The Antipathy of the English Lordly Prelacy

Winchester.

From the Prelates of London, I now pass to those of Winchester ; of whom William Harrison, in the description of England, hath made this true observation; If the old Catalogue of the Bishops be well considered of, and the Acts of the greatest part of them weighed, as they are to be read in our Histories, ye shall find the most egregious hypocrites, the stoutest warriors, the cruellest tyrants, the richest money-mongers, and political Counselors in temporal affairs, to have (I wote not by what secret working of the divine providence) been placed here in Winchester, since the foundation of that See; which was erected by Birinus An. 639. (whom Pope Honorius sent hither out of Italy) and first planted at Dorcester, in the time of Kimgils, then translated to Winchester where it doth yet continue.

Wina the third (or rather the first Bishop of Winchester, from whence some write this city took its name) about the year of our Lord, 666. I know not for what misdemeanor, so highly offended Kenwalchus, King of the West Saxons, who advanced him to this See, that the King fell into great mislike of him and drave him out of his Country; who thereupon flying to Wulfher King of Mercia bought of him for a great sum of money the Bishopric of London ; being the first Symonist that is mentioned in our Historyes, whence a • ter his death, he was deservedly omitted out of the Catalogue of the Bishops of London.

Herefridus the fifteen Bishop of Winchester, and Sigelmus Bishop of Sherborne, An. 834. accompanied King Egbert to the wars against the Danes, and were both slain in a battle against them.

About the year of our Lord, 1016. Edmond Ironside succeeding his father in the Kingdom, was crowned at London by the Archbishop of York ; but the rest of the Bishops, Abbots, and spiritualty (among whom Edsinus the 32. Bishop of Winchester was one) favoring Cnut a Dane ) who had no right nor title to the Crown, assembling together at Southampton (within Winchester Diocese) 〈◊〉 proclaimed • and ordained • nu • e for their King, and submitted themselves to him as their Sovereign; which occasioned many bloody battles and intestine wars almost to the utter ruin of the Kingdom; of which you may read at large in our Historians. • nute not long after his inauguration being put to the worst at Durham by Edm •• d, immedia • lie took into Winches • er to secure himself; a good proof this Bishop sided with him against his Sovereign E • mond, though a most heroic Prince.

Alwyn the 33. Bishop of Winchester was imprisoned by Edmond the Confessor for the suspicion of incontinency with Emma the Kings mother, and that upon the accusation of Robert Archbishop of Canterbury, who likewise accused Queen Egitha of adultery more out of envy to her father, than truth of so foul a fact in her: whereupon the King expulsed her his Court and bed, and that with no little disgrace: for taking all her Jewels from her, even to the uttermost farthing, he committed her prisoner to the Monastery of Wilton, attended only with one Mayde, while she for a whole years space almost, in tears and prayers, expected the day of her release and comfort. The Clergy at this time were altogether unlearned, wanton, and vicious: for the Prelates neglecting the office of their Episcopal function, which was to tender the affairs of the Church, and to feed the flock of Christ, lived themselves idle and covetous, addicted wholly to the pomp of the world, and voluptuous life, little caring for the Churches, and souls committed to their charge: and if any told them (faith Higden ) that their lives ought to be holy, and their conversation without covetousness, according to the sacred prescript and virtuous examples of their Elders, they would scoffingly put them off. Nunc aliud tempus, alii pro tempore mores, Times have mutations; So must men's fashions; and thus (saith he) they plained the roughness of their doings, with smoothness of their answers.

Stigand, Anno 1047. was translated to Winchester ; from whence also he was removed to Canterbury in the year 1052. But whether he mistru • ted his Title to Canterbury, Robert the former Arch-Bishop being yet alive, or whether infatiable covetousness provoked him thereunto, I cannot tell; he retained still Winches • er, notwithstanding his preferment to Canterbury, which was the cause of his undoing at last: For the Conqueror who came into this Realm while he was Arch-Bishop being desirous to place his own Country-men in all rooms of special Authority; and besides, having a private grudge at Stigand for forcing him to yield Kentish men their ancient Liberties (whereof see more in Canterbury ) procured him to be deprived of both his Bishoprics upon this point, that he had contrary to the Law, held them both together. He was deprived, An. 1069. and died a prisoner in the Castle of Winchester soon after.

About the year 1107. King Henry the first taking upon him to bestow Bishoprics, giving investiture and possession of them, by delivering the Ring and the Crosier, placed divers of his Chaplains in Bishoprics (without election) commanding the Arch-bishop to consecrate them. Among divers others he appointed William Giffard, Bishop of Winchester, and required Anselm the Arch-bishop to consecrate him: Anselm utterly denied to afford consecration either to him or any other in the like case. The King then sent unto Girard Arch-bishop of York whom he found nothing strange: but G • ffard (saith Matthew Westminster ) timens rigorem sancti Anselmi spernit consecrationem ejus, stood so much in awe of Saint Anselm, as he durst not but reject the offer of the others consecration. The King angry hitherto with the Arch-bishop only, was now much more incensed against this Giffard, and in great displeasure banished him the Realm. In the end, the King and the Arch-bishop grew to this agreement, that the gifts of the King already passed should be ratified, and his Clerks nominated to Bishoprics, have consecration, upon promise, that hereafter he should not disturb Canonical Elections, and utterly renounce his pretended privilege. So after much ado he was consecrated, together with divers others, An. 1107.

Henry de Bloys, being Bishop of Winchester when King Henry the first died, although he with the other Bishops of the Land had sworn fealty unto Maud the Empresse, yet she being absent in Normandy, this Bishop doubting left some other stepping up before her arrival • the Kingdom might be rent away quite from his kindred and pass to some stranger • by virtue of his power Legantine called a Council of the Clergy (who swayed all in those days) and drawing Roger Bishop of Sali • bury to his party, easily procured his Brother Stephen Earl of Boloigne, to be elected King, whom they crowned, and submitted to as their Sovereign, disinhereting Maud the right Heir. The King not long after falling out with these two Bishops, seized upon their Castles, and imprisoned the Bishop of Salisbury, who died for grief. The Bishop of Winchester summons a Counsel there, to which the Bishop was cited; the Case of the Bishops concerning their Castles, was there long debated between the Pope the Bishops, and those on the Kings side; he would yield to nothing; whereupon they moved the Legate to Excommunicate him; who replied, he durst not do it without the Popes privity. The Kings unthankfulness to the Bishops who only had set him up, did so alienate them from him, that thereupon they joined with Maud the Empresse against him, who by their means became able to make her part good with Stephen, and took him prisoner; the Bishop of Winchester and a great part of the Realm too, receiving her for their Queen; Hereupon this Prelate accurseth and excommuncates all the opposites of Maud the Empresse, who denying him a suite in the behalf of his Brother Eustace ; He thereupon revokes h • s Excommunication, secretly falls from her, stirs up the discontented Londoners against her, man's divers Castles to resist her, equivocates in his words and actions with her to work her ruin, fires Winchester upon her, and at last entraps her. Thus this turn-coat treacherous Prelate with the rest, were Traitors and Rebels on both sides; of which see more in William Corbell Arch-Bishop of Cante • bury, and Roger of Salisbury, and in the Historians hereunto quoted. The Pope sent a Pall to this Bishop, desirous to constitu • e a new Arch-Bishopric at Winchester, and to assign 7. Bishops to him.

