II.

BOOK "where God set them in ?Do you think that this plea, "I did but execute the law, will excuse you before the high Anno 1576." Judge? where you, except you repent with a deep repent"ance, shall stand and tremble like a thief in the jail, and "gnash your teeth.

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"But again, turning to their offices, that seeing he had proved that they were not of God, he asketh the bishop, "Who made you so malapert as to sit in the seat of judg"ment in the church, having no warrant for your so doing; "sitting and controlling the ministers of Christ? What "shall become of those miserable caitiffs that have over"thrown the government of the church under the gospel? "Well, then, if you be an unlawful judge in the church, 451" (and I have the truth of God on my side,) then you must "needs be an idol. So that if I had reverenced you in

your judgment seat, I should have committed idolatry. "Wherefore now he saw it was the fear of displeasing God, "and not stoutness and contumacy of mind, [as the court "had then charged him with,] that caused him to deny the 66 bishop reverence.

"And therefore at last he gave him counsel in Christ, to "have a care for his soul, and in haste to renounce that "evil office which he had usurped, and repent him deeply "of his horrible iniquity, [in suspending these puritans,] "and suffer the flock to enjoy the benefit of their preachers "of God's word; and he himself to serve God in some "other calling, until he called him to some right and true "function in his church. And these things he bade him do, "lest his sin were greater than it was before he told him. "And if he would do thus, he, with his faithful brethren, "would pray to God, that these things which he had spoken might not fall upon him." These are some brief extracts taken out of his very letter, and so much esteemed by that party, that it was put in print by them, with several other tracts of the like sort.

Libertines, There was now another sort of dissenters from the docasserting no trine of the church, as the former were of the discipline: a obligation to the mo- sort of libertines they were, that reckoned themselves not

ral law.

IV.

bound to the observation of the moral law of the ten com- CHAP. mandments; as being obligatory to such only as were Jews. The broacher of this opinion propounded, for the advance- Anno 1576. ment of it, two questions. First, whether the whole law of Moses was given to the Jews, or no? [And not to the Gentiles.] Secondly, whether, if it were given to the Jews and Gentiles, it were abrogated by Christ's coming, in whole or in part? These questions were framed by one Bird, living about Saffron Walden, in Essex; where there was a company or society of pure brethren, as they were called. To these questions, sent to Dr. Whitgift, he gave a long and learned answer; which I have set down elsewhere, and Life of Bishop Whitgiven an account thereof.

gift.

dean of

Now was Dr. Lawrence Humfrey, the learned public pro- Dr. Humfessor of divinity at Oxford, advanced to the deanery of frey made Gloucester, by the means of the lord treasurer: and upon Gloucester. his motion was at length persuaded to wear the habits; which he, with Dr. Sampson, some time dean of Christ's Church, had refused some years before; and drew up their arguments why they could not comply therewith: which made a very unhappy difference then in the church, as may be read elsewhere at large. And now, in the month of Life of BiFebruary, from Oxon, he wrote to this tenor to the said ker. lord: "That he had received his letter, and perceived his His letter "care for the bettering of his state. That he was loath her surer, pro"majesty, or any other honourable person, should think mising con"that he was forgetful of his duty, or so far off from obe- Vid. Annal. dience, but that he would submit himself to those orders, of Reform. "in that place where his being and living was. And there-452 "fore he had yielded."

shop Par

to the trea

formity.

p. 431.

day, Nov.

This year began the keeping of the anniversary day of The queen's queen Elizabeth's accession to the crown: and so henceforward to be observed every year on the 17th day of Novem-served yearber; or at least this form of prayer was, by appointment,

to be used: which may be worthy to be here inserted : printed this year.

ly.

"O Lord God, most merciful Father; who, as upon The prayer. "this day, calling thy servant, our sovereign and gracious

BOOK

II.

Increase this num

ber accord

66 queen Elizabeth to the kingdom, didst deliver thy people " of England from danger of war and oppression, both of Anno 1576. " bodies by tyranny, and of conscience by superstition: re"storing peace and true religion, with liberty both of bo"dies and minds: and hast continued the same thy bless"ings without all desert on our part, now by the space of "these eighteen years: we who are, in memory of these "thy great benefits, assembled here together, most humbly ing to the beseech thy fatherly goodness to grant us grace, that we may in word, deed, and heart, shew ourselves thankful "and obedient unto thee for the same. And that our "queen, through thy grace, may, in all honour, goodness, "and godliness, long and many years reign over us; and "we obey and enjoy her, with the continuance of thy great blessings, which thou hast by her, thy minister, poured upon us. This we beseech thee to grant unto us, for thy "dear Son Jesus Christ's sake, our Lord and Saviour, "Amen."

years of her

majesty's

reign.

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66

66

Now to cast an eye over into the queen's other kingdom of Ireland.

