THE History and Fate OF SACRILEGE, Discovered by EXAMPLES OF SCRIPTURE, OF HEATHENS, AND OF CHRISTIANS; From the beginning of the World continually to this Day.  
By Sir HENRY SPELMAN, Kt. Wrote in the Year 1632.  
A Treatise omitted in the late Edition of his Posthumous Works, and now Published for the TERROR OF EVIL DOERS.  
LONDON, Printed for John Hartley, over against Gray's- Inn, in Holborn, 1698.   

DEO, ECCLESIAE, ET RELIGIONI. The Priests are appointed to discern between Holy and Unholy, Clean and unclean.  
In Sacrilegos.  Est Homini laqueus sacra vorare Dei. Prov. 20. 25. 
ANgustam ingreditur phialam macilentior anguis,  
Furtiuóque oleum devorat ore sacrum:  
Intumuit venter Saturi, prohibétque recessus  
Reddiderat praedam quam tulit usque suam.  
Evomit; at factus jam furto pinguior, ipsa  
Pinguedo miserum prosiliisse negat.  
Ingemit & carnem jejunans conterit alto  
Singultu; donec fiat, ut ante, macer.  
Sic tandem egreditur. Gens ô male conscia rerum  
Sacrarum, exemplum sumite ab angue pium.  
H. Sp.   

THE PREFACE.  
THERE needs no more to recommend this Tract to every good English Christian, than the Nature of the Subject, and the Name of the Author. A Subject of the greatest Importance to the Honour of God, and the decent Exercise of Religion. An Author of profound Learning and true Integrity, who devoted his Studies to the more particular Service of this Church and Nation.  
But for the Character of this honoured Writer, and the full Account of his excellent Works, I refer to the Life of Sir Henry Spelman, lately prefixed to the elegant Edition of his Posthumous Works, by the well known and well deserving Mr. Gibson; who has Candour enough to think it a pardonable Trespass, if I transcribe from Him, only so much as relates to this particular Treatise.  
Another Work (saith he) in Vindication of the Rights of the Church, is still in Manuscript, with this Title; The History and Fate of Sacrilege, discovered by Examples of Scripture, of Heathens, and of Christians; from the beginning of the World continually to this Day, by Sir Henry Spelman, Kt. Anno Dom. 1632. The Account which the Oxford Antiquary gives of it is this:  
In the Year 1663. Mr. Stephens began to print the History of Sacrilege, designed and began by Sir Henry Spelman, and left to Mr. Stephens to perfect and publish. But that Work sticking long in the Press, both the Copy and Sheets printed off, perished in the grand Conflagration of London 1666. I have been told by a learned Divine (since a Prelate of our Church) that Mr. Stephens was forbidden to proceed in an Edition of that Work, lest the Publication of it should give Offence to the Nobility and Gentry. But, whatever was the occasion of its continuing in the Press till the Fire of London, it has been taken for granted, that the whole Book was irrecoverably lost; and I was satisfied of the same, upon Mr. Wood's Relation of the matter; till examining some Manuscripts, which were given to the Bodleian Library, by the late Bishop of Lincoln, I met with a Transcript of some part of it. Upon further inquiry, I found other parts in other places; so that now the Work seems to be pretty entire.  
He begins with a general definition of Sacrilege; then reckons up various kinds of it, as to Places, Persons, and Things; after which, he enumerates (at large) the many signal Punishments of it among Heathens, Jews and Christians, describing more particularly the Instances of that kind, which have formerly happened in our Nation. Then, he proceeds to give an Account of the attempt upon the Lands of the Clergy in Henry the IV's time, and how it was disappointed; afterwards he descends to the Suppression of Priories Alien in the Reign of Henry the Fifth, and so on to the General Dissolution under Henry the Eighth. Here he shows us the several steps of the Dissolution; the King's express Promise to employ the Lands to the Advancement of Learning, Religion, and Relief of the Poor; with the remarkable Calamities that ensued, upon the King, his Posterity, his principal Agents in that Affair, the new Owners of the Lands, and the Lords who promoted, and Passed the Dissolution Act; concluding with a Chapter, which contains The particulars of divers Monasteries in Norfolk, whereof the late Owners since the Dissolution, are extinct, or decayed, or overthrown by Misfortunes and grievous Accidents.  
This (continues he,) is a short account of a large Work, wherein the judicious Author is far from affirming, that their being concerned in this Affair, (either as Promoters of the Alienation, or Possessors of the Lands) was directly the occasion of the Calamities that ensued. On the contrary, he declares more than once, that he will not presume to judge of the secret methods of God's Providence; but only relates plain Matters of Fact, and leaves every Man to make his own Application; tho' it must be granted, that many of the Instances, (and those well asserted) are so terrible in the Event, and in the Circumstances so surprising, that no considering Man can well pass them over, without a serious Reflection. This Discourse might have appeared among his other Posthumous Works, but that some Persons in the present Age, would be apt to interpret the mention of their Predecessors, (in such a manner, and upon such an occasion) as an unpardonable Reflection upon their Families.  
To this fair account of the late Editor I have nothing more to add, but This, that in him there might be prudential Reasons to exclude this Treatise from the Volume of Reliquiae Spelmannianae. But it has happened, that a true Copy of the Manuscript is now fallen into the Hands of (it seems) a less discreet Person, who will even let the World make what Use of it they please. But, to prevent all suspicion of any indirect dealings in Mr. G—, I do him this Justice, to aver, That he is no way, either by Advice, or Consent, or so much as Connivance, privy to the Publication of it.  
There is one other Office of Respect due to the Ashes of the Venerable Author, which is to observe, that his accuteness of Thought, and propriety of Style, and other unaffected Talents of his Mind, and Pen, are not to be measured only by this one Performance; for indeed, this History of Sacrilege, seems the most Abortive of all his other Posthumous Works. At least, as we now find it, we have but the rough Draught of some Noble Structure which he had wisely projected within himself, to be improved and completed at his own leisure; and therefore the Abruptness here, and the Prolixness there, and the many little defaults of Language and Connexion, would derogate from so great a Hand; but that the ruder Strokes of some few Artists will be ever more admired, than the finished Pieces of several Others.   
THE HISTORY OF SACRILEGE.  

CHAP. I.  

SECT. I.  
The Definition of Sacrilege, with the several Kind's thereof, manifested out of Scripture; together with the Punishments following thereupon.  
SAcrilege is an invading, stealing, or purloining from God, any Sacred thing, either belonging to the Majesty of his Person, or appropriate to the Celebration of his Divine Service.  
The Etymology of the Word implieth the Description: for Sacrum is a holy thing; and legium à legendo, is to steal, or pull away.  
The Definition divides itself apparently into two Parts; viz. Into Sacrilege committed immediately upon the Person of God, and Sacrilege done upon the Things appropriate to his Divine Service.  
That of the Person is, when the very Deity is invaded, profaned, or robbed of its Glory: Of this Kind was that Sacrilege of Lucifer, Esay 14. 14. that would, place his throne in the north, and ascend above the clouds, and be like the most Highest; similis ero altissimo: Of this Kind is all Idolatry; and therefore when the Israelites worshipped Baal-peor, that is, the God of the Madianites upon the Hill Pegor, al. Phagor, it is said in Jerome's Translation, Numb. 25. 18. to be Sacrilegium Phagor, the Sacrilege committed upon Mount Phagor. So when the Style of God is bestowed upon Stocks or Stones, or living Creatures; or when Man in Pride of Lucifer will be called God, as Alexander, Caius Caligula, Domitian, Nero, and others. In this high Sin are Blasphemers, Sorcerers, Witches and Enchanters: And as it maketh the greatest Irruption into the glorious Majesty of Almighty God, so it maketh also the greatest Divorce betwixt God and Man.  
In this Sin above all others, was Satan most desirous to plunge our first Parents Adam and Eve; that as himself by it had fallen from all Felicity, so he might draw them likewise into the same Perdition: You shall be, saith he, like God, knowing good and evil. That Divine Faculty of knowing good and evil, tickled the itching Humour of a weak Woman, and to be like God, fired her wholly with Ambition, and carried her and Adam into the highest Kind of Sacrilege, committing thereby Robbery upon the Deity itself: for so it is censured, Philip. 2. 6. where it is declared, that to be equal with God was no robbery in the Second Adam, implying by an Antithesis, that it was a Robbery (and so a Sacrilege) in the First Adam; who is also guilty in the other Kind of Sacrilege, by taking the forbidden Fruit reserved from him, as the Priest's Portion; for Knowledge belongeth to the Priest.  
Thus the first Man that was created fell into Sacrilege several ways, and so did also the first Man that was born of a Woman. Cain bringeth an Oblation to God, but sacrilegiously either withholding the best of his Fruits, and offering the worst, as some conceived, rectè offered, sed non rectè dividit, or doing it hypocritically, as the later expoundeth it; which soever it was (and like enough to be both ways) he robbed God of his Honour and Divine Faculty of knowing all things: he granted him to be Omnipotent but not Omniscient; he did not think him to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, to know the secret Thoughts of a Man's Heart: upon which reason St. Ambrose chargeth him also with another Sacrilege (the Paradiso, cap. 24.) in answering God, that he could not tell what was become of his Brother, when himself had murdered him; crimine Sacrilegii (saith Ambrose) quod Deo credidit mentiendum, with the Crime of Sacrilege, in that he durst lie to God's own Face: A Pattern to the Sacrilege of Ananias and Sapphira in the Acts of the Apostles.  
To my Understanding Cain is yet chargeable with another grievous Sacrilege, even the Murder of his Brother; for in it he destroyed the Temple of God, and in that Temple the very Sacred Image of God: Do ye not know, saith St. Paul, 2 Cor. 3. 16. that you are the temple of God, and that the spirit of God dwelleth in you? and again positively, 2 Cor. 6. 16. Ye are the temple of the living God. This Temple did Cain sacrilegiously destroy, and the Spirit of God which dwelled in it, did he also sacrilegiously deface and expel; even that holy Spirit was the very Image of God, for in the image of God created he him, Gen. 1. 27.  
Thus it appeareth, that Sacrilege was the first Sin, the Master-Sin, and the common Sin at the beginning of the World, committed in Earth by Man in Corruption, committed in Paradise by Man in Perfection, committed in Heaven itself by the Angels in Glory; against God the Father by arrogating his Power, against God the Son by contemning his Word, against God the Holy Ghost by profaning things Sanctified, and against all of them in general by invading and violating the Deity. Let us now see how God revenged himself upon Sinners, in this kind, and by way of Collation apply it to ourselves: for his Wisdom and Power and Justice are the same perpetually.   

SECT. II.  
The Punishment of Sacrilege in Lucifer and the Angels, upon Adam, Eve, and Cain, and upon the old World, by the Flood, and upon them that built the Tower of Babel, Nimrod, and others.  
FIrst, He punished them by disinheriting and casting them out of their Original Possession. Lucifer is cast out of Heaven; Adam and Eve out of Paradise; Cain (whose Name signifies a Possession) out of his Native Possession, to be a Runagate upon Earth: All of them deprived of the Favour of God, and all of them subject to a perpetual Curse. Lucifer to perpetual Darkness, Adam to perpetual Labour, and Cain to perpetual Fear and Instability: By perpetual, I mean, during their Lives; for at their Death they all meet in Eternal Damnation. The Life of Satan is till the Day of Judgement; so, though he liveth so long, he reigneth in Labour and Travel to work Wickedness: there is his End, and then is the time of his further and Eternal Punishment; then shall he and all his Angels be cast into everlasting fire, Matt. 25. 41. 46. there I leave both him and them hopeless of Mercy, which notwithstanding is graciously extended to Adam and his Posterity repenting, by the meritorious Passion of our Saviour, who to expiate the Sacrilege committed by Man, in aspiring to be like God, debased himself, being God, to become a Man: And as Man would have left the Earth, and have scaled the Heaven, so He left the Heaven, and came down into the Earth, living here in Subjection to Man, when Man himself would not be subject to God: Therefore (ut contraria contrariis curantur) as the Sacrilege was a Capital Sin, that contained in it many other specifical Sins, Pride, Ambition, Rebellion, Hypocrisy, Malice, Robbery, and many other hellish Impieties; so for a punctual Satisfaction he made himself a Capital Sacrifice, that contained innumerable Graces, Humility, Contempt of the World, and of himself, Obedience, Sincerity, Love, Bounty, and all other Celestial Virtues.  
The Contemplation of this exorbitant Mercy, which I leave to be sounded forth by the Golden Trumpets of the Church, hath led me a little forth of my Course. I return to Adam and his Posterity, and will go on with them safely, as I find them left in the hands of Justice, and the dint of the Curse. Adam in his Children, and they in him are all unhappy: His good Son Abel is cruelly murdered and by whom? but (to increase his Grief) by his other Son Cain, who according to the Law of Nature ought to die for it, as himself confesseth, Gen. 4. 14. and then was Adam destitute of them both. Yet so is he notwithstanding; for his Son Cain, the Murderer, is a condemned Person, a banished Man, and a continual Fugitive to save his Life; which nevertheless was at length casually taken from him by the hand of Lamech; as St. Hierom (out of an Author (reporteth ad Damasum, p ... Tom ... Thus two of Adam's Sons died unnaturally, and all the rest, except Seth, living wickedly, are not therefore mentioned in Holy Scriptures. Touching their worldly Affairs, all was evil, and out of course; Labour, and Sweat, and Sorrow vex their Persons; the Beasts of the Earth, and the Fowls of the Air, that formerly were subject to Adam, will rebel and become his Enemies; the Earth, that formerly gave him Sustenance of her own accord, will now yield nothing, but by compulsion; and is besides unto him both false and refractory: He commits his Corn unto it, and it renders him Thistles and Weeds; he planteth his Vineyard in it, and it bringeth him Thorns and Briars: All the Works of Man are now in the sorrow of his hands, Gen. 3. 17, 18, 19 The thoughts of his heart are only evil continually, Gen. 6. 5. and the earth is corrupt before God, and full of cruelty, ver. 11.  
Thus the Soul, the Body, the Mind, and the Manners of Men, the Nature of Beasts and Fowls, and the Condition of the Earth itself being wholly altered from the Original Constitution, and corrupted by the Contagion of Sacrilege, it pleased the Justice of God to bring the Flood upon the Earth, to sweep away all the Posterity of wicked Cain, in the seventh Generation; and not to spare any either of Adam's Line, or of Righteous Seth's Generation, and his Family, as a Type of the Sacred Portion appropriated to his Worship, which those Sinners of the old World had so much corrupted. Thus for Sacrilege was the whole World destroyed; in that Universal Destruction was nothing saved, but the Tenth Generation; that out of it, as from a better Root, the New World might be produced and replenished.  
But the Coals of that old Ambition (which before the Flood, being once fired by Satan in the Hearts of our first Parents, pricked them on in a Desire to be like Gods) came by propagation of Original Sin, to be kindled again after the Flood, in the proud Builders of the Tower of Babel, who by their miraculous Work would also be like Gods; and by giving themselves a Name upon Earth, live (as it were) eternally; and withal, provide so against the Hand of God, as they would be no more in danger of drowning. Go to, (say they) let us build us a city and a tower, whose top may reach up unto heaven, Gen. 11. 4. that we may get us a name, lest we be scattered upon the whole earth. These were the Giants spoken of by the Ancients, that did bellare cum diis; they preferred their own Glory before the Honour of God, and that Calvin termeth— Sacrilegam audaciam quae prorumpit contra Deum ipsum, & Gigantum more coelum oppugnat: A sacrilegious Insolence that breaketh out against God himself, and like the Giants assaults him. See the Punishment; Their sacrilegious Interest is miraculously defeated by God's own immediate Hand, their Language confounded, their Society broken; they are cast out of their ancient Habitation, and that which they most feared falleth upon them; to be scattered over all the face of the Earth, and to be bereft of their Friends and Kindred. For it is said, they understood not labium proximi sui, the Language of their Friends and Neighbours, and were thereby compelled to leave them, as if they had been dead, and their Family extinct, and to associate with those whom they did understand.  
Besides this, as there fell a grievous Curse upon the Posterity of Adam and Cain for their Sacrilege, so (the Divines observe) did there also upon the whole Posterity of their Children, that is, upon the whole World. Hodiè mundus hanc calamitatem sustinet, saith Calvin, The whole World at this day, feeleth the Evil of this Curse of the Confusion of Languages; for by it the strongest Bond of Humane Society and Concord is broken, the Hearts of Men alienated one from another, their Means of Commerce taken away, their Manners changed, and their Minds, Thoughts, Studies, and Dispositions contrary for the most part, and repugnant.  
Sacrilege, being thus got up again, bringeth forth immediately the other Branches of Impiety: for Nimrod, the proud Hunter, and chief Builder of the Tower of Babel, is not satisfied with being like a God, but is adored of his People as a God indeed, and at length so taken of all the Gentiles under the Name of Saturn, or Saturnus Babylonicus. So, after him, is his Son, Jupiter Belus, whom the Scripture calleth Bel, Baal, and likewise many other of their Children and Posterity, by whom the World in a short time becometh full of Gods: And though they daily saw these their Gods to grow old and feeble, and to die like Men, and to rot and putrify like the basest Creatures; yet such was their Stupidity, that out of Wood and Metal they framed their Images, and styling those blockish Lumps by the Names of Gods, erected Altars and Temples to them; and honouring them with the Rites of Sacrifices and Divine Worship, belonging only to the True Living God, did thus bring the Abomination of Idolatry over all the World.  
How fearfully God punished this high Kind of Sacrilege, appears abundantly in the Book of Josuah and other Scriptures: all the Kingdoms of Canaan, where it first began to spread itself, were so universally devoured with Fire and Sword, as never any under the Sun were like unto them. Yea, when there were strange Gods in the House of Jacob, both against his Will, and perhaps without his Knowledge, yet the Hand of God was so upon his House, as that his Daughter Dinah is ravished, his Sons Simeon and Levi commit a cruel Murder on the Sichemites; Jacob thereby liveth in Grief and Fear of his Neighbours, his Wife Rachel dieth in Childbed, and his Son Reuben committeth Incest with his Concubine Bilhah, Gen. 34. 2, 26. & 35. 19, 22.  
What should I tell of the 30000 slain at once, about the Golden Calf, Exod. 32. 28. How for Solomon's Idolatry his Issue lost the Kingdom of Israel, 1 Kings 12. 20. How Israel itself was carried Captive into Babylon, 2 King. 17. 4. How Manasses is taken Prisoner by the Assyrians, 2 Chron. 35. 11. his Son Amon slain by his Servants, 2 Kings 21. 23. his Grandchild Josias, a good King, yet also slain, 2 Kings 23. 3. and his Eldest Son, Jehoahaz, reigning after him, taken Prisoner by Pharaoh Nechoh, and dying in Egypt; his second Son, Jehoiakim, succeeding, taken also Prisoner by Nabuchadnezzar; Jerusalem spoiled, and he, his Princes, People, Treasure, and Golden Vessels of the Temple all carried to Babylon, and all for Idolatry, 2 King. 24. 2. 25. 1. For Jehoram's Idolatry Jerusalem is taken, he with his Wives and Treasure; and all his Sons, save the Youngest, slain; and himself, after a long tormenting Disease, hath his Guts fall out, 2 Chron. 21. 17, 18, 19 So Amaziah seeth Jerusalem defaced, the Temple spoiled, his Treasure carried away, and himself a Prisoner; and being restored, driven out by Treason, and slain at last, 2 Chr. 25. 14, etc.  
I will wade no farther in this Kind of Sacrilege, which is never passed over in Scripture, but with some Remarkable Punishments: Our Country, I hope, doth not at this Day know it.   

SECT. III.  
Of the other Sorts of Sacrilege, commonly so called, as of Time, Persons, Function, Place, and other things consecrated to the Worship of God. And first of Time, in profaning the Sabbath.  
I Come now to the second Part, which indeed is that, which the Schoolmen and Canonists only call Sacrilege, as tho' the former were of too high a Nature to be expressed in this Appellation: so exorbitant a Sin, as that no Name can properly comprehend it. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, a Warring against God, and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, a direful Violence upon Divine Majesty, a superlative Sacrilege.  
The other and common Kind of Sacrilege, is (as was said) a violating, misusing, or a putting away of things consecrated or appropriated to Divine Service, or Worship of God: It hath many Branches, Time, Persons, Function, Place; and materially, Omne illud (saith Th. Aquinas) quod ad irreverentiam rerum sacrarum pertinet, ad injuriam Dei pertinet, & habet Sacrilegii rationem, 2a2ae. qu. 99 art. 1. This Description of Sacrilege may well enough be extended further than Aquinas did perhaps intend it, to the former or superlative Kind.  
Sacrilege of Time is, when the Sabbath, or the Lord's Day, is abused or profaned: This God expressly punished in the Stick-gatherer. Some Canonists seem not to reckon this under the common Kind of Sacrilege, Soto, de justitia & jure, lib. II. qu. 4. fol. 50. 6. So that in all that followeth we shall run the broken Way of the Schoolmen and Canonists.   

SECT. IV.  
Sacrilege of Persons, that is, Priests and Ministers consecrated to the Service of God, and the Punishments thereof.  
SAcrilege against the Person is, when Priests or Ministers of God's Divine Service, are either violated, or abused: Again; Fear the Lord, and honour his Priests, Ecclus 7. 29, 31. For he beareth the iniquity of the congregation, to make an atonement for them before the Lord, Deut. 8. 17. For the Levite is separate to the Lord, to minister unto him, to bless thee in his name, Deut. 10. 8. therefore when Micah had got a Levite into his House, he rejoiced, and said, I know that the Lord will be good unto me, seeing I have a Levite to my priest, Judg. 17. 13. Touch not mine anointed, nor do my prophets no harm, Psal. 105. 15. Mine anointed, that is, not my Kings, nor my Priests; and Deut. 12. 19 Beware that thou forsake not the Levite, as long as thou livest upon the earth; Beware, saith God, as intimating Danger and Punishment to hang over their head, that offered otherwise; and what? not for wronging the Levite, (a thing too impious) but for not loving and cherishing him all the days of thy Life. I must here note, as it cometh in my way, the remarkable Justice and Piety of Pharaoh towards his Idol Priests; that when by reason of the Famine he had got and bought unto himself all the Money, Cattle, Lands, Wealth, and Persons of the Egyptians, yet stretched he not forth his Thoughts to the Lands or Persons of his Priests; but, commiserating their Necessity, allowed them a ... at his own Charge, that they might both live and keep their Lands, Gen. 47. 22. Musculus hereupon infers, Quantum sacrilegium est in nostris principibus, negligi legitimos probosque sacrorum ministros? How great a Sacrilege is it in our Princes, that the good and lawful Ministers of Holy things are thus neglected? It is to be noted, That as Micah expected a Blessing from God, for entertaining an Idolatrous Levite into his House; so Pharaoh's Piety towards his Priests, wanted not a Blessing from God upon his House, though God hated both the Idolaters and Idolatry itself.  
Let us see how Sacrilege in this Kind hath been punished. The Benjamites of Gibeah wronging a Levite villainously, in abusing his Wife, Judg. 19 25. Gibeah is therefore destroyed with Fire and Sword, above 26000 valiant Men of the Benjamites slain, and the whole Tribe almost wholly razed out of Israel, with their Cities and Castles, Ch. 20.  
Jeroboam making Golden Calves driveth the Priests of the Lord out of Israel, and makes himself other Priests, not of the Tribe of Levi: for this he is overthrown by Abiah King of Judah, and 500000 of his Men slain, his Son taken from him, and his Posterity threatened to be swept away like Dung; and those of them that died in the city, to be eaten of dogs, those in the fields, by the fowls of the air, 2 Chron. 13. 9 1 King. 14. 10. Jeroboam also stretched but out his hand against the Prophet to have him apprehended, and it is presently withered, 1 Kings 13. 4.  
Joash commanded Zacharias, Son of Jehoiada the Priest, to be slain in the court of the Lord's house: this done, he is overcome the next Year following by the Aramites; all his Princes are slain, his Treasure and the Spoil is sent to Damascus, himself left afflicted with great Diseases, and at last murdered in his bed by his servants, 2 Chron. 24. 21, etc.  
Zedekiah King of Judah casteth Jeremy the Prophet first into Prison, then for a season into the Dungeon, and useth him harshly, Jer. 32. 3. 37. 21. 38. 9 He and those that counselled him to it, are overthrown by Nebuchadonosor, Jerusalem taken, his Sons slain before his Eyes, and then his Eyes put out, and the People carried captive to Babylon: but Jeremiah himself is set at liberty, and well entreated by his Enemies the Chaldaeans, Jer. 39 1, etc.   

SECT. V.  
Sacrilege of Function, by usurping the Priest's Office; and the Punishment thereof.  
SAcrilege of Function is, when those that are not called to the Office of Priesthood or Ministry, do usurp upon it. So Gideon made an Ephod, (that is a Pontifical Ornament of the Tabernacle) not at Shilo, but in his own City Ophra, whereby the Israelites fell to worship it: or, as others think, that he made all the things of the Tabernacle, whereby the People were drawn to worship there, and not to go to Shilo, where the Tabernacle was. This (saith the Text) was the Destruction of Gideon and his House; for his Son Abimelech, rising against his Brethren, slew 70 of them upon a Stone, and then with a Stone cast upon him by a Woman, himself was first brained, and after by his own Commandment, thrust through by his Page, Judg. 8. 27. and 9 6.  
Saul takes upon him to offer a burnt Offering to God in the Absence of Samuel. The Kingdom therefore is cut from his Family, 1 Sam. 8. 9 and nothing after prospers with him, but he runneth into other Sins, as that of sparing Agag and the Cattle. He is overthrown by the Philistines, himself and three of his Sons are slain by them, 1 Sam. 3. 6. Ishbosheth, a fourth Son, by Treachery, 2 Sam. 4. 6. and seven more are hanged for appeasing of the Gibeonites.  
Vzzah being no Levite, stretched forth his hand and stayeth the Ark from falling: It seemed a pious Act, yet God presently struck him dead for it, 2 Sam. 6. 6, 7.  
Vzziah the King, in spite of the Priests, goeth into the Sanctuary, and would burn Incense, which belonged only to the Priest's Office. This (saith the Text) was his Destruction, for he transgressed against the Lord, therefore whilst he was yet but about it, having the Incense in his hand to burn it, the leprosy presently rose in his forehead; so that he was not only constrained to haste himself presently out of the Temple, but to live all his Life after sequestered from the Company of Men; and, being dead, was not buried in the Sepulchre of his Fathers, but in the Field there apart from them, 2 Chron. 26. 16, etc.  
Let those that have Impropriations consider, whether these Cases concern not them; for, like Vzzah, they stretch out their hands to Holy Things, (but would God it were to no worse intent) like Gideon, they bring them into their own Inheritance, and like Saul and Vzziah they take upon them the Priest's Office: For they are Parsons of the Parish, and aught to offer up Prayers for the Sins of the People.   

SECT. VI  
Sacrilege of Holy Places, Churches, and Oratories consecrated to the Honour and Service of God: And the fearful Punishments thereof showed by many Examples.  
SAcrilege of the Place, is, when the Temple or the House of God, or the Soil that is consecrated to his Honour is either violated or profaned. When God was in the fiery Bush at Horeb, the place about it was presently sanctified, so that Moses himself might neither come near the Bush, nor stand a-loof upon the holy Ground with his Shoes on, but in Reverence of the Place must be barefooted, Exod. 3. 5. So when God descended upon Mount Sinai, his Presence made the Place round about it Holy. He commanded therefore that Marks should be set upon the Border, to distinguish it from the other Ground; and that if Man or Beast did but touch it, they should be either stoned, or thrust through with a dart, Exod. 19 21.  
Thus afore the Law; when the Law was given, first the Tabernacle, and then the Temple were full of Sanctification, both by the Presence of God, and by the Decree of his Mouth, as appeareth abundantly in Scripture, Ex. 40. 34, 35. 1 King. 8. 10, 11. Therefore grievous Punishments were always inflicted upon such as did violate them in any thing. If any man (saith the Geneva Translation) destroy the temple of God, him shall God destroy; for the temple of God is holy, 1 Cor. 3. 17. The Greek is much more copious, and doth not restrain it to them only that destroy the Temple, but extendeth it to all that either destroy or abuse it in any sort; 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. The vulgar Latin doth well express it; Si quis templum Dei violaverit, disperdet eum Deus, etc. for the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, is corrumpo, vexo, calamitatem infero, perdo, defloro, violo, vitio; so that it contains as well the lesser Injuries done to the Temple, as that great and Capital Crime of destroying it: but because the Apostle useth one word in both Places, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, they likewise in the ... would have one word in both places ... Upon the word destroy, which to my understanding is too particular, and might have been better expressed by a word of more general Signification; as to say, If any Man spoil the Temple of God, God shall spoil him; that is to say, If he spoil the Temple, either by destroying it, or defacing it, or violating it in any Course, as by robbing, stealing, or taking from it any Ornaments, ... Goods, Rights, ... Means of Maintenance, or by abusing it in any manner whatsoever, God shall spoil him in one sort or other, as of his Patrimony, Lands, Goods, Liberty, Pleasures, Health, and Life itself; Children, Family, and Posterity; and not so only, but by casting also upon him divers fearful Visitations and Misfortunes, more or less, as in his Wisdom shall soon ... The word destroy is not properly said of any Punishment that tendeth only to work Amendment: and God doubtless often spoileth a Man of the things he delighteth in, not to his whole Destruction, but to awaken him to Amendment.  
Let us see in what manner God hath punished this kind of Sacrilege among the Jews.  
In the time of the Law, though frequent Examples are not to be expected, for that there was but one Temple of God in both the Kingdoms of Judah and ... namely, that of Jerusalem, built by Solomon, and for the most part, p ... preserved in after Ages. Another there was at Samaria which ... builded upon Mount Gerizim, like to that of Jerulem, by Licence of Alexander the Great, and being afterward destroyed by Hyrcanus, King of Judah, gave occasion to the Samaritan Woman to say unto Christ, John 4. 20. Our Fathers worshipped in this Mountain—. A third also for the dispersed Jews in Egypt built by Onias' Son of Onias the Highpriest, in the time of Antiochus Epiphanes, Joseph. Antiq. l. 12. c. 14. & de Bello Judaico, c. 7. But these two being against the Commandment of God (who would have no Temple but at Jerusalem) I meddle not with, nor with the Synagogues of the Jews being many in every City, 480. in Jerusalem instituted for Strangers, as the Temple was for the Citizens, and erected of later time without any mention of them in the Old Testament or Books Apocryphal: Let us see, I say, Examples of this kind.  
Nadab and Abihu, Sons of Aaron, polluted the Tabernacle, by neglecting the sanctified Fire of the Altar, and offering Incense by strange and common Fire; they were therefore devoured by strange Fire sent upon them by the Lord himself.  
Hophni and Phinehas, the Sons of Eli, made a Sacrilegious Rapine upon the Offering of the Lord, upon the Fat, and upon the Flesh, and upon the Holy Portion: polluting also the Sanctified Place, with sacrilegious Adultery, 1 Sam. 2. 12. God termeth this a dishonouring himself, and saith (ver. 30.) Them that honour me, I will honour; and they that despise me, shall be despised. Hereupon, he threateneth, First, To cut off the arm of Eli's Father's house, (i. e. the Authority and Honour of the Priesthood;) which was performed when Solomon cast out Abiathar ... of Eli, out of the Priest's Office, and bestowed it on Zadock, being of another Family, 1 King. 2. 26. Secondly, That all of his Family should die before they came to be old; which himself did partly see in his own Sons. Thirdly, That his sons Hophni and Phinehas should die both in one day. Fourthly, That he should see his enemy possess his office, and that the remnant of his family should crouch, and be suitors to him for relief and favour. All which undoubtedly came to pass: And yet with all this was not the Wrath of God appeased; but spreading itself into a further Agony of Indignation, fell not only upon the whole People of Israel, but also upon the holiest Monuments of the Glory of God. The Word of the Lord became rare and precious: There was no manifest Vision: The Army of Israel is beaten by the Philistines, and about 4000 of them slain in one Battle, and 30000 in another: The Ark of God taken Prisoner, and carried Captive into the House of Dagon, the Philistines Idol: Hophni and Phinehas died: Eli falleth backward and breaketh his Neck: The Wife of Phinehas falleth untimely into Travail, and dieth with Grief, (1 Sam. chap. 2. 3, 4.) Fourscore and five Priests of Eli's House are, at Saul's Commandment tyrannously slain all in one Day. Nob the City of the Priests, with the Men, Women, Children, Sucklings, Oxen, Sheep, and Asses all destroyed (22. 18.) And finally, to cut the Priesthood for ever from the House of Eli, Solomon cast Abiathar out of it (being the fourth in Succession after Eli), and brought in Zadock of another Family, (1 Chron. 6. 8.) Oh the dreadful Justice of Almighty God But such of old was the Fruit of Sacrilege; and such Effects it still produceth.  
Joash stoned Zachariah in the Court of the Temple. This double Sacrilege of Person and Place, was punished by the Slaughter of his People, Loss of his Treasure, Diseases of his Body, and Murder of his Person, as we have already cleared in Sacrilege of the Person.  
So Vzziah entering the Sanctuary by force, and attempting the Priest's Office in burning Incense, committed Sacrilege of Place and Person, was punished as we have cleared.  
Ahaz committeth Idolatry, and spoileth the Temple of the Treasure, and some other Ornaments. He is first given into the hands of the Azarites or Assyrians; then Pekah King of Israel slayeth 120000 of his Soldiers, all in one day, and taking 200000 Women and Children Prisoners, took away also much Spoil, which they brought to Samaria. The Edomites also beat him, and captivated his People; and the Philistines took and inhabited many of his Cities. In this Affliction he farther spoileth the Temple of the Vessels, and shutteth it up; and, dying an Idolater and Sacrilegious, is not buried in the Sepulchre of his Father, but apart in Jerusalem, 2 Chron. 28.  
Nebuchadonosor, otherwise called Nabuchadnezzar, spoileth the Temple, carrieth thence all the Treasure and Holy Vessels, 2 King. 24. 13. slayeth those that were fled thither for Safety; after by his Servants burned it, 2 Chron. 36. 17. He is stricken with Madness, cast out of his Kingdom, liveth among Beasts, and like a Beast, feedeth upon Grass till his Hairs were grown like Eagles Feathers, and his Nails like Birds Claws, Dan. 4. 3. And in the Days of his Grandchild was his Family clean extinguished, and his great Empire taken from him by Force, and given to the Persians, Dan. 5.  
Antiochus Epiphanes, Son of Antiochus the Great, King of Syria, entereth into the Sanctuary, and taketh away the Golden Altar, and the Treasure of the Temple, even 1800 Talents. Presently his Posterity and Glory altereth, his Captains are slain, his Armies beaten, and all his Affairs were so unfortunate, that calling his Friends unto him, confesseth, that he was fallen into that Adversity and Flood of Misery, for that Evil he had done at Jerusalem, For I took, saith he, all the Vessels of Gold and Silver that were in it, ... and I know that these Troubles are come upon me for the same Cause; and behold I must die with great Sorrow, in a strange Land. Thus in Passions of Grief he ended his Days, cap. 6. 11. Yet did not this end his Tragedy, 
He had a violent Fall out of his Chariot, and he was tormented with an horrible Disease; Worms came out of his Body, and his flesh fell off for pain, and no Man could endure his Stink, 2 Maccab. 9 7, 8, etc.  for his Son Antiochus Eupater was deprived of his Kingdom by his Uncle Demetrius, and put to Death: and altho' Alexander Epiphanes, his other Son, a Brother of Antiochus Eupater, recovered the Kingdom, and slew Demetrius, and fortified himself by the Marriage of Cleopatra, Daughter of Ptolemy King of Egypt, to his great Happiness, as he thought, yet God turned it to his own Destruction; for Ptolemy took both her and the Kingdom from him, and gave them to his Enemy Demetrius Nicanor; and whilst he fled to save his Life, to his Friend Zabdiel the Arabian, he struck off his Head, and sent it to Ptolemy, 1 Maccab. 11. 9 notwithstanding this, his Son Antiochus Theos, being but a Child, by the Help of Tryphon, was restored to his Father's Kingdom, and overthrew Demetrius Nicanor, Cap. 11. 54. who flying, is imprisoned by Arsaces' King of Persia, Cap. 14. 2. and after slain: so that Antiochus seemeth not secure, but the Hand of God is still upon the Posterity of Antiochus Epiphanes the Sacrilegist; for even now doth Tryphon himself murder his Grandchild Antiochus Theos, 
Within 30 Years after the Sacrilege.  and, ending that Line, usurpeth the Kingdom, 1 Maccab. 33. 31. Read 2 Maccab. 9 7.  
Touching the Sacrilegious Attempt made by Antiochus and some of his Soldiers, upon the Temple of ... (or Diana, as Lyra taketh it) in Persia, and the terrible Destruction that fell immediately upon them, mentioned, 2 Macc. 1. 16. I pass it over, as not belonging to this place.  
Heliodoras' the Treasurer of King Seleucus, is sent by his Master to fetch the innumerable Money that was in the Temple of Jerusalem, not belonging to the Provision of the Sacrifices, but deposited there in safety, for Widows and Orphans. The high Priest Onias declareth to him, that there was not above 400 Talents of Silver, and 200 of Gold: and both he and the rest of the Priests, and the rest of the City, prayed instantly to God to preserve the Treasury; notwithstanding Heliodorus and his Soldier's approach unto it, and presently there appeared a terrible Man on Horseback, richly barbed, between two young Men of notable strength, and the Horse running fiercely upon him, struck him on the Breast with his Forefoot, and the young Men scourged him continually with many sore stripes: so that Heliodorus falling to the Ground, and covered with great Darkness, was carried away in a Horselitter, desperate of Life, till by Entreaty Onias prayed for him, and thereupon the young Men appearing again to Heliodorus, willed him to give Onias' thanks, because God for his sake had spared his Life. Seleucus, after this, would have sent another, but Heliodorus advising him to send his Enemy he gave it over, 2 Macc. 3. 38, 39 If thou hast an enemy or traitor send him thither, and thou shalt receive him well scourged: for in that place, no doubt, there is an especial power of God: for he that dwelleth in heaven hath his eye on that place, and defendeth it, and he beateth and destroyeth them that come to hurt it.  
Lysimachus, a Man of great Power in Jerusalem, Brother and Deputy to Menelaus the High Priest, purloineth much of the Golden Vessels, and in the Geneva Translation is termed a Church Robber. He falleth into hatred of his Countrymen, the Jews, and having about Three thousand for his Guard, is notwithstanding in a Tumult of the People oppressed with Clubs, Dust, and Stones, and in that Manner slain near unto the Treasury with some of his Company, many others of them being wounded, 2 Macc. 4. 39  
calisthenes who had set fire upon the holy Gates flying after into a Cottage, the same was also set on fire and he burned in it, 2 Macca. 6. 33.  
Menelaus having obtained by Money the High-Priesthood stealeth certain of the Golden Vessels out of the Temple, giving part away, and selling part unto the Tyrians and others, 2 Maccab. 4. 32. he is afterwards accused to Antiocbus Eupater to have been the Author of the evils in Judaea, and for the Sacrilege committed by him about the Holy Fire and Ashes of the Altar, he is put to death at Beraea, by an Engine upon the Top of an high Tower, ordained for the Punishment of Sacrilege, and other great Offences, by overwhelming the Offenders with Ashes; and, being dead, he must not be buried, for that he was a Sacrilegist, 2 Maccab. 13. 4. Let those Clergymen that defraud their Churches of their Lands or Goods consider this Example.  
Nicanor, Governor of Judaea under Eupater, (stretching forth his Hand toward the Temple) sweareth, That if Judas Maccabaeus were not delivered unto him Prisoner, he would make it a plain Field, and break down the Altar, and erect an ... Temple to Bacchus. At the next Encounter Judas with a small Power slayeth 35000 of Nicanor's Army, and among them, unwittingly, Nicanor himself, whose Head, and the Hand with the Shoulder, that he had stretched forth against the Temple, he caused to be cut off, and carried to Jerusalem, and showed there to the Priests and others; and cut out the Tongue, and minced it, and cast it to the Birds, and set the Head on the Castle, 2 Macc. 14. 33. and 15. 27.  
Thus touching Local Sacrilege, I have gone through the Canonical and Apocryphal Books of the Old Testament; before I enter into the New, (which will be very short) I desire to remember one that happened in the mean time.  
Pompey the Great (whose Glory and Conquest some in Plutarch compare with Alexander the Great) by help of Hyrcanus taketh Jerusalem, and battering down a wall of the Temple, maketh there a great slaughter, not only of the Jews, but of the Priests themselves, that even then were at the Sacrifices; and choosed rather to die, than to intermit the same; and then entering with his Soldiers into the Sanctuary, did behold those Sacred things, which a profane eye never saw before, the golden Table, the Candlestick, the Sacrificing Instruments, and what might tempt a wasteful General, 2000 Talents of holy Treasure, which Pompey notwithstanding, to the Glory of his Heathen-piety would never touch, but commanded that the Ministers should cleanse the Temple presently, and continue their daily Sacrifices, making Hyrcanus now Highpriest. Josep. Antiqu. lib. 14. §. 8. Hitherto all Glory and Fortune attended Pompey his Servants, three times he triumpheth, and is as well Conqueror of the Hearts of his Nation, as of their Persons whom he subdued. Some in Plutarch, where his Conquests are recited, compare them with Alexander the Great; but after this Sacrilege (to my knowledge observe it) nothing doth prosper with him, but as conducing to his hurt: Oh, (said Plutarch, p. 70.) would God he had died while his fortune was yet like Alexander's: for in the rest of his Life his prosperities were hateful, and his miseries bitter. He hasteth home into Italy to enjoy the pleasures of his family and country, where he findeth that his wise Mutia had played the harlot, and therefore divorceth her; that the Senate one while slight and deride him, another while magnify him and use him for necessity, but always suspect him, in great opposition with the Principal Men; and when he had Married Julia, the Daughter of Caesar to be reconciled with him, she became abortive of her first Child, and died of her second, and the Child also, all in a short space. Then runneth the dissension between Caesar and him, which groweth to Arms on both sides, and when Caesar at first had the advantage, yet he offereth Pompey Conclusions of Peace; which Pompey (ordained to destruction) refuseth, and having at last by the confluence of Senators and active Men unto him more than double the Army of Caesar, besides an invincible Navy to secure him, he joineth Battle with great hope and probability of Victory near Pharsalia in Thessaly, but is overthrown, and flying to his great Friend Ptolemy in Egypt, is there Barbarously murdered at his landing, in the sight of his Wife and Son his Head struck off, and his Body cast upon the shore. Plutarch in his Life admiring whence this change of fortune should come, supposes it to be for mis-governing the Commonwealth; I by the precedent Examples impute to his Sacrilege, which after that manner wrought still upon his posterity to the extirpation of his Family. For his Son Cneus Pompeius overcome in Spain by Caesar, is slain also in fight, App. lib. 2. And his other Son Sextus Pompeius driven out of Egypt into Asia, is there slain by the commandment of Antonius. App. lib. 4.  
Thus when Pompey the Great entered into the Temple, and saw the great Riches thereof, he did forbear to spoil or pillage any part thereof, which makes for the commendation of his heathenish piety. Joseph. Antiq. lib. 14. cap. 8.  
But when Crassus the Roman General entered Jerusalem and the Temple, he did not forbear, but took away Eight Thousand Talents: Which prospered ill with him; for marching forward with his Army into Parthia, there his Sacrilegious Money and he perished together. Joseph. lib. 16. Cap. 12.  

