1560. and folly of one of its schoolmasters, till the final dissolution of AN. REG. 2, it, amongst other hospitals and brotherhoods, by King Edward the Sixth; so that, being vested in the Crown, and of no present use to the city, it was no hard matter to obtain it for the use of the French, as it still continueth1. And now again we have another Church in London, as different from the Church of England in government and forms of worship, and some doctrinals also, as that of John à Lasco was in the Augustine Friars2. Nor must we marvel if we find the like dangerous consequents to ensue upon it; for what else is the setting up of a presbytery in a Church founded and established by the rules of episcopacy, than the erecting of a commonwealth or popular estate in the midst of a monarchy? Which Calvin well enough perceived, and thereupon gave Gryndal thanks3 for his favour in it; of whom they after served themselves upon all occasions. Upon the news of which success, divers both French and Dutch repaired into England, planting themselves in the sea-towns, and openly professing the reformed religion; under which covert they disguised their several heterodoxies and blasphemous dotages,some of them proving to be Anabaptists, others infected with unsound opinions of as ill a nature, but all endeavouring to disperse their heretical doctrines, and, by envenoming the good people amongst whom they lived, to increase their sects. 34 Which being made known unto the Queen, she presently com06 mands them all by her proclamation to depart the kingdom, 1 Stow, Survey, 190-1. 2 Besides the new establishment of the French church, that of "Dutch" (or Germans) was about this time restored. Utenhovius, who had been a leading member of à Lasco's congregation, again came to England, bringing with him King Edward's charter, which the Queen was prayed to confirm. The petition was at first refused, "because the Queen thought it not convenient in her kingdom to have another superintendant over a Church, and that a stranger, besides the Bishop of London." In order to meet this objection, the Germans chose Bishop Grindal for superintendant; and, after overcoming various other difficulties, they were restored to the possession of the building in the Augustine Friars, which in the reign of Mary had been used as a repository for naval stores. Strype, Annals, i. 118. Compare for the history of foreign congregations, Strype's Grindal, b. i. c. 5; Burn's Hist. of Protestant Refugees, Lond. 1845. 11 3 Epp. p. 144. May 15, 1560. [HEYLYN, II.] Ν Ꮓ 1560. AN. REG. 2, whether they were aliens or natural-born English, and not to stay above the term of twenty days, upon pain of imprisonment, and forfeiture of all their goods1. Which proclamation notwithstanding, too many of them lurked in England without fear of discovery, especially after the erecting of so many French and Dutch churches in the maritime parts; as at this time they did in London, infecting the French and Dutch churches there with some of their frenzies, and occasioned such disputes amongst them upon that account, that Peter Martyr found it necessary to interpose his authority with them, to the composing of those heats and differences which had grown amongst them; for which consult his letter bearing date at Zurick on the 15th of February next following after the date of the said proclamation, and superscribed, Unto the Church of Strangers in the city of London2.' Proclamation against defacers of Churches. 23. Now for the date of the said proclamation, it seemeth to have been about the 19th of September3; at which time it pleased the Queen to set forth another, no less conducing to the honour, than did the other to the preservation of the Church's purity. She had given command by her injunctions in the year foregoing, "For destroying and taking away all shrines, and coverings of shrines, all tables, candlesticks, trindals, and rolls of wax, together with all pictures, paintings, and other monuments of feigned miracles, pilgrimages, idolatry and superstition, so that there remain no memory of the same in walls, glass-windows, or elsewhere, whether it were in churches or men's private houses4." But some, perverting rather than mistaking her intention in it, guided by covetousness, or overruled by some new fangle in religion, under colour of conforming to this command, defaced all such images of Christ and his Apostles, all paintings which presented any history of the holy Bible, as they found in any windows of their churches or chapels. They proceed also to the breaking down of all coats of arms, to the tearing off of all the brasses on the tombs and monuments of the dead, in which the figures of themselves, their wives or children, their ancestors, or their arms, had been 1 Camden, 60. Lat. 2 Loci Comm. 1128-31. There were later orders for inquiry as to strangers who "were come into the realm for pretence of religion." See Cardw. Doc. Ann. i. 307. 4 * Injunctions of 1559, No. 23. 1560. reserved1 to posterity. And, being given to understand that AN. REG. 2, bells had been baptized in the times of popery, and that even the churches themselves had been abused to superstition and idolatry, their zeal transported them in fine to sell their bells, to turn the steeples into dove-cotes, and to rob the churches of those sheets of lead with which they were covered. For the restraining of which sacrilege and profane abuses, she gave command in her said proclamation of the 19th of September, "That all manner of men should from thenceforth forbear the breaking or defacing of any parcel of any monument, or tomb, or grave, or other inscription and memory of any person deceased, being in any manner of place; or to break any image of kings, princes, or noble estates of this realm, or of any other, that have been in times past erected and set up for the only memory of them to their posterity, in common churches, and not for any religious honour; or to break down or deface any image in glass-windows in any church, without the consent of the ordinary: upon pain of being committed to the next gaol without bail or mainprize, and there to remain till the next coming of the justices for gaol-delivery, and then to be further punished by fine or imprisonment (besides the restitution or reedification of the thing broken), as to the said justices shall seem meet, and, if need shall be, to use the advices of her Majesty's Council in her Star-Chamber 4." 