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BOOK
III.

Preface to

of Priests'

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"formede. Some so deprived, that they were spoiled of "their wages, for the which they served the half year Anno 1553." before; and not ten days before the receipt sequestered "from it. Some prevented from his half year's receipt, "after charges of tenths and subsidy paid, and yet not deprived six weeks after. Some deprived of their receipts the Defence somewhat after the day, with the which their fruits to Marriage. "the Queen's Majesty should be contented. And in general the deprivations were so speedy, so hastily, so "without warning, &c. The bishops (saith another fwriter "and sufferer in these days) that were married were "thrust out of the parliament-house, and all married deans "and archdeacons out of the convocation: many put "out of their livings, and others restored, without form of "law. Yea some noblemen and gentlemen were de"prived of those lands which the King had given them, "without tarrying for any law, lest my Lord of WinHarbour for "chester should have lost his quarter's rent. Many churches faithful Subjects. were changed, many altars set up, many masses said, many "dirges sung, before the law was repealed. All was done "in post haste."

Marshalsea.

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Professors Nor was their deprivation all they endured; but they, cast into the together with other professors of the religion, were many taken up very fast for Winchester did resolve to make quick work to reduce, if he could, the realm to the old religion. So that they came into the Marshalsea thick and threefold for religion, sent by him thither. And, that they might be sure to suffer hardship enough, when the Bishop's almoner, Mr. Brooks, (he who was, I suppose, after Bishop of Glocester,) came to this prison with his master's alms-basket, he told the porter, named Britain, that it was his lord's pleasure that none of the hereticks that lay there, should have any part of his alms. And that, if 311 he knew any of them had any part thereof, that house should never have it again so long as he lived. To which the porter replied, "That he would have a care of that, he "would warrant him; and that, if they had no meat till they had some of his Lordship's, they should be like to

Win

chester's alms.

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"starve. And so he bad him tell his lord: and added, CHAP. "That they should get no favour at his hand."

II.

tyr writes

These sufferings P. Martyr, now gotten out of England, Anno 1553. took notice of in a letter to Calvin, dated November 3 ; Peter Marwhere, having related to him how the two Archbishops of of this to Canterbury and York, the Bishops of Worcester and Exon, Calvin. and many other learned and pious preachers, were in bonds for the Gospel, and, together with them, many other godly persons were in extreme danger, he proceeded to mention two things to Calvin, to mitigate the trouble he knew he conceived for this ill news. The one was, "That, "although the infirmity of some betrayed them, yet great was the constancy of far more than he could have thought. So that he doubted not England would have many famous martyrs, if Winchester, who then did all, "should begin to rage according to his will. The other was, that it was the judgment of all that this calamity "would not be long and therefore," said Martyr, "let us P. Martyr's pray to God, that he would quickly tread down Satan "under the feet of his church."

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Epist.

The same learned man, speaking in another letter con-The state cerning the good forwardness of religion at the first of the coming of Queen Mary to the crown, said, "That he had now.

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many scholars in England, students in divinity, not to be "repented of, whose harvest was almost ripe: whom he

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was forced to see, either wandering about in uncertain

church

stations, or remaining at home unhappily subverted. "And that there was in this kingdom many holy as well as "learned bishops, that were then in hard confinement, and "soon to be dragged to the extremest punishments, as if they were robbers. And that here was the foundation of "the Gospel, and of a noble church laid and by the "labours of some years the holy building had well gone forward, and daily better things were hoped for. But "that unless eòs àñò tîs μnxavis, God from above, came to P. Martyr "the succour of it, he thought there would not be a dam. footstep of godliness left at last, as to the external "profession."

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amico cui

The Queen leaves all

All the matters of the church the Queen left wholly to the management of the Bishop of Winchester, whom she matters to

Winchester.

BOOK
III.

:

now advanced from a prisoner in the Tower, to be Lord High Chancellor of England. And indeed the goverAnno 1553. nance of the whole realm was committed to him, with a few other. He ruled matters as he would, and that all England knew and saw plainly. Nay, the consent of the whole parliament followed his head and his will. So that against their wills, and against the wills of many thousand true hearts in the realm, as they of the parliament well knew, they condescended unto him and what he could not do in one parliament, that he did in another. So that in a year and an half he had three parliaments: during which time, many things the parliament condescended unto against their wills. As that the Queen should marry with a foreign Prince; that the service in the English 312 tongue should be taken away; that the Bishop of Rome should have his old ejected authority here again: as one of J. Rogers. the divines in those times had intended to have told Winchester to his face, had he been permitted speech.

