Henry A. D. 1540. Against Vows of priests' single As touching the other articles, they have no need of any long disputation. Vows that be wicked, feigned, and impossible, are not to be kept. There is no doubt but this is the common persuasion of all men touching vows, that all these will-works devised by man, are the true service and worship of God; and so think they, also, who speak most indifferently of them. Others add thereunto more gross errors, saying, that these works bring with them perfection, and merit everlasting life. Now all these opinions the Scripture in many places doth reprove. Christ saith, They worship me in vain with the precepts of men;1 and Paul saith, that these observations be the doctrine of Common devils, for they ascribe to the power and strength of man false honour, because cerning they are taken for the service of God: they obscure faith and the true worshipping of God. Item, the said Paul to the Colossians saith, 'Let no man deceive you by feigned humility,' &c. Why make you decrees," &c.? Wherefore these corrupt traditions of men are indeed a wicked and detestable service of God. life. error con VOWS. Unto these also are annexed many other corrupt and wicked abuses. The whole order of monkery, what superstition doth it contain! What profanations of masses, invocations of saints, colours and fashions of apparel, choice of meats, superstitious prayers without all measure! of which causes every one were why vows sufficient, why these vows ought to be broken. Besides this, a great part of men are drawn to this kind of life chiefly for the belly's sake, and then, afterwards, they pretend the holiness of their vow and profession. Causes ought to be bro ken. The six articles make the Vow of priests as straight as the vow of monks; contrary to their Furthermore, this vow of single life is not to all men possible to be kept, as Christ himself saith, All men do not receive this.' Such vows, therefore, which without sin cannot be performed, are to be undone : but these things I have discussed sufficiently in other of my works. But this causeth me much to marvel, that this vow of priests, in your English decree, is more strait and hard than is the vow of monks, whereas the canons themselves do bind a priest no further to single life, but only for the time that he remaineth in the ministry. And certainly it made my heart to tremble, when I read this article which so forbiddeth matrimony, and dissolveth the same, being contracted, and appointeth, moreover, the punishment of death for the same. Although there have been divers godly priests, who, in certain places, have been put to death for their marriage, yet hath never man hitherto own law. been so bold as to establish any such law. For every man in a manner well perceived, that all well disposed and reasonable persons would abhor that for priests' cruelty; and also they feared lest posterity would think evil thereof. Who would marriage, ever think that in the church of Christ, wherein all lenity toward the godly before ought most principally to be showed, such cruelties and tyranny could take articles. place, to set forth bloody laws, to be executed upon the godly for lawful matrimony? No law of death these Why priests' VOWS 'But they brake their vows,' will the bishops say: first, as I said, that vow ought not to stand, seeing it is turned to a false worship of God, and is imposought not sible to be kept. Again, although it stood in force, yet it should not extend to to stand. them that forsake the ministry. Finally, if the bishops, here, would have a care and regard to men's consciences, they should then ordain priests without any such profession or vow-making; as appeareth by the old canons, how that many were admitted to the ministry without professing of any vow; and the same afterwards, when they had married their wives, remained in the ministry, as is testified in the Distinctions.5 Bishops restrain priests' marriage, against ་ Certainly, of what I may here complain, I cannot tell. First, in this article I cannot impute it to ignorance, which they do; for no man is ignorant of the commandment of God, which saith, Let every man have his wife, for avoiding of fornication.' Again, who is so blind but he seeth what a life these unmarried all reason priests do live? The complaints of good men are well known. The filthiness of the wicked is too, too manifest. But, peradventure, your bishops, holding with the sect of epicures, do think God is not offended with filthy lusts: which if they so think, then do we sustain doubtless a hard cause, where such must be judges. and ex cuse. I am not ignorant that this single life is very fit to set out the glory and bravery of bishops, and colleges of priests, and to maintain their wealth and (1) Mark vii. 7. (3) Colos. ii. 18-20. (2) 1 Tim. iv. 1. VIII. A. D. 1540. portly state; and this I suppose to be the cause why some do abhor so much Henry that priests should be married. But, O lamentable state of the church! if laws should be so forced to serve, not the verity and the will of God, but the private gain and commodity of men! They err who think it lawful for them to make laws repugnant to the commandment of God, and to the law of nature, so that they be profitable to attain wealth and riches. And, of truth, from my very Unjust heart I do mourn and lament, right noble prince, both for your sake, and also laws servfor the cause of Christ's church. You pretend to impugn and gainstand the