cede with his eminence, that, pursuant to the powers granted MARY. by his holiness, he would please to prefer the benefit of the community to all private regards, and give up the claim of those estates which might otherwise be insisted on by the spiritualty or religious; and that the lord cardinal legate would relax upon these points either wholly or in part, at his discretion. Only we desire his eminence would show himself easy and gentle upon this occasion; declaring withal, that whatever shall be done by him in the premises shall be taken as confirmed by our consent. And farther: we humbly intreat your majesties that those branches of ecclesiastical jurisdiction, without which we are in no condition to execute our functions and assist our charge, and which have been wrested from us by the injustice of the late times, may be restored. And that all those laws which disable us in our business, and check our spiritual commission, may be repealed, to the honour of God and your majesties, and the common benefit, both temporal and eternal, of the whole realm." This address was put in the cardinal's hands by the lord chancellor, the prolocutor, and six other members of the lower house. This set the cardinal at ease in some measure, and discharged him from pressing so unacceptable a condition as restoring the Church lands. The temporalty would certainly have broken with him upon this article; for, as Fox writes, the parliament had lately dispatched an express to the pope, to desire his holiness to confirm the alienations of the abbey and chantry lands; and that without satisfaction in this particular, there would be no concessions on their part. After complying upon this head, the parliament in their bill move, by way of address to their majesties, that the cardinal by virtue of his legatine commission may dispense in the follow cases : 1 & 2 Philip and Mary, cap. 8. Fox, p. 113. the statutes First. "That all bishoprics, cathedral churches, hospitals, 4 repeal of colleges, schools, and other such foundations, made by autho- against the rity of parliament, or otherwise legally established since the see of Rome. schism, may be confirmed and continued. “That marriages made within the prohibited degrees of consanguinity, affinity, spiritual relation, or which might be made. void 'propter impedimentum publicæ honestatis justitiæ,' or upon the score of any other canonical restraint, may be confirmed, and the issue declared legitimate. 14 376. CRAN MER, "That institutions of benefices, and other promotions eccleAbp. Cant. siastical, and dispensations made according to the form of the act of parliament, may be likewise confirmed. "That all judicial processes made before any ordinaries of this realm, or before any delegates upon any appeals, according to the order of the laws of the realm, may be likewise ratified and confirmed." And finally, "That all lands, goods, or chattels, belonging to archbishoprics, bishoprics, abbeys, priories, chantries, and colleges, settled on the crown by act of parliament, and from thence conveyed to the subject, by gift, purchase, exchange, &c., should remain uncontested in their present condition; and that no proprietor should be disturbed by the revival of any claim on the Church's behalf; and that no suits might be commenced, or censures inflicted, upon this score, either by authority from the pope, a general council, or on pretence of 1 & 2 Philip any canon, or ecclesiastical constitution whatsoever." and Mary, cap. 8. The cardinal's dispensation, inserted in the body of the act, gratified the parliament in all these particulars. But though the Church lands are wholly given up without the least inuendo of any farther reckoning, yet in the close of the instrument the cardinal puts them in mind of the danger of sacrilege, and how much they are concerned to restore the goods of the Church, meaning the plate and ornaments. He exhorts them likewise to see a competent provision made for those cures which have been lately stripped of their maintenance. This dispensation is confirmed by the act. There is likewise a confirmation of all abbey, chantry, and bishops' lands conveyed to king Henry VIII. and king Edward VI., by act of parliament or any other legal assurance; and it is made premunire to form any process in any ecclesiastical court within the realm, or without, contrary to the laws of England, or to molest any person for any lands, manors, &c., above-mentioned. It is farther enacted, "That archbishops, bishops, and other spiritual persons having jurisdiction, and no lay person, shall execute spiritual authority in places exempt." After which follows a clause for saving the customary privileges of both the universities, of the churches of Westminster, Windsor, and the Tower; and that those lords of manors who formerly enjoyed probate of testimony should lose nothing by this statute; and lastly, to make the Church some recompense for of the lower convocation what had been taken away in the two late reigns, the statute MARY. of Mortmain is suspended or dispensed with for twenty years. This act declares the title of supreme head never rightfully belonged to the crown'. However, all instruments in which that style had been used should be of force, and that all writings since the queen's accession to the crown, where that addition had been omitted, should likewise pass for legal forms. And as to the jurisdiction of the pope, bishops, and ordinaries, it was to be enlarged to the same extent in which it might lawfully have been exercised in the twentieth year of king Henry VIII. Before I take leave of this act, it may not be improper to acquaint the reader with an address which the lower house of An address convocation made to the upper. The design of it was to move house of for something towards an equivalent for giving up the Church for recoverlands. In short, this address, though not fully answered, seems ing the pri vileges of the to have been considered in several statutes made this reign. Church. The substance of the address digested into twenty-eight articles is as follows:-They intreat the bishops to take care that, in giving their concurrence to the settlement of the Church lands upon the laity, nothing might pass to the prejudice of any bishop, or any other