* This larger Account of Crassus' Sacrilege, was found in a loose Paper, written with Sir Hen. Spelman's own Hard.  Marcus Crassus being the second time Consul with Pompey the Great, had now by lot the charge of Syria; and marching with a mighty Army against the Parthians, he came to Jerusalem, and seeing the Treasure of the Temple (which Pompey forbore to meddle with) he took away Two Thousand Talents of Money, and all the Gold, amounting to Eight Thousand and besides this, the Golden Beam weighing 750 l. whereon the Veils did hang. To say truth, the Golden Beam was delivered to him by Eleazar the Priest, as a ransom for all the rest, Crassus swearing to take nothing else. But having the one, he would not leave the other. The Beam he broke, and coined it into Money for payment of the Soldiers.  
The success was this. Many grievous Tempests of Thunder and Lightning opposed his Army; a violent Wind broke the Bridge he made for his passage; his Camp was twice stricken with Lightning; and divers other such Prodigious events are noted by Plutarch. Joining Battle with his Enemy, his dear Son was first slain in his own sight, with the Flower of his Cavalry, and then all the Roman Army slaughtered or discomfited. Himself, though Surenas the General would have saved him, was also slain. Being dead, his Head and his Hand, (that committed the Sacrilege) like Nicanor's in the Maccabees, were stricken off, and with other Monuments of the Roman Glory, most contemptuously abused and derided, in Triumphs, Plays, and Public Meetings. It is noted to be one of the greatest Overthrows that ever the Romans had. Joseph. Antiq. lib. 14. cap. 13. Plutarch. in M. Crasso. Appian. de Bell. Parthic.  
Some report, that the Parthians, in derision of his Avarice, poured molten Gold into his Mouth; and say also, that he slew himself, by thrusting his riding-Wand into his own Brains through his Eye. But, I take it, he that thus killed himself, was Pub. Crassus Nucianus, Brother to the Grandfather of this M. Crassus, overthrown also in the Parthian Wars by Aristonicus.  
It is much to be admired, that none of the Heathen-Emperours of Rome, after Titus, (many of them being notoriously wicked and prodigal) nor Gensericus and his Vandals, did not convert such goodly rich Vessels of Gold and Silver, as those of the Temple were, into Ready Money, for the Maintenance of their great Armies, and other public Necessities of State; but that they should suffer them to be preserved without any Loss or Imbezelling, for the Space of 500 Years together. But the Providence of God is very remarkable in preserving them, until they came to the great Christian Emperor Justinian, who disposed them to Christian Churches, as is showed.  
The Learned Mr. Fuller in his Pis ... lib. 3. pag. 438. thinks that it is unknown what became of these Vessels, after Titus carried them to Rome. But it appeareth he is mistaken in this; though not in his Opinion, That the Holy and Holy of Holiest remained entire and untortured, till all was destroyed at the Captivity of Babylon; though the outward Courts and Chambers had been often plundered. And if this be true, as it is very probable, hence may we well consider, and admire the wonderful Providence of God, in defending the Temple in the principal Parts of it, for the Benefit of his own Worship and Glory, though he suffered the outward to be plundered oftentimes, for the Sins and Wickedness of the People. Though at last, when God resolved to put an end to the Jews State and Religion, than he suffered the Temple to be burnt and destroyed utterly; never suffering it to be built again, though it were attempted divers times.  
But yet the gold and silver Vessels of the Temple, (which were movable things, that might be carried away to another Country, and at one time or other might serve for some good Use and Purpose) God preserved in all the Changes and Transmigrations that happened, till he brought them at length to the Hands of a Religious and Pious Emperor, who bestowed them upon Christian Churches, even at Jerusalem, from whence they came.  
Shortly after this our Saviour Christ cometh into the World; and though reproving it of all Kind's of Sins, he punisheth not one, save only Sacrilege. He refuseth to be Judge in parting the Inheritance between the two Brethren, and he would give no Sentence against the Woman taken in Adultery; but in case of Sacrilege, himself makes the Whip, himself punisheth the Offenders, himself overthrows the Money-Tables, and drives out the Prophaners of the Temple, with their Sheep, and their Oxen; not suffering the innocent Doves to remain, tho' all these were for Sacrifices, and put in the Court-Yard, John 2. 14. Such was his Zeal in this Kind of Sacrilege, that he refused not to be the Accuser, the Judge, and the Executioner, and this not only once, but twice; at the beginning of his Ministry, recited by St. John, and the last near the Conclusion thereof, mentioned Matth. 21. 11.  
As for the Sacrilege of Judas and Pilate, the one in robbing the sacred Purse of our Saviour, the other of risling the holy Treasure of the Temple; they are such petty things in respect of their unexpressible Crimes about the Death of our Saviour, as I dare not apply their Punishment hither. But Judas hanged himself, Matth. 27. and throwing himself down headlong, burst asunder in the midst, all his Bowels gushed out, Act. 1. 18. Pilate in the displeasure of Caius the Emperor, about the Money of the Temple, is by him banished to Lions in France; and there, distracted with Grief and Misfortune, slayeth himself with his own Hands, Euseb. l. 2. c. 7.  
So Herod is deposed by Caius from his Tetrarchy, and perpetually banished also to Lions, with his Wife Herodias, and dies miserably; their Goods confiscate by Caius, and given to Agrippa, Joseph. Ant. lib. 8. cap. 14. who also noteth, That within an hundred Years all his Progeny, except a very few of the Multitude, were consumed and extinct, lib. 18. cap. 11.   

SECT. VII.  
Sacrilege of Materials or Things; as of the Ark of God taken by the Philistines. Of the 200 Shekels of Silver, a Wedge of Gold, with the Babylonian Garment stolen by Achan, Jos. 6. 7. Of the Money concealed by Ananias and Sapphira, Acts 5. 6. With the fearful Punishments that fell upon them all.  
SAcrilege of the Things and Materials, I call that which is done upon things properly settled in holy Places, or belonging unto them: Of this sort seemeth the very Ark itself, whiles it traveled up and down, and remained not either at the Tabernacle at Shilo, or the Temple at Jerusalem.  
The Citizens and Borderers of Ashdod, overthrowing the Children of Israel, took in Battle the Ark of God; they use it with all Reverence, and place it in their Temple, by their God Dagon; but the next Morning their God Dagon was fallen down on his Face, (as adoring the Ark) his Head and his Hands were stricken off, and such a Destruction and Death was upon the People, that the very Cry of the City went up to Heaven, and those that were not slain were smitten with emrod's, 1 Sam. 5. 4. besides a Plague of Mice that was upon them; consulting therefore with their Priests, they not only send back the Ark, with all Honour, but with a Sin-Offering also, of Golden emrod's, and Golden Mice, to be a perpetual Monument of their Penance and Punishment, 1. Sam. 6. 1.  
The Bethshemites (whilst the Ark was among the Philistines) presumed to look into it; God for this Attempt slayeth of the People 50070 Men. And the People lamented, because the Lord had smitten many of the People, with a great Slaughter. And the men of Bethshemesh said, Who is able to stand before this holy Lord God? and to whom shall he go up from us? 1 Sam. 6. 19 So for touching it with unsanctified hands (tho' to save it from falling) was Vzzah slain, as we said before, in the Sacrilege of Function, 2 Sam. 6. 7.  
Achan, in the Destruction of Jericho, stealeth 200 Shekels of Silver, and a Wedge of Gold, from the rest of the Gold and Silver and Metal, that, by the Commandment of God, Jos. 6. 9 was to be consecrated and brought into the Treasury of the Tabernacle, and did put it even with his own stuff, saith the Text, vers. 11. This Offence of this one Man, brought a Punishment in general upon the whole People: In the Assault at Ai, they are overthrown, and can no more stand before their Enemies (as God himself tells them), till this Sacrilege be punished and purged, Cap. 7. 12. Therefore not only Achan himself, but his Sons, and his Daughters, his Oxen, his Asses, his People, and his Tent, and all that he had, were both stoned and burnt together, Jos. 7.  
Of this Sort is the Sacrilege of Spoiling God of his Tithes and Offerings, Spoken of, Malachi 3. 8. where likewise the Penalty is declared by God's own Mouth, Ye are cursed with a Curse, even the whole Nation.  
Of this Sort also is the Sacrilege of Ananias and Sapphira, in the Acts of the Apostles, whereof we shall speak anon.  
A Multitude of Examples there be of this Kind, but for the most part they fall as well under the Title of Local Sacrilege, as under this of Holy Things: I will therefore refer the Reader to that which hath been already delivered, and will here close up the Books of the Holy Scripture, for Matters done before the Passion of our Saviour.   

