MEMOIRS OF QUEEN MARY'S DAYS; WHEREIN THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND, AND ALL THE INHABITANTS MAY PLAINLY SEE (If God hath not suffered them to be infatuated) AS IN A GLASS, THE SAD EFFECTS WHICH FOLLOW A POPISH SUCCESSOR ENJOYING THE CROWN OF ENGLAND. TH Humbly tendered to the consideration of, &c. HE first remarkable passage in Queen Mary's (popish) reign, was her wicked dissimulation with the men of Suffolk, to get herself into the throne, and breach of her faith and word, after she had obtained it, thus:.. As soon as she heard of her brother King Edward's death, and that he had by his will, with the consent of his council, excluded her, and nominated the Lady Jane to succeed (the said Queen Mary having been before bastardised by her father King Henry VIII.) she, under pretence of fearing infection, rode forty miles in one day, and removed from Norfolk to her castle of Frummingham in Suffolk, where, taking upon her the title of queen, she pretended to all the nobility and gentry of those countries, That, if they would give her their assistance, she would make no alteration in religion;' thereupon came to her the Earls of Oxford, Bath, and Sussex, Lord Wentworth, John Mordaunt, and Thomas Wharton, barons, eldest sons, and several knights, and many others of Norfolk and Suffolk, with whom she conditioned and agreed, That she would not attempt, in any wise, the least alteration of religion established by her brother, King Edward VI.' She, by this trick, being thus assisted, wrote her letter to the lords of the council, wherein she claimed the crown, and required them to proclaim her Queen of England, in the City of London, which in a short time was done. As soon as she got into the throne, her fair promises proved false deceits; for she immediately (the very next day) broke her word with them, and, in a short time, those of the diocese in Suffolk, whom she thus wheedled to assist her, tasted the sharpest persecution under her *Printed in the year 1681. reign; for she was so far from keeping her promises and conditions, made either with them, or any others, in matters of religion, that she acted quite contrary, as appears by the sequel of her sad and bloody reign. I. It was on the third of August, anno 1553, that Queen Mary rode through London to the Tower, and, the very next day, she set up Stephen Gardner, the bloody persecutor of the Protestants, in the bishoprick of Winchester, and a few days after made him High-chancellor of England. This was that cruel man that the Duke of Norfolk came to dine with, who would not go to dinner till four of the clock in the afternoon, because he would first have the news of Bishop Ridley's and Latimer's being burnt; of whose death, by God's heavy judgment on him, you may read further in our chronologies. 2. The fifth of August (two days after her coming to London) she turns out the Protestant Bishops of London and Durham, and re-established Bonner (that blood-thirsty miscreant) Bishop of London, and Tunstall Bishop of Durham. You see her first act was to displace bishops of the church of England, and put bloody popish persecutors in their room, who worried and destroyed the poor Protestants. 3. The fifteenth of September after, Mr. Latimer and Dr. Cranmer, Archbishop of Canterbury, with others, were arraigned and condemned. 4. Presently after her coronation, which was the first of October, she pretended to shew mercy by a general pardon, which, says my au. thor, was so interlaced with exceptions of matters and persons, that very few received benefit thereby; so even that, with all the rest, was a meer cheat. 5. It was not only the Protestant clergy that she dealt thus withal, but even with the judges too; for Sir James Hales, one of the justices of the Common Pleas, who had been her friend, and stood for her succession, yet he, for giving charge at a quarter sessions in Kent, upon the statutes of Henry VIII. and Edward VI. in derogation of the primary of Rome, was first committed to the King's Bench, then to the Compter, then to the Fleet, where he grew so troubled in mind, that he attempted, with a pen-knife, to kill himself, and at last did drown himself. 6. In this her first year, she also caused a synod to be assembled about matters of religion, who restored the Romish religion, and the mass commanded to be celebrated after the Romish manner. 3 7. The fourth of February, in the said year, John Rodgers, the first martyr of these times, was burnt at London. 8. February the ninth, John Hooper, late Bishop of Worcester, was burnt at Gloucester. J 9. Robert Ferrer, Bishop of Man, was burnt at Caermarthen; after him John Bradford, with many others, was burnt. 