1570 Edition | Book 8 | Page 1334 
it. MarginaliaNo bokes to be translted, without the name of the translator.Neither shall they Print any translated booke without the plaine name of þe translator bee in it, or els the Printer to be made the translator, and to suffer the fine and punishment therof, at the kynges pleasure.
MarginaliaEnglishe bokes of Scripture forbyddē to be printed.Item, that none of the occupation of Printyng shall within the Realme, Printe, vtter, sell, or cause to be published, any Englishe bookes of Scripture, vnlesse the same bee first vewed, examined, and admitted by the kynges highnesse, or one of his priuy Counsaile, or one Byshop within the Realme, whose name shall therein be expressed, vppon payne of the kynges most high displeasure, þe losse of their goods and cattels, and prisonment, so long as it shall please the king.
[Back to Top]MarginaliaAgaynst Sacramētaries.Item, those that be in any errours, as Sacramentaries, Anabaptistes, or any other, or any that sell bookes hauyng such opinions in them, beyng once knowen, both the bookes & such persons shalbe detected & disclosed immediatly vnto the kinges maiestie, or one of hys priuy Counsaile, to the entent to haue it punished without fauour, euen with the extremitie of the law.
[Back to Top]MarginaliaNo man to dispute of the Sacrament.Item, that none of the kinges subiectes shal reason, dispute, or argue vpon the Sacrament of the altar, vppon paine of losing their lyues, goods and cattels, without all fauour, onely those excepted that bee learned in Diuinitie: they to haue their libertie in their scholes and appoynted places, accustomed for such matters.
[Back to Top]MarginaliaHoly bread & holy water, with other rites of the church established.Item, that holy bread and holy water, processiō, knelyng, and crepyng on good Friday to the crosse and Easter day, settyng vp of lightes before the Corpus Christi, bearyng of Candels on Candlemas day, purificatiō of women deliuered of child, offering of Crisomes, kepyng of the iiij. offeryng dayes, paying their tithes, and such lyke ceremonies must be obserued and kept, till it shall please the kyng to chaunge or abrogate any of thē. This
CloseThis sentence is Foxe's insertion into the text. Foxe is trying to establish that there was popular resistance to the retaining of these traditional ceremonies.
MarginaliaMaryed priestes punished.Finally all those Priestes that be maryed, and openly knowen to haue their wiues, or that here after do intend to marry, shalbe depriued of all spirituall promotion, and from doyng any duety of a Priest, and shall haue no maner of office, dignitie, cure, priuiledge, profite or commoditie in any thyng appertaynyng to the Clergie, but from thence forth shall be taken, had, and reputed as lay persons, to all purposes and intentes: and those that shall after this proclamation marry, shal runne in his graces indignation, and suffer punishmēt and imprisonment at his graces will and pleasure.
[Back to Top]Item, he chargeth all Archbyshops, Byshops, Archdeacons, Deacons, Prouostes, Persons, Vicares, Curates and other Ministers, and euery of them in theyr owne persons, within their cures diligently to preach, teache, open, and set forth to þe people, the glory of God and truth of his worde: and also cōsideryng the abuses and superstitions that haue crepte into the hartes and stomackes of many by reason of their fonde ceremonyes, MarginaliaDifferēce to bee taught betwen thinges commaunded of God, and ceremonies vncommaunded.he chargeth them vpon payne of imprisonment at his graces pleasure, not onely to preach and teache the word of God accordinglye, but also sincerely and purely, declaryng the difference betwene thynges commaunded by God, and the rites and Ceremonies in their Churche then vsed, lest the people therby might grow into further superstition.
[Back to Top]MarginaliaThomas Becket vnsaincted.Item,
CloseThis lengthy denunciation of Becket is a preparation to the total destruction of his shrine at Canterbury which followed almost immediately. These injunctions are part of the propaganda blitz which preceded the demolition of the shrine and they clearly reflect Cromwell's hand in these injunctions.
Finallye, hys grace straitlye chargeth and commaundeth, that his subiectes doo keepe and obserue all and singular his Iniunctions made by his maiestye, vpon the payne therin contayned.
