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The Edwardian Bishops are prevailed upon, by Cranmer's Example, to exchange their Charter of Divine Institution for Letters Patents, and to become the King's Ecclesiastical Sheriffs... The Form of a Bishop's Letters Patents.

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"THAT which made the greatest alteration, and threaten'd most danger to the State Ecclesiastical, was the Act intitled, An Act for the Election of Bishops, and what seals and stiles shall be used by spiritual persons, &c. In which it was ordained, That no election be made of any Bishop by the Dean and Chapter, but that the King, by his Letters Patents, shall confer the same to any person whom he shall think meet. That all Processes Ecclesiastical shall be made in the name and with the stile of the King. These likewise to be sealed with no other seal but the King's, or such as shall be authorised by him.'

"There was, continues our Historian, in the first branch [of this Act] more contain'd than did appear. For it seemed to aim at nothing, but that the Bishops should depend wholly upon the King for their preferment; yet the true drift of that design was, to make Deans and Chapters useless, and to prepare them for a dissolution.

"By the last branch, it was plain and evident, that the intent of the contrivers was, by degrees, to weaken the authority of the Episcopal Order, by forcing them from the strong hold of Divine Institution, and making them no other than the King's ministers only; his Ecclesiastical Sheriffs, as a man might say, to execute his will, and disperse his mandates. And of this Act such use was made, that the Bishops of those times were not in a capacity of conferring Orders, but as they were thereunto impowered by Special Licence. The tenor whereof was in these words, to wit:

The King to such a Bishop, greeting,

Whereas all and all manner of Jurisdiction, as well ecclesiastical as civil, flows from the King, as the Supreme Head of all the body, &c. We, therefore, give and grant unto you full power and licence (to continue during our good pleasure) of conferring Orders within your diocese, and of promoting fit persons unto Holy Orders, even to that of Priesthood.'

+ Heylin's Hist. Ref. p. 51.

"Which being looked upon by Queen Mary, not only as a dangerous diminution of the Episcopal Power, but as likewise an odious innovation in the Church, she caused this Act to be repealed, in the first year of her reign; leaving the Bishops to depend on their former institution, and to act in all things which belonged to their jurisdiction, in their own names, and under their own seals."

Hard fate of the Bishops of those times! They could nei ther confer Orders, nor execute any one branch of the power belonging to their character or functions, without an express warrant from the chief temporal magistrate! Their commissions were clogged with an odious durante beneplacito! And this mortifying clause, Quam diu bene se gesserint, was inserted in the Letters Patents that appointed them to be Bishops; of which the following is a copy.

The Form of a Bishop's Letters Patents.

The King being informed of the good qualifications of -, appoints him to be a Bishop, so long as he shall behave himself well; giving him power to ordain Ministers, to exercise Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction, and to do all the other parts of the Episcopal Function.'-All which they were to execute and do in the King's name and authority.

Thus it plainly appears, that Episcopacy was actually reduced, in this reign, to the nature and condition of a Patent Office from the Crown. Not the least shadow of Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction, no free, and much less independent exercise of the Episcopal Functions was left to my Lords the Bishops. In short, nothing that properly belonged to them, as Bishops, remained undestroyed, unless the King had resolved to blot out the very name; which, at that juncture, was no impracticable thing. The Change of Bishops into superintendants or elders, (according to the style of Geneva) might, and most probably would have been effected, in case this Prince had chanced to live but a few years longer.

+ Burnet's Hist. Ref. Vol. II. B. i. p. 218.

4.-Of the Depredations and Ravages committed upon Bishoprics in the Reign of King Edward VI.

«+As the King was plunged in debt, without being put to extraordinary charges, so was he decayed in his revenue, without selling any part of the crown lands towards the payment of it. By the suppressing of some, and the surrendering of other Religious Houses, the Royal Intrado was so much increased in the late King's reign, that for the better managing of it, the King erected, first, The Court of Augmentation, and afterwards, The Court of Surveyors. But in a short time, by his own profuseness, and the avariciousness of this King's Ministers, it was so retrenched, that it was scarce able to find work enough for the Court of Exchequer. Whereupon followed the dissolving of the said two Courts, in the last Parliament of this King. Which, as it made a loud noise in the ears of the people, so did it put this jealousy into their minds, that if the King's lands should be thus daily wasted, without any recruit, he might at last prove burdensome to the common subject. Some course is there'fore to be thought on, which might pretend to an increase of the King's revenue. And none more easy to be compassed, than to begin with the Suppression of such Bishopricks and Collegiate Churches, as either lay farthest off, or might be best spared.

