II. BOOK gentleman would render his accounts to the bishop once a year. And thereupon he said, that he would command him to deal Anno 1578. reasonably with his lordship: and that for any right that his lordship should have to them within his liberties, unless his lordship had special words of limitation in his charter, no general words, were they never so large, would be sufficient. And therefore he said, that if his lordship would shew his charter, and that those special words were found therein, he [the lord almoner] would not stand with his lordship and others and required that his lordship would not mislike with him; since otherwise he should be utterly condemned by all that should succeed him in that office. Dr. Young This year John Young, D. D. master of Pembroke hall, becomes bishop of in Cambridge, entered upon the see of Rochester. Of whom Rochester. bishop Elmer gave this character: "Commending him for "his quickness in government and readiness in learning; "fit to bridle innovators, not by authority only, but by "weight of argument." This bishop wrote notes upon H. N.'s book, called Evangelium Regni: which were published, anno 1579, when H. N. was the broacher of the sect of the family of love. His arms assigned him. 162. The arms granted him upon his becoming bishop by garter king of arms, were, gyronne of four, gules and Sheld. N. azure, a lion per fesse, passant, guardant between two flower de luce, or. The patent dated, London, 12th April, 1578. I find in the lord treasurer's books the account of the yearly value of the income of the new bishop of Rochester, thus set down; holding, it seems, some preferments in commendam. This bishop's in come. 531 The bishop of Bath and Imprimis, The bishopric valet clare, iic and iiiixxl. Sum, iiiic xl. Item, Perquisites of corn. Item, Parcas, [parks,] and bosci, [woods.] The bishop of Bath and Wells struggled this year with Wells stops the lord Thomas Powlet; who attempted to make a per the making an impro-petual impropriation of West Monkton, a good benefice in priation. XII. his gift; but changing his mind, devised to make a lease of CHAP. it to the queen for five hundred years; and to take it again of her, without confirmation of the bishop: which he would Anno 1578. not consent unto. Of this he, fearing his own strength, made the lord treasurer acquainted, and begged his assistance. This that lord Powlet endeavoured to bring about, by making over the patronage to the queen, and by the present incumbent; who was to make the queen a lease of five hundred years, and he to have 80l. a year for his life, (though the benefice was worth an 1007. per annum,) and the incumbent afterwards to have 30l. a year. But the 66 good bishop would not give his hand to it, however earnestly by that lord he was moved to do it: "Considering the ex"ample that was like to follow, to the great decay (as he writ) of the clergy, if this should be brought into a cus"tom. And then few benefices of any value, but would be brought to little enough. And besides, by such alterations, as the bishop added, the queen would lose her dues; " and the ministers brought to poverty; and so the gospel "and ministry brought at last to utter contempt." Thus that lord's course upon this denial of impropriating it, was to give the patronage unto the queen; and the incumbent to make a lease to her, the better to bring it about. All this the bishop shewed the lord treasurer; whose pains was required to put a stop to it. The bishop's letter may be read in the Appendix, for some memorial of that conscientious No. XV. prelate. BOOK Anno 1578. 532 persons to CHAP. XIII. Sectaries. Their principles, and dangerous assertions. Coppin, a prisoner in Bury. Wilsford; makes it an high crime in the queen to be styled caput ecclesiæ. Chark and Dering; their sayings. A bookseller taken up for selling the Admonition to the Parliament. Mackworth holds the having two wives lawful. Imprisoned in the Marshalsea. The council's order about him. Large indulgences accompanying certain crucifixes, given by the pope to Stukely. Exeter college popish. The state of the university of Cambridge. A decree made against the disguised apparel of students. Peter-house: the state thereof. Dr. Perne, master thereof: his good government. The heads complain of mandamuses to their chancellor: which he acquaints the queen with. Several dis- Now for the state of religion. Divers there were that affected stirred this year against the present establishment of it; who the religion met with trouble for their attempts against its government established. and discipline. John Cop pin, a sectary. : One of these was John Coppin, now a prisoner in the gaol at Bury St. Edmund's, having been committed thither two years before by the commissary of the bishop of Norwich, for his disobedience to the ecclesiastical laws of the realm; whereunto he would not yet conform himself, although he had been sundry times exhorted thereto by many godly and learned