SOME ADDITIONS UPON THE Former Discourse: BY JEREMY STEPHENS.  
SECT. VIII.  
Some Annotations touching the Omissions of the Presbyterians, in their late Annotations upon the Bible; with some other Passages.  
THE pious Author of this Discourse intended to have added something concerning the Sacrilege of Ananias and Sapphira, and other places of the New Testament; but since he did not finish his Purpose, here shall follow, to supply that Defect, some Annotations, that may, in part, make some Recompense of that Omission.  
And first the late Annotations upon the Bible published Ann. Dom. 1646. by some Divines called Presbyterians, deserve to be censured for their Omissions, and dangerous insinuations: for in their explication of some remarkable Texts and Examples concerning Sacrilege, they do very unworthily discharge their parts; in that they never mention the principal offence and Sin of Sacrilege, which is expressly charged in the Text, and by all Expositors both Ancient and Modern so approved. As touching the Sacrilege of Achan in the 6. and 7. Chapters of Josua, which is so fully and remarkably set forth by the Holy Ghost, and Achan so fearfully Punished and Condemned for it, as might well strike a Terror, not only into the People of that time, but of all Men in succeeding Ages: for as the Apostle saith, 1. Cor. 10. These things are written for our Admonition, upon whom the ends of the World are come. Yet these Divines pass all over in general Terms, not mentioning Sacrilege to be the great Sin for which Achan and his family, and also the People were so severely Punished, as is manifestly to be observed throughout these two Chapters.  
Next for the Sacrilegious offence of Belshazzar in taking the Holy Vessels of the Temple to drink wine in them at his great feast, they so blanche it over in their Notes Dan. 5. 2. as if the principal Sin had been drinking excessively; not profaning the holy Vessels, whereas the Text doth not charge him or his Nobles for excessive drinking (though at so great a feast some might perhaps offend therein) but for the abuse of the Vessels, which were not to be employed to any Common or Profane use, as they were not all the time since Nabuchadnezzar his Grandfather took them from the Temple at Jerusalem, and put them into the House of his Gods at Babylon— Cum antehac in Beli Templo aliquam adhuc sanctimoniam retinuissent (ut not at Hieronymus in Dan. 5.) Quod tunc piaculum fuit Sacra profanare, nunc & principum & profanorum lusus est, & adhuc quaerimus, cur bellis tam atrocibus vastitas passim fiat? melius cavit sibi Justinianus qui vasa Templi secundi, à Vespasiano Romam portata, à Genserico Romae expilatore Carthaginem, cum per victoriam nactus esset, non in suos vertit usus, sed in sacram basilicam misit, quae erat Hierosolymis, narrante Procopio. Thus the learned Grotius doth observe in his Annotations upon this Text; and so Calvin formerly, who saith expressly in his Commentary, Profectò ista profanatio indignissimum fuit Sacrilegium. So also Rolloc and Willet in their Commentaries upon Daniel, are very clear to this purpose, all which might have directed them who collected the Notes.  
It is not impertinent to note further what became of these Vessels afterwards, because some do think it is unknown; for in regard they were Consecrated to the Service of God, it appears that they were preserved wonderfully by the special Providence of God, both in the first spoil of the Temple by Nabuchadnezzar, and also in the final destruction by Titus: For Nabuchadnezzar having taken them, did not put them into his Treasury, nor convert them to private Uses, but placed them in the House of his Gods at Babylon; and at the return of the Jews from the Captivity, all the Vessels were restored to the Temple, as appears in Ezra and Daniel. So Titus also did not convert them to any private Use, but carried them to Rome, where they continued many Years in the Capitol, until Gensericus the Vandal Sacked Rome, and from thence among other Treasures carried them to Carthage, and there also they were preserved till Bel, the great General under Justinian the Emperor, conquered Carthage; and among the Riches and Plunder that they won there, when Gelimer the Fourth King, a Successor after Gensericus, was taken, and other Riches and great Spoils, he took and recovered the Holy Vessels of the Temple, and brought them to Constantinople to the Emperor Justinian. When Justinian had them he was informed by a Jew and some others, that they were the consecrated Vessels of the Temple, and that they would not prosper in any Man's custody; and that for detaining of them formerly Rome was conquered by Gensericus; and note again Carthage was overcome for the same Offence, as Procopius relates lib. 2. de bello Vandalico. And Baronius [...] of him A. Ch. 534. Justiniani 8. ... also Paulus Diaconus, quem ex Codice Palatino edidit Janus Gruterus ... quatuor decim interim dies secura & libera direptione omnibus opibus suis & miraculis Roma est evacuata, in quibus erant Ecclesiastica 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sola ex auro & lapidibus pretiosis ornata, & vasa Hebraica, quae Titus Vespasianus post captivitatem Hierosolymitarum Romam deliberate, multa Millia captivorum cum regina Hadoxia, quae Gensericum ad hoc facinus invitaverat, duabusque ejus filiabus Carthaginem abducta sunt.  
When thus the Vessels were brought to Constantinople, and presented to Justinian the Emperor, he greatly feared, and was very unwilling to convert them to any private Use, or to his own Treasury; but upon advice sent them to Christian Churches at Jerusalem, and so cleared himself of them, and would not be guilty of any suspicion of Sacrilege. Thus we may see in those Days there was some Piety in the Hearts of Men more than ... They took Example by the Calamities of others, not to be too bold with things Consecrated to God: In a doubtful matter Justinian resolved rather to employ to some pious Uses, than to enrich his own Coffers with them; but had they come into the Hands of Presbyterians in these times, and had any such Men been in those Days, they would have melted them into Money to pay Soldiers.  
Likewise upon Acts 5. the Sacrilege of Ananias and Sapphira, in defrauding God of a part of that which they had Consecrated to him, the Divines in their Annotations omit the main Sin, and dwell upon the Circumstances only, as Hypocrisy, Vainglory, Lying, Covetousness, and the like. But we must distinguish between Ananias his Fact, and the Manner and Circumstance thereof. The Fact was Sacrilege in the manner of doing, other Crimes attended as Handmaids: It will be plain if we ask but these two Questions; First what Ananias did? The Text will make Answer, he purloined of the holy Money; this was his Fact. Ask Secondly, How and in what manner he purloined? The Story will tell us, dissembling and hypocritically, making an appearance to the contrary. This than was but the Manner and Circumstance of his Fact, and so the Species of the Fact was to be placed therein, as Mr. Mede doth fully show in his Discourse upon this Text, and doth further instance the Particulars accurately, to whom therefore I refer the Reader.  
These two terrible Examples of God's Judgements and Severities against Sacrilege: The first of Achan, in the beginning of the Church of Israel, at their first entrance into the Land of Canaan: The other of Ananias, in the beginning of the Christian Church, are so remarkable, and so punctually urged by the Holy Ghost, that they may well affrighten all Men in succeeding Ages from taking away, or seizing upon any part, or parcel of that which is given and consecrated unto God, and to his Service in any kind. The learned Grotius saith well in his Annotations upon Cassander (ad Artic. 16.) Quod verò dicit Cassander, Imperatorum & Regum hoc quoque esse officium, ut leges divinas & canon's conservent, verissimum est: debent enim Christo servire etiam quà Reges. Sed cavere sibi debent, ne Schismati dent causam: sed ita se norint ecclesiarum sui regni esse tutores, ut simul meminerint Ecclesiae universitatis se esse filios. Pessimè autem officium hic implent principes, qui ea, quae olim Deo, id est, piis usibus, data sunt, ad suos & quidem profanissimos saepe usus vertunt, hoc sub praetextu, quod nimis multa possideant Episcopi: si nimium multa habeant Epis. detur quod superest Presbyteris & Diaconis; detur Ecclesiis aedificandis aut instaurandis; detur pauperibus popularibus; & si ei desint externis, sicut olim ab Achaiâ & Macedoniâ missae sunt in Judaeam pecuniae; redimantur qui apud barbaros sunt captivi, quam ob causam multi Epis. vasa Ecclesiae etiam jam consecrata vendidêre, quidam semetipsos dedêre pignori: Miror non terreri eos, qui vetus testamentum legunt Achanis, qui novum Ananiae exemplo: & haec res praecipua causa est cur tam diu bella durent, non tantum quia propter ista utrinque bellatur, verum etiam quia Deus contemptum sui sic ulciscitur.  
Leviticus 23. 33, 34. God commands that the Fields of the Suburbs of the Levites Cities should not be sold, for it is their perpetual Possession. The Fields belonging to their Forty eight Cities, were the Glebe-lands belonging to them to keep their Cattle, therefore God commanded that these Fields should not be sold upon any terms; which Calvin doth truly expound in his Commentary, saying, Hoc non modo in eorum gratiam statuitur, sed quia totius populi interfuit, dispositos esse quasi in excubiis, ubi locum ipsis Deus assignaverat. Quod ad Suburbia spectat, vel agros pecoribus alendis destinatos, vetat Deus alienari, quia hoc modo relictâ propriâ statione subinde aliò migrâssent, hanc verò disceptationem non accidere totius populi interfuit. The same Reason is good at this Day; for the Ministers of the Gospel must have Houses to live in, and some Glebe-lands for the maintenance of their Cattle, otherwise they cannot subsist and attend their Duties. But our Presbyterian Divines do say in their Notes, there was something in practice contrary to this; as if a bad practice, contrary to the express Commandment, were sufficient to excuse the Fault: The thing that they mean, and mention is the particular Example of Barnabas the Levite of the Country of Cyprus (Acts 4. 37.) Having Land sold it, and laid the Money at the Apostles feet. But it is easily answered, that Barnabas had that Land in the Country of Cyprus, as Tyrannus saith, of which Country he was: For many Jews that were dispersed and dwelled in other Countries, and had Estates there, and yet came over at the solemn Feast at Jerusalem for to worship, as now Barnabas did: And if the Lands which he sold were in Judaea, yet than it might be sold, because the Jews Polity was at an end, and the old Law of Moses did not bind any longer; Lex quae Hebraeos certis finibus continebat, jam soluta erat, as Oecumenius and Chrysostom say upon x. 5.  
In the Four last Chapters of Ezekiel, 
Ezek. 45. 1.  the Prophet doth there publish a remarkable Prophecy concerning the Christian Church and State (it being never to be fulfilled in the State and Church of Israel.) There is appointed by God a Division to be made of Land into three Parts, whereof the first is an Holy Portion of the Land as an Oblation to the Lord, which should be employed for the building of the Temple, and for the habitation of the Priests and Levites: The length whereof shall be 25000 Yards, and the breadth shall be 10000 This shall be Holy at the Borders thereof round about. A second Part for the City and People; and a third for the Prince. But for the Holy Portion for the Temple and Levites, God commandeth expressly, That it should not be alienated, exchanged, or sold upon any pretence, Chap. 48. 14. These Four Chapters of great concernment to the Christian Church are passed over in silence, and the principal Scope of them altogether neglected: No marvel they pass over the Apocryphal Books, wherein are remarkable Examples against Sacrilege, as is already set forth in this Discourse out of them. And tho' the Books themselves are not accounted Canonical equal to the rest, yet for the Historical Truths, concerning the Persecutions and Sufferings of the Jews, there is no question made of their Credit.  
The Authors therefore of the Annotations, though in their Preface they promise all Sincerity and Fidelity, yet have they failed in both very grossly; They solemnly attest the Divine Omniscience, and profess with the blessed Apostle St. Paul, that they are not of those that corrupt the word of God, 2 Cor. 2. 17. or who handle it deceitfully, Chap. 4. 2. nor who wrest any part of it to the Patronage of any Error of what denomination soever; nor have we added to it (say they) any of our own preconceived Opinions to imprint a partiality in our Expositions, nor taken from it, or smothered the least tittle of sacred Truth contained in it, nor yet have we subtly passed over any difficult place with silence, as if it had no need of an Annotation to clear it.  
But let the Reader judge whether it appears not by these few Observations touching Sacrilege (which is the crying Sin of this Age) that they have dealt very slightly and subtly in passing over such remarkable Places with silence, and smothering the Truth, which might have been confirmed and enforced from these pregnant Texts. They have plainly discovered their Double-dealing, Dissembling and Forbearance to denounce the Judgements of God against such a notorious Sin, so raging and predominant at this time. They have done like the false Prophets of old that did sow Pillows, and flatter the People in their evil Courses; whereas Sacrilege is accounted one of the most heinous Sins of these Days by the best Divines, and other learned Men that have written thereof.  
The Apostle saith, Rom. 2. 22. Thou that abhorrest Idols, dost thou commit Sacrilege? The Presbyterians are very zealous against all sorts of Idols, Images, Pictures, and Crosses; but for Sacrilege (unless it be for that of the Sabbath) they are very sparing and silent. But for the Apostles words; 'tis true (as one doth well infer upon them) these words are spoken as to the Person of an unconverted Jew, and may be therefore thought to aim only at those Sins, which were described in the Law of Moses: But do but view St. Paul's way of Arguing, and you will quickly find they come home to us Christians. He therefore tells the Jew, that he taught others those things which he would not do himself, and he strives to make this good by three several Instances. First, Thou that preachest a Man should not steal, dost thou steal? Secondly, Thou that sayest a Man should not commit Adultery, dost thou commit Adultery? In both these it is plain, that the Jew he dealt with did the same things he reprehended: And straightway the third comes, Thou that abhorrest Idols, dost thou commit Sacrilege? So that hence it will follow (if St. Paul's words have any Logic in them) that these two Sins are of the self same Nature too; and that to commit a Sacrilege is a breach of the same Law, as to commit an Idolatry; so that the Crime will appear, without all doubt, a plain Robbery of God: For he that steals from Men, yea though a whole Community of Men, though bona universitatis, yet he sins but against his Neighbour, 'tis but an Offence against the Second Table of the Law, in these words, Thou shalt not steal. But Sacrilege lays hold on those things which the Latins Laws call bona nullius, it strikes downright immediately at God; and in that regard no Idolatry can outdo it: As this is, 'tis a breach of the First Table of the Law, and both these Crimes are equally built upon the self same contempt of God: The Offenders in both kinds, the Idolater and the sacrilegious Person both think him a dull sluggish Thing. The first thinks he will patiently look on, whilst his Honour is shared to an Idol: The other imagines he will be as sottishly tame, though his Goods be stolen to his Face.  
XERXES' having Ten hundred thousand Men in his Land-Army, and as many, by Estimation, in his Navy; intendeth to make an absolute Conquest of Greece, pag. 13. and spoiling all Phocis, leaveth a part of his Army among the Doreans, commanding them to invade Delphos, and to fire the Temple of Apollo, and to bring away the Sacred Riches of it. The Soldiers marching toward it, came to Pronoea, a place not far from Delphos, where a wonderful Tempest of Rain and Lightning suddenly came upon them; and rending down part of the Mountains, overwhelmed many of the Army; and so amazed the rest, that they fled away immediately, in all the haste they could, fearing to be consumed by the God, who by this prodigious Miracle thus preserved his Temple. In memory hereof a Pillar was erected in the Place, with an Inscription to relate it, pag. 12.  
But this seemed not a sufficient Revenge for so horrible a Design, accompanied with other acted Sacrileges. Nothing therefore prospereth with Xerxes: His invincible Navy is overthrown in a Sea-Battle at Salamis, by Themistocles; his Land-Army at Plateos, by Pausanias; where Mardonius (Xerxes' General) that destroyed the Houses sacred to the Gods, was also slain. Both these great Victories beyond human Expectation, sell against him in one day; and beaten thereby out of Europe, with the Loss of ... thousand of his Men, he fortifieth the rest of his Navy and Army at Mycale, a City of jonia in Asia; where Leotychidas the Lacedaemonian General, obtaining as admirable a Victory of him as the other, slayeth above Forty thousand of his Men, putting the rest to flight: Which struck such terror into the Heart of Xerxes, as upon report thereof he fled also to Ecbatan; and in this manner ended his Wars with inestimable Loss, Derision and Shame. Vengeance notwithstanding still pursued him; so that after many Years, Artabanes the Captain of his Guard (aspiring to the Kingdom, though he obtained it not) murdered both him and his eldest Son Darius. Diodor. lib. 11. pa. 15, 23, 28, 53.  
Imilco, a famous General of the Carthaginians, for their Wars of Sicily, in the time of Dionysius, the Tyrant, prevailed very fortunately in all his Erterprises, till that taking the Suburbs of Archadina, he spoiled in it the Temple of Ceres and Proserpina. This Sacrilege (saith Diodorus) brought a just Punishment upon him; for in the next Encounter, the Syracusans overthrew him. And being arrived in his Camp, Fears and Tumults rise amongst his Soldiers in the Night time, and sudden Alarms as if the Enemy had been upon his Trenches. Besides this, a grievous Plague at last ... in his Army, accompanied with many fierce Diseases that drove his Men into Frenzies and Forgetfulness; so that running up and down the Army, they flew upon every Man they met with. And no Physic could help them; for they were taken so suddenly, and with such Violence, as they died within five or six days, no Man daring come near them, for fear of the Infection. Hereupon ensued all other Calamities: their Enemies assail them both by Sea and Land; they invade their Forts and their Trenches, fire their Navy, and (to be short) make a general Confusion of the whole Army. An hundred and fifty thousand Carthaginians lie dead on the Ground. Imilco himself, who lately possessed all the Cities of Sicily, (except Syracuse, which he also accounted as good as his own) flieth by Night back into Carthage, and feareth now the losing of it. This great Commander (saith Diodorus) that in his Haughtiness placed his Tent on the Temple of Jupiter, and preverted the Sacred Oblations to his profane Expenses, is thus driven to an ignominious Flight, choosing rather to live basely, and contemned at home, than to expiate his wicked Sacrilege by a deserved Death. But he came to such Misery, that he went up and down the City in a most loathsome Habit, from Temple to Temple, confessing and detesting his Impiety: and imploring at length some Capital Punishment for an Atonement with the Gods, ended his Life by the extremity of Famine. Diodor. Sicul. Hist. lib. 14. p. 285. & seqq. A. M. 3576.  
Cambyses, the Son of Cyrus the Great, being at Thebes in Egypt, sent an Army of 50000 Men, to spoil the Ammonians, and to burn the Temple and Oracle of Jupiter Hammon. Himself, with the rest of his Forces, marched against the Aethiopians. But 'ere ever he had gone the fifth part of his Journey, his Victuals so failed him, that his Men were forced to eat their Horses and Cattle. And whilst like a Man without Reason, he still forced them to go on, and to make a shift with Herbs and Roots: Coming to a Desert of Sand, divers of them were constrained to tithe themselves, and eat the tenth Man; whereby his Voyage was overthrown, and he driven to return. His other Army, that went to spoil and fire the Oracle, after seven Days travel upon the Sands, a strong South Wind raised the Sands so violently upon them, as they were all overwhelmed and drowned in them. Herodotus in Thalia, lib. 4. pag. 167, and 168.  
Cambyses, after this, in despite to the Egyptians, wounded the sacred Calf Apis (which they worshipped for their God) with his Sword upon the Thigh: (Her. pag. 169.) Derided the Image of the God Vulcan, and entering the Temple of the Cabitans, where none might come but the Priest, burned the Images of their Gods, (pag. 147.) Presently, upon wounding Apis, he fell Mad, and committing divers horrible Facts; as he mounted upon his Horse his Sword fell out of the Scabbard, and wounded him in the same part of the Thigh wherein he had wounded Apis, and thereon he died, having Reigned but seven Years, and leaving no Issue Male or Female to succeed him in the great Empire of his Father Cyrus, for securing of himself and his Posterity, wherein he had formerly murdered his Brother Smerdis. Herod. Thalia, lib. 3. pag. 183. & seq.  
A Rich Citizen of Egypt, longing to eat of a goodly Peacock that was consecrate to Jupiter, hired one of the Ministers to steal it; who going about to do it, was at the first interrupted by a Serpent; and the second time the Peacock (that had lived by report an Hundred Years) flew towards the Temple, and resting a while in the mid way, was after seen no more. The practice being discovered by a brabble between the Parties about the Hiring Money, the Minister was justly punished by the Magistrate for his Treachery; but the Citizen that longed to eat of the sacred Fowl, swallowed the Bone of another Fowl, was choked therewith, and died a very painful Death. Aelian. de Animal. l. 11. c. 33.  
Dionysius, the elder, rose by his own Prowess from a private Man to be King of Sicily; and in performing many brave Exploits both in Italy and Greece, committed divers Sacrileges upon the Heathen Gods, and defended them with Jests. Having conquered Locris, he spoilt the Temple of Proserpina, and sailing thence with a prosperous wind, Lo! (quoth he) what a fortunate Passage the Gods give to sacrilegious Persons.  
Taking the Golden-Mantle from Jupiter Olympius, he said it was too heavy for Summer, and too cold for Winter, and gave him therefore one of Cloth.  
So from Aesculapius he took his Beard of Gold, saying it was not seemly that the Son should have a Beard, when his Father Apollo himself had none at all.  
With such Conceits he rob the Temples of the Golden Tables, Vessels, Ornaments, and things of price Dedicated to the Gods. Whereupon ensued a change of his Fortunes; for afterwards he was ordinarily overcome in all his Battles, and growing into contempt of his Subjects, was murdered by them at last. (Jus. lib. 20. in fine, pa. 184.) His Son, named as himself, succeeds in the Kingdom, and ordained as it were to extirpate the Family of his Father, put his Brethren and their Children to death. He groweth Odious also to his Subjects, and falling into Civil War with them, is thrice overcome by them; and after various Events, is at last driven out of his Kingdom irrecoverably. He seeth the Death of his Sons, his Daughter violently ravished, his Wife (who was his Sister) most villainously abused, and in fine, murdered with his Children. His Days he consumed in Exile among his Enemies; where he lived not only Despised, but Odious to all, consorted with the basest People, and in the vilest Manner; and so ending his Tragedy, gave Plutarch occasion to say, That neither Nature nor Art did bring forth any thing in that Age so wonderful as his Fortune. Just. lib. 21. pa. 187. Plut. in Timoleon, p. 240.  
Antiochus, the Great King of Syria, being overcome by the Romans, and put to a great Tribute, not knowing how to pay it, thought that necessity might excuse his Sacrilege; and therefore in the Night spoils the Temple of Didymaean Jupiter. But the Country People rising upon the Alarm of it, slew both him and his whole Army. Just. lib. 32. pa.  
Q. Fulvius Flaccus Pontifex, spoiled the Temple of Juno ... One of his Sons dies in the War of Illyricum; and the other lying desperately Sick, himself between Grief and Fear falleth Mad, and hangeth himself. Liv. Dec. 5. lib. 2. pa. 47. a.  
Divers that had spoiled the Temple of Proserpina, at Locris, were by Q. Minutius sent fettered to Rome. The Romans sent them back again to the Locrians to be punished at their pleasure; and caused the things taken out of the Temple to be restored, with Oblations besides for an Atonement. Liv. Dec. 4. lib. 2. p. 44. b.  
Agathocles, surprising the Lipareans, imposeth a Ransom of Sixty Talents of Silver upon them: They made as much toward payment of it as they could, and desired Day for the rest, saying, That they had never upon any necessity meddled with that which was consecrated to the Gods. Agathocles would none of that Answer, but enforced them to bring him that Money, it being Dedicated part to Aeolus, and part to Vulcan. Having it, he departed; but in his return Aeolus raised such a Tempest, that many thought him sufficiently revenged; and Vulcan after burnt him alive. Diodor. Sicul. lib. 20. p. 828. A. M. 3608. circ. pa. 817.  
But that which we shall now deliver is most remarkable, both for the excessive Sacrilege and Punishment. And because the Relation perhaps shall not be unpleasing, I will presume to be a little the longer in it. The General Senate (of the chiefest part of Greece) called the Amphictyon, imposed a grievous Fine upon the Phoceans; for that they had taken a piece of the Ground Cirrhaea, being consecrate to Apollo, and had profaned it to works of Husbandry; adding further, that if the Fine were not paid to the use of Apollo, their Territories should be consecrate unto him. The Phoceans nettled with this Decree, as not able to pay the Fine, and choosing rather to die than to have their Country proscribed; by the Counsel of Philomelus, they protest against the Decree of the Amphictyones, as most Unjust, that for so small a piece of Ground so excessive a Fine should be imposed; and pretend that the Patronage of the Temple of Delphos itself (where the famous Oracle of Apollo was) did of Antiquity and Right belong unto them; and Philomelus undertaketh to recover it. Hereupon the Phoceans make him their General; he presently draweth into his Confederation the Lacedæmonians (whom the Amphictyones had bitten with the like Decree) and with an Army on the sudden invadeth and possesseth the Temple of Delphos, slaying such of the City as resisted him. The same hereof flew far and wide; and upon it divers Cities of Greece undertake in their Devotion a sacred way against the Phoceans and Philomelus.  
First, They of Locris give them Battle, and are overcome. Then the Boeotians prepare an Army for their Aid; but in the mean time Philomelus, the better to defend his Possession of the Temple, encloseth it with a Wall: And though he had formerly published through Greece, that he sought nothing but the Patronage; yet seeing many Cities to join in force against him, he now falleth apparently upon spoiling of the Temple for supporting of his War, taking from it an infinite Wealth in precious Vessels and Oblations. Nor did the progress of his Fortune suddenly teach him to repent it; for he prevailed still against the Locrians, Boeotians, Thessalians, and other their Confederates, till the Boeotians, at last, overthrew his sacrilegious Army, and slaying a great part thereof, drove himself to that necessity, that to avoid the Tortures incident to his Impiety, he threw himself headlong down a Rock, and so miserably ended his wicked Pageant.  
Onomarchus (his Partner in the Sacrilege) succeedeth in his room of Command and Impiety; and after variety of Fortune, his sacrilegious Army is overthrown by King Philip of Macedon; and by his Command the Soldiers, that were taken Prisoners, were drowned, and Onomarchus himself, as a Sacrifice to his Sacrilege, hanged.  
Then Phayllus, the Brother of Onomarchus, is chosen General; who rotting by little and little whilst he lived, died at length in most grievous Torture for his Sacrilege, pag. 437.  
After him succeeded Phaloecus, Son of Onomarchus, who beyond all the former Sacrilege (wherein some accounted that as much was taken, as the whole Treasure was worth that Alexander the Great brought out of Persia) added this, That hearing there was an infinite Mass of Gold and Silver buried under the Pavement of the Temple, he with Philon, and other of his Captains began to break up the Pavement near the Tripos; but frighted suddenly with an Earthquake, durst proceed no further, pag. 453. Shortly after, Philo is accused for purloining much of the Sacred Money committed to his Dispensation; and being Tortured nameth many of his Consorts, who with him are by the Phoceans themselves all put to terrible Death, (pag. 452.) And the Boeotians, by the aid of king Philip, put to flight divers Troops of the Phoceans, whereof 500 fled for Sanctuary into a Chapel of Apollo's, seeking Protection under him, whose Temple they had so violated. But the Fire they left in their own Tents fired their Cabins; and then taking hold of Straw that lay near the Chapel, burned it also, and in it them that were fled into it. For the God (saith Diodorus) would give them no Protection, though they begged it upon their Knees, p. 45, 3.  
Now after ten Years this sacred War came to an end. Phaloecus, not able to subsist against Philip and the Boeotians, compoundeth with him for Licence to depart, and to carry the Soldiers he had about him with him.  
The Phoceans, without all means to resist, are by a New Decree of the Amphictyons, or Grand Council, adjudged to have the Walls of three of their Cities beaten to the Ground; to be excluded from the Temple of Apollo, and the Court of the Amphictyons (that is, to be Excommunicate and Outlawed;) to keep no Horses nor Armour, till they had satisfied the Money, sacrilegiously taken, back to the God; that all the Phoceans that were fled, and all others that had their Hands in the Sacrilege, should be duly punished, and that every Man might therefore pull them out of any place; that the Grecians might destroy all the Cities of the Phoceans to the Ground, leaving them only as Villages of fifty Houses apiece, distant a Furlong the one from the other to inhabit; that the Phoceans should retain their Ground, but should pay a yearly Tribute of Sixty thousand Talents to the God, till the Sum mentioned in the Registers of the Temple, at the beginning of the Sacrilege were fully satisfied, pag. 455.  
The Lacedæmonians also and Athenians, who aided the Phoceans, had their part (and justly) in the Punishment. For all the Lacedaemonian Soldiers that were at the spoil of the Oracle, were afterwards slain by the Lucan's, (pag. 458.) and all others universally (saith Diodorus) not only the principal Agents in the Sacrilege, but even they that had no more than their Finger in it, were prosecuted by the God with inexpiable Punishment, pag. 456.  
Nor did Phaloecus escape it, though he compounded with Philip, and lived long after. For his long Life was no Happiness unto him, but an extension of his Torture, living perpetually in Wand'ring up and down, perplexed with restless Fears, and variety of Dangers; till at last, besieging Cydonia, and applying Engines to batter it, Lightning falling upon them consumed both them and him, and a great part of his Army: Yet others say, that he was slain by one of his Soldiers, pag. 485. Diodor. lib. 16.  
The residue of his Army, that escaped the Fire, were by the exiled Eleans hired to serve against their Countrymen of Elis; but the Arcadians joining with the Eleans overthrew their Exiles, and this their Army of sacrilegious Soldiers; and having slain many of them, divided the rest (being about 4000) between them. Which done, the Arcadians sold their part to be Bondmen; but the Eleans, to expiate the spoil of Delphos, put all their part to the Sword. Many also of the noblest Cities of Greece (that had aided the Phoceans) being afterwards overcome by Antipater, lost both their Authority and Liberty. And besides all this, the Wives of the prime Men of Phocis, that had made themselves Jewels of the Gold of Delphos, were also punished by an immortal Hand: For she that had got the Chain, offered by Helenes, became a common Strumpet; and she that adorned herself with the Attire of Eriphyle (taken thence) was burnt in her House by her eldest Son, stricken Mad, and firing the same.  
These fearful Punishments fell on them that were guilty of misusing sacred Things: Whereas on the other part, Philip the King (that at this time had nothing but Macedon) by defending the Cause of the Temple and Oracle, came after to be King of all Greece, and the greatest King of Europe, as Diodorus Siculus noteth, lib. 16. pa. 458. A. M. 2626.  
In the next Age after this, Brennus the Gaul (or, as our Chroniclers say, the Britain; for the Eastern Nations did of old account the Britain's under the Name of the Gauls, as they do at this day under the French,) raising a mighty Army of Gauls, invaded Greece, and prospering there victoriously, came at length to Delphos, with an Hundred and fifty thousand Foot, and Fifty thousand Horse; where his Army endeavouring to spoil the Temple standing upon the Hill Parnassus, was in scaling of it valiantly resisted by Four thousand Citizens. But suddenly an Earthquake tearing off a great part of the Hill, threw it violently upon the Gauls, who being so dispersed, a Tempest of Hail and Lightning followed, that consumed them. Brennus, astonished at the Miracle, and tormented at the Wounds he had received, slew himself with his Dagger, Just. l. 24. p. 233.  
Another of the Captains, with Ten thousand of the Soldiers that remained, made all the haste they could out of Greece: but their Flight was little Benefit unto them. For in the Night they durst come in no Houses, and in the Day they wanted neither Labour, nor Dangers. Abundance of Rain, and Frost, and Snow, and Hunger, and Weariness, and the extreme Want of Sleep, consumed daily this miserable Remnant: and the Nations they passed through, pursued them as Vagabonds to prey upon them. So that of that numerous Army, which of late in the Pride of their Strength despised and spoiled the Gods, none was left to report their Destruction.  
Thus Justin affirmeth: but Strabo saith, That divers of them returned into their Country (being Tolouse in Provence) and that the Plague there falling amongst them, the soothsayers told them, they could not be delivered from it, till they cast the Gold and Silver they had gotten by their Sacrilege, into the Lake of Tolouse.  
About Two hundred and forty Years after, Q. Servilius Cepio, the Roman Consul, taking the City of Tolouse, took also this Treasure, (then being in the Temple, as seemeth by Aul. Gellius, lib. 3. cap. 9) and much increased by the Citizens, out of their private Wealth, to make the Gods more propitious unto them. The Gold (saith Strabo) amounted to a Hundred and ten Minas, and the Silver to One thousand Pound in Weight. In truth (saith Strabo) this Sacrilege was the Destruction both of Cepio himself and of his Army; and Gellius addeth, That whosoever touched any of that Gold, perished by a miserable and torturing Death. Hereupon came the Proverb, which this Day is so usual among Scholars, Aurum habet Tolosanum; spoken (saith Erasmus) of him that is afflicted with great and fatal Calamities, and endeth his Life by some new and lamentable Accident. See more in Strabo.  
A Soldier of Antoninus Verus, the Emperor, cutting by chance a Golden-Cabinet (Arculam) in the Temple of Apollo at Babylon, there issued such a pestilent Breath out of it, as infected both the Parthians, and all other parts of the World wheresoever they came, even to Rome. Jul. Capitolin. in Aug. Hist. To. 2. pa. 120.  
It were endless to sail in this Stream, the Heathen Authors are so Copious in it. But for a Corollary to that hath been spoken, I desire to add a Fable of Ovid's (Lib. 8. Metam. pag. 331.) wherein he showeth what Opinion the World then had of Sacrilege, and what Fatalities it brought upon the Offenders in it. Erisicthones profaning the Grove of Ceres, cutteth down her sacred Oak, and contemning his Superstition that offered to hinder it, cleaveth his Head with an Hatchet. Ceres striketh him with an unsatiable and perpetual Hunger; nothing doth satisfy him, nothing fills him, nothing thrives with him; all his Wealth is consumed on his Belly: And when all is gone, than he is driven to dishonest Shifts, and forbeareth no Wickedness. 
Her transmutation into these Shapes is thus expounded.  He prostitutes his own Daughter to one for an Horse, to another for a Bird, to a third for an Ox, to a fourth for a Deer. And when this is also devoured, his Hunger, at last, compelleth him to tear his own Flesh with his Teeth, and by consuming himself in this horrible manner to finish his Days most miserably.  
DIoclefian and Maximianus having divided the Empire between them, 
Euseb. l. 8. cap. 1. & seqq.  this enjoying the West, and the other the East, they united themselves again in raising the greatest Persecution that ever was against the Christians, putting Priest and People to death, Seventeen thousand Persons by sundry Torments, 
Oros. l. 7. c. 25.  in thirty Days, 
Carion. in Ann. 288▪  confiscating their Goods, burning the Books of Holy Scripture, rasing and utterly subverting their Churches, Altars, and Places of Prayer, and Divine Worship. Having continued in this Fury about 
* 1.  Twelve Years, they grew at last to be troubled in Mind; and in one day Maximianus at Milan, in the West, and Dioclesian at Nicomedia, in the East, of their own accord renounced the Empire, and betook themselves to a private Life; Dioclesian choosing Galerius for his Successor, and Maximianus, 
† Constantius.  Constantine for his. 
Carion. in Ann. 288.  But Maximian afterward repenting, 
‖ Resumed the Purple.  endeavoured to have brought his Son Maxentius into the Government, and was therefore by the Commandment of Constantine, put to death; and Dioclesian, after long Discontent, slew himself. Yet for a further Revenge of the horrible Persecution and Sacrilege, God sent a grievous Plague and Famine, 
lib. 9 c. 8.  as Eusebius reporteth, over all the World.  
Certain Arians, 
Ann. 356.  by an Edict of Constantius the Emperor, attempt to expel Athanasius from the Bishopric of Alexandria; and in rifling the Church, a young Man laboureth to pull down the Bishop's Seat there, when suddenly a Piece thereof falling upon him, rend out his Guts, that he died the next Day save one. Another bereaved of his sight and Sense for the present, was carried forth, and recovering about a Day after, remembered nothing of what he had done or suffered. But these Accidents stayed the rest from proceeding farther. Epist. Constantii Imp. ad Alexand. apud Athanas. Apol. 1. Bar. in An. 356. 35.  
Julianus, 
Am. 362.  Precedent of the East Part of the Empire, and Uncle to Julian the Emperor, (both Apostates) with Felix the Treasurer, and Elpidius, Keeper of the Privy Purse, all Persons of high Dignity, come to Antioch, by Commission from the Emperor, to carry from thence the Sacred Vessels to the Emperor's Treasury. They enter that goodly Church, and Julian going to the Holy Communion-Table, maketh water against it; and because Euzoius offered to hinder him, he gives him a Box o'th' Ear; saying, That God regarded not the Things of Christians. Felix also beholding the Magnificence of the Sacred Vessels, (for Constantine and Constantius had caused them to be sumptuously made) Lo, (quoth he) in what State the Sun of Mary is served! Presently the Guts of Julian rotten in his Body, and the Dung which formerly went downwards, now passeth upwards through his blasphemous Mouth, and so ending his Life. Felix is stricken suddenly with a Whip from Heaven, casteth his Blood day and night, from all parts of his Body out at his Mouth, and for want of Blood so dieth presently. Theod. Eccl. Hist. lib. 3. cap. 11, 12.  
Chrysostom saith that Julian burst asunder in the midst ... and Ammianus, lib, 33. ... that Felix died suddenly (profluvio sanguinis) of a gushing out of Blood.  
What became of Elpidius, Theodoret doth not mention, but Nicephorus, lib. 10. cap. 29. reporteth, that though the third Blasphemer was not so suddenly punished, yet being at length apprehended amongst them that aspired to the Government, (tyrannidem) he was stripped of all he had, and suffering much Misery in Prison, died loathsomely, accounted as a cursed and detested Person. Bar. Ann. 362. 110.  
Divers Bondmen of a great Person, 
Ann. 433.  not enduring the Severity of their Master, fly into the Church at Canstantinople, and with their Swords do keep the Altar, refusing to depart from it, and do thereby hinder the Divine Service divers Days together; but having killed one of the Clerks, and wounded another, they at last killed themselves. Socr. lib. 7. cap. 33. v. Niceph. lib. 14. cap. 34, 35. Evag. lib. 1. cap. 3, 45. This happened a little before the Council of Ephesus, Ann. 433. where Nestorius was condemned, and was a Praeludium to those Evils, as it is said in Socrates, ibid., that then followed in the Church.  
Nam saepè signa talia dari solent,  
cum sacra foedum templa polluit scelus.  
In the time of Childebertus, King of Paris, and Son of Clodover the First, his Brother Theodoricus besiegeth Montclere, the chief City of Avernia, which Childebertus, his Brother, had taken from him. A Knight then hearing that divers Citizens had carried their Goods into the Church of St. Julian, leaveth the Siege, and with his Followers, breaking open the Doors, taketh all away. But God, the just Revenger of Sacrilege, struck them all incontinently with Madness. Gaguin. in Childeberto, fol. 13. where he admonisheth Soldiers, by this Example, to take heed of Sacrilege; and thereupon addeth another Example.—  
Siginaldus (saith he) Governor of the Avernians, found this to be true; for puffed up with a desire of enlarging his Patrimony and Dominion; after he had wrung many things from the Inhabitants, he took also from the Church of St. Julian, the Town of Bulgrate, which Tetradius had given unto it; and being presently strucken Mad, recovered not his Senses till he had left the Town again unto them, and made a recompense for that he had taken. Idem, tit. ibid. Chilbert began to reign An. 515. and died about 560.  
Some of the Burgundians, 
An. 508.  with a great Power, besiege Brivatensem Vicum, the Town of Brivat, killing many, and taking many Prisoners, do also carry away Ministerium Sacrosanctum, the Implements of the Church. Passing over the River, as they were dividing the Captives, one Hellidius coming from Vellavum, suddenly upon them with his Company, slew them all save four, and rescued the Captives. The four that escaped carried with them into their Country a Dish, and a Pitcher, or Waterpot (urceum) called Anax. The Dish they divided amongst themselves into four parts, but the Pitcher they presented Gundebard, their King, for his Favour. The Queen finding the Silver they had brought, sent it back to the Place from whence it was taken, with other Presents added unto it. Gre. Turon. Glor. Mar. lib. 2. cap. 78. Shortly after this Gundebard, and the Burgundians are overthrown by the Franks and Goths, and their Country divided amongst their Enemies. Bar. An. 508. 33, 34.  
Whilst King Chramnus was at Avernus, 
An. 556.  five of his People broke by Night into the Oratory of the House of Juacen, and stole from thence the Ornaments of the Ministry, and flying into the Territory of Orleans, there divided them: Shortly after four of them were slain in Tumults; and the fifth, having all the Goods in his House, as Survivor, was stricken Blind with an Humour of Blood that fell upon his Eyes; which touching him with Repentance, it pleased God to have Mercy on him; so that recovering his Sight, he carried back the Ornaments, and restored them. Greg. Turon. de Gloriâ Martyr. 166. Bar. 556. 42.  
Chilperic, 
Circ. 570.  King of Suessons in France, who flourished Anno 570. sent his Son Theodebertus with an Army to waste Normandy, and the other Territories of his Brother Sigebert. Theodebert, in doing it, forbore not the Christians, but spoiled them also. At last part of his Army come to Lota, a Monastery of St. Martin's; and twenty of them (the rest refusing) entered into a Bark, and passing over the River, sacked the Monastery, slew some of the Monks, and carried the Prey into their Bark. Having lost their Oars, they were constrained to use their Spears in rowing themselves back, and coming into the midst of the River the Bark sunk, and they falling down upon their Spears, were both slain and drowned, one excepted. The Monks recovering their Goods from the Water, buried the Bodies of them that were drowned. Theodebert himself, and all his Army, falling after into an Ambush laid for them by Sigebert, were also slain. Aimone de Gest. Franc. lib. 3. c. 12.  
The Leaders of King Guntheranus' Army hearing that Gundebaldus, 
An. 576.  dislodging with his Forces from the side of the River Garonna, was gone to the City Convenica; they in pursuit having swum over the River, and drowned some of their Horse, came with the rest to the Church of St. Vincent, which is near the Borders of the City Argen; ... and finding that the Inhabitants of that part had carried all their Wealth into the same Church, as supposing the Sanctity of that place should preserve it, they set the Doors on fire, being fast locked, and so consuming them, entered the Church, and carried away all the Substance of the Inhabitants, and what else belonged to the Divine Service, which by the work of God was presently punished: For the Hands of most of them were 
* Divinitus.  strangely burned, and made a smoke as things use to do that are set on fire; some were carried away by the Devil. Many after they were 
† Semoti.  departed wound themselves with their own Weapons, and some of the rest straggling abroad are slain by the Inhabitants about Conven. Greg. Turo. Hist. lib. 7. c. 35.  
This Author (as Sigebertus saith) was made Bishop of Tours, in the Year 571. is much Honoured generally for his Life, Gravity and Fidelity; yet must I note, that he hath delivered this Story somewhat differingly in his Book, De Gloriâ Mart. lib. 1. c. 105. though to the same effect (Memory in all Men being sometime stronger, sometime weaker.) There he saith, that the Soldiers could not of long time, and with much labour make the Church Doors take fire; and that at last they were fain to use the help of Hatchets, and to chop them in pieces; that being entered, they took both the things that were there, and slew all the People that were fled thither for safety: That this was not long unpunished, for some were 
* Alii à Daemone correpti.  rapt away by the Devil, some drowned in the River Garumna, many lying in the cold got divers Diseases, in divers parts, that vexed them grievously: For, myself, saith he, did see in the Territory of Tours many of them, that were Partners in his Wickedness, grievously tormented, even to the loss of this present Life, with intolerable Pains. Bar. 476. 4.  
Chilperic, the greatest Man with Sigebert King of Mees, or Austrasia, claimeth wrongfully a Town from Franco Bishop of Aquis pretending that it belonged to the public Revenue, and judicially, before the King and other Judges, doth recover it with Three hundred Crowns (aureos) Damages. The Bishop, in great anguish of Mind, goeth to the Church, and falling down at the Tomb of St. Metrias, Patron of the Church, prayeth for Vengeance, and threateneth the Saint, that there should be neither Lights nor Singing in that Church, until he were revenged of his Enemy, and the Things restored that were taken away from it so wrongfully. And laying Thorns upon the Tomb, he shut the Church Door, laying others there also (for that was a Type that the place was forsaken.) Presently hereupon Chilperic, that had done this wrong to the Church, falleth sick of a Fever, and continueth so for a whole Year, eating little and drinking little, save Water in the heat of his Fit; but perplexed in his Mind, and Sighing much, yet Relented not in that he had done. In the mean time all the Hair, both of his Beard and Head, came wholly off, and all his Head became bare and naked: Then he bethinks him of the wrong he had done to the Church, and restoreth the Town with Six hundred Crowns, for the Three hundred he had received; hoping so to recover his Health, by the means of the Saint, but died notwithstanding. Greg. Turon. De Glor. confess. ca 71. Bar. An. 579. 15. This happened in the time of King Sigebert, who was this Year murdered by the practice of his Brother's Wife Fredegundis.  
Ruecolenus, 
An. 579.  with a Power of the Cenomanians, wasteth all about the City Tours, so that the Houses and Hospital of the Church were without hope of Sustenance. He demandeth also of the Churchmen there, that they should deliver unto him some that had taken Sanctuary in the Church, and threateneth to fire all if they refused. St. Gregory of Tours, being then Bishop there, and that writ this Relation with his own Hand, goeth to the Church; and praying for aid (Beati auxilia flagitamus) a Woman that had twelve Years been contracted with the Palsy, was made straight: But Ruecolenus himself being now come to the other side of the River, was presently strucken with the King's Evil, and with the Disease of King Herod; and the fiftieth Day after died, all swollen of the Dropsy. This Greg. Turon. himself (as I find) reporteth, De Mirac. S. Mart. lib.— c. 17. Baron. 579. 18.  
Certain Servants, 
An. 596.  or Officers of Egbright the third King of Kent after Ethelbert, had done great Injury to a Noble Woman, called Domneva (the Mother of St. Mildred); in Recompense whereof the King promised, upon his Honour, to give her whatsoever she would ask of him. She begged upon this so much Ground of him to build an Abbey on, as a tame Deer (that she had nourished) would run over at a Breath. The King had presently granted it, but that one of his Council, named Timor, standing by blamed his inconsideration, that would upon the uncertain Course of a Deer depart with any part of so good a Soil. But presently (saith the Author, William thorn, a Monk of St. Augustin's) the Earth opened and swallowed him up alive; in Memory whereof the place till this time was called Timor's Lease. It may be the Monk hath aggravated the matter, and that Mr. Lambard justly doth count it Fabulous; but it seems some notable Misfortune followed upon Timor, hindering, in this manner, the propagation of Religion in the beginning of our Church. Yet no learned Man, I think, doubteth but that in the first Conversion of Heathen People, God was pleased to show some Miracles upon sacrilegious Impediments. The Story goes on, that the King moved with the Event, granted Domneva's Petition; and that the Hind being put forth, run the space of Forty eight Plough-lands before it ceased. In which Precinct this Lady, by the King's help, builded the Monastery for Nuns, called Minister-Abbey, in Tenet. Lambard Itin. in Tenet. pag. 99  
Egfrid, 
An. Dom. 684. Bed. l. 4. c. 26.  King of Northumberland, sendeth an Army into Ireland, under the Conduct of Bert; and wasting miserably that harmless Nation, which then was Friend to the English, spared neither Churches nor Monasteries. The Inhabitants resisted as they could, but rested not to call upon God with continual Curses for Revenge. And tho' those that be accursed cannot inherit the Kingdom of God, yet it is to be thought that those that are justly cursed for their Iniquity, that the Vengeance of God doth therefore fall the sooner upon them: For this same King, this next Year after, in a Voyage against the Picts, was drawn into straits, and both himself and most of his Army slain.  
And in the eleventh Year of King Ino (saith Huntingdon) the Earl Berutus felt the Curses of the Irish People, 
Lib. 4. p. 337. l. 14.  whose Church he had destroyed, as his Master had done before: For as King Egfrid entering into the Land of the Picts, was there slain; so he entering it also to revenge his Master's Death, was likewise slain by them.  
Osred, 
An. 710. circ.  King of Northumberland, being but eight Years old when he began to reign, and Reigning but eleven Years; even thus young broke the Monasteries, and deflowered the Nuns, with much other Wickedness; for which the just Hand of God being upon him, as Bonifacius, Archbishop of Mentz, and other Bishops assembled after in a Germane Council, do testify by their Epistle to Aethelbald, he was murdered by his Kinsmen, Kenred and Osrick, and his Kingdom Usurped by Osrick, contrary to Osred's meaning, who had Decreed it to Ceolwulfe, Brother of his Father, as Beda reporteth, lib. 5. ca 24. who saith farther, that his whole Reign abounded with so many Crosses of Fortune, that no Man knew either what to write of them, or what end they would have. Vid. Epis. apud Malmes. de gest. Reg. lib. 1. p. 28. Sed fusiùs apud Baron. in An. 745. nu. 5.  
Ceolred, 
An. 712. circ.  King of the Mercians, or Midland England, was guilty also of spoiling Monasteries, and defiling of Nuns; and was the first, with Osred, before named, that since the entrance of Austin, broke the Privileges granted by the Saxon Kings unto Monasteries, and for these sins, saith Boniface, and the other Bishops in the said Epistle, Justo judicio Dei damnati de culmine regali hujus vitae abjecti, & immaturâ & terribili morte praeventi, etc. For Ceolred (as those that were present did testify,) being at a great Feast among his Earls, that Evil Spirit which before had moved him to do such wickedness, struck him there with Madness, and in that case he died Impenitently, the same Year, that Osred, his fellow in Sacrilege, was murdered, viz. An. 716. Epist. praedict. & Beda in Epit. It seemeth his Line was also extinct.  
Ethelbald the next Successor of Ceolred in the Kingdom of Mercia, 
Circ. Ann. 742.  succeeded him also in his wicked Courses. He forbeareth lawful Marriage, but liveth Adulterously with the Nuns, and breaking the Privileges of Churches and Monasteries, taketh away also their Substance, which gave the occasion that Boniface Archbishop of Mentz, and other Germane Bishops wrote the forementioned Epistle unto him, desiring him to mend his course, and the wrongs he had done, which like a good King he willingly did; and at a Council holden at Clovesho, now called Cliff, in Kent, acknowledging his Sin, did also by his Charter restore what he had taken or broken, with an Overplus, and founded the Monastery of Crowland; yet so was the hand of God upon him, that in a War unwisely begun, he was treacherously Slain by Bartered, alias Beornred, and the Kingdom by him usurped Epist. praedict. & Stow, pag. 88 & Bar. 742, nu. 16.  

