of any pre-contract, or any degrees of kindred or alliance, but those mentioned in the law of God, should be brought or made use of to annul it; since these things had been oft pretended only to dissolve a marriage, when the parties grew weary of each other, which was contrary to God's law. Therefore it was enacted, that no pretence of pre-contract, not consummated, should be made use of to annul a marriage duly solemnized and consummated; and that no degrees of kindred, not mentioned by the law of God, should be pleaded to annul a marriage." This act gave great occasion of censuring the king's former proceedings against Queen Anne Boleyn, since that which was now condemned had been the pretence for dissolving his marriage with her. Others thought the king did it on design to remove that impediment out of the way of the Lady Elizabeth's succeeding to the crown; since that judgment, upon which she was illegitimated, was now indirectly censured: and that other branch of the act, for taking away all prohibitions of marriages, within any degrees but those forbidden in Scripture, was to make way for the king's marriage with Katherine Howard, who was cousin-german to Queen Anne Boleyn; for that was one of the prohibited degrees by the canon law.

The province of Canterbury offered a subsidy of four shillings in the pound of all ecclesiastical preferments, to be paid in two years; and that in acknowledgment of the great liberty they enjoyed by being delivered from the usurpations of the bishops of Rome, and in recompence of the great charges the king had been at, and was still to be at, in building havens, bulwarks, and other forts, for the defence of his coasts, and the security of his subjects. This was con. firmed in parliament. But that did not satisfy the king; who had husbanded the money that came in by the sale of abbey lands so ill, that now he wanted money, and was forced to ask a subsidy for his marriage of the parliament. This was obtained with great difficulty, For it was said, that if the king was already in want, after so vast an income, especially being engaged in no war, there would be no end of his necessities; nor could it be possible for them to supply them. But it was answered, that the king had laid out a great treasure in fortifying the coast and though he was then in no visible war, yet the charge he was at in keeping up the war beyond sea was equal to the expense of a war; and much more to the advantage of his people, who were kept in peace and plenty. This obtained a tenth and four fifteenths. After the passing of all these bills, and many

others that concerned the public, with several other bills of attainder of some that favoured the pope's interest, or corresponded with Cardinal Pole, which shall be mentioned in another place, the king sent in a general pardon, with the ordinary exceptions; and, in particular, excepted Cromwell, the countess of Sarum, with many others, then in prison: some of them were put in for opposing the king's supremacy, and others for transgressing the statute of the six articles. On the 24th of July the parliament was dissolved.

:

And now Cromwell, who had been six weeks a prisoner, was brought to his execution. He had used all the endeavours he could for his own preservation: once he wrote to the king in such melting terms, that he made the letter to be thrice read, and seemed touched with it. But the charms of Katherine Howard, and the endeavours of the duke of Norfolk and the bishop of Winchester, at length prevailed: so a warrant was sent to cut off his head, on the 28th of July, at Towerhill. When he was brought to the scaffold, his kindness to his son made him very cautious in what he said he declined the purging of himself, but said, "he was by law condemned to die, and thanked God for bringing him to that death for his offences. He acknowledged his sins against God, and his offences against his prince, who had raised him from a base degree. He declared that he died in the catholic faith, not doubting of any article of faith, or of any sacrament of the church; and denied that he had been a supporter of those who believed ill opinions: he confessed he had been seduced, but now died in the catholic faith, and desired them to pray for the king, and for the prince, and for himself:" and then prayed very fervently for the remission of his past sins, and admittance into eternal glory : and having given the sign, the executioner cut off his head very barbarously.

was

Thus fell that great minister, that was raised merely upon the strength of his natural parts. For as his extraction was mean, so his education was low: all the learning he had that he had got the new Testament in Latin by heart. His great wisdom, and dexterity in business, raised him up through several steps, till he was become as great as a subject could be. He carried his greatness with wonderful temper and moderation; and fell under the weight of popular odium rather than guilt. The disorders in the suppression of abbeys were generally charged on him: yet, when he fell, no bribery, nor cheating of the king, could be fastened on him; though such things come out in swarms on a disgraced favourite, when there is any ground for them. By what he spoke at his death, he left it much doubted of what religion he

died but it is certain he was a Lutheran. The term catholic faith, used by him in his last speech, seemed to make it doubtful; but that was then used in England in its true sense, in opposition to the novelties of the see of Rome, as will afterwards appear on another occasion. So that his profession of the catholic faith was strangely perverted, when some from thence concluded, that he died in the communion of the church of Rome. But his praying in English, and that only to God through Christ, without any of those tricks that were used when those of that church died, shewed he was none of theirs. With him the office of the king's vicegerent in ecclesiastical affairs died, as it rose first in his person and as all the clergy opposed the setting up a new officer, whose interest should oblige him to oppose a reconciliation with Rome, so it seems none were fond to succeed in an office that proved so fatal to him that had first carried it. The king was said to have lamented his death, after it was too late; but the fall of the new queen, that followed not long after, and the miseries which fell also on the duke of Norfolk and his family, some years after, were looked on as the scourges of Heaven, for their cruel prosecution of this unfortunate minister.

