1555. Antwerp, by discharging all the ordnance in the English AN. REG. 2, 14. But so it happened, that notwithstanding all these triumphs, it proved in fine that the Queen neither was with child at the present, nor had any hopes of being so for the time to come. By some it was conceived that this report was raised upon policy only, to hold her up in the affection of her husband and the love of her subjects; by others, that she had been troubled with a timpany, which not only made her belly swell, but by the windiness of the disease possessed her with a fancy of her being quick. And some again have left in writing, that, having had the misfortune of a false con47 ception, which bred in her a fleshy and informed substance, 217 by the physicians called a Mola, the continual increase thereof3, extreme re and the agitation it made in her, occasioned her to believe what she most desired, and to report what she believed. But this informed lump being taken from her, with no small difficulty, did not only turn her supposed joy to shame and sorrow, but made much game amongst some of the Zuinglian gospellers, Excesses of (for I cannot think, that any true English Protestant could formers. make sport thereat); who were so far from desiring that the Queen should have any issue to succeed in the throne, that they prayed God by shortening her days to deprive her of it. Insomuch that one Rose, the minister to a private congregation in Bow church-yard, did use to pray, "that God would either turn her heart from idolatry, or else shorten her days3." 1 Fox, vii. 125-6. Letters for the purpose of announcing to foreign princes the birth of a "fil-,” (with a blank for the termination, according as the sex should prove to be,) were prepared, and are preserved in the State Paper Office.-Tytler, Edw. and Mary ii. 469. 3 Edd. "whereof." 2 Fox, vii. 126. 4 Godwin, 183. 5 There is no ground for saying that Rose "did use to pray" to this purpose in his London congregation under Mary; nor does 1555. 1554. AN. REG. 2, On which occasion, and some others of the like ill nature, an Act was made in the said Parliament for punishing of traiterous words against the Queen; in which it was ́enacted, That the said prayers, and all others of the like mischievous quality, should be interpreted to be high treason against the Queen1. The like exorbitances I find too frequent in this Queen's reign; to which some men were so transported by a furious zeal, that a gun was shot at one Doctor Pendleton, as he preached at St Paul's Cross on Sunday the 10th of June, anno 1554, the pellet whereof went very near him; but the gunner was not to be heard of2. Which occasioned the Queen to publish a Proclamation within few days after, prohibiting the shooting of3 hand-guns and the bearing of weapons. Before which time, that is to say, on the 8th of April, some of them had caused a cat to be hanged upon a gallows near the Cross in Cheapside, Dr Lingard's statement (vii. 191), that he "openly prayed" so on new year's eve, 1554-5, when he was apprehended, appear to be more correct, although it is countenanced by an anonymous letter of the time, Epp.Tigur. 499, where it is said that Rose "pro conversione reginæ oravit ita, ut vel cito eam Deus converteret, vel illius jugum a cervicibus piorum tolleret." The letter-writer (who evidently considered it a great hardship that any one should interfere with such innocent intercessions) would seem to have heard some confused and inaccurate account of the affair. Fox relates (viii. 584) that when Rose had been apprehended with his congregation, while celebrating the holy communion on new year's eve, he was examined before Gardiner; that one of the Bishop's servants charged him with having once prayed in the manner described, at Sir J. Robster's house, near Norwich, in the reign of Edward; and that he declared this to be a misrepresentation of his words:-" My Lord, I made no such prayer, but next after the King I prayed for her after this sort, saying, 'Ye shall pray for my Lady Mary's grace, that God will vouchsafe to endue her with His Spirit, that she graciously may perceive the mysteries contained within His holy laws, and so render unto Him her heart, purified with true faith, and true and loyal obedience to her sovereign Lord the King, to the good ensample of the inferior subjects.' And this, my Lord, is already answered in mine own handwriting to the Council." For an account of Rose, see Strype, Cranmer ii. 374-6, ed. Eccl Hist. Soc; Maitland on the Reformation, 434-6. Cranmer recommended him for an Irish archbishoprick in 1552. 1 1 and 2 Phil. and Mar, c. 9 This act (Stat. of the Realm, iv. 254) speaks of the words ascribed in the text to Rose as used by "divers naughty, seditious, malicious and heretical persons" ." in conventicles in divers and sundry profane places within the city of London." 2 Stow, 624. * June 22, ibid. 1555. with her head shorn, the likeness of a vestment cast upon her, AN. REG. 2, and her two fore-feet tied together, holding between them a piece of paper in the form of a wafer. Which, tending so apparently to the disgrace of the religion then by law established, was shewed the same day, being Sunday, at St Paul's Cross, by the said Doctor Pendleton; which possibly might be the sole reason of the mischief so desperately intended to him. of protes 15. Such were the madnesses of those people; but the Persecution orthodox and sober Protestant[s] shall be brought to a reckon- tants. ing, and forced to pay dearly for the follies of those men, which it was not in their powers to hinder. The governors of the Church exasperated by these provocations, and the Queen charging Wyatt's rebellion on the Protestant party, she2 both agreed on the reviving of some ancient statutes made in the time of King Richard the Second, King Henry the Fourth, and King Henry the Fifth, for the severe punishment of obstinate heretics, even to death itself. Which Act3 being passed, the three great Bishops of the time were not alike minded for putting it in execution. The Lord Cardinal was clearly of opinion, that they should rest themselves contented with the restitution of their own religion; that the said three statutes should be held forth for a