5. Quodq; præsentium transumptis, juxta modum in præinsertis literis expressum factis, tam in judicio quam extra, eadem fides adhibeatur, quæ Originalibus adhiberetur, si forent exhibitæ, vel ostensæ.

6. Non obstantibus Constitutionibus et Ordinationibus Apostolicis, necnon omnibus illis, quæ in dictis literis voluimus non obstare, cæterisq; contrariis quibuscunque.

Universalis Ecclesia pluribus sæculis venerata extra Romanam Curiam in dictis præinsertis est, feritatem exercere non expavit, Divi literis specificatis, hujusmodi publicatio non enim Thomæ Cantuarien. Archiepiscopi, fiat, perinde Henricum Regem, et alios quos cujus ossa, quæ in dicto Regno Angliæ potis- concernunt præsertim Anglos afficiat, ac si simum, ob innumera ab omnipotenti Deo illic Henrico Regi et aliis prædictis præsertim perpetrata miracula, summa cum veneratione Anglis personaliter intimatæ fuissent. in arca aurea in Civitate Cantuarien. servabantur, postquam ipsum Divum Thomam, ad majorem Religionis contemptum, in judicium vocari, et tanquam contumacem damnari ac proditorem declarari facerat, exhumari, et comburi, ac cineres in ventum spargi jussit, omnem plane cunctarum gentium crudelitatem superans, cum ne in bello quidem hostes victores sævire in mortuorum cadavera soliti sunt; adhæc omnia ex diversorum Regum etiam Anglorum, et aliorum Principum liberalitate donaria, ipsi arcæ appensa, quæ multa, et maximi pretii erant, sibi usurpavit; nec putans ex hoc satis injuriæ religionis intulisse, Monasterium Divo illi Augustino, a quo Christianam fidem Angli acceperunt, in dicta civitate dicatum, omnibus Thesauris, qui etiam multi et magni erant, spoliavit, et sicut se in belluam transmutavit, ita etiam belluas quasi socias suas honorare voluit, feras videlicet in dicto Monasterio, expulsis Monachis, intromittendo, genus quidem sceleris non modo Christi fidelibus, sed etiam Turcis inauditum et abominandum.

4. Cum itaq; morbus iste a mullo quantumvis peritissimo medico alia cura sanari possit, quam putridi membri abscissione, nec valeret cura hujusmodi, absq; eo, quod nos apud Deum causam hanc nostram efficiamus, ulterius retardari. ad dictarum literarum (quas ad hoc ut Henricus Rex, ejusq; Complices, Fautores, adhærentes, consultores, et sequaces, etiam super excessibus per eum novissime, ut præfertur, perpetratos, intra terminum eis, quoad alia, per alias nostras literas prædictas respective præfixas, se excusare, alias pœnis ipsis literis contentas incurrant, extendimus et ampliamus) publicationem, et deinde, Deo duce, ad executionem procedere omnino statuimus. Et quia a fide dignis accepimus, quod si ipsarum et præsentium literarum publicatio Diep. Rothomagen. vel Bolonia Ambianen. Diac. Oppidis in Franciæ, aut Civitate Sancti Andreæ, seu in Oppido Callistren. Sancti Andrea Diac. in Scotia Regnis, vel in Thuamien. et Antifer. ten. Civitatibus, vel Dic. Dominii Hiberniæ fiat, non solum tam facile, ut si in locis in dictis literis expressis fieret, sed facilius ipsarum literarum tenor, ad Henrici, et aliorum quos concernunt, præsertim Anglorum, notitiam deveniret; Nos volentes in hoc oppor tune providere, motu, scientia, et potestatis plenitudine prædictis decernimus, quod publicatio literarum superius insertarum, quarum insertioni superius factæ, ac ipsis Originalibus quoad validitatem publicationis, seu executionis præsentium, fidem adhiberi volumus, in duobus ex locis præsentibus literis expressis, alias juxta supra insertarum, et præsentium literarum tenore facta, etiam si in locis

7. Nulli ergo omnino hominum liceat hanc paginam nostri Decreti, et voluntatis infringere, vel ei ausu temerario contraire. Si quis autem hoc attentare præsumpserit, indignationem Omnipotentis Dei, ac Beatorum Petri et Pauli Apostolorum ejus se noverit incursurum.