24. It was also signified in the said proclamation, "That some patrons of churches and others, who were possessed of impropriations, had prevailed with the parson and parishioners to take or throw down the bells of churches or chapels, and the lead of the same, and to convert the same to their private gain, by which ensued not only the spoil of the said churches, but even a slanderous desolation of the places of prayer." And 35 thereupon it was commanded, "that no manner of person should 07 from thenceforth take away any bells or lead off any church or chapel, under pain of imprisonment during her Majesty's plea 1 Qu. "preserved?" 5 2 Edd. "nobles, estates." Using therein the advice of the Ordinary, and, if need shall be, the advice also of her Majesty's Council," &c. * Fuller, iv. 301-5. Wilkins, iv. 221-2. ♪ "And make such like alterations, as thereby they seek a slanderous desolation," &c. AN.REG. 2, sure, and such further fine for the contempt as shall be thought 1560. meet;" with a charge given to all Bishops and other Ordi Reform of the coinage. naries, "to inquire of all such contempts done from the beginning of her Majesty's reign, and to enjoin the persons offending to repair the same within a convenient time, and of their doing therein to certify the Privy Council, or the Council in the Star-chamber, that order may be taken therein." And in pursuit of this most seasonable and religious act, she did not only sign the said proclamation, one for all, to authorise it for the press, as the custom is, but signed them every one apart (amounting to a very great number) with her own royal hand, that so it might be known rather for her own proper act than an act of the council1. 25. With like care also she provided for the honour and prosperity of her estate in affairs politic and civil. The monies of the realm had been much debased by King Henry the Eighth, to the great disprofit of the merchant and reproach of the kingdom; for which no remedy had been taken by her brother or sister, though they had better opportunities, and more advantages to go through with it2. But this brave Queen, endeavouring nothing more than the restoring of her kingdom to its ancient splendour, first caused all such base monies as were coined by any of her predecessors to be decried to a less value, according to the fineness or alloy thereof; and that being done, by virtue of her proclamation bearing date the 28th of September, she caused all the said base monies, so reduced to a lower value, to be brought in to her Majesty's Mint, for which she gave them money of the purest silver, (such as passed commonly by the name of Easterling or sterling money): since which time, no base money hath been coined in England, but only of pure gold and silver, to pass for current in the same; save that of late times, in relation to the necessity of poor people, a permission hath been given to the coining of farthings, which no man can be forced to accept in satisfaction of a rent or debt: which, as it could not be affirmed of England in the times preceding, so neither can it now be said of any state or nation in the Christian world; in all which there are Fuller, iv. 301. 2 But we have already had notice of a reform in the reign of Edward i. 232. 1560. Increase of merce. several sorts of copper money, as current with them for public AN. Reg. 2, uses as the purest metal1. She provided also in like manner for her people's safety, and the increase of trade and mer- English Comchandize in English bottoms; for, towards the end of this second year, she made great preparation of ordnance, arms, munition, and powder of her own materials, to be in a readiness to defend her realm in all emergencies of danger: for the advancing of which service it so pleased the divine Providence which watched over her actions, that a rich mine of brass was found near Keswick in Cumberland, such as sufficed not only for furnishing her own forts and ships with all manner of ordnance, but for supplying other countries as their wants required. And, to complete so great a mercy in her preservation, the stone called Lapis Calaminaris, exceeding necessary for all brass-works, was at the same time also found in England in most plentiful manner2. And whereas complaint was made unto her by the merchants of the Hans-towns, or merchants of the Steelyard, as then commonly called, that King Edward had first seized their liberties3, and that afterwards Queen Mary had raised their customs upon all sorts of merchandizes from one to twenty in the hundred, her answer was, that, as she was resolved not to innovate any thing, so she could grant no other privileges and immunities to them than those in which she found them when she came to the Crown. Their trading hereupon being intermitted, the English merchants took the managing of it upon themselves, and thrived therein so well after some adventures, that cloth and other manufactures, heretofore transported in the ships of those merchants, were from henceforth fraughted and dispersed in English vessels; by means whereof the English in a very short time attained unto the reputation of being the wealthiest merchants, the most 8 expert mariners, and the ablest commanders for sea-fights, of any nation in the world. 16 tion of West 26. I shall conclude this year with a work of piety in the New Foundafoundation of the Collegiate Church of St Peter in Westminster, minster. which in the space of twenty years had been changed from an abbey to a deanery, from a deanery to a see episcopal, reduced unto a deanery again, and finally restored to the state of an 2 Camd. 70. Lat. 1 Stow, 640. Camden, 61-2. Lat. |