Peter de la Roche, or de Rupibus, Bishop of Winchester, who was Protectour, and had greatest sway in the Government of the Realm, in the beginning of King Henry the 3. his Rain, by his evil Counsel to the King, became the chief Incendiary and occasion of the Barons wars: For having by his false accusations and policies wrought Hubert Earl of Kent out of the Kings favor, and plotted his death, that he might solely reign and predominate over the gentle young King: The better to effect this his design, he procures him to displace the English Officers, and in their rooms to surrogate Poictovines and Britons ; who coming over to the number of about 2000. he stuffed his Castles with them, and did as it were wholly intrust himself, his Treasures, strength, and the Realm to them; So that Judgments were committed to the unjust, Laws to the out-laws • peace to wranglers, and Justice to wrong-doers. Such as would have prayed redress for these abuses, were interrupted and put off by this Bishop of Winchester. Among them who were removed from their places in Court, was one Sir William de Redune, a Knight, and Deputy Marshall to Richard Earl of Pembroke. This was to the Earl very displeasant, which joined with a consideration of the public cause and danger, he associates to him certain of the great Lord's (as was the fashion of those Lording times upon every discontent) and in the company of them advanceth confidently to the King • whom in the hearing of many he reproveth, for that he had through finister advice, called in the • oictovins to the oppression of the Realm and of his natural Subjects of their Laws and Liberties; humbly therefore he beseecheth him that he would speedily reform such abuses, which threatened the imminent subversion both of the Crown and Kingdom; which if he did not, himself and other Lord's would so long withdraw their attendance, as he entertained strangers. The Bishop hereunto makes answer, That the King might well and lawfully call in what strangers himself thought good for the defense of the Crown and Realm, and such and so many of them, as might be able to compel his proud and rebellious people to due obedience. When the Oracle would speak no otherwise, they departed from Court, greatly discontented, firmly promising one to the other, that in such a cause which did so touch them all, they would like men stand together while any breath was in their bodies. Those who were now most potent about the King, nothing sorry for the discontentment of so great a Peer as the Earl Marshall, but counting it a part of their strengths to use the Regal power towards the weakening of the English ; nourish in the King his aversion. The Poictovins and other strangers thus bearing the sway • so as the Kings person went guarded with troops of such, the Earls and Barons being by the Kings command summoned to antoher Parliament at Oxford, refused to come. While the King was there, one Robert Bacon, who used there to preach before the King and Prelates, f • eely told him, That if he did not remove from him Peter Bishop of Winchester, and Peter de Rivallis, he could never be in quiet. The King did hereupon a little come to himself, and Roger Bacon, a Clergy-man also of a pleasant wit, did second Roberts advise, telling the King, that Petrae and Rupes were most dangerous things at Sea, alluding to the Bishops name Petrus de Rupibus. The King therefore (as he had the happiness in his mutability to change for his more security) taking that good advise of Scholars, which he would not of his Peers, summons a Parliament to be holden at Westminster, giving the World to know withal, that his purpo • e was, to amend by their advise whatsoever ought to be amended. But the Barons considering that still there arrived sundry strangers, men of war, with Horse and Armor • and not trusting the Poi •• ovine faith came not, but presumed to send this message to the King; that if out of hand he removed not Peter Bishop of Winchester, and the Poictovines out of his Court • they all of them by the common consent of the Kingdom, would drive him and his wicked Counselors together out of it, and consult about creating a new Sovereign. The King (whom his Fathers example made more timorous) could easily have been drawn to have redeemed the love of his natural Liege-men with the disgrace of a few strangers; but the Bishop of Winchester and his Friends, infused more spirit into him: Whereon, to all those whom he suspected, the King sets down a day, within which they should deliver sufficient pledges to secure him of their loyalty. Against that day the Lord's in great numbers make repair to London ; but the Earl Marshall (admonished of danger by his Sister the Countess of Cornewall ) • lies back to Wales, and chiefly for want of his presence, nothing was concluded. The King not long after is at Gloster with an Army, whither the Earl and his Adherents required to come, refused; the King therefore burns their Manors, and gives away their inheritances to the Poictovines. This Rebellion had not many great Names in it, but took strength rather by weight then number; the known Actors were the Earl Marshall, the Lord Gilbert Basset, and many of the inferior Nobles. The Bishops arts had plucked from him the Kings brother, and the two Earls of Chester and Lincoln, who dishonourably sold their love for a thousand Markes, and otherwise, as it seemed, secured the rest; Nevertheless, they may well be thought, not to have borne any evil will to their now forsaken confederate the Earl Marshall, who took himself to handle the common cause; certainly he handled his own safety but ill, as the event shall demonstrate: The Earl hearing these things contracts strict amity with Lewelin Prince of Wales, whose powers thus knit together, by advantages of the Mountains, were able to counterpoise any ordinary invasion. To the kings aid Balwin de Gisnes with many Soldiers came out of Flanders : The king now at Hereford in the midst of his Forces, sends from thence (by Winchesters counsel) the Bishop of Saint David's to defy the Earl Marshall ; How far soever the word defy extends it self; sure it seems that the Earl hereupon understood himself discharged of that obligation, by which he was tied to the king, and freed to make his defense; the king notwithstanding, after some small attempts and better considerations, did promise and assume, that by advise of counsel, all that was amiss should at a day appointed be rectified and amended; About which time Hubert de Burgo having intelligence that the Bishop of Winchester who was a Poictovine plotted his death, escaped out of the Castle of Devises where he was prisoner, to a Neighbor Church, but was hailed from thence by the Castle-keepers. The Bishop of Sarisbury (in whose Diocese it happened) caused him to be safe restored to the same place, from whence by the Earl Marshall and a troop of armed men his friends, he was rescued and carried into Wales. The king at the day and place appointed holds his great Counsel or Conference with the Lord's, but nothing followed for the peace of the Realm; it was not an ordinary passage of speech which happened there between the Lord's and Bishop of Winchester ; For when the English Bishops and Barons humbly besought the king for the honor of Almighty God to take into grace his natural Subjects whom (without any trial by their Peers) he called Traitors; the Bishop offended it seems at Peers) takes the words out of the kings mouth and answers, That there are no Peers in England as in the Realm of France, and that therefore the king of England by such Justiciars as himself pleaseth to ordain, may banish offenders out of the Realm • and by judicial process condemn them. The English Bishops relished his speech so sharply, that with one voice they threatened to excommunicate and accurse by name the kings principal wicked Counselors; but Winchester appealed: Then they accursed all such as alienated the heart of the king from his Natural Subjects, and all others that per • urbed the peace of the Realm. Matthew Westminster writes of this Peter de la Roche, that he was more expert in Military than Scholastical affairs. That the king by his Counsel removed all English Officers out of his Court, and precipitately cast away all his Counselors, as well Bishops as Earls, Barons, and other Nobles of his kingdom, so as he would believe none but this Bishop (whom he adored as his God) and his Darling Peter de Rivales. Whence it came to pass, that expelling all Guardians of Castles almost through all England • the King committed all things under the custody of this Peter. Then this Prelate drew into his confederacy Stephen de Segrave, too much an enemy both to the kingdom and Church (who had given most detestable counsel formerly to Stephen the Popes Chaplain, to the inestimable damage of the Church many ways) and Robert de Passelewe, who with all his might, and with effusion of no small sum of money, had plotted treason and grievances at Rome against the king and kingdom. This man kept the kings treasure under Peter de Rivalis ; and so it came to pass, that the Reines of the whole kingdom were committed to Strangers and base persons, others being rejected. Yet Godwin (for the honor of his Rochet) magnifies this Prelate for his notable Wisdom; so as the Counsel of England received a great wound by his death, though it and the whole Realm received such prejudice by his life. The Earl Marshall (writes Speed ) increasing in strength and hatred against such as were the kings reputed Seducers, makes spoil and bootie on their possessions, and after joining with the power of Leoline, Prince of Wales, puts all to fire and sword, as far as Shrewesbury, part whereof they burnt to Ashes, and sacked the Residue. The king then at Gloster, for want of sufficient forces, departed thence (sorely grieved) to Winchester, abandoning those other parts as it were to waste and ruin. It therefore seems, that he was not grown stronger, or richer, by the displacing of Hubert Earl of Kent, and the rest, and by taking new into their rooms, who commonly bite and suck hard till they have glutted themselves, (if at least-wise there be any satiety in Avarice;) whereas the old and ancient Officers, (having provided in a manner for the main chance,) have the less reason to be grievous. Therefore the Lions skin not being large enough for the Bishop of Winchester, and his factious purposes, they piece them out with the Foxes case, an inevitable stratagem is devised. The Earl Marshall had in Ireland all the ample Patrimonies of his Grandfather the famous Strongbow. To make that member of his strengths improfitable, if not also pernicious, they devise certain Letters directed to Maurice Fitz-Gerald (Deputy Justice of Ireland) and other principal men, who held of the Earl. In them they signify; that Richard once marshall to the King of EngIand, was for manifest Treason, by the judgment of the Kings Court, banished the Realm, his Lands, Towns, and Tenements consumed by fire; other his Hereditaments destroyed, and himself forever disinherited: that if upon his coming thither they did take him, either alive or dead, the King did give them all the Earls Lands there, which now were forfeited by virtue of his attainture, and for assurance that the said gift should continue firm and good, they by whose advise the King and Kingdom were governed faithfully undertook. To these letters (which the Monks call bloody) they caused the King to set his Seal, as they themselves also did theirs. Upon receipt of which lines, the parties signify back under the Seal of secrecy, that if the contents of those letters were confirmed by the Kings Letters Patents, they would perform that which they desired. The Letters Patents be made accordingly, and having fraudulently gotten the great Seal from Hugh, Bishop of Chichester Lord Chancellor, who knew not thereof, they make them authentic with the impression. The Kings mind therefore being still exulterated towards the Earl Marshall, he grievously charged Alexander Bishop of Chester, that he had too much familiarity with the Earl, affirming, that they sought to thrust him from his Throne; the Bishop to clear himself from so haynos a s • andall, put on his Episcopal habit, and solemnly pronounceth all those accurst who did but imagine a wickedness of so foul a nature, against the Majesty or person of the King; and thereupon by the intercession of other Prelates, he was received into grace: The King was then at Westminster, where Edmond the Archbishop of Canterbury elect, with other his Suffragan Bishops bewailing the estate of the Kingdom, present themselves before him, telling him as his loyal leigemen, that the counsel of Peter Bishop of Winchester and his complices, which now he had and used, was not sound nor safe, but cruel and perilous to himself and his Realm. First, for that they hated and despised the English, calling them Traitors, turning the Kings heart from the love of his people, and the hearts of the people from him; as in the Earl Marshall, whom being (one of the worthiest men of the Land) by sowing false tales they drave into discontentment. 2. That by the council of the same Peter, his father King John first lost the hearts of, his people, then Normandy, then other lands, and finally wasted all his Treasures, and almost England it self, and never after had quiet. 3. That if the Subjects had now been handled according to Justice and Law, and not by their ungodly councils, those present troubles had not happened, but the Kings lands had remained undestroyed, his treasures unexhausted. 4. That the Kings Council is not the Council of peace but of perturbation, because they who cannot rise by peace, will raise themselves by the trouble and disinherison of others. 5. That they had the treasure, Castles, Wardships, and strengths of the Kingdom in their hands, which they insolently abused, to the great hazard of the whole estate, for that they made no conscience of an Oath • Law, Justice, or the Churches Censures. Therefore we, O King (said they) speak these things faithfully unto you, and in the presence both of God and man, do counsel, beseech, and admonish yo • to remove such a Council from about you; and as it is the usage in ot • er Realms govern yours by the faithful and sworn Children thereof. The King in brief answered hereunto, that he could not suddenly put off his Council, and therefore prayed a short respite, till their accomps were audited; Mean while the behahaviours of the Marshalline faction (having this backing at Court) grew more and more intolerable, for while the King was at Huntingdon, the Lord Gilbert Basset and others, set fire upon Alckmundbury, a Town belonging to Stephen de Segrave, the flames whereof were seen of the Owner, being then with the King at Huntingdon : they also took Prisoners upon the Welch Marches, and according to the Law of war (which saith one, is lawless) did put them to their ransomes. Nothing had hitherto preserved the King more than that he could without great grief forgo any Favorites, if he were merely pressed; the contrary quality whereof hath been the cause of final desolation to so many Princes; for albeit the choice of Counselors ought to be free, yet by common intendment, they should be good, or howsoever they are, or are not, it is madness to hazard a Crown, or lose the love of a whole Nation, rather than to relinquish or diminish a particular dependant; the rights of amity ought nevertheless to remain inviolable, but in such distance, that the public be not perverted, or interverted for a private: The King therefore in this point not unfortunate, commanded Bishop Peter to betake himself to his residence at Winton, without once meddling in affairs of State: but against Rivalis his Treasurer, he was so vehement, that he sware, he would pluck out his eyes, were it not for reverence of holy Orders, commanding also the Proictouines to depart the Realm, never to see his face. Then are the Archbishop of Canterbury, with the Bishops of Chester and Rochester sent into Walls to pacify things there: but the Earl Marshall had now crossed the Seas into Ireland to take revenge for the spoils and displeasures which his hired enemies had made in his Lands there, by whose plots, according to that secret agreement, he was finally taken, and died of a wound given him in the back, as he with admirable manhood defended himself. The Archbishop of Canterbury with the other Bishops repaired to the King at Gloucester, upon their return from Leoline Prince of Wales, who pretended he could not conclude, till the King had received into grace such of the banished Nobility, with whom himself had been confederate during the late displeasures. The King hereupon moved with pity, sends forth his Proclamations, That all such as were out-lawed or proscribed should be at Gloucester upon a certain day, there to be received into the Kings favor again, and to have restitution of their inheritances • but least they might suspect any evil measure; it was ordered that they should be in the Churches protection, and come under the safe conduct of the Archbishop and the other Prelates • Thither at the time and place limited doth Hubert de Burgo Earl of Kent, and lately chief Justicier of England repair, upon whom, by mediation of the Bishop, the compassionate King looks graciously, receiving him in his arms • with the kiss of peace. In like sort was the Lord Gilbert Basset, and all others of that fellowship received into favor, their several livings, and rights fully restored, and both Hubert and Basset admitted to be of his Council. Upon this reconcilement, the practice by which the late great Marshall was destroyed, and his possessions dismembered, came to light; the coppy of the Letters which had been sent into Ireland being by commandment of the Archbishop of Canterbury openly read in the presence of the King, the Prelates, Earls, and Barons. It moved tears in all of them; the King with an Oath, affirming, that he knew not the Contents of the said Letters, though by the urging of the Bishop of Winchester. Rivallis, Segrave, Passeletu with other of his Council, he had caused his Seal to be put unto them. At the sound of Summons to make their several appearances, the Malefactors take Sanctuary; the Bishop, and Peter de Rivallis in Winchester Church, Segrave in Leicester Abby, Passeleiu in the new Temple, and others otherwhere. And some write that the King commanded Winchester utterly to depart the Court, and to repair to his Bishopric, and there to give himself entirely to the cure of souls. If such a precept were now given by his Majesty to all our Court Prelates it would be but just. In the end, upon the intercession of Edraond, Archbishop of Canterbury, who piously endeavored to extinguish all occasions of further dissention in the Kingdom, and undertook they should have a lawful trial, the delinquents appeared at Westminster before the King, who sat in person with his Justiciers upon the Bench, Peter de Rivallis was first called (for the Bishop came not;) whom the King shot through with an angry eye, saying, O thou Traitor, by thy wicked advise I was drawn to set my Seal to these treacherous Letters for the destruction of the Earl Marshall, the contents whereof were to me unknown, and by thine, and such like council I banished my natural Subjects, and turned their rainds and hearts from me. By thy bad council, and thy complices, I was moved to make war upon them to my irreparable loss, and the dishonor of ray Realm: In which enterprize I wasted my treasure, and lost many worthy persons, together with much of my royal respect; therefore I exact of thee an account; as well of my treasure, as of the custodies of wards, together with many other profits and escheats belonging to my Crown. Peter denying none of the accusations, but falling to the ground thus besought him. My Sovereign Lord and King, I have been nourished by you, and made rich in worldly substance, confound not you own creature, but at least wise grant me a time of deliberation, that I may render a competent reason for such points as I am charged with. Thou shalt (said the King) be carried to the Tower of London, there to deliberate till I am satisfied; he was so. Step • en de Segrave, the Lord chief Justice (whom the King also called most wicked Traitor ) had time till Michaelmas to make his accounts at the Archbishops and other Bishops humble entreaty; and for other matters, he shifted them of from himself, by laying the blame upon such as were higher in place than he; into whose office of chief Justice Hugh de Pateshull is advanced: The like evasion Robert Passeleu had • by leaving the fault upon Walter Bishop of Carleil, who was above him in the Exchequer; And thus were these civil enormities reformed, not without reducing store of coin to the King: this Bishop of Winchester, being the chief Author of all these wars and mischiefs, which thus molested King, State, and People at that time.

Anno. 1238. Otho the Popes Legate lodging at Osnie Abby, some of his servants abusing the Scholars of Oxford that came thither to see him, they thereupon falling together by the ears slew the Legates Cook, and hurt other of his servants reviling the Legate, and styling him a wicked wretch, a Robber of England, the gulf of Roman avarice, &c. Hereupon the Legate fled up into the Town for fear, and sent to the King to Abindon to rescue him; the next day he publicly excommunicated all who had assaulted him, depriving them both from their office and benefice, and pronouncing them irregular, interdicted all the Churches in Oxford, and suspended the Scholars from studying there; the which Sentence was by this Bishop of Winchester, solemnly denounced, and executed before all the Clergy and people assembled together for that purpose at S. Frideswids in Oxford ; and so all that Summer the Scholars were dissipated, & their study at Oxford was suspended. At length the Abbot and Canons of Osnie, and regent Masters of Oxford coming bare foot to the Legate, with their heads uncovered, and their upper garments put off and rent, oft times humbly craved pardon of him • and so at last going through the midst of the Citty of London to the Bishop of Durhams house, they with much ado obtained pardon, whereupon the Scholars were restored to their Study at Oxford, and released from their said sentences.

An. 1246. The Pope writ to William, Bishop of Winchester, and the Bishop of Lincoln, that they should levy 6000. marks of the Clergy to his use. They thereupon began to execute this mandate of the Pope, but are prohibited by the King to proceed under pain of proscription. The Clergy now interposed between the King & Pope, and terrified with both their threats • were uncertain what to do: but perceiving the Kings inconstancy, and fearing least his courage failing he should at last (as he often had done before) yield to the Pope • many of them paying their money secretly, avoided both the Kings and Popes indignation. To prevent these exactions, messengers were sent to the Pope from the King, Peers, Prelates, and Commons of England; these the Pope reviles and repels as Schismatics, saying; The King of England, who now turns his heels against me, and Frederizeth, hath his Council, but I have mine. With which scornful words the King was so moved, that he proclaimed through England, That no man should pay anything to the Pope. But the Pope growing more angry hereat, threatened the Prelates with all kind of punishment, that they should pay the foresaid sum to his Nuncio in the new Temple very speedily. The King terrified with the threats of his brother Richard, and of the Bishops conspiring with him to draw the King hither and thither, to make him odious both to the Pope and people, among whom the Bishop of Winchester was chief, (to whom power was given by the Pope to interdict the Kingdom;) yielded at last to this tax being overcome and debilitated with fear. The passages whereof are more largely related by Matthew Paris, together with the Popes intolerable exactions upon England.

William Raley the 41. Bishop of Winchester, employed in this former service for the Pope, Anno. 1243. being unduly elected by the Monks of Winchester contrary to King Henry the third his command; the King hereupon commanded, that no man should give him or his any victual or lodging, charging the Major and Citizens of Winchester to forbid him entrance into that city; which they did; the Bishop thereupon excommunicated the Major, Monks, and whole city, and interdi • ted the Cathedral: for which he felt the burden of the Kings displeasure so heavy upon him in England, as he thought good to fly the Realm, till at last by Boniface the Archbishops intercession, and the Popes earnest Letters to the King and Queen, he was restored to the Kings favor, and obtained License to return. The Bishop hereupon in thankfulness, bestowed upon the Pope 6000. marks for his fatherly care of him, which he in good nature, because he would not be reputed disdainful, took every penny. It is recorded of this Bishop, that a little before his death he had the Sacrament brought unto him, and perceiving the Priest to enter his Chamber with it, he cried out, Stay good friend, let the Lord come no nearer unto me, it is more fit that I be drawn to hira as a Traitor, that in many things have been a Traitor unto him: His servants therefore by his commandment drew him out of his bed, unto the place where the Priest was, and there with tears he received the Sacrament, and spent much time in prayer, and soon after died at Turon, the 20th. of September, 1249.

Ethel • arns half brother unto the King, a man (saith Matth. Paris ) in respect of his orders, years, and learning, utterly insufficient, was at the Kings special request, elected next Bishop of this See; he had at that time other spiritual livings equivalent in revenue to the Archbishopric of Canterbury ; which that he might keep, and yet receive all the profits likewise of the Bishopric of Winchester, he determined not to be consecrated at all • but to hold it by his election, and so did indeed for the space of nine years; In the mean time he and the rest of his countrymen (with whom the Realm was much pestered) were grown very odious, as well with the Nobility, as the Commons, not only for their infinite wealth, and immoderate preferment, much envied but much more for their pride and insolency which a man can hardly bear in his own friend, much less in an alien and • tranger, whom men naturally dislike much sooner then their own countrymen. Amongst the rest, this Ethelmarus bare himself so bold upon the King his brother, as he gave commandment to his servants to force a Clergy man out of the possession of a Benefice, whereunto he pretended some right; and if he withstood them, to draw him out of his possession in contumelious manner; the poor man loath to loose his living, defended it so long, till by my Lord Elects men, he was slain himself, and his people so soar beaten and wounded, as within few days one or two of them died. This fact and other like complained of by the Barons to the Pope and King brought all the Poictavins into such hatred, as the Realm was ready to rise against them and the rather upon this occasion.