10. October the Sixteenth, 1554, those two famous men, Ridley late Bishop of London, and Latimer, late Bishop of Worcester (no less famous for their constant deaths, than their religious lives) were most inhumanly and barbarously burnt at Oxford, after they had first been conveighed from the Tower thither, upon pretence to dispute with the Romanists about the real presence in the sacrament, 11. The next worthy thing, that this popish successor did, was to set up the pope's supremacy amongst us; for, as soon as she was mar ried to King Philip, she sent to Rome for Cardinal Poole, to come into England, who came invested with great authority as the pope's legate a latere, who made a solemn speech to the parliament, exhorting them to return to the bosom of the church, for which end he was come to reconcile them to the church of Rome; and, for their first work of reconcilement, he required them to repeal and abrogate all such laws as had been formerly made in derogation of the catholick religion. Upon which speech the parliament begged pardon for their former errors, and told the queen, they were most ready to abrogate all laws prejudicial to the see of Rome. And thereupon the cardinal gives them absolution in these words: [We, by the apostolical authority given unto us by the most holy lord, Pope Julius III. (Christ's vicegerent on earth) do absolve and deliver you, and every of you, with the whole realm and the dominions thereof, from all heresy and schism, and from all judgments, censures, and pains in that case incurred; and also we do restore you again to the unity of our mother, the holy church.] The report hereof, coming to Rome, was cause of a solemn procession made for joy of the conversion of England to the church of Rome. And thus was all the kingdom of England turned papists in one day, by having a popish successor. 12. March, 1555, the queen called to her four of her privy-council, and signified unto them, That it went against her conscience to hold the lands and possessions as well of monasteries and abbies, as of other churches; and therefore did freely relinquish them, and leave them to be disposed as the pope and the said cardinal should think fit.' And shortly after, in performance hereof, John Fecknam, late dean of St. Paul's, was made abbot of Westminster, and the lands belonging to it. 13. Before this, Stephen Gardner, the queen's great creature, uses malicious practices against the Lady Elisabeth, the queen's only sister and next heir to the crown, and endeavoured very much to take away her life, she being a Protestant. He laid all the snares for her that he could invent, and, at last, by his procurement, the lady was kept in hard durance, and a warrant, at last, was framed under certain counsellors hands to put her to death; and had been done, but that Mr. Bridges, lieutenant of the Tower, pitying her case, went to the queen about it, who denied that she knew any thing of it, by which means her life was preserved; this bloody persecutor, Gardner, saying at the council. board, My lords, we have but all this while been stripping off the leaves, and now and then lopped a branch; but, till we strike at the root of heresy (meaning the Lady Elisabeth) nothing can be effected to purpose.' 14. All beneficed men of the clergy that were married, or would not forsake the Protestant religion the first year of her reign, were put out of their livings, and Romanists put in their room. 15. On the twenty-seventh of August, in the same year, the service begun to be sung in Latin, in St. Paul's church. 16. The same year the pope's authority was restored in England, and the mass was commanded in all churches to be used. 17. In her fourth year, monasteries were begun to be re-edified and restored, and, had she but reigned long enough, undoubtedly, she would have had all the abby-lands in England restored, had not death put a period to all. 18. Neither was her persecution less to the common people, and plain-hearted countrymen, than to the Protestant clergy: for observe and consider, that, within the compass of less than four years, there suffered death, for the testimony of their consciences in the Protestant religion, two hundred and seventy-seven persons, without any regard either of degree, age, or sex; in the heat of whose flames were consumed five bishops, twenty-one divines, eight gentlemen, and eightyfour artificers : one hundred husbandmen, servants, and labourers; twenty-six wives, twenty widows, nine virgins, two boys, and two infants; and nigh as many died in prison, through hunger and other cruelties. Oh the bloody cruelty of the papists, through their popish religion! Shall I call it religion, which is more properly a butchery? And thus you see the effects of a popish successor. This is no romance, it was de facto, and would you have it so again? Or will you put it in the same hazard once more? No sure, unless you are infatuated; let experience teach us which is the best mistress; let the burnt child dread the fire. Oh, never forget the burnings, the scorchings, the tortures, and the flames that were in Queen Mary's reign! We beg and beseech you all in your places, use all the care imaginable now in time to secure us, our wives and children, and the Protestant religion. 