Celsus Veronensis.  
THat many rare and excellent Men, and all Nations attributed the fortunate Success of the Turks against the Venetians, as the loss of their Island Cubaea, the lamentable success of their Expedition of Achaia, his last Victory which made his way broader, and his entrance easier, the Death and Calamity of their Euripus; many think, and affirm, that God of his righteous and just Judgement, hath brought upon you for your insolent Taxing and Polling of Holy Things belonging to the Church, and your injurious troubling of the Estate of Religion. pag. 212. Compilation and Pilling of Holy Things. pag. 214. New and unusual Taxing and Tolling of the Church. pag. 215.  
How many Victories, Conquests, Sports, happy Events, have you had in these so long Wars, since you invented this strange and pestilent Counsel to lay violent Hands on Church Goods, and Holy Things dedicated to God? which Impiety, (believe me) will not help you one whit in these your great Dangers, and extreme Necessity. pag. 219.  
That the Captivity of Constantinople, was from the discord and departing from the Church of Rome. pag. 215.  
The Pisans Kingdom prospered by Sea and Land, till they laid wicked and violent Hands on the Church, and the Ministers of the high God. Ibid. Caesar would not suffer his Sword hung up as a Spoil gotten from him in the Church of Avernia to be pulled down. Vita ejus, pag. 219.  
Mithridates, in the Life of Lucullus, notably afflicted by Diana, pag. 226. Historius Banished, taken Captive by the barbarous, the City burnt over his Head, his Life always in danger, fell into a most deadly Contagion, his Tongue eaten out of his Head with Worms, and miserably died. Evagr. Hist. lib. 1. pag. 169.  
Lastly, Propound unto yourselves the late Example of Philip Maria, when he had good Success in all his Affairs, and all things fell out with him as well as he could wish. At length, he gave over himself to such a madness, that all fear set apart, he challenged Church Goods to himself. But mark how duly he suffered worthy Punishment; being wearied with continual Wars, he not only lost a great part of his own Dominions, his Enemies besieging him even hard unto his Walls; but also he suffered dangerous and grievous Diseases, so that he being blind, led a most sorrowful life a long time after. But what became of his Empire, and by what means his Noble Family is now clear extinguished, and no Succession left at all, it may easily appear to every Man, the thing being so fresh in Memory. Cels. Veron. pag. 241.  
Frederick II. made Emperor by Innocent III. having taken the Cross against the Christian Enemies, even than feared not wickedly to take away the Goods of the Church to employ them profanely, but made a Sacrilegious pact with the mighty King of Egypt, the Sultan, concerning the suppressing of Religion and Religious Houses; but he did not long escape the just Vengeance of God; for after he had spoiled many Cities, after many Dissensions had with the Church of Rome, after he had devoured many Temples, after many most cruel and barbarous Sacrileges, having his own Son in a jealousy, that he affected the Empire, he shut him up in most filthy Dungeons till he died. And he feeling the great and grievous censure of the Church, (as the righteous God had appointed) was Strangled by his own Son Manfredus most cursedly. Celsus of Verona. pag. 289. The Princes of Carraria in like Impiety when they began once wickedly to challenge to themselves the ordering of those things which belong only to the Holy Function, by reason of the Pestilent Counsel they had taken, very soon after lost the famous City Patavium, most strong by Situation and free, which was thought almost to be invincible. Cels. of Ver. pag. 239, 240.  
Eudo, alias Oda, Duke of Aquitane not able to resist Charles Martel, 
Ann. 730.  draweth an excessive Army of Saracens out of Spain unto his aid. They being come into France, waste all places, and burn down the Churches as far as to Poitiers. Charles Martel assisted by the Hand of God, encountreth them, and slayeth three Hundred seventy five Thousand (others say three Hundred eighty Thousand) of them, together with their King Abdyrama, losing not above an Hundred and Fifty of his own Men. Then Eudo himself reconciled to Charles, spoileth the Camp of the Saracens, and destroyeth the rest. But fight again with Charles in Gascony, loseth both his Dukedom of Aquitane and his Life; his Sons also, Gaifer and Haimald, are overcome, and the Saracens wholly beaten out of France. Sigeb. An. 730, 732. Guil. de Nanges. Blond. 10. Decad. 1. & Platin.  
The Normans under Ragenarius their Captain, 
An. 845.  besides other Sacrileges, spoil the Church of St. Germane by Paris, and attempting to cut down some of the Fir Beams, to repair their Ships, three of them attempting it, are dashed in pieces. Another hewing a Marble Pillar with his Sword to overthrow some part of the Church, had his Hand (like Jeroboam's) dried up, and the haft of his Sword stuck so to it, as it parted not without the Skin. Many were stricken with Blindness, and as it was commonly reported, some of their Army died daily so thick of the Bloody Flux, as they feared that none of them should escape; whereas all the Christians that were amongst them, were free from it. They hasted therefore into the Country, but died there as fast, and infected others so grievously, as Horich their Prince fearing, that both himself, and the Nobility and People should be consumed, commanded the rest of them to be Beheaded, and though some fled upon it, yet it was thought they died of the Disease.  
Ragenarius their General and Author of all the Evil, at his return, bragged before Horich, in the presence of Kobbe, the Ambassador of King Lodowick, and many others, what great things he had done at Paris; and said, That the Dead there, had more power than the Living, and that an old Man, whom, they called Germane, most resisted him. Speaking thus, he began to tremble, and falling down, cried out, That Germane was there, and did beat him with his Staff. Being presently taken up and carried out, he continued three Days in grievous pains; whereupon, Repenting of what he had done, he commanded that his Statue should be made of Gold; and that Kobbe should carry it to the old Man German, promising, that if he recovered, he would become a Christian; but his Guts passing from him as if he were burst in the midst, he so died. And because he was not a Christian, his Statue would not be received, though it were of Gold.  
Kobbe, the Ambassador for Lodowick, King of Bavaria, to the Normans, being yet Pagans, was an Eye-witness of these things, and related them to Aimoinus, who living at the same time, and seeing much of it himself, did, by the commandment of King Charles, write a History of strange things then happening, which he entitled, De Translatione & Miraculis S. Germani Episcopi, whence this above mentioned is taken. Bar. An. 845. nu. 22. & Seq.  
The Danes with a great Army destroy the Monks and Monastery of Bradney, 
An. 865.  kill the Abbot and Monks of Croyland, and burn their Church, make the like havoc at Peterborough, and murder the Nuns at Ely. Shortly after, their whole Army is overthrown in Battle at Chippenham, by Aelfred, Brother of King Aethelred, and Hubba their King, with five Earls, and many Thousands of their Pagan Nation slain. Stow, p. 101. Flor. Wigor. An. 871. Hunting. lib. 5. p. 349. saith there were nine Earls slain this Year.  
Aboila, alias Agdila, 
An. 874.  a Saracen Prince, coming with a great Army out of Africa, besieged Salerne, and made the Church of St. Fortunatus, Caius, and Anches, his Lodging, placing his Bed upon the Altar, and abusing it with all Filthiness; but it happened, that having gotten a Maid, and going about to Ravish her there, as she resisted and struggled with him, a piece of Timber falling down from the top of the Church, slew him in his Wickedness, and hurt not the Maid, which seemed apparently to be the very work of God; for that the Timber fell not perpendicularly, but aslope. He being thus extinct, the Saracens chose Abimelech, an Eunuch, King, in his stead. Baron. An. 874. nu. 2. out of Herempertus de Gestis Longobardorum Principum Beneventanorum, Codice MS.  
In the Reign of Carolus Crassus, 
Circ. An. 888.  (who began 886, and died 891.) there happened a strange Accident memorable in France, as well by common Fame, as by writing to the later times, that the Monks of Clunis going forth in their Habit to meet the Earl of Matiscon, he not only slew them, but with torture and cruelty, and in that manner raged continually against the Church. It fortuned therefore, that he being one day at a Feast with many of the Nobility, an unknown Person coming to the Door required to speak with him; and the Earl going out was never seen after. Some write that he was carried away, fearfully crying through the Air, with a Black Horse (pulo equo). Paradinus de antiquo Statu Burgundiae, pa. 62.  
Leofstane, a noble Saxon, 
Circ. Ann. 880.  and of great Authority, in the heat of his Youth entered the Place, where St. Edmund the King and glorious Martyr of our East-Angles, was entombed; and causing the Tomb or Coffin to be opened, made the Body to be showed forth to the Beholders, many labouring to hinder it. But in that instant, whilst he stood looking on it, he was struck with Madness; which his Father, a Religious Man, hearing, gave Thanks unto the Martyr for it, and casting off his Son, suffered him to live in great Penury, wherein afterward by the Hand of God, he was consumed with Worms, and so ended his Life. Jornalensis in S. Edm. vitâ, fol. 29. a. 6.  
The same Author in the same place telleth also, That divers lewd Persons robbing in the Nighttime the Church where his Tomb was, were all taken, and by the Judgement of Theodoret, the Archbishop of Canterbury in those days, hanged together. But addeth, That the Archbishop repented the Deed all the days of his Life afterward, remembering the Speech of the Prophet saying, Eos qui ducuntur ad mortem eruere non cesses. And that hereupon he put himself to great Penance, and calling the People of the Diocese together, persuaded them to fast and pray for him three whole Days, that it might please God to turn the Wrath of his Divine Indignation from him for doing this deed.  
Nicephorus, 
Circ. Ann. 964.  Emperor of Constantinople, had marvellous Success in all his Affairs, and in a short time obtained so many, and so famous Victories against the Saracens, as are scarcely to be believed; he falleth then to spoiling of Churches, and sacred Houses, taking from them that which usually was given unto them, and pretended that the Bishops consumed the Money that was given to the use of the Poor, whilst the Soldiers lived in Want and Poverty. After he had thus laid his Hands upon the Goods of the Church, he not only wasted all his own Goods, but overwhelmed with Evils, found the Hand of God to be against him, and to pursue him with Revenge, as the Greek Historians are of Opinion: For by and by his Army is beaten in Calabria, an innumerable Multitude of his People slain, many with their Noses cut off are sent back to Constantinople; the Citizens there Murmur, Mutiny and Rebel, his own Wife conspireth with them, and by the Hands of John Zomisces, one of his Army, do murder him, and make the same John Emperor in his room. Curopalates, etc. Bar. Ann. 964. nu. 34. & 968. nu. 3, 4, 5.  
Upon the Rebellion of the Welshmen, 
Ann. Dom. 974.  King Edgar entering with an Army into the Country of Glamorgan, some of his Soldiers, among other Spoil, took away the Bell of St. Ellutus, and hanged it about an Horse's Neck. It then chanced, as the report was, that King Edgar sleeping, in the Afternoon, there appeared one unto him, and smote him on the Breast with a Spear. By reason of which Vision he caused all things that had been taken away to be restored again. But were there any such Vision or no, it is said, he died within nine Days; and the truth is that he died indeed at his Age of thirty seven Years, when he had Reigned sixteen Years and two Months. Rog. Higd. Chr. p. 161. col. 1. lib. 60.  
King Edgar, 
Ann. 975. Ranulph. Cestr. lib. c. 11.  understanding that the Welshmen were in Rebellion, invaded the Country of Glamorgan with an Army, and in spoiling of it the Bell of St. Ellutus was taken away, and hanged about an Horse's Neck. 
Verba Authoris.  Therefore in Vndertyde, while King Edgar lay on his Bed to rest him (saith the Chronicle) one appeared to him, and smote him on the Breast with a Spear. Then when the King was waken, he bade restore again all that was taken. But the King died after nine Days, or as Fabian saith, within ten Days. Ranulph. Cestrens. out of the British History.  
This King Edgar was buried at Glastenbury; and when Ayleward, the Abbot there, had unworthily digged open his Grave, he (the Abbot) fell Mad, and going out of Church broke his Neck and died. Ibidem immediatè supra.  
Griffith, the Valiant and Victorious King of North-Wales, 
An. 1054. Hoved. in An. 1055. p. 443. Hist. of Cambria. p. 99  in aid of Algar, Earl of Chester, whom King Edward the Confessor had expelled and banished, invadeth Herefordshire, putteth to flight Radulf Earl thereof, and Son of Goda the Confessors Sister, with his whole Army, and taking the City of Hereford, fired the Cathedral Church, slew Leogar the Bishop, and seven of the Canons that defended it, burnt also the Monastery built by Bishop Aethelstane, carried away the Spoil thereof, and of the City, with slaughter of the Citizens, and fully restored Algar, the Earl, both now and a second time. Upon this King Edward sent Harald against him, who upon his second Voyage into North-Wales burned his Palace and Ships. After this, Griffith raising an Army for Revenge, and going to meet Harald, was by his own People traitorously Murdered, and his Head brought to Harald.  
Alfgarus, 
Hist. Eliens. l. 2. holinsh. p. 866.  Stalhere (that is Constable of the Army) to Edward the Confessor, invaded the Town of Estre, otherwise called Plassie, and pulling it from the Monastery of Ely, converted it to his own use. 
Circ. Ann. 1068.  The Abbot and Monks there besought him by all fair means to restore it, but prevailing not they proceeded to denounce daily Curses, and Imprecations against him, and at last (altho' he were so great a Person in the Kingdom) to excommunicate him. Hereupon the King reproving him sharply, and the People shunning his Company, he at last sought to be reconciled to the Church, and for obtaining thereof granted by his Deed, and ratified it by his Oath, that the Town after his decease should again return to the Monastery: Yet (after the Death of Edward the Confessor, and Harald the Usurper) he was by the Conqueror cast into Prison, and there, among others in Fetters of Iron, ended his Life.  
Jordan, Prince of Capua, 
Ann. Dom. 1078.  hearing that the Bishop of Rosella had brought, and laid up a good Sum of Money in the Monastery of Cassin in Italy, sent his Soldiers, and by force took it out of the Treasury of the Church; but was shortly after strucken Blind. Leo. Marsic. lib. 3. cap. 45. Upon this Gregory the Seventh calleth a Council, and maketh a Canon against Sacrilege; and writing to Jordan reproveth him for this and other Offences, admonishing him to amend them. Baron. An. 1078. 24. The Prince, touched with Remorse, granteth in Recompense, the next Year after, to the Monastery of Cassin divers great Territories and Privileges, with a Penalty of 5000 l. of Gold upon the Violators thereof. Leo. Marsic. in Chron. Cassin. lib. 3. cap. 46.  
RIchard, Robert and Anesgot, Sons of William Sorenge, in the time of William, Duke of Normandy, wasting the Country about Say, invaded the Church of St. Gervase, lodging their Soldiers there, and making it a Stable for their Horses. God deferred not the Revenge; for Richard escaping, on a Night, out of a Cottage where he was beset with his Enemies; a Boor, whom he had fettered a little before, light upon him, and with an Hatchet clavae his Head asunder. Robert, having taken a Prey about Soucer, was pursued by the Peasants and slain. Anesgot entering and sacking of Cambray, was struck in the Head with a Dart, thrown downward on him, and so died. Lo, (saith Gemeticensis) we have here seen that truly performed which we have heard! If any man shall violate the Temple of God, God shall destroy him, 1 Cor. 3. 17. And admonishing such as spoil Churches to look about them, and not to soothe themselves in their Sin, for that God often deferreth the Punishment, he concludeth with these Verses of another Man's, Lib. 6. cap. 13, 14.  
Vos male gaudetis quia tandem suscipietis  
Nequitiae fructum, tenebras, incendia, luctum,  
Nam pius indultor, justusque tamen Deus ultor  
Quae sua sunt munit, quae sunt hostilia punit.  
Dear bought, for thou must one Day undergo  
The price of this, Hell, Darkness, Fire and Woe;  
God's Threats are sure, tho' Mercy be among them,  
He guards his Rights, and pays them home that wrong them.  
William the Conqueror, in making the Forest of Ytene, commonly called the New-Forest, is reported to have destroyed twenty six Towns, with as many Parish-Churches, and to have banished both Men and Religion for thirty Miles in length, to make room for his Deer. He had ruined also some other Churches in France upon occasion of War; and in Lent-time, in the fourth Year of his Reign, he rifled all the Monasteries of England of the Gold and Silver, which was laid up there by the richer of the People to be protected by the Sanctity of the Places, from Spoil and Rapine; and of that also which belonged to the Monasteries themselves, not sparing either the Chalices or Shrines. But he, that in the like Attempt met with Heliodorus, in the second of Machab. 3. met with him also grievously, both in his Person and Posterity.  
Touching his Person, as God raised Absalon against David, so raised he Robert, Duke of Normandy, against his Father the Conqueror, and fought a Battle with him by the Castle of Gerborie in France, where the Conqueror himself was unhorsed, his Son William wounded, and many of their Family slain. Hereupon the Conqueror (as casting Oil into the Fire of God's Wrath that was kindled to consume his own Family) cursed his Son Robert, which to his dying Day wrought fearfully upon him, as shall by and by appear. But to proceed with the Conqueror himself, it is very Remarkable, that being so great and renowned a King, he was no sooner Dead, but his Corpse was forsaken of his Children, Brethren, Friends, Servants and Followers, and wickedly left (saith Jo. Stow) as a barbarous Person, not one of his Knights being found to take care of his Exequys: So that a Country Knight, out of Charity, was moved to take care thereof, and conveying the Corpse to Caen in Normandy, the Abbots and Monks of St. Stephens, there with the rest of the Clergy and Laity of the Town, met it reverently; but in conducting it to the Church, a terrible Fire broke out of an House, and spreading suddenly over a great part of the Town, the whole Company was dispersed, and only the Monks left to end the Office begun. The Funeral notwithstanding proceeded afterwards in great Solemnity; the Bishops and Abbots of Normandy attending it: But when the Mass was done, and that the Bishop of Ebroscen, at the end of his Sermon, had desired all that were present to pray for the dead Prince, and charitably to forgive him, if he had offended any of them; one Anselm Fitz-Arthur, rising up, said aloud, The Ground whereon ye stand was the floor of my Father's House, and the Man for whom ye make Intercession took it violently from him while he was Duke of Normandy, and founded this House upon it: I now therefore claim my own, and forbid him that took it away by violence to 〈◊〉 covered with my Earth, or to be buried 〈◊〉 my Inheritance. The Bishops and Nobility hearing this, and understanding it to be true by the Testimony of others, presently compounded with the Party in fair manner, giving him 60 s. in Hand for the place of Burial, and promising a just Satisfaction for the rest; for which he received afterwards a 100 l. in Silver by consent of Henry the Conqueror's Son. This Blur being thus wiped away, they proceeded to put the Corpse into the Tomb or Coffin, prepared by the Mason, whereupon another followed very loathsome; for it being too short and straight, as they strove violently to thrust the Corpse into it, the fat Belly, not being Boweled, burst in pieces, and vapoured forth so horrible a savour, as the smoke of Frankincense, and other Aromaticks, ascending plentifully from the Censers, prevailed not to suppress it, but both Priest and Company were driven tumultuously to dispatch the Business, and get them gone. Thus much of the Disasters touching the Person of the Conqueror. To which may be added, that his very Death proceeded from a violent Accident happening unto him in the Sacking of Medant, where the heat and heaviness of his Armour, and the extreme clamour upon his Soldiers, wrought, as was reported, a Dissolution of his Entrails (à ruina intestinorum ejus liquefacta, saith Gemeticensis) for tho' he lived a while after, yet he languished till his Death. But note, by the way, that he who had in his Life-time destroyed so many Churches and Burying-places, being dead, although he were so great a King, yet he wanted the Office of his Children, Friends and Servants, to carry him to Church, or to take care of his Burial; that being carried thither by others, the very Fire wherewith he had devoured certain Churches, interrupted his Passage; that being come to the Church, he that had put so many by their places of Burial, was now put by his own: And lastly, that when the place of his Burial was obtained for Money, it happened (fatally) that it was too straight to receive him, as tho' the Earth of the Church (which he had so grievously injured) were unwilling to open her Mouth to entertain him. But after all difficulties, Did he not rest quiet at last? Reason would he should; for the Grave is Asilum Requiei, the Sanctuary of Rest, and he did enjoy it for many Ages: Yet the Bishop of Bajeux, in the Year 1542. opened his Tomb, and brought to light his Epitaph hidden in it, Graven upon a Gilded-plate of Brass. But in the Year 1562. certain French Soldiers, with some English, that under the Conduct of the Chastillon took the City of Caen, and fell to spoiling of Churches there, did barbarously break down, and deface the Monument of this great King, and (as tho' the Malus Genius of the Churches, which himself had destroyed, still pursued him with Revenge) did take out his Bones and cast them away. Versed. p. 184. What befell these Soldiers that thus rifled Churches, appeareth not, obscurity and oblivion do conceal them. But the lamentable end of the Chastillon himself, that suffered this Outrage, is very notorious in the Massacre of Paris.  
To come to his Posterity; his Sons were four, all of them, at times, in War amongst themselves. Robert, the eldest, deprived of his Birthright, the Crown of England; first by his Brother William, then by his Brother Henry, who also took from him his Duchy of Normandy, put out his Eyes, and kept him cruelly in Prison till the Day of his Death. His only Son Richard, hunting in the New-Forest, was slain in the Life of his Father, by an Arrow shot casually, as Florentius Wigorneinsis reporteth. Others name him Henry, and say he was hanged there, like Absalon, by the Hair of the Head. Be it one or both, the Death was violent, and in the New-Forest. But thus Robert died without Issue, nothing prospering with him (as Stow noteth) after his Father Cursed him.  
Richard, second Son of the Conqueror, Duke of Beorne (as Stow saith) died also in the same Forest, in the fifteenth Year of his Father, upon a pernicious Blast that happened on him; but Gemeticensis, lib. 11. c. 9 saith, with a blow of a Tree.  
William Rufus, the third Son, was contaminate as well with his own, as his Father's Sacrilege; for he would part with no Bishopric that came into his Hands without Money for it, by reason whereof he had lying upon his Hand (for want of Chapmen) thirteen Bishoprics at the time of his Death. He was also slain in the same Forest, An.— with an Arrow (out of the Quiver of God) shot casually by Sir Walter Terrell; and as Florentius reporteth, in the very selfsame place, where a Church did stand till the Conqueror destroyed it. He also died without Issue. Gemeticens. lib. 7. cap. 9  
Henry, the fourth Son, being King Hen. I. abstained (as I imagine) Hunting in the New-Forest, but God met with him in another Corner; for having but two Sons, William legitimate, and Richard natural; they were in the fifteenth Year of his Reign both drowned, with other of the Nobility, coming out of France; and himself dying afterward without Issue Male, in the Year 1135. gave a period to this Norman Family. Here I must observe (as elsewhere I have done) that about the very same point of time; viz. 68 Years wherein God cut off the Issue of Nabuchadnezzar, and gave his Kingdom to another Nation after he had invaded the holy Things of the Temple: About the very same point of time, I say, after the Conqueror had made this Spoil of Churches, did God cut off his Issue Male, and gave his Kingdom to another Nation, not of Normandy but Bloys.   

Inter An. 1061. & An. 1070.  
Vrsus, Abbot, was made Sheriff of Worcester by William the Conqueror; and building a Castle in Worcester, near the Monastery, cut a part of the Churchyard into the Dike of his Castle, which Aldred the Archbishop of York, seeing, said to him, 
* Alias Hightest, i. e. Thou art named or called.  Hatest thou Urse have thou God's curse, unless thou takest down this Castle, and know assuredly, that thy Posterity shall not long inherit this Ground of St. Marry ' s. He foretold (saith Malmsbury) that which I saw performed; for not long after, his Son Roger Possessing his Father's Inheritance, was Banished by King Henry I. for putting an Officer of the King's to Death in an headlong fury. Malms. de Gest. Pont. p. 271. And his Sheriffwick went to Beaumond, who Married his Sister. Camb. 578.  
Hugh, 
Ann. 1098.  Earl of Shrewsbury, with Hugh, Earl of Chester, was sent by William Rufus to assail the Welshmen in Anglesey, which they performed with great cruelty, not sparing the Churches. For the Earl of Shrewsbury made a Dog-kennel of the Church of St. Fridank, laying his Hounds in it for the Night time, but in the morning he found them mad. But it chanced, that Magnus, King of Norway came in the mean time to take also the same Island, and encountering the Earl of Shrewsbury at Sea, shot him in the Eye, where, only he was unarmed, and the Earl thereupon falling out of the Ship into the Sea, was both Slain and Drowned, and died without Issue. Girald. Camb. Hou. in Ann. 1098. & Holl. ib. Cat. EE. Shrewsb.  
Geoffrey, 
Circa. Ann. 1100.  the 16th Abbot of St. Alban, living whilst he was young a Secular Man, and teaching at Dunstable, did there, about the beginning of King Henry I. make a Play of St. Catharine, called, Miracula; and for Acting of it, did borrow of the Sexton of St. Alban, divers Copes that belonged to the Choir of St. Alban, for the Service of God, and having used them profanely in his Play, both the House wherein they were, and the Copes themselves, were the next Night casually Burnt. Geoffery for great Grief, hereupon, gave over the World, and by way of a Propitiatory Sacrifice, offered up himself a Monk in St. Alban, where afterward in the Year 1119. viz. 19, or 20. of Henry I. he was made Abbot. Lib. MS. de Abbatibus Sti. Albani.  
Madoc ap Meredith, 
Ann. 1157.  Prince of Powis, spoiling two Churches in Anglesey, and part of the Isle, was with all his Men, Slain in the return. Stow, p. 217.  
Sherbourne in Dorsetshire was made an Episcopal See in the Year, 704, or 705. And as the use of the time was, with many Curses (no doubt) against him, or them that should violate it, or should get or procure it to be aliened from that Bishopric. St. Oswald (who flourished 270 Years after,) fortified those Curses, as is reported, with divers other bitter imprecations. It continued peaceably in the Possession of the Bishops till the time of King Stephen, than Roger, Bishop of that See (translated by his Predecessor to Salisbury) building three sumptuous Castles, one at Sherbourn, another at Devizes, and the third at Malmsbury; the King supposing they might turn to his prejudice, sent for the Bishop, and took and imprisoned him, with some others of his Coat; and calling a Council of the Peers and Baronage, obtained a Statute to this effect; 
Contin. Florent in An. 1161. pag. 28.  That all Towns of Defence, Castles, and Munitions through England wherein Secular business was went to be exercised, should be the King's and his Barons: And that the Churchmen, and namely, the Bishops, as Divine Dogs, should not cease to bark for the defence and safety of their Sheep, and to take diligent heed that the invisible Wolf, that malignant Enemy wory not, or scatter the Lord's Flock. Thus the King obtained these Castles that he thirsted after, with the Bishop's Person and Treasure beside. And being summoned hereupon to a Synod at Winchester, by his Brother Henry Bishop there, and Legate of the Pope; he sent Albery de Vere, Earl of Guisne, and Chamberlain of England, a Man of excellent Speech, and singularly well learned in the Law, (whom, some report, to be made Chief Justice of England after the said Roger,) him I say, did the King send to the Synod as his Attorney, or Sergeant at Law, to defend his Cause, which he did with so great Art and Dexterity, that nothing was therein determined. But mark the issue, e'er a twelve Month came to an end, the Earl Albery de Vere was Slain in London. Florileg. in Ann. 1140. The King himself within another twelve month taken Prisoner, and being delivered upon an exchange for the Earl of Gloucester, spoileth divers Churches by his Flemish Soldiers, and buildeth the Nunnery of Wilton into a Castle; where the Town is fired about his Ears, his Men slain, his Sewer, Plate, and other things taken, and himself driven to escape by a shameful Flight. He continueth his Wars with unprofitable Success; falleth at discord with his Barons, and is driven to make Peace with Duke Henry, his Adversary. His Son Eustace displeased therewith, applieth himself to spoil Cambridge-Shire, and those parts, falleth upon the Lands of the Abbey of Bury, and carrieth the Corn to his Castles; and sitting down to Dinner, as he put the first Morsel in his Mouth, he fell Mad, and died miserably. Mat. Par. Ann. 1152. Stow, Ann. 1153.  
In the end, he stated the Crown upon the Duke Henry, being compelled thereto; and dying, had no lawful Issue Male to propagate his Family, his Sons of that sort being taken away in his Life time.  
Having spoken of those Curses set of old like Bulwarks about the Castle of Sherbourn, to defend it against Sacrilegious Assailants, and of the Operation they had in those Ancient Days, it falleth very fitly in my way to show also in what manner they have uttered their venom, since that time of old; for, though Poison tempered by an Apothecary, with over long keeping, will lose its strength; yet the Poison that lurketh in the Veins of Curses lawfully imposed, is neither wasted nor weakened by Antiquity, but oftentimes breaketh forth as violently after many Ages, as if they were but of late denounced. Like the implicit Curse that devoured the seven Sons of Saul, for breaking the Covenant with the Gibeonites, made above Five Hundred Years before their time.  
See therefore a farther Collection touching this matter, delivered unto me above three Years since, by a Person of great Place and Honour.  
The Castle of Sherbourne, was granted to the See of Salisbury by St. Oswel, with several bitter Imprecations and Cursings on him, or them, that should get, or procure Sherbourne to be aliened from that See. St. Oswel praying, that he or they might die Issueless or Unfortunately, that should so take it.  
King Stephen was the first that got it from that See, after the first Donation, Ann. 1139. His Death, and his Son's Dying Mad, make it observable.  
Will. Martel, King Stephen's Sewer had it, who being taken Prisoner, gave it for his Ransom. Ann. 1142. Reg. 7. Hoved. ibid. p. 488.  
In Edward III. time, the Earl of Salisbury had it, who died Issueless, and not Fortunate.  
Then the Duke of Northumberland had it, who was Attainted.  
After the Duke of Somerset had it, who was Attainted.  
After the Lord Paget had a Lease from the Bishop, who was Attainted.  
After him, Sir Walter Raleigh had it, who was Attainted.  
After him, the Earl of Somerset had it, who was Attainted for Felony.  
The Crown had it, Prince Henry had it; but King James would not suffer Prince Charles to have it, for the success.  
The Earl of Bristol hath it.  
Received from my Lord Keeper, 9th of May, 1626.  
Lodowick Grevil, owner of Micletin, a Manor belonging to Ensham Abbey in Oxfordshire, had two Sons, whereof Edward, the younger, shooting a piece, by chance slew his elder Brother, and thereby succeeded in the Inheritance. Lodowick himself in the ... Year of Eliz. standing mute upon his Arraignment, for Poisoning of ... whose Will he had Counterfeited, was Pressed to Death. Edward afterward Knighted, Mortgaged the Abbey to ... Fisher, a Skinner of London, for a small Sum, and growing farther in with him by borrowing, and Use upon Use, it came at length by Forfeiture and Entanglement, to be Fishers absolutely; and Sir Edward Grevil having wasted his whole Patrimony, and sold some part thereof in Warwickshire, to the Lord Treasurer Cranfeild, became Bailiff to the Lord Treasurer of the same Land. Old Fisher put over the Abbey to his Son Sir Edward Fisher, who with extreme Suits, Bribery, etc. so consumed his Estate, that he was judged to be Eleven Thousand or Twelve Thousand Pound in Debt, and driven to sell his great Lease of Wrongey, Blackbury, and Grandcourts in Norfolk, and yet liveth in fear of Bailiffs, etc. 12th of Octob. 1644. Ex relat. John Wrenham. partim Rob. Mordant. Mil.  
Sir Edward Grevil had a Son, that breaking his Leg over a Style, died; his Daughters are one Married to Sir Arthur Ingram, to whom, he sold the Reversion of his chief Seat Milcote, etc. and hath a Hundred Pound per Ann. during his Life, and the House.  
Circa Ann. Dom. 1142. Stephen, and Geffrey Mandevil, Earl of Essex, being called among other of the Nobility, to a Council at St. Alban, he was there, by the King, in revenge of a former Injury, unduly taken at St. Alban, prisoned, and could have no liberty till he had delivered the Tower of London, and the Castles of Walden, and Plessy; being thus spoiled of his Holds, he turned his fury upon the Abbey of Ramsey, it being a place of Security, and invading it by force, drove out the Monks, and placed his Soldiers in their room, and Fortified the Church instead of his Castle. The Abbot and Monks betook them to their Arms, and with all the force they could, shot their Curses and Imprecations against him and his Complices; thus prepared to his destruction, he besieged the Castle of Burwel, where a Peasant shooting him lightly in the Head with an Arrow, contemning the Wound, he died of it, in Excommunication, leaving three Sons Inheriters of that Malediction, but of no 
* Cat. Com. Essex.  Lands of their Father, the King having seized them. Nub. lib. 1. c. 11. Stow. An. 9 Steph. Matth. Westm. Ann. 1143. Hen. Hunting. Hist. lib. 8. pag. 393.  
Arnulph, his eldest Son, who still maintained the Church of Ramsey as a Castle, was taken Prisoner by King Stephen, striped of all his Inheritance, banished, and died without Issue. Hou. in Ann. 1144. Catal. Com. Essex. pag. 177. Mat. Par. Ann. 1143. pag. 77. lib. 6.  
Geffrey Mandevil, second Son, was restored by King Henry the II. and Married Eustachia the King's Kinswoman, but had no Issue by her.  
William Mandevil, the third Son, succeeded his Brother, and was twice Married, but died without Issue. Thus the Name and Issue of this Sacrilegious Earl were all extinct, and the Inheritance carried to Geffrey Fitz-Peter, another Family by the Marriage of Beatrix Say, his Sister's Grandchild.  
Now we have related the Fortune of the Earl Mandevil and his Children, we must not omit what Nubrigensis reporteth, touching two of his Captains, the one of his Horsemen, the other of his Footmen, both of them cruel Executioners of his Impiety. The first had his Brains dashed out by a fall from his Horse; and the other, (whose Name was Rayner,) the chief burner and breaker into Churches, being passing over Sea with his Wife, they were both of them turned out of the Ship into a Boat, and so left to Fortune, were there Drowned. More of the Story you may see in Nubrigensis. lib. 1. c. 11. and Mat. Par. Ann. 1143.  
About the same time, Rob. Marmion, a Man of great power, in like manner invaded the Church of Coventry, and turning out the Monks, placed his Soldiers in their room; then going to Battle against the E. of Chester, he showed himself in a bravery before both the Armies; and having forgotten privy Trenches, which himself had made to entrap his Enemies, or hinder their approach, he fell (as he pranced up and down before the Monastery) into one of them, and breaking his Thighbone, could not get out; which a Peasant of his Enemies perceiving, ran to him and cut of his Head. Nub. lib. 1. c. 12. Mat. West. Ann. 1143. Hunting. lib. 8. p. 393. Mat. Par. 1143.  
William Albermarl (whom I certainly take to be William le Gros, 
Hou. Ann. 1179.  Earl of Albermarl, that died 25th of Henry II.) by the former examples, thrust the Regular Priests out of the Church of Belingcon, and Fortified it with his Soldiers. But by example also of their grievous Punishment, it pleased God to touch him with Repentance, so that to expiate his Sin, he did many Noble Works of Charity, both in relieving the Poor abundantly, and in Erecting of two (if no more) worthy Monasteries, that of Melsa, in the Year 1150. and the other of Torneton, where he was Buried in Peace. Yet God delighted rather in Obedience, than Sacrifice, cut off the Line of his Family, and transposed his Inheritance by his only Daughter Hawis (who was thrice Married) to three several Families: But in the two first it stuck not at all, and but two Descents in the last of them. Nub. l. 1. c. 12. Hou. An. 1179. Cat. E. Albermarl.  
King Henry II. in the Year 1192. and the 16th of his Reign, being in Normandy, and hearing that Thomas of Becket, Archbishop of Canterbury, after a Peace lately made between them, carried things so imperiously in England, as there was no living under him; growing into an extreme Passion, used (as they say) these words: In what a miserable State am I, that I cannot be quiet in my own Kingdom for one only Priest? Is there no Man that will rid me of this Trouble? Hereupon (or upon what other Motives, God knoweth) four barbarous Knights, Sir Hugh Murvill, Sir Will. Tracy, Sir Rich. Britain, and Sir Reynold Fitz-Vrs, hasting into England, slew the Archbishop, at Even Song, in his Cathedral Church, at the very Altar, embruing it with his Blood and Brains, committing at once this horrible Murder and triple Sacrilege: First, in respect of the Person; secondly, of the Place; and thirdly, of the Time and Business then in hand. Yet Vengeance seized not presently on their Bodies, but tormented their Souls upon the rack of Desperation; so that neither trusting themselves one with another, nor the solitary Woods, nor the mantle of Night, they fled into several Countries, where they all within four Years after (as 'tis reported) died miserable Fugitives, saith the Story, pa. 79, 80. Dom.  
Touching their Issue; I find that Fitz-Vrs fled into Ireland, and I heard there that the Wild-Irish, and Rebellious Family of Mac-Mahunde, in the North Parts, is of that Lineage. The Family of another of them is, at this Day, prosecuted with a Fable (if it be so) that continueth the Memory of this Impiety; for in Gloucestershire, it is yet reported that wheresoever any of them Traveleth the Wind is commonly in their Faces.  
The Quadripartite History called Quadrilogus, printed at Paris An. 1495. saith, The Murderers, after this Horrible Fact, road that Night to a Manor of the Archbishops, named there (corruptly) Sumantingues forty Miles (Leucas) distant from Canterbury, lib. 3. c. 20. and that being Men of great Possessions, active Soldiers, and in the strength of their Age, yet now they became like Men beside themselves, stupid, amazed and distracted, repenting entirely of what they had done, and for Penance took their way to the Holy-Land. But Sir Will. Tracy being come to the City of Cossantia, in Sicily, and lingering there, fell into an horrible Disease; so that the parts of his Body rotten whilst he lived, and his Flesh being dissolved by the Putrefaction, himself did, by piece-meal, pull it off, and cast it away, leaving the Sinews and Bones apparent. In this misery this wretched Murderer (as it was testified by the Bishop of that City, who was then his Confessor) ended his Days, but very penitently. His other Complices lived not long after, for all the four Murderers were taken away within three Years after the Fact committed. Dicti. Libri. lib. 4. c. 71.   