Anno. Dom. 1252. a certain • Priest intruded himself by authority of this Prelate into the Hospital in Southwerke within this Diocese, founded by Thomas Becket. Eustathius de Len. Officiall to the Archbishop of Canterbury conceiving himself injured hereby, because by reason of the patronage his consent ought to have intervened, which was omitted through contempt • & thrice admonished the said Priest to depart, because his entranee was injurious and presumptuous: the Priest (styled commonly the Prior of this Hospital) refuseth to do it, keeping possession: The • fficiall hereupon excommunicates him for his contumacy; under which excommunication the Prior continued forty days multiplying threats and revilings. The Officiall not brooking such pride, at last commanded this contumacious Prior to be apprehended: who hearing of it • enters into the Church in his Priestly Vestments, were he fortifieth himself; the officers purposely sent to apprehend him, spared him not because he had contemned the keys of the Church. The Officiall therefore commanded him to be carried to Maydstone • a manner of the Archbishops, until it were determined what should be done hereupon, thinking to keep him there, be • ause the Archbishop was said to be near that place. But the Bishop of Winchester hearing of it, was more angry than became him, as if he had suffer • d a great injury with disgrace, presented a grievous complaint to his brethren: with whose aid and council being puffed up, he calling a band of Soldiers together, with no small company following them, sent them to seek and apprehend the authors of this violence. They therefore with great • orce and tumult as in a hostile war came to Suwerke, thinking to have found them there; where searching all places, and finding none of them they went hastily with a swift pace to Maydstone to free the Captive Prior there detained, with a powerful hand, and breaking down all that stood in the way, searching all secret corners, when they found not him they sought for, because he was hid, they called for fire, that they might burn all to ashes. And after many injuries there committed when they found not him they sought for, certified by some whisperers where the Officiall was they sought for • to wit at Lambeth near London, they all ran thither in a troop; where heaving up the doors from their hinges and breaking them running in altogether in a confused troop, suddenly before the hour of dinner, they took the Officiall (premeditating no such thing) in a hostile and unseemly manner, and haling him away, they set him on a horse like a vile slave, deprehended in the act of stealing, to be carried whether they pleased, he being not suffered so much as to touch the re • nes of the horses bridle that carried him. O rash presumption • O inexcusable • rreverence (saith Matth. Paris ) which so ignominiously handled, and worried such an authentical man, so excellent learned, so perspicuosly famous, and representing the Archbishops person. Moreover they inhumanly handled the Chaplain serving in his Chapel, and flying to the horns of the Altar, railing upon him. The Officiall, after they had done all things which anger, yea fury had persuaded, they drew by the Bridle to F • rnehold, till they were certified of the Priors restitution, detaining him violently against his will. At last being parmited to depart • he was basely and vily thrust away • who rejoicing for the present that he had escaped their hands, ran away as fast as he might upon his feet, though aged • to Walerle, not daring to look back le • t he should be turned into a pillar of Salt. The Archbishops Officiall having received so great an injury, makes a most grievous complaint to the Archbishop Boniface with sighs and tears, aggravating great things with greater, and grievous things with greater grievances. The Archbishop hereupon moved with inexpressible anger, taking with him the B • shops of Chester and Heriford, goeth to London, where he and those two Bishops clad in their Pontifical Robes, before an innumerable company of people (summoned to appear before them with the voice of a Cryer for this purpose, and granting thirty days pardon to all comers) at S. Mary de arcubus, even horribly and solemnly excommunicated all the actors and fauters of this rash action, excepting only the King, Queen, and their children, and Count Richard, with his Countess and children. Moreover he writ to all his suffgragan Bishops by virtue of the bond of obedience, whereby they stood obliged to the Church of Canterbury, to do the like in their Churches on all Lord's days and holy days, by his express command. The Bishop of Winchester, on the contrary, speedily commanded the Dean of Seuwarke, and other his subjects, that they contradicting the Archbishop • should openly denounce to his face, that this his sentence of excommunication was a mere nullity, yea, a vain, frivolous and wily excuse to bolster him out in his sins. The Archbishops creatures for this injury, and the scandal arising thereupon appeal to the Pope. There were some who favoring neither side, affirmed the Archbishop had done Winchester wrong; because there was a composition formely made, that notwithstanding the right of patronage; yet to prevent controversies, this Hospital should be subject to the disposal of the Bishop of Winchester, paying thereout three shillings by the year; and so both of them being defamed, incurred the brand of unjust violence, while the citizens mindful of the peremptoriousness, which the Archbishop had shown in his first violent coming to London, of his infinite exactions of money which he had procured, of the Kings violence in his creation, and of the enormious collation of his benefices, did now again revive the same. On the other • ide the royallists & Poictavins gained the note of imbred treason, with other reproaches, as the manner is of those that brawl. There were not a few citizens who hearing these things, wished that these parties had dashed out one another's brains, and rip •• d up one another's bowels; And as it was written, Woe unto them by whom scandal cometh, both parties were endangered with the great reproaches and scandals arising hereupon. Thus was the Kings party divided against the Queens, the Poictovines against the Provincials, whose great possessions made them mad, playing rex one with the other (whiles the miserable English were asleep) as if they contested which of them having banished the Natives, should deserve more excellently to rule the Kingdone: but the ventilation of fame more condemned the Provinctalls, because Winchester, rising up against his Superior, had so proudly exceeded measure, confiding on the King, his brother, who God knows had created him. The Archbishop Boniface raking up the fire of his conceived anger under ashes, and worthily persisting in it, as Eustace stirred him up more or less to revenge this enormious transgression, goeth after this towards Oxford, that summoning a Convocation of the Scollers there assembled out of divers parts of the world, he mightt publish to them in order this notorious fact, that so by their relations, so great an offense might be made known to foreign Nations • Comming therefore to Oxford the morrow after S. Nicholas day before all the Clerks and Scholars there assembled for this purpose, being an innumerable multitude, he openly declares before them the presumptuous temerity and temerarious presumption of the Bishop of Winchester, taking boldness from his confidence and dependence on the King, his brethren, and complices; and expressly published the names of the trespassers, and their former sentences of excommunication, which the Bishop caused to be transcribed & sent to all his suffr • gans. The Christmas following the King and Queen being at Winchester, reconciled these Prelates, and took off these excommunications, & ended these contentions, which much troubled both Church and Kingdom. This Prelates by bribes given to the Pope, obtruded a Prior on the Monks of Winchester, which caused great Schisms and distractions among them. Anno. Dom. 1260. Simon Montfort Earl of Leicester, Richard de Clare, Earl of Gloster, with sundry other Nobles adhering to them, assembled at Oxford, sufficiently furnished with horses and arms, finally resolving in their minds, either to die for the peace of their country, or to thrust out of the Realm the desturbers of the peace. Whereupon the Bishop of Winchester, William de Valentia, and other Poic • ouines assembled together at the foresaid place, guarded with a great troop of their soldiers and followers, But because the Lord's • determined to bring them into question for their wicked deeds, and make them take a common oath with them, to observe the provisions made for the benefit of the Kingdom; they discerning their forces to be weaker than the Lord's, and fearing to undergo their judgment, fled in the night to the Castle of Vlnesey, whom the Barons pursuing, caused them to yield up the Castle, and compelled them forthwith to depart the Kingdom. Ethelmar coming to the King to take his farewell of mhim • used these words, I commend you to the Lord God ; to whom the King replied, Et ego te Diabolo vivo ; and I commend thee to the living devil, for dese • ting him in his necessities, and occasioning such uproares in the Realm. The Nobles fearing least the Bishop departing the Realm should resort to Rome, and for a sum of money given should procure his promotion again, and so be more powerful to do harms, sent four eloquent Knights, to exhibit a letter, ratified with all their seals, to the Pope and Cardinals; wherein were contained the wickednesses of the said Bishop and his brethren, and those homicides, rapines, injuries and various oppressions wherewith they had afflicted and undone the people of the King darae ; and withal they commanded all the religious men, who farmed any livings of the Romans to detain their rents, till they should receive further order from them, and pay them to such receivers as they should appoint, under pain of having their houses burnt ; by which means the Kingdom was free from Roman exactors for three years space. This Ethelmare foreseeing the danger that was like to befall him sent over his Treasure (whereof he had great store) beyond the seas, before his departure; but much of it came short • being intercepted at Dover, and taken away from those to whom it was committed, and distributed to four Knights, who were sent to Rome, by the King and his Barons, to complain against the blank Bulls found in the chests of Be • ard de Nympha (the Popes agent) after his death, and of the many machinations, of the Romans to disquiet the Realm.

John Ger • sey next Bishop of W • nchester (consecrated at Rome, where • e paid 6000. marks to the Pope, and so much more to his Chancellor for his consecration) was a great stickler in the Barons wars against King Henry the third, as appears by the forecited passages of Matthew Westminister, and was excommunicated by Octobon the Popes Legate, for taking part against the King in the Barons wars, and forced to go to Rome for his absolution, where he died.

Henry Woodlocke Bishop of Winchester made request to King Edward the first for Robert Winchelsey, Archbishop of Canterbury, whom the King had banished for high Treason, in which request, he called the Archbishop (an arch-Traitor) his good Lord, which the King (as he had cause) took so heinously, that he confiscated all his goods, and renounced all protection of him.

Adam Tarleton, or de Arleton, Bishop of Winchester about the year 1327. was arrested and accused of high Treason for aiding the Mortimers against King Edward the second, both with men and armor: when he was brought to the bar to be arraigned for this Treason, the Archbishops of Canterbury, York, and Dublin with their suffragans, came with their Crosses • and rescued him by force, carrying him with them from the bar in such manner, as I have formerly related more at large, in the Acts of Wal • er Rainolds, pag. 55.56.) Notwithstanding, the indictment and accusation being found true, his temporalities wereseized into the Kings hands, until such time as the King (much deal by his imagination and devise) was deposed of his Kingdom. If he which had been a traitor unto his Prince before, after deserved punishment for the same, would soon be entreated to join with other in the like attempt, it is no marvel. No man so forward as he in taking part with Isabell the Queen, against her husband, King Edward the second. She wi • h her sons, and army being at Oxford, this good Bishop steps up into the pulpit, and there taking for his Text these words (My head grieved me) he made a long Discourse, to prove, that an evil head, not otherwise to be cured, must be taken away, applying it to the King, that he ought to be deposed. A Bishoplike application. Hereupon they having gotten the King into their power, the Bishop fearing least if at any time recovering his liberty & crown again, they might receive condign punishment, counseled the Queen to make him away, (good ghostly advice of a Prelate;) whereupon she being as ready and willing as he to have it done; they writ certain letters unto the keepers of the old King, signifiing in covert terms what they desired; they, either not perfectly understanding their meaning, or desirous of some good warrant to show for their discharge, pray them to declare in express words, whether they would have them put the King to death or no. To which question, this subtle Fox framed this answer, Edwardum occidere nolite timere bonum • est, without any point at all. If you set the point between nolite, and t • aere, it forbiddeth: if between nolite and bonum, it • xhorteth them to the committinng of the fact. This ambiguous sentence unpointed, they take for a sufficient warrant and most pitifully murdered the innocent King, by thrusting an hot spit into his fundament; and who then so earnest a persecutor of those murthere • s as this Bishop that set them a work? who when diverse of his Letters were produced and shown to him warranting this most trayterly inhumane Act, eluded and avoided them by Sophisticall interpretations and utterly denied, that he was any way consenting to this heinous fact, of which in truth he was the chief occasion. How clearly he excused himself I • now not. But s • re I am, he (like many Arch-trayterly Prelates before him • who were oftener rewarded than punished for their Treasons) was so far, from receiving punishment, as within two months after, he was preferred unto Hereford, than to the Bishopric of Worce • er, and six years after that translated to Winchester by the Pope • at the request of the French King, whose secret friend he was: which King Edward the third taking in very ill part, because the French King and he were enemies, detained his temporalties from him, till that in Parliament, at the suite of the whole Clergy, he was content to yield them unto him; after which he became blind in body, as he was before in mind, and so died, deserving to have lost his head for these his notorious Treasons, and conspiracies long before, he being the Archplotter of all the Treacheries against King Edward the second.

Anno. 10. Richard the third, 1366. thirteen Lord's were appointed by Parliament to have the government of the Realm under the King, in diminution of his Prerogative; among these Williara Edingdon Bishop of Winchester, John Gilbert Bishop of Hereford, Lord Treasurer of England, Thomas Arundle, Bishop of Eli, and Chancellor. Nicholas Abbot of Waltham, Lord Keeper of the privy Seal, William, Archbishop of Canterbury, Alexander Archbishop of York, and Thomas Bishop of Exeter were chief, and the principal contrivers of this new project, which fell out to be inconvenient and pernicious both to the King and Realm, the very procurers of this Act (as some of the J • dges afterwards resolved) deserving death; which resolution afterward cost some of them their lives • as the Stories of those times declare. It seems this Bishop made great havoc of the goods of his Church, for his successor V • illiam Wicham sued his Executors for dilapidations, and recovered of them 1672. pound ten shillings • besides 1566. head of neat, 386. Weathers, 417. Ewes. 3521. Lambes and 127. Swine; all which stock it seemeth belonged unto the Bishopric of Winchester at that time.

William Wicham his next successor was a great Pluralist, the yearly revenues of his spiritual promotions • according as they were then rated in the Kings books, beside his Bishopric, amounting to 876. pound • thirteen shillings and four pence; besides these Ecclesiastical preferments, he held many temporal offices, at the Secretariship, the Keepership of the Privy Seal, the Mastership of Wards, the Treasurership of the Kings revenues in France, and divers others. Being consecrated Bishop of Winchester, in the year 1367. he was made soon after, first Treasurer then Chancellor of England. It seems that he was a better Treasurer for himself than the King, who though he received hugh sums of money by the ransom of two Kings, and spoil of divers large Countries abroad, and by unusual subsedyes and taxations at home (much grudged at by the Commons,) was yet so bare, as for the payment of his debts, he was constrained to find new devices to raise money: whereupon a solemn complaint was framed against this Bishop for vainly wasting, or falsely imbezelling the Kings Treasure; for that otherwise it was impossible the King should be fallen so far behind hand: whereupon he was charged with the receipt of 1109600. pound (which amounted to more than a million of pounds) besides a hundred thousand frankes paid unto him by Galeace Duke of Millaine ; for all which a sudden account is demanded of him: divers other accusations and misdemeanors were likewise charged against him, and by means hereof, John a Gaun • Duke of Lancaster questioning him in the Kings Courts for these misdemeanors, William Skipwith, Lord chief Justice, condemned him as guilty of these accusations; procured his temporalties to be taken from him, and to be bestowed upon the young Pri • ce of Wales ; and lastly commanded him in the Kings name not to come within twenty miles of the Court. This happened in the year 1376. The next year the Parliament being assembled, and Subsidies demanded of the Clergy, the Bishops utterly rufused to debate of any matter whatsoever, till the Bishop of Winchester, a principal member of that assembly, might be present with him. By this means Licence was obtained for his repair thither: and thither he came, glad he might be near to the means of his re • titution. But whether it were, that he wanted money to bear the charge, or to the intent to move commiseration, or that he thought it safest to pass obscurely; he that was wont to ride with the greatest train of any Prelate in England came then very slenderly attended; travelling through by-ways, as standing in doubt of snares his enemies might lay for him. After two years trouble, and the loss of ten thousand marks sustain • d by reason of the same; with much ado he obtain •• restitution of his temporalties, by the mediation of Ali •• Piers, a gentlewoman that in the last times of King Ed •• rd altogether possessed him. Returning then unto Winchester, he was received into the city with solemn proc •• sion, and many signs of great joy. Soone after his return King Edward died • and the Duke hoping b • reason of • h • • oung Kings nonage to work • some m • s • hi • fe unto this Bishop, whom of all mortal men he most hated (perhaps not without just reason) began to rub up some of the old accusations • with addi • ions of new complaints. But the King thought good to be a means of reconciling these two personages, and then was easily entreated under the broad Seal of England to pardon all those supposed offenses, wherewith the Bishop had heretofore been charged. This Bishop earnestly desiring to be made Bishop of Winchester, the King himself exp • obrated to him the exilitie and smalenesse of his learning (he being no Scholar at all • but a surveyer of his buildings at first, though laden with multitudes of pluralities) to whom Wickham answered; That albeit he were unlearned, yet he was ab • ut to bring forth a f • uitfull issue which should procreate very great store of learned men ; which was understood of those most ample Colleges he afterwards bu • lt, both at Oxford and Wincheste • for: which good works alone his name hath since been famous, and himself extolled above his deserts in other things, which were but ill at best. This Prelate having obtained divers goodly promotions, which he acknowledged to have received, rather as reward of service, then in regard of any extraordinary desert otherwise • he caused to be engraven in Winchester Tower at Winsor these words, This made Wickham • whereof when some complained to the King as a thing derogating from his honor, that another should • eeme to bear the charge of his buildings; and the King in great displeasure reprehended him for it. He answered, that his meaning was not to ascribe the honor of that building to himself, but his own honor of preferments unto that bu • lding; not importing that Wicham made the Tower, but, that the Tower was the means of making Wickham, and raising him from base estate, unto those great places of honor he then enjoyed.

