by a mortal illness. When the miserable man ascertained that a prolongation of life was impossible, he eagerly besought those about him to procure a priest quickly. "He seemed," says a spectator, "in a state of horrors. He cried out to the Lord Jesus to have mercy on his sinful. soul." "He always, in his heart, believed in the olden religion; and he lost his soul by avarice." Such were his last words. A messenger was despatched by his Protestant domestics for a priest, but before the arrival of the Confessor the soul of the Chancellor was before its God.* Such was the end of one of the leading Reformers who induced Lady Jane Dudley to accept the Crown, and betrayed her in ten days.

THOMAS GODRICH, Bishop of Ely, became the successor of Lord Rich. He was appointed by Northumberland (1551) while Somerset lay under sentence of death in the Tower. As the new Chancellor was utterly ignorant of the legal duties of the Chancery Court, Sir Thomas Beaumont, the Master of the Rolls, was "commanded" to hear and adjudicate upon all cases in Chancery. Godrich became― as was intended-a mere cypher in the Council, giving legal effect to the secret policy of Northumberland and Cranmer. He, therefore, as Chancellor, signed every despotic decree which the Council proposed, and was a participator in the treason which intended to set aside the succession of the Tudor sisters. In this plot he felt reluctance to act, exclaiming, "It is wrong; it is wrong-I will not do it." But being a very timid man, he feared the

• The Deathbed of Chancellor Rich. A Discourse by John Hales, Preacher, on the "Doings of Wicked and Worldly People."

haughty Northumberland so much that he soon yielded. Upon the death of Edward VI. he appeared at Sion House to salute Jane Dudley as Queen of England. On the following day, as Chancellor, he signed a document—to which Cranmer's name was also affixed-addressed to the Lady Mary, "commanding her to abandon her false claims to the Crown, and to submit to her lawful and undoubted Sovereign, Queen Jane."* But a few days later the affrighted Chancellor abandoned Lady Jane's party, and surrendered the Great Seals to Lords Arundel and Paget to present to Queen Mary, "humbly imploring mercy for his treason." "He was," writes Lord Campbell, "beset with great terrors from the part he had taken in concocting the patent to change the succession; but partly from his clerical office, or from his real insignificance, he was not molested in his diocese." He was the mere tool of Northumberland. His former zeal for the promotion of the Reformation had now almost disappeared, and he offered no opposition to the restoration of the olden faith. Indeed, he seems to have possessed the accommodating manners of Dr. Kitchen and Dean Wotton. He did not long survive the change; he died in May, 1554. "In the lottery of life," says Lord Campbell, some high prizes are appropriated to mediocrity, and Thomas Godrich was the holder of a fortunate ticket."

Chancellor Godrich was a man of obscure origin and small acquirements. He had been a scholar of Cambridge, and was amongst some of the first in that University who spoke in favour of the Reformation, but cautiously avoided

making any public avowal of his opinion until after King Henry's death. He was employed by Cranmer to assist Poynet and himself in the "revision of the Prayer Book," and was rewarded for his labours by the Bishopric of Ely.

In Queen Mary's reign he was "merely tolerated," and before his death he returned to the olden creed of England. When in power, and the colleague of cruel men, he was, it is but just to say, always opposed to persecution, and his Protestantism differed much from that of his party. Little is known of his private life, but that he was kind to his relatives, and made ample provision for his two daughters, who subsequently took the veil in Madrid.*

The Chancellors who held office under Edward VI., in many instances acted on their own responsibility, without either statute law or precedent to guide them. In 1549, Lord Rich, as Chancellor, issued a proclamation under the Great Seal, addressed to "all justices of the peace, commanding them in the King's name to arrest all coiners and setters abroad of vain and forged tales and lies, and to commit them to the galleys, there to 'row in chains during the King's pleasure.'"+ Proclamations were issued fixing a certain price for the sale of provisions, quality, &c.; also with respect to base coinage, entailing heavy penalties on the evil-doers. The latter proclamations were among Rich and Godrich's best actions. How far they were obeyed is very doubtful. With respect to the uses made of the Great Seal in political matters, there seems to have been a total

* Pomeroy's Letters to Lascelles on Chancellor Godrich.
+ Strype's Memorials; Campbell's Chancellors, vol. ii.

disregard of either equity or law, or that sense of honour which once characterized English Chancellors. In the hands of such a judge as Sir Thomas More, this dangerous mode of procedure might perhaps be used for the good of the community at large, but it was an irresponsible exercise of power which a country possessing the forms at least, of a representative Government, should not permit.

The judges and magistrates, in the days of Elizabeth and her successor, James I., were, if possible, more corrupt. Archbishop Hutton, writing in the reign of Elizabeth, remarks upon the venality of the officials of the Crown. "If," he says, "you require a favour from a judge, or some one about the Court of our blessed Queen, you must first send a nice present to the person in power, for few good actions are now performed without a motive." Sir John Harrington also bears testimony to the venality of the Judges in the reign of Elizabeth. Harrington is decidedly a trustworthy authority on this matter.

CHAPTER XX.

ANCIENT RITES IGNORED.

AN Act of Parliament was passed in Edward's reign "to further continue" the abstinence from flesh meat

on Fridays and Saturdays, "ember days," the eve of holydays, and Lent, as a "holy season." An Act was also passed by the Parliament of the boy-King "regulating the holydays to be kept." The list was, however, somewhat curtailed, as many favourite Saints were set aside. It is strange that the days appointed in honour of the "Virgin, and All Saints Day " hold a prominent place on the list of Protestant holydays adopted by the Reforming Parliament. The statute concerning fasts and holydays was drawn up under Cranmer's inspiration; and was passed through its various stages in the Lords by the Archbishop of Canterbury.*

An Anabaptist preacher, named Isaac Farlow, states that whilst Somerset, Warwick, and Cranmer, enforced this new statute, they constantly violated it themselves. Bale and Poynet publicly boasted of having "feasted with good jolly belly cheer" on the anniversary of the Crucifixion.

The Acts passed by Edward's Parliament concerning "fasts and holydays," are printed in Dodd's Church History, vol. i. pp. 400-403.