The History of England in Three Volumes, Vol. I., Part D. / From Elizabeth to James I.

CONTEMPORARY MONARCHS. EMP. OP GERM. K. OF SCOTLAND. K. OF FRANCE. K. OF SPAIN. Ferdinand..1564 Mary abdicates.1567 Henry II....1559 Philip II.1598 Maximilian.1576 James VI. Francis II..1560 Philip III. Rodolph II. Charles IX..1574 Henry III.. 1589 Henry IV. POPES. Paul IV.... 1558 Pius IV.... 1565 Pius V..... 1572 Gregory XIII.1585 Sixtus V... 1590 Urban VII.. 1590 Gregory XIV. 1591 Innocent IX. 1591 Clement VII.
1558.
Burnet, vol. ii. p. 373. Burnet, vol. ii. p. 374. Burnet, vol. ii. p. 374. Heylin, p. 102.
Camden in Kennet, p. 370. Burnet, vol. ii. p. 375.
Father Paul, lib. v. Strype’s Ann. vol. i. p. 5.
Burnet, vol. ii. p. 377. Camden, p. 370. Burnet, vol. ii. p. 378. Camden, p. 371. Heylin, p. 103.
Heylin, p. 104. Strype, vol. i. p. 41. Camden, p. 371. Heylin, p. 104. Strype, vol. i. p 54. Stowe, p. 635. Burnet, vol. ii. p. 380. Strype, vol. i. p. 29.
Notwithstanding the bias of the nation towards the Protestant sect, it appears that some violence, at least according to our present ideas, was used in these elections: five candidates were nominated by the court to each borough, and three to each county; and by the sheriff’s authority the members were chosen from among these candidates. See state papers collected by Edward, earl of Clarendon, p. 92. I Eliz. cap. 3.
Camden, p. 372. Heylin, p. 107, 108 I Eliz. cap. 1. This last power was anew recognized in the bill of uniformity I Eliz. cap 2.
In determining heresy, the sovereign was only limited (if that could be called a limitation) to such doctrines as had been adjudged heresy by the authority of the Scripture, by the first four general councils, or by any general council which followed the Scripture as their rule, or to such other doctrines as should hereafter be denominated heresy by the parliament and convocation. In order to exercise this authority, the queen, by a clause of the act, was empowered to name commissioners, either laymen or clergymen, as she should think proper; and on this clause was afterwards founded the court of ecclesiastical commission; which assumed large discretionary, not to say arbitrary powers, totally incompatible with any exact boundaries in the constitution. Their proceedings, indeed, were only consistent with absolute monarchy; but were entirely suitable to the genius of the act on which they were established; an act that at once gave the crown alone all the power which had formerly been claimed by the popes, but which even these usurping prelates had never been able fully to exercise without some concurrence of the national clergy.