(85.) Receipt for 1126l. 11s. contributed by way of loan, by the Knights, Gentlemen of Surrey, &c. for the use of Frederick Elector Palatine and King of Bohemia, and of his Queen Elizabeth, daughter of James I. The marriage of this Prince with our English Princess, in 1613, had cost the King, or rather the Nation, 100,000l. The Elector's acceptance of the Bohemian crown, in 1619, afforded a pretext* in the following year for a Benevolence to support him against the powers who opposed his elevation. 18: 8bris (Octobris) 1620. Wee underwritten, the Ambassador extraordinary, and the Agent for the King of Bohemia, do acknowledge to have receaved from the hands of Sr George Moore, Sr Edmund Bowyer, Sir Nicholas Carew, Sir Francis Stidolph, Sr Thomas Gresham, and Sr George Stoughton, Knights, and Francis Drake and John Howard, Esqrs. the summe of eleven hundreth twenty sixe pounds eleven shillings sterling, being monyes contributed by way of loane by the Knights, Gentlemen, and others of that County of Surrey, to and for the use of the King and Queene of Bohemia. Witness or hands, the daie and yeare above written. [1126li 11s 4d]. ABRA' WILLIAMS. Since that receipt aforesayd I have receaved from Sr George More, Knight, ye som'e of forty pounds for the service above mentioned. Witness my hand, ABRA' WILLIAMS. * Vide Tindal's Rapin, vol. ii. p, 201. (86.) Policy of Elizabeth in maintalning the principles of the Reformation; the Ecclesiastical Commission, Popish Recusants, Sectaries, &c. Elizabeth, on her accession to the Throne in 1559, found the Realm in a most divided state relative to matters of Religion. Mary had, to the utmost of her power, reversed all that the pious Edward had effected for the liberation of men's consciences from the errors inculcated and maintained by the Church of Rome, and the arbitrary dominion over them which it assumed, as of divine right. Surrounded by the enemies of the Reformed Church on all sides, she found herself constrained for its safety, that of her Government, and even of her own life,* to adopt a *The extent of this danger, and the loyalty of the English to their Protestant Queen, may be gathered from a MS. in this collection, intituled, "The Declaration of an Association entered into by several persons of Surrey, for the preservation of the life of Queen Elizabeth, which hath been most traitorouslie and devilishlie sought, and the same followed most daungerouslie to the perill of her person, if Almighty God, her perpetual defender, had not revealed and withstood the same." The subscribers to the above instrument, in language for which the extent of the danger, and malice of the disaffected, may form the best apology, "vow, in the presence of the eternal and everlasting God, to prosecute such person or persons to the death, with their joint or particular forces, and to take the uttermost revenge of them, by any means they can devise for their overthrow and extirpation." The paper is signed by the principal gentry and other persons of the county of Surrey; about 180 names in all. We have been informed by the Deputy Keeper of the State Papers, Robert Lemon, Esq. F.S.A. (a gentleman so well read in historical MSS.) that a similar declaration is extant in the archives of that department, signed vigorous policy, and to restrain with severity, whether Romanists or Puritans, the enemies of the newly established Church.* The Romanists were ready to embrace any opportunity which might offer, to restore the secular power of their Pontiff within the Realm of England; the by the whole of the Privy Council. Another, to the same effect, is printed in the Harleian Miscellany, to which is assigned the date 1585. * We have found among the MSS. the following paper; is it to be wondered at, that the religion which could sanction such barbarities should, on its losing its secular power in this kingdom, subject the loyalty of its votaries to suspicion, their persons and property to some legislative severities? We say this without wishing to justify, in all instances, a retaliation; which bore, however, no proportion to the cruelties from which it had its rise. "The names of the Shyrefes of Surrye and Sussex that dyd burne the Inosents, wth the names of such whom they brent. "Imp'imis, the second yere of the reygne of Quene Marye, Mr. John Coveart, being Shyref, dyd burne Dyreke Harman, John Sander, Thomas Everson, and