lucre of tyranny of the Romish bishop, and truly do call him Antichrist, as indeed he men is; and, in the mean time, you defend and maintain those laws of that Romish the glory Antichrist, which be the strength and sinews of all his power, as private masses, of God. single life of priests, and other superstitions. You threaten horrible punishments to good men, and to the members of Christ; you violently oppress and bear down the verity of the gospel, beginning to shine in your churches. This is not to abolish Antichrist, but to establish him. I beseech you, therefore, for our Lord Jesus Christ, that ye defile not your conscience in defending those articles which your bishops have devised and set forth, touching private masses, auricular confession, vows, single life of priests, and prohibition of the one half of the sacrament. It is no light offence to establish idolatry, errors, cruelty, the filthy lusts of Antichrist. If the Roman bishop should now call a council, what other articles chiefly would he devise and publish unto the world, but the very same which your bishops have here enacted? ing to the against in abusing Understand and consider, I pray you, the subtle trains and deceits of the Subtlety devil, who is wont first to set upon, and assail, the chief governors. And as he of Satan is the enemy of Christ from the beginning of the world, so his chiefest purpose the power is, by all crafty and subtle means, to work contumely against Christ, by sparsing of princes abroad wicked opinions, and setting up idolatry; and also in polluting mankind to mis with bloody murders and fleshly lusts: in the working whereof he abuseth the kingdom. policies and wits of hypocrites, also the power and strength of mighty princes; as stories of all times bear witness, what great kingdoms and empires have set themselves, with all might and main, against the poor church of Christ. tain princes. And yet, notwithstanding, God hath reserved some good princes at all times Example out of the great multitude of such giants, and hath brought them to his church, of good to embrace true doctrine, and to defend his true worship; as Abraham taught Abimelech, Joseph the Egyptian kings: and after them came David, Jehoshaphat, Hezekiah, Josiah, excelling in true godliness. Daniel converted to the knowledge of God, the kings of Chaldea and Persia: also Brittany brought forth unto the world the godly prince Constantine. In this number I wish you rather to be, than amongst the enemies of Christ, defiled with idolatry, and spotted with the blood of the godly; of whom God will take punishment, as he doth many times forewarn, and many examples do teach. Yet again therefore, I pray and beseech you, for our Lord Jesus Christ, that you will correct and mitigate this decree of the bishops; in doing which you shall advance the glory of Christ, and provide as well for the wealth of your own soul, as for the safeguard of your churches. Let the hearty desires of so many godly men through the whole world move you, so earnestly wishing that some good kings would extend their authority to the true reformation of the church of God, to the abolishing of all idolatrous worship, and the furthering of the course of the gospel. Regard also, and consider, I beseech you, those godly persons who are with you in bands for the gospel's sake, being the true members of Christ. struments And if that cruel decree be not altered, the bishops will never cease to rage against the church of Christ, without mercy or pity for them the devil useth as instruments and ministers of his fury and malice against Christ. These he stirreth up to slay and kill the members of Christ: whose wicked and cruel The de proceedings, and subtle sophistications, that you will not prefer before our true vil's inand most righteous request, all the godly most humbly and heartily do pray by whom and beseech you. Which if they shall obtain, no doubt but God shall recom- he work pense to you great rewards for your piety; and your excellent virtue shall be renowned both by pen and voice of all the godly, while the world standeth. For Christ shall judge all them that shall deserve either well or evil of his (1) He meaneth Shaxton, Latimer, Cromer, and others. eth. VIII. Henry church and while letters shall remain, the memorial worthy of such noble deserts shall never die or be forgotten with the posterity to come. And seeing we seek the glory of Christ, and that our churches are the churches of Christ, there shall never be wanting such as both shall defend the righteous cause, and magnify, with due commendation, such as have well deserved, and likewise shall condemn the unjust cruelty of the enemies. A. D. 1540. Livingus, priest, wife. Christ goeth about hungry, thirsty, naked, imprisoned, complaining of the raging fury of the bishops, and of the wrongful oppression and cruelty of divers kings and princes, entreating that the members of his body be not rent in pieces, but that true churches may be defended, and his gospel advanced. This request of Christ to hear, to receive, and to embrace, is the office of a godly king, and service most acceptable unto God. Treating a little before, of certain old instruments for proof of and his priests' lawful marriage in times past, I gave a little touch of a certain record taken out of an old martyrology of the church of Canterbury, touching Livingus a priest, and his wife, in the time of Lanfranc wherein I touched, also, of certain lands and houses restored