letter sealed with the seal of the hundred, rape, or wapentack, city, borough, &c., where he is punished, witnessing the same, and containing the day when, and place where, and the place to which he is limited to go, and by what time; within which time he may lawfully beg, showing his testimonial, or else not. And if he perform not according to his testimonial, then to be taken where he begs, and whipped; and every time he shall offend against this statute, in every place to be taken and whipped till he come to the place where he was born or dwelled, by the space of three years; and there labour for his living.....

"IX. Begging scholars of Oxford or Cambridge, not authorized under the seal of the said universities by the commissary, chancellor, or vice-chancellor of the same, all shipmen, pretending losses of their ships and goods at sea, begging without sufficient authority, and all other idle persons going about the country or abiding in any city, borough, or town, using unlawful games and plays, or pretending to have knowledge in physic, phisonomy, palmistry, and other crafty sciences, making the people believe that they can tell their fortunes; shall, upon examination had before two justices of the peace (Quor. unus), if by proof they be found guilty of such deceits, be punished by whipping two days together, after the manner before rehearsed. And if they offend again, then to be scourged two days, and the third day to be put upon the pillory, from 9 of the clock till 11 before noon of the same day, and have one of their ears cut off; and for the third offence to have like punishment of whipping, standing on the pillory, and have their other ear cut off; and that the justices of the peace shall have like authority within liberties as without, being within their shires."*

In the reign of Henry VII. England was a land of plenty. The manners of the humbler classes were those of a happy, industrious, independent people.

In the reign of his successor the land was one of poverty, depravity, and crime. After the suppression, the latter kept pace with the destitution consequent on that measure. The savagery of the king kept pace likewise with that destitution. "The number of executions in the latter part of his reign was incredible."t Harrison, in his 'Description * Abridgment of the Statutes, p. 286.

Baker's Chron.

of Great Britain,' (vol. iv. p. 280.) states, that 72,000 persons were hanged in the kingdom in the reign of Henry VIII., "thieves and rogues, besides other malefactors."

Well might Sir Walter Raleigh say of the monster king: "If all the patterns of a merciless prince were lost in the world, they might be found in this king."

*

The pious Cromwell, who had sanctioned this unholy work, "who superintended the scattering into the air of the ashes of St. Thomas a Becket," had got about thirty of the estates belonging to the suppressed monasteries. He was created Earl of Essex. His impious career was, however, brought to a close by his loving master in 1540. He was charged with heresy and treason; his ill-gotten riches, however, constituted his crime, and to get at these it is probable the monster who was the supreme head of the Church, had decreed his death. Cromwell died like a sycophant and a slave, meanly and dastardly. This is the man whose memory the historian Hume delights to honour; from whose pitiful letter of supplication to the tyrant he quotes the concluding words: "I, a most woful prisoner, am ready to submit to death when it shall please God and your majesty; and yet the flesh incites me to call to your grace for mercy and pardon of mine offences. Written at the Tower, with the heavy heart and trembling hand of your highness's most miserable prisoner and poor slave,Thomas Cromwell.. -Most gracious prince, I cry for mercy, mercy, mercy."

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But Hume was a philosopher, a political economist, and a deist; and he says, Cromwell deserved a better fate." All the judicial murders on account of religion to which he was accessary that of the aged mother of Cardinal Pole, of priests and laymen, of More and Fisher, must have been evidences of his merit, in the sight of the historian who disbelieved Christianity, and looked on all religions (and especially the creed which united the suffrages of the largest number of Christians) as futile superstitions.

* In the first twenty-three years of Henry VIII. thirty heretics were committed to the flames; and in the last sixteen of his reign twenty-one more. Of these, sixteen were Anabaptists, one for denying the king's supremacy; the greater part of the remainder for offences against the law of the six articles.

Between thirty and forty others were executed ostensibly on convictions founded on new statutes; but in reality for their adherence to the old religion. (Brown's Penal laws, p. 10.)

In the following summary will be found an account of the several measures and acts, connected with matters of religion, passed in the reign of Henry VIII.

In the twenty-second year of his reign, Henry issued a proclamation prohibiting the purchase of any faculties or dispensations from Rome. This was the beginning of his defection.

In the twenty-third year of his reign, the clergy submitted themselves to him, being found guilty of acts against the Statute of Premunire,* and gave him the title of "Supreme Head of the Church" so far as it was according to

God's Word."

In the twenty-fourth year of his reign, an act was passed prohibiting appeals out of the realm to the Court of Rome, on pain of incurring a premunire.