preachers, repairing publicly to him to bring him to conformity and so Mr. Andrews, a justice of peace, living in that town, by letter informed the lord treasurer. And his wife, being delivered of a child there, at Bury, in August last; and it being now December, the said child remained yet unbaptized. For he said, none should baptize his child, except he were a preacher; and that then also it should be done without godfathers and godmothers. This man held many fantastical opinions, whereby he did very much hurt there, in Bury; by the common opinion of the best, and the most number of learned preachers that had conference with him in those matters: who wished him to be XIII. removed out of the said prison, for preventing the doing CHAP. more hurt; as the said justice of peace signified to the said lord treasurer. Anno 1578. tions of him. And to understand more particularly what his tenets were, Deposi there were divers depositions made against him before the words said Thomas Andrews, esq. the 1st of December, 1578. John spoken by Gill, of Barly, in the county of Essex, clerk, deposed, that he being prisoner in the gaol of Bury aforesaid, and having said morning prayer to the prisoners there, in the morning of the feast of All Saints last past, according to the Book 533 of Common Prayer, one John Coppin, there, and yet prisoner within the said gaol, rebuked this said deponent for saying the said common prayer; and called this deponent dumb dog. Saying further, that "whosoever keepeth any "saint's day, appointed by the said Book of Common Prayer, is an idolater." And then also further said, that "the queen (meaning her majesty that now is) was sworn to keep God's law and she is perjured." To which malicious, false, and slanderous speech, this deponent desired certain persons, standing then there by, to be witnesses. Whereunto the said Coppin replied, and said, repeating it divers times, that "she was perjured, and that she would "confess with her own mouth that she was perjured." To which John Gill set his name. This was witnessed also by John Harcock and John Carew. 66 Which last mentioned gentleman deposed, that Coppin That the said, "Whatsoever prince did take their corporal oaths to queen was 66 66 perjured : set forth God's glory directly as by the scriptures are ap- and why. pointed, and did not; they were perjured. And this our "prince, if she have sworn so effectually, she will confess "herself perjured." Another deposed these words spoke by Coppin, "That the queen was perjured by God; and so she "would confess." queen to One John Wilsford, a lay puritan, and of some learning, Wilsford denied the queen to be supreme head of the church. This denies the man having read somewhat in the epistle to the Hebrews be supreme about Christ being an everlasting priest over his church, head. II. son. BOOK took the confidence to write to the queen, that she was guilty of an high crime, to take upon her the title of caput Anno 1578. ecclesiæ. This man for this presumption was put into priAnd afterwards, upon secretary Wylson's discourse with him, and stating this matter, viz. how the queen's supremacy respected the civil power of her majesty over ecclesiastical persons, he was, or seemed to be, convinced of his error; and soon after begged the lord treasurer, and other counsellors of estate, to intercede with the queen for his pardon. His letter to them bore date, November the 25th, 1578, "Praying him and them, with all submission and "humble obedience, to whom his impudent behaviour was "made known, to be mediators unto the queen's majesty "to pardon and forgive, as she was a most merciful and "clement prince, this his temerarious presumption, done of good zeal towards her majesty, although void of good knowledge:" thinking (before better information) that it would follow, that none could take that title upon him, except the same person would be Christ's adversary, and Antichrist, as the pope was. This letter of this man I leave in the Appendix, to be perused. No. XVI. Chark and Deringe, some of ings. Earl's 66 66 Chark, sometime of Peter-house, and Dering, sometime of Christ's college, Cambridge, were chief men and leaders their say among the puritans in these times. A minister of London, in a journal of his under this year, hath remarked these sayings of theirs. All your spiritual building is Babel. For lack of holy reformation, your church is Babel. The canon laws, give them to be burnt. The episcopal courts, to be rooted out, being contrary to God's word. The French, Dutch, and strangers' churches, all utterly refuse our form, and condemn it. [Though this asseveration of these new reformers, those churches took amiss at their hands, and de534 nied the same in divers of their letters sent over hither.] The church of Scotland far before it. These were some assertions of those men's writings. Barrow and Of this sort was Barrow, (the author of the sect of the Barrowists,) and Greenwood. The sentence of the former |