of the realm, and traitorously sending out the writs of parliament without the Elizabeth. same style, perceiving he had over-shot himself in calling the parliament, and having committed many horrible murders and most mischievous acts, would A. D. have excused it, as appeareth by a piece of a statute made in the same parlia- 1559. ment, in the eighth chapter and two and twentieth leaf, it may be justly and truly answered, that they could not so do. For although every person may by law renounce his own private right, yet may he not renounce his right in that which toucheth the commonwealth, or a third person. And this title and style more touched the commonwealth and realm of England, than the king. For, as I said before, it was ordained for the conservation of the liberty of the whole realm, and to exclude the usurped authority of the bishop of Rome. And therefore no king nor queen alone could renounce such title: but it ought (if they would have it taken away) to be taken away orderly and formally by act of parliament, sufficiently called and summoned. For the natural and right way to loose and undo things, is to dissolve them by that means they were ordained. And so it most manifestly appeareth, that all their doings, from the beginning to the end, were and be of none effect, force, or authority: but all that they have done, hath been mere tyranny. O most mar- A joyful vellous providence of Almighty God, that always, and in all things, doth that day. is best for the wealth of his people! O most mighty power, that so suddenly overthroweth the counsels of the wicked, and bringeth their devices to nought! O infinite mercy, that so gently dealeth with his people, that he saveth them whom he might most justly destroy! O most joyful, most merry, and never to be forgotten "Hope-Wednesday," in which it hath pleased thee, O God, to deliver thy church, this realm, and thy people from so horrible tyranny! No tongue can express, no pen can indite, no eloquence can worthily set out, much less exornate these thy marvellous doings. No, no heart is able to render unto thy goodness sufficient thanks for the benefits we have received. Who could ever have hoped this most joyful time? Yea, who did not look rather for thy most sharp visitation, and utter destruction of this realm, as of Sodom, Gomorrah, and Jerusalem? But we see and feel, good Lord, that thy mercy is greater than all men's sins, and far above all thy works. And albeit there is no Christian and natural Englishman, woman, or child, either present, or that shall succeed us, which is not or shall not be partaker of this most exceeding mercy and wonderful benefit of Almighty God, and therefore is bound continually to praise and thank him: yet there is not one creature that is more bound so to do, than you, noble queen Elizabeth! For in this horrible tyranny, and most cruel persecution, your grace hath been more hunted for than any other. Divers times they have taken you; sometimes they have had you in stronghold, secluded from all liberty; sometimes at liberty, but not without most cruel gaolers' custody; and many times they determined, that without justice ye should be murdered privily. They thought, if your grace had been suppressed, they should have fully prevailed: if ye had been destroyed, their doings for ever should be established: if ye had been taken out of the way, there were none left that would or could undo that they had ordained. But He that sitteth on high, and laugheth at their madness, would God prenot suffer that the malicious purposes and most cruel devised injustice should serveth have success. He took upon him the protection of you. He only hath been our Jehosheba, that preserved you from this wicked Athaliah: he only was the maketh Jehoiada, that destroyed this cruel Athaliah : he only hath made you queen of frustrate this realm, instead of this mischievous Marana. No earthly creature can claim cious pur any piece of thanks there-for; no man's force, no man's counsel, no man's aid, poses hath been the cause thereof. Wherefore, the greater his benefits have been of the toward you, the more are you bound to seek his glory, and to set forth his honour. Ye see his power, what he is able to do: he alone can save, and he can destroy; he can pull down, and he can set up. If ye fear him, and seek to do his will, then will he favour you, and preserve you to the end from all enemies, as he did king David. If ye now fall from him, or juggle with him, look for no more favour than Saul had showed to him. But I have a good hope, that both his justice and benefits be so printed in your heart, that ye will never forget them; but seek by all means to have the one, and to fear to fall into the (1) Queen Mary died on Thursday, the 17th of November; on the day before, her death was hourly expected,-an event which gave peace and hope to the persecuted flock of Christ.—ED. the inno cent, and the mali wicked. A. D. 1559. An apt similitude. Elizabeth, other. I trust, also, your wisdom will not only consider the causes of this late most sharp visitation, but also to your uttermost power endeavour to out-root them. And forasmuch as besides this infinite mercy poured on your grace, it hath pleased his divine providence to constitute your highness to be our Deborah, to be the governess and head of the body of this realm, to have the charge and cure thereof, it is requisite above all things, as well for his glory and honour, as for your discharge, quietness, and safety, to labour that the same body now at the first be cleansed, made whole, and then kept in good order. For as, if the body of man be corrupted and diseased, he is not able to manage his things at home, much less to do any thing abroad; so, if the body of a realm be corrupt and out of order, it shall neither be able to do anything abroad, if necessity should require, nor yet prosper in itself. But this may not be done with piecing