1561. that age; in which it was enjoined that none of them should AN. REG. 3, from thenceforth hold any assemblies; and that, for the more certain conforming unto this decree, those churches or other houses, whatsoever they were, in which they used to hold their meetings, should be demolished to the ground, to the end that there might be no place in which such men as were devoted to their superstitious faction might have the opportunity of assembling together. For which the reader may consult Eusebius in the Life of Constantine, 1. iii. c. 651. But, that it might appear both to him and others that she was ready to shew all just favours, she laid a most severe command upon all her officers, for the full payment of all such pensions as had been granted unto all such abbots, monks and friars, in the time of her father, as were not since preferred in the Church to cures or dignities 2. And this to be performed to the utmost farthing on pain of her most high displeasure in neglect thereof3. strengthens 12. It could not be but that the governing of her affairs with The Queen such an even and steady hand, though it occasioned admiration her navy. in some, must needs create both envy and displeasure in the hearts of other Christian Princes; from none of which she had a juster cause to fear some practice than the King of Spain, or rather from the fierce and intemperate spirit of the Duke of Alva, as appeared afterwards when he was made Lord Deputy or Vicegerent of the Belgic provinces. They had both shewed themselves offended, because their intercession in behalf of the Nuncio had found no better entertainment; and when great persons are displeased, it is no hard matter for them to revenge themselves, if they find their adversaries either weak or not well provided. But the Queen looked so well about her as not to be taken tardy in either kind. For which end she augments her store of arms and ammunition, and all things necessary for the defence of her kingdom; which course 1 Edd. "63." The order really was, not that the buildings should be demolished, but that they should be taken from the sectaries,-TÁVTWV TÔV αἱρετικῶν τοὺς εὐκτηρίους, εἴγε εὐκτηρίους ὀνομάζειν οἴκους προσήκει, ἀφαιρε θέντας, τῇ καθολικῇ ἐκκλησίᾳ παραδοθῆναι. (p. 622, ed. Reading. The editor remarks that Christopherson rendered apaipeðévras by diruta; and on this mistranslation Heylyn's statement is doubtless founded. 1561. AN. REG.3, she had happily begun in the year foregoing. But holding it a safer maxim in the schools of polity, not to admit, than to endeavour by strong hand to expel, an enemy, she entertains some fortunate thoughts of walling her kingdom round about with a puissant navy1; for merchants had already increased their shipping, by managing some part of that wealthy trade which formerly had been monopolized by the Hanse or Easterlings. And she resolves not to be wanting to herself in building ships of such a burthen, and so fit for service, as might enable her in short time, not only to protect her merchants, but command the ocean. Of which the Spaniard found good proof to his great loss, and almost to his total ruin, in the last twenty years of her glorious government. And knowing right well that money was the sinew of war, she fell upon a prudent and present course to fill her coffers. Most of the monies in the kingdom were of foreign coinage, brought hither for the most part by the Easterling and Flemish merchants. These she called in by proclamation, dated the 15th of November, (being but two days before the end of this third year), commanding them to be brought to Her Majesty's Mint, there to be coined and take the stamp of her royal authority, or otherwise not to pass for current within this realm; which counsel took such good effect, that monies came flowing into the Mint, insomuch that there was weekly brought into the Tower of London, for the space of half a year together, 8000%., 10,000%., 12,0007., 16,0007., 20,0007., 22,0007., of silver plate, and as much more in pistols, and other gold of Spanish coins: which were great sums according to the standard of those early days, and 144 therefore no small profit to be growing to her by the coinage of 310 them?. Practices of the Genevian party. 13. The Genevians slept not all this while, but were as busily employed in practising upon the Church as were the Romanists in plotting against the Queen. Nothing would satisfy them but the nakedness and simplicity of the Zuinglian Churches, the new fashions taken up at Franckfort, and the ✓ Presbyteries of Geneva. According to the "pattern which they saw in those mounts," the Church of England is to be modelled; nor would the temple of Jerusalem have served their turn, if a new altar, fashioned by that which they found at Stow, 647. Camd. 70-1. Stow, 647. 2 1561. Damascus', might not have been erected in it. And they AN.REG.3, drove on so fast upon it, that in some places they had taken down the steps where the altar stood, and brought the holy table into the midst of the church; in others they had laid aside the ancient use of godfathers and godmothers in the administration of Baptism, and left the answering for the child to the charge of the father. The weekly fasts, the time of Lent, and all other days of abstinence by the Church commanded, were looked upon as superstitious observations. No fast by them allowed of but occasional only, and then too of their own appointing. And the like course they took with the festivals also, neglecting those which had been instituted by the Church, as human inventions, not fit to be retained in a Church reformed. And finally, that they might wind in their outlandish doctrines with such foreign usages, they had procured some of the inferior Ordinaries to impose upon their several parishes certain new books of sermons and expositions of the Holy Scripture, which neither were required by the Queen's Injunctions, nor by Act of Parliament. Some abuses also were discovered in the regular Clergy who served in churches of peculiar or exempt jurisdiction; amongst whom it began to grow too ordinary to marry all such as came unto them, without banns or licence, and many times not only without the privity, but against the express pleasure and command, of their parents. For which those churches past by the name of lawless churches' in the voice of the people2. 