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The Queen crowned.

The service still said.

October 1, the Queen was crowned at the abbey-church at Westminster. And then was proclaimed a pardon; but not over-gracious: for all the prisoners in the Tower and Fleet were excepted, and sixty-two besides; whereof the printers of the Bible, Grafton and Whitchurch, were two. Most of these excepted were of the chief professors of the Gospel: no pardon for them. At the coronation, among other triumphal shows, Paul's steeple bare top and topgallant, like a ship with many flags and banners, and a man stood triumphing and dancing on the top. Whereat one Underhill, a gentleman that sat on horseback there to see the show, said to those about him, "At the "coronation of King Edward I saw Paul's steeple lay at "anchor, and now she wears top and topgallant: surely "the next will be shipwreck or it be long." And indeed their followed a shipwreck of the church.

The service established in King Edward's days did not cease upon Queen Mary's grasping the sceptre: but the ministers performed the worship of God, aud celebrated the holy sacrament, and used the Common Prayer diligently and constantly and the people frequented the same with more seriousness than before. They foresaw what

II.

times were coming; which made them meet often together, CHAP. while they might lamenting bitterly the death of King Edward, and partaking of the sacrament with much de- Anno 1553. votion. It was the Bishop of Winchester's resolution to redress this in London: for he was purposed to stifle the religion as speedily and as vigorously as he could. And one way he had to do this was, to send his spies into all the churches in London: and these would come into the churches, and disturb the ministers with rude words and actions in their very ministration; and then go to the Bishop, and make their informations. And so the ministers were fetched up by the officers before him, and then committed, unless they would comply: and this in the very beginning of the Queen's reign, when the preachers did but according to the laws then in force, before the parliament had repealed the book of Common Prayer, and the rest of King Edward's reformation. And there were forward men in most parishes, that were very active and violent for the restoring the old superstitions. For The the Queen had set forth a proclamation, which did declare proclamawhat religion she did profess in her youth; "that she tion of her "did continue in the same, and that she minded therein "to end her life: willing all her loving subjects to embrace “the same.” And this they reckoned to be sufficient warrant to set up mass, and introduce popish priests and popish usages every where, without staying for orders and acts of parliament.

Queen's

religion.

change of

Nor was this change of religion, and these miseries Signs of a following it, unexpected. The learned and pious sort in religion. King Edward's time did reckon upon a great calamity impending over their heads: concluding thereupon, from two causes, among others. One was, the corrupt manners that generally overspread the nation, notwithstanding the light of the Gospel, and the much and earnest preaching up of sobriety and virtue. The other was, the taking 318 off by death divers most eminent men, the great stays of religion: so that the preachers did commonly in their sermons declare and foretel, what afterwards indeed fell out. This Becon, an exile, in his epistle to those in England that suffered persecution for the testimony of

II.

BOOK Christ's Gospel, spake of in these words: "Divers signs "had we long before, besides the godly admonitions of Anno 1553." the faithful preachers, which plainly declared unto us an "utter subversion of the true christian religion to be at "hand, except it were prevented by hasty and harty re

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pentance. What shall I speak of that good and mighty "Prince Edward, Duke of Somerset, which, in the time "of his protectorship, did so banish idolatry out of this our "realm, and bring in again God's true religion, that "it was a wonder so weighty a matter to be brought to pass in so short a time. Was not the ungentle handling "of him, and the unrighteous thrusting him out of office, "and afterwards the cruel murthering of him, a man, yea, a mirror of true innocency, and christian patience, "an evident token of God's anger against us? The sudden taking away of those most goodly and vertuous young imps, the Duke of Suffolk and his brother, by the "sweating sickness, was it not also a manifest token of "God's heavy displesure against us? The death of those "two most worthy and godly learned men, M. Paulus Fagius, and D. Martin Bucer, was it not a sure prog"nostication, some great mishap concerning christen religion to be at hand? But, passing over many other, "to come to that which is most lamentable, and can never "be remembered of any true English heart without large tears, I mean the death of our most godly Prince and "christen King, Edward VI. that true Josias, that earnest "destroyer of false religion, that fervent setter up of God's "true honour, that most bounteous patron of the godly learned, that most worthy maintainer of good letters "and vertue, and that perfect and lovely mirror of true "nobility, and sincere godliness: was not the taking away "of him (alas! for sorrow) a sure sign and an evident "token that some great evil hanged over this realm of England? Who, considering these things, perceived not a "shipwreck of the christen religion to be at hand?"

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