AN.REG.3, twenty-first of October, she caused many of the Lords to be 1555. dealt withal touching the passing of an Act for the restoring

of all such lands as had belonged unto the Church and were devolved upon the Crown, and from the Crown into the hands of private persons, by the fall of monasteries and other religious houses, or by any other ways or means whatsoever. But such a general averseness was found amongst them, that she was advised to desist from that unprofitable undertaking. Certain it is, that many who were cordially affected to the Queen's religion, were very much startled at the noise of this restitution, insomuch that some of them are said to have clapped their hands upon their swords, affirming, not without some oaths, that they would never part with their abbey-lands as long as they were able to wear a sword by their sides. Which being signified to the Queen, it seemed good to her to let fall that suit for the present, and to give them good example for the time to come, by passing an Act1 for releasing the Clergy from the payment of first-fruits and tenths, which had been formerly vested in the Crown in the reign of her father. Against which when it was objected by some of the Lords of the Council, that the state of her kingdoms and Crown Imperial could not be so honourably maintained as in former times, if such a considerable part of the revenue were dismembered from it-she is said to have returned this answer, That she preferred the salvation of her soul before ten such kingdoms2. She procured another Act to be passed also, which very much redounded to the benefit of the two Universities, inhibiting all purveyors from taking up any provisions for the use of the Court within five miles of Oxon or Cambridge'; by means whereof those markets were more plentifully served with all sorts of provisions than in former times, and at more reasonable rates than otherwise they could have been without that restraint. In her first Parliament, the better to endear herself to the common subject, she had released a subsidy which was due unto her by an Act of Parliament made in the time of King Edward VI. And now, to make her some amends, they gave her a subsidy of four shillings in the pound for lands, and two shillings and eight

1555.

pence in the pound for goods1. In the drawing up of which AN. REG. 3,
Act, an oath which had been formerly prescribed to all manner
of persons, for giving in a just account of their estates, was
omitted wholly; which made the subsidy sink beneath expec-
tation. But the Queen came unto the Crown by the love of
the people, and was to do nothing to the hazard of their
affections, which she held it by.

in Convoca

tion.

8. At the same time was held a Convocation also2; for Proceedings summoning whereof a writ was issued in the name of the King and Queen to the Dean and Chapter of the Metropolitan Church of Canterbury, the See being then vacant by the attaindure of Archbishop Cranmer. Bonner presides in it as before; Boxhall, then Warden of Winchester, preacheth, 54 (though not in the capacity) at the opening of it, and Doctor 224 John Christopherson, Dean of Norwich, is chosen Prolocutor

for the House of the Clergy. But the chief business done
therein was the granting of a subsidy of six shillings in the
pound, to be paid out of all their ecclesiastical promotions in
three years then following. Nor was it without reason that
they were induced to so large a grant. The Queen had actually
restored unto them their first-fruits and tenths, though at that
time the Crown was not in such a plentiful condition as to
part with such an annual income. And she had promised
also (as appears by the records of the Convocation) to render
back unto the Church all such impropriations, tithes, and
portion of tithes, as were still remaining in the Crown. For
the disposing of which grant to the best advantage, the
Cardinal Legate, at the Queen's desire, had conceived an in-
strument, which was then offered to the consideration of the
Prolocutor and the rest of the Clergy. It was proposed also
by the Bishop of Ely, that some certain learned men might
be chosen out of the house, to review all the ancient Canons,
to fit them to the present state of the Church, and, where they
found anything defective in them, to supply that defect, by
making such new Canons and Constitutions, as, being approved
of by the Lords, should be made obligatory to the Clergy, and
the rest of the kingdom. This was well moved, and served to
entertain the time; but I find nothing in pursuance of it.
9. But on the other side, the Prolocutor, bringing up the
2 Wilkins, iv. 120.

I Stow, 627.

1555.

AN. REG. 3, bill of the subsidies in the end of October, propounds three points unto their lordships, which much conduced to the establishment and advantage of the prejudiced Clergy. The first was, That all such of the Clergy as, building on the common report that the tenths and first-fruits were to be released in the following Parliament, had made no composition for the same with her Majesty's officers, might be discharged from the penalty inflicted by the laws in that behalf1. The second, That their lordships would be pleased to intercede with the Lord Cardinal Legate for settling and confirming them in their present benefices by some special Bull. The third, That by their lordships, means an Act may be obtained in the present Parliament, for the repealing of the statute by which the citizens of London, which refused to make payment of their tithes, were to be ordered at the discretion of the Lord Mayor of that city; and that from thenceforth all such censures as concerned tithes might be heard and determined by the Ordinary, as in other places. To all which propositions the bishops cheerfully consented, and so adjourned the Convocation from St. Paul's to Westminster, that they might have the better opportunity of consulting the Lord Cardinal in the business. Of whom it was no hard matter to obtain the second, and by his power to secure the Clergy in the first; but as for the removal of the cognizance of the London tithes from the Lord Mayor unto the bishops, there was nothing done, that statute still remaining as before it did, to the continual impoverishing and vexation of the city Clergy. Nothing New Bishops. else memorable in this Convocation but the coming in of the two new bishops which had never voted there before. Purefew, the Bishop of St Asaph, being translated unto Hereford in the former year, had made such havock of the patrimony of the Church of St Asaph2, that it lay void above a twelvemonth before any became suitor for it. But being a bishoprick, though impoverished, and consequently a step to some richer preferment, it was desired and accepted by Mr Thomas Goldwel3, a right zealous Romanist, consecrated Bishop hereof in the beginning of October, anno 1555, not many days before

1 "Non obligarentur rependere multi conqueruntur se conventos." * Sup. p. 133.