and patching, cobbling and botching, as was used in time past, whilst your most noble father and brother reigned. For as if a man cut off one head of the serpent Hydra, and destroy not the whole body, many will grow instead of that one; and as in a corrupt body that hath many diseases, if the physician should labour to heal one part, and not the whole, it will in short time break out afresh: so, unless the body of a realm or commonwealth be clean purged from corruption, all the particular laws and statutes that can be devised, shall not profit it. We need no foreign examples to prove it: look upon this realm itself, it will plainly declare it. And as it is not enough to cleanse the body from its corruption, but there must be also preservatives ministered to keep it from putrefaction; for naturally of itself it is disposed to putrefy; so, after the body of a realm is purged, unless there be godly ordinances for the preservation thereof ordained and duly ministered, it will return to the old state. For this body, which is the people, is universally, naturally, disposed to evil, and without compulsion will hardly do that is its duty. Three things which estate of a realm or common wealth. Thus must your grace do, if ye mind the advancement of God's glory, your own quietness and safety, and the wealth of this your body politic. And they be not hard to bring to pass, where good-will will vouchsafe to take to her a little pain. The realm will soon be purged, if vice and self-love be utterly condemned. It will be in good state preserved, if these three things-God's word truly taught and preached, youth well brought up in godly and honest preserve exercises, and justice rightly ministered,-may be perfectly constituted. And the good without this foundation, let men imagine what it pleaseth them, the spiritual house of God shall never be well-framed nor builded, nor the public state of your realm well-ordered. For in what body God's word lacketh, the unity and charity that ought to be among the members thereof, and which knitteth them together, is soon extinguished. Where the youth are neglected, there can no good success be hoped, no more than the husbandman can look for a good crop where he sowed no good seed. And where justice is not truly and rightly ministered, there the more laws and statutes be heaped together, the more they be contemned. And surely if this thing could not without exceeding charges be compassed, as God forbid that charges should be weighed, be they never so great, where God's glory and the wealth of the realm may be furthered; yet Charges ought it not to be neglected. What charges did king David the father, and not to be king Solomon his son, employ to build the stony house of God! How much more charges should a Christian employ to build and set up the lively house of God's glo- God! But verily, I am fully persuaded that it shall not be chargeable to do ry is to be this. No, a great deal of superfluous charges, which otherwise your grace furthered. shall be forced to sustain, shall be thus clean cut away, and so your revenues weighed where by a mean most profitable, and to no good person hurtful, increased. If your grace can bring this to pass, as I am out of all doubt ye may quickly, ye shall do more than any of your progenitors did before you. All men shall confess that you are not only for proximity of blood preferred, but rather of Elizabeth. God specially sent and ordained. And as the queen of Sheba came from far off, to see the glory of king Solomon, a woman to a man, even so shall A.D. the princes of our time come, men to a woman, and kings marvel at the 1559. virtue of queen Elizabeth. Thus shall we your subjects be most bound to praise God, and to think ourselves most happy, that coming so suddenly from the worse, be forthwith preferred to the best, rid from extremest calamity, and brought to the greatest felicity; and it shall be besides an example for all evil princes, to leave their persecution of Christ and his members, to cease from their tyranny, wherewith they continually oppress their poor subjects. And so all people, not only we of this your realm, but of all other nations, shall have just cause to pray for your grace's health, and increase of honour. This oration of master Hales being premised, now let us prosecute, the Lord willing, that which we promised, concerning the disputation or conference had at Westminster. The copy whereof here followeth. THE CONFERENCE OR DISCEPTATION HAD AND BEGUN AT WEST- DEFAULT, AT THE FIRST BEGINNING OF So it pleased the queen's most excellent majesty, having heard of the diversity of opinions in certain matters of religion amongst sundry of her loving subjects, and being very desirous to have the same reduced to some godly and christian concord (by the advice of the lords and others of the privy council,) as well for the satisfaction of persons doubtful, as also for the knowledge of the very truth in certain matters of difference, to have a convenient chosen number of the best learned of either part, and to confer together their opinions and reasons, and thereby to come to some good and charitable agreement. And hereupon by her majesty's commandment, certain of her privy council declared this purpose to the archbishop of York (being also one of the same privy council), and required him that he would impart the same to some of the bishops, and to make choice of eight, nine, or ten of them, and that there should be the like number named of the other part. And further also they declared to him (as then was supposed), what the matter should be. And as for the time, it was thought meet to be, as soon as possibly might be agreed upon. And then, after certain days past, it was signified by the said archbishop, that there were appointed, by such of the bishops to whom he had imparted this matter, eight persons, that is to say, four bishops and four doctors: the names of whom here follow underwritten. (1) The bishop of Carlisle and Dr. Sandys, though probably present, took no part in the conference. Sec Strype on this question. Annals, vol. i. chap. v.