The Pope was now grown to that height of tyranny, that he not only placed, but displaced Bishops at his pleasure. And his means to do it, was by translating them to some other Bishopric, peradventure nothing worth at all He translated Henry Beauford from Lincoln to Winchester, June 23. 1426. and made him Cardinal of S. Eusebius. This Bishop was valiant and very wise. Pope Martin the fifth • determining to make war upon the Bo • emians, that had renounced all obedience unto the see of Rome, made this Cardinal his Legate into that Country, and appointed such forces as he could make to be at his commandment. Toward the charges of this voyage, the Clergy of England gave a tenth of all their promotions, and furnished out four thousand men and more: with this power, he passed by France (doing there some service for his Prince and Country) into Bohemia, the year, 1429. There he remained certain months, behaving himself very valiantly, till by the Pope he was discharged, In his youth he was wantonly given and begat a base daughter named Jane upon Alice, the daughter of Richard, Earl of Arundell. About the year of our Lord, 1425. there fell out a great devision in the Realm of England, which of a sparkle, was like to have grown to a great flame, by means of this Henry Beauford Bishop of Winchester, Son to John Duke of Lancaster by his third wife; for whether this Bishop envied the authority of Humphry Duke of Gloster • Protector of the Realm, or whether the Duke disdained at the riches and pompous estate of the said Bishop; sure it is, that the whole Realm was troubled with them, and their partakers; so that the citizens of London were fain to keep daily and nightly watches and to shut up their shops for fear of that which was doubted to have ensued of their assembling of people about them. The Archbishop of Canterbury, and the Duke of Quimbre, called the Prince of Portingale, rode eight times in one day between the two parties, and so the matter was staid for a time: but the Bishop of Winchester to clear himself of blame so far as he might, and to charge his Nephew, the Lord Protector with all the fault, wrote a Letter to the Regent of France. The 25. day of March, a Parliament began at the Town of Leicester, where the Duke of Bedford openly rebuked the Lord's in general, because that they in the time of war, through their privy malice and inward grudges, had almost moved the people to war and commotion, in which time all men ought or should be of one mind, heart and consent, requiring them to defend, serve, and to dread their sovereign Lord King Henry in performing his conquest in France, which was in manner brought to conclusion. In this Parliament, the Duke of Gloucester laid certain Articles to the Bishop of Winchesters charge.

First, Whereas he being Protector and Defender of this Land desired the Tower to be opened to him therein, Richard Woodvile Esquire (having at that time the charge of the keeping of the Tower) refused his desire, and kept the same Tower against him • unduly and against reason, by the commandment of the said Lord of Winchester ; and afterward in approving of the said refusal he received the said Woodvile, and cherished him against the State and worship of the King, and of the said Lord of Gloucester.

Secondly, The said Lord of Winchester, without the advise and assent of the said Lord of Gloucester, or of the Kings Council purposed and disposed him to set hand on the Kings person, and to have removed him from Eltham, the place that he was in, to Windsor, to the intent to put him in governance as he list.

Thirdly, that where the said Lord of Gloucester (to whom of all persons tha • should be in the Land by the way of Nature and birth, it belongeth to see the governance of the Kings person) informed of the said undue purpose of the said Lord of Winchester declared in the Article next above said and in setting thereof, determining to have gone to Eltham unto the King, to have provided as the cause required, and the said Lord of Winchester untruly and against the Kings peace, to the intent to trouble the said Lord of Gloucester going to the King • purposing his death in case that he had gone that way, set men of arms, and Archers at the end of London bridge next Southw • rke, and in forbearing of the Kings high way, let draw the chain of the stoops there, and set up pipes and hurdles in manner and former of Bulworkes, and set m • n in cellers and windows, with Bows and Arrows • and other weapons, to the intent to bring final destruction to the said Lord of Glocesters person, as well as of those that then should come with him.

Fourthly, The said Lord of Gloucester saith • and affirmeth, that our sovereign Lord his Brother, that was King Henry the fifth, told him on a time when our Sovereign Lord being Prince, was lodged in the Palace of Westminster in the great Chamber, by the noise of a Spaniell, there was on a night a man spied and taken behind a carpet of the said Chamber, the which man was delivered to the Earl of Arundell to be examined upon the cause of his being there at that time; the which so examined at that time, confessed, that he was there by the stirring and procuring of the said Lord of Winchester, ordained to have slain the said Prince there in his bed: wherefore the said Earl of Arundell let sack him forthwith and drowns him in the Thames.

Fifthly, Our Sovereign Lord, that was King Henry the fifth, said unto the said Lord of Gloucester, that his Father, King Henry the fourth living • and visited then greatly with sickness by the hand of God, the said Lord of Winchester, said unto the King ( Henry the fifth being then Prince) that the King his Father so visited with sickness was not personable, and therefore not disposed to come in conversation and governance of the people, and for so much counseled him to take the governance and Crown of this Land upon him. Such a loyal Prelate was he. To these Articles the Archbishop gave in his answer in writing too tedious to recite; whereupon the Lord's in Parliament took an Oath to be indifferent umpiers between the Bishop and Duke, and at last • with much ado, made a final accord and decree between them, recorded at large by Hall and Holinshed, where • by they both were reconciled for a season. But in the year 1427. the Bishop passing the sea into France, received the habit, hat and dignity of a Cardinal, with all ceremonies to it appertaining; which promotion the late King right deeply piercing into the unrestrainable ambitions mind of the man, which even from his youth was ever wont to check for the highest) and also right well ascertained with what intolerable pride his head should soon be swoll • n under such a hat, did therefore all his life long keep this Prelate back from that presumptuous estate. But now the King being young, and the Regent his friend, he obtained his purpose, to the impoverishi • g of the spiritualitie of this Realm. For by a Bull Legantine, which he purchased from Rome, he gathered so much treasure, that no man in manner had money but he, so that he was called, the rich Cardinal of Wincester. Afterwards An. 1429. the Pope unleagated him, and set another in his place to his great discontent Anno. 1441. the flames of contention brake out afresh between the said Duke and the Cardinal; for after his former reconciliation to the Duke, he and the Archbishop of York ( John Kerap ) ceased not to do many things without the consent of the King or Duke, being (during the minority of the King) Governor and Protector of the Realm, whereat the Duke (as good cause he had) was greatly offended: and there upon declared to King Henry the • ixth in writing, wherein the Cardinal and the Archbishop had offended both his Majesty, and the Laws of the Realm. This complaint of the Duke was contained in twenty four Articles, which chiefly rested, in that the Cardinal had from time to time, through his ambitious desire to surmount all other, in high degree of honor, sought to enrich himself, to the great and notorious hindrance of the King, as in defrauding him, not only of his treasure, but also in doing & practicing things prejudicial to his affairs in France, and namely by setting at liberty the King of Scots, upon so easy conditions as the Kings Majesty greatly lost therehy, as in particulars thus followeth • and out of the Dukes own copy, regestred by Hall and Holinshed.