RICHARD I.  
IT appeareth by a MS. Copy of Mat. Paris, 
Ann. Dom. 1199.  which I have, (wanting much of that which is Published, and having much which the Published wanteth) that King Richard I. had spoiled some Church of the Chalice and Treasure; and that it was thereupon conceived, that the revengeful Hand of God pursued him to his Death. First, by tickling his covetous Mind with the report of hidden Treasure found by one Vidomer, a Viscount of Britain, in France, which he (the King) claimed to belong to him by his Prerogative: And then in stirring him to raise War against the Viscount for it, and to besiege him in the Castle and Town of Chalus, in the Country of Limosin, whither the Viscount was fled and had carried the Treasure, as it were, to train the King to that fatal place, importing the name of a Chalice. But here it so fell out, that the King being repelled in his Assault, and surveying the Ground for undermining the Town-Walls, one Peter Basil struck him in the left Arm, or about the Shoulder, with a Quarrel from a Cross-Bow, out of the Castle. The King little regarding his Wound, pursued the Siege, so as within twelve Days he took the Town, and found little Treasure in it. But his Wound, in the mean time, ●estering deprived him of his Life (April 9) in the tenth Year of his Reign, being about 44 Years old. Hereupon a Satirist of that time wrote this tart Dystichon, related in the MS. Mat. Par.  
Christ, tui Chalicis praedo fit praeda Chalucis  
Aere brevi rejicis qui tulit aera Crucis.  
i e.  
He that did prey upon thy Chalices,  
Is now a prey unto the Chaluces;  
And thou, O Christ, rejectest him as Dross,  
That robbed thee of the Treasure of thy Cross.  
King Edward I. Anno Regni 23. took all the Priories— Aliens and their Goods into his Hands; allowing every Monk 18 d. a Week, reserving the overplus to his Treasury and Wars. And in Anno 1295. Regni ejusdem, caused all the Monasteries in England to be searched, and the Money in them to be brought up to London. He also seized, into his Hands, all the Lay-Fees, because they refused to pay to him such a Tax as he demanded. Stow in dicto An. p. 317. Mat. Westm. in An. 1296. saith, it was a fifth part of their Revenues: And for that being prohibited by the Council of Lions upon pain of ... they refused, he seized all their Lands and Goods, as well of the Archbishop of Canterbury, Robert Winchelsea, as other, and put them out of his Protection, etc. Godwin, p. 148. Presently after this the King's Forces were overthrown in Gascony. Mat. Westm. p. 408. And tho' he prospered in his Wars against Scotland, and wholly subdued it; yet shortly after Rob. le Bruce recovered it from him, and overthrew his Son Edward II. with a mighty Army at Burnocksbourne; from whence escaping, by flight, he after suffered great Afflictions and Calamities, by means of his own Wife and Barons, and was at last Deposed, Imprisoned and Murdered.  
Giraldus Cambrensis, a good Author, reporteth that one Hur, Chaplain to William de Bruce (a great Lord in Wales in the time of King John) of his Chapel of St. Nicholas, in the Castle of Aberhodni, did Dream in a Night that one bid him tell his Lord (that had taken away the Land given in Alms to that Chapel, and presumed to detain it) that Hoc aufert fiscus quod non accipit Christus: Dabis impio Militi quod non vis dare Sacerdoti. The King's Exchequer shall take that from thee, that thou wilt not suffer Christ to enjoy; and the impious Soldier, that which thou wilt not permit unto the Priest. The Words are St. Austin's, in Serm. de Temp. spoken against them that invade Tithes and Church Rights; and that which is there threatened against them, saith Giraldus, happened most certainly in a very short time to this With-holder: Vidimus quippe nostris diebus, etc. For we have seen (saith he) in our own Days, and found certainly, by undoubted verity, that Princes (and great Men) Usurpers of Ecclesiastical Possessions, and chiefly by name King H. II. Reigning in our time, and tainted above others with this Vice; a little Leven corrupting the whole Lump, and new Evils falling thereby daily upon them to have consumed all their whole Treasure, giving that unto the hired Soldiers which they ought to have given unto the Priest.  
He mentioneth not what it was particularly that happened to Bruce, but commiserating him as a singular good Man, runneth out into a long Commendation both of him and his Wife. The rest therefore of this Tragedy I must supply out of Mat. Par. who in An. 1209. reporteth thus, That King John, doubting the Fidelity of his Nobles, sent a Troop of Soldiers to require of them their Sons, or Nephews, or near Kinsmen for Hostages. Coming to Will. Bruce's and demanding his Sons, the Lady Maud his Wife, in the humour of a Woman, preventing her Husband, said, I will deliver no Sons of mine to your King John, for that he beastly Murdered his Nephew, Arthur, whom he ought to have preserved Honourably. Her Husband reproved her, and offered to submit himself to the Trial of his Peers if he had offended the King; but that would not serve. The King understanding it, sent his Soldiers in all haste a privily as he could to apprehend Will. de Bruce, and his whole Family; but he having Intelligence of it fled with his Wife, Children, and Kinsmen into Ireland; whither the King coming afterward, besieged his Wife, and his Son William with his Wife in a Munition in Methe, and having taken them, they privily escaped to the Island of May, where being again recovered and brought unto him; he now bound them surely, and sent them to Windsor-Castl●, and there by his Commandment they all died miserably famished. William himself, the Father, escaping into France, died also shortly after, and was buried at Paris; leaving all, according to St. Austin's Words, to the King's Extortioners, pag. 218, 221. What Reax King John kept among Churches, 
K. John.  is generally well known: Yet I find not, that either he destroyed or profaned any of them, otherwise than by rifling of their Wealth, and persecuting the Clergy as his Enemies. To say truth, they were not his Friends. But the last Riot that he committed among them, was in Suffolk and Norfolk as he brought his Army that way to waste the Lands of the Barons his Enemies, and to pass by the Town of Lyn (which stood faithful to him when the most of England had forsaken him) into the North parts. Having lodged there to his great Content; and taking his Journey, Spoliis onustus opimis, over the Washeses, when he came upon the Sands of Wellstream a great part of his Sacrilegious Army, with the Spoils he had taken, and his Treasure, Plate, Jewels, Horses, and Carriages were all drowned: So that it was judged (saith the History) to be a punishment by God, that the Spoil which had been gotten, and taken out of Churches, should perish and be lost by such means, together with the Spoilers. Stow reporteth, That the Earth opened in the midst of the Waves, on the Marsties, and the Whirlpit of the deep, so swallowed up both Men and Horses, that none escaped to bring King John Tidings: For he with his Army, going before, escaped (more happily than Pharaoh) but very narrowly with his Life, especially if it were any Happiness to live in that miserable Condition he was now brought to, having lost his Treasure and Fortunes at the very time, wherein, above all other, he had most need of them, as flying from his Enemy, Lewis the Dauphin of France, called in by his Subjects to take the Crown; and possessing peaceably the City and Tower of London, the Cities of Canterbury and Winchester, with all the Castles of Kent, except Dover, which could not hold out; and all the Barons, in a manner, with the Citizens of London and Winchester having sworn him Fealty, and done him Homage; as also the King of Scots for the Lands he held of the King of England, who likewise had subdued all Northumberland, except Barnard-Castle to him. If after all this, I say, it were any Happiness to live, yet enjoyed he that miserable Happiness but a very short time; for whether by Poison given him at Swinsted-Abbey, as the common report is, or by a Surfeit taken with eating Peaches, accompanied with an intolerable Grief for his Losses, as others deliver it; he died about five or six Days after at Newark-Castle, and wanting all civil Lamentation; was presently so spoiled by his Servants, who fled every Man his way, as they left nothing worth the Carriage to cover his dead Carcase.  
Discite, O Reges sacratae parcere turbae.  
Robert Fitz-Walter (so great a Baron in the time of King John, that Mat. Paris saith of him, Cui vix aliquis Comes in Anglia tum temporis potuit comparari) was a grievous Enemy to the Monastery of St. Alban; and prosecuting it with many Injuries, did among others besiege the Priory of Binham in Norfolk, (a Cell of St. Alban) as if it were a Castle, and constrained the Monks there to extreme Famine; for that John, the Abbot of St. Alban, had removed Thomas the Prior of Binham, and put another in his room, without the assent of the said Robert, who was Patron of the Priory, and a singular Friend of Thomas. The Complaint hereof being brought to the King, he presently sent Forces to remove and apprehend the Besiegers; but they having notice thereof, 
O mira & formidabilis Dei & S. Martyris ultrice Sententia.  departed. Mat. Paris wondereth at the Revengeful wrath of, which thereupon fell on Robert Fitz-Walter: From that time (saith he) he never wanted manifest pursuit of Enemies, or the afflictions of Infirmities. All that he had is Confiscate; and during the Life of King John he lived in Exile and Vagrant, suffering great Adversities and Misfortunes. And tho'King Hen. III. granted Peace to all; yet did he never recover fully his Favour, but died Dishonourable and Infamous. Thus Mat. Paris in Vita Joh. Abbat. S. Albani xxi. MS.  
Falcasius de Brent, 
Ann. Dom. 1224. 8 Hen. 3.  a Valiant and Powerful Baron, that on the part of King John grievously afflicted the Barons his Adversaries, and all England beside, pulled down the Church of St. Paul at Bedford, to have the Stones and Materials thereof for the Building and Fortifying his Castle of Bedford. He fell afterward in the ... Year of Hen. III. to be Fined before the Justice's Itinerant at Dunstable a 100 l. apiece for thirty forcible Entries and Disseissins' made by him upon divers Men; in all at 3000 l. Upon this, he attempted, by his Brethren and Followers, to have taken the Justice's sitting in Court, and to imprison them in his Castle at Bedford. But they all, save Henry de Braybrock, escaped; him they Imprisoned; and his Wife complaining thereon to the King and Parliament then sitting at Northampton, they all set all other Business apart, and with all the Power they could make, went and besieged the Castle; which was to the utmost admirably defended against them, and to the extreme loss of the Assailants. Yet by raising a Wooden-Tower close by it, which they call Malvicine, it was at length taken, the Justice delivered, 24 hanged, and his Brethren: Himself being escaped, lost all his Possessions, and whatsoever else he had. But for the great Service he had done King John, his Life, upon his submission, was pardoned, and he banished; yet Vengeance still pursued him, for he died by Poison.  
I must not forget a memorable Relation, which Matthew Paris further maketh touching this matter. The Abbess of Helnestene hearing that Falcasius had pulled down St. Paul's Church to build his Castle, caused the Sword which was in the Hand of the Image of St. Paul to be taken out of it, and would not suffer it to be restored, till now that he had so worthily revenged himself. Whereupon one writ thus: 
Perdidit in mense Falco tam fervidus ense  
Omne sub saevo quicquid quaesivit ab aevo. 
Matt. Par. p. 308.   
The fierce Sir Falco ere one Month was run  
Lost all the Wealth that in his Life he won.   
William Earl of Pembroke, 
An. Dom. 1245.  surnamed The great Earl Marshal, Tutor of King Henry 3. took by force of War two Manors belonging to the Church and Bishopric of Fernes in Ireland. The Bishop, a Godly Man, required Restitution; and failing of it, excommunicated the Earl, who little regarded it. The Earl so dieth; the Bishop cometh into England, and reneweth his Suit to Earl William his Son and Heir, obtaining to have the King his Mediator; but prevailed not; for Earl William and his Brethren answered, That their Father did the Bishop no wrong, having gotten the Manors by right of War. The Bishop in the agony of his Spirit, reneweth the Curse against their Father and them, and said, That the Lord had cast it grievously upon Earl William, as is written in the Psalm; In a Generation his Name shall be put out, and his Sons shall be Vagabonds, as touching the Blessing promised by the Lord of Increase and multiply.  
Earl William the Father, at the time of his Death and Burial (which was in the New Temple at London, 17. Kal. Apr. 1219. and 4 Hen. 3.) left 5 Sons and as many Daughters.  
Earl William the eldest Son, first married Alice the Daughter and Heir of Baldwin Earl of Albermarle, etc. After, Eleanor Daughter of King John, and died without Issue, 6. Apr. 1231. 15 Hen. 3.  
Earl Richard the second Brother succeeded; he married the Lady Gervasia, and was slain in Ireland, 18 Hen. 3. leaving no Issue.  
Earl Gilbert the 3d Brother succeeded. He married Margaret Daughter of William King of Scots, and was killed by his own Horse at a Tornement at Hartford, 21 Hen. 3. 1241. leaving no Issue.  
Earl Walter the fourth Brother succeeded. He married Margaret Daughter and Co-heir of Robert Lord Quiney, and died at London 6. Dec. 1245. 30 Hen. 3. (or as others report, the 24. Nou.) and was buried at Tinterne, leaving no Issue.  
Earl Anselm the youngest, was, at the death of his Brother Walter, Dean of Salisbury; but admitted to be Earl of Pembroke and Marshal, and in haste married Maud the Daughter of Humphrey de Bohun Earl of Hereford, that he yet at last might propagate the most noble Family. But Non est consilium contra Dominum; for he died within 18 or 24 days after his Brother, before he was actually possessed of his County.  
Thus, according to the Malediction of the Bishop, the Name of those great Earls Marshal was utterly extinct; all the five Brethren being married and dying Childless within 15 Years. Matt. Par. An. 1219, & 1245. p. 292 & 665, & alibi.  
King Edw. 1. in the zeal of his Religion 
Edw. 1.  (his Father yet living) took the Cross upon him and went to assist the Christians in the Wars of Jerusalem. The Pope, in recompense of his Charges, granted unto him in the second Year of his Reign (he being returned) the tenth part of all Ecclesiastical Benefices of the Kingdom for one Year, and the like to his Brother Edmond for another. But afterwards the King forgetting his old Devotion, in the 11th Year of his Reign, seized all the Treasure of the Tenths collected for that purpose, and laid up in divers places of the Kingdom, and breaking open the Locks, caused it to be brought unto him, and employed it to his own use. Stow.  
This taste of things separate to God, drew him on to a further Appetite. In the 23d Year of his Reign, he took into his hands all the Priories Aliens throughout the Kingdom; 
There were at that time, about 110.  committing them (as Charles Martel of old had done in France) to Officers under him; and allowing every Monk 18d. a Week, retained the rest for the charge of his War, as he did also the Pensions going out of those Houses to the greater Monasteries beyond the Seas. Yet obtained he further, in the same Parliament, of the Clergy and Religious Persons a Subsidy of half their Goods, to the value of 100000l. whereof the Abbey of Bury paid 655 l. 11d. q. Stow, ib. p. 316.  
King Ed. l. being in great want, by his subduing Scotland, about the end of the 23th Year of his Reign, caused all the Monasteries of England to be searched, and the Money found in them to be brought to London. Wals. pa. 65. Cax. l. 7. c. 39 Shortly after, in the 24th Year of his Reign, at a Parliament at St. Edmundsbury, he required a Subsidy, which the Laity granted. But the Clergy (pretending, that Pope Boniface at the same time, had forbidden upon pain of Excommunication, that either Secular Princes should impose Tallages upon the Churchmen, or that Churchmen should pay any) they refused to supply the King's Necessity; and having day to advise better on the matter till the next Parliament at London shortly after, they persisted in the same mind. Whereupon the King put them out of his Protection; so that being robbed and spoiled by lewd persons without remedy, to redeem the King's Favour, the Archbishop of York and many of the Bishops laid down a fifth part of all their Goods in their Churches; and some by other courses satisfied the King's desire, and so recovered his Protection. But all the Monasteries within the Province of Canterbury were seized into the King's hands, and Wardens appointed in them to minister to the Monks and Religious Persons therein only what must be had of necessity; taking all other moneys and Surplusage to the King's use. So that the Abbots and Priors were glad to follow the Court and to repair their Error with the fourth part of their Goods. The Archbishop of Canterbury after all this, fearing the Pope's Excommunication, continued in his refusal, lost all he had, was forsaken of his Servants, forbidden to be received either in any Monastery or without, and rested in the House of a poor Man, only with one Priest and one Clerk. How these Courses were censured in foro coeli, is not in me to judge; nor will I pry into the Ark of God's Secrets. But see what followeth in the Story.  
King Edward having with great Triumph subdued Scotland, and taken the King Prisoner, did at this present peaceably enjoy that Kingdom, and governed it by his own Officers. But e'er three Months came to an end, Wil Wallis began such a Rebellion there as put all in hazard; and in fine, it was so revived by Robert le Bruce the King's natural Subject, that at length he overthrew the King's Armies, slew and beat out his Officers, and without all recovery gained the Kingdom to himself and his Posterity. King Edward attempting the recovery, died at the entrance of Scotland. His Son Edward II. pursuing his Father's intent with one of the greatest Armies that ever was raised by the English, was miserably beaten and put to flight, hardly escaping in his own person. All his Life after full of Tumult; not only his Nobles but his very Wife, his Enemy; abandoned of his Subjects, turned out of his Kingdom, imprisoned, and traitorously murdered. In all which, the Curse which his Father upon his Deathbed laid upon him if he should break the Precepts he gave him had no doubt a cooperation; for he observed none of them.  
Touching the pulling of Lands from the Church, all have not always been of one mind. For tho' the makers of the Statute of Mortmain did truly think that the Clergy had so disproportionable a share by way of excess in the Lands of the Kingdom; yet when in 17 Edw. II. it came to the point, that the Order of the Templars for their wickedness was overthrown; the Parliament then (wherein many of those, no doubt, that made the Statute of Mortmain were present) would not give the Lands and Possessions of the Templars to the King or the Lords of whom they were holden; but ordained that they should go to the Order of the Hospital of St. John's of Jerusalem, then lately erected for the defence of Christendom and the Christian Religion.  
Edward le Bruce, 
An. 1315. 9 Edw. II. Chron. Irel. in eod. An. p. 66. & seq.  brother to Robert le Bruce King of Scots, invadeth the North parts of Ireland with 6000 Men; and accompanied with many great persons of the Nobility, conquered the Earldom of Ulster, gave the English many overthrows, and prevailed so victoriously, that he caused himself to be crowned King of Ireland. His Soldiers, in the mean time, burn Churches and Abbeys with the People whom they found in the same, sparing neither Man, Woman, nor Child. And most wickedly entering into other Churches, spoiled and defaced the same of all such Tombs, Monuments, Plate, Copies, and other Ornaments, as they found there. He thus prevailing, and the Irish much revolting to him, the Archbishop of Armagh blesseth and encourageth the English Army against him. Whereupon they joined battle, overthrew the whole Power of the Scots, slew 2000 of their Men; and amongst them, this their King Edward le Bruce himself.  
King Edw. III. to begin his Wars with France, 
Edw. III.  in An. 1337. taketh all the Treasure that was laid up in the Churches throughout England for the defence of the Holy Land. (Speed, p. 190.) And whereas there were anciently in England many Cells and Houses of Religion (110 they were counted, and more) belonging to greater Monasteries beyond the Seas, fraught with Aliens and Strangers, especially Frenchmen, and those of the Orders of Clunis and Cistertien: King Edward III. at his entry into his French Wars, An. 1337, Regni 12. (partly fearing that they might hold intelligence with his Enemies, but seeking chiefly to have their Wealth toward the payment of his Soldiers) confiscated their Goods and Possessions, letting their Priories and Lands to farm for Rent, and selling some of them right out to others of his Subjects. Yet like a Noble and Religious Prince, touched with remorse when the Wars were ended, viz. An. 1361, regni 35. he granted them all (save those few that he had put away) back again unto them by his Letters Patents, as freely as they had formerly enjoyed them. And divers of those that were purchased by his Subjects, were by them new-founded and given back to Religious Uses. This act of the King's was a precedent of singular Piety; yet was it but a lame Offering, not an Holocaust. He gave back the Possessions, but he retained the Profits, which he had taken for 23 Years. Speed, p. 211.  
King John (whom they so much condemn) did more than this, if he had done it as willingly. He restored the Lands with the Damages. But let not this good King want the charitable Commendation due unto his Piety; though having dipped his Hands in this— We be driven by the course of our Argument, to observe what after befell to him and his Offspring. There be some things, saith saith are sweet in the Mouth, but bitter in the Belly; pleasant at the beginning, but woeful in the end. If these Priories and their Churches were of that nature, the sequel verifies the Proverb. The middle part of the King's Life was most fortunate and victorious; yea, all the while that these things were in his Hands, even as if God had blessed him, as he did Obed-Edom (1 Sam. 6. 10.) whilst the Ark was in his House; and had the King then died, he had been a most glorious pattern of earthly Felicity. But the Wheel turned, and his Oriental Fortunes became Occidental. The Peace he had concluded with France for the solace of his Age, broke out again into an unfortunate War. Many of his Subjects there rebel: Gascony in effect is lost. Afflictions at home fall upon him in sequence; his Son Lionel Duke of Clarence dieth without Issue-male, and when he had greatest need of his renowned Son the Prince of Wales (miracle of Chivalry, and the Anchor of his Kingdom) him even then did God take from him; his Court and Nobles discontented and in Faction; himself and all things much misgoverned by his Son the Duke of Lancaster and others of that part; who by the Parliament are therefore removed from him, and by him recalled notwithstanding, to the grief of all the Kingdom. Thus he dieth, leaving his unwieldy Sceptres to the feeble Arms of a Child of Eleven Years old, King Richard II. whose lamentable History, for the honour of Kings is best unspoken of. But so unfortunate he was among his other Calamities, that he was not only deposed by his unnatural Subjects, but imprisoned and murdered, dying without Issue, and leaving an Usurper possessor of his Kingdoms; which kindled such Fuel of Dissension, as consumed almost all the Royal Line and Ancient Nobility of the Kingdom, by the Civil War between the Houses of York and Lancaster.  
To return to the Restitution made by King Edw. III. of the Priories-Alien. An Historian termeth it, A rare Example of a just King; it being seldom seen that Princes let go any thing whereon they have once fastened. But this King having made a Door in this manner into the freedom and possession of the Church, all the Power he had, either ordinarily or by Prerogative, could not now so shut it up, but that this Precedent would for ever after be a Key to open it at the pleasure of Posterity; which was well seen not long after. For in the Parliament, An. 9 of King Richard II. The Knights and Burgesses with some of the Nobility, being in a great rage (as John Stow saith) against the Clergy, for that William Courtney the Archbishop would not suffer them to be charged in Subsidy by the Laity; exhibited a Petition to the King, that the Temporalities might be taken from them; saying, That they were grown to such Pride, that it was Charity and Alms to take them from them, to compel them thereby to be more meek and humble. And so near the Parliament-men thought themselves the point of their desire, that one promised himself thus much of this Monastery, another so much of another Monastery. And I heard (saith Tho. Walsingham) one of the Knights deeply swear, that of the Abbey of St. Alban, he would have a thousand Marks by the Year of the Temporalities. But the King, hearing the inordinate crying out on the one side, and the just defence on the other, denied his consent and commanded the Bill to be cancelled. Stow, p. 479.  
Two valiant Esquires, 
Richard II.  John Shakel and Robert Hauley, having taken the Earl of Dene Prisoner at the Battle of Nazers in Spain, and received his Son Hostage for performing Conditions between them, the Duke of Lancaster in the King's Name, and the King himself by the Duke's procurement, demanded their Hostage; and for that they would not deliver him, they were committed to the Tower, from whence they escaped and took Sanctuary at Westminster. This highly offended the Duke of Lancaster, who thought that the having the Earl's Son might be some help to his Enterprise for the Kingdom of Castille. Whereupon Sir Ralph Ferreis and Sir Alan Boxhull Constable of the Tower, consulting with the Lord Latimer the Duke's Friend, resolved to fetch them back into the Tower, and on the 11 of Aug. 1378. with certain of the King's Servants and other armed men (about 50 in all) entered St. Peter's Church, and the Parties being then hearing of Mass, they laid Hands upon Shakel, drew him forth of it, and sent him to the Tower: But Hauley standing upon his defence, they murdered him in the Choir before the Stall of the Abbot, together with a Monk that besought them to forbear him in that place.  
The Archbishop of Canterbury with 5 of his Suffragans, openly pronounced Sir Ralph Ferreis and Sir Alan Boxhull, and all that were present with them at this Murder, accursed, and all them likewise that were aiding or counselling to it; the King, the Queen, and the Duke of Lancaster nominately excepted. This Excommunication for long after was denounced every Sunday, Wednesday and Friday in Paul's Church by the Bishop of London. And though the Duke was excepted in it, yet did it trouble him very fore for his Friends; it being commonly said, that they had done what was done, by his Commandment. He causeth therefore the Bishop, to be required by Letters from the King, to come to a Council holden at Windsor, but the Bishop would neither come nor stay the Curse. Whereupon the Duke said, that the Bishop's froward dealings were not to be born with; and that if the King would command him, he would gladly go to London and fetch the disobedient Prelate in despite of those Ribaulds (so he termed them) the Londoners. Hol. 421. col. 2.  
My method ties me to relate what followed. Yet I dare not suggest this wicked Sacrilege to be any cause thereof. For God's Judgements are secret; and no Author doth so apply them.  
The King himself seems excusable by reason of his tender Age, if the omission of Justice upon the Offenders in his riper Years lay not against him. His other Errors were many, as those also of his Grandfather which perhaps were visited upon him. God left him to follow evil Counsels, he lost the Hearts of his Subjects, was bereft of his Kingdom, thrown into Prison, and there miserably murdered, leaving no Issue to prosecute his Murderers.  
The Duke of Lancaster's Issue-male, as well those born in lawful Wedlock as Legitimate by Act of Parliament, in the 3d or 4th Generation were all extinct. And tho' the eldest Line obtained the Crown, yet was it pulled again from them by the Sword: King Henry VI. being also deprived of it, cast into Prison, and himself and Son murdered most unmercifully, as in lege talionis for that of Richard II.  
An. 1379, Rich. II. 3o. Sir John Arundel Brother to the Earl of Arundel, with many noble Knights and Esquires and other Soldiers, were sent to aid the Duke of Britain. Lying at Portsmouth for a Wind, he went to a Nunnery thereby, and entreated the Governess that he might lodge his Soldiers in her Monastery. She foreseeing the danger, besought him on her Knees not to desire it. Her Prayers availed not; he turned in his Soldiers. They quickly fell to Rapine; broke into the Chambers of the Nuns, and by report deflowered many of them and many other Virgins that were among them for Education, spoiling also the Country about. Upon the day they went to Ship, they took a Bride as she came from Church, and many Widows, Wives, and Maids out of the Monastery, to do them Villainy on Shipboard; and a Chalice off of the Altar from the Priest, having ended his Mass. Sir John Arundel having heard much complaint, regarded it not; but Sir Thomas Piercy, Sir Hugh Calverley and others (before they departed) made Proclamation, that those to whom their Soldiers had done wrong, should come and have Recompense; which they performed. The People therefore prayed for them and their Company, but cursed bitterly Sir John Arundel and his Soldiers; which was much aggravated by the Priest that lost the Chalice: For he drawing other Priests unto him, pursued them to the Seaside; and there after the manner of their Devotion cursed them with Bell, Book and Candle; and throwing a light Taper into the Sea, wished that they might be so extinguished.  
Not many hours after, there arose a storm, which the Master of Sir John's Ship (one Robert Rust of Blackeney) mistrusted by some sore tokens, and persuaded him to have stayed till it were passed; but Sir John would not. This grew so violent, as all presently despaired of Life. First, they threw out what they might to lighten the Ship. When that served not, the Soldiers with the same Arms wherewith before they had amorously embraced the Women, with the same now they tyrannously threw them overboard (60 in number, as was reported) and yet continued in the Jaws of Death for divers days together. Tossed thus with fears, they at last espied an Island on the Coast of Ireland. Sir John being glad thereof, furiously compelled the Mariners to make for it; tho' they importunately (for fear of Rocks) desired to have kept the Deep. Thrusting therefore between it and the Main, and finding nothing but horrible Rocks, their fear was multiplied, and their ship now began to take Water also. Yet at last they perceived where with difficulty they might climb up into the Island; and therefore running the ship on Ground (that being broken they might escape by the pieces of it) they got so near the Island, that Robert Rust the Master leaped to the sands, and many others following him. Then Sir John Arundel leaped also; and being on the sands he stood as out of danger, shaking the Water off him that he had taken in the ship, when as the place being a Quicksand, began suddenly to swallow him up; which the Master, Robert Rust, perceiving, stepped to him, and striving to help him out, a Billow coming upon them, washed them both into the Sea, where thus they ended their Lives, N. Musard a most valiant Esquire of Sir John's being also leaped on the sands and having hold of a piece of the Ship, was washed back and dashed in pieces against the Rocks: so also was one Derrick another Esquire, Sir Tho. Banaster, Sir N. Trompington, Sir Thomas de Dale, being leaped on the sands, and hindered by striving to outrun one another, the Billows fetched them also back into the Deep. Some escaping to the Island all wet, and finding no Houses there, it being the 16th of December, died for Cold. The rest with running and wrestling saved their Lives, but in great penury, from Thursday till Sunday at Noon. Then the storm being ended, the Irish by Boats fetched them to their Houses and relieved them. It is said, That Sir John Arundel lost in this storm (besides his Life) 52 Suits of very rich Apparel, much princely stuff, with his great Horse and other Horses and things of price, to the value of Ten thousand Marks; and twenty five other ships which followed him with Men, Horses and other Provision, all perishing with him.  
Touching the residue not guilty of this Outrage and Sacrilege, Sir Thomas Piercy, Sir Hugh Calverley, Sir William Elmham, and the rest of the Army, they were far and near dispersed on the Seas with the same dangers; but it pleased God to preserve them. Yet as soon as the storm was ended, a new Misfortune fell upon Sir Tho. Piercy; for being weak and weatherbeaten with all his Company, a Spanish Man of War now setteth upon him singled from the rest of the Navy, and drives him to bestir himself as he could; which he did so happily, as at last he took the Spaniard, and bringing him home, brought also the occasion of double Joy, one for his safety, the other for his victory. And then pawning that ship for 100 l. he presently furnished himself forth again, and with as great Joy arrived safely at Breast (whereof he was one of the Captains with Sir Hugh Calverly) and thus supplied that charge also very fortunately.  
Sir Hugh Calverley also and Sir William Elmham with the rest of those Ships, returned safely into other parts, and by the great Mercy of God lost not either Man, Horse, or any other thing, in all this so furious a Tempest. All this is much largerly related by Tho. Walsingham in An. 1379, p. 231. & seq.  
Though the Attempts of Rebels and Traitors be usually suppressed by the 
Richard. II. An. 4.  Power of the Prince; yet that notorious Rebel Wat Tyler and his Confederates prevailed so against King Richard II. that neither his (the King's) Authority, nor the Power of the Kingdom could resist them; insomuch as they became Lords of the City and Tower of London, and had the King himself so far in their disposition, as they got him to come and go, to do and forbear when and what they required: But after they had spoiled and burnt the Monastery of St. John's of Jerusalem, beheaded the Archbishop of Canterbury, and done some other acts of Sacrilege, their Fortune quickly changed; and their Captain Wat Tyler being in the greatest height of his Glory (with his Army behind him to do what he commanded; and the King fearfully before him, not able to resist) was upon the sudden wounded and surprised by the Mayor of London, his prosperous Success overturned, and both he and they (whom an Army could not erst subdue) are now by the Act of a single Man utterly broken and discomfited, and justly brought to their deserved Execution. Holinshed and Stow in 4 Rich. II.     

CHAP. VI  
The Attempt and Project upon the Lands of the Clergy in the Time of Henry IV. disappointed.  
BY that Time King Henry IV. was come to the Crown the Clergy of England had passed the Meridian of their greatness, and were onward in their declination. For the People now left to admire them, as before they had done, and by little and little to fall off from them in every Place being most distracted, though not wholly led away by the prime Lectures, Sermons, and Pamphlets of them that laboured for an alteration in Religion. The Commons also of Parliament, which usually do breath the Spirit of the People, not only envied their greatness, but thought it against reason, that those whom the Laity had raised, fed and fatted by their Alms and Liberality, should use such rigorous Jurisdiction (so they accounted it) over their Patrons and Founders, and against Religion also, that they who had devoted themselves to Spiritual contemplation should be so much entangled with the Secular affairs: But above all, that they who laboured not in the Commonwealth nor were the hundredth part of the People, should possess as great a Portion almost of the Kingdom, as the whole Body of the Laity. For an Estimate hereof had been taken anciently by the Knight's Fees of the Kingdom, which in Edward I. Time were found to be 67000, and that 28000 of them were in the Clergy's hands: So that they had gotten well towards one half of the Knight's Fees of the Kingdom, and had not the Statutes of Mortmain come in their way, they were like enough in a short time to have had the better part. Yet did not the Statutes otherwise hinder them, but that with the King's Licence they daily obtained great accessions, and might by the Time of King Henry IU. be thought probably enough to have half the Kingdom amongst them, if not more, considering that out of that part, which remained to the Laity, they had after a manner a tenth part by way of Tithe, and besides that an inestimable Revenue by way of Altarage, Offerings, Oblations, Obventions, Mortuaries, Church-Duties, Gifts, Legacies, etc.  
The Parliament therefore 6 Henry IV. (called the Laymen's Parliament that all Lawyers were shut out of it) casting a malevolent Eye hereon, did not seek by a Moderate course a Reformation, but as may be observed in other cases, to cure a great excess by an extreme defect, and at one blow, to take from the Clergy all their Temporalities.  
This was propounded to the King by Sir John Cheiney their Speaker, who in former time had been himself a Deacon, and lapping then some of the Milk of the Church found it so sweet, as he now would eat of the Breasts that gave it. He enforced this proposition with all the Rhetoric and Power he had, and tickled so the Ears of the King, that if the Archbishop of Canterbury had not that day stood, like Moses, in the gap, the evils that succeeded might even then have fallen upon the Clergy. But the Archbishop declaring, that the Commons sought thereby their own enriching, knowing well that they should be sharers in this Royal prey, assured the King, that as he and his Predecessors (Edward III. and Richard II.) had by the Counsel of the Commons confiscated the Goods and Lands of the Cells or Monasteries, that the Frenchmen and Normans did possess in England, being worth many thousands of Gold, and was not that day the richer thereby half a Mark; so if he should now (which God forbid) fulfil their wicked desire, he should not be one Farthing the richer the next Year following. This demonstrative and prophetical Speech pronounced with great vehemency by the Archbishop, it so wrought upon the Heart of the King, that he professed, he would leave the Church in better State than he found it, rather than in worse. And thus that Hideous Cloud of Confusion, which hung over the Head of the Clergy vapoured suddenly at this time into nothing. Yet did it lay the Train that Henry V. did make a sore Eruption, and in Henry VIIIth's Time blew up at the Monasteries. The event of which project of the Speakers, his lineal Heir Sir Tho. Cheiney, Lord Warden of the Cinque Port did then behold, and shortly felt the wrathful Hand of God, upon his Family; whether for this or any other Sin I dare not judge.  
But being reputed to be the greatest Man of Possessions in the whole Kingdom, in so much as Queen Elizabeth on a time said merrily unto him, that they two (meaning herself and him) were the two best Marriages in England, which afterward appeared to be true in that his Heir was said to sue his Livery at 3100, never done by any other. Yet was this huge Estate all wasted on a sudden.  
Yet when the Commons did desire to have the Lands of the Clergy, they did not design, or wish that they should be otherwise employed, than for public Benefit of the whole Kingdom, and that all Men should be freed thereby from payment of Subsidies or Taxes to maintain Soldiers for the Defence of the Kingdom. For they suggested, that the value of the Lands would be sufficient Maintenance for a standing Army, and all great Officers and Commanders to conduct and manage the same, for the safety of the Public; as that they would maintain 150 Lords, 1500 Knights, 6000 Esquires, and an 100 Hospitals for maimed Soldiers. Thus they projected many good uses to be performed not to enrich private Men, or to sell them for small Sums of Money, which would quickly be wasted; but to be a perpetual standing Maintenance for an Army and all public Necessities.  
Priories Alien, not being Conventual, 
A▪ D. 1414. 2. Hen. V.  with their Possessions, except the College of Foderinghay were by the Parliament given to King Henry V. and his Heirs, he suppressed them to the Number of 190 and more. Stow, p. 563. But gave some of them to the College of Foderinghay, p. 551. King Henry VI. gave them afterward to the two Colleges of the Kings in Cambridge and that of Eton; yet Henry V. died young, his Son Henry VI after many Passions of Fortune was twice deprived of his Kingdom, and at last cruelly murdered, and Prince Edward his Grandchild, Son of Henry VI cruelly also slain by the Servants of King Edward IU. Stow, p. 704, 705.  
Cardinal Wolsey intending to build a College at Oxford, 
A. D. 1527. 16. H. VIII. circiter.  and another at Ipswich, obtained licence of Pope Clement the 7th. to suppress about 40 Monasteries. In execution whereof he used principally five Persons, whereof one was slain by another of these his Companions; that other was hanged for it: a third drowned himself in a Well. The fourth being well known to be worth 200 l. (in those days) became in three Years time so poor that he begged to his Death. Dr. Allen the 5th. being made a Bishop in Ireland, was there cruelly maimed. The Cardinal, that obtained the licence, fell most grievously into the King's displeasure, lost all he had, was fain to be relieved by his Followers, and died miserably, not without the suspicion of poisoning himself. The Pope that granted the licence was beaten out of his City of Rome, saw it sacked by the Duke of Bourbon's Army, and himself then besieged in the Castle of St. Angelo, whither he fled, escaping narrowly with his life, (Stow, p. 880.) taken Prisoner, scorned, ransomed, and at last poisoned as some reported. But these five were not the only Actors of this business. For Mr. Fox saith, That the doing hereof was committed to the Charge of Thomas Cromwell; in the execution whereof he showed himself very forward and industrious. In such sort, that in handling thereof he procured to himself much grudge with divers of the superstitious sort, and some also of noble Calling about the King etc. (in Henry VIII. p. 1150. col. b.) Well, as he had his part in the one, let him take it also in the other: for he lost all he had, and his Head to boot; as after shall appear in the Progress of these his Actions.  

Annotations upon this Chapter.  
Whereas it is said that the Knight's Fees in Edward Ist. Time were found to be 67000, and that 28000 of them were in the hands of the Clergy; it is to be considered, that if the Account be rightly made, there could not be above a third part; for there is as much Land in base Tenors, that were never within the Fees; besides all Crown-lands, and Eleemosynary-lands, Copy-holds, Gavel-kind, Burrough-English, etc.  
Whereas it is said, That when the Commons did desire to have the Lands of the Clergy taken away, they did not design or wish that they should be otherwise employed than for the public Benefit, and that all Men should be freed from Subsidies and Taxes: and they suggested also that the Lands of the Clergy would maintain a great Army to be always ready, and for the Conduct thereof many Lords, Knights, and Esquires, should be maintained out of the Lands; and also many Hospitals provided for such Soldiers as should happen to be maimed in the Wars.  
And to this purpose it is fit to set down here the Words of my Lord Coke, 4 Institut. pag. 44.  

Advice concerning new and plausible Projects and Offers in Parliament.  
When any plausible Project is made in Parliament to draw the Lords or Commons to assent to any Act, (especially in matters of weight and importance) if both Houses do give upon the matter projected and premised, their consent, it shall be most necessary (they being trusted for the Commonwealth) to have the matter projected and premised (which moved the Houses to consent) to be established in the same Act, lest the Benefit of the Act be taken, and the matter projected and premised, never performed; and so the Houses of Parliament perform not the Trust reposed in them. As it fell out (taking one Example for many) in the Reign of Henry VIII. On the King's behalf the Members of both Houses were informed in Parliament, that no King or Kingdom was safe but where the King had three Abilities.  
First, To live of his own, and able to defend his Kingdom upon any sudden Invasion or Insurrection.  
Secondly, To aid his Confederates, otherwise they would never assist him.  
Thirdly, To reward his well deserving Servants.  
And the Project was, if the Parliament would give unto him all the Abbeys, Priories, Friaries, Nunneries, and other Monasteries, that for ever in time to come he would take order, that the same should not be converted to private Use. But,  
First, That his Exchequer for the purposes aforesaid should be enriched.  
Secondly, The Kingdom strengthened by a continual Maintenance of 40000 well-trained Soldiers, with skilful Captains and Commanders.  
Thirdly, For the benefit and ease of the Subject, whenever afterwards (as was projected,) in any time to come should be charged with Subsidies, Fifteenths, Loans, or Common-aids.  
Fourthly, Lest the Honour of the Realm should receive any diminution of Honour by the dissolution of the said Monasteries, there being 29 Lords of Parliament of the Abbots and Priors (that held of the King per Baroniam, whereof more in the next leaf) that the King would create a Number of Nobles which we omit.  
The said Monasteries were given to the King by authority of divers Acts of Parliament, but no provision was herein made for the said Project, or any part thereof. Only ad favendum populum these Possessions were given, to the King, his Heirs, and Successors, to do and use therewith his and their own Wills; To the Pleasure of Almighty God, and the Honour and Profit of the Realm.  
Now observe the Catastrophe. In the same Parliament of 32. Henry VIII. when the great and opulent Priory of St. John's of Jerusalem was given to the King, he demanded and had a Subsidy, both of the Clergy and Laity; and the like he had in 34. Henry VIII. and in 37. Henry VIII. he had another Subsidy. And since the dissolution of the said Monasteries, he exacted divers Loans, and against Law received the same.  
Thus the great Judge, the Lord Coke doth severely censure the ill-doing under Henry VIII. and showeth, that notwithstanding the infinite Wealth in Money, Lands, and other Riches, which came to the King by the dissolutions, yet the People were burdened with more Taxes, Subsidies, and Loans, than ever in former Times. That it fully appeareth, that as the goodly pretences to free the People from Subsidies and several Payments, were but empty and vain pretences, only ad favendum populum, to deceive and abuse the People.  
So in our late long Parliament many public Projects and Pretences were proposed, and the Presbyterian party were zealous to advance the Throne of Christ, and the Tribunal of Christ, with all his holy Ordinances in full force, as their Language did propose it. But it was quickly discovered that no such Matters were truly intended, but only the Land of the Church must be taken to maintain Armies, to bring in the Scots-Highlanders, Red-shanks, Goths and Vandals, to subvert the King, his Crown and Dignity; and in the end to take all the Crown-lands, and to divide them amongst the Soldiers and others at their pleasures.  
But the dismal Events and tragical Mischiefs that have happened might have been foreseen and prevented, but that most Men are ignorant of our own Histories and Chronicles, as well as of foreign Histories and Examples, wherein they might easily have observed the fearful ends that have followed upon the like doings, both in our own Kingdoms and other neighbouring Nations, as France, Germany and Bohemia, especially within these last forty Years. For as Solomon saith, There is no new thing under the Sun. For the like hath happened often both at home and abroad, but that Men will take no warning by any Examples, but persist in their wicked and sacrilegious Attempts, tho' in the end they bring confusion and destruction upon themselves.  
Whereas it is said, that when Henry V. suppressed the Priories Aliens, a good part of their Lands was given to other Religious Houses, both by that King and his Son Henry VI who bestowed a great part of those Lands upon Colleges in the Universities, it is true; but in our Reformation there is no such care taken to convert any part of the Church-lands to pious and public Uses, but the Cormorants devour all.  
They spoke also of maintaining many Hospitals for relieving of maimed Soldiers: in our present time there is an infinite Number of maimed Soldiers, but no Hospitals provided for them; whereas they should have provided some good Number: and withal an hundred Bedlams to entertain pious, zealous, and outrageous Puritans, who have lost their Wits and Senses, and are become extremely mad with distempered Zeal, as the Anabaptists and Fifth-Monarchy-men, Quakers, and the rest of the Rabble.  
Humphrey Duke of Gloucester coming to the Parliament at St. Edmundsbury, 
25. H. VI A. D. 1447. Cign. Cant. Voc. Hursta. holinsh. Stow in hoc An. pa▪ 639.  and lodging there, in a place (as Leland saith) sacred to our Saviour; he was by the Lord John Beaumond then High-Constable of England, the Duke of Buckingham, the Duke of Somerset, and others arrested of High-Treason suggested; and being kept in Ward in the same place, was the Night following (viz. 24. Febr.) cruelly murdered by De la Pole Duke of Suffolk. Some judged him to have been strangled; some to have a hot Spit thrust up his Fundament, some to be smothered between two Featherbeds. But all indifferent Persons (saith Hall) might well understand that he died some violent Death. 
In Chron▪  Being found dead in his Bed, his Body was showed to the Lords and Commons, as though he had died of a Palsy or Imposthume, which others do publish. 
Stow. in An. 1447. York, pa.   
But it falleth out, that this Lord John Viscount Beaumond, and the Duke of Buckingham, were both slain in the Battle of Northampton, 38. Henry VI The Duke of Somerset taken Prisoner at the Battle of Exham, 
York, pa. 480.  An. 1462. and there beheaded. The Duke of Suffolk being banished the Land, was in passing the Seas surprised by a Ship of the Duke of Exeter's, and brought back to Dover-Road; where in a Cockboat at the Commandment of the Captain, 
Leland holinsh. pag. 627.  his Head was stricken off, and both Head and Body left on the Shore.     

