XIII. Gardiner's Letter to Sir John Godsalve concerning the Injunctions. (Ex MS. Col. C. C. Cantab.) MR. GODSALVE, after my right hearty Commendations, with like thanks for the declaration of your good mind towards me (as you mean it) although it agreeth not with mine Accompt, such as I have had leisure to make in this time of Liberty, since the Death of my late Soveraign Lord, (whose Soul Jesu pardon). For this have I reckon'd, that I was called to this Bishoprick without the offence of God's Law, or the King's, in the attaining of it. I have kept my Bishoprick these sixteen Years, accomplished this very day, that I write these my Letters unto you, without offending God's Law, or the King's, in the retaining of it, howsoever I have of frailty otherwise sinned. Now if I may play the third part well, to depart from the Bishoprick without the offence of God's Law, or the King's, I shall think the Tragedy of my Life well passed over: and in this part to be well handled is all my care and study now, how to finish this third Act well; for so I offend not God's Law, nor the Kings, I will no more care to see my Bishoprick taken from me, than myself to be taken from the Bishoprick. I am by Nature already condemned to die, which Sentence no Man can pardon, nor assure me of delay in the execution of it; and so see that of necessity I shall leave my Bishoprick to the disposition of the Crown from whence I had it, my Houshold also to break up, and my bringing up of Youth to cease, the remembrance whereof troubleth me nothing. I made in my House at London a pleasant Study that delighted me much, and yet I was glad to come into the Country and leave it; and as I have left the use of somewhat, so can I leave the use of all to obtain a more quiet; it is not loss to change for the better. Honesty and Truth are more leef to me than all the Possessions of the Realm, and in these two to say and do frankly, as I must, I never forbare yet: and in these two, Honesty and Truth, I take such pleasure and comfort, as I will never leave them for no respect, for they will abide by a Man, and so will nothing else. No Man can take them away from me but my self; and if my self do them away from me, then my self do undo my self, and make my-self worthy to lose my Bishoprick, whereat, such as gape, might take more sport than they are like to have at my hands. What other Men] have said or done in the Homilies I can not tell, and what Homilies or Injunctions shall be brought hither, I know not; such as the Printers have sold abroad, I have read and considered, and am therefore the better instructed how to use myself to the Visitors at their repair hither, to whom I will use no manner of Protestation but a plain Allegation, as the Matter serveth, and as Honesty and Truth shall bind me to speak; for I will never yield to do that should not beseem a Christian. Bishops ought never to lose the Inheritance of the King's Laws due to every English Man for want of Petition. I will shew my self a true Subject, humble and obedient, which repugneth not with the preservation of my Duty to God, and my Right in the Realm, not to be enjoined against an Act of Parliament: which mine intent I have signified to the Council, with request of redress in the Matter, and not to compel me to such an Allegation, which, without I were a Beast, I cannot pretermit: and I were more than a Beast, if after I had signified to the Council Truth and reason in words, I should then seem in my Deeds not to care for it. My Lord Protector, in one of such Letters as he wrote to me, willed me not to fear too much; and indeed I know him so well, and divers others of my Lords of the Council, that I cannot fear any hurt at their hands, in the Allegation of God's Law and the King's, and I will never defame them so much to be seen to fear it. And of what strength an Act of Parliament is, the Realm was taught in the case of her that we called Queen Ann, where all such as spake against her in the Parliament-House, although they did it by special Commandment of the King, and spake that was truth, yet they were fain to have a Pardon, because that speaking was against an Act of Parliament. Did you never know, or hear tell of any Man, that for doing that the King our late Soveraign Lord willed, devised, and required to be done, He that took pains, and was commanded to do it, was fain to sue for his Pardon, and such other also as were doers in it and I could tell who it were. Sure there hath been such a Case, and I have been present when it hath been reasoned, That the doing against an Act of Parliament excuseth not a Man, even from the Case of Treason, although a Man did it by the King's Commandment. You can tell this to your remembrance, when you think further of it, and when it cometh to your remembrance, you will not be best content with your self, I believe, to have advised me to enter the breach of an Act of Parliament, without surety of Pardon, although the King command it, and were such indeed as it were no matter to do it at all. And thus I answer the Letters with worldly civil Reasons, and take your Mind and : Zeal towards me to be as tender as may be and yet you see that the following of your Advice might make me lose my Bishoprick by mine own Act, which I am sure you would I should keep, and so would I, as might stand with my Truth and Honesty, and none otherwise, as knoweth God, who send you heartily well to fare. XIV. The Conclusion of Gardiner's Letter to the Protector, against the lawfulness of the Injunctions. (Cotton Libr. Vesp. D. 18.) WHETHER the King may command against the Common Law, or an Act of Parliament, there is never a Judg, or other Man in the Realm, ought to know more by experience, of that the Lawyers have said, than I. First, My Lord Cardinal had obtained his Legacy by our late Soveraign Lord's Request at Rome; yet being it was against the Laws of the Realm, the Judges censured the Offence of Premunire; which Matter I bore away, and take it for a Law of the Realm, because the Lawyers said SO, but my Reason digested it not. The Lawyers, for the confirmation of their Doings, brought in a Case of my Lord Typteft, an Earl