• 1. These be in part the points and Articles which I Humphrey Duke of Gloster, for my truth and acquitall said late, I would give in writing (my right doubted Lord) unto your Highnes, advertising your Excellence, of such things as in part have been done in your tender age in derogation of your noble estate, and hurt of both your Realms, and yet be done and used daily.
• 2. First, the Cardinal then being Bishop of Winchester, him took upon the state of Cardinal, which was naied and denaied him by the King of most noble memory, my Lord your Father, saying, that he had as lefe set his Crown beside him, as to see him wear a Cardinals Hat, he being a Cardinal; for he knew full well the pride and ambition that was in his person, then being but a Bishop, should have so greatly extolled him into more intolerable pride, when that he were a Cardinal; and also he though it against his freedom of the chief Church of this Realm, which that he worshipped as duly as ever did Prince, that blessed be his soul. And howbeit that my said Lord your Father would have had certain Clerks of this Land Cardinals, and to have no Bishoprics in England, yet his intent was never to do so great d • rogation to the Church of Canterbury, as to make them that were his suffragans to sit above their Ordinary and Metropolitan. But the cause was, that in general and in all matters which might concern the weal of him and of his Realm he should have Proctors of his Nation, as other Christian Kings had in the Court of Rome, and not to abide in this Land, nor to be in any part of his Counsels as been all the spiritual and temporal at Parliament, and other great Councils, when you list to call them: And therefore though it please you to do him that worship, to set him in your privy Council, after your pleasure, yet in every Parliament, where every Lord, both spiritual and temporal hath his place, he ought to occupy but his place as a Bishop.
• 3. Item. The said Bishop now being Cardinal, was assoiled of his Bishopric of Winchester, whereupon he sued unto our holy Father to have a Bull declarative, notwithstanding he was assumpt to the state of Cardinal, that the See was not void, where indeed it stood void for a certain time, yet the said Bull were granted and so he was exempt from his ordinary by the taking on him the state of Cardinal, and the Church Bishopric of Winchester, so standing void, he took again of the Pope (you not learned thereof, nor knowing, whereby he was fallen into the case of provision) so that all his goods was lawfully and clearly forfeited to you my right doubted Lord, with more, as the Statute declareth plainly for your advantage.
• I • em. It is not unknown to you (doubted Lord) how through your lands it is noised, that the said Cardinal and the Archbishop of York, had, and have the governance of you, and all you • land, the which none of your true leige men ought to usurp to take upon them, and have also estranged me your sole uncle, my cosin of York, my consin of Huntingdon, and many other Lord's of your Kin to have any knowledge of any great mat • er that might touch your high estate, or either of your Realms: and of Lord's spiritual of right, the Archbishop of Canterbury should be your chief Counselor, the which is also estranged and set aside, and so be many other right sad Lord's, and well advised, as well spiritual as temporal, to the great hurt of you my right doubted Lord, and of your Realms, like as the experience and works shown, clearly and evidently more harm it is.
• 5. Item. In the tender age of • you my right doubted Lord, for the necessity of a Army, the said Cardinal lent you 4000 pound upon certain Jewels, prised at two & twenty 1000-marks with a letter of sale that if they were not quited at a certain day you should leese them. The said Cardinal seeing your money ready to have quitted your Jewels, caused your Treasurer of England, at that day being, to pay the same money in part of another army, in defrauding you my right doubted Lord of your said Jewels, keeping them yet always to his own use, to your right great loss, and his singular profit and avail.
• 6. Item, the said Cardinal then being Bishop of Winchester, & Chancellor of England, delu •• ed the King of Scots upon certain appointments (as may be shown) presumptuously, and of his own authority, contrary to the Act of Parliament. I have heard notable men of Law say, that they never heard the like thing done among them which was too great a defamation to your highness, and also to • wed his Niece to the said King, whom that my Lord of notable memory your Father would never have so delu •• ed; and there as he should have paid for his cos • s • forty thousand pounds, the said Cardinal Ch •• cellor of England, caused you to pardon him thereof ten thousand marks, whereof the greater some he paid you right a little, what, I report me to your highness.
• 7. It • , where the said Cardinal lent you (my redoubted Lord) great and notable Sommes, he hath had, and his assigns the rule & profit of the port of Hampton, where the Customers been his servants, where (by likelihood and as it is to be supposed) he standing the chief Merchant of the wools of your land • that you be greatly defrauded, and under that rule, what woolls and other Merchantdizes have been shipped, and may be from time to time, hard is to esteem, to the great hurt and prejudice of you my right doubted Lord, and of all your people.
• 8. Item, Howbeit that the said Cardinal hath divers times lent you great sommes of money, since the time of your reign, yet this loan hath been so deferred and delayed, that for the most part the convenable season of the employing of the good lent was passed, so that little fruit or none came thereof • as by experience both your Realms have sufficiently in knowledge.
• 9. Item, Where there was Jewels and Plate, prised at eleven thousand pound in weight of the said Cardinal forfeited to you, my right redoubted Lord, he gate him a restorement thereof for a loan of a little percell of the same • and so defrauded you wholly of them, to your great hurt and his avayle; the which good might greatly have eased your highness in sparing as much of the poor Commons.
• 10. Item, The Cardinal being feoft of my said Lord your Father against his intent, gave Elizabeth Beauchampe three hundred marks of livelihood, where that his will was, that and she were wedded, within a year, then to have •• , or else not, where indeed it was two or three years after, to your great hurt, and diminishing of your inheritance.
• 11. Item, Notwithstanding that the said Cardinal hath no manner of authority, nor interest into the Crown, nor none may have by any possibility, yet he presumeth and taketh upon him in party your estate royal, in calling before him into great abusion of all your land, and derogation of your highness, which hath not been seen, nor used in no days heretofore, in greater estate then he is, without your express ordenance and commandment.
• 12. Item, the said Cardinal nothing considering the necesity of you my right redoubted Lord, hath sued a pardon of dismes, that he should pay for the Church of Winchester, for term of his life, giving thereby occasion to all other Lord's spiritual, to draw their good will for any necessity, to grant any disme, and so to lay all the charge upon the temporalty, and the poor people.
• 13. Item, by the governance and labor of the said Cardinal and Archbishop of York, there hath been lost and dispended much notable and great good by divers ambassadors sent out of this Realm. First • to Arras for a feigned colorable peace, whereas by likelinesse it was thought & supposed, that it should never turn to the effectual avail of you, my right doubted Lord, nor to your said Realms, but under color thereof, was made the peace of your adversary, and the Duke of Burgoyn ; for else your party adverse, and the said Duke might not well have found means nor ways to have communed together, nor to have concluded with other their confederations, and conspirations made and wrought there then, at that time against your highness, whereby you might have (right doubted Lord) the greater party of your obisance, as well in your Realm of France, as in your Dutchie of Normandy, and much other thing gone greatly, as through the said colorable treaty, and otherwise, since the death of my brother of Bedford.
• 14. Ite. Now of late was sent another Embassador to Cale • by the labor and council of the said Cardinal and Archbishop of York ; the cause why of the beginning, is to me your sole Uncle, and other Lord's of your kin and Council unknown, to your great charge, and against the public good of your Realm, as it openly appeareth; the which good if it be employed for the defense of your Lands, the marchandizes of the same might, have had other course • and your said lands not to have stood in so great mischief as they do.
• 15. Item, after that, to your great charge and hurt of both your Realms, the said Cardinal and Archbishop of York went to your said town of Calis, and divers Lord's of your kin, and of your Council in their fellowship, and there, as there was natural war between the Duke of Orliance, and the Duke of Burgonie, for murder of their Fathers, a capital enmity, like to have endured forever; the said Cardinal and Archbishop of York licen • ed and suffered the said Duke of Orleans to entreat and commune apart, with Council of your said adversaries, as well as with the Douchies of Burgond • e, by which means the peace and alliance was made between the two Dukes, to the greatest for • e •• ing of your said capital adversaries that could be thought; and consequently (my dear redoubted Lord) to your greatest charge, and hurt to both your Realms; under color of which treaty, your said adversaries in mean time won your city of Meaux, and the country thereabout, and many divers roads made into your Duchie of Normandy, to the great noysance and destruction of your people, as it showeth openly.
• 16. Item, The said Archbishop of York, sent with others into this your Realm from the said Cardinal, had with your adverse party at your said Town of Calis, made at his coming into your notable presence at Winsor, all the swasions and color, all motions in the most app • rent wise that he could, to induee your Highness to your agreement to the desires of your capital Adversaries, as I saw there in your noble presence of his writing, at which time (as I understood) it was his singular opinion, that is to say; that you should leave your right, your title, and your honor of your crown, and your nomination of King of France, during certain years, and that you should utterly abstain, and be content only in writing, with Rex • ngliae, &c. to the greatest note of infamy that ever fell to you, or any of your noble Progenitors since the taking of them first, the said title and right of your Realm, and Crown of France, to which matter in your presence, there, after that it had like your said Hignesse to ask mine advise thereupon, with other of your blood and Counsel; I answered and said, that I would never agree thereto, to die therefore; and of the same disposition I am yet, and will be while I live in conservation of your honor, and of your oath made unto your said Crown in time of your coronation there.
• 17. Item, The said Cardinal, and Archbishop of York have so labored unto your Highness, that you should intend to a new day of convention in March or April next coming, where it is noised to be more against your worship, then with it; and where it was evident to all the world, that the rupture and breaking of the said peace should have fallen heretofore, of your adverse party, because of the great untruths; now by that means it is like peradventure to be • aid unto very great slander of you my doubted Lord, like to come to none other purpose nor effect than other conventions have done aforetime, and so by subtleties and counsel of your said enemies your land (they in hope and trust of the said treaty not mightily nor puissantly purveyed for) shall be like under the cullor of the same treaty to be burnt up and destroyed, lost, and utterly turned from your obeisance.
• 18. Itera, It is said, that the deliverance of the Duke of Orleans is utterly appointed by the mediation, counsel and stirring of the said Cardinal • and Archbishor of York ; and for that cause divers persons been come from your adversaries into this your Realm; and the said Duke also brought to your city of London, whereas my Lord your Father poising so greatly the inconveniences and harm that might fall only by his deliverance concluded, ordained, and determined in his last Will utterly in his wisdom, his conquest in his Realm of France: And yet then it is to be done by as great deliberation solemnity and surety, as may be devised or thought: and seeing now the disposition of your Realm of France, the puissance and might of your enemies, and what aid they have gotten against you there, as well under the color of the said treaty, as otherwise, what might or ought to be thought or said for that laboring the said Duke (all things considered) by such particular parsons, the Lord's of your blood not called thereunto; I report me unro your noble grace and excellency, and unto the said wi • e true men of this your Realm.
• 19. Item, Where that every true counselor, specially unto any King or Prince, ought of truth and of duty to counsel, promote, in • rease, perferre and advance the weal and prosperity of his Lord; The said Cardinal being of your counsel (my right doubted Lord) hath late purchased of your Highness certain great Lands, and livelihood; as the Castle and Lordship of Chirke in Wales, and other lands in this your Realm: unto which I was called suddenly, and so in eschewing the breaking and loss of your armies, then again, seeing none other remedy, gave thereunto mine assent, thinking that who that ever labored, moved or stirred, the matter first unto your Lordship, counseled you • nei • her for your worship nor profit.
• 20. More the said Cardinal hath you bound apart, to make him a sure estate of all the said Lands, by Easter next coming, as could be devised by any learned counsel, or else that surety not made, the said Cardinal to have and enjoy to him and his heirs, forever the lands of the Dutchie of Lancaster in Norfolk, to the value of seven or eight hundred marks by the year; which thing seemeth right strange, and unseen and unheard ways of any leige man, to seek upon his sovereign Lord, both in his inheritance, and in his Jewels and goods; for it is thought, but that right and extreme necessity caused it, there should, nor ought no such things to be done from which necessity (God for his mercy) ever preserve your noble person. Wherefore (my redoubted Lord) seeing that you should be so counseled, or stirred to leave your Crown and inheritance in England, and also by fraud and subtle means, as is before rehearsed, so to loose your Jewels, in my truth and in mine acquitall (as it seems to me) I may not, nor ought not counsel so great an hurt to you, and to all your Land.
• 21. Item, It is not unknown to you (my right doubted Lord) how oftentimes I have offered my service, to and for the defense of your Realm of France, and Duchy o • Normandy, where I have been put there from by the labor of the Lord Cardinal, in preferring others after his singular affection, which hath caused a great part of the said Duchy of Normandy, as well as of the Realm of France to be lost, as it is well known; and what good (my right doubted Lord) was lost on that army that was last sent thither which the Earl of Mortaigne, your Counsel of France hath well and clearly declared to your Highness here before.
• 22. Item, My right doubted Lord, it is not unknown • , that it had not been possible to the said Cardinal to have come to his great riches but by such means, for of his Church it might not rise, and inheritance he had none. Wherefore, my right doubted Lord, since there is great good behoove at this time for the weal and safeguard of your Realms, the poverty, necessity, and indigence of your leige people, in highness understand, like it unto your noble grace to consider the said lucre of the said Cardinal, and the great deceits that you be deceived in by the labor of him, and of the Archbishop, as well in this your Realm, as in the Realm of France, and Duchy of Normandy, where neither office, livelihood, nor Captain may be had withou • too great good given unto him, whereby a great part of all the loss that is lost, they have been the causers of, for who that would give most, his was the prize, not considering the merrits, service nor sufficiency of persons. Furthermore, it is greatly to be considered, how when the said Cardinal had forfeited all his goods, because of provision, as the Statute thereupon more plainly declareth, by having the rule of you my right doubted Lord • purchased himself in great defraudation of your Highness, a Charter of pardon, the which good, and it had been well governed might many years have sustained your wars without any t • lage of your poor people.
• 23. I • em, my redoubted Lord, whereas I wrote many things for the weal of you, and of your Realms • peradventure some will say, and understand • that I would or have written by way of accusement of all your Counsel, which God knoweth I do not; for your Highness may well see, that I name them, that be caus • rs of the s • id inordinate rule. Wherefore considering that the said Cardinal and Archbishop of York are they that pretend the governance of you and of your Realms and Lordships • please i • unto your Highn • sse, of your right wisenesse to estr • nge them of your Counsel, to that intent that men may be at their freedom, to say what they think of truth.
• 24. For truth, I dare speak of my truth, the poor dare not do so. And if the Cardinal and the Archbishop of York, may afterward declare themselves of that is and shall be said of them, (you my most doubted Lord) may then restore them again to your Counsel at your noble pleasure.

When the King had heard the accusations thus laid by the Duke of Gloucester against the Cardinal, he committed the examination thereof to his Counsel, whereof the more part were spiritual persons; so that what for fear, and what for favor, the matter was winked at, and nothing said to it; only fair countenance was made to the Duke, as though no malice had been conceived against him; but venom will break out, and inward grudge will soon appear, which was this year to all men apparent; for divers secret attempts were advanced forward this season against this Noble man, Humphrey Duke of Gloucester a far off; which in conclusion came so near, that they bereft him both of life and land. For this proud covetous Prelate setting the Queen against this good Duke, at a Parliament at Berry caused him there to be arrested, and murdered: by means of whose death all France was shortly after lost, & the Kingdom involved in a bloody civil war. I shall close up the History of this proud Prelate with old Father Latimers words concerning him, in a Sermon before King Edward the sixth. There was a Bishop of Winchester in King Henry the sixth days, which King was but a child, but yet were there many good Acts made in his childhood: and I do not read that they were broken. This Bishop was a great man borne, and did bear such a stroke, that he was able to shoulder the Lord Protector. Well, it chanced that the Lord Protector and he fell out, and the Bishop would bear nothing at all with him, but played the Sacrapha ; so the Regent of France was fain to be sent for from beyond the seas, to set them at one; and go between them, for the Bishop was as able and ready to buckle with the Lord Protector, as he was with him. Was not this a good Prelate? he should have been at home Preaching at his Diocese with a wannion. This Protector was so noble and godly a man that he was called of every man, the good Duke Humphrey ; he kept such a house as was never since kept in England, without any inhaunsing, of rents (I warrant you) or any such matter. And the Bishop for standing so stiffly by the matter, and bearing up the order of our Mother the holy Church was made a Cardinal at Calis, and thither the Bishop of Rome sent him a Cardinals Hat: he should have had a Tiburne Tippit, a half penny halter, and all such proud Prelates. These Romish Hats never brought good into England. Upon this the Bishop goeth to the Queen Katherine, the Kings wife, a proud woman and a stout, and persuaded her, that if the Duke were in such authority still, and lived, the people would honor him more than the King, and the King should not be set by; and so between them, I cannot tell how, it came to pass, but at S. Edmundsberry in a Parliament, the good Duke Humphrey was smothered.

To leave this Cardinal, Ste. Gardener, both Chancellor of England, & B. of Winchester was the chief author of making & reviving the bloody Act, intitled the 6. Articles by which many of our godly Martyrs suffered; the chief plotter and contriver of the noble Lord Cromwells death. Who could not abide the pride of the Prelates, and was attainted by Parliament, and never came to his answer: He was a great opposer of the reformation of Religion, and abuses of the Clergy, both in King Henry the eights, and King Edwards days, and stirred up under hand divers Priests, Abbots, and Monks to oppose the Kings Supremacy, and to raise up open rebellion in Lincolneshire, in the North, Cornewall, and other places, in maintenance of Popery; for which Treasons and Rebellions Exmew, Middlemore and Nudigate, three Monks of the Charterhouse, a Priest near Winsor ; the Abbots of Ierney, and Rivers Freer, Forest, Crofts, and Collines Priests, Thomas Epsara Monk; five Priests of Yorkshire, and Robert Bockham, John Tomson, Roger Barret, John Wolcocke, William Alse, James Morton, John Barrow; Richard Brune • Priests, chief stirrers in the Devonshire rebellions • and principal doers therein; and one Welch a Priest. Vicar of St. Thomas near Exbridge (hanged on the Tower there in his Priests apparel, with a holy-water bucket and sacring Bell, a pair of Bedes, and such other Popish Trinkets about him, for his rebellion,) were all executed • This Bishop imploed by King Henry the eight, with Sir Henry Knevet, as his Embassador, at the Di • t at Ratisbond, he held private intelligence, and received and sent letters under hand to the Pope, whose authority the King had utterly abolished, and had then mortal enmity with: for which false and tray • erly practice of which the King had certain intelligence, he caused in all Pardons afterwards, all Treasons committed beyond the seas to be excepted, which was most meant for the Bishops cause; whom he exempted out of his Testament as being willful and contentious, and one that would trouble them all; and exempted also out of his said Testament the Bishop of Westmins • er, for that he was Schooled in Winchesters School, whom this King before his death was certainly believed to abhor more than any English man in his Realm. He was found to be the secret worker • that three years before the Kings death divers of the Privy Chamber were indicted of heresy, for the which the said King was much offended.

Anno. 1548. he was committed Prisoner to the Fleet, and after to the Tower, for a Sermon preached before King Edward, and disobeying the Kings Injunctions; when he had there continued two years and an half, he was by authority deprived of his Bishopric, and sent to prison again, where he continued, till Queen Mary's time; when he was not only restored unto his Bishopric, but likewise made Lord Chancellor of England. For the extreme malice he bare to our Religion, he not only cruelly burnt many poor men, but likewise wrought all the means his cunning head could devise to make away our late famous Quueene Elizabeth, saying often, it was in vain to strike off a few leaves or branches, when the root remained: he not only caused this innocent Princesse to be imprisoned, and barbarously handled, both in the Tower, and after, at Woodstock, being the Queens own Sister, and heir apparent to to the Crown, procuring to her so great vexation by his rigorous usage, that she wished her self borne a Milkemaide; but proceeded so far in his treacherous plots against her, that in all probabilities, his cursed policy must have prevailed, had not God moved the heart of Queen Mary her Sister, with a very kind and natural affection towards her, and in mercy taken him the more speedily out of the way by death, till which time she had no security, release, or hope of life. The whole Story of his treachery and God's mercy towards this blessed Queen, is at large related by Master Fox. He was a bitter opposite and enemy to Cranmer, Ridley, and Latimer, refusing to eat his dinner, that day, the two last of them were burnt at Oxford before he heard from thence of their death. He was the bane of Queen Anne, (the Lady Anne of Cleave,) the Lord Cromwell, Dr. Barns, and others. And though in King Henries days, he proved Queen Mary a Bastard and the Bishop of Rome to be an usurper; yet afterwards when Queen Mary came to the Crown, he was her chiefest instrument, the forwardest man to advance the Popes Supremacy, and the sorest Persecutor.