Richard Hooke. "Item, (the thyrd yere,) Mr. Wyll'm Sanders, being Shyref, dyd borne Thomas Harland, John Osward, Thomas a Rede, Thomas Havington, Thomas Hoode, mynyster, John A'Myll, Thomas Donget, John Foxeman, Mother Tree, John Hart, Thomas Randalle, Nycoles Holden, wt a Show maker [shoemaker], and a Coryer [Currier]. "It'm, (the fowarth yere,) Sr Edward Gage, (being Shyref,) dyd borne Stevene Grotwyke, Wyllym Morant, Thomas King, Richard Wodman, George Stevens, Margret Mores, James Mores, Dyenes Burges, Wylyam Maynard, Alexander Hosmar, servant, Thomas Ashedowne's wyf, and Grove's wyf." Thus about thirty persons, in the county of Surrey only, were consigned for imputed heresy to the stake. Puritans denounced the reformed religion as a remnant of the old corrupt system which had been so lately, but, as they asserted, imperfectly subverted. Illustrations of the above line of policy on the part of the Queen, are evident in various documents preserved at Loseley. The first is a transcript of the "Grand Commission Ecclesiastical for the whole Realm." Among the Commissioners named are the Archbishop of Canterbury, the Bishops of London, Winchester, Ely, Worcester, St. David's, Norwich, Chichester, Rochester, the Bishop Suffragan of Dover, Thomas Smyth, Francis Walsingham, Thomas Godwin, Alexander Nowell, John Whitgift, Thomas Bromley, &c. The instrument was published under the Great Seal, and tested by the Queen at Gorhambury on the 23d of April, in the 18th year of her reign (A. D. 1576). It first recites what are termed "the four Statutes," 1st. "The Acte for restoryng to the Crowne the auncient jurisdycon over the State Ecclesyastycall and Spyreytuale, and abolyshinge of all foreign powere repugnant to the same;" that constitutional principle on which the independence of our monarchy, and our real liberties, have by all subsequent experience been found to be based. 2d. The "Acte for the unyformytye of Common Prayer and Service of the Churche, and admynystrac'on of the Sacraments;" by which our most admirable Liturgy was established in its present form. 3d. "An Act for the assurance of the Queenes Majesties royall power over all states and subjects within hyr Domynyons." 4th." An Acte to reforme certeyn dysorders toching mynysters of the Churche." The Commissioners are empowered to inquire by jury, by witnesses, and "other ways and means," into all infractions of the above Statutes; into all singular, heritical, erroneous, and offensive opinions, seditious books, contempts, conspiracies, false rumours, slanderous words, &c.; into enormities, disturbances, misbehaviours, frays, &c. committed in any church, chapel, or churchyard; to order, correct, reform, and punish any persons wilfully and obstinately absenting themselves from church, and such Divine service as by the Laws and Statutes of the Realm is there appointed to be said. The penalties prescribed for such misdemeanours by the Act of Uniformity, to be levied by the Churchwardens for the benefit of the poor of their respective parishes; to punish incests, adulteries, fornications, disorders in marriages, &c. Power is given to the Commissioners to fine and imprison offenders; the obstinate to be visited with excommunication, and other ecclesiastical censures; bond or recognizance to be taken for the appearance of offenders; the oath of supremacy prescribed by the first of the four Statutes recited is to be tendered; the refusal by any individual to take such oath to be certified to the Court of King's Bench. To all processes, orders, &c. issued by the Commissioners, or any three of them, a seal is to be affixed, engraved with the rose surmounted by the crown, the letters E. R. on either side the same, and round the circumference this legend, Sigil: Com'issar: Reg: Ma: ad cas': Eccli'ast. * Original documents have been selected to shew how * We have taken the liberty to pass over without entire transcription many of these documents; among them several informations taken by Sir William More respecting sectaries, which shew that, as most human measures, essentially good, are subject to some alloy of evil, so schism and fanaticism began early to assail the English Reformed Church. The most active fanatical sects of the day were, we believe, those styled the Family of Love and the Anabaptists. We have selected, from a string of absurd and ridiculous tenets recorded in the MSS. |