19. Though many persecutions lasted longer, yet it is observable by Dr. Heyling, that none since Dioclesian's time raged so terribly, Eccles. Restaur. but God, being merciful to the poor land and persecuted church, of all, since the conquest, her reign was the shortest, only excepting that of Richard the Tyrant, yet much more bloody than was his. [She reigned five years and four months, wanting two days.] 20. She lieth buried in Westminster, without any monument or remembrance at all; as in her life she deserved none, so in her death her memory is rotten; a just reward for her who was so cruel and bloody: yet one hath given her this inscription to remain to posterity, viz. Whose name was polluted with the blood of so many martyrs. Made inglorious by the loss of Calais (the key of France) in eight days, which had been two hundred and eleven years in the possession of the English. SOME COROLLARIES. In this history we may observe seriously these things as the sad and fatal consequence: I. How popish successors will, at first, blind us with wheedles, till they have got the power and kingdom in possession; and will tell us, That not one tittle of our religion shall be changed or altered:' nay, and make compacts, agreements, and conditions to that purpose. II. But, when once set in the throne, let what promises will be, they shall be so far from being performed, that quite the contrary shall be acted, or else thunder and lightning will come from the pope, till he hath done it by his legates a latere. III. That, when a popish successor came to the crown, the pope's supremacy was immediately set up in England, even the very first year, and we all made tributary to Rome, and slaves to the pope, and would you have it so again? IV. The popish religion and the mass set up immediately all over England, and would you have it so again? V. The Protestant bishops put out, and popish ones put in; and all the clergy that were married, or would not abjure the Protestant religion, were turned out; therefore, you of the clergy, that mean to be sincere, and not turn papists, it behoves you well to consider of it... VI. And not only so, but truly farther, they must be brought to the stake with their wives and children, and burnt for hereticks; for popery is a merciless persuasion, and, if they make never so many promises otherwise, yet you know that it is their opinion, That no faith is to be kept with hereticks ;' so we can never be secure, if ever such reign. VII. Observe further, that, if a popish successor comes to the crown, there will be all the endeavours used to take off all the next heirs that are Protestants, as there was to destroy the Lady Elisabeth, which ought to be of no small consideration with us. VIII. Observe, popish monks and friars were brought into England, and great endeavours used to restore all monasteries and abby-lands, wherein, no doubt, but she and good cardinal Poole had prevailed, and they had been all restored, had she reigned but a little longer; therefore, it doth not a little behove all you gentlemen that have any priories, abbies, or monastery-lands to lose, to consider well how to put yourselves or your posterity in any such great hazard to lose your estates. As for those that have such lands, of the Romish religion, they must not, out of conscience, detain them, if they will have any absolution from their ghostly father; and as to those Protestants that have such lands, they will be reckoned hereticks, and, to be sure, shall not be suffered to keep church-lands from them. And this highly concerns all to consider, how, with our religion, we give up our liberties and estates, by admitting a popish successor; which God of his infinite mercy to England, and in opposition to such blood-thirsty, heaven-daring, king-killing principles and practices, be pleased to deli ver us. POSTSCRIPT. Now as you have plainly seen the great and manifold inconveniences, eminent dangers, and most certain ruin, to follow the admitting of |