Marginalia1549.
An other letter to Boner for abrogating priuate Masses.AFter harty commendation: hauing very credible notes, that within that your cathedral Church there be as yet the Apostles masse, & our ladies Masse, & other Masses of such peculiar name, vnder the defence and nomination of our Ladies communion, and the Apostles communion, vsed in priuate chappels and other remote places of the same, and not in the Chauncell, contrary vnto the kinges Maiesties procedings, the same beyng for the mysuse displeasing to God, for the place of Paules in example not tolerable for the fondnes of the name, a scorne to the reuerence of the Communion of the Lords body and bloud: we for augmentation of Gods glory and honour, & the consonancie of hys Maiesties lawes, and the auoiding of murmure, haue thought good to wil and commaund you, MarginaliaThe Apostles masse put downe in Paules.that from henceforth no such Masses in this maner bee in your Church any longer vsed, but that the holy blessed Communion, according to the act of Parlament, be ministred at the high aultar of that Church, and in no other places of the same, and onely at such tyme as your hygh Masses were wont to bee vsed, except some number of people desyre for their necessary busynes to haue a communion in the morning, and yet the same to be executed in the Chauncell at the high aulter, as it is appoynted in the boke of the publick seruice, without cautele or digression from the common order. And herein you shall not onely satisfy our expectation of your conformitie in all lawfull thinges, but also auoyde the murmure of sundry that be therwyth iustly offended. And so we bid your Lordship hartely farewell. From Richmond the. xxiiij. of Iune. an. 1549.

Your louing friendes

MarginaliaBoners letter to the Deane and Chapter of Paules.RIght worshipful, with most harty commendations. So it is: this Wensday the. xxvj. of Iune, goyng to dynner, I receaued letters from the kings Counsell by a Pursiuant, and the same I do send now herewith vnto you, to the intent you may peruse them well, and procede accordingly: praying you in case all bee not present, yet those that be now residēt and supplying the places, may in their absence call the company together of the church, and make declaration hereof vnto them: Thus committing you to God, ryght well to fare. Wrytten wyth speede this. xxvj. of Iune, at one of the clocke.
Your louing brother Ed. London.  

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Reform in London

Edmund Bonner. He wrote this letter to the Dean and members of the Chapter of St. Paul's Cathedral barely two weeks after the imposition of the Book of Common Prayer on 9 June had triggered the Western Rebellion, in which the populace of Cornwall and Devon rose up in resistance to the new prayer book and ecclesiastical reforms promulgated under Protector Somerset.

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John King

Ouer and besides all thys, the Lord Protectour, wpth the resydue of the Kynges priuye and learned Counsel, assembling together in the Starre chamber about the same matter, that is, for the aduauncement and setting forward of the kings so godly procedinges, called before them all the Iustices of peace, where was vttered vnto them by the Lord Rich then Lord Chaūcellour, an eloquent and learned admonition, the tenor whereof ensueth.

MarginaliaAn exhortation or admonition vnto the Iustices of peace.IT hath bene vsed and accustomed before this time to call at certaine times the Iustices of peace before the kings Maiesties Counsail, to geue vnto them admonition or warning, diligently (as is their dutie) to looke to the obseruing of such thynges as be committed to their charges, according to the trust which the kings Maiestie hath in them. Howbeit now at thys time we call you before vs, not onely of custome, but rather of necessitie. For hearing dayly, and perceauyng of necessitie as we do, the great negligence and the little heede whych is taken and geuen to the obseruyng of the good and wholesome lawes & orders in this Realme, wherupon much disorder doth dayly ensue, and the Kinges Maiesties proclamations & orders taken by the Counsayle (as we are aduertised) not executed, the people are brought to a disobedience, and in a maner all hys Maiesties study and ours in setting a good & most godly stay, to the honor of God, and the quiet of the Realme, is spent in vayne and come to nothing. The which aswe haue great hope and trust not to be altogether so, yet so much as it is, and so much as it lacketh of keping the Realme in a most godly order and stay, we must needes impute and lay the fault thereof in you whych are the Iustices of peace in euery Shiere, to whom we are wont to direct our writings, and to whose trust and charge the Kinges Maiesty hath cōmitted the execution of all his Proclamations, of his Actes of Parlament, and of hys lawes.

MarginaliaIustices slacke in furthering of religion.We are informed that many of you are so negligent and so slacke herein, that it doth appeare you do looke rather, as it were, through your fingers, then diligently see to the execution of the sayd lawes and Proclamations. For if you would, accordyng to your duties, to your oth, to the trust which the kinges Maiestie hath in you, geue your diligence and care toward the execution of the same most godly Statutes and Iniunctions, there should no disobedience, nor disorder, nor euil rule be begon or arise in any part of þ^e realme, but it should by and by be repressed, kept downe, and reformed. But it is feared, and the thing it selfe geueth occasion thereto, that diuers of you do not onely not set foorth, but rather hinder, so much as lyeth in you, the kinges Maiesties procedinges, and are content that there should aryse some disobedience, and that men should repyne agaynst godly orders set forth by his Maiesty: you do so slackly looke to the execution of the same: So that in some Shieres which be further of, it may appeare that the people haue neuer heard of diuers of his Maiesties Proclamations, or if they haue heard, you are content to wincke at it and to neglect it, so that it is all one as though it were neuer commaunded. But if you do consider and remember your duties, first to almighty God, and then to the kinges Maiestie, the wealth of the whole Realme, the safegard of your own selues: you must nedes see, that except such orders as þ^e kinges Maiestie hath set, and hereafter shall appoint, be kept, neither can the realme be defended if the enemy should inuade, nor in peace it can not stand: but vpon the contempt of good and wholesome lawes all disorder and inconueniences should come, the people should be wylde and sauage, and no man sure of hys own.

And if at any time there was occasion and cause to be circumspect and diligent about the same, there was neuer more time then now. How we stand in Scotlād you know, and that other foreine power maketh great preparation to ayde them, & in deede doth come to their ayde: whereof we are surely informed and certified. MarginaliaThe fruite of obedience in a Realme.Wherefore if there should not be good order and obedience kept in the Realme, the Realme were like vtterly to be destroied. Neuer foreine power could yet hurt or in any part preuayle in this realme, but by disobedience and misorder within our selues. That is the way wherewith God will plague vs, if hee minde to punish vs. And so long as we do agree among our selues, and be obedient to our Prince and to his godly orders and lawes, we may be sure that God is with vs, and that foreine power shall not preuayle agaynst vs, nor hurt vs.

Wherfore once agayne, and still we must and do lay this charge vpon you that are the better of the Shiere and Iustices of the peace, that with so cōuenient speede as you can, you do repayre down into your countreys, and you shall geue warnyng to the Gentlemen of the Shiere which haue not necessary busines here, that they repayre down ech man to his countrey, MarginaliaOrder taken for Iustices.and there both you and they, who bee reckoned the stay of euery Shiere, to see good order and rule kept: You that your Sessions of gayle deliuery and quarter Sessions be well kept, and therein your meetinges be such, that iustice may be wel and truly ministred, the offenders and malefactours punished accordyng to the lawes of the Realme, wythout any feare of any man, or that for fauour you should suffer those to escape, whych wyth theyr euyll example might bring other to the lyke myshap: And that al vagabondes, and lawd and light tale