send.'[1] Their fanatical appeals were endangering the public peace, and in self- protection he had been obliged to arm his household.[2] The Government themselves were compelled, in the course of the summer, to silence 'the godly persons' as a nuisance too intolerable to be borne.[3] But the Bishop's interference made an opportunity for again calling him to question. May.He was sent for to London in May, where being too unwell to ride, he was carried in a horse-litter. The Protector told him that his attitude was unsatisfactory; and when he protested that he had done nothing but what as a loyal subject he was entitled to do, he was required to state his opinions publicly in a sermon before the Court, on the royal supremacy, on the suppression of the religious houses, the removal of chantries, candles, ashes, palms, holy bread, and beads, on auricular confession, processions, the use of common
- ↑ Privy Council Records, Edward VI. MS.
- ↑ The Privy Council Record says: 'He had caused all his servants to be secretly armed and harnessed.' The Protector, in a circular to the foreign ambassadors, inflames the charge against him into treason. 'To withstand such as he thought to have been sent from us, he had caused his servants to be armed and harnessed.' But it is incredible that he contemplated an armed resistance to the Government. He denied it himself emphatically.
- ↑ 'His Highness is advertised that certain of the said preachers so licensed, not regarding such good admonitions as hath been given unto them, hath abused the said authority of preaching, and behaved themselves irreverendly and without good order in the said preachings, whereby much contention and disorder might arise and ensue in his Majesty's realm.' 'All manner of persons,' therefore, whoever they might be, were forbidden 'to preach in open audience in the pulpit or otherwise,' till further orders.—Proclamation for the Inhibition of Preachers, September 23, 1548. Fuller's Church History.