Dat. Romæ apud S. Petrum, Anno Incarnationis Dominicæ 1538. decimo sexto Kal. Januarii, Pontificatus nostri anno quinto.

X.-The Judgment of some Bishops concerning the King's Supremacy. An Original.

[Ex MSS. D. Stillingfleet.]

THE words of St. John in his 20th Chap. Sicut misit me Puter, et ego mitto ros, &c. hath no respect to a King's or a Princes Power, but only to shew how that the Ministers of the Word of God, chosen and sent for that intent, are the Messengers of Christ, to teach the Truth of his Gospel, and to loose and his Father. The words also of St. Paul, in bind sin, &c. as Christ was the Messenger of the 20th Chap. of the Acts; Attendite vobis et universo gregi, in vos Spiritus Sanctus posuit qua Episcopos regere Ecclesiam Dei, were spoken to the Bishops and Priests, to be diligent Pastors of the People, both to teach them diligently, and also to be circumspect that false Preachers should not seduce the People, as followeth immediately after in the same place. Other places of Scripture declare the highness and excellency of Christian Princes Authority and Power; the which of a truth is most high, for he hath power and charge generally over all, as well Bishops, as Priests, as other. The Bishops and Priests have charge of Souls within their own Cures, the Word of God; to the which Word of power to minister Sacraments, and to teach God Christian Princes knowledg themselves subject; and in case the Bishops be negligent, it is the Christian Princes Office to see them do their duty. T. Cantuarien. Joannes London. Cuthbertus Dunelmen. Jo. Batwellen.

Thomas Elien.
Nicolaus Sarisburien.
Hugo Wygorn.
J. Roffen.

XI.-Ingunctions to the Clergy made by
Cromwell.

[Regist. Cranmer.]

In the Name of God, Amen. By the Authority and Commission of the excellent Prince Henry, by the Grace of God, King of England and of France, Defensor of the Faith; Lord of Ireland; and in Earth Su. pream Head, under Christ, of the Church of England, I Thomas Lord Cromwell, Privy Seal, and Vice-gerent to the King's said Highness, for all his Jurisdiction Ecclesiastical within this Realm, do, for the advancement of the true honour of Almighty God, encrease of Vertue, and discharge of the King's Majesty, give and exhibit unto you these Injunctions following, to be kept, observed, and fulfilled, upon the pains hereafter declared.

First; That ye shall truly observe and keep all and singular the King's Highness Injunctions, given unto you heretofore in my Name, by his Graces Authority; not only upon the pains therein expressed, but also in your default after this second monition con tinued, upon further punishment to be straitly extended towards you by the King's Highness Arbitriment, or his Vice-gerent afore

said.

Item; That ye shall provide on this side the Feast of next coming, one Book of the whole Bible of the largest Volume in English, and the same set up in some convenient place within the said Church that ye have Cure of, whereas your Parishioners may most commodiously resort to the same and read it; the charge of which Book shall be ratably born between you the Parson and the Parishioners aforesaid, that is to say, the one half by you, and the other half by them. Item; That you shall discourage no Man privily or apertly from the reading or hearing of the said Bible, but shall expressly provoke, stir, and exhort every Person to read the same, as that which is the very lively Word of God, that every Christian Man is bound to embrace, believe, and follow, if he looked to be saved; admonishing them nevertheless to avoid all contention, altercation therein, and to use an honest sobriety in the inquisition of the true sense of the same, and refer the explication of the obscure places to Men of higher judgment in Scripture.

unto them, exhorting all Parents and House-
holders to teach their Children and Servants
the same, as they are bound in Conscience
to do.
them the Ten Commandments, one by one
And that done, ye shall declare unto
every Sunday and Holy-day, till they be
likewise perfect in the same.