CHAP. VII.  
Of the great Sacrilege and Spoil of Church-lands committed by Henry VIII. His promise to employ the Lands to the advancement of Learning, Religion, and Relief of the Poor. The preamble of the Statute 27. Henry VIII. to that purpose which is omitted in the printed Statutes. The neglect of that Promise. The great increase of Lands, and Wealth that came to the King by the Dissolution, Quadruple to the Crown-lands. The Accidents which happened to the King and his Posterity: to the Agents under him, as the Lord Cromwell and others, to the Crown, and the whole Kingdom, and to the new Owners of the Lands. A View of the Parliaments that passed the Acts of the 27 and 31 of Henry VIII. and of the Lords that voted in them, and what happened to them and their Families. The Names of the Lords in the 27 of Henry VIII. omitted in the Record, but those of the 31 Henry VIII. are remaining being most the same Men. The Names of the Lords Spiritual in those Parliaments, and the great Spoil of Libraries and Books. The Names of the Lords Temporal in those Parliaments with the Misfortunes in their Families, and Dignity abated. What hath happened to the Crown itself by the loss of Crown-lands. What hath happened to the Kingdom in general, and the great Injury done to the Poor. The Mischief of the Tenure of Knights-service in Capite, which by Act is to be reserved upon all Church-lands that pass from the Crown. The ancient Original of Wardship from the Goths and Lombard's, the abuse of it amongst us. The prediction of Egebred an old Hermit. The unfortunate Calamities of the Palsgrave and other Princes of Germany, by invading the Patrimony of the Church. How careful the Heathens were not to misuse the things consecrated to their Gods. King James' Letter to the University of Oxon about Impropriations.  
I Am now come off the Rivers into the Ocean of Iniquity and Sacrilege, where whole thousands of Churches and Chapels dedicated to the Service of God in the same manner, that the rest are which remain to us at this day, together with the Monasteries and other Houses of Religion and intended Piety, were by King Henry VIII. in a temper of indignation against the Clergy of that time mingled with insatiable Avarice, sacked and razed as by an Enemy. It is true the Parliament did give them to him, but so unwillingly (as I have heard) that when the Bill had stuck long in the lower House, and could get no passage, he commanded the Commons to attend him in the Forenoon in his Gallery, where he let them wait till late in the Afternoon, and then coming out of his Chamber, walking a turn or two amongst them, and looking angrily on them, first on one side, then on the other, at last, I hear (saith he) that my Bill will not pass; but I will have it pass, or I will have some of your Heads; and without other Rhetoric or Persuasion returned to his Chamber. Enough was said, the Bill passed, and all was given him as he desired.  
First, In the 27th Year of his Reign all Monasteries, etc. not having 200 l. per Annum in Revenue; then in Anno 31, all the rest through the Kingdom; in An. 32. cap. 24. the Hospitals and Hospital Churches of St. John's of Jerusalem in England and Ireland, with their Lands and Appurtenances: and in Anno 37. cap. 4. all Colleges, Free-Chapels, Chauntries, Hospitals, Fraternities, and Stipendiary-Priests made to have continuance for ever, being contributory to the payment of First-fruits, Tenths, etc. what should have been next (God knows) Bishoprics I suppose and Cathedral-Churches, which had been long assailed in the time of R. II. H. IV. and H. V. but the next Year was the time of his account to Almighty God, which, as it is said, he passed in great penitency for his Sins. It is to be observed that the Parliament did give all these to the King, yet did they not ordain them to be demolished or employed to any irreligious Uses, leaving it more to the conscience and piety of the King, who in a Speech to the Parliament promised to perform the Trust, wherein he saith,— I cannot a little rejoice, when I consider the perfect truth and confidence, which you have put in me, in my good doings and just proceedings; for you without my desire and request have committed to my order and disposition, all Chauntries, Colleges and Hospitals, and other places specified in a certain Act, firmly trusting that I will order them to the Glory of God and the Profit of the Commonwealth. Surely if I contrary to your expectation should suffer the Ministers of the Churches to decay, or Learning (which is so great a Jewel) to be minished, or the poor and miserable to be unrelieved, you might well say, that I being put in such a special Trust, as I am in this Case, were no trusty Friend to you, nor charitable to my Emne-Christen, neither a lover of the public Wealth; nor yet one that feared God, to whom account must be rendered of all our doings; doubt not I pray you, but your expectation shall be served more godly and goodly, than you will wish or desire, as hereafter you shall plainly perceive.  
So that the King hereby doth not only confess the Trust committed to him by the Parliament in the same Manner, that the Act assigns it, viz. to be for the Glory of God, and the Profit of the Commonwealth; but he descendeth also into the particulars of the Truth, 
f. trust.  as namely for the maintenance of the Ministers, and Advancement of Learning, and Provision for the Poor.  
So likewise in the Statute 27. Henry VIII. c. 28. the Preamble doth expressly ordain that the Lands, Houses, and Revenues should be converted to better Uses, as appears fully in the Preamble, which because it is omitted in the printed Edition of the Statutes shall here follow out of the Record— For as much as manifest Sins, etc. vid. Monast. Angl. T. 1. p.  
But notwithstanding these fair Pretences and Projects little was performed: for Desolation presently followed this Dissolution; the Axe and the Mattock ruined almost all the Chief and most magnificent Ornaments of the Kingdom, viz. 376 of the lesser Monasteries, 645 of the greater sort, 90 Colleges, 110 Religious Hospitals, 2374 Chantries and Free-Chapels. All these Religious Houses, Churches, Colleges and Hospitals being about 3500 little and great in the whole, did amount to an inestimable Sum, especially if their Rents be accounted as they are now improved in these days. Among this Multitude it is needless to speak of the great Church of St. Mary in Bulloign, who upon the taking of that Town in Anno 1544, he caused to be pulled down, and a Mount to be raised in the place thereof for planting of Ordinances to annoy a Siege. 
Speed, p. 231. Number 128.   
I will not be so bold as to father that which followed upon this that preceded, but the Analogy of my Discourse, and the Course of [this] History do lead me to relate what happened after this, (1) to the King himself, (2) to his Children and Posterity, (3) to them that were Agents in the business, (4) to the Crown itself, (5) to the whole Kingdom generally, (6) to private Owners of these Monasteries particularly.  
1. First, Then touching the King himself. The Revenue that came to him in ten Years space was more, if I mistake it not, than Quadruple that of the Crown-lands besides a Magazine of Treasure raised out of the Money, Place, Jewels, Ornaments, and Implements of Churches, Monasteries, and Houses with their Goods, State, and Cattle, First-fruits and Tenths, given by the Parliament in the 26th of his Reign. Together with a Subsidy, Tenth and Fifteenth from the Laity at the same time. To which I may add the incomparable Wealth of Cardinal Wolsey a little before confiscated also to the King, and a large Sum raised by Knighthood in the 25th of this Reign.  
A Man may justly wonder how such an Ocean of Wealth should come to be exhausted in so short a time of Peace: But God's blessing as it seemeth was not upon it; for within four Years after he had received all this, and had ruined and sacked 376 of the Monasteries, and brought their Substance to his Treasury; besides all the goodly Revenues of his Crown, he was drawn so dry, that the Parliament in the 31st. was constrained by his importunity to supply his wants with the Residue of all the Monasteries of the Kingdom 645 great ones, and illustrious with all their Wealth and Princelike Possessions. Yet even then was not this King so sufficiently furnished for building of a few Blockhouses for defence of the Coast, but the next year after, he must have another Subsidy of 4 Fifteen to bear out his Charges. And (lest it should be too little) all the Houses, Lands and Goods of the Knights of St. John at Jerusalem, both in England and Ireland.  
Had not Ireland come thus in my way I had forgotten it, but to increase the Floods of this Sea, all the Monasteries of Ireland likewise flowed into it by Act of Parliament the next year following, being the 33d. of his Reign to the Number one and other of—  
But as the Red-sea by the miraculous Hand of God was once dried up, so was this Sea of Wealth by the wasteful Hand of this Prince immediately so dried up, as the very next year, viz. Regni 34. the Parliament was drawn again to grant him a great Subsidy, for in the Statute-book it is so styled: and this not serving his turn, he was yet driven not only to enhance his Gold and Silver-money in Anno 36, but against the Honour of a Prince to coin base Money, and when all this served not his turn in the very same year to exact a Benevolence of his Subjects to their grievous Discontent. Perceiving therefore that nothing could fill the gulf of his effusion, and that there was now a just cause of great expense, by reason of his Wars at Bulloign, and in France, they granted him in the 37th. Year 2 Subsidies at once, and four Fifteen; and for a Corollary all the Colleges, Free-Chapels, Chantries, Hospitals, etc. beforementioned in Number 2374. upon confidence that he should dispose them (as he promised solemnly in the Parliament) to the Glory of God, who in truth (for aught that I can hear) had little part thereof.  
The next year was his fatal Period, otherwise it was much to be feared that Deans and Chapters, if not Bishoprics, (which have been long leveled at) had been his next design, for he took a very good Say of them, by exchanging Lands with them, before the Dissolution, giving them racked Lands and small things for goodly Manners and Lordships, and also Impropriations for their solid Patrimony in finable Lands; like the exchange that Palamedes made with Glaucus, much thereby increasing his own Revenues; as he took 72 from York, besides other Lands, Tenements, Advowsons', Patronages, etc. in the 37th of his Reign, which are mentioned particularly in the Statute 37. Henry VIII. cap. 16. He took also 30 and above, as I remember, in the 27th. Year from the Bishop of Norwich, whom he left not (that I can learn) one Foot of the goodly Possessions of his Church, save the Palace at Norwich; and how many I know not, in the 37th. Year also from the Bishop of London.  
I speak not of his prodigal Hand in the Blood of his Subjects, which no doubt much alienated the Hearts of them from him. But God in these eleven Years space visited him with 5 or 6 Rebellions. In Lincolnshire, Anno 28, and 3 one after another in Yorkshire, Anno 33; one in Somersetshire, Anno 29, and again in Yorkshire, Anno 33. And though Rebellions and Insurrections are not to be defended, yet they discover unto us what the displeasure and dislike was of the common People for spoiling the Revenues of the Church; whereby they were great losers, the Clergy being merciful Landlords, and bountiful Benefactors to all Men by their great Hospitality and Works of Charity.  
Thus much touching his own Fortunes accompanying the Wealth and Treasure gotten by him, as we have declared by confiscating the Monasteries; wherein the prophetical Speech that the Archbishop of Canterbury used in the Parliament 6. Henry IV. seemeth performed, That the King should not be one farthing the richer the next Year following.  

II. What happened to the King's Children and Posterity.  
Touching his Children and Posterity, after the time that he entered into these Courses, he had two Sons and three Daughters, whereof one of each kind died Infants: the other three succeeding in the Crown without Posterity. His base Son the Duke of Richmond died also without Issue; and as the Issue of Nebuchodonosor was extinct, and his Kingdom given to another Nation the 68th. Year after he had rifled the Temple of Jerusalem, and taken away the holy Vessels; so about the same period, that King Henry VIII. began to sack the Monasteries, with their Churches, and things dedicated to God, was his whole Issue extinct, Male and Female, base and legitimate, and his Kingdom transferred to another Nation; and therein to another Royal Family (which is now His Majesty's singular happiness) that had no hand in the like depredation of the Monasteries and Churches of that Kingdom, there committed by the tumultuous, if not rebellious Subjects. Contrary as it seems to the good liking of our late Sovereign King James, who (as is reported) said, that if he had found the Monasteries standing he would not have pulled them down; not meaning to continue them in their superstitious Uses, but to employ them, as Chorah's censers to some godly purposes. Wherein most piously he declared himself both in restoring (as I hear) some Bishoprics and divers Appropriations in Scotland, and also by moving the Universities of England to do the like, as by his gracious Letter doth appear, which shall here following be expressed in the end. So his Grandfather King James the 4th. of Scotland, when he was solicited by Sir Ralph Sadler, than Ambassador from King Henry; to augment his Estate by taking into his Hands the Abbeys; James refused, saying, What need I take them into mine Hands, when I may have any thing I require of them? And if there be Abuses in them I will reform them, for there be a great many good. Which was a wise answer, and if King Henry had done the like here, he might have had an immense and ample Revenue out of the Monasteries and old Bishoprics, while they enjoyed their Lands (being a third part of the Kingdom, as appears by Doomsday-Book) by way of First-fruits, Tenths, Pensions, and Corrodies yearly; that he should never have needed at any time to ask one Subsidy of his Subjects. To return where we left off, having spoken of the extinguishment of the Issue of King Henry, whereof the immortally renowned Princess Queen Elizabeth, was the golden period. Let us cast our Eyes upon the principal Agents and Contrivers of this Business.   

III. What happened to the Principal Agents.  
The Lord Cromwell was conceived to be the principal mover, and prosecutor thereof, both before and in the Parliament of 27 and 37 Hen. VIII. and for his good service (impenso & impendendo) upon the 18th of April before the beginning of the Parliament of 31, which was on the last of the Month, he was created Earl of Essex, and his Son Gregory made Lord Cromwell, yet ere the Year was past, from the end of the Parliament of 31 he fell wholly into the King's Displeasure, and in July 32 he was attainted and beheaded, professing at his Death, that he had been seduced, and died a Catholic. His Son Gregory Lord Cromwell, being, as I said, made a Baron in the life time of his Father, and invested with divers great Possessions of the Church, supported that new risen Family from utter ruin; but his Grandchild Edward Lord Cromwell wasting the whole Inheritance, sold the head of his Barony Oukham in Rutlandshire, and exchanging some of the rest (all that remained) with the E. of Devonshire for Lalale in Ireland, left himself as little Land in England, as his great Grandfather left to the Monasteries, and was I think the first and only Peer of the Realm not having any Land within it: by the feudal Law his Barony I doubt (if it had been feudal) had likewise gone; but by the Mercy of God, a Noble Gentleman now holds the Style of it, and long may he.  
Having sailed thus far in this Ocean, we will advance yet further (if it please God to give us a favourable passage) and take a view of the Parliament themselves, that put the wrackful Sword in the King's Hands. The chief whereof was (as we have said before) that of the 27 Year of his Reign, touching smaller Houses, and that of 31 touching the greater. I have sought the Office of the Clerk of the Upper House of Parliament to see what Lords were present at the passing of the Acts of Dissolution; but so ill have they been kept, as that the Names of 27 [H. 8.] were not then to be found: and farther since I have not searched for them. The other of 31 [H. 8.] I did find, and doubt not but the most of them were the same, which also sat in the Parliament of 27, tho' some of them of 27 were either dead or not present in 31. Those that were present at the passing of the Bill of 31 I have here under mentioned in such order as I therein did find them; and will as faithfully as I can attain unto the knowledge of them, relate what after hath befallen themselves and their Posterity.  

The Names of the Lords Spiritual who were present in the Parliament upon Friday the 23d of May 31 Hen. VIII. being the 15th day of the Parliament, when the Bill for assuring the Monasteries, etc. to the King was passed.  
1. The Lord Cromwell Vicegerent for the King in the Spiritualties (and having place thereby both in the Parliament and Convocation-house above the Archbishops) was beheaded the 28th of July, in the next Year, being the 32 of the King. Confessing at his death publicly, That he had been seduced but died a Papist.  
2. The Archbishop of Canterbury, Tho. Cranmer D. D. was burnt in the Castle-ditch at Oxford, 21. March 1556, 3 Mary.  
3. The Archbishop of York, Dr. Edw. Lee died 13th of Septemb. 1544. 36 H. 8.  
4. The Bishop of London John Stokesley died within 4 Months after, viz. 3. Septemb. 1539.  
5. The Bishop of Durham, Cuthbert Tonstal, was imprisoned in the Tower all King Edward's time for Religion, and deprived of his Bishopric, and the same inter alia Sacrilegia non pauca (saith Godwin) dissolved and given to the King by Parliament 7 Edw. VI but the King being immediately taken away, Queen Mary restored both it and him, An. 1ᵒ. Parl. 2. c. 3. and Queen Elizabeth again deprived him, and committed him to the Archbishop of Canterbury, where he died in July 1559.  
6. The Bishop of Winchester, Stephen Gardiner, was committed to the Tower 30: June 1548, in Edw. VI's time; for that he had not declared in his Sermon the day before at Paul's-Cross certain Opinions appointed to him by the Council. Two Years after, because he approved not the Reformation, he was deprived of his Bishopric, and kept in Prison all King Edward's days, but restored by Queen Mary. He died of the Gout 12. Nou. 1555, being the 3d of her Reign.  
7. The Bishop of Exeter, John Voisey, (alias Horman) had the Education of the King's Daughter the Lady Mary, and discontented with the Reformation aliened the Lands of the Bishopric to Courtiers or made long Leases of them, at little Rent, leaving scarcely 7 or 8 Manors of 22, and them also of the least, and leased or laden with Pensions. Nefandum Sacrilegium, saith Godwin. Being suspected of the Rebellion of Devonshire about the change of Religion, he was put from his Bishopric, but restored by Queen Mary, and died 1555, Mar. 3.  
8. The Bishop of Lincoln, John Longland, the King's Confessor died 1547, 1 Edw. VI  
9 The Bishop of Bath and Wells, John Clerk, carried and commended in an Oration to the Cardinals the King's Book against Luther with much commendation: But being afterwards sent in Ambassage to the Duke of Cleve, to show the reason, why the King renounced his Marriage with the Lady Ann the Duke's Sister; for the reward of his unwelcome Message was poisoned (as they said) in Germany, and returning with much ado died in England in Febr. 1540, i.e. 32 Hen. 8.  
10. The Bishop of Ely, Thomas Goodrick, continued from and in 26 Hen. 8. till 1. Maii 1. Mariae.  
11. The Bishop of Bangor, John Salcot (alias Capen) Abbot of Hide was consecrated 19 Apr. next before this Parliament, and translated to Salisbury in August following, where it seems he continued till Q. Mary's time.  
12. The Bishop of Salisbury, Nic. Shaxton, being consecrated 27 Hen 8. was put out July 1539, i e. 31 Hen. 8. together with Latimer, and for the same cause, but recanted.  
13. The Bishop of Worcester, Hugh Latimer, made 27 Hen. 8. renounced his Bishopric in July 31 of the King, and was burnt with Dr. Ridley at Oxon. 16. October, 1559.  
14. The Bishop of Rochester, Nich. Heath, made 4. April before this Parliament in 31 Hen. 8. and about 4 Years after translated to Worcester, was deposed by Edw. 6. but made Archbishop of York 1 Mariae afterwards, also Chancellor of England.  
15. The Bishop of Chichester, Richard Samson, made June 5. 1536, and 28 Hen. 8. was translated to Lichfield 12. May, 1543. To flatter the King he wrote an Apology for his Supremacy, yet in the Year of this Parliament 31. he was committed to the Tower for relieving such as were imprisoned for denying it. But it seems his Apology was written after this Commitment to recover Favour: About 2 Ed. 6. he declared himself for the Pope, whom he had written against, and so after divers turnings and returnings he died 1554, 2 Mar.  
16. The Bishop of Norwich, William Rugg, (alias Rupp) made 1536, 28 Hen. 8. and died 1550 about 4 or 5 Edw. 6.  
17. The Bishop of St. David's, William Barlow, was translated hither from St. Asaph in April 1536, 28 Hen. 8. and by King Edw. after to Bath and Wells; fled into Germany in Qu. Mary's time, and 2 Eliz. was made Bishop of Chichester.  
18. The Bishop of St. Asaph, Robert Porpey (alias Werbington or Warton) was made 2. July, 28. Hen. 8. where having sat 18 Years, and nequissimo Sacrilegio, sold and spoiled the Lands of the Bishopric by long Leases, he was by Qu. Mary, An. 1. translated to Hereford, where he sat almost till her death.  
19 The Bishop of Landaff, Rob. Holgate, 25. March, 1537, 28. Hen. S. and in the 36th of his Reign translated to the Archbishopric of York, and by Qu. Mary at her entrance committed to the Tower, where within half a Year he was deprived.  
20. The Bishop of Carlisle, Rob. Aldrich, was elected 18. July, 1537, 29 Hen. 8. and died 5 Mar. 1555.   
Concerning the Bishops it doth not appear how they gave their Voices; but it may well be supposed that divers of them were against a total suppression; and seeing in other Acts it is recorded after that when a Bill was granted with an unanimous consent of all parties, none dissenting, that then it was passed Nemine dissentiente: yet it is not so recorded upon this, but although many might descent, and that publicly, yet there was a major part of Temporal Lords present, and so carried it by Voices. It is testified of Bishop Latimer, that he much desired that two or three Abbeys of the greater sort might be preserved in every Shire for pious and charitable Uses: Which was a wise and godly motion, and perhaps the occasion that the King did convert some (in part) to good purposes: Yet the Desolation was so universal that Jo. Bale doth much lament the loss and spoil of Books and Libraries in his Epistle upon Leland's Journal Leland being employed by the King to survey and preserve the choicest Books in their Libraries.) If there had been in every Shire of England (saith Bale) but one solemn Library to the preservation of those Noble Works, and Preferment of good Learning in our Posterity, it had been yet somewhat, but to destroy all without consideration, it is and will be unto England for ever a most horrible Infamy amongst the grave Seniors of other Nations. Adding further, that they who got and purchased the Religious Houses at the Dissolution of them, took the Libraries as part of the Bargain and Booty— reserving of those Library Books, some to serve their Jakes, some to scour their Candlesticks, and some to rub their Boots, some they sold to the Grocers and Soap-sellers, and some they sent over Sea to the Bookbinders; not in small numbers, but at times whole Shipfuls to the wondering of foreign Nations. And after he also addeth, I know a Merchantman, which all this time shall be nameless, that bought the Contents of two noble Libraries for 40s. a piece, a shame it is to be spoken: this stuff hath he occasioned instead of Grey Paper by the space of more than these ten Years, and yet he hath enough for many Years to come: a prodigious Example is this and to be abhorred of all men who love their Nation as they should do. And well he might exclaim, a prodigious Example, it being a most wicked and detestable injury to Religion and Learning: Yet thus are Men often transported with Passion in the heat of Reformation, and fiery Zeal without Wisdom.  

The Temporal Lords present in Parliament, 23 Maii, 31 Hen. VIII.  
1. Thomas Lord Audley of Walden, Lord Chancellor, died without Issue-male, 30. Apr. 1544, 3 ⅚ Hen. 8. Margaret his sole Daughter and Heir being first married to Henry Dudley, Son of John Duke of Northumberland, slain at St. Quintin's, without Issue, Anno 1557. After a second Wife to Thomas Duke of Norfolk, who was beheaded in June 1572. By him she had Issue, Thomas, created by King James Lord Howard of Walden and after Earl of Suffolk, and made Lord Treasurer, but put out of his place and fined in the Star-Chamber, termino ... Anno ... for miscarriage thereof, and grievously afflicted by the wicked and odious practices of his Daughter Frances, first married to the Earl of Essex, then divorced and married to the Earl of Somerset; and they both attainted and adjudged to death for the murder of Sir Thomas Overbury.  
2. The Duke of Norfolk at that time, viz. in both Parliaments of 31 and 27 was Thomas Howard (the third Duke of that renowned Family) who suffering the spite of Fortune, was upon the 12th of December, in the 28th of the King, committed to the Tower, with his magnanimous Son and Heir apparent Henry Earl of Surrey. Upon being first arraigned and attainted, the King lying on his Deathbed, caused [him] to be beheaded 19 Jan. and deceasing himself on the 28th of the same Month, left the sorrowful Duke in Prison, where he remained, as I take it, till Queen Mary set him at liberty to go against Wyatt, and being nothing fortunate in that employment, the Earl of Pembroke was put in his room and had the glory of the Service. Thomas Howard, Son of Henry Earl of Surrey beheaded, and Grandchild of the last Duke was restored by Q. Mary and made the 4th Duke of Norfolk, but affecting Marriage with the Qu. of Scots was heretofore attainted and beheaded in June 1572. Philip his eldest Son was in right of his Mother, and by conveyance of the Castle and Honour of Arundel unto him, Earl of Arundel, and after restored in Blood 23d of Eliz. yet byfate of his Noble Family, after long imprisonment and Attainder, died in the Tower, where his most honourable Son, after restitution to his Earldom and other Dignities, with a reinvesting of the great Office of Earl Marshal of England, but now by God's Blessing and his own singular Wisdom hath gotten the upper hand of Fortune, and is likely to leave it to a temperate and virtuous Son.  
3. The Duke of Suffolk both in this Parliament and in that of 27 was Charles Brandon, and tho' he was not present at the passing of the Bill, yet being a principal Parliament-man, the King's Brother by Marriage, and his minion in Affection, it is very credible that he was a very great advancer of the business. He had four Wives, no Issue by the first, a base Daughter, and another by a second born in Wedlock. A Son Henry that was Earl of Lincoln by his 3d Wife the King's Sister and Qu. of France, and two Daughters and two Sons Henry and Charles by his fourth Wife. His Son Henry Earl of Lincoln died without Issue in the life time of his Father the Duke. His other Son Henry was Duke of Suffolk after his Father, but both he and his Brother Charles died together of the Sweeting Sickness the 14th of July, 1551, without Issue. Frances his eldest Daughter by the Qu. of France was married to Henry Grey Marquis of Dorset, who in her Father's Title was created Duke of Suffolk, and was beheaded the 23d of Febr. 1 Mariae, leaving no Issue by a former Wife but three Daughters by this Frances, whereof Jane, married to the Lord Guildford Dudley, together with her Husband were beheaded without Issue, 1 Mar. Catharine his second Daughter was married to the Lord Herbert, and divorced. Marry the 3d Daughter, was married to Martin Reyes, a Groom-porter, as I have heard, and died without Issue.  
4. The Marquis of Dorset in this Parliament of 31 H. 8. was Henry Grey that married Frances the eldest Daughter of Charles Brandon Duke of Suffolk by the Qu. of France, King Henry's Sister, he had Issue by her a Son and 3 Daughters. His Son Henry Lord Harrington died before him without Issue. The Lady Jane eldest Daughter, as we said before, was married to the Lord Guildford Dudley, and together with her Husband was beheaded. Catharine his second Daughter ... Marry the third Daughter was married to Martin Reyes a Groom-porter, and their Father himself was also beheaded.  
5. The Earl of Oxon was John Vere the fiftieth of that Name, whose Grandchild Edward Earl of Oxon not only utterly wasted the great and most ancient Inheritance of that Earldom, but defaced also the Castles and Houses thereof, and leaving a Son by his second Wife named Henry, the 18th Earl of that Noble Family: The same Henry died without Issue, and this Male Line thus failing, the Office of Great Chamberlain of England, which had ever since Hen. the 1st's time gone in this Family, was now by the Lady Mary Sister of this Edward, being married to the Lord Willoughby of Eresby, by Judgement of the Upper House of Parliament, Anno ... transposed to her Son and Heir the now Earl of Lindsey.  
6. The Earl of South-Hampton was William Fitz-Williams, who being Lord Privy Seal and Admiral of England was created Earl of South-Hampton at Hampton-Court, Anno 29 Hen. 8. He married Mabell Daughter of Henry Lord Clifford of Westmoreland, and Sister and Heir of Henry the first Earl of Cumberland, but died without Issue Anno 34 H. 8.  
7. The Earl of Arundel was William Fitz-Alam, who died 35 Hen. 8. He had a Son, and by two Wives four Daughters, which died without Issue. His Son Henry Fitz-Alam, succeeded in the Earldom, a Man of great Dignities. He was twice married; by Catharine his first Wife he had Issue, H. Lord ... who being married died without Issue in the life of his Father, An. 1556. And so ended the Noble Family and Male line of these Earls of Arundel. But he had also by that Wife, two Daughters and Heirs, whereof Jane the eldest was married to the Lord Lumley who had Issue by her, Thomas, Charles and Mary, who died all without Issue. Marry his second Daughter and Co-heir was married to Tho. Howard the last Duke of Norfolk, and by her the Earldom, Castles and Honours of Arundel were transported to Philip Howard her Son, and so to her Grandchild Tho. Earl of Arundel, and Earl Marshal of England now living, in whose line God hold them.  
8. The Earl of Shrewsbury was Francis Talbot, who by his first Wife Mary Daughter of Tho. Lord Dacres of Gilsland had Issue, George his eldest Son, the sixth Earl of Shrewsbury; and Tho. who died at Sheffield without issue. Earl George had two Wives and four Sons, besides three Daughters by his first Wife; no Issue by his second. Francis Lord Talbot his eldest Son was married, but died without Issue. Gilbert his second Son was the 7th Earl of that Family, married and had Issue two Sons John and George, but both of them died in their Infancy without other Issue-Male of their Father; whose Heirs therefore were three Daughters. Edward, 3d. Son of George, was the 8th. Earl, he married but died without Issue, 2 Feb. 1617. Henry the 4th's Son married and died without Issue-Male. Thus was all the Issue-Male of Francis Earl of Shrewsbury, one of the Peers of the Upper-House at the passing of the Act aforesaid utterly extinct, and the Earldom translated to another Family of that Name, the Talbotts of Grafton descending from John Talbot the second Earl of Shrewsbury (who died Anno 39 Henry VI) by his 3d. Son Sir Gilbert Talbot Captain of Calais. York in Tit. Shrewsbury.  
9 The Earl of Essex, Henry Bourchier, that was a Peer of Parliament at the Act of Dissolution in 27. Henry VIII. broke his Neck by a fall from an Horse about 10 Weeks before this Parliament, viz on the 12th of March in 31. Henry VIII. and having no Issue-Male, the King gave his Earldom to Thomas Lord Cromwell, who in his Bipartite Dignity sat among the Ecclesiastical Peers, and first of the Rank as the King's Vicegerent in Spiritualibus; and here among the Lay-Peers, as in his own Right a Temporal Earl: and Temporal indeed, for not long after he was turned out of all his Offices, attainted and beheaded, as we have formerly showed. He brought in the Bill the 3d. time, and it was expedited the 23d. of May, but within two Months following, viz 29. July, himself was attainted in the same Parliament and condemned, so that vengeance fell speedily upon him.  
10. The Earl of Derby was Edward Lord Stanley, a Peer of the Realm both in this and in 27. of the King, he had divers Sons and Daughters; his eldest Son Henry was Earl after him, and left two Sons Ferdinando and William. Ferdinando succeeded in the Earldom, and died without Issue-Male 1594. leaving 3 Daughters, and Heirs, who shared so deep in the Patrimony of his goodly Earldom, as they not only pulled the Feathers from the Wings of it, (whereby in times past it hath been so powerful) but the Wings from the very Body.  
11. The Earl of Worcester was Henry Somerset Lord Herbert, a Peer also in 27. This honourable Family seems more fortunate than any of the precedent, for their lineal descent remains entire and without blemish, having at this day many Noble Branches. Yet was not the Issue of Earl Henry free from the Hand of God; for his 3d. Son Thomas Somersett died in the Tower of London, Francis his 4th and youngest Son was slain at Massellborough-Field, and his Son-in-Law the Earl of Northumberland, that married his Daughter the Lady Anne, was beheaded at York, 1572.  
12. The Earl of Rutland was Tho. Manors, both in this Parliament and the 27th. He had 5 Sons and 6 Daughters, and died in 35. Henry VIII. his eldest Son Henry was Earl after him, and had Issue Edward the 3d. Earl of that Family, who had only a Daughter an Heir, and died without Issue-Male.  
John Brother of Edward was the 4th Earl, he had 3 Sons, Edward that died an Infant, Roger and Francis. Roger succeeded and was the 5th Earl, he had only one Daughter his sole Heir, married to Sir Philip Sidney (slain at Zutphen) and died without Issue-Male. Francis after his Brother Roger was the 6th Earl; he was twice married; by his first Wife he had Issue only the Lady Catherine, married to the Duke of Buckingham, who was murdered by Felton. And two Sons by his second Wife Henry Lord Rosse, and Francis Lord Rosse of Homelake, who died both young without Issue.  
13. The Earl of Cumberland both in 27 and 31. Henry VIII. was Henry Clifford, who died 34. of the King. He had Issue Henry the 2d Earl of Cumberland, who had Issue George the 3d. Earl, a valiant Soldier, successful in his Erterprises. He had Issue two Sons, Francis Lord Clifford, and Robert that died young, and a Daughter the Lady Anne, married to Richard Sackvill Earl of Dorsett, who died, as did also this Earl of Cumberland without Issue-Male. Francis Brother of George was the 4th Earl, who had Issue Henry Lord Clifford.  
14. The Earl of Sussex was Robert Ratcliff created 8. Decemb. 21. Henry 8. He had three Wives, and more Sons besides Daughters, and died 28. Nou. 1541. 34. Henry 8. his Son and Heir Henry Earl of Sussex had five Sons, whereof Egremont his Son by the second Wife was attainted of Treason, Thomas the third Earl, Son and Heir of Henry had two Wives, but died without Issue.  
15. The Earl of Huntingdon was George Lord Hastings created 21. Henry 8. He had Issue Francis the 2d. Earl, and Sir Edward Hastings whom Queen Mary made Baron of Loughborough, that died without Issue. Sir Thomas Hastings also who died without Issue. And Henry and William besides three Daughters. Francis the 2d. Earl had Issue Henry the third Earl who died without Issue, and four other Sons whereof William died without Issue. Sir George Hastings Brother of Francis succeeded in the Earldom, and left many Male-branches, whereof Henry the Issue of his eldest Son Francis was the fifth Earl, and had Issue Ferdinando.—  
16. The Earl of Hertford was Edward Seymour created Anno 29. Henry 8. made Duke of Somerset, etc. Edw. 6. He was committed to the Tower in the third Year of the King for divers great Offences, but then obtained a Pardon, and being arraigned of Treason and Felony, 1o Decemb. 5. Regis was quit for the Treason, and condemned for the Felony, and therefore beheaded the 22d of July following. He had two Sons by his first Wife that died without Issue. Edward his 3d. Son or eldest by his 2d. Wife the Lady Anne, Daughter of John Stanhope, Esq succeeded in all his Father's Honours for a short time, namely from the Death of his Father on 22 June 5. Edw. 6. to the End of the next Session of Parliament, which was the 25th of April following: But the Honours being entailed upon him; and therefore not forfeited for his Father's Attaindure for Felony. Misfortune and the Malice of his Adversaries yet so wrought upon him; as in this Session they were all taken from him by Parliament with most of his Inheritance, which gracious Queen Elizabeth commiserating, restored him to the Earldom of Hertford, and Barony of Seymour. To let pass his other Offspring his Grandchild Edward the 3d. Earl of Hertford fell into King James' displeasure by marrying the Lady Arabella Stuart, for which both of them were committed to the Tower.  
17. The Earl of Bridgwater was Henry Lord Daubeney created 20 July 30. Hen. 8. He died without Issue Anno Edw. 6. and so his Name, Family and Dignity was extinct. This Earl of Bridgwater was reduced to that extremity that he had not a Servant to wait on him in his last sickness, nor means to buy Fire or Candles, or to bury him, but what was done for him in Charity by his sister Cicely, married to John Bourchier the first of that Name, Earl of bath.  
Verba Henrici Bourchier manu sua scripta.   