-ED. Elizabeth. A. D. They were content, at the queen's majesty's commandment, to show their opinions; and, as the said archbishop termed it, render 1559. account of their faith in those matters which were mentioned, and that especially in writing; although he said, they thought the same so determined, as there was no cause to dispute upon them. The matter which they should talk upon, was comprehended in these three propositions, hereunder specified. 1. It is against the word of God, and the custom of the ancient church, to use a tongue unknown to the people, in common prayers, and the administration of the sacraments. 2. Every church hath authority to appoint, take away, and change ceremonies and ecclesiastical rites, so the same be to edification. 3. It cannot be proved by the word of God, that there is, in the mass, offered up a sacrifice propitiatory for the quick and the dead. It was hereupon fully resolved by the queen's majesty, with the advice aforesaid, that according to their desire, it should be in writing on both parts, for avoiding of much alteration in words; and that the said bishops would, because they were in authority of degree superiors, first declare their minds and opinions to the matter, with their reasons in writing. And the other number, being also nine men of good degree in schools, and some having been in dignity in the church of England, if they had any thing to say to the contrary, should the same day declare their opinions in like manner; and so each of them should deliver their writings to the other, to be considered what were to be improved therein, and the same to declare again in writing at some other convenient day, and the like order to be kept in all the rest of the matters. All this was fully agreed upon with the archbishop of York, and so also signified to both parties. And immediately hereupon, divers of the nobility and states of the realm understanding that such a meeting and conference should be, and that in certain matters, whereupon (the court of parliament. consequently following) some laws might be grounded; they made earnest means to her majesty, that the parties of this conference might put and read their assertions in the English tongue, and that in the presence of them of the nobility and others of her parliament house, for the better satisfaction and enabling of their own judgments, to treat and conclude of such laws as might depend hereupon. This also, being thought very reasonable, was signified to both parties, and so fully agreed upon, and the day appointed for the first meeting, to be the Friday in the forenoon, being the last of March, at Westminster church. At which foresaid day and place, both for good order and for honour of the conference, by the queen's majesty's commandment, the lords and others of the privy council were present, and a great part of the nobility also. And notwithstanding this former order appointed, and consented unto by both parties, yet the bishop of Winchester and his colleagues alleged they had mistaken that their assertions and reasons should be written, and so only recited out of the book, saying their book was not then ready written, but they were ready to argue and dispute, and therefore they would, for that time, repeat in speech, that which they had to say to the first probation. This variation from the former order, and especially from that A. D. which themselves had by the said archbishop in writing before re-Elizabeth. Copy of a Protestation, exhibited in the Conference. Forasmuch as it is thought good unto the queen's most excellent majesty (unto whom in the Lord all obedience is due), that we should declare our judgment in writing upon certain propositions; we, as becometh us to do herein, most gladly obey. Seeing that Christ is our only master, whom the Father hath commanded us to hear; and seeing also his word is the truth, from the which it is not lawful for us to depart, no not one hair's breadth, and against the which (as the apostle saith) we can do nothing; we do in all things submit ourselves unto this truth, and do protest, that we will affirm nothing against the same. And forasmuch as we have for our mother the true and catholic church of Christ, which is grounded upon the doctrine of the apostles and prophets, and is of Christ the head in all things governed; we do reverence her judgment, we obey her authority as becometh children; and we do devoutly profess, and in all points follow the faith which is contained in the three creeds, that is to say, of the apostles, of the council of Nice, and of Athanasius. And seeing that we never departed, neither from the doctrine of God which is contained in the holy canonical Scriptures, nor yet from the faith of the true and catholic church of Christ; but have preached truly the word of God, and have sincerely ministered the sacraments according to the institution of Christ, unto the which our doctrine and faith the most part also of our adversaries did subscribe not many years past (although now, as unnatural, they are revolted from the same), we desire that they render account of their backsliding, and show some cause wherefore they do not only resist that doctrine which they have before professed, but also persecute the same by all means they can. We do not doubt, but through the equity of the queen's most excellent majesty, we shall in these disputations be entreated more gently than in years late past, when we were handled most unjustly and scantly after the common manner of men. As for the judgment of the whole controversy, we refer unto the most holy Scriptures, and the catholic church of Christ (whose judgment unto us ought to be most sacred): notwithstanding by the catholic church we under |