Anno. 1554. On the Cunduit in Gracious street, King Henry the eight, was painted in harness, having in one hand a sword, and in the other hand a Book whereon was written Verbum Dei, delivering the same as it were to King Edward his Son, who was painted in a corner by him; hereupon was no small matter made; for Stephen Gardener Bishop of Winchester sent for the Painter, and not only called him Knave, for painting a Book in King Henr • es hand, and specially for writing thereon Verbum Dei, but also Traitor and villain, commanding him to wipe out the Book, and Verbum Dei too. Whereupon the Painter fearing that he should leave some part of the Book, or of Verbum Dei, in King Henries hand, wiped away a piece of his finger withal. England had great cause to bless God for his death, which happened so opportunity; not so much for the great hurt he had done in times past in perverting his Princesse, bringing in • ixe Articles, in murthering God's Saints, in defacing Christ's sincere Religion, as especially for that he had thought to have brought to pass in murthering also Queen Eliz • beth : for whatsoever danger of death, it was she was in, it did no doubt proceed from this Bloody Bishop, who was the cause thereof; and if it be certain, which we heard, that her Highness being in the Tower, a writ came down from certain of the Counsel for her execution, it is out of controver • ie, that wily Winchester was the only Dedalus and framer of that Engin. He was an enemy to this Queen, and with divers of the Lord's • strictly examined her at the Tower. And when she recovered from her dangerous sickness, he and other Bishops repined, looked blacked in the mouth, and told this Queen they marvelled, that she submitted not her self to her Majesty's mercy, considering that she had offended her highness: Winchester, after talking with her, persuaded her to submit her self; which she refusing, he replied, that she must tell another tale, ere that she should he set at liberty, least she should have advantage against him for her long, and wrong imprisonment: more English blood by his means was spilled in Queen Mary's time, by hanging, heading, burning, and prisoning, than ever was in any Kings reign before her. This treacherous Prelate, who called King Edward his Sovereign, usurper being hated of God, and all good men, had a miserable death suitable to his life: for the old Duke of Norfolk coming so visit him, the same day that Ridley & Latimer were burnt at Oxford, the Bishop would not sit down to dinner, till one of his servants about four of the clock coming post from Oxford, brought most certain intelligence that fire was set to these Martyrs; whereupon coming out rejoicing to the Duke, Now (saith he) let us go to Dinner. They being set down, meat immediately was brought, and the Bishop began merrily to eat; but what followed? The bloody Tyrant had not eaten a few bits, but the sudden stroke of God's terrible hand fell upon him in such sort, as immediately he was taken from the Table, and so brought to his bed, where he continued the space of fifteen days in such intolerable anguish & torments within (rotting even above ground) that all that while during these fifteen days, he could not avoid by order of urine • or otherwise, anything that he received, whereby his body being miserably inflamed within (who had inflamed so many good Martyrs before) was brought to a wretched end. And thereof no doubt, as most like it is, came the thrusting out of his tongue from his mouth so swollen and black with the inflammation of his body. A Spectacle worthy to be noted and beholden of such bloody burning Persecutors. When Doctor Day • Bishop of Chichester came to him, and began to comfort him with words of God's Promise, and with the free justification in the blood of Christ our Savior, repeating the Scriptures to him: Winchester hearing that, What my Lord (quoth he) will you open that gap now? Than farewell all together. To me, and such other in my case you may speak it, but open this window to the people, than farewell all together. And thus this wretch died, blaspheming. He that list may read more of him in John Bales Scriptorum. Brit. cent. 8. sect. 88. p. 486. &c.

John White his successor in that See, was little better, and would have defaced Queen Elizabeth gladly, if he durst, in his Funeral Sermon of Queen Mary, whom he immoderately extolled. He to obtain this Bishopric, promised to give the Pope 1600. l. per annum, for it during his life: which gross Simony the Pope disliking, and threatening to punish him for it, he was forced to pay much dearer, ere he could obtain it. This Bishop, and others, being appointed to confer with the Protestant Ministers in the first year of Queen Elizabeth, instead of disputing, he, and Thomas Watson Bishop of Lincoln, two malepate Prelates, threatening to excommunicate the Queen, were committed to prison, and there detained, and after that for refusing to take the oath of allegiance to the Queen; he, with thirteen Bishops more, who denied to take the Oath of Supremacy, which the greatest number of them had sworn unto formerly during the reign of King Henry the eight, were deprived of their Bishopprickes, and others placed in their room. John Bale in his Centuries gives this description of this Prelate: Johannes Whitus, Wintoniensis sch • lae olim Praeses, nunc EIVS PESTILENTISSIMAE SEDIS Episcopus, & Antichristi Romani terrificus minister, rostris & unguibus in Angliae regno restituere conatur, omnes ejus tyra • nides, idolomanias, faeditates, & omni • dogmata universa. Principum illusor, & animarum carnifex, duplex & perjurus hypocrita ambitiosus que haereticus, deum suum Mauzim, mutum, mortuum & aridum idolum, omnium perniciosissimum, adversus Denm verum, viuum & sanctum erexit. And John Parkhust for his sake, wrote this Disticke to England, to take heed of all Prelates, and not to trust them.

With this other Disticke upon the Bishop himself.

I find little recorded of any of the Bishops of this See since this days; and what the Prelates of that See, in our memories have been (as Bilson, Montague, Andrew's, Neal, and Curle now living,) is sufficiently known: For Bilson, Andrew's, and Neal, we know, they were great sticklers • for Episcopacy, Lordly Prelacy, the High Commission Inquisition, and Ex Officio Oaths ; great enemies to Prohibitions and the Common Law; and no good friends to Parliaments: for Montague and Neal, they were the original Authors and publishers of the Book for Sports on the Lord's Day • published in King James his name and days, which occasioned must disorder then, and more since; and for the present Bishop, Curle, he was the most violent enforcer of this Book on the Clergy of all other Bishops ( Peirce and Wren only excepted,) and the first that ever suspended any Ministers for refusing parsonally to read it in their Churches; he suspending no less than five eminent Ministers at St. Mary Overies in one day, for refusing to publish it, though not enjoined nor authorized by the King to do it; whereupon other Bishops following his example, and proceedings in this kind, both in their Consistories, high Commissions, and Visitations, (wherein they made it one Article of Inquiry upon oath for Churchwardens to present on, whether their Minister had read to them the Declaration for Sports? a suparlative and shameless profanes, not paraleld in any age since Adam till now) Silenced, Suspended, persecuted; excommunicated, and drave out of the Realm, many of our best and painfullest preaching Ministers, and put both our Church and State into a miserable combustion, and most sad perplexed condition, making such breaches in both, which will not be, repaired again in many years. O that men who profess themselves Fathers of the Church, Pillers of Religion, and Pastors of men's souls, should be such Step-fathers to their own Diocese and Country, such patrons of profaneness, and licentiousness, and such desperate murderers of poor people's souls, to vex persecute, and stop their godly Ministers mouths, because they durst not out of consciens open them, to seduce and spur them on to hell & profanes with a full currere.

I shall only check the impudency, and shame the profaneness of these our monstrou Prelates, with words of Cardinal Bellarmine (no Puritan, I am certain) touching the unlawfulness of Dancing and Pastimes upon Lord's days, in sundry Sermons. I cannot verily, good hearers (saith he) explicate by words, with how great grief of mind, I behold, in what a perverse and Diabolical manner Holi-days are celebrated in this our age. How far pevish men have obscured and defiled their pious institution, with their most corrupt manners, may be understood by this, that to strangers, and those who are ignorant what manner of feasts, these are, from those things, which they see everywhere to be done, they may seem to be, not the feasts of God, but the Festivals of the Devil, and so the very Bacchanalia themselves. Yea verily, when I pray you, are there more sins committed then on Holidayes? When are there more sumptuous feasts kept? When more lascivious songs heard? When are bowling-allies & Taverns more frequented? when are there more execrable kinds of Plays Fooleries, and scurrilities? When are there more Dances in most places to the sound of the Harp and Lute, then on these days? But peradventure it is no evil. or a small evil, for men to dance with women. Yea verily nothing is more pernicious. If staws can come to the fire, and not be burnt, than a young man may dance with women. Alas, what will dances and Galliards profit thee at the last? when thou shalt have danced long, what shalt thou gain at length • but weariness of body and sickness of mind? knowest thou not the danger of Dances? How many thinkest thou, have entered Virgins into dances, and returned Harlots? Knowest thou not what happened to the daughter of Herodias, who with her dances was the cause that the light of the world, who had baptized the Lord, was quite extinguished? even she her self afterwards, as Nicephorus records, when she once passed over a river congealed with Ice, the Ice breaking, fell into the water up to the neck; and little after her head was congealed with frost and cold, and afterwards cut off, not with a sword, but with Ice, and then made a deadly dance upon the Ice. Knowest thou not what St. Ambrose, saith for her sake, One (saith he) may dance, but the daughter of an adulteress: but she who is chaste, let her learn her daughters Prayers not Dances. Of Dances, I will only speak one word, and for this cause principally, that I understand how dancing seems not a true evil to some, and I know that at Lovan, there are public Schools, where the Art of dancing is taught. But I verily, if adultery and fornication be evil, cannot see how it is not evil for men to dance with women, since it most of all provokes thereunto. Hear holy Job I have made (saith he) a covenant with mine eyes, that I would not so much as think of a maid ; and shalt thou go and dance with a maid, and provoke thyself to lust by dancing, and yet no danger hang over thy head? To what end then doth the Wise man give this admonition Keep not company with a woman that is a dancer, least happily thou perish in her allurements; but because if chaff can come to the fire and not be burnt, than a young man may dance with women and not burn • What? holy men, St. Anthony, St. Hilar • on, dwelt in the wilderness, they perpetually gave themselves to fastings and prayers, and yet scarce def •• ded themselves from the spirit of fornicatio •• and from evil de • ires and thoughts: and wilt thou • dde • o the heat of youth • the heat of drinking, and then go and laugh and sing, and dance with beautiful maidens, and shall I suspect no harm? Who of all you shall dwell with everlasting burning? If you cannot now abstain from drunkenness, from dancing, from toys • how shall ye be able to endure those living flames • and most bitter gnashing of teeth? But concerning the madness of dancing; hear ye what the ancients as well profane as sacred, have left written: Marcus Tulli • s did so detest the filthiness of Dances, that in the defense of Muraena, he said, No sober man almost danceth, unless perchance he be besides himself, and extreme dancing is the Companion of many delights. And in another place he objecteth dancing to Antonius, as a most dishonest crime. Blush therefore, O Christian, blush, thou art overcome by an Ethnic, and without doubt thou shalt be condemned in judgment by an Ethneike. He by the light of Nature only without the light of faith, could teach, that dancing was not the practice of any, but either of drunkards or mad men: and thou the Son of Cod, illuminated with a celestial light, with whom such vanities ought not so much as to be named, art most mad, in the very most famous and most sacred solemnities. Let us relinquish profane Authors, and come to Christians. Tell thou us, O most blessed Ambrose, thou most reverend old man, the light of the Christian Church, what thinkest thou of dances and morrisses Worthily, saith he, from thence we proceed to the injury of the Divinity; for what modesty can be there where they dance, shreeke, and make a noise together? Tell thou us also, O blessed Jerome, what thou deemest of dancing: Moreover (saith he) in his Book against Heluidius, where the Tymbrils sound, the Pipes make a noise, the Harp chatters, the Cymballs strike together, what fear of God can there be? Let us pass over into the East, and let us also advise with two of the Greek Fathers. Tell thou us, O great Chrysostom the ornament of Greece, tell thou us I pray thee thy opinion of banquets and dances; Hear (saith he) in the 49 Homily upon Matthew, hear these things, O men who follow magnificent feasts, full of drunkenness, hear I say, and tremble at the gulf of the devil: where wanton dancing is there the devil is certainly present. For God hath not given us our legs to dance, but that we should walk modestly, not that we should impudently skippe like Camels. But if the body be polluted, by dancing impudently, how much more may the soul be thought to be defiled? The devil danceth in these dances: with these, men are deceived by the ministers of the Devil. Last of all, hear with what words, St. Basil the great, a most holy man, and most learned, deplores this madness, in his Oration against drunkards: Men (saith he) and women together entering into Common dances, having delivered their souls to the drunken devil, wound one another with the pricks of unchaste affections: profuse laughter, is practiced and filthy songs, meretritious habits inviting unto petulancie are there used: Laughest, and delighest thou thyself with an arrogant delight, when as thou oughtest to power out tears, and sighs for what is past? Singest thou whorish Songs, casting away the Psalms, & Hyranes thou hast learned? Dost thou stir thy feet and caper furiously, and dance unhappily, when as thou oughtest to bend thy knees to prayer. Thus great Basil. Now if the holy Fathers have spoken these things of dances in genarall, how I pray had they exclaimed, if they had known them to have been used in the very Festivals of Christ's Nativitie? But let us leave men, and hear what the Lord himself, who cannot err, what the holy Ghost, and the Spirit of Truth, saith by the Prophet Isaiah : the Harp, saith he, and the Vial, the Taber and pipe, and wine are in your Feasts, but ye regard not the work of the Lord, neither consider the operation of his hands. Ah wretched & miserable persons, the Lord hath done an admirable work in these days: The Lord hath created a new thing upon the earth: A maid hath brought forth a Son: God hath come unto men, a new star hath appeared, the heavens are made mellifluous the Angels have left those blessed mansions that they might behold the little one who is given to us, and ye only for whom these things are done, busied in wickedness, buried in sleep and wine, regard not the work of the Lord, and consider not the operations of his hands. What therefore shall be done unto you? Hear the sentence of your Judge, Therefore saith he, Hell hath enlarged its • oule, and hath opened its mouth without all bounds Peradadventure ye are ignorant how great a sacrilege it is to profane days consecrated to God. Why, I beseech you, do we not everywhere use Churches, Chalices, and Priestly vestments? what are these walls more than others? What are Priests Garments more than others? As to their matter nothing at all. But therefore it is a wickedness, therefore a sacrilege therefore a most horrible villainy to convert them to profane uses because they are consecrated and dedicated to God, But who knoweth not that Holidayes are after the same manner consecrated and dedicated unto God, and to be spent in no other but in holy works? which of you if he should see any one enter into the Church with encredible audacity, and use the consecrated vestments, in steed of profane garments, Temples for a Tavern, the Altar for a Table, the Corporals, or Alterclothes for Mappes, eating in sacred Patens drinking in the Holy Chalices? which of us would not tremble, who would not exclaim? And now we behold the most solemn, the most famous, the most sacred Holy-days, dedicated to God, that they might be spent in Prayers, Meditations, reading of holy things, Hymns and Psalm • s, and spiritual Songs, to be profaned with sacrilegious Dances, Morrisses, Caperings, Feasts, Drinking-matches, uncleannesses, scurrilities, and yet no man trembles, no man is moved, no man wonders; O immortal God! What part hath righteousness with unrighteousness? what fellowship hath light with darkness? what agreement hath Christ with Belial? what hath the merriment of the flesh to do with the gladness of the spirit? what the solemnities of God, with the feasts of Bacchus and his crew? What now? those days wherein we ought to please God most, shall we in them more provoke him unto anger with our wickedness? on those days, in which the spirit is to be fed and recreated; in them shall we more overwhelm him with wine and uncleannesses? &c. What a madness is this? what infirnall furies scare us out of our wits? Thus, and much more, this Romish Cardinal Bellarmine, to the eternal infamy of our profane English Prelates; to whom this Cardinal in point of Dancing and Pastimes, especially on sacred Days, is not only a Puritan, but a Saint. And thus much for the Prelates of Winchester : I shall next survey the Bishops of Durham, and see whether they have been better qualified than these their Brethren.

Durham.

Kenulph the tenth Bishop of Durham, Anno. 750. was taken by Edbert King of the Northumbrians (belike • or some great Treason or misdemeanor, for the Monks conceal the reason) and committed prisoner to the Castle of Bebba, which King commanded the Church of Saint Peter in Lindisfarne to be besieged; which shows that the Bishop and his Church stood out then in rebellion against their Sovereign.

Egelricke the 16. Bishop of Durham, was charged with Treason, and conspiracy against William the Conqueror, and that he had disturbed the Kings peace, and practiced pyracie on the Seas: whereupon he was committed perpetual prisoner to Westminster, where, by continual fasting and abundance of tears washing away the guilt of his former misdeeds, he wan unto • imself such a reputation of holiness, as the place of his burial was much frequented after his death.