A Catalogue of the Barons present in Parliament.  
1. Audley; Then John Tonchet Lord Audley, who had Issue George Tonchet Lord Audley, who had Issue Henry Tonchet Lord Audley, who had Issue George Tonchet Lord Audley, and Earl of Castle-Haven attainted and beheaded, and the Barony of Audley being in see extinguished.  
2. Zouche; Was John Lord Zouche, who had Issue Richard Lord Zouche, who had Issue Edward Lord Zouche (Son of George Lord Zouche) Lord St. Maur and Cantelupe of Harringworth in Northamptonshire, who sold his ancient Inheritance, died without Issue-Male, and his Barony extinct, 1 Caroli: His first Wife proving disloyal she was divorced from him, that he regarded not the two Daughters which he had, whom therefore he suffered to marry far below his Degree and Honour, as himself saith in his Will upon Record. The Eldest being married to Sir William Tate in Northamptonshire, the other to— in Worcestershire.  
3. De-laware; Tho. Nest Lord De-laware, Son of Tho. Lord De-laware that died the 16th. Henry 8. married Eliz. Daughter and Co-heir of John Bonvill, died without Issue. William Nest, Son of George Nest, Brother of Tho. Lord De-laware being of the Age of 18 Years, 1 Edw. 6. was disabled by Parliament to succeed his Uncle, as conceived to have imagined his Death, and 2 or 3 of Philip and Mary was attainted of Treason by Commission in London. Restored in Blood as Heir to Sir George his Father about 3 or 5 Eliz. and created a new Baron, De-laware in 8. and had Issue Tho. De-laware, Father or Grandfather of him now living.  
4. Morley; Henry Parker made Lord Morley in right of Alice his Mother, Daughter and Heir of William Lovel. Lord Morley died 27 Novemb. 4. Mar. had Issue Henry, who died in the Life of his Father, leaving Issue Hen. Lord Morley that died at Paris 1578. Had Issue Edw. Lord Morley who died April 1618., and had Issue William Lord Morley, and made Montegle 1 Jacobi, and died 1622. and had Issue Henry Lord Morley and Montegle now living, and Francis.  
5. Dacres: Thomas Fines Lord Dacres of the South, being in company with certain Gentlemen hunting in Nicholas Potham's Park, there committed a Riot and Murder of Bransrigg. He was hanged at Tyburn on St. Peter's Day 33 Hen. 8. He had issue, Thomas Lord Dacres who died within age, and Gregory Lord Dacres who died without issue 1594, and his Family so extinct. Margery his Sister and Heir was married to Samson Leonard, who had issue Henry Lord Dacres, who had issue Richard Lord Dacres Father of— now Lord Dacres a Child.  
6. Dacres of Gilsland; William died 1563, had issue Thomas Lord Dacres, Leonard, George S. P. Edward, Francis George Lord Dacres Son of Thomas Lord Dacres, being but 7 Years old, and granted Ward to the Duke of Norfolk, broke his Neck by a fall from a Vaulting-horse at Charterhouse, Anno ... Eliz. And his Barony and Family extinct, he dying without issue Male; his two Sisters and Heirs were married to the Duke's Sons Philip Earl of Arundel, and the Lord William Howard. Thomas Lord Dacres Son of William Lord Dacres had issue, William slain at Thetford 1569, his Sisters and Heirs, Anne married to Philip Howard, Mary married to Thomas Howard, Elizabeth to Lord William Howard.  
7. Cobham: George Brook Lord Cobham (Son of Thomas Lord Cobham, who died 1529) died 1558; had Issue William Lord Cobham. He died 1597, and five other Sons, which William had Issue, Henry Brook Lord Cobham, attainted and died 1618., S. P. and Sir William Brook, S. P. and George Brook attainted and executed at Winchester, An. 1603, the Barony extinct.  
8. Maltravers: Henry Fitz-Alam Son of William Fitz-Alam the 10th Earl of Arundel; which William died 35 H. 8. was in the life of his Father Lord Maltravers and Baron of Parliament, and after the death of his Father the last Earl of Arundel of that Name.  
9 Ferrer: Walter Lord Deureux, Lord Ferrer of Chartley, Son of John Deureux Lord Ferrer, was created Viscount Hereford 1 Edward 6. had Issue, Richard that died in the life of his Father, and had Issue Walter Deureux Earl of Essex, suspected to be poisoned, and had Issue, Robert Deureux Earl of Essex, attainted and executed 1601, and Walter Deureux slain at the Siege of Rouen. Earl Robert had issue Robert restored 1. Jacobi.  
10. Powis: Edward Grey of Northumberland Lord Powis, Son of John Grey Lord Powis, married Anne the base Daughter of Charles Brandon Duke of Suffolk, and died without issue, and his Family extinct.  
11. Clinton: Edw. Lord Clinton, whose Father died 9 Hen. 8. was made Earl of Lincoln 14 Eliz. and died 27th Eliz. and had Issue, Henry Earl of Lincoln, who had Issue Thomas Earl of Lincoln Father of Theophilus now Earl.  
12. Scroop: John Lord Scroop of Bolton, Son of Henry Lord Scroop of Bolton; which John in Henry 8's time married the Daughter of the Earl of Cumberland, had Issue Henry Lord Scroop, who died 1592., and had Issue, Thomas Lord Scroop, who died 1609 who had Issue Emanuel Lord Scroop, Earl of Sunderland that died without lawful Issue, and both Barony and Earldom extinct.  
13. William Sturton had Issue Charles Lord Sturton, who for murdering Mr. Argile and his Son, was hanged at Sal●sbury 6. March 1565. He had Issue John Lord Sturton S. P. and Edw. now Lord Sturton.  
14. Latimer: John Nevil Lord Latimer lived 23 Hen. 8. and had Issue John Nevil Lord Latimer, who died 1577, 19 Eliz. without Issue Male, and his Family and Barony extinct, notwithstanding his four Daughters.  
15. Montjoy: Charles' Blunt Lord Montjoy who succeed his Father William Blunt Lord Montjoy, and died 38 Henry 8. had Issue James Lord Montjoy who died 1581., had Issue William Lord Montjoy S. P. 1594, and Charles made Earl of Devon 1603 and died 1606 without lawful Issue, so the Family and Barony was extinct, but for a base Son of his, Montjoy Blunt was created Lord Montjoy 3 Jacobi and afterwards Earl of Newport, Anno 4.  
16. Lumley: John Lord Lumley married Jane the eldest Daughter and Co-heir of Henry Fitz-Alam the last Earl of Arundel of that name, and had by her Charles, Thomas and Mary, who died all without Issue, so his line was extinct.  
17. Montegle: Sir Edward Stanley created Lord Montegle 6 Henry 8. had Issue, Thomas Stanley Lord Montegle, who married Mary Daughter of Charles Brandon Duke of Suffolk, and had issue William Stanley Lord Montegle, who died without issue Male and his Barony extinct, till King James Anno 1. conferred it on William Parker after Lord Morley, for revealing the Gunpowder-Treason, having married Elizabeth Daughter and sole Heir of the aforesaid William.  
18. Windsor: Andrew Windsor made 21 Henry 8. and died 33, and had issue William Lord Windsor, q. ob. 1558, who had issue Edward Lord Windsor, who died 1575., who had Fredrick Lord Windsor who died Sept. 28 Eliz. and Henry Lord Windsor who died 1605, who had issue Thomas now Lord Windsor, yet without issue.  
19 Wentworth: Thomas Lord Wentworth made 21 Henry 8. had issue Thomas Lord Wentworth, who died 1590., who had issue William Wentworth, who died 1582, S. P. and Henry Lord Wentworth, who died 1593., who had issue Thomas Lord Wentworth, created Earl of Cleveland 1 Caroli, and had issue, Thomas his Son and Heir apparent.  
20. Burrough: Thomas Lord Burrough had issue, Edward that married Qu. Catherine now S. P. William who had issue, Henry eldest Son slain by Sir Tho. Holcroft near Kingston Anno 1578, and Thomas Lord Burrough Deputy of Ireland, and Sir John Burrough slain by Sir John Gilbert 1594. Thomas Lord Burrough had Issue, Robert Lord Burrough that died a Child without issue 1601, and the Barony extinct. The first Thomas had issue besides Edward and William Sir Thomas Burrough (S. P.) and Henry Father of Nicholas, who had issue Sir John Burrough (ut creditur) slain at Rees.  
21. Bray (Sir Edmund) made Baron 21 Hen. 8. and had issue, John Lord Bray, died without issue, and so the Barony and Line extinct, but he had six Sisters.  
22. Walter Hungerford made Baron of Hatsbury 28 Hen. 8. was beheaded for Buggery, and his Barony extinct, yet he had issue Sir Walter Hungerford Knight, who died without issue Male, and so this Family extinct.  
23. St. John: William Paulet was created Lord St. John of Basin 30 Hen. 8. and made Earl of Wiltshire 3 Edward 6. and 5 Edward 6. Marquess of Winchester, who had issue John Marquis, who had issue William Marquis, who had issue William Marquis Father of William Lord St. John that died S. P. and of John now Marquis.  
24. Sir John Russel was made Baron 30 Hen. 8. and Earl of Bedford 3 Edw. 6. he had Woburn Abbey for his Dwellinghouse with the Church turned to a strange use even the Stable; he had Francis the second Earl of Bedford his sole issue, who had four Sons and three Daughters, 1. Edmund Lord Russel died without issue. 2. John Lord Russel died without issue Male. 3. Francis Lord Russel treacherously slain by the Scots in time of Truce; but left two Sons who died without issue, Edward the 4th Earl of Bedford, and then Sir William 4th Son of the first Francis, was by King James made Lord Russel of Thornhaugh, whose Son Francis is now the 5th Earl, and long may he live and prosper.  
25. William Parr, made Baron Parr of Kendal 9 March, 30 H. 8. after Earl of Essex, and lastly, Marquis Nortston, had three Wives, was divorced from his first, and died without issue. York, 186.   
Leonard Lord Grace, Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, holdeth a Parliament in Ireland 1. Maii, 28 Hen. 8. at Dublin, wherein he passeth an Act for the suppressing of Abbeys. Chron. of Ireland, pag. 100 In the 32 of the King he is called home and sent to the Tower, and in the 25th of June 33 he was to be arraigned in the King's Bench at Westminster, and to be tried by a Jury of Knights, being no Lord of Parliament, but confessing the Indictment, had his Judgement, and was beheaded at Tower-Hill the third Day following; a Man of singular Valour, that had formerly served his Prince and Country most honourably in France and Ireland. Stow, 32 Hen. 8. and 33.  
Now I labour in observing the Particulars, seeing the whole body of the Baronage is since that fallen so much from their ancient lustre, magnitude and estimation. I that about 50 Years ago did behold with what great respect, observance and distance, principal Men of Countries applied themselves to some of the meanest Barons, and so with what familiarity inferior Gentlemen often do accost many of these of our times, cannot but wonder either at the Declination of the one, or at the Arrogance of the other; but I remember what an eminent Divine once said in a Sermon; he compared Honour among Dignities to Gold, the heaviest and most precious Metal, but Gold (saith he) may be beaten so thin, as the very Breath will blow it away; so Honour may be dispersed so popularly, that the Reputation of it will be pretermitted.  
To say what I observe herein, as the Nobility spoiled God of his Honour by putting those things from him, and communicating them to lazy and vulgar Persons; so God to requite them hath taken the ancient Honours of Nobility, and communicating them to the meanest of the People, to Shopkeepers, Taverners, Tailors, Tradesmen, Burghers, Brewers, Graziers; and it may be supposed, that as Constantine the Great seeing the inconvenience of the multitude of Comites of his time distinguished them, 
De Vitâ Const. l. 4. c. 1.  as Eusebius reporteth, into three degrees making the latter far inferior to the former; so may it one day come to pass among these of our times; and it shall not want some precedent of our own to the like purpose. Vide, Glossarium in voc. Comes, pag. 109.   

IU. What hath happened to the Crown itself.  
It now remaineth to show how the Lands themselves thus pulled from the Church, have thriven with the Crown, and in the Hands of the King his Heirs and Successors; truly no otherwise than the Archbishop I spoke of so long since foretold. For they have melted and dropped away from the Crown like Snow; yet herein that Snow leaves moisture, to enrich the Ground, but those nothing save dry and fruitless Coffers; for now they are all gone in a manner, and little to speak of remaining for them to the Treasury; for my own part, I think the Crown the happier that they are gone, but very unhappy in their manner of going, for as Sampson going out of Gaza carried with him the Gates, 
Judg. 16.  the Bars and Posts of the City, leaving it thereby exposed to Enemies, weak and undefenced, so those Lands going from the Crown, have carried away with them the very Crown-Lands themselves, which were in former times, the glorious Gates of Regal Magnificence, the present and ready Bars of Security at all Necessities, and like immovable Posts, or Hercules Pillars in all the transmigrations of Crown and Kingdom, had to our Time (1000 Years and upward) remained fixed and amor ... to the Sceptre. These, I say, are in effect all gone, since the Dissolution: the new Piece hath rend away the old Garment, and the Title of terra Regis, within Doomsday Book, was generally the Targett in every County, is now a Blank, I fear, in most of them.  
But his Majesty hath a great Fee-farm reserved out of the greatest part of both of them, 40000 l. a Year, they say, out of the Crown Lands, and 60000 l. out of the Church Lands: I confess it makes a goodly sound, yet is it but froth in respect of the solid Land, which is deemed to be more than ten times, if not twenty times as much, and this being but succus redditus, a sick and languishing Rent, will grow daily as our Rents of Assess have already done, to be of lesser worth, as the price of Lands and Commodities increase and rise higher; but I hear there is ... thousand pounds a Year of the Crown-lands gone, without any Reservation at all, and above ... thousand likewise of the Church Lands; and to tell the truth, which myself do well know, a great proportion of the Fee-farm Rents themselves are likewise aliened already, but mihi Cynthius aurem vellit, I must launch no further.   

V. What happened to the whole Kingdom generally.  
What the whole Body of the Kingdom hath suffered since these Acts of Confiscation of the Monasteries and their Churches is very remarkable; let the Monks and Friars shift as they deserved, the good if you will, and the bad together, my purpose is not to defend their Iniquities; the thing I lament is, that the Wheat perished with the Darnel, things of good and pious Institution, with those that abused and perverted them; by reason whereof the Service of God was not only grievously wounded, and bleedeth at this day, but infinite Works of Charity (whereby the Poor were universally relieved through the Kingdon) were utterly cut off and extinguished; many thousand masterless Servants turned loose into the World, and many thousand of poor People which were constantly fed, clad and nourished by the Monasteries, now like young Ravens seek their Meat at God. Every Monastery according to their Ability had an Ambery (greater or little) for the daily relief of the Poor about them. Every principal Monastery an Hospital commonly for Travellers, and an Infirmary, which we now call a spital, for the sick and diseased Persons, with Officers and Attendants to take care of them. Gentlemen and others having Children without means of Maintenance had them here brought up and provided for, which course in some Countries, and namely in Pomerland, (as I hear) is still observed, tho' Monks and Friars be abandoned. These and such other Miseries falling upon the meaner sort of People, drove them into so many Rebellions, as we spoke of, and rung such loud peals in the King's Ears, that on his Deathbed he gave back the spital of St. Bartholomew's in Smithfield (lately valued, saith Stow) at 308 l. 6 s. 7 d. and the Church of the Gray-Friers valued at 32 l. 19 s. 7 d. with other Churches, and 500 Marks a Year added to it, to be united and called Christ Church founded by King Henry 8. and to be Hospitals for relieving the Poor, the Bishop of Rochester declaring his Bounty at Paul's Cross, on the 3d of Jan. and on the 28th day following the King died, viz, the 28 Jan.  
This touching the Poor.   

VI What happened to private Owners of the Monasteries particularly.  
I turn now to the richer sort, and shall not need to speak of the Clergy, whose irreparable Misery Piers Ploughman foresaw so many Ages before, saying, That a King should come that should give the Abbot of Abingdon such a blow, as incurable should be the Wound thereof. Their Misery and Wrack is so notorious, as it needs no Pen to decipher it; nor will I speak of the loss that the Laymen our Grandfathers had by this means in their right of Founders and Patronage, Meantenures, Rents-services, Pensions, Corrodies, and many other Duties and Privileges, whereof some were saved by the Statutes, yet by little and little all in effect worn out and gone. Those, I say, I speak not of, for that they are Wounds grown up and forgotten; but of one instead of all, that immortal and incurable Wound, which every day bleedeth more than other, given to us and our Posterity by the infinite number of Tenors by Knight's service in capite, either newly created upon granting out of these Monasteries and Lands, or daily raised by double Ignoramus, in every Town almost of the Kingdom. For as the Abbeys had Lands commonly scattered abroad, in every of them, in some greater or lesser quantity, according to the Ability of their Benefactors, so the Leprosy of this Tenure comes thereby as generally to be scattered through the Kingdom. And whereas before that time, very few did hold on that manner besides the Nobility and principal Gentlemen that were owners of great Lordships and Possessions, which from time to time descended entirely to their Heirs, and were not broken out into small parcels amongst inferior Tenants and mean Purchasers. Now by reason that those Abbey Lands are minced into such infinite numbers of little Quillets, and thereby privily sown (like the Tares in the Parable) almost in every Man's Inheritance, very few (not having their Tenure certain from the King by Patent) can assure themselves to be free from this Calamity. The truth is, that originally none held in Capite, but Peers of the Realm, who were therefore called the King's Barons, and such as by this their Tenure (as appears by the Council of Clarendon 10 Hen. 2.) had the privilege to sit in the King's House, and to hear and judge all Causes brought before the King, and to be of his great Council. And tho' afterwards the meaner of them were neglected, yet King John was tied by his great Charter to call them all to Parliament, where the Knights of the Shires in that respect have their place at this day.  
I am too prone (you see) to run out of my way into this Discourse, but to hold me nearer to my Centre, I cannot but admire what moved the Parliament in 27 Henry 8. cap. 27. to enact, that a Tenure in Capite by Knight's Service should be reserved to the King, upon their granting out of their Abbeys and their Lands, as tho' it were some singular benefit to the Commonwealth: It may be they conceived, that according to the Project of the Parliament at Leicester in 2 Hen. 5. that the King should thereby have a perpetual means to support a standing Army, or to have it ready whensoever need required, and so ease the Subject of all Military Contribution. O how far was that great School of Wisdom deceived! or what hath that Art of theirs produced other than as if some Scholars had bound their Masters for to whip them sound; and I suppose they have had their fill of it long ere this time.  
But these Tenors by being by this means multiplied in such excessive manner, the King's former Officers, that before could span their Business with their Hand, could not now fathom this with both their Arms. The greater Harvest must have greater Barns and more Labourers, and therefore in 32 Hen. 8. cap. 46. and 33 Hen. 8. cap. 22. and 39 the Court now called of Wards and Liveries, with the Orders, Officers and Ministers thereto belonging, was erected. What is thereby fallen upon the Subject, I need not relate; heavy Experience makes it generally known, and generally felt; one while by Wardship and Marriage, another while by suing out Livery and Ouster see main, by Pardons of Alienation, Concealments, Intrusions, respite of Homage, and other Calamities accompanying this Tenure, almost innumerable, consuming the Fruit of the Wards Lands for many Years, and (as sometimes I have seen) for many Ages the Grandfathers, Fathers and Sons Inheritance militant together in this Court; the Mother equally lamenting the Death of her Husband, and the Captivity of her Child, the Confiscation of his Lands for the 3d part of his Age, and the Ransom of his Person before he can enter into the World; the Family oftentimes so ruined and impoverished, as if at last it recover, yet it stands tottering and lame for a long time after. Marriage is honourable and instituted by God in Paradise; do you think that a Man by the Word of God may be compelled to pay for a Licence to marry? I doubt the Schoolmen would not so determine it; nor did any civil or moral Nation of old admit it; the Custom rose from the barbarous Goths and Lo●gobards, and yet I confess not without reason, as the Genius of their Nation did then lead them, and by their Example, all others where they conquered. It was an impious manner of those times to hold Malice and Enmity, one Family against another, and against their Friends and Alliances from one Generation to another; our Ancestors called it deadly feud, the Feudists, feudam; and Tacitus in his time noteth it of Germans, saying, Inimicitias mutuo ponunt & suscipiunt. It was therefore of urgent necessity, that the Lord should be well assured that his Tenant married not unto any Family that might be either in feud with him, or in alliance with them that were: and to prevent that danger (as appears by the Charter of Hen. 1. cap. 4.) the Lord would have him bound not to marry without his consent, for which in the beginning the Tenant gave his Lord some small matter, as munus honorarium; but from thence it grew afterwards to Nundinaria gratissima. And as Bondmen used to pay to their Lord's Chiefage for their Marriage, so the Tenants by Knight's Service, which in the Feudal Law is called Feudum nobile, is likewise subject to this brand of Servitude, and more grievously in some respect. But I reverence the Law I live under and hath been so long received and practised, all I aim at, is only to show in the course of my Argument, the Evils that have either fallen newly upon us, or been increased since the Confiscation of the Churches and Church-patrimony, which if it be not offensive, I may say, doth seem to be foretold 800 Years since by one Egelzedus an Hermit, who assigned three Causes of those Evils, viz. First, Effusion of Blood. 2ly, Drunkenness, and 3ly, Contempt of the House of God, telling us farther, That we should know the time of the fulfilling this Prophecy, by the various fashions and mutability of Apparel that should be in use, the very ear-mark of the Age we live in.  
How this Contempt of the House of God worketh upon the Sacrilegious Instruments thereof, is to be seen in the Particulars before recited, to which if I should run higher into former Ages, or further from home in other Countries, I might tyre you with thousands of Examples. But for a Conclusion mark this by the way, that as England hath not been faulty alone in this kind of Transgression, so other Nations offending in like manner, have likewise tasted of the same Corrections, or others like them.  
Scotland after the rasing of their Monasteries hath had the Royal Throne removed from them and placed in another Kingdom.  
The Low-Countries harrassed with a continued War of 60 Years and more.  
The Palsgrave beaten out of his own Dominions, and living now with his Royal Wife and Children in lamentable Exile, to which may be added (as concurring with the usual Infelicity of meddling with Church Lands) that the Palsgrave having attained the Crown of Bohemia, and seizing the Ecclesiastical Livings there for maintenance of his Wars (as the Report goes) he was presently cast out both of that Kingdom, and of his other Inheritance.  
Having mentioned this unfortunate Prince, I must add also another accident that befell him in this kind. The State of the Low Countries while he lived in Exile among them, gave unto him as a place of Recreation the Abbey of Regutian near Vtrecht, where intending a sumptuous Building, he drew out thereof such Materials of Stone and Timber, as might be useful to his new Designs, and making a Storehouse of the Abby-Church, laid them up there to be in readiness. It chanced that the truly noble Lord Craven returning out of Italy (where my Son was very happily fallen into his Company) 
i e. Sir John Spelman.  he went to this place to visit the Prince, whom they called the King of Bohemia. My Son seeing what the King was about, and how he had profaned the Church by making it a Storehouse, said to my Lord Craven, That he feared it might be ominous to the King; my Lord answered, I will tell him what you say; and turning to the King said, This Gentleman fears this that your Majesty doth will not be prosperous to you; the King answered, That was but a Conceit, and so passed it over. But mark what followed upon it. The King within a few Months after passing in a Bark with the Prince his eldest Son over the Delf of Harlam, his Boat was casually stemmed and overturned by a Barge that met him in the Night, and tho' he himself with great difficulty was saved, yet that hopeful Prince his Son had not that woeful happiness to be drowned right-out, but after he was drenched in the Water, and gotten upon the Mast of the Bark wherein they perished, he was there most miserably starved with Cold and frozen to Death. And the Father himself while he lamented the death of his Son, was by an unusual death of Princes taken away by the Plague, laying thus the first Stone of his unfortunate Building, like that of the Walls of Jericho, in the death of his eldest Son, and prevented in the rest by his own death. God's Judgements are his Secrets; I only tell Concurrences.  
The other Germane Princes persecuted with the Sword, and spoiled of their Liberties.   

How careful the Heathens were not to misuse things consecrated to Almighty God.  
When the Philistines had taken the Ark, they with all Reverence placed it in the House of their God Dagon; and fearing to keep it, returned it back with Oblations.  
So Nabuchodonosor having taken away the holy Vessels of the Temple, abused them not to profane uses, but kept them religiously in the House of his God.  
And when Belshazar and his Kingdom was by the Justice of God extinguished for abusing of them, and that thereby they came to the Hands of Cyrus in the Conquest of Babylon; he understanding that they belonged to the Temple of God in Jerusalem, would not be owner of them but sent them back to Jerusalem: St. Jerom notes on Dan. 5. Quam diu vasa fuerunt in idolis Babylonicis non est iratus Dominus (videbantur enim rem Dei secundum pravam quandam opinionem, tamen divino cultui consecrâsse) postquam autem humanis usibus divina contaminant statim poena sequitur, post sacrilegium.  
Most remarkable is the Piety of the Heathen King Darius, 2 Macab. 1▪ 34▪ who hearing of the Pit, wherein the holy Fire had been hid by the Prophet Jeremy, and being turned into Water, was after a long time taken thence by Nehemiah, (for the kindling of the Altar-Fire) he caused the very place wherein these sanctified things had once been laid, to be walled about, and as holy Ground to be for ever sequestered from Profanation.  
Pompey the Great having taken the City Jerusalem by force, and broken into the Temple, seeing the inestimable Treasure and Riches thereof, would neither take, nor suffer any ●hing to be taken thence, but commanded all things to be cleansed, and the Sacrifices to be continued as they were formerly.  
The Copy of His Majesty's Letter to the University of Oxon touching Glebe Tithes in Parsonages impropriated to be reduced to the sufficient and incumbent Minister, as is here mentioned before.  
James Rex,  
RIght trusty and well beloved, We greet you well; the Zeal that Religion might be well planted in this Realm, and all other our Dominions hath caused Us to enter into Consideration of all means that might best serve to the furtherance hereof; Wherein finding that no one thing is a greater impediment than want of competent living to maintain Learned Men in such places of our Kingdom where the ordinary Benefit of the Vicarages doth not suffice and the Parsonages are impropriate, and in laymen's Hands, We have found that there could not be a readier way to supply that defect, than if those Impropriations of Tithes might be converted again to the right use, for which they were at present instituted; wherein by God's Grace we have a purpose to do in such of of them as now are, or shall be in Our Hands, whatsoever Our State may well bear: By which Example of Ours, we presume to induce all others, possessed of the like, to imitate Us, as far as with their Ability they may. In the mean time We have considered that to give beginning to so good a work, none were more fit than the Colleges in the Universities, who being so eminent Members of Our State, and having divers of them many such Impropriations, and some of them also a desire, as We are informed, to provide for such persons out of such Livings, as shall fall within their powers to dispose, their Example should have great efficacy into all good men in this sort to advance the Glory of Christ's Gospel. And because there may occur in the performance hereof some such particular difficulties as are unknown to Us, We have thought good before We entered further into it, to recommend this Matter to your Consideration, requiring you, Our Chancellor, and in your absence the Vicechancellor, and Heads of Houses to assemble yourselves, and such discreet Men of all the Colleges, as you shall think meet for such a Consultation, and to propose that matter amongst you, and to consider and set down some speedy course, how upon the Expiration of the Years in being, of any Lease of Tithes or Glebe impropriate, the same may afterwards be so devised, as Ecclesiastical Persons bred in the Houses to whom the same do belong respectively may be maintained, and enabled to execute their Functions, and yet the College provided of such things as are necessary for maintaining the same; whereof We have no intention to wish any prejudice, knowing well how fit it is, that they be supported by all good means whatsoever; of which your Deliberation and Resolution, We do require you to advertise Us with as convenient speed as you may, both by Writing under your Hands, and by some discreet Persons to be sent to Us, or Our Council, to make Report of your doings therein. Given under Our Sign at our Castle of Windsor the 10th of July 1603, in the first Year of the Reign of England, France and Ireland, and of Scotland 30th.    

CHAP. VIII.  
The particulars of divers Monasteries in Norfolk, whereof the late Owners since the Dissolution are extinct, or decayed, or overthrown by Misfortunes and grievous Accidents.  
ABout the Year, I suppose, 1615 or 1616, I described with a Pair of Compasses in the Map of Norfolk, a Circle of 12 Miles, the Semi-diameter according to the Scale thereof, placing the Centre about 24 the chief Seat of the yelverton's within this Circle and the Borders of it; I enclosed the Mansion-houses of about 24 Families of Gentlemen, and the sight of as many Monasteries all standing together at the time of Dissolution; and I then noted that the Gentleman's Seats continued at that day in their own Families and Names. But the Monasteries had flung out their Owners with their Names and Families (all of them save 2) thrice at least, and some of them 4 or 5 or 6 times, not only by fail of Issue, or ordinary Sale, but very often by grievous Accidents and Misfortunes. I observe yet further, that though the Seats of these Monasteries were in the fattest and choicest Places of all that Part of the Country (for our Ancestors offered like Abel, the best unto God) yet it hath not happened that any of them to my knowledge, or any other in all this Country, hath been the permanent Habitation of any Family of Note, but like desolate Places left to Farmers and Husbandmen, no Man almost adventuring to build or dwell upon them for dread of Infelicity that pursueth them. Let me here report, what hath been related to me from the Mouth of Sir Clement edmond's, lately a Clerk of his Majesty's Counsel, that did take his knowledge from the Council-books, viz. that in the beginning of Queen Mary's Reign the Parliament was not willing to restore Popery and the Supremacy to the Pope, unless they might be suffered to retain the Lands, which were lately taken from the Monasteries; this Resolution was signified to Rome, whereto the Pope gave Answer, that for the Lands belonging to Religious Houses he would dispense for detaining of them, but for the Situation of the Houses, Churches, and such consecrated Ground, there could be no alienation thereof to profane Uses, whereupon those that enjoyed them did not inhabit, or build upon the Houses, but forsook them for many Years, till the time of Queen Eliz. a great Plague happening, the poor People betook themselves into the remainder of the Houses, and finding many good Rooms, began to settle there, till at length they were put out by them, to whom the grant of the Leases and Lands were made. 
Mr. Stephen's Treat. 27 Feb. 1625  We see hereby how fearful they were long after the Dissolution to meddle with Places consecrated to God (though perverted to superstitious Uses) when as yet they had no experience what the Success would be; let them therefore that shall read this our Collection following, consider of it as they shall see Cause. I urge nothing, as not meddling with the secret Judgements of Almighty God, but relate rem gestam only as I have privately gotten notice of it, and observed living in these parts almost all my life, and endeavouring faithfully to understand the truth, yet no doubt many things have been mistaken by those who related them unto me; and therefore I desire that wheresoever it so falleth out, my Credit may not be engaged for it.  
The Collection of divers Ancient Gentleman's Families in Norfolk, all standing and continuing in their Names, and Heirs, with the Possessors of Religious Houses since the Dissolution; most part whereof are cast out and changed often in few Years, besides many strange Misfortunes and grievous Accidents happening to them, their Children and Heirs.  
Monasteries.   Gentleman's Families.  1 1 BEdingfield at Oxburgh AT Linn 3 2 2 Spelman at Narburgh  3 3 Yeluerton at— Crabhouse 4 4 Townsend at Kameham Wrongey 5 5 Farmer at Barsham Blackborough 6 6 Boyenne at— Wall Deerham 7 7 Calthrope at Coxford Pontney 8 8 Straying at Hunstanton Westacre 9 9 Sharburgh at Sharburgh Castleacre 10 10 Walpool at Houghton Warham 11 11 Mordant at Massingham Stronldham 12 12 Cobbs at Sandringham Wendling- Abbey 13 13 Thursby at Wichen Walsingham- Priory 14 14 Cocket at Brusthorp 15 15 Ashley at Melton Binham 16 16 Guirney at Barsham Burcham 17 17 Carvyll at S. Marses Peeterston 18 18 Gansell at Watlington Coxford 19 19 Pigat at— Flitcham 20 20 Grey at Marton Hempton 21 21 Woodhouse at Kimberley Croak 22 22 Meshold at Langford Carbrocke 23 23 Jarmy at Streston Tomson 24 24 Badgscroft at Bextel Attleburgh Burnham 25 25 Prat at Kaston    Hogan at Denton parva.    Keeps.  

Linn Monasteries.  
1. Friars Carmelites alias Whitefriars in South-lane.  
2. Friar's Minorites alias Grey-Friars.  
3. Friar's Preachers alias Blackfriar.  
4. Augustine-Friars.  
5. A Cell or College of Priests belonging to Norwich.   
The four first were purchased of Hen. 8. by John Eyer, Esq one of the King's Auditors or Receivers, a great Receiver of Monasteries, and amongst others of that of St. Edmondsbury; he married Margaret Daughter of Sir Tho. Blendhasseil, Widow of Sir John Spelman, eldest Son of Sir John Spelman, and died without Issue.  
He in his life-time conveyed the four first Monasteries to a Priest, from whom the Corporation of Linn purchased the Carmelites and Minorites; and being thus entered into things consecrated to God, purchased also the Impropriation of the Church of St. Margaret's there, and defacing the Church of St. James perverted it to be a Townhouse for the Manufacture of Stuffs, Laces and Tradesmen's Commodities, whereby they thought greatly to enrich their Corporation and themselves. Great Projects and good Stocks with a Contribution from some Country-Gentlemen were raised for this purpose, two several times of my knowledge, but the Success was, that it came to nought, and all the Money employed about new building and transforming the Church hath only increased Desolation: for so it hath stood during the whole time almost of my Memory, till they lately attempted by the undertaking of Mr. Fr. Gurney, and some Artisans from London to revive the Enterprise of their Predecessors; but speeding no better than they did, have now again with loss of their Money and Expectation left it to future Ruin, thus in this particular hath been the Success of their Corporation: For other matters I will only note what I have observed touching them in the general, when I was young, they flourished extraordinarily with Shipping-trading, plenty of Merchandise native and foreign, some Men of very great Worth, as Killingtree, Grave, Clayburne, Ʋilet, Lendall, many of good Note, as Grant, Overend, Ho, Baker, Waters, and many more of later time; but all of them with their Male-Posterity are in effect extinct and gone, and as at this day they have little shipping, or trade otherwise than to the black Indies, as they call it, (that is Newcastle for Coal) so there is not a Man amongst them of any Estimation for his Wealth, or of any Note (that I can hear of) descended from any that was an Alderman there in the beginning of Queen Elizabeth.  
The Friars Preachers came from Mr. Eyers to Tho. Waters, 
Friar's Preachers.  who had Issued Edward Waters, and a Daughter married to George Baker. Edward died without Issue-Male, leaving a Daughter Eliz. who was first married to Nicholas Killingtree, then divorced and married to Edward Bacon (qr.) who had no Issue by her (qr.) after to Sir John Bowles of Lincolnshire.  
Sir John Bowles and she sold this Friars to Nicholas Killingtree, who left it to his Son William Killingtree, and he sold it to Henry Barkenham a Miller, who sold it to Mr. John Rivett now living.  
The Augustine Friars came from Eyer to one Shavington a Bastard, 
The Augustine Friars.  who died without Issue, and by his Will gave it to one Waters (other than the former) and to the Heirs of his Body. This Waters died without Issue, whereupon the Augustine Friars was to revert to his Heir, but having none, because he was a Bastard great Suit ensued about it.  
But John Ditefield being then in Possession of it, left it by Descent (as it seemeth) to his Son John Ditefield, who gave it in Marriage with Thomasin his sister to Christopher Pickering brother of the then Lord Keeper, and he then recovered it in Chancery and sold it to John Lease.  
John Lease pulling down the Buildings selleth first the Stones, and then dividing the Ground into divers Garden-rooms, sold the same to divers Persons.  
The Cell of Priests was near the Guild-hall, 
The Cell or College.  and the Prior's House was somewhat remote from it by St. Margaret's Church.  
The College was sometime Mr. Houghton's, after Parker's, than Ball's, lately Sendall's, and now Hargott's, all of them save Hargott are extinct and gone, and Mr. Hargott is on the declining Hand; the Site of the Prior's House was lately consecrated and annexed to St. Margaret's Churchyard for a Buryingplace.  

Shouldham-Abbey.  
Sir Francis Gaudy of the Justices of the King's Bench was owner of it, he married— the Daughter and Heir of Christopher Cunningsby Lord of the Manor of Wallington, and having this Manor and other Lands in right of his Wife, induced her to acknowledge a Fine thereof, which done she became a distracted Woman, and continued so to the day of her Death, and was to him for many Years a perpetual affliction.  
He had by her his only Daughter and Heir Eliz. married to Sir William Hatton, who died without Issue-Male, leaving also a Daughter and Heir, who being brought up with her Grandfather the Judge, was secretly married against his Will to Sir Robert Rich now Earl of Warwick.  
The Judge shortly after being made chief Justice of the Common-pleas (at a dear Rate as was reported) was suddenly stricken with an Apoplexy, or double Palsy, and so to his great loss died without Issue-Male, e'er he had continued in his Place one whole Michaelmas Term, and having made his appropriate Parish-Church a Hay-house, or a Dog-kennel, his dead Corpse being brought from London unto Walling, could for many days find no Place of Burial, but in the mean time growing very offensive by the Contagious and ill Savours that issued through the Chinks of Led not well soldered, he was at last carried to a poor Church of a little Village there by called Runcto, and buried there without any Ceremony, lieth yet uncovered (if the Visitors have not reform it) with so small a Matter as a few paving Stones.  
Sir Robert Rich now Earl of Warwick succeeded in the Inheritance (by his Wife) of this Abbey, with the Impropriation, and his great Possessions amounting by Estimation to 5000 l. a Year, and hath already sold the greatest part of them together with this Abbey and Impropriation unto the Family of Mr. Nich. Hare, the Judge's Neighbour and chiefest Adversary.  
For among divers other goodly Manors that Sir John Hare hath purchased of him, or his Feoffees, he hath also bought this Abbey of Shouldham, and the Impropriation there, with the Manor belonging to the Abbey valued together at 600 l. yearly Rent.   

Binham-Priory.  
Binham Priory, a Cell of St. Alban was granted by King Henry 8. to Sir Thomas Paston; he left it to Mr. Edward Paston his Son and Heir, who living above 80 Years continued the Possession of it till— Caroli R. and having buried ... his Son and Heir apparent, left it then unto his Grandchild Mr. Paston the third Owner of it, and thereby now in the Wardship to the King. Mr. Edward Paston many Years since was desirous to build a Mansion-house upon or near the Priory, and attempting for that purpose to clear some of that Ground, a Piece of Wall fell upon a Workman, and slew him, perplexed with this Accident in the beginning of this Business, he gave it wholly over, and would by no means all his Life after be persuaded to re-attempt it, but built his Mansion-house, a very fair one, at Appleton.   

Castle-Acre-Abbey.  
Sir Tho. Cecil Earl of Exeter was owner of it, and of the impropriate Personage here; he had Issue Sir William Cecil Earl Exeter, who married Eliz. the Daughter and Heir of Edw. Earl of Rutland, and had Issue by her (dying as I take it in Childbed) his only Son William Lord Rosse.  
This William Lord Rosse married Anne the Daughter of Sir Tho. Lake, and they living together in extreme Discord, many infamous Actions issued thereupon, and finally a great Suit in the Star-Chamber to the high Dishonour of themselves, and their Parents. In this Affliction the Lord Rosse dyeth without Issue, and the Eldest Male-line of his Grandfather's House is extinguished.  
Sir Richard Cecil was second Son of Sir Thomas Cecil Earl of Exeter, and had Issue David who married Eliz. the Daughter of John Earl of Bridgewater, and is now in expectation to be Earl of Exeter.  
His third Son was Sir Edw. Cecil Knight, his 4th and 5th Tho. Cecil and Christopher drowned in Germany.  
Sir Tho. the Grandfather Earl of Exeter made a Lease of this Monastery and Impropriation to one Pain (as I take it) by whose Widow the same came in Marriage to Mr. Humphrey Guibon Sheriff of Norfolk, Anno 38. Eliz. whose Grandchild and Heir Tho. Guibon consumed his whole Inheritance, and lying long in the Fleet, either died there a Prisoner, or shortly after.  
Sir Edw. Coke Lord Chief Justice married for his second Wife the Lady Eliz. Hatton, one of the Daughters of the said Earl Tho. and afterwards bought the Castle of Acre with this Monastery and Impropriation of his Brother-in-Law Earl William Son of Earl Thomas, since which time he hath felt abundantly the Change of Fortune, as we have partly touched in Flitcham-Abbey.   

West-Acre-Abbey.  
This also belonged to Sir Tho. Cecil of whom we have now spoken; he sold both it and the Impropriation of West- Acre to Sir Horatio Palvicini an Italian, that before his coming into England had dipped his Fingers very deep in the Treasure of the Church.  
Being in his Youth in the Low-countries (as his Son Edward affirmed to me) he there secretly married a very mean Woman, and by her had Issue him this Edward, but durst never discover it to his Father as long as they lived together, his Father being dead he came into England, and here married a second Wife, by whom he had Issue his Son Toby, and for his Wive's sake disinherited him his eldest Son Edward, and conferred all his Lands with the Abbey, and Impropriation of West- Acre to Toby and his Heirs.  
Edward after the Death of his Father grows into contention with his Brother Toby, and in a Petition to King James accuseth both his Father and his Brother for deceiving (the one) of Q. Eliz. (the other) of K. James, of a Multitude of thousand Pounds, the Examination whereof was by His Majesty referred unto me among others, and the two Brethren then agreeing among themselves the Reference was no further prosecuted. But Mr. Toby Palvicini consuming his whole Estate sold the Abbey and Impropriation to Alderman Barcham, and yet lieth in the Fleet for Debt, if not lately at liberty.   