With his fall, the progress of the Reformation, which had been by his endeavours so far advanced, was quite stopped. For all that Cranmer could do after this, was to keep the ground they had gained: but he could never advance much further. And indeed every one expected to see him next: go for, as one Gostwick, knight for Bedfordshire, had named him in the house of commons as the supporter and promoter of all the heresy that was in England; so the popish party reckoned they had but half done their work by destroying Cromwell; and that it was not finished till Cranmer followed him. Therefore all possible endeavours were used to make discoveries of the encouragement, which, as was believed, he gave to the preachers of the condemned doctrines. And it is very probable, that had not the incontinence of Katherine Howard (whom the king declared queen on the 8th of August) broken out not long after, he had been sacrificed the next session of parliament.

But now I return to my proper business, to give an account of church matters for this year; with which these great changes in court had so great a relation, that the reader will excuse the digression about them.

Upon Cromwell's fall, Gardiner, and those that followed him, made no doubt but they should quickly recover what they had lost of late years. So their greatest attempt was upon the the translation of the Scriptures. The convocation books (as I have been forced often to lament) are lost; so

that here I cannot stir, but as Fuller leads me; who assures the world, that he copied out of the Records with his own pen what he published. And yet I doubt he has mistaken himself in the year; and that which he calls the convocation of this year was the convocation of the year 1542: for he tells us, that their seventh session was the 10th of March. Now in this year the convocation did not sit down till the 13th of April; but that year it sat all March. So likewise he tells us of the bishops of Westminster, Gloucester, and Peterborough, bearing a share in this convocation : whereas these were not consecrated before winter, and could not sit as bishops in this synod. And besides, Thirleby sat at this time in the lower house; as was formerly shown in the process about Anne of Cleves' marriage. So that their attempt against the New Testament belongs to the year 1542.

But they were now much better employed, though not in the way of convocation: for a select number of them sat by virtue of a commission from the king, confirmed in parliament. Their first work was to draw up a declaration of the Christian doctrine, "for the necessary erudition of a Christian man." They thought, that to speak of faith in general ought naturally to go before an exposition of the Christian belief; and therefore with that they began.

The church of Rome, that designed to keep her children in ignorance, had made no great account of faith: which, they generally taught, consisted chiefly in an implicit believing whatever the church proposed, without any explicit knowledge of particulars. So that a Christian faith, as they had explained it, was a submission to the church. The reformers, finding that this was the spring of all their other errors, and that which gave them colour and authority; did, on the other had, set up the strength of their whole cause on an explicit believing the truth of the Scriptures, because of the authority of God, who had revealed them: and said, that as the great subject of the apostles' preaching was faith, so that which they everywhere taught was to read and believe the Scriptures. Upon which followed nice disputing, what was that saving faith by which the Scriptures say we are justified. They could not say it was barely crediting the divine revelation, since in that sense the devils believed: therefore they generally placed it, at first, in their being assured that they should be saved by Christ's dying for them. In which, their design was, to make holiness and all other graces necessary requisites in the composition of faith; though they would not make them formally parts of it. For since Christ's death has its full virtue and effect upon

none but those who are regenerate, and live according to his gospel; none could be assured that he should be saved by Christ's death, till he first found in himself those necessary qualifications, which are delivered in the gospel. Having once settled on this phrase, their followers would needs defend it, but really made it worse by their explanations. The church of Rome thought they had them at great advantages in it, and called them Solifidians, and said they were against good works: though whatever unwary expressions some of them threw out, they always declared good works indispensably necessary to salvation. But they differed from the church of Rome in two things that were material: there was also a third, but there the difference was more in the manner of expression. The one was, what were good works? The church of Rome had generally delivered, that works which did an immediate honour to God or his saints, were more valuable than works done to other men: and that the honour they did to saints, in their images and relics, and to God in his priests, that were dedicated to him, were the highest pieces of holiness, as having the best objects. This was the foundation of all that trade, which brought in both riches and glory to their church. On the other hand, the reformers taught, that justice and mercy, with other good works done in obedience to God's commandments, were only necessary. And for these things, so much magnified at Rome, they acknowledged there ought to be a decent splendour in the worship of God, and good provision to be made for the encouragement of those who dedicated themselves to his service in the church; and that what was beyond these, was the effect of ignorance and superstition. The other main difference was about the merit of good works. which the friars had raised so high, that people were come to think they bought and sold with Almighty God, for heaven and all other his blessings. This the reformers judged was the height of arrogance: aud therefore taught, that good works were indeed absolutely necessary to salvation: but that the purchase of heaven was only by the death and intercession of Jesus Christ. With these material differences they joined another, that consisted more in words: Whether obedience was an essential part of faith? The reformers said it certainly accompanied and followed faith but thought not fit to make it an ingredient in the nature of faith. These things had been now much canvassed in disputes: and it was thought by many, that men of iH lives made no good use of some of the expressions of the reformers, that separated faith from good works, and came to persuade themselves,