terror only, but that no open persecution should be raised upon them ;-following therein, as he affirmed, the counsel sent unto the Queen by Charles the Emperor, at her first coming to the Crown; by whom she was advised to create no trouble unto any man for matter of conscience, but to be warned unto the contrary by his example, who, by endeavouring to compel others to his own religion, had tired and spent himself in vain, and purchased nothing by it but his own dishonour. But the Lord Chancellor Gardiner could not like of this; to whom it seemed to be all one never to have revived 1 1 This does not mean merely that the matter was stated in the sermon at St Paul's Cross, but that the cat itself was exhibited by the preacher, acting under order of the Bishop. Stow, 623. The gibbet in Cheapside was one of a number set up in different parts of the city for the execution of Wyatt's followers, which were allowed to remain from Feb. 13 to June 4, when they were removed on the occasion of Philip's arrival. Fox, vi 548. "Perhaps "she" ought to be omitted, or "they" to be substituted. 3 1 and 2 Phil. and Mar. c. 6. • See Sleidan, b. xxv. p. 591, (transl.) for the Emperor's moderate advice. AN. REG. 2, the said three statutes as not to see them put in execution. 1555. That some blood should be drawn in case of refractoriness and an incorrigible non-conformity, he conceived most necessary. But he would have the axe laid only to the root of the tree,the principal supporters of the heretics to be taken away, whether they were of the ecclesiastical hierarchy, or the lay-nobility; and some of the more pragmatical preachers to be cut off also; the rest of the people to be spared, as they who merely did depend on the power of the other. Let but the shepherds be once smitten, and the whole flock will presently be scattered, without further trouble. 16. "Well then," said Bonner to himself, "I see the 4 honour of this work is reserved for me, who neither fear the 2 Emperor's frowns nor the people's curses." Which having said, (as if he had been pumping for a resolution) he took his times so1 to make it known unto the other two, that he perceived they were as willing as himself to have the Catholic religion entertained in all parts of the kingdom, though neither of them seemed desirous to act any thing in it, or take the envy on himself; that he was well enough pleased with that reservedness, hoping they did not mean it for a precedent unto him or others who had a mind to shew their zeal and forwardness in the Catholic cause. "Have I not seen," saith he, "that the heretics themselves have broke the ice, in putting one of their own number (I think they called him by the name of Servetus)— to a cruel death?? Could it be thought no crime in them to take that more severe course against one of their brethren, for holding any contrary doctrine from that which they had publicly agreed amongst them? And can they be so silly, or so partial rather, as to reckon it for a crime in us, if we proceed against them with the like severity, and punish them by the inost extreme rigour of their own example? I plainly see, that neither you, my Lord Cardinal, nor you, my Lord Chancellor, have any answer to return to my present argument,—which is sufficient to encourage me to proceed upon it. I cannot act canonically against any of them but such as live within the compass of my jurisdiction, in which I shall desire no help nor countenance from either of you. But as for such as live in the diocese of Canterbury, or that of Winchester, or otherwise 1 "So" omitted in Edd. 1, 2. 2 October, 1553. 1555. not within my reach, in what place soever, let them be sent for AN. REG.2, up by order from the Lords of the Council, committed to the Tower, the Fleet, or any other prison within my diocese. And when I have them in my clutches, let God do so and more to Bonner, if they scape his fingers1." 17. The persecution thus resolved on, home goes the bloody executioner, armed with as much power as the law could give him, and backed by the authority of so great a King, taking some other of the Bishops to him, convents before him certain of the preachers of King Edward's time, who formerly had been committed to several prisons; of whom it was demanded, whether they would stand to their former doctrines, or accept the Queen's pardon and recant? To which it was generally and stoutly answered, That they would stand unto their doctrines. Hereupon followed that inquisition for blood which raged in London and more or less was exercised in most parts of the kingdom. The first that led the way was Mr John Rogers, a right learned man, and a great companion of that Tyndal by whom the Bible was translated into English in the time of King Henry?: after whose martyrdom, not daring to return into his own country, he retired to Wittemberge in the Dukedom of Saxony, where he remained till King Edward's coming to the Crown, and was by Bishop Ridley preferred to the Lecture of St Paul's, and made one of the Prebendaries3. Nothing the better liked of for his patron's sake, he was convented and condemned, and publicly burnt in Smithfield on the 1 On the speech which our author puts into the mouth of Bonner, see Maitland's Essays on the Reformation, 463-4. Of Fuller's assertion that the Bishop "stood not on distinction of dioceses," Dr Maitland observes:-"I believe this to be absolutely and entirely untrue....I suspect it would be impossible to name a case in which Bonner martyred, or examined, or meddled with, anybody whatsoever, except on the ground that the prisoner was under his jurisdiction" (409). "I believe that he never dealt with any alleged heretic who was not brought before him in his official character, as Bishop of London, in due course of law, by the warrant of some magistrate, or other person acting directly under a commission from the Government." (414. Comp. 518, 520). The Essay from which these words are quoted, contains a detailed examination of the charges of cruelty commonly advanced against Bonner, and appears to vindicate him successfully from them, while the learned author does not pretend to " set him up as a model of wisdom, piety, and virtue" (574). Sup. i. 42. 3 Edd. 1, 2. "Prebends." 2 |