2

duplum, etc., pro quo in fisco regio Wilkins, iv. 120.

3 Edd. "Goldnel."

55

1555.

the opening of the Parliament and Convocation. And, being AN. REG.3, Bishop here, he procured many indulgences and other graces from the Pope then being, for all such persons of each sex as went on pilgrimage, or for health, to St Winifred's Well1. The like havock had been made of the lands and patrimony of the Church of Bangor by Buckley2, the present Bishop of it, preferred unto the See anno 1541, and continuing on it till this year; who, not content to alienate the lands and weaken the estate thereof, resolved to rob it of its bells, for fear per225 haps of having any knell rung out at the Church's funeral. And, not content to sell the bells, which were five in number, he would needs satisfy himself with seeing them conveyed on ship-board, and had scarce given himself that satisfaction but he was presently struck blind, and so continued from that time to the day of his death. To whom succeeded Doctor William Glyn, a Cambridge man, but one of the disputants at Oxford, who received his episcopal consecration (if I guess aright) on the same day with Bishop Goldwel3.

tion and

of Cranmer.

10. And now it will be time to look back on Cranmer, Condemnawhom we left under a citation to the Court of Rome, without martyrdom which nothing could be done: for by an ancient privilege no judgment could be past upon the person of a Metropolitan before the Pope have taken cognizance of the cause; and eighty days had seemingly been given to Cranmer for making his appearance in the Court of Rome'. And though the Pope knew well enough as well the Archbishop's readiness to appear before him, if he were at liberty, as the impossibility of making any such appearance as the case then stood; yet at the end of the said eighty days he is pronounced by the Pope to be con

1 Godw. de Præsul. 642.

2 Rather Bulkley. The story which follows is from Godwin De Præsulibus, 626, but the editor, Richardson, remarks: "In MS. Anstis hoc scriptum legi,—'Arthurus Bulkeley optime meruit de Episcopatu, et fuit præcipuus Benefactor Sedi et Ecclesiæ Bangorensi; sed nunquam fuit cæcitate percussus, ut false narrat Godwinus: in tota Diœcesi Bangor. sunt in nulla Eccl. quinque nola, nisi in Cathedrali Bang. duntaxat, et nunquam ibi ante annum 1687." There is no note on Godwin's statement (p. 627) that Bp Rowlands, (1598-1618) "ecclesiæ suæ campanile, quod Bulkleius expilaverat, quatuor nolis instruxit."

* Edd. "Goldnel." Glyn was consecrated Sept. 8; Godw. de Præsul. 626. The date of Goldwell's consecration is not given.

4 Fox, viii. 68. See above, p. 160 n. 1.

1555.

AN. REG.3, tumacious, and for his contumacy to be degraded, excommunicated, and finally delivered over to the secular magistrate' According unto which decree, a second commission is directed to Edmond Bonner, Bishop of London, and Thomas Thurlby, Bishop of Ely, to proceed to the degradation of the said Archbishop in which commission it was said with most horrible falsehood, that all things had been indifferently examined in the Court of Rome, that is to say, as well the articles laid unto his charge as the answers which he made unto them, together with the allegations, witnesses, and defences, made or produced by the counsel on either side, so that nothing had been wanting which was necessary to his just defence3. According to which supposition, the said two Bishops, being commanded to proceed against him, caused him to be degraded on the 14th of February, notwithstanding that he appealed from the Pope and them to a General Council, and caused the said appeal to be drawn and offered in due form of law. During the interval between his degradation and the time of his death, great pains was taken by some learned men in the University to persuade him to a retractation of his former opinions; in which unhappy undertaking no man prevailed so far as a Spanish friar", by whom it was suggested to him how acceptable it would be to the King and Queen, how pleasing to the Lords, who most dearly loved him, and how gainful to himself, in regard both of his soul and his temporal being; assuring him (or at least putting him in good hope) that he should not only have his life, but be restored again to his ancient dignity, and that there should be nothing in the realm which the Queen would not easily grant him, whether it pleased him to make choice of riches and honours, or otherwise [he] should desire the sweet retirements of a private life, without the charge and trouble of a public ministry; and all this to be compassed without putting himself to any more pains than the subscribing of his name to a piece of paper, which was made ready for his hand. 11. By these temptations, and many others of the like alluring and deceitful nature, he suffered himself to be prevailed 1 The sentence is in Fox, viii. 69–71. 2 Edd. " so indifferently." 5 Juan de Villa Garcia. Divinity from 1556 to 1559. xvi. 488.

3

Fox, viii. 71-2. 4 Ibid. 73-6.
Fox. viii. 80. He was Regius Professor of
Le Neve, Fasti 471. See Brit. Magazine,