This year there was to be an ordination, to supply the popish church there with mass-sayers, and chantry-priests, and for such like offices. At which time there were no less than five bastards, some of them, and perhaps all, sons of priests, that were now to be entered into the priesthood. And, as it seems, such misbegotten persons were bred up to some learning, in order to be made priests; but because of certain ecclesiastical canons, such could not be admitted The pope into sacred orders; the pope was to dispense with them, and to take off the baseness of their birth. And so he did Irish priests, by a formal bull, and authorized the popish bishop elect, of take orders. Dromore, to admit them to orders. This dispensation of pope Gregory (being the original bull) was once in my hands: which ran to this tenor, viz.

dispenseth

with five

bastards, to

sation, directed to

His dispen- Gregorius episcopus, servus servorum Dei; dilecto filio Patricio electo Dromoren. saltem. et aplicam. benedictionem. the bishop Ex parte dilectorum filiorum, Joannis Mac Gilmora, et Nicolai Mac Var, ac Terentii O Bengil, et Patricii etiam

of Dromore.

453

IV.

0 Bengill, Armacan. dioc. necnon Terentii Mac Gracha, et CHAP. Remundi Mac Gracha, Clochoren. dioc. et Pelmei O Murigan, Dromoren. dioc. clericor. seu scholarium, nobis fuit Anno 1576. humiliter supplicatum, ut cum ipsis asserentib. se defectus natalium de presbyteris et solutis, vel alias genitos, pati; ac paucos in illis partibus, in quibus hæretici catholicis præsunt, existere, qui ad sacros ordines promoveri velint, super defectibus humoi. ut, illis non obstantibus, Joannes, Nicolaus, Terentius, O Bingil et Patricius præfati, ex eo, &c. “The bishop of Armagh being detained then in pri"son by the heretics: having obtained the letters dimissory of the neighbouring ordinaries, or their licence, and "the rest by the licence of the ordinaries respectively; by "whose testimonies their lives and manners are commend"ed," &c. Then follows the pope's indulgence, to allow the foresaid bishop elect to give them orders, and to qualify them for any preferment or benefices whatsoever, in these words: Ad ordines prædictos licentiam et facultatem concedere et impartiri, de benignitate aplica. dignaremur; si Joannes, Nicolaus, &c. sint idonei, nec paternæ incontinentiæ sint imitatores, sed bonæ conversationis et vitæ, aliaque ipsis merita suffragantur ad humoi. dispensationum gratias obtinendas, &c.

CHAP. V.

Manchester college: its revenues in danger. The corn act procured for the universities by the lord treasurer. The benefit of Sturbridge fair obtained by him for Cambridge. The lord treasurer's letter to the queen about his daugh ter, the countess of Oxford. His grave advice to White, master of the rolls in Ireland. An edition of the Bible: some account of it. Other books now set forth. The death of Walter earl of Essex; and of sir Anthony Cook. Sir Thomas Smith, and others of the court, at Buxton well. The queen goes her progress.

454

THE college of Manchester, in Lancashire, which, main- The ill state

II.

of Manches

BOOK taining several preachers, fellows there, had a great influence through that whole country for propagating true reliAnno 1576. gion among the inhabitants, many of them ignorant, and ter college. many popishly affected. Nowel, dean of St. Paul's, born in this county, was much concerned at the dangerous state of it at this time, by reason of the revenue of it leased out to Mr. Killegrew, gentleman of her majesty's privy chamber, at a very small rent, by a late warden thereof, a papist. For the preventing of this great injury, not only to the college, but to the whole country, the good dean interposed, and wrote a letter to the great patron of religion and learning in those days, to this purport:

Nowel,dean of Paul's, seasonably

66

"That he understood by one Carter, a fellow of that col66 lege, that in the mean time of the trial of the truth of Mr. intercedes. "Warden's dealings, as was appointed by his lordship and secretary Walsingham, the lease of the chief revenues of "the college were, under the great seal, passed over unto "Mr. Killegrew, upon such condition and small rent as was "by the said warden granted; to the utter undoing of the "said college, unless some remedy might be had therein. "And that, forsomuch as the cause of the said college was "by her majesty committed to them two, these were most humbly to beseech their honours, in respect of the good "instruction of the whole people of that country, in their "duty to God and her majesty, to be a means that the said "college might be preserved in some convenient state: and "that the said warden, the author of the ruin of the said "college, according as their honours had already taken or"der by their letters, might receive no rents of the said col"lege, until such time as his doings, by the return of the "depositions to the articles, from their honours unto the

66

country directed, were fully examined and tried. And "that Mr. Carter's great charge, who by his most necessary suit, as he [the dean] thought, was greatly indebted, 455" might be considered. Whereby their honours should do deed most acceptable unto Almighty God: who have you (as he concluded) always in his blessed keeping." Dated Oct. 28, 1576.

a