ecclesiastical person, with respect to any legal right, title, or interest. And whereas by a statute made in the first year of king Edward VI., for suppressing chantries, colleges, &c., there was a proviso for the erecting schools and hospitals in several parts of the kingdom, which had hitherto not been performed, they request their lordships to move the king, the queen, and cardinal, that this clause may be made good, to the full meaning of the statute. Further, the address solicits that tithes and oblations lately alienated may be returned to the Church, and all impropriations, excepting such as are settled for the maintenance of the clergy, of universities, and schools, may be dissolved by act of parliament, and the revenues restored to the parochial churches. They suggest farther, that the lands and endowments of prebends have been lately alienated from cathedrals, and impropriated benefices settled in lieu of them, to the decay of hospitality and great damage of the Church; they desire their lordships therefore to exert themselves for redressing this grievance. They likewise move that the statute of Mortmain made in the Thus Mary wilfully threw away that birthright of supremacy which her father so gallantly rescued from the grasp of a foreign despotism. VOL. VI. H MER, CRAN- seventh year of king Edward I., and another to the same purAbp. Cant. pose passed in the fifteenth year of king Richard II., may be repealed. 377. After these preliminary requests, the address proceeds to the mention of twenty-eight articles for the reformation of the Church in doctrine, discipline, and worship. I shall just touch some of the most remarkable. First, they declare their intention of coming to a resolution, whether those who have preached heretical and seditious doctrine shall be called before their ordinaries, and obliged to a public recantation; and whether any process shall be formed against them pursuant to the canons of the Church. They move the lords spiritual, "That the late archbishop Cranmer's book written against the sacrament of the altar, the schismatical Common Prayer-book and ordinal, the translations of the Bible recited in a statute made in the reign of king Henry VIII., and all other books containing any heretical doctrine, may be burnt; and all persons who have such books required to bring them in to the ordinary, or otherwise to be reputed abettors of such tenets; that no such books may be printed or sold within the realm, or imported from foreign parts, under heavy penalties; that the statutes against heretics, Lollards, and preachers of false doctrine, may be revived; and that all bishops and other ordinaries may be restored to the same jurisdiction they enjoined in the first year of king Henry VIII. That the statutes allowing pluralities and non-residence may be repealed; that simoniacal contracts may be strictly inquired into and punished, and that patrons may lose the presentation during their lives for such indirect management. That the Church, with respect to liberty, authority, and jurisdiction, may be restored to the benefit of Magna Charta, or, at least, that these privileges may be recovered to the condition they were in the first year of king Henry VIII.; and that the intolerable burthen of first-fruits, tenths, and subsidies, may be discharged. That no attachment of præmunire may be awarded against any ecclesiastical ordinary before the bringing a prohibition; and that the king and queen would please to command the temporal judges to explain the statutes of præmunire, to state the subject, and give a full recital of the cases in which any person is liable to that penalty. That the statutes of provisors may not be wrested to illegal constructions, nor stretched beyond the proper sense and meaning of the words. That the MARY. statute of the submission of the clergy made in the twenty-fifth of Henry VIII., and all others made since the first year of that prince in derogation of ecclesiastical jurisdiction, may be repealed. That all places exempt may be put under the jurisdiction of their spiritual ordinaries. That the pleas concerning tithes within the city and liberties of London may not be tried before the lord mayor; but that the cognizance of this matter may be returned to the bishops' court, pursuant to ancient usage. That tithes may be paid according to the canon law; and that abbey-lands exempted from payment of tithes may be assigned to proper parishes, and chargeable with the payment of personal tithes in cities and elsewhere, as was usually done in the twenty-first year of king Henry VIII.; that such priests as were lately married, and refused to disengage themselves for their functions, may have some uncreditable distinction put upon them, and that women who married after monastic vows may be divorced. That all ecclesiastical persons who of their own voluntary motion had rifled or defaced any churches might Ex MSS. be obliged to refund and make reparation." Coll. Cor. C. Cantab. The statutes against To proceed; the statutes for suppressing and punishing of heresy in the reigns of Richard II., Henry IV., and Henry V., heresy are revived. revived. cap. 5. 1 & 2 Philip The commons passed a bill for voiding all leases made by mar- 2 Henry 4, ried priests; but the lords, being aware several alterations of cap. 15. 2 Henry 5, church-lands might suffer by such a provision, threw out the bill. cap. 7. The other acts, relating wholly to the state, I shall pass and Mary, over: this parliament was dissolved, as it is said, on the six- cap. 6. teenth of January; and, on the twenty-fifth following, there was a solemn procession in London, to give God thanks for the kingdom's return to the Catholic Church. The solemnity was ornamented with ninety crosses: there were eight bishops, and a hundred and sixty priests and clerks, richly habited. The lord mayor, the aldermen, and the common council made part of the appearance. When the procession was over, they returned to mass, at St. Paul's, where the king and cardinal were present. The printed statutes assign the dissolution of the parliament to the sixteenth of January, but it is possible the first figure might be mistaken; for the learned Heylin writes they were dissolved on the twenty-sixth. Fox seems to have been of the |