he was, and learned in Civil Laws; who being Chancellor, because in execution of the King's Commission he offended the Laws of the Realm, he suffered on Tower-Hill: they brought in the Examples of many Judges that had Fines set on their Heads in like case, for transgression of the Laws by the King's Commandment: and this I learned in this Case. Since that time being of the Council, when many Proclamations were devised against the Carriers out of Corn; when it came to punishing the Offenders, the Judges would answer, it might not be by the Laws, because the Act of Parliament gave liberty, Wheat being under a price: Whereupon at the last followed the Act of Proclamations, in the passing whereof were many large words. When the Bishop of Exeter and his_Chancellor were by one Body brought into a Premunire, I reasoned with the Lord Audley then Chancellor so far, as he bad me hold my peace, for fear of entring a Premunire my self: But I concluded, that although I must take it as of their Authority that it is Common Law, yet I could not see how a Man authorised by the King, as since the King's Majesty hath taken upon him the Supremacy every Bishop is, that Man could fall in a Premunire. I reasoned once in the Parliament House, where was free Speech without danger, and there the Lord Audley Chancellor, then to satisfie me, because I was in some secret estimation as he knew-Thou art a good Fellow, Bishop, (quoth he) look the Act of the Supremacy, and there the King's doings be restrained to Spiritual Jurisdiction: And in an other Act, No Spiritual Law shall have place contrary to a Common Law, or an Act of Parliament. And if this were not (quoth he) the Bishops would enter in with the King, and by means of his Supremacy order the Law as you listed; but we will provide (quoth he) that the Premunire shall never go off your Heads. This I bare away there, and held my peace. Since that time, in a Case of Jewels, I was fain, with the Emperor's Ambassador Chapinius when he was here, and in the Emperor's Court also, to defend and maintain by Commandment, that the King's Majesty was not above his Laws, and therefore the Jeweller, although he had the King's Bill signed, yet it would not serve, because it was not obtained after the Order of the Law, in which Matter I was very much troubled. Even this time twelve-month, when I was in Commission with my Lord great Master, and the Earl of Southampton, for the altering of the Court of Augmentations, there was my Lord Montague, and other of the King's Learned Council, of whom I learned what the King might do against an Act of Parliament, and what danger it was to them that medled. It is fresh in my Memory, and they can tell whether I say true or no; and therefore being learned in so notable Causes, I wrote in your absence therein, as I had learned by hearing the Common Lawyers speak (whose Judgments rule these Matters) howsoever my reason can digest them. When I wrote thereof, the Matter was so reasonable, as I have been learned by the Lawyers of the Realm, that I trusted my Lords would have staied till your Grace's return. XV. A Letter from the Duke of Somerset to the Lady Mary, in the beginning of King Edward's Reign. (Cotton Libr. Faustin. C. 2.) MADAM, my humble Commendations THESE may be to signify unto the same, that I have received your Letters of the second of this present, by Jent your Servant, acknowledging my self thereby much bound unto your Grace; nevertheless I am very sorry to perceive that your Grace should have or conceive any sinister or wrong Opinion in me and others, which were by the King, your late Father, and our most gracious Master, put in trust as Executors of his Will, albeit the truth of our doings being known to your Grace, as it seemeth by your said Letter not to be. I trust there shall be no such fault found in us, as in the same your Grace hath alledged; and for my part, I know none of us that will willingly neglect the full execution of every Jot of his said Will, as far as shall and may stand with the King our Master's Honour and Surety that now is; otherwise I am sure that your Grace, nor none other his Faithful Subjects, would have it take place; not doubting but our Doings and Proceedings therein, and in all things committed to our Charge, shall be such as shall be able to answer the whole World, both in honour and discharge of our Consciences. And where your Grace writeth, that the most part of the Realm, through a naughty Liberty and Presumption, are now brought into such a Division, as if we Executors go not about to bring them to that stay that our late Master left them, they will forsake all Obedience, unless they have their own Will and Phantasies, and then it must follow that the King shall not be well served, and that all other Realms shall have us in an Obloquy and Derision, and not without just cause. Madam, as these words written or spoken by you soundeth not well, so can I not perswade my self, that they have proceeded from the sincere mind of so vertuous and so wise a Lady, but rather by the setting on and procurement of some uncharitable and malicious Persons, of which sort there are too many in these days, the more pity: but yet we must not be so simple so to weigh and regard the Sayings of ill-disposed People, and the Doings of other Realms and Countries, as for that Report we should neglect our Duty to God, and to our Sovereign Lord and Native Country, for then we might be justly called evil Servants and Masters; and thanks be given unto the Lord, such hath been the King's Majesty's Proceedings, our young Noble Master that now is, that all his faithful Subjects have more cause to render their hearty thanks for the manifold Benefits shewed unto his Grace, and to his People and Realm, sithence the first day of his Reign until this hour, than to be offended with it; and thereby rather to judg and think, that God, who knoweth the Hearts of all Men, is contented and pleased with his Ministers, who seek nothing but the true Glory of God, and the Surety of the King's Person, with the Quietness and Wealth of his Subjects. And where your Grace writeth also, That there was a Godly Order and |