14. For remedy whereof it was found necessary by the Archbishop of Canterbury to have recourse unto the power which was given unto him by the Queen's Commission, and by a clause or passage of the Act of Parliament for the Uniformity of Common Prayer and Service in the Church, &c. As one of the Commissioners for causes ecclesiastical, he was authorized, with the rest of his associates, according to the statute made in that behalf, to "reform, redress, order, correct and amend all such errors, heresies, schisms, abuses, offences, contempts and enormities whatsoever," as might from time to time arise in the 1 2 Kings xvi. 10, seqq. The presbyterian Calderwood had applied the name of Altare Damascenum to the English Church. See i. 194. The statements of this paragraph appear to be derived from the paper of orders given below. 1561. AN. REG. 3, Church of England, and did require "to be redressed and reformed, to the pleasure of Almighty God, the increase of virtue, and conservation of the peace and unity of the kingdom1." And in the passage of the Act before remembered it was especially provided, "That all such ornaments of the Church, and of the Ministers thereof, should be retained and be in use, as were in the Church of England by authority of Parliament, in the second year of the reign of King Edward the Sixth, until further order should be therein taken by authority of the Queen's Majesty, with the advice of her Commissioners appointed and ordered under the Great Seal of England for causes ecclesiastical, or of the Metropolitan of this Realm. And also if there shall happen any contempt or irreverence to be used in the ceremonies or rites of the Church, by the misusing of the orders of the said Book of Common Prayer, the Queen's Majesty might, by the like advice of the said Commissioners or Metropolitan, ordain or publish such further ceremonies or rites, as should be most for the advance of God's glory, the edifying of His Church, and the due reverence of Christ's holy mysteries and sacraments3. Orders of the ers. 15. Fortified and assured by which double power, the Commission- Archbishop, by the Queen's consent, and the advice of some of the Bishops, commissionated and instructed to the same intent, sets forth a certain book of Orders, to be diligently observed and 14 executed by all and singular persons whom it might concern1. 311 In which it was provided: "That no Parson, Vicar, or Curate 2 "authorized." 1 Eliz. c. i. § 18. Sup. p. 284. * 1 Eliz. c. 2. § 24-5. These Orders-about which there had been much discussion between our author and Archbishop Williams, (Coal from the Altar, 22; Holy Table, 41)-do not appear in any of the histories or collections, and have been reprinted for the first time while the present edition was passing through the press. It seems, therefore, worth while to give them at full length, from the British Magazine for October, 1848 (vol. xxxiv. pp. 419-421), to which they were communicated by the Rev. W. Goode. (Comp. Grindal, ed. Park. Soc. 154.) "Orders taken the x day of October, in the third year of the reign of our Sovereign Lady Elizabeth, Queen of England, France, and Ireland, Defender of the Faith, &c. By virtue of Her Majesty's letters addressed to her Highness' Commissioners for Causes Ecclesiastical, as followeth : "INPRIMIS, for the avoiding of much strife and contention, that hath heretofore risen among the Queen's subjects in divers parts of the realm, 1561. of any exempt church, (commonly called lawless churches'), AN. REG. 3, should from thenceforth attempt to conjoin by solemnization of matrimony any not being of his or their parish-church, without for the using or transposing of the rood-lofts, fonts, and steps, within the queres and chancels in every parish-church-It is thus decreed and ordained, that the rood-lofts, as yet being at this day aforesaid untransposed, shall be so altered that the upper part of the same with the soller be quite taken down, unto the upper parts of the vautes, and beam running in length over the said vautes, by putting some convenient crest upon the said beam towards the church, with leaving the situation of the seats (as well in the quere as in the church), as heretofore hath been used. "Provided yet, that where any parish of their own costs and charges by common consent will pull down the whole frame, and reedifying again the same in joiner's work (as in divers churches within the city of London doth appear), that they may do as they think agreeable, so it be to the height of the upper beam aforesaid. 'Provided also, that where in any parish-church the said rood-lofts be already transposed, so that there remain a comely partition betwixt the chancel and the church, that no alteration be otherwise attempted in them, but be suffered in quiet. And where no partition is standing, there to be one appointed. "Also that the steps which be as yet at this day remaining in any cathedral, collegiate, or parish-church, be not stirred nor altered; but be suffered to continue, with the tombs of any noble or worshipful personage, where it so chanceth to be, as well in chancel, church, or chapel. And if in any chancel the steps be transposed, that they be not erected again, but that the place be decently paved, where the Communion-table shall stand out of the times of receiving the communion, having thereon a fair linen cloth, with some covering of silk, buckram, or other such like, for the clean keeping of the said cloth on the communion-board, at the cost of the parish. "And further, that there be fixed upon the wall, over the said communion-board, the tables of God's precepts, imprinted for the said purpose. "Provided yet that in Cathedral Churches the tables of the said precepts be more largely and costly painted out, to the better shew of the same. "Item, that all chancels be clean kept and repaired, within as without, in the windows and otherwhere as appertaineth. "Item, that the font be not removed from the accustomed place; and that in parish-churches the curates take not upon them to confer baptism in basens, but in the font customably used. "Item, that there be no destruction or alienation of the bells, steeple, or porch belonging to any parish-church, by the private authority of any person or persons, without sufficient matter shewed to the Archbishop of |