Egelwyn, his next successor in this See, much opposed himself against William the Conqueror, to whom afterward he was in show reconciled for a time; at last the ancient hatred he bore unto the King, boiling in his stomach, he joined winh certain Noble men in a flat rebellion against the Conqueror : he and they alleging at first, that they feared imprisonment, and hard measure, but indeed proposing to apprehend and depose the King, to set up an English man in his room, and commit him to perpetual imprisonment. When things succeeded not according to expectation, William the Conqueror getting the victory, Egelwyn • lies into Scotland; the King having banished him the Realm before, where out of his zeal, he •• communicates the King, and all his followers, as invaders and robbers of the Church. The year following he comes into England where he and the Nobles combining with him, with many thousands of the Laity and Clergy were fain to hide themselves in woods and secret places, being unable to encounter with the Kings forces; when they had done many harms and mischiefs in divers places to the wrong of the King, they came at last • o the Isle of Eli, which they fortified • and seized on as the place of their residence and refuge: and o • t times issuing out thence, much wasted and spoiled the bordering countries, building a wooden Castle in the Island • whereupon the Conqueror comes with all his forces, both by sea and land, and besiegeth the Island, m • king ways and passages over bogges and fennes, formerly unpassable, building a strong Castle at Wi • bitch. Egelwyn perceiving the danger took ship and departed into voluntary exile, committing some pyracies by the way he set his course for Colen, but was forced by contrary winds to land in Scotland, thence returning again to Eli, he was at last there taken prisoner by the Conqueror, and committed close prisoner to Abingdon, where An. 1071. refusing to take any sustenance, for mere grief and anger he died.

Before his death the Conqueror having deprived him of his Bishopric, caused one Walcher to be consecrated in his place: he attending more worldly affairs than the charge of his flock (as many of our Prelates do now) gave himself altogeher to temporal business ; wherein he wholly occupied himself, contra dignitatem Pontificalem : writes Matthew Paris. He bought of the King the Earldom of Northumberland, being by this means both a Spiritual and a Temporal Lo • d, and ingrossing both jurisdictions into his hands, and then making himself a secular Judge, took upon him to sit in the Court, and to determine all causes at his pleasure, dealing with all very corruptly, and taking that course as might be most for his own gain: hereupon he geatly enriched his coffers, but purchased to himself extreme hatred among the Common people whom he much impoverished with his extortions, which was his destruction in the end. There was a Gentleman of great account called Leulfus, who had married the Earl of Northumberlands daugh • er, that for very devotion, to the end he might live near the Church in his latter time, came to Durham to dwell; he keeping company very much with the Bishop, who loved him much for his wisdom, equity, and virtues: Leofwin the Bishops Chaplain, whom he trusted with all his household matters, and Gilbert the Bishops kinsman that dealt in his Temporal affairs, very corrupt men, envying the credit that Leulfus had gotten with the Bishop, everywhere opposed and traduced him and his actions, both in words and deed, and at last conspired to murder him, which they did in a barbarous manner, assaulti • g him in his house with armed men, and murthering not only the innocent Gentleman himself, but also his servants and who • e household: the news of this horrible outrageous cruelty coming to the ears of the Bishop amazed him; so as turning about to Leofwin he said to him: Thou hast already slain me with thy tongue: and doubting the danger got him into his Castle, and dispatched messengers to the friends and kindred of Leulfus, protesting, that the fact was committed without his knowledge, and that he was heartily sory for it, and if any suspect him, he could be reddy to submit himself to any order of Law, whereby he might clear himself: herewith they seemed to be satisfied, and appointed to meet and confer of the matter at a place called Goats-head. The Bishop for his better safety betook himself to the Church with his company: at which time all the people of the province came to demand justice from the Bishop, for some wrongs done them. The Bishop answered them over roughly, that he would do them justice for no injury or complaint, unless they would first give him 400 ^l . of good money. Whereupon one of them in the name of all the rest, desired leave of the Bishops that he might confer with the rest about this exaction, that so they might give him an advised answer; which granted, the people consulted together without the Church concerning this business: in mean time divers messages passed between the friends of Leulfus and the Bishop about this murder, but the more the matter was debated (being very odious in it self) the more his friends, and the people too, were incensed: at last it was told them that the Bishop had harboured Leofwyn and Gilbert too in his house, and afforded them countenance since this murder, which being once heard and • ound true, they all cried out, it was manifest, that the Bishop was the Author of this fact: While the company stood in a mummering doubting what to do, both concerning this money and murder too, one of some special regard among them, stepped up and used these words: Short read, good read, slay the Bishop. Hereupon without more ado they • anall unto the Church, killed as many of the Bishops retinue as they found without doors, and with horrible noise and outcries bid him and his company come out unto them. The Bishop to make the best of a bad match, and to rid himself from danger, persuaded his kinsman Gilber • there present to go out unto them, if happily his death (which he well deserved) might satisfy their fury, and purchase their safety. Gilbert was content, and issuing our with divers of the Bishops company, were all slain, except two Englishmen servants to the Bishop, the rest being Normans. They not yet pacified, the Bishop besought Leofwyn (whose li • e he knew was principally sought) to go out likewise, but he utterly re • used: The Bishop therefore going to the Church door himself, intrea • ed them not to take his life from him, protesting himself altogethe • innocent of Leulfus his blood, showing them at large how inconvenient it would be to themselves, and the whole Country to shed his blood, an unarmed Priest, and sacred consecrate Bishop, their Ruler, Governor, Magistrate. Lastly, hoping that his very countenance, gravity, age, white comely head and beard, and the Majes • y of his person might something move them to compassion, he went out among them, carrying a green branch in his hands to testify his desire of peace: when he saw all this availed not, the people running furiously upon him, he cast his gown over his own head, and committing him self to their fury, with innumerable wounds was pitifully massacred, together with all his retinue to the number of one hundred persons, only Leofwyn yet r • mained in the C • urch, and being often called would not come forth. So they set the Church on fire; he not enduring the fire leapt out at a window, and was immediately hewn in a thousand pieces. This barbarous slaughter was committed May the 4. 1080. as some Historians, or 1075. as others record. The King hearing of this tumult, sent his brother Odo Bishop of Bayon, with many of his Nobles; and a great army to take punishment of this murder, which while they sought to revenge, they brought the whole Country to desolation; those that were guilty prevented the danger by • light, so as few of them were apprehe • ded; of the rest that stayed at h • me, some we • e unjustly executed, and the rest compelled to ransom themselves to their utter impoverishing, and undoing. This was the life and death of the first Lord Bishop of this See; who joined both the temporal and spiritual Ju • isdiction and honor together in his own person, being both a Bishop, and an Earl.

Anno 1074. during this Bishops domination, Plu • es Episcopy & Abbates, many Bishops and Abbots, with 3. Earls, and many Soldiers conspired toge • her at No • wich, to thrust the Conqueror ou • of his Kingdom, sending messages • o • he King of Denmark for aide, and confederating themselves with the Welchmen : whereupon • hey burnt and spoiled many towns and villages belonging to the Conqueror ; but at last they were defeated by him, some of them being banished the Realm, others hanged, others deprived of their eyes. Who these Bishops were in particular that joined in this conspiracy and rebellion, is not expressed; but they were many in number; whether this Bishop might not be one of the company I know not.

William Kairlipho, Abbo • of Saint Vincent, his next successor, who got so far into the favor of King William Rufus, that he made him his household Chaplain, and one of his Privy Council, and did what he list under him, in the year of our Lord 1088. joined himself with Odo Bishop of Bayon, and Ea • le of Kent, Geffry Bishop of Constantia, and other great men in a rebellious conspiracy against King William, who much favored and trusted him, to deprive him of his Crown, as an effemina • e per • on, both in mind and countenance, and of a fearful heart, who would do all things rashly, both against right and justice ; which revolt and treachery of his the King took very grievously. Whereupon they take up arms against the King, wasting the Country in sundry parts, intending to set up his Brother Robert in his place as King, giving out divers words, and sending abroad many Letters to incite men to take arms for this purpose. The bishop of Durham held out Durham, by strong hand against the King, who coming thither in person with his army besieged it, so as the Bishop was at length forced to surrender the City, and yield himself • whereupo • he was exiled the Land, with divers of his complices; and for his former pre •• nded friendship to the King, was suffered to go Scotfree (though worthy a thousand quarterings) upon • hi • he presently passed over Sea into Normandy, there he continued near three years in a voluntary exile, until Sept • mber 11. 1190. at what time the King coming to Durham, received him into his • ull favor, and restored him to his former dignities. After which he sided with the Kin • against Anselm to thrust him out of his Bishopric, that himself might succeed him: b • t he failed in that projec • . Falling again into the Kings displeasure, he was summoned to appear before him at Gloucester, by a certain day, before which tim • he fell sick (of grief as was • hought:) when he appeared not, and it was told the King he • was sick, he swore by S. Luke's face (which was his usual Oath) he lied and did but counterfeit; and he would • ave him fetched with a vengeance. But it appears his excuse was true enough, for he died soon after. Holinshed saith, he died • or sorrow, because he could not clear himsel • e of his offense in the said rebellion, albeit that he labored most earnestly so to do, that he might thereby have obtained the King • favor again.

Ranulph Flambard his very next successor, a very wicked man, nothing scrupulous, but ready to do anything for preferment, was by King William Rufus (who • ound him a fit man for his purpose to bring great sums of money into his coffers, by any unlaw • ull means) made chief Governor of all his Realm under him, so as he had all tha • authority which now the Lord Treasurer, Chancellor, and divers other offices have divided among • t them this au • hority he abused very impudently, not caring whom he offended, so as he might enrich either the King or himself. Many times when the King gave commandment for the levying of a certain sum of monies amongst his Subjects, he would require of the Commons twice as much, whereat the King being very well content, would laugh, and say, that Ranulph was the only man for his turn, who cared not whom he displeased, so he might please his Master. It was impossible but he should be very odious, both unto the Common people and Nobility also; and no marvel if many complaints were made unto the King of him, against all which he shut his ears obstina • ely. When therefore that way succeeded not, some of his discontented adversaries determined to wreck their malice on him by killing him; They fain a message from the Bishop of London his old Master, that he was very sick and ready to depart the world, that he was wonderful desirous to speak with him, and to the end he might make the better speed, had sent him a Barge to convey him to his house, being then by the water-side; He suspecting no fraud, went with them in great haste, attended only by his Secretary, and someone or two other. They having him thus in their clutches, carried him not to the appoi • ted Stairs, but unto • Ship provided for him, ready to set sails. As soon as he perceived how he was entrapped, he cast away his Ring, or manual Seal, and after his great S • ale into the river lest they might give opportunity of forging false grants, and conveyances. Then he falls to entreating and persuading, but all to no purpose, for they were determined he should die. They had appointed two Marin • rs to dispatch him either by knocking out his brains, or heaving him alive over-board, for doing whereof they were promised to have his clothes. These executioners could not agree upon the division of the reward, • or his gown was better worth than all the rest of his apparel: while they were reasoning upon that point, it pleased God to raise a terrible tempest, so as they looked every minute to die th • mselves, and therefore had no very good leisure of thinking to put another man to death. Ranulph then omitting no opportunity of his deliverance, like another Orion, by the music of his eloquence, seeks to dissuade them from the bloody execution of their determination • laying before them the danger that was like to ensue them upon the execu • ion of so cruel a murder, which could not be hid; and lastly, wishing them to consider, how God by raising this tempest had threatened to revenge his death, and had as it were set the Image of vengeance before their eyes: promising them mountains of gold if they saved his life; By which he so far prevailed, that one of them offered to defend him, and Girald the author of this conspiracy, was content to set him aland, and to conduct him to his own house. But so soon as he had done, not trusting a reconciled foe, he got him out of the Land: A • ter this notable voyage he was consecrated Bishop of Durham : He was scarce warm in his See, but King William Rufus was slain, and his brother Henry succeeded him. This Prince not able to withstand the importunity of his Nobles, and the innumerable complaints made against this Bishop, by the vote of the whole Parliament, clapt him up in the Tower. But he so enchaunted his keepers, as they were content to let him go, and run away with themselves. William of Malmesbury saith, that he procured a waterbea • er in his Tank • rd to bring him a rope, by whi • h he slid down from the wall to the ground, and so (although he hurt his arm, and galled his leg to the bone) away he escaped, getting himself into Normandy, where he arri • ed in the beginning of February, Ann. 1101. There he never left buzzing into the ears of Robert, Duke of Normandy, that the Kingdom of England was his by right, till he procured him to a • tempt the invasion of the Realm, to his own great loss, the effusion of much Christian blood, and the great disturbance and damage of the whole Realm: How long he continued in his exile is not recorded by our Historians, who brand him for a notable extortioner, oppressor, rebel, and desperate wicked wretch, & ad omne scelus paratum, (as too many of his coat since him have been) who set the whole Realm into an uproar and combustion. About the year 1100. King Edgar gave to the Monks of Durham the lands of Coldingham. And to this Bishop of Durham he gave the town of Barwicke, but for that the said Bishop afterward wrought treason against him, he lost that gift, and the King resumed that Town into his hands again.