again by the said Lanfranc to the church of St. Andrew. Now, forasmuch as the perfect note thereof is more fully come to my hands; and partly considering the restoring of the said lands to be to Christ's church in Canterbury, and not to St. Andrew's in Rochester; and, also, for that I have found some other precedents approving the lawful marriage of priests, and legitimation of their children, I thought good, for the more full satisfying of the reader, to enter the same, as followeth : A deacon wife, hath adjudged tard. A Note out of an old Martyrology of Canterbury. Obiit Gulielmus rex Anglorum, &c. Hic reddidit ecclesiæ Christi omnes fere terras, &c.: that is, After the death of William king of England, the said Lanfranc restored again to Christ's church in Canterbury all the lands which from ancient memory unto these latter days have been taken away from the right of the said church. The names of which lands be these: in Kent, Reculver, Sandwich, Richborow, Wootton, the abbey of Lyming, with the lands and customs unto the same monastery belonging, Saltwood, &c. (Stoke and Denentum, because they belonged of old time to the church of St. Andrew, them he restored to the same church), in Surrey, Mortlake; the abbey of St. Mary in London, with the lands and houses which Livingus, priest, and his wife, had in London. All these Lanfranc restored again for the health of his own soul, freely, and without money, &c.1 A Note, for the Legitimation of Priests' Children. Note, that in the nineteenth year of this king, in an assize at Warwick, before taketh a sir Guy Fairfax, and sir John Vavasour, it was found, by verdict, that the father issue and of the tenant had taken the order of deacon, and after married a wife, and had dieth: issue; the tenant died, and the issue of the tenant did enter. Upon whom the the issue plaintiff did enter, as next heir collateral to the father of the tenant; Upon not a bas- whom he did re-enter, &c.; and, for difficulty, the justices did adjourn the assize. And it was debated in the exchequer chamber: If the tenant shall be a bastard,' &c. And here, by advice, it was adjudged that he shall not be a bastard, &c. Frowick, chief justice, said to me, in the nineteenth year of opinion Henry the Seventh, in the Common Place, that he was of counsel in this matter, that the and that it was adjudged as before; which Vavasour did grant. And Frowick issue of a said, that if a priest marry a wife, and hath issue and dieth, his issue shall inpriest herit; for that the espousals be not void, but voidable. Vavasour: If a man take a nun to wife, this espousal is void.` Frowick's shall in herit. (1) Ex Archivis Eccl. Cant. (2) Ex Termino Michael. anno 21, Hen. VII. fol. 39, p. 2. VIII Note that in the latter impression of Henry the Seventh's "Years Henry of the Law," this word "priest," in this case aforesaid, in some books is left out; whether of purpose or by negligence, I leave it to the A.D. reader to judge.' 1540. nalty of declared. Concerning these six articles passed in this act aforesaid, in the 21st The peyear of this king Henry VIII., sufficiently hitherto hath been declared; the six first, what these articles were: secondly, by whom, and from whom articles they chiefly proceeded: thirdly, how erroneous, pernicious, repugnant, and contrarious to true doctrine, christian religion, and the word of God, to nature also itself, all reason and honesty, and finally to the ancient laws, customs, and examples of our fore-elders, during the days of a thousand years after Christ they were. Fourthly, ye have heard also what unreasonable and extreme penalty was set upon the same, that a man may deem these laws to be written not with the ink of Stephen Gardiner, but with the blood of a dragon, or rather Draconis the claws of the devil; the breach whereof was made no less than leges sanguine treason and felony, and no less punishment assigned thereto than scripta. death. Besides all this, the words of the act were so curious and subtle, that no man could speak, write, or cipher against them, without present danger; yea, scarcely a man might speak any word of Christ and his religion, but he was in peril of these six articles. Over and besides, the papists began so finely to interpret the act, that they spared not to indite men for abusing their countenance and behaviour Potestas in the church so great was the power of darkness in those days. And thus much concerning this act. AN ACT AGAINST FORNICATION OF PRIESTS. tenebrarum. against Besides these six articles in this aforesaid act concluded, there was An act also another constitution annexed withal, not without the advice (as fornicamay seem) of the lord Cromwell, which was this: that priests and tion of un (1) Another Note, for Legitimation of Priests' Children. Ad curiam generalem D. Philippi et D. Mariæ Dei gratia, &c. xvi. die Julii, anno reg. dict. regis et reginæ, primo et tertio irrotulatur sic. Præsentatum est per totum homagium quod Simon Heynes clericus diu ante istam curiam, vid. per duos annos jam elapsos, fuit seisitus secundum consuetudinem hujus manerii in Dominico suo ut de feodo, de et in 2. arabilis terræ parcellis de xxxv. acris et dimid. terræ, nuper in tenura Johannis Heynes. Ac de et in uno tenemento vocato Bernardes, nuper in tenura Johannis Cotton. Ac de et in lvii. acris et ii. rodis terræ et pasturæ, sive plus sive minus, prout jacent in campis de Myldenhal prædicta in diversis peciis, ut patet in curia hic tenta die