Item; That ye shall in Confessions every Lent, examine every Person that cometh to Confession unto you, whether they can recite the Articles of our Faith, and the Pater Noster in English, and hear them say the same particularly; wherein if they be not perfect, ye shall declare to the same, That Christian Person ought to know the same every before they should receive the blessed Sacrament of the Altar; and monish them to learn the same more perfectly by the next year following, or else, like-as they ought not to perfect knowledg of the same, and if they presume to come to God's Board, without do, it is to the great peril of their Souls; so ye shall declare unto them, that ye look for other Injunctions from the King's Highness by that time, to stay and repel all such from God's Board as shall be found ignorant in the Premisses; whereof ye do thus admonish them, to the intent they should both eschew the peril of their Souls, and also the worldly rebuke that they might incur after by the

Item; That ye shall every Sunday and Holy-day through the Year, openly and plainly recite to your Parishioners, twice or thrice together, or oftener, if need require, one particle or sentence of the Pater Noster, or Creed, in English, to the intent they may learn the same by Heart; And so from day to day, to give them one little lesson or sentence of the same, till they have learned the whole Pater Noster and Creed, in English, by rote. And as they be taught every sentence of the same by rote, ye shall expound and declare the understanding of the same

same.

made, in the said Church, and every other Item; That ye shall make, or cause to be Cure ye have, one Sermon every quarter of the year at least, wherein ye shall purely and sincerely declare the very Gospel of Christ, and in the same exhort your Hearers to the Works of Charity, Mercy, and Faith, especially prescribed and commanded in Scripture, and not to repose their trust or affiance in any other Works devised by Mens fantasies besides Scripture; as in wandering to Pilgrimages, offering of Mony, Candels, or Tapers, to Images, or Reliques; or kissing or licking the same over, saying over a number of Beads, not understanded or minded on, or in such-like superstition; for the doing whereof, ye not only have no promise of reward in Scripture, but contrariwise great threats and maledictions of God, as things tending to Idolatry and Superstition, which of all other Offences God Almighty doth most detest and abhor, for that the same diminisheth most his honour and glory.

Item; That such feigned Images as ye know in any of your Cures to be so abused with Pilgrimages or Offerings of any thing made thereunto, ye shall, for avoiding of that most detestable offence of Idolatry, forthwith take down, and without delay; and shall suffer from henceforth no Candles, Tapers, or Images of Wax to be set afore any Image or Picture, but only the Light that commonly goeth a-cross the Church by the Rood-loft, the Light before the Sacrament of the Altar, and the Light about the Sepulchre; which for the adorning of the

Ora pro nobis to so many Saints, that they had no time to sing the good Suffrages following, as Parce nobis Domine, and Libera nos Domine, it must be taught and preached, that better it were to omit Ora pro nobis, and to sing the other suffrages.

All which and singular Injunctions I minister unto you and your Successors, by the King's Highness Authority to me committed in this part, which I charge and command you by the same Authority to observe and keep upon pain of Deprivation, Sequestration of your Fruits, or such other coercion as to the King's Highness, or his Vice-gerent for the time being shall seem convenient. These are also in the Bp. of London's Register, Fol. 29, 30. with Bonner's Mandate to his Arch-Deacons for observing them, 30 Sept. 1541. Anno Regn. 32.

XII.-Injunctions given by Thomas Arch-Bishop of Canterbury, to the Parsons, Vicars, and other Curats in his Visitation, kept (sede vacante) within the Diocess of Hereford, Anno Domini 1538.

you,

I-FIRST; That ye, and every one of shall, with all your diligence and faithful obedience, observe, and cause to be observed, all and singular the King's Highness Injunctions, by his Grace's Commissaries given in such places as they in times past have visited. 11-Item; That ye, and every one of you shall have, by the first day of August next coming, as well a whole Bible in Latin and English, or at the least a New Testament of both the same Languages, as the Copies of the King's Highness Injunctions.

III-Item; That ye shall every day study one Chapter of the said Bible, or New Testament, conferring the Latin and English together, and to begin at the first part of the Book, and so to continue until the end of

the same.

IV.-Item; That ye, or none of you, shall discourage any Lay-Man from the reading of the Bible in English or Latin, but encourage them to that, admonishing them that they so read it, for reformation of their own Life, and knowledg of their Duty; and that they be not bold or presumptuous in judging of Matters afore they have perfect knowledg.

V.-Item; That ye, both in your Preaching and secret Confession, and all other works and doings, shall excite and move your Parishioners unto such Works as are command. ed expressly of God, for the which God shall demand of them a strict reckoning; and all other Works which Men do of their own Will or Devotion, to teach your Parishioners that they are not to be so highly esteemed as the other; and that for the not doing of them God will not ask any accompt.

