulognese. came that the French king had sent a great army into the territory of Boulogne, so that the government was put to most extraordinary straits. A Rising in seas. fall into the That the service might be sung or said in choir,-STRYPE'S CORRECT. |