In the twenty-fifth year of his reign, an act was passed against paying pensions, Peter's-pence, or any other dues to Rome.

In the twenty-sixth year an act was passed which legalized the king's claim to the title of the supre

"By these penalties of Premunire, so frequently alluded to in the penal statutes, we are to understand the punishment of Papal provisors, contained in 16 R. II. c. b: namely, that they shall be 'mys hors de la protection nostre dit Seigneur le Roy, et leurs terres et tenementz, biens, et châtieux, forfaitz au Roy nostre Seigneur; et q'ils soient attachez, par leur corps, s'ils porront estres trovez, et amesnez devaunt le Roy et son conseil, pour y respondre es cases avaunditz, ou que processe soit fait devers eux par premunire facias, en manière come est ordeiyne, en austres estatutz, des provisours et austres qui seuent en autry courte en derogation de la regalie nostre Seigneur le Roy.'

"The various parts of this severe and most indefinite species of punishment, which has been subsequently extended over our statutebook down to the 12 G. III. c. 11, are thus summed up by Sir Edward Coke: 'From the conviction the defendant shall be out of the king's protection, and his lands and tenements, goods and chattels, forfeited to the king: and his body shall remain in prison at the king's pleasure; or (as other authorities have it) during life.' To which he adds, that a man thus attainted, may be slain by another with impunity, because it was provided by 25 Edward III. st. 5, c. 32, that any man do to him as to the king's enemy. This notion, indeed, unfounded as it is, had so generally prevailed as to require the interference of the legislature; who by 5 Eliz. c. 1, enacted, that it shall not be lawful to kill any person attainted on a premunire, any law, statute, opinion, or exposition of law to the contrary notwithstanding. But though the offender's life is thus protected, his civil rights are completely annihilated; for he can neither bring any action, even for the most atrocious private injury, nor can any one with safety give him comfort, aid, or relief."Brown's Penal Laws. Note to p. 24.

macy, and the abolition of the Pope's authority in England.*

In the twenty-seventh year an act was passed for the suppression of the lesser houses, and confiscation of their property.

In his twenty-eighth year Cromwell was made Vicargeneral and chief visitant of religious houses.

In 1538, an act was passed for the suppression of all religious houses, and confiscation of their property.

In the thirty-first year of his reign, the Book of the Six Articles was set forth, and the property of all monasteries was vested in him.

In 1547, in the fifty-sixth year of his age, the monster, execrated by his people, died.

"If any resiant within this land, shall, by writing, ciphering, printing, preaching or teaching, or by any deed or act, obstinately or maliciously, extol or defend the authority of the Bishop of Rome, (heretofore usurped within this land), or shall invent any thing for the extolling of the same, or attribute any authority to the said See, or to any Bishop of the same, such offenders, their aiders, &c., and every of them, (being thereof lawfully convicted according to the laws of this land), shall incur the penalties of a premunire, provided by the Statute of the 16 R. II."

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CHAPTER V.

THE REFORMATION AND ENACTMENTS OF PENAL LAWS IN ENGLAND IN THE REIGN OF EDWARD VI., FROM 1547 TO 1553.

IN A.D. 1547, Edward VI. ascended the throne. Sixteen executors had been appointed to carry into effect the will of Henry, and govern the kingdom, till Edward, then under ten years of age, should reach the age of eighteen. The Earl of Somerset contrived to monopolize all the power of the other executors in his hands, and in his quality of Protector, in a short time his authority was absolute. Cranmer, an ambitious ecclesiastic, who had embraced the opinions of the foreign Reformers, was the confidential agent and adviser of the Protector.

A roving ecclesiastical commission to go into all parts of the kingdom, was appointed for the settlement of questions appertaining to religion, and especially to take into consideration the complaints against the Six Articles of King Henry, and the Commissioners were accompanied with preachers to instruct the people, and enlighten their ignorance, and to dissuade them from the invocation of saints, prayers for the dead, from images, the mass, and dirges for the dead, all which observances or rites had been spared by Henry.

In his will, the recommendation of his soul to God, was accompanied with a declaration of his belief, in which he particularly specified the merits of our Saviour's Sacrifice, efficacy of the Sacrament of His Body and Blood, the intercession of the Blessed Virgin, the offering up of Masses at a convenient Altar at Windsor, the daily offices for the dead, and charitable donations to the poor, to pray for the remission of his sins and his soul's good.

The primate Cranmer, and Somerset the protector, had taken oaths to fulfil the duties imposed on them by their trust as the late king's executors. Henry had solemnly enjoined that his son should be brought up in the religion he professed, the Catholic Faith; his executors violated