Jovis proximo post festum Sancti Luca Evangelista, an. regni regis Henrici viii. xxxviii. Nec non de et in xii. acris terræ nativæ jacentibus in Townefield et Twamelfield in diversis peciis. Ac de et in quatuor acris et dimidio terræ jacent. in Myldenhal præd. Ac de et in quinque rodis terræ jacent. in Halywelfield. Quapropter præmissa idem Simon nuper habuit ex sursum redditione Willielmi Heynes, prout patet in curia hic tenta die Martis proximo post dominicam in Albis an. reg. regis Ed. vi. primo. Et sic seisitus idem Simon de omnibus supradict. præmissis, inde obiit solus seisitus. Et quod Joseph Heynes est filius et hæres ejus propinquior, et modo ætatis quinque annorum et amplius. Qui quidem Joseph præsens hic in curia in propria persona sua petit se admitti ad omnia supradict. præmissa tanquam ad jus et hæred. suam. Et D. rex. et de regina ex gratia sua speciali, per Clementem Heigham militem Seneschallum suum, concesserunt ei inde seisinam tenend. sibi, hæred, et assignat. ejus, per virgam ad voluntatem dict. D. regis et D. reginæ secundum consuetudinem hujus manerii, per servitia et redditus inde debita, &c. Salvo jure, &c. Et dat. Dom. regi et D. reginæ v. li. de fine pro ingressu suo habendo, et fidelitas inde respectuatur quousque, &c. Et ulterius consideratum est per curiam quod dict. Joseph est infra ætatem ut præfertur. Ideo determinatum est et concessum est per consensum curiæ quod Johanna Heynes nuper uxor præd. Simonis, ac mater præd. Joseph habebit custodiam ejusdem Joseph, quousque idem Joseph pervenerit ad suam legitimam ætatem. (a) Note that this Simon Heynes, a doctor and priest, is not called otherwise here in form of law than 'clericus,' as in the evidences before other priests are called. (b) Note that the opinion of Frowick hath alway been taken to be law, as may appear by this president that passed before sir Clement Heigham being learned in the law, and chief baron of the exchequer in the time of the late queen Mary. married priests. VIII. 1540. Henry ministers of the church, seeing now they would needs themselves be bound from all matrimony, should therefore, by law, be likewise bound A.D. to such honesty and continency of life, that carnally they should use and accustom no manner of woman, married or single, by way of advoutry, or fornication; the breach whereof for the first time, was to forfeit goods, and to suffer imprisonment at the king's pleasure: and for the second time, being duly convicted, it was made felony, as the others were. In this constitution, if the lord Cromwell, and other good men of the parliament, might have had their will, there is no doubt but the first crime of these concubinary priests, as well as the second, had had the same penalty as the other six articles had, and should have been punished with death. But Stephen Gardiner, with his fellow bishops, who then ruled all the roast, so boasted this extraordinary article with their accustomed shifts, that if they were taken and duly convicted for their not 'castè,' nor cautè,' at first time it was but forfeit of goods. Also, for the second conviction or attainder they so provided that, the next year following, that punishment and pain of death, by act of parliament was clean wiped away and repealed. And why so?" Because," saith the statute, "that punishment by pain of death is very sore, and much extreme; therefore it pleaseth the king, with the assent of the lords, that that clause above written, concerning felony, and pains of death, and other penalties and forfeitures, for and upon the first and second conviction or attainder of any priest or woman for any such offences aforesaid, shall be from The act henceforth void, and of none effect," &c. So that by this statute it qualified, was provided, for all such votaries as lived in whoredom and adultery, for the first offence to lose his goods, and all his spiritual promotions, except one; for the second, to forfeit all that he had to the king; for the third conviction, to sustain continual imprisonment. and after what manner. The manifest of the pope's doctrine disclosed. In these ungodly proceedings of the pope's catholic clergy, two things we have to note. First, The horrible impiety of their doctrine, directly fighting impiety against the express authority of God and his word, forasmuch as that which God permitteth, they restrain; that which he bids they forbid. "Habeat," saith he; "non habeat," say they; taking exceptions against the word of the Lord. That which he calleth honourable and undefiled, they call heresy; that which he commandeth and instituteth, they punish with pains of death. Not only the priests that marry, but them also that say or cipher that a priest may marry, at the first they kill as felons; neither can any "miserere" take place for chaste and lawful wedlock; whereas, contrariwise, a spiritual man may thrice defile his neighbour's wife, or thrice, his brother's daughter, and no felony at all be laid to his charge. What is this in plain words to say, but that it is less sin thrice to commit advoutry, than once to marry? Dilemma against votaries The second to be noted is, how these painted hypocrites do bewray their false dissembled dealings unawares, with whom a man might that will thus reason. Tell us, you priests and votaries! who so precisely flee the state of matrimony, intend you to live chaste, and are you able so to do without wives? Do you keep yourselves chaste and not marry. (1) Stat. an. 22. Reg. Hen. S. cap. 10. |