Blackborough and Wrongey-Abbeys.  
These were by— granted and annexed to the See and Bishopric of Norwich, where Edmond Scaulter being made Bishop 27 Eliz. and doing as much as well he might to impoverish the Church, made a Lease of most of the Manors and Lands thereof, and amongst them of these two Abbeys to Qu. Elizabeth for 29 Years at the lowest Rent he might, which Bishop Goodwin in like cases termeth Sacrilege.  
Queen Elizabeth assigneth this Lease to Sir Tho. he leaveth it to his Lady, after the Countess of Southampton, she setteth her term in these Abbeys with the Manors and Lands belonging to them to one Fisher a Skinner in London, by the procurement of Wrenham her Servant.  
Fisher entereth and enjoyeth them as undoubtedly his own, Leaseth them for 21 Year to Harpley at a great increased Rent, Wrenham dieth without contradicting any thing; his Son John Wrenham pretending that Fisher had the grand Lease but in trust for his Father (who never paid penny for it) exhibits one Bill in Chancery against Fisher, another against his Son Sir Edward Fisher as having it from his Father, a 3d against Harpley the Under-leaser. The Lord Chancellor Egerton by an order declareth Harpley's Lease to be good, who thereupon enjoyed it quietly and dieth, his Executrix setteth it to Sir Henry Spelman, Wrenham exhibiteth a Bill against Sir Henry. The Suits proceed to an hearing betwixt Wrenham and the Fishers. The Lord Chancellor decreeth it against the Fishers and all claiming under them. The Lord Chancellor Egerton gives over his place, and Sir Francis Bacon placed in his room. He reverseth the Decree, and decreeth it back again to Sir Edward Fisher, and by another Decree giveth also Sir Hen. Spelman's Lease unto him without calling or hearing Sir Henry. Wrenham complaineth in a Petition to King James, and taxeth the Lord Chancellor Bacon of Corruption and Injustice. The King himself peruseth all the proceedings, and approveth the Lord Bacon's Decree, Wrenham is censured for his scandal in the Star-Chamber to lose his Ears on the Pillory, etc.  
A Parliament followeth in Jacobi, both Wrenham and Sir Henry Spelman severally complain there. It is found that the Lord Chancellor Bacon had for these Decrees of Sir Edw. Fisher a Suit of Hangings of eight score pounds. The Lord Chancellor for this among other such crimes is deposed.  
The Bishop of Lincoln is set in his room, the Suits are again in agitation before him between Wrenham and Fisher, and Sir Henry Spelman, by a Petition to the King obtaineth a Review of the Proceedings against him, upon which a Recompense is given him by Decree against Sir Edward Fisher.  
The Bishop of Lincoln is removed by King Charles, and the Lord Coventry made Lord Keeper, by whom the other Differences are at last compounded, and the Grand Lease divided into many parcels.  
Wrenham that raised this Tempest, besides his misfortune in the Star-Chamber, is never the richer by it, but liveth a Projectour.  
Sir Edward Fisher of 8000 l. (as Bodon his Servant protesteth) in the Suit is consumed, and not to be seen of every Man.  
Sir Henry Spelman a great loser, and not beholden to Fortune, yet happy in this, that he is out of the Briars, but especially that hereby he first discerned the Infelicity of meddling with consecrated places.  
Sir Tho.— died without Issue Male, and his Family extinct, Mr. James out of whose Bowels his Father the Bishop hoped to raise a Family of note, hath to this day no Issue at all.   

Walsingham-Abby Dedicated to St. Mary, Canons regular, val. at 446 l. 14s. 4d.  
One Sidney Governor of the spital there, as was commonly reported, when I was a Scholar at Walsingham, was by the Townsmen employed to have bought the Site of the Abbey to the use of the Town, but obtained and kept it to himself. He had Issue Thomas, and a Daughter, Mother to Robin Angust the Foot-post of Walsingham.  
Thomas by the advancement of Sir Francis Walsingham Brother to his Wife, grew to great Wealth, was Customer of Linne, and about a miscarrige of that place was long harrowed in Law by Mr. Farmer of Basham, and died leaving two Sons.  
Thomas the eldest having the Abbey, etc. married and died without Issue.  
Sir Henry succeeded in the Abbey, etc. married and died without Issue.  
His Lady a virtuous Woman now hath it for life, the remainder being given for names sake by Sir Henry to Robert Sidney the 2d Son of the Earl of Leicester.   

Walsingham-Priory not mentioned in the Tax.  

1. Owner.  One Mr. Jenner was Owner of it, and had Issue Thomas, Francis and Bartholomew.  
Francis a Lawyer of Gray's- Inn married into Kent, 
His 2d Son drowned.  and was drowned in going thither by Boat.  
Thomas the eldest had the Priory, 
Two of his eldest Sons are Vagabonds.  and 3 or 4 Sons, and a Daughter, one of his Sons (or as some say two) went up and down a begging. His eldest he disinherited, settling his Estate upon his younger Son John, being my Servant, who died in his Father's life.  
Then he gave his whole Estate to his Daughter, 
All disinherited.  married to Bernard Vtbarr, and a Daughter of hers, his Grandchild, with a particular Sum of Money to maintain Suit against his Son and Heir, if he claimed any thing after his death. Being dead, his Son entered and got possession of the Priory, but in fine with some little composition was wrested out by Vtbarr; and now Vtbarr's Daughter coming to age, it is to be sold by her.   

Hempton-Abby all Takenham Dedicated to St. Mary and St. Stephen, Black Canons, Aug. 39 l. 9 s.  
If Sir Hen. Farmer had it, 
1. No Issue.  he died without Issue. 
2. Without Issue-male. His Brother slain.  Sir William Farmer had it and died without Issue-male. His Brother was slain at Rising-Chase by the Rebels 2 Ed. 6.  
His Son Mr. Thomas Farmer had it and 
3. Wasted.  the Impropriation of Basham, and wasting his Estate, sold about 15 or 16 Manors, leaving none but his chief House Basham.  
His eldest Son Thomas died a young Man, his three Daughters unfortunate. The eldest and youngest poorly married. The middle to Mr. Barneys Son of Gunton, who disinherited by his Father was slain by Tho. Betts his Wife's Uncle, of the half blood, at a Marriage at Litcham.  
Nicholas Farmer younger Brother of Thomas was attainted and pardoned for Coining, 
His Brother attainted and drowned▪  and after taking a Boat to fly from the Sergeants was drowned in the Thames.  
William 2d Son of Thomas, a right honest Gentleman, 
His Son no Issue-male.  still hath the Impropriation, and having been married about 18 Years, hath only a Daughter.  
Mr. Richard Benson bought the Abbey and Manor of Pudding Norton of Mr. Tho. Farmer, 
4. Ruined.  consumed all and went into Wales.  
Mr. Gossald bought the Abbey of Mr. Benson, 
5 Owner.  and lest it to his Wife in Jointure.  
Mr. Henry Gossald of Ireland his Son and Heir sold the Reversion to Sir Thomas Holland and goeth into Ireland. 
6 Owner selleth it.   
Mr. Nicholas Timperley bought it of Sir Tho. Holland. 
7 Owner.    

Malsingham-Abby not in the Tax.  
It was Sir Tho. Gresham's, who died (as was said) suddenly in his Kitchen without Issue-male. 
● died suddenly without Issue-male.   
His Daughter and Heir was married to Sir William Read who had this Abbey. 
2 Owner.   
Sir Tho. Read his eldest Son married Mildred Daughter of Sir Tho. Cecil after Earl of Exeter, 
His eldest S●n died without Issue.  and died without Issue.  
Sir Francis Read his 2d Son, 
His 2d an unthrift.  an unthrift lived much in the Gaol, if he died not there.  
The Daughter of Sir William was married to Sir Michael Stanhope, 
3 Owner without Issue-male.  who died without Issue-male.  
Jane the eldest Daughter of Sir Michael married to Sir William is out of her Wits, 
His eldest Daughter distracted.  and Sir William her Husband in sore danger of his life about the slaughter of 6 or 7 Men tumultuously killed at—  
Elizabeth the younger of his Daughters and Heirs married to the Lord Barkley, 
His youngest Daughter distracted.  is out of her Wits.   

Flitcham-Abby.  
Sir Tho. Hollis had it, and was (by report) at Dinner taken out of it in Execution for Debt by the Sheriff, and his Goods sold, whereof my Father bought some. Much suit there was about it between one pain and him or his Heir, but the matter being at length referr'd to the Duke of Norfolk, he bought both their Titles.  
He, the Duke had it, and was attainted and beheaded, and it then came to the Crown.  
King James gave it in Fee Farm to my Lord of Suffolk who was fined in the Star-Chamber and put out of Treasureship, and suffered much Affliction by the Attainder of the Lady Francis Countess of Somerset his Daughter, and of her Husband the Earl.  
My Lord Cook bought it of the Earl of Suffolk, and bought out the Fee-Farm from King James: He was put out of the place of Ch. Justice of the King's Bench, fell into great Displeasure of the King, and hath been laded with Afflictions proceeding chiefly from his own Wife, who liveth from him in Separation.  
His eldest Son Sir Robert having been married many Years hath yet no Issue.  
His Daughter the Lady Vicountess of Purbeck, the Fable of the Time, and her Husband a Lunatic.   

Wendling.  
Wendling-Abby differed from all the rest of this Circuit, for it was not dissolved by the Statute or by the Act of Hen. 8. but before that time by Cardinal Wolsey, and was one of the 40 small Monasteries that Pope Clement the 7th gave him licence to suppress for the Erection of his 2 Colleges, Christ-Church in Oxon, and another at Ipswich.  
The Cardinal employed 5 Persons especially in this business, whereof one was slain by another of those his Companions, that other was hanged for the Fact, the third drowned himself in a Well, the fourth being a Man of good Wealth in those days, fell within three years after so poor, that he begged till his Death, the fifth (Dr. Allen) promoted to a Bishopric in Ireland, was there cruelly maimed.  
The Cardinal himself fell out of favour with the King and Kingdom, and condemned in a praemunire, lost all his Offices, Honours, Goods, and Estate, and being called into further danger, died for grief by the way, not without suspicion of poisoning himself.  
The Pope who gave the Licence, was, by the Duke of Bourbon's Army, driven out of his City of Rome, it cruelly sacked, and himself besieged in the Castle of St. Angelo, taken Prisoner, scorned, and put to Ransom: And after all this, was at last (as some affirm) poisoned with certain of his Cardinals and Friends, by the Fume of a Torch prepared for that purpose. Stow in Anno Dom. Bale 18. 6.  
Besides all these, Mr. Tho. Cromwell, who then was but Servant to the Cardinal, having a principal hand in the Destruction of these Monasteries given to his Master, had also a principal share in this Tragedy, for tho' he were after promoted to great Honours, yet in the end he was thrown out of them all, convicted of Treason, attainted and beheaded, as in other places heretofore we have more fully related.  
Now we come nearer to, and particularly to this Abbey, wherein, as also in others of that Nature in Corporations and Bodies Politic that are the Seminaries of the Church, little attention is to be expected, yet see what happened to their Tenants and Farmers, profanely abusing the consecrate places thereof.  
The Cardinal did grant it to his Coll. at Christ-Church in Oxon, and to whom they first leased it I do not yet find, but Mr. Tho. Hogan of Bradenham that was Sheriff of Norfolk.  
Eliz. died in his Sheriffship, and not long after him his Son Mr. Hen. Hogan, leaving his Son and Heir very young, who attaining near to his full Age, and falling sick, acknowledged a fine upon his Deathbed to the use of his Mother the Lady Caesar that now is, and his half Sisters, and dying without reversing it, did by that means cut off his Heirs at common Law, and was the last of his Father's House in that Inheritance: This begat great Suits in the Star-Chamber, Chancery, and Parliament itself.  
The Lease is since come to Mr. Hamon.  
Nor did the Colleges for which these Monasteries were suppressed by the Cardinal, and which he meant to make so glorious, come to good effect; for that of Ipswich was pulled down, and the other of Christ-Church was never finished, as also neither that of King's College in Cambridge, rising out of the Ruins of the Priory's Aliens.   

Coxford Abbey all Ratha Abbey.  
Coxford Abbey after the Dissolution came to the Duke of Norfolk, who was beheaded 2d June 1572, Eliz. 14.  
The Queen then granted it to Edw. Earl of Oxon, who wasted all his Patrimony.  
Sir Roger Townsend then bought it, who had Issue Sir Jo. Townsend, and Sir Robert Townsend: Sir Robert died without Issue, Sir Jo. had Issue Sir Robert the Bar. and Stanhope, and Ann married to Joh. Spelman; he falling into a Quarrel with Sir Matthew Brown of Beach-North Castle in Surrey, each of them slew other in a Duel, 1 Jac. Stanhope Townsend wounded mortally by in a Duel in the Low Countries, came into England and died at London.  
Sir Roger the Bar. intending to build a goodly House at Rainham, and to fetch Stone for the same from Coxford Abbey, by advice of Sir Nathanael Bacon his Grandfather, began to demolish the Church there, which till then was standing; and beginning with the Steeple, the first Stone (as 'tis said) in the fall broke a Man's Leg, which somewhat amazed them, yet contemning such Advertisement, they proceeded in the Work, and overthrowing the Steeple, it fell upon a House by, and breaking it down, slew in it one Mr. Seller that lay lame in it of a broken Leg gotten at Football, others having saved themselves by Fright and Flight.  
Sir Roger having digged the Cellering of his new House, and raised the Walls with some of the Abbey-Stone Breast-high, the Wall reft from the Corner Stones, though it was clear above ground, which being reported to me by my Servant Richard Tedcastle, I viewed them with mine own Eyes and found it so. Sir Roger utterly dismayed with these Occurrents, gave over his begun Foundation, and digging a new wholly out of the ground about 20 Yards more forward toward the North, hath there finished a stately House, using none of the Abbey-Stone about it, but employed the same in building a Parsonage-House for the Minister of that Town, and about the Walls of the Churchyard, etc.  
Himself also showed me that as his first Foundation reft in sunder, so the new Bridge, which he had made of the same Stone at the foot of the Hill, which ascendeth to his House, settled down with a Belly as if it would fall.  
But if there be any Offences or ominous Consequences depending upon such Possessions, he hath very nobly and piously endeavoured to expiate it; for he hath given back to the Church three or four Appropriations.   

Burnham Priory.  
It was sometime the Southwells of St. Faith's, whose Family is either extinct or gone out of the County. It was afterwards Francis Cobs, Gent. who likewise is gone; then Sir Charles Cornwallis Kt. wasted, and by him sold to Alderman Soame, who let the same to John Soame, Esque his 2d Son deceased.   

Peterston.  
About the latter Years of Q. Eliz. was Rich. Mansers, Gent. who had much suit and Quarrel with Firmine Grace about a Lease of it, and died without Issue, disposing it by a Will (as was reported) to one Roger Manser his Brother; but they were of it by Armiger of Creak who married Richard Manser's Sister, and left it to William Armiger his Son and Heir, who sold it to my Lord Cook to secure the Title.   

Carbrocke, a Monastery of Hospitallers of St. John of Jerusalem.  
Sir Richard Southwell, Knight, (a great Agent in spoiling the Abbeys) was Owner of it; he married Thomasin the Daughter of Sir Roger Darcy of Dambury, and living together had no Issue by her, but in the mean time he had by Mary Darcy, Daughter of Tho. Darcy also of Dambury, Richard Southwell of St. Faiths, and Tho. Southwell of Mowrton; Mary and Dorothy all born in Adultery, and Katherine married to Tho. Audeley of Beer-Church in Essex, Cousin and Heir Male to the Lord Audley (born, as it seems, after the Death of Thomasin his Wife) by the said Mary, who then and before was by Sir Richard married to one Leech, a Swallowman of Norwich, that had been his Servant, and now his Lady dying, he took this Mary from Leech her Husband, and married her himself, alleging that she could not be Leech's Wife, for that he had another former Wife then living; hereupon a great Suit ensued in the high Commission Court, where Sir Richard prevailed and enjoyed her with shame enough.  
Sir Richard dieth without other Issue than by this Mary, leaving the Abbey of St. Faiths to his base born Son Richard, and Mowrton to his base Son Thomas.  
His Son Richard marries Bridget Daughter of Sir Roger Copley, Knight, and had Issue by her Richard, Thomas, and Robert. This last Richard married the Daughter of Sir Tho. Cornwallis, and having Issue by her Sir Tho. Southwell, and 2 or 3 other Sons, dyeth in the life-time of his Father, who for his 2d Wife marrieth his Maid, the Daughter of one Styles Parson of Ellingham, and by her had Issue Sir Henry Southwell, and Dunsarry Southwell, now owner of Mowrton, and some Daughters, whereof Ann was in London And this Richard the Father having wasted his Estate, and sold the Abbey of St. Faiths to the Lord Chief Justice Hobart, died a Prisoner in the Fleet.  
Tho. Southwell the other base Son of Sir Richard dieth without Issue, and having given by his Will the Manor of Mowrton to his Sister Audley for Life, the Remainder to Thomas her younger Son. Sir Tho. Southwell, Nephew of the Testator, seeketh to overthrow the Will, and to have the Manor as Heir at common Law to Thomas the Testator; hereupon the Heir of Leech strikes in against them both, labouring with Sir Thomas to falsify the Will against Mrs. Audley, and excluding Sir Tho. by alleging bastardy against him in Richard his Father, for that Mary Darcy the Mother of this Richard was Wife to the Father of this Leech, when Richard and Thomas the Testator was born.  
This brought all the filthiness aforementioned to be raked over again, and when all were notoriously defamed by it, they all sit down without any recompense.  
Tho. Audley that was in remainder died without Issue in the Life of his Mother, whereby Mowrton came to his Brother Sir Henry Audley.  
Anthony Southwell and Southwell Brothers of Sir Thomas were in the Robbery of Mrs. Grave, and fled into Ireland.  
Sir Henry Southwell married the Daughter of the Lord Hor in Ireland without Issue.  
After the Death of Sir Richard Southwell, his Nephew Sir Robert succeeded in the great Inheritance, and the Hospital of Carbrock, he married the Daughter of the Earl of Nottingham, and died in the Flower of his Age, leaving his Son the now Sir Thomas an Infant, who about his full Age had a base Daughter by Dr. Corbett's Maid, and marrying her privily, liveth now in does— of her, and keepeth the Daughter of one Eden in a poor House at Notton, and hath consumed the greatest part of his Estate.  
His Sister, Mrs. Eliz. Florence liveth at Florence in Adultery with Sir Robert Dudley, having another Wife before he married her, and both of them still living.   

Marham.  
Sir Nicholas Hare, Knight, and John Hare Citizen and Mercer of London 3 Jul. Anno 38, H. 8. purchased of the King ... totum fitum, circuitum, ambitum & praecinctum nuper Monasterii sive domus  
De Marham in ac totum sundum, situm & terram, Ecclesiam, Campanile, domus aedificiorum etc. ... necnon manerium nostrum de Marham cum omnibus terris ... etc.  
Sir Nicholas Hare married the Daughter and Heir of Bassingbourn, and had Issue Michael that died without Issue, Robert that died without Issue, and Richard that died without Issue; and his Inheritance went away to his two Daughters, the one married to Rouse, 
Quere, Whether these two Daughters of Sir Nich. are of his Son Michael or other Son.  the other to Timperley. See more of this Sir Nicholas in the Speaker of Parliament, Anno 31 H. 8. where he prophesied this ruin of his Family.  
John Hare the Citizen had Issue Nicholas the Lawyer, that died without Issue, Ralph that died without Issue, Edmund Lunatic, at a Lodge in Enfield-chace, Hugh that died without Issue, Rowland and John that had Issue, and Thomas of Oxford that married and died without Issue.  
Richard the elder married Eliz. Daughter of ... and had Issue Sir Ralph Hare, 
Slew Blackwell, and obtained a Pardon with 1200.  Knight of the Bath, and he married ... the Daughter of Alderman Hambden, and John Son of John and Brother of Richard, was Clerk of the Court of Wards, and had Issue Nicholas, who was Lunatic, and died without Issue, and Hugh now Lord Colrane in Ireland.  
Sir Ralph Hare to expiate this Sin of his Family, gave the Parsonage impropriate of Marham worth 100 l. yearly to St. John's College in Cambridge, Anno 16 and died, leaving one only Child, Sir John Hare, who married Sir Thomas Coventry the now Lord Keeper's Daughter, and hath by her, she not being ... Years old ... Sons and Daughters, with hope of a numerous Posterity, God bless them.   

Crabhouse.  
I have yet gotten little Intelligence of this Abbey; but I hear that it was not long since John Wright's of Wigen-Hall in Marseland, and that he had two Sons, whereof ... his eldest Son consumed his Estate, and sold the Abbey with the greatest part of the Land and died without Issue.  
It came after to Mr. William Guybon of Watlington, and is now in the hands of his Son and Heir.   

Bromill Abbey.  
Sir Thomas Woodhouse of Wapham, 38 H. 8. 
Wapham 1st no Issue. 2d ruined. 3d litigious, and no Issue Male.  purchased Bromill Abbey of the King, he died without Issue, and Sir Henry Woodhouse his Nephew succeeded, who utterly consumed his whole Estate, and selling the Abbey to John Smith, Esq Suits arose thereupon, which lasted many Years, till the Death of Sir Henry in Nou. 1624.  
Mr. Smith hath only Daughters and no Son, so that the Abbey is not like to continue in his Name.   

Ex inform. ipsius, Jo. Smith, 11ᵒ. Nou. 1624.  
The Impropriation of Besthurst in Lancashire, as I take it, is worth 1600 l. per Annum, being Sir Urion Lea's.   

Dereham Abbey.  
Tho Dereham in the 33 H. 8. bought it of the King: shortly after he was fetched out of it to the Tower about the Treason of his Brother Francis Dereham who was executed.  
Thomas at length was delivered out of Prison; he had Issue Thomas, Robert, John and Baldwin, and a Daughter.  
Thomas married ... and died without Issue Male; Robert and John died without Issue.  
Baldwin a decayed Merchant of London, had Issue four Sons, Thomas Dr. of Divinity, John, and Martha a Daughter non compos mentis.  
Thomas succeeded his Uncle in the Inheritance, and is now Knighted, having Issue Thomas.  
Thomas, eldest Son of Sir Thomas, married ... daughter of ... Scot, Esque of ... in Kent; she fell Lunatic in Childbed upon the Death of her Son ... 1623., and so continueth having yet only a Daughter.   

Thetford.  
Hitherto I have kept myself within my Circle; let us see for our further satisfaction, whether the like fortune haunted the Monasteries without it; we will begin with Thetford.  
The Monastery of the Black Nuns of St. Gregory in Thetford, being the Benedictines, was the Duke of Norfolk's, whose Misfortunes are here before in other places too often mentioned.  
He sold the same to Sir Richard Fulmarston, Knight, who died without Issue Male, leaving it to his Daughter, and her married to Sir Edward Clark, Knight.  
Sir Edward Clark had two Sons by her, and a Son by his second Wife.  
Sir Edward Clark Knight of St. Michael the eldest Son, spent most of his Life in one Prison or other, had Issue a Son Sir Henry Clark, Baronet, that died without Issue Male in the Life of his Father, who consuming his whole Inheritance, sold the chief Seat of his Blickling to the Lord Chief Justice of the Common Pleas, Sir Henry Hobart; and this Monastery upon Exchange and Money to Mr. Godsalve for Buckingham-Ferry, which he ...  
Mr. Godsalve put over the Monastery, among other Lands, to Mr. John Smith and Owen Shepherd, and having consumed all his Estate, went beyond Sea.  
Mr. Smith and Mr. Shepheard, had a long and chargeable Suit about Mr. Godsalve's Estate, and sold the Monastery to Sir William Campion who now hath it, but with Suit and Trouble.  
Sir Edw. ... the elders second Son Francis died without Issue. This great and eminent Family is wholly extinct, as those also of Fulmarston's, Godsalve's, and Smith's for Smith hath no Issue Male.  
I must here note that this Sir Edward ... the Elder, was one of the greatest Hunters, by way of Concealment, after Church Goods and Lands, that was in his time, and that sowing these unfortunate Pieces of new gotten Cloth into the Garment of his old Inheritance, the new hath not only rend away the old Garment, but the Family itself to which it served.   

Pentney Priory.  
Pentney Priory was purchased of the K●ng Anno 37 H. 8. by Thomas Mildmay the Auditor, whose Son Sir Thomas sold it to Francis Windham, one of the Justices of the King's-Bench, he entailed it first upon his own Issue, then to his Brother's Roger and Thomas, the Dr. after to his Sister Coningsby, and after that to Edmund, and Edmund's natural Brothers, all which dying without Issue, it came to Thomas Windham Esq Son of Sir Henry Windham, who in Anno 1622 sold it to Sir Richard Ballache Knight, and he in Anno 1631 to Judge Richardson.  
The Abbey of Radegundis at Bradefalk in Kent by Dover is now Sir Tho. Edolph's Knight, 
Kent.  who did lately build a fair House upon the Site of the Monastery, and it hath fallen down three times; his two Brothers lunatic.   

Ex relat. Mrs. Meres qui duxit Vxorem Edw. Pegton Baronet.  
St. Lawrence-Abbey by Canterbury now in the hands of Edolph lunatic, whose Grandfather was also lunatic; his Grandfather first purchased the Abbey.   

Shirburn.  
Shirburn-Abbey (some time a Cathedral-Church) 
Dorsetshi▪  yet belonging to the Bishop of Salisbury, saith Cambden, p. 214. impres. 1610.  
Sir John Horsey having no Issue, left for Name sake to Sir Ralph Horsey of Cambridgeshire, the Monastery and Parsonage of Shirburn, who wasting much his Estate, sold them to Mr. Stikles, and he to my Lord Digby about 1620.  
The Castle and the Manner was assigned from the Bishop of Salisbury to Queen Elizabeth, and by her to Sir Walter Raleigh after beheaded, than it came to Prince Henry, who died shortly after, than it came to the Earl of Somerset, who being attainted, the King granted it to my Lord Digby.  
The Bishopric being void, Toby Matthew should have had it, but would not take it upon Sir Walter Raleighs conditions, but Henry Cotton accepting and performing them, his Son was born blind, who notwithstanding was made a Minister, had 3 or 4 Parsonages, and was Canon in Salisbury, yet died a Beggar.   

Hale's-Abbey.  
Hale's-Abbey and Manor for the most part (viz. 500 Acres) granted to the Lord Admiral (Seymor) in fee 19 Aug. 1. Edw. 6. 
Glocestershire.  He beheaded, 
Val. l. s. d. 65 14 8.  it returned to the King Edw. who 12 June reg. 4. granted all with the 500 Acres to the Lord Marquis, 
Val. l. s. 99 16.  who 16 June eodem Anno, leased it to Hodgkins for 21 Years at 159 l. 16 s. but as it seems came again to the Crown, for Q. Eliz 18 July reg. 7. leased it again to Hodgkins for 21 Years at 159 l. 16 s. Woods, Regalities, etc. excepted ut videtur.  
Hodgkins had three Sons, all died poorly, but he gave his Estate to his Daughter married to Hobby.  
St. Ousey given by King Edward to Thomas Lord Darcy, and ... slain at St. Quintin's. John had Issue Thomas Lord Darcy, whose Issue-Male of his Father and Grandfather failing, his Daughter is married to Sir Thomas Savage.  
At the latter end of Q. Mary's days, Calais being taken, Sir Hugh Paulett took down the Bells of the Church of Jersey, and sending them to St. Malo's in Britain 14 of them were drowned at the Entry of the Harbour; and at this day it is a Byword in those Parts, when a strong ●ast-Wind bloweth there, that the Bells of Jersey ring.  
Ex relatione Mri. Bandivell Decani, ib.  
Travelling through Cambridgeshire, and passing through a Town there called Anglary, I saw certain ruinous Walls, which seemed to have been some Monastery, hereupon I asked one of the Town, if it had not been an Abbey? he answered me, yes; I demanded of him whose it was, he said one Mr. Foulkes; I asked him further, how long he had had it? he said his Father a Londoner bought it; then I desired to know of him what Children he had? the Man answered me none; saying further that he had a Son, who displeasing him once as he was grafting, threw his grafting Knife at his Son, and therewith killed him.  
Passing also another time through Suffolk, I fell in company of a Gentlemanlike Man, who by way of Discourse, there had been in the Parts we there were, about 20 Justices of Peace, when he was young, and that at the present time there were not above three. He named also divers of the Families decayed, some in Estate, others for want of Issue-Male, and some by Misfortune. I having a jealous Eye upon it, asked if they were not settled upon Churchland, he answered me, yes; as Sir Michael Stanhope at Oxford-Abbey, Sir Anthony Wingfield at Leveringham-Abbey, both which died, one without Issue, the other without Issue-Male. Sir Anthony Playford at Playford-Abbey, Mr. Brown at Lawson-Abbey, where he was murdered by his Wife, she burned, and her Man hanged. Mr. Ford at Batley-Abbey, who disinherited his eldest Son, etc. saying further, that that Part was Churchland belonging to the Abbey of St. Edmundsbury, and called it St. Ethelreds' Liberty. 30 Sept. 16▪ 9   

In the Sermon of John Bishop of Ely, at the Funeral of Dr. Andrews Bishop of Winchester, 11 Nou. 1626., at the Church of St. Saviour's in Southwark.  
Now before I come to his last End, give me leave to tell you, that privately he did much find fault and reprove three Sins too common and reigning in this latter Age.  
1. Usury, etc.  
2. Simony, etc.  
3. The third and greatest was Sacrilege, which he did abhor as one principal Cause among many of the foreign and civil Wars in Christendom, and Invasion of the Turks; wherein even the reformed, and otherwise the true Professors and Servants of Christ (because they took God's Portion, and turned it to public profane Uses, and to private Advancements) did suffer just Chastisement and Correction at God's Hand. And at home, it had been observed; and he wished that some Man would take the pains to collect, how many Families that were raised by the Spoils of the Church, were now vanished, and the Place thereof knows them no more.   

Of Sacrilege touching Bells.  
It is reported in our Histories, and I have spoken of it before in the proper place, that King Edgar leading his Army into the parts of Glamorgan, for suppressing a Rebellion of the Welshmen, some of his Soldiers, among other spoil, took away the Bell of St. Ellutus, and hanged it about an Horse's Neck. And it is noted upon this, that King Edgar sleeping in the Afternoon, saw one in a Vision that smote him on the Breast with a Spear, and that thereupon he restored both the Bell and the other spoil; yet died within nine days following. (Holl. p. 161.) If the Vision be fabulous, I maintain it not: tho' we have a Precedent for it in the Ecclesiastical Histories, about the Death of Julian the Apostate. But the Mythology may be, that Edgar (abounding with Devotion) was stricken in Conscience with the Spear of Repentance for this Sacrilege; and that notwithstanding his Restitution, his Life was taken from him very shortly after.  
I shall make a great Leap from thence to these latter Ages; but I can go no further, than where Authors and my reading carry me. Only for our Father's times, I shall report what I have faithfully received by Tradition.  
When I was a Child (I speak of about threescore Years since) I heard much talk of the pulling down of Bells in every part of my Country the County of Norfolk, then common in Memory. And the sum of the Speech usually was, that in sending them over Sea, some were drowned in one Haven, some in another, as at Lyn, Wells or Yarmouth. I dare not venture upon Particularities; for that I then hearing it as a Child, regarded it as a Child. But the truth of it was lately discovered by God himself; for that in the Year ... he sending such a dead Neipe (as they call it) as no Man living was known to have seen the like, the Sea fell so far back from the Land at Hunstanton, that the people going much further to gather Oysters than they had done at any time before, they there found a Bell with the Mouth upward, sunk into the ground to the very Brim. They carried the News thereof to Sir Hamon le Strange, Lord of the Town, and of Wreck, and Sea-rights there, who shortly after sought to have weighed up and gained the Bell; but the Sea never since going so far back, they hitherto could not find the place again. This Relation I received from Sir Hamon le Strange himself, being my Brother-in-law.  
Such other Reports I have often in times past heard, touching some other parts of that Kingdom; but (as I said) I then regarded them not, and will not therefore now speak any thing of them.  
But dining one day at Lambeth, with the most Reverend Father in God, George the late Archbishop of Canterbury; it pleased his Grace, in way of Discourse, to tell me, That being in Scotland, and lodging at his first entrance in Dunber, he viewed the Church there, and understanding that there was never a Bell in the Steeple, demanded the reason of the Minister. Who not pleased with the Question, answered somewhat scornfully, That it was one of the Reformed Churches; implying thereby, that the Reformed Churches had no Bells. Then going to Edinborough, he found no Bell in all the City, save one only in the Church of St. Andrew; and enquiring there also of the reason, it was told him, That the rest were pulled down and shipped to be carried into the Low-Countries, but were all drowned in Leigh Haven. Such havoc in pulling down Bells and defacing otherwise of Churches, had no doubt proceeded furiously throughout all England, if Queen Elizabeth in An. 2. of her Reign, had not by her Proclamations and course of the Star-Chamber, very severely prevented the same.  
At the end of Qu. Mary's days (Calais being taken) Sir Hugh Paulett pulled down the Bells of the Churches of Jersey, and sending them to St. Malo's in Britain, fourteen of them were drowned at the entrance of that Harbour. Whereupon, it is a byword at this day in these parts, when any strong East-wind bloweth there, to say, The Bells of Jersey now ring. (Ex relatione M. Bandinell Decani ibidem.  
More to this purpose may appear in the Discourse next following; which lying now at my hand, I thought good to insert, not only for coherence of the matter, but also to show the Opinion, Piety, and Tenderness herein, of the greatest Father and Magistrate of our Church (under the King) at that time living.  
Dining yesterday at Lambeth with my Lord of Canterbury, 
Nou. 13. 1632.  his Grace falling casually into a Discourse of Spanish matters, and the Wealth of their Churches, said, That he had heard that the very Lamps of Spain were worth half the Treasure of that Kingdom. And calling to him Mr ... Barkley of ... who had been a great Traveller and long in Spain, demanded his Opinion herein. Mr. Barkley answered, That he thought it to be true, and gave a reason; for that every body for their delivery from any notable danger, either of Sickness or otherwise, used to present a Saint by way of gratuity with a Lamp to burn before it, and commonly of Silver. So that before some one Saint, there were 4 or 5 thousand Lamps: His Grace suggested St. James of Compostella. And Mr. Barkley affirmed it of St. James; but added, That the Bells in Spain and in other places of France and Italy, were few and small, yet holden to be very powerful for driving away the Devils and Evil-spirits. I upon this recited out of Gregorius Turonensis, the History of Lupus Bishop of Swessons, who by sudden ringing of Bells drove away the Pagan Army of Normans besieging that City, having never heard of a Bell before. Much being then said of the Nature and Office of Bells, his Grace esteemed the Bells of England comparatively with the Lamps of Spain; and condemning the pulling of them down, complained of the Deformity they had thereby brought upon the Churches of Scotland; saying, That at his being there, and lodging first at Dunbar, he went to see the Church, which being showed unto him by a crumped unseemly Person the Minister thereof, he asked him how many Bells they had there? The Minister answered, None. His Grace thinking that somewhat strange, demanded how it chanced? The Minister thinking that Question as strange, replied, It was one of the Reformed Churches. From thence his Grace went to Edinborough, where he found accordingly no Bell in all the City, save one only in the Church of St. Andrew. And enquiring, What became of all the rest? it was told him, That they were shipped to be carried into the Low-Countries, but were drowned in Leigh Haven— I said, That it was reported, that Queen Elizabeth hearing that Sir John Shelton for want of other Prey, had brought a Bell from the sacking of Cales, was highly offended at it, and said, By God's death she would make him carry it thither again. I might have added, that that Peerless Princess was so far against defacing the Monuments in Churches, and the pulling down of Bells and Led from them, as in the second Year of her Reign she caused many Proclamations not only to be printed, but signed them also with her own Hand, and sent them in that manner (the more to manifest her Zeal and restrain the Sacrilege) about into the Counties. But because I had spoken of sending the Bell back again, his Grace then requited me with this Relation.  
A Gentleman (quoth he) of great descent, richly married, and of fair Estate (yet not naming him) showed me on a time a piece of Unicorns Horn, Sea Unicorn, as much as the Cover of a great Salt-celler (which was then standing upon the Table before Dinner) was about at the bottom; the piece of Unicorn's Horn having a Crucifix graven upon it, and a gap in one of the Quarters, where part had been cut or scraped away for curing Infirmities. I desired to know of him where he had it; but he refused to tell it me; till after some pressure he discovered to me, That in his Travels beyond the Seas, he came to a Nunnery, where the Nuns in courtesy showing him the Relics of their House, he whilst they heeded him not, slipped this into his Pocket and brought it away. His Grace reproving him for it, told him, It was Sacrilege, and that although it were superstitiously used, yet it was dedicated unto God, advising him to use some means for sending it back again; saying, that the Nuns no doubt suffered great Displeasure from their Abbess, upon the missing of it. The Gentleman notwithstanding (quoth his Grace) refused my Counsel; but I observed (said he) that he never prospered after, and at length having consumed his Estate, died Childless.  
It came not then to my Mind upon the sudden; but I might very truly have added the like of Sir John Shelton, That having married the Daughter of Henry Lord Cromwell, he died very little or nothing worth, and without any Issue (as I take it) but certainly without any Issue-male to continue his Family.  
[Subscribed] Henry Spelman.  
I Jeremy Stephens being then present, do testify the truth of this Relation.  
Having made mention of Cales and Queen Elizabeth; I will add further what was lately told me by a Knight of worth (who was himself in the Voyage) much conducing to the Honour of that renowned Princess, and to the scope also of this our Discourse. It is said, That when she set forth her Expedition for Cales, or other Spanish Towns, she gave particular and straight Instructions that in no Case any Violence should be offered to any Church or consecrated thing. This notwithstanding, Sir Coniers Clifford, upon the taking of Cales, fired and burnt the Cathedral-Church there; and Sir Charles Blunt (in the return from thence) the Cathedral-Church of Pharos in Portugal. It followed, that Sir Coniers Clifford never after prospered in any thing, and was at last slain by the Natives in Ireland, leaving no Son to continue his Nominal-line; and that Sir Charles Blunt, about 2 Years after the Fact, was drowned at Sea in passing for Ireland. (Ex relat. Will. Slingsby Mil. 22. Nou. 1634.)  
FINIS.