VI.-Item; That ye, nor none of you, suffer no Friar, or Religious Man, to have any Cure or Service within your Churches or

Cures, except they be lawfully dispensed withal, or licensed by the Ordinary.

VII-Item; That ye, and every one of you, do not admit any young Man or Woman to receive the Sacrament of the Altar, which never received it before, until that he or she openly in the Church, after Mass, or evening Song, upon the Holy-day, do recite, in the vulgar tongue, the Pater Noster, the Creed, and the Ten Commandments.

VIII.-Item; That ye, and every one of you, shall two times in a quarter declare to your Parishioners the Band of Matrimony, and what great danger it is to all Men that useth their Bodies but with such Persons as

And

they lawfully may by the Law of God
to exhort in the said Times your Parishioners,
will avoid the extream pain of the Laws used
that they make no privy Contracts, as they
within the King's Realm, by his Grace's
Authority.

XIII. A Letter of Cromwell's to the Bishop of
Landaff, directing him how to proceed in the
Reformation. An Original.

[Cotton Libr. Cleop. E. 4.]

AFTER my right hearty Commendations to your Lordship, ye shall herewith receive the King's Highness Letters addressed unto you, to put you in remembrance of his Highness' travels, and your duty touching order to be taken for Preaching, to the intent the People may be taught the Truth, and yet not charged at the beginning with over-many Novelties; the publication whereof, unless the same be tempered and qualified with much wisdom, do rather breed Contention, Division, and contrariety in Opinion in the unlearned multitude, than either edify, or remove from them, and out of their hearts, such abuses as by the corrupt and unsavoury teaching of the Bishop of Rome and his Disciples have crept in the same. The effect of which Letters albeit I doubt not, but as well for the honesty of the Matter, as for your own discharge, ye will so consider and put in execution, as shall be to his Grace's satisfaction in that behalf: Yet forasmuch as it hath pleased his Majesty to appoint and constitute me in the room and place of his Supream and Principal Minister, in all Matters that may touch any thing his Clergy, or their doings, I thought it also my part, for the exoneration of my Duty towards his Highness, and the rather to answer to his Grace's Expectation, Opinion, and Trust conceived in me, and in that amongst other committed to my fidelity, to desire and pray you, in such substantial sort and manner, to travel in the execution of the Contents of his Grace's said Letters; namely, for avoiding of Contrariety in preaching, of the pronunciation of Novelties, without wise and discreet qualiti cation, and the repression of the temerity of those, that either privily, or apertly, directly or indirectly, would advance the pretended

Authority of the Bishop of Rome; as I be jurisdictionem nobis, uti Supremo Capiti hu not for my discharge enforced to complain further, and to declare what I have now written unto you for that purpose, and so to charge you with your own fault, and to devise such remedy for the same, as shall appertain desiring your Lordship to accept my meaning herein, tending only to an honest, friendly, and Christian Reformation, for avoidage of further inconvenience, and to think none unkindness, tho in this Matter, wherein it is almost more than time to speak, I write frankly, compelled and enforced thereunto, both in respect of my private Duty, and otherwise, for my discharge; forasmuch as it pleaseth his Majesty to use me in the lieu of a Counsellour, whose Office is as an Eye to the Prince, to foresee, and in time to provide remedy for such Abuses, Enormities, and Inconveniences, as might else with a little sufferance engender more evil in this Publick Weal, than could be after recovered, with much labour, study, diligence, and travails, And thus most heartily fare you well. From the Rolls, the 7th of January.

Your Lordship's Friend,

THOMAS CROMWELL.

jusmodi competentem, ubiq; locorum infra hoc Regnum nostrum præfatum, in his quæ moram commode non patiuntur, aut sine nostrorum subditorum injuria differri non possunt, in sua persona expediend. non sufficiet. Nos tuis in hac parte supplicationibus humilibus inclinati, et nostrorum subditorum commodis consulere cupientes, Tibi vices nostras sub modo et forma inferius descriptis committendas fore, Teq; licentiandum esse de cernimus, ad ordinandum igitur quoscunq, infra Dioc. tuam London. ubicunq; oriundos quos moribus et literatura prævio diligenti et rigoroso examine idoneos fore compereris, ad omnes etiam Sacros et Presbyteratus ordines promovendum, præsentatosq; ad beneficia Ecclesiastica quæcunq; infra Dioc. tuam London. constituta, si ad curam beneficiis hujusmodi imminentem sustinend. habiles reperti fuerunt et idonei, admittendum ac in et de iisdem instituendum et investigandum; Ac etiam si res ita exigat destituendum, beneficiaq; Ecclesiastica quæcunq; ad tuam collationem sive dispositionem spectantia et pertinentia personis idoneis conferendum, atq; approbandum testamenta et ultimas voluntates quorumcunq; tuæ Dioceseos, bona, jura, sive credita non ultra summam centum