Hugh Pusar his successor, the 33. Bishop of that See, nephew to King Stephen, a man very wise in ordering temporal matters, not spir • tuall, exceeding covetous, and as cunning in getting money, as covetous in desiring it, was refused to be consecrated Bishop by Murdack Archbishop of York, for want of yea • es, and lightness in behavior, whereupon he obtained his consecration at Rome. King Richard the first • or a great mass of money he had prepared for his voyage into the holy Land, dispensed with his vow of pilgrimage thither, and likewise made him Earl of Northumberland. The King having created him an Earl, turned him about unto the company, and laughing said, I have performed a wonderful exploit, for (quoth he) of an old Bishop I have made a young Earl. He likewise gave the King one thousand Markes to make him chief Justice of England: qui nimirum consultius proprio contentus officio divini juris multo decentius quam humani minister extitisset, cum nemo possit utrique, prout dignum est deservire, atque illud domini • um ad Apostolos, maxim Successores Apostolorum respiciat. Non potestis Deo servire & mammonae. Si enim velit Episcopus ut coelesti pariter & terreno Regi placeat, ad utrumque se officium dividere: certe. Rex coelestis, qui sibi vult ex toto cord, tota anima, tota virtute serviri, ministerium dimidium non approbat, non diligit, non acceptat. Quid si Episcopus nec saltem dimidius, quae Dei sunt, & decent Episcopum, exequatur, sed vices suas indignis et remissis executoribus committat ut terreno vel foro, vel palatio totus serviat? nam nec terreni Principis ratiocinia quisquam dimidius sufficienter administrat. Quamobrem memoratus Pontifex cum jam esset grandaevus, officio seculari suscepto in Australibus Angliae partibus ad publica totus negot • a recidebat, mundo non crucifixus, sed infixus, writes Nubrigensis of him. Roger Archbishop of York deceasing A. 1181. delivered great sums of money to certain Bishops to be distributed among poor people. King Henry the second after his death called for the money and seised it to his use, alleging a sentence given by the same Archbishop in his li • etime, that no Ecclesiastical person might give anything by will except he devised the the same whilst he was in perfect health. Yet this Bishop of Durham would not depart with 400 Markes, which he had received to distribute among the poor, alleging, that he dealt the same away before the Archbishops death, and therefore he that would have it again, must go gather it up of them to whom he had distributed it, which himself would in no wise do. But the King took no small displeasure with this indiscreet answer, in so much that he seised the Castle of Durham into his hands; and sought means to disquiet the said Bishop by divers manner of ways King Richard going into the holy Land, made this Bishop chief Justice from Trent Northwards, and the Bishop of Eli Lord Chancellor and chief Justice of England, between whom strife and discord immediately ar • se, which of them should be the greater, for that which pleased the one displeased the other; for all power is impatient of a consort. The Bishop of Eli soon after imprisoned him till he had surrendered Winsor Castle, and others to him, and put in pledges to be faithful to the King and Kingdom, of which more in Eli. At the return of King Richard from Jerusalem, he found him not so favorable as he expected, and thinking that he grudged him his Earldom, resigned the same into his hands. For the redemption of which he afterward offered the King great sums of money; whereupon the King knowing how to use him in his kind, writ letters to him full of reverend and gracious speeches, wishing him to bring up his money to London, and there to receive the Government of the whole Realm, which he would commit to him, and the Archbishop of Canterbury. Being very joyful of this • avour, he comes about Shrovetide towards London, and surfeiting of flesh by the way died. This Prelate (who much troubled and oppressed the Commons, and whole Realm) had no less than three bastard sons, whom he endeavored to advance, but they all died before him. He was oft in arms in the field, and besieged the Castle of Thifehill belonging to Earl John : he took up the Crossado and went beyond Sea with King Richard the first to the wars in the holy Land; but considering the danger, got a dispensation and returned speeding better than Baldwin Archbishop of Canterbury, and ten Archbishops and Bishops more, who di • d at the siege before Acon ; and like warlike Prelates stirred up King Richard with sundry other Christian Princes to that bloody, chargeable, and un • ortunate war, wherein many thousands of Christians spent both their lives, and estates, and whereby Christians lost the verity of Christian Religion, and Christ himself in a great measure, whiles thus they war to secure the place of his sepulcher, which proved a sepulcher both to their bodies and souls. * William K. of Scotland coming to visit King Richard the first afte • his release; this Prelate, and Hubert Archbishop of Canterbury, went to Brackley, where the Bishop had an Inn. The King of Scots servants coming thither, would have taken up the Bishops Inn for their King: but the Bishops servants withstood them; whereupon they bought provision for the King and dressed it in another house in that same Court: When the Bishop came thither, and his servants had informed him what had passed, he would not retire, but went on boldly unto his Inn, and commanded his meat to be set on the table; whiles he was at dinner, the Archbishop of Canterbury comes to him, and offers him his lodging, and counsels him to remove and leave the Inn. The King of Scots coming late from hunting, when he was told what had happened, took it very grievously, and would not go thither, but commanded all his provision to be given to the poor, and goes forthwith to the King to Selnestone, & complains to him of the injury the Bishop of Durham had offered to him; for which the King sharply rebuked him.

Richard de Marisco, Lord Chancellor of England, and Archdeacon of Notthumberland, an old Courtier, was thrust into this See by Gualo the Popes Legate, and consecrated by the Archbishop of York in the year 1217. during the time of the vacancy. This Richard was a very prodigal man, and spent so liberally the goods of his Church, as the Monks doubting he would undo them, and himself also, went about by course of Law to stay him, and force him to a moderation of expense. But it fell out quite contrary to their expectation, for he being willfully set, continued Law with them, appealing to Rome, &c. and continued his old course even until his death. The year 1226. in the beginning of Easter term, he rid up to London with a troop of Lawyers attend • ng on him. At Peterborough he was entertained in the Ab • ey very • ono • rably, and going to bed there in very good health, was found in the morning by his Chamberlain stark dead. He deceased May the first, leaving his Church 40000. marks indeb • ed, though his contention, and pr • digall factious humor.

Anthony Beake the 41. Bishop of this See, a very wealthy man, contented not himself with ordinary Titles. Therefore he procured the Pope to make him Patriarc • of • erusalem, & obtained of the King the Principality of • he Isle of Man, during his life. Anno 1294. being Ambassador to the Emperor John Ro • an the Archbishop of York excommunicated him, which cost him • 000. Markes fine to the King, and his life to boot, he dying for grief. There was grea • stir between him and the Prior and Covent of Durham. He informed the Pope that the Prior was a very simple and insufficient man to rule that house, and thereupon procured the government thereof both spiritual and temporal to be committed to him. The Monks appealed both the Pope and King, who required the hearing of these controversies between the Prior and Bishop. This notwithstanding the Bishops officers, made no more ado, but excommunicated the Prior, Monks and all for not obeying their authority immediately. Herewith • he King greatly offended, caused those Officers to be fined, and summoned the Bishop himself to appear before him at a day appointed, before which day he got to Rome, never acquainting the King with his determination. The King thereupon seised into his hands the Bishops liberties, & appointed a new Chancellor, new Justices, and other officers of Durham, He writ also to the Pope in favor of the Prior, who delivering the Kings Letters himself, the Pope adjudged him a sober and discreet man, what ever the Bishop had reported of him, and restored him to his place; during the Bishops disgrace for this contempt, the King took • hree Manors with the Church of Symondbury from the Bishopric, with divers Castles and Lands forfeited to him by John Bayliol King of Scots, and others. The Bishop at last submitted himself, and bought his peace. Anno Dom. 1298. in the battle of Foukirke, between the English and Scots, this Bishop of Durham ( Anthony Beake ) led the second battle of the Englishmen con • isting of 39. standards: who hasting forth to be the first that should give the on • et, when his men approached near the enemies the Bishop commanded them to stay till the third battle which the King ( Edward the first ) led, might approach. But that valiant Knight the Lord Ralph Basset of Draiton said to him; My Lord, you may go and say Mass, which better becometh you, than to teach us what we have to do; for we will do that which belongeth to the order and custom of war.

About the year 1318. at the importunate suite of the Kings of England and France, the Pope gave the Bishopric of Du • ham unto one Louis Beaumont, a Frenchman borne, and of the blood Royal there; he was lame of both his legs, and so unlearned, that he could not read the Bulls and other instruments of his consecration. When he should have pronounced this word ( Metropoliticae ) not knowing what to make of it (though he had studied upon it and labored his Lesson long before) after a little pause, Soyt pur dit (saith he) let it go for read, and so passed it over. In like sort he stumbled at ( In aenigmate ) when he had fumbled about it a while, Par Saint Lewis (quoth he) il n'est pas curtois qui ceste parolle ici escrit, that is, by Saint Louis he is to blame that writ this word here. Not without great cause therefore the Pope was somewhat strait laced in admitting him. He obtained con • ecration so hardly, as in fourteen years he could scarce creep o • t of debt. Riding to Durham to be install'd there, he was robbed (together with two Cardinals, that were then in his company) upon Wiglesden More near Derlington. The Captains of this rour were named Gilbert Middleton, and Walter Selby. Not content to take all the treasure of the Cardinals, the Bishop, and their train; they carried the Bishop prisoner to Morpeth, where they constrained him to pay a great ransom. Gilbert Middleton was soon after taken at his own Castle of Nitford, carried to London, and there drawn and hanged in the presence of the Cardinals. After this, one Sir Iosceline Deinvill, and his brother Robert, came with a great company to divers of this B. of Durhams houses in the habits of Friers, & spoiled them, leaving nothing, but bare walls, and did many other notable robberies • for which they & divers of their company were soon after hanged at York. This B. stood very stoutly in defense of the Liberties of his See, recovered divers lands taken away from Anthony Beake his prede • essor, and procured this sentence to be given in the behalf of his Church; quod Episc • pus Dunelmensi • debet habere forisfacturas guerrarum intra libertates, sicut Rex extra : that the Bishop of Durham is to have the forfeitures of war in as ample sort within his own Liberties as the King without.

I • mediately after this Bishops death in great hast (but with no great good speed) the Covent of Dur • am proceeded unto the Election of a new Bishop (the old being yet scarcely buried) and they made choice of one of their own company a Monk of Durham. This election the Arch-Bishop of York confirmed, yea the matter grew so forward, as the same Arch-bishop was content to give him consecration also. All this while the Kings good will was not sought, no nor (which was a greater oversight as the world then went) the Popes neither. The King therefore not only refused to deliver possession of the Temporalties unto this elect, but also labored the Pope, ex plenitudine potestatis, to confer the Bishopric upon a Chaplain of his named Richard de Bury, the Dean of Wells. Partly to pleasure the one that requested, partly to displeasure the other for not requesting, he did so, and commanded the Bishop of Winchester to consecrate him; which being performed at Chertsey soon after Christmas, the King presently invested him in the temporalties belonging to that See. Now was the Monk a Bishop without a Bishopric; having no other home, he was fain to return to his Cloister, and there for very grief (as it is supposed) within a few days after died. This Richard de Bury, at what time Edward of Windsor Prince of Wales fled into France with his Mother, was principal receiver of the Kings Revenewes in Gascoigne. Their money failing, he aided them secretly with a great sum of that he had received for the King. It had almost cost him his life, he was so narrowly pursued by some of the Kings friends that got understanding of it, as he was glad to hide himself in a steeple in Paris the space of seven days. The Queen we know was then contriving an open rebellion and plotting a mischievous treason against her husband King Edward the second, whom she shortly after seised upon in an hostile manner, and afterwards caused to be deprived and murdered, so that this Prelates furnishing of her thus with the Kings own monies to further this her design, was high Treason at the least.

Not to mention how the Pope upon King Edward the third his request consecrated Thomas Hatfield his Secretary Bishop of this See without any regard or examination of his worthiness being a man altogether illiterate, and that when some of the Cardinals took exceptions against him, saying, that he was not only a mere lay man, but a fell • w of light behavior, and no way fit for that place, how the Pope answered, that if the King of England had requested him for an Ass at that time he would not have denied him, and thereupon made this A • se a Bishop.

John Fordham Bishop of Durham, Anno 1388. was by Parliament banished the Court, as a pernicious instrument and corrupter of King Richard the second, a Traitor, a flatterer, a whisperer, a slanderer and wicked person.

John Sherwood the 52 Bishop of Durham Solliciter of all King Edward the fourths causes in the Court of Rome, fell off from his Masters Son King Edward the fifth, to that bloody usurper Richard the third, at whose Coronation this Bishop of Durham went on the one side of him, and the Bishop of Bath on the other, the Arch-bishop of Canterbury with the rest of the Bishops and Abbots mitred and in rich Copes, everyone of them carrying Censers in their hands, going in great solemnity before him, and afterwards crowning both him and his Queen, according to the custom of the Realm: so officious were they to this usurper.

Cutbert Tonstall the 58. Bishop of Durham, December 20. 1551. was committed to the Tower for his disobedience to King Edward the sixth, where he continued all his Reign. The King was so far offended with him that 7. Edward. 6. the Bishopric of Durham was dissolved by Act of Parliament and all the Lands and hereditaments thereof given to the King: but he dying this Bishopric was again revived and erected. 1. Mar. Parliament. 2. cap. 3. and this Bishop thereunto restored. Who in the first year of Queen Elizabeth for his contumacy and disobedience in maintaining the Popes Supremacy which he oppugned formerly, and for refusing the oath of Supremacy which he had sworn unto in the reign of King Henry the eight, he was justly deprived and committed prisoner to Lambeth House, where he died. I find this Tonstall highly applauded by some who lived since his days, but M. Tyndale who knew him far better than they, writes thus of him. And as for the Bishopric of Durham, to say the very truth, he (to wit Cardinal Wolsie) could not but of good cougruity reward his old Chaplain, and one of the chief of all his Secretaries withal, still Saturn, that so seldom speaketh, but walketh up and down all day musing and imagining mischief, a doubling hypocrite made to dissemble. Which for what service done in Christ's Gospel came he to the Bishopric of Lond • n? Or what such service did he therein? he burnt the New Testament, calling it, Doctrinam peregrinam, strange learning : (The story of whose buying and burning of M. Tyndals New Testaments, who with the money set forth a new and better Edition, is related by M. Hall, at large, in his Chronicle 21. H. 8. f. 186.) Yea Verily, look how strange his living in whose blood that Testament was made, was from the living of the Pope; even so strange is that Doctrine from the Popes Law, in which only, and in the Practice thereof is Tunstall learned. Which also for what cause left he the Bishopric of London? Even for the same cause he took it after that he had long served for it, covetousness and ambition. Neither is it possible naturally (pray mark this passage) that there should be any good Bishop, so long as the Bishoprics be nothing save worldly Pomp, and honor, superfluous abundance of all manner of riches, and liberty to do what a man left unpunished; things which only the evil desire, and good men abhor.

For the late Bishops of this See of Durham, Neal, & Howson, their dispositions and actions against goodness and good men, and their turbulency both in Church and State, are so well known to most, that I need not mention it. And as for the present Bishop Dr Morton, whom I honor for his learning and works against the Papists, how far he hath degenerated of late years from his Pristine zeal and hatred of Romish Superstitions and Innovations, and how far he hath engaged himself in the late Wars and differences between England and Scotland, I leave to others to determine. Only this I cannot pre • ermit in silence; that as the first Popish Innovations and superstitions, which lately over-spread our whole Church, had their Original from Bishop Neal and his Chaplain Dr. Cozens at Durham ; so God hath made that City and Bishopric of Durham (the only County of England styled by the name of a Bishopric) the seat of our late wars wherein the Scottish Army now resides; to manifest to all the world, that these unhappy civil wars sprung from the Bishops, since the seat of them is nowhere but in this Bishopric, the Scottish General for the most part hath kept his residence in the Bishop of Durhams own Palaces, who for fear hath left them vacant, and fled that Country which he hath much oppressed. From Durham I proceed to Salisbury.

Salisbury.

Alstane or Adelstane, Bishop of Sherburne (which See was not long after translated to Salisbury ) turned warrior, and led an Army into Kent against Ethelwolfe King o • that County, and chased away both the King, and all other that would not submit themselves to Egbert, over the Thames out of their Country. He fought oft against the Danes, provided money, and furnished out men to withstand them, and took upon him to order all matters of the State under King Ethelwolfe. When King Ethelwolfe returned from Rome, Adelstane who bare no small rule in the Kingdom of the West-Saxons, would not suffer him to be admitted King, because he had done in certain points contrary to the Laws and Ordinances of the Kingdom, as he conceived; whereupon by this Bishops means Ethelbald this Kings son was established King in his Fathers steed, and so continued, till at last by agreement the Kingdom was divided betwixt them. This Bishop was fervently set on covetousness, and greatly enriched his See of Sherburne, where he continued Bishop 50. years.

Roger, the great rich Bishop of Salisbury, advanced and specially trusted by King Henry the first, for all the benefits that he and his friends received from him, proved not so thankful or faithful to his Majesty as was to be expected. For King Henry the first having lost his only son and Heir apparent Prince William,