"The Church of Durham was as liberally endowed as the most, and more amply privileged than the best in the kingdom. The Bishops thereof, by charter and long prescription, enjoying and exercising all the rights of a county palatine, in that large tract of ground which lies between the Tees and the Tyne; the Diocese including also all Northumberland.-No sooner was Bishop Tonstal committed to the Tower, but presently an eye was cast upon his possessions; which questionless had followed the same fortune with the rest of the Bishopricks, if one, more powerful than the rest, had not preserved them from being parcelled out, as the others were, on a strong confidence of getting them all to himself.

"After this the Earl of Northumberland, to preserve himself, gave unto the King the greatest part of his inheritance; and dying without children not long after, left his titles also to the King's disposing. The lands and titles being thus fallen to the Crown, continued undisposed of till the fall of

Heylin's Hist. Ref. p. 132.

the Duke of Somerset, when Dudley, Earl of Warwick, being created Duke of Northumberland, doubted not but he should be able to possess himself, in short time also, of all the lands of that family. To which estate the Bishoprick of Durham, and all the lands belonging to it, would make a fair addition; upon which grounds, the Bishoprick of Durham being dissolved by Act of Parliament, under pretence of patching up the King's revenue, the greatest part of the lands thereof were kept together, that they might serve for a revenue for the future Palatine. But all these projects failed in the death of the King, and the subsequent death of this great Duke in the following reign of Queen Mary."

But tho' this opulent Bishopric was providentially preserved from being parcelled out among the great men at Court by one more powerful than the rest, and had, besides, the good luck to be most generously restored to itself by Queen Mary; nevertheless it did not fare so well with the rest of the Episcopal Sees, which, during this King's reign, were most lamentably ravaged and depauperated. To give some instances.

The Bishopric of Westminster was dissolved, extinguished, and exterminated by Act of Parliament; Thirlby, the first and only Bishop of this See, (after he had sat here about nine years) being translated to Norwich in this reign, and by Queen Mary to the chair of Ely.

The Bishopric of Rochester (upon Scory's removal to Chichester) was enjoyed by the Crown till the death of this King.

The Bishopric of Worcester was given to Hooper (now actually Bishop of Gloucester) in commendam, tho' this man was nothing more, in reality, than a mere titular commendatary; the Episcopal Revenues, in the mean time, being devoured by the hungry courtiers.

The Bishopric of Bath and Wells was most wretchedly dilapidated and dismembered by Barlow, as D. Heylin informs us. See his History of the Reformation, p. 54.

It would be too tedious to recount all the ravages committed, at this time, upon other Bishoprics; as Lichfield and Coventry, Lincoln, Landaff, &c. &c. And therefore we remit all such as are desirous of being entertained with a more particular account of these matters, to the abovementioned Hist. Ref. pp. 100, 101, 129.

§ 5.-Of the Suppression of the Chanteries, Free Chapels, Colleges, Hospitals, &c. with some other Instances of the Rapacity of the Times... The King's Minority is abused, even to a high Degree of Sacrilege.

WE have already observed, that King Henry VIII. in his last Parliament, procured a grant of all the Chanteries, &c. in England, but that, dying soon after, there was no complete seizure made of them in his time. But this was only a short reprieve to them. For King Edward's ministry having got the power, they soon found out the means to execute in this, whatever destructive schemes had been left unfinished in the last reign; and with keen appetites did they fall upon all such Chanteries, Free-Chapels, &c. as old King Harry had not time to carve and devour. How these matters were transacted, D. Heylin gives us the following information.

"+In the 27th year of King Henry the Eighth, all Chanteries, Free-Chapels, Colleges, and Hospitals, were given to the King. But he died before he had taken many of them into his possession. And the Grandees of the Court not being willing to lose so rich a booty, it was set on foot again, and carried in this present Parliament. In which were granted to the King all Chanteries, Colleges, FreeChapels, Hospitals, Fraternities, Brotherhoods, Gilds, and other Promotions, (mentioned in 37 H. 8. c. 4.) with all their mansion-houses, manors, rents, tythes, churches, patronages, lands and goods, (not already seiz'd on by his father) which they sold at a low rate, enriched many, and ennobled some. And therefore made them firm in maintaining the change.

"For the Nobility and inferior Gentry possessed of pa tronages, considering how much the Lords and great men of the Court had improved their fortunes by the suppression of Chanteries and other Foundations, which had been granted to the King, conceived themselves in a capacity to do the like, by taking into their hands the yearly profits of such benefices, of which, by law, they were only intrusted with the Presentations.In short,

"Such was the rapacity of the times, and the unfortu nateness of the King's condition, that his minority was abused to many acts of spoil and rapine (even to a high de§ Ibid. p. 131.

+ Heylin's Hist. Ref. p. 47.

+ Ibid. p. 57.

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