After the burning of this man, which was about the month of June, in the same year, about November, a convocation was called by Henry, archbishop of Canterbury, wherein was propounded among the clergy, The bishops consult to abolish the law of Præmuniri facias.to consult with themselves what way were best to be taken for the removing away the law of 'Præmuniri facias;'[1] for so were the hearts then of the temporalty set against the ecclesiastical sort, that where any vantage might be given them by the law, they did nothing spare; by reason whereof the church-men at that time were greatly molested by the said law of 'Præmuniri,' and by the king's writs, and other indictments, to their no small annoyance. By long consultation and good advisement, at last this way was taken: that a petition or supplication should be drawn and presented to the king, for the abolishing of the aforesaid law of 'Præmuniri facias;' and, also, for the restraining of other briefs, writs, and indictments, which seemed then to lie heavy upon the clergy. This bill or supplication being contrived and exhibited, by the archbishops of Canterbury and of York, unto the king, standing in need at the same time of a subsidy to be collected of the clergy, this answer was given to their supplication, on the king's behalf: The king's answer to the bill.that, forasmuch as the time of Christmas then tbew near, whereby he had, as yet, no sufficient leisure to advise upon the matter, he would take therein a farther pause. In the mean time, as one tendering their quiet, he would send to all his officers and ministers within his realm, that no such brief of 'Præmuniri' should pass against them or any of them, from the said time of Christmas, till the next parliament, A. D.1439.[2]
A BRIEF ANSWER TO THE CAVILLATIONS OF ALAN COPE'S CON CERNING LADY ELEANOR COBHAM.
In my former edition of Acts and Monuments,[3] so hastily raked up at that present, in such shortness of time, as in the said book thou mayest see, gentle reader! declared and signified; among many other matters therein contained, A brief answer to Cope concerning lady Eleanor Cobham.there is a short note made of one Eleanor Cobham, duchess of Gloucester, and of sir Roger Only, knight (priest, it should havc been printed), which two persons, about A. D. 1440, or the next year following, were condemned, the one to death, the other to perpetual prison. Of this little short matter Master Cope, the pope's scout, lying in privy wait to spy faults in all men's works, wheresoever any may appear, taketh pepper in the nose, and falleth again unto his old barking against me, for placing these aforesaid per-{{dhr|0.5em}
- ↑ Ex Regist. Henr. Chichesley.
- ↑ Ex Regist. Cant.
- ↑ The quotation from the first edition of the Acts and Monuments to which Foxe alludes, is subjoined:—"Within short time after, sir Roger Onley followed the lord Cobham and sir Roger Acton, being a knight of like nobility and order; and so likewise partaker of the like cause and quarrel; a man endowed with like valiantness and godliness, whom we do read in certain annals to be hanged for the truth's sake in the year of our Lord, 1441. And lest that this rage of persecution should not wrap in all and every sect and kind, or should not sufficiently fulfil all points of cruelty, as though it had been but a small matter hitherto to have murdered so many men, they began now to execute their cruelty upon women. Of the which sort although there have been many who have followed their spouse Christ, by torments, banishments, and death, yet the first in this number which cometh unto our hands, is Eleanor Cobham, a woman nothing at all degenerating from her stock, kindred, and name received of her ancestors, albeit that we can find or understand none other thing of her, but that for suspicion of heresy; that is to say, for the love and desire of the truth, she was by the papists banished into the Isle of Man; as Harding and Fabian do write. Whom a few years after, there followed a woman, who, for her obstinacy and virtue, was greatly to be commended and praised, being called the mother of a certain lady, surnamed Young, she persevering even unto the fire, with a stout and manly courage, for the confession of the gospel was burned in the year of our Lord, 1490." See Edition 1563, p. 371.—Ed.