CloseIn this section Foxe turns to what had become, in restrospect, a defining event of the Henrician Reformation: the 1539 Act Abolishing Diversity in Opinions (31 Henry VIII c. 14), universally known then and since as the Act of Six Articles. This is a critical part of Foxe's narrative of Henry's reign; it is also thick with factual errors and dubious interpretation.Foxe was heir to twin Protestant and Catholic traditions which had decided that the Act was a mainstay of religious conservatism. For Catholic opponents of religious change under Edward VI, the Act became a touchstone of orthodoxy, with the southwestern rebels of 1549 demanding that the 'Lawes … concernynge the syxe articles' should be restored. (A Copye of a letter (RSTC 15109.3: London, 1549), sig. B6r.) Protestants had long concluded that the Act was a bloody instrument of persecution. Richard Grafton, in his continuation of Edward Hall's chronicle - which provides the narrative core for Foxe's account of this episode, and to which many of the problems with Foxe's account can be traced - claimed that 'of some [the Act] was named the whip withe sixe strynges' (Edward Hall and Richard Grafton, The vnion of the two noble and illustrate famelies of Lancastre & Yorke (STC 12721: London, 1548), part II, fo. 234v). A pamphlet of 1548 described it as 'their whip of correction ... hanged [with] .vi. stringes' (Peter Moone, A short treatise of certayne thinges abused (STC 18056: London, 1548), sig. A3v).This view of the Act as the brutal centrepiece of a popish backlash determined Foxe's view, not only of the Six Articles, but of the period 1539-47 as a whole. Recent scholarship has taken a less apocalyptic view of the Act and of that period. Alec Ryrie, The Gospel and Henry VIII (Cambridge, 2002), pp. 15-39, discusses the Act, its reputation and its genesis, arguing that it was the outcome of a particular diplomatic moment, that it had little immediate impact, and that many reformers were content with much of it. Rory McEntegart, Henry VIII, the League of Schmalkalden and the English Reformation (Woodbridge, Suffolk, 2002), pp. 150-63, gives the critical diplomatic context. Glyn Redworth, 'A study in the formulation of policy: the genesis and evolution of the Act of Six Articles' in Journal of Ecclesiastical History vol. 37 (1986), pp. 42-67, reconstructs the process by which the Act came into being. The main factual errors of Foxe's account are chronological. The Hall and Grafton chronicle (his principle source for this section, alongside the text of the Act itself) used London mayoral years, which run from October to October: this led him to date the Act to 1540, rather than 1539. This is significant for Foxe's account of Thomas Cromwell's fall, for in 1570 and subsequent editions of the Acts and Monuments, Foxe redated Cromwell's fall, correctly, to 1540 - thus making it appear that Cromwell's arrest followed immediately on the passage of the Six Articles, whereas in fact more than a year separated the two events. His main account of the persecution under the Six Articles also suffers from serious chronological confusion.More significant, perhaps, is the vagueness of much of this account, for aside from Grafton's assertions and the text of the Act, Foxe had little hard evidence to back up his view that 'religion began to goe backward' from 1539-40 onwards. As a result, here as elsewhere Foxe is driven to embrace conspiracy theory. Behind every setback for the evangelical cause he detects the manipulating evil genius of Stephen Gardiner, bishop of Winchester: a view only loosely related to reality but, like the reputation of the Six Articles, already firmly established in English Protestant mythology by the time Foxe wrote. See Michael Riordan and Alec Ryrie, 'Stephen Gardiner and the making of a Protestant villain' in Sixteenth Century Journal vol. 34 (2003), 1039-63.Alec Ryrie
[Back to Top]MarginaliaThe variable chaunges and mutations of religion in K. Hēryes daies.To many whiche be yet alyue, and can testifie these thinges, it is not vnknowen, how variably the state of Religiō stode in these dayes: how hardly & with what difficultie it came forth: what chaunces and chaūges it suffered. Euen as the kyng was ruled and gaue eare sometime to one, sometimes to an other, so one whyle it wēt forward, at an other season as much backwarde agayne, and sometyme cleane altered and chaūged for a season, accordyng as they could preuaile which were about the kyng. So long as Queene Anne lyued, the Gospell had indifferent successe.
[Back to Top]After that she, by sinister instigation of some about the kyng, was made away, the cause of the Gospell began agayne to incline, but that the Lord then stirred vp the Lord Cromwell, oportunely to helpe in that behalfe. Who, no doubt, did much auayle for the increase of Gods true Religion, and much more had brought to perfectiō, MarginaliaThe course of the Gospell interrupted by malicious enemies.if the pestilent aduersaries, malignyng the prosperous glory of the Gospell, by contrary practising had not craftely vndermined hym and supplanted hys vertuous procedinges. By the meanes of which aduersaries it came to passe after the taking away of the sayd Cromwell, that þe state of Religion more and more decayed, duryng all þe residue of the reigne of K. Henry.
[Back to Top]Among these aduersaries aboue mencioned, the chief Captaine
CloseA typical example of unsubstantiated, conspiratorial claims of Gardiner's role. See Michael Riordan and Alec Ryrie, 'Stephen Gardiner and the making of a Protestant villain' in Sixteenth Century Journal vol. 34 (2003), 1039-63.