XIV. The Commission by which Bonner held his librarum in bonis suis vitæ et mortis suarum

Bishoprick of the King.

Licentia Regia concessu Domino Episcopo ad ex ercendam Jurisdictionem Episcopalem.

[Regist. Bonner fol. primo.] HENRICUS Octavus, Dei Gratia Angliæ et Franciæ Rex, Fidei Defensor, Dominus Hiberniæ, et in Terra Supremum Ecclesiæ Anglicanæ sub Christo Caput, Reverendo in Christo Patri Edmundo Londonensi Episcopo Salutem. Quandoquidem omnis jurisdicendi Autoritas, atq; etiam jurisdictio omnimoda, tam illa quæ Ecclesiastica dicitur quam Sæcularis, a Regia Potestate velut a Supremo Capite, et omnium infra Regnum nostrum Magistratuum fonte et scaturigine, primitus emanavit, sane illos qui jurisdictionem hujusmodi antehac non nisi præcario fungebantur, beneficium hujusmodi sic eis ex liberalitate Regia indultum gratis animis agnoscere, idq; Regiæ Munificentiæ solummodo acceptum referre, eique, quotiens ejus Majestati videbitur, libenter concedere convenit. Quum itaq; nos per dilectum Commissarium nostrum Thomam Cromwell Nobilis Ordinis Garterii Militem, Dominum Cromwell et de Wymolden nostri privati Sigilli Custodem, nostrumq; ad quascunq; causas Ecclesiasticas nostra Authoritate, uti Supremi Capitis dicta Ecclesiæ Anglicanæ, quomodolibet tractand. sive ventiland. Vicem gerentem, Vicarium Generalem et Officialem Principalem, per alias Literas Patentes sigillo nostro Majori communitas, constituerimus et præfecerimus. Quia tamen ipse Thomas Cromwell nostris et hujus Regni Angliæ tot et tam arduis negotiis adeo præpeditus existit, quod ad omnem

temporibus habend. necnon administrationes quorumcunq; subditorum nostrorum tuæ Dioc. ab intestato decedend. quorum bona, jura, sive credita non ultra summam prædictam vitæ et mortis suarum temporibus sese extendent, quatenus hujusmodi testatorum approbatio atq; administrationis commissio sive concessio per prædecessores tuos aut eorum alicujus respective Commissarios retroactis temporibus fiebat ac fieri et committi potuit, et non aliter committendum, Calculumq; ratiocinium et alia in ea parte expedienda, causasq; lites et negotia coram te aut tuis deputatis pendend. indecis. necnon alias sive alia, quascunq; sive quæcunq; ad forum Ecclesiasticum pertinentia ad te aut tuos deputatos sive deputand. per viam querelæ ant appellationis sive ex officio devolvend. sive deducend quæ extra legum nostrarum et statutorum Regni nostri offens. coram te aut tuis Deputatis agitari, aut ad tuam sive alicujus Commissariorum per te vigore hujus Commissionis nostræ deputandorum cognitionem devolvi aut deduci valeant et possint, examinand. et decidend. Ad visitandum insuper Capitulum Ecclesiæ tuæ Cathedral. London. civitatemq; London. necnon omnia et singula Monasteria, Abbatias et Prioratus, Collegia et alia loca pia, tam Religiosa quam Hospitalia, quæcunq; clerumq; et populum dict. Dioc. London. quatenus Ecclesiæ, Monasterii, Abbatiæ, per te sive Prædecessores tuos London. Episcopos visitatio hujusmodi temporibus retroactis exerceri potuit, ac per te sive per eosdem de legibus et statutis ac juribus Regni nostri exerceri potuit et potest, et non aliter: Necnon ad inquirendum per te,