To the Fifteen Articles of the Rebels, Devon, Anno 1549%
WnuEN I first read your request, O ignorant men of Devonshire and Cornwall, straightways came to my mind a request, which James and John made unto Christ; to whom Christ answered: You ask you wot not what.” Even so thought I of you, as soon as ever I heard your articles, that you were deceived by some crafty papist^, which devised those articles for you, to make you ask you wist not what.
Wherefore my duty unto God, and the pity that I have of your ignorance, move me now at this time to open plainly and particularly your own articles unto you, that you may understand them, and no longer be deceived.
In your first article you require, that all the general councils and holy decrees of our forefathers may be observed and kept, and whosoever shall againsay them to be holden as heretics.
This you all ask; but what you ask, I dare say, very few or none of you understand. For how many of you, I pray you, do know certainly which be called the general councils? and holy decrees of the fathers, and what is in them contained? The holy decrees, as they call them, be nothing else but the laws and ordinances of the bishop of Rome: whereof the most part be made for his own advancement, glory, and lucere, and to make him and his clergy governors of the whole world, and to be exempted from all princes’ laws, and to do what they list. And would you ask, if you knew what you asked, that we should put away the laws of our own realm, and be governed by the bishop of Rome’s laws? If you mean this, then be you traitors to the king, and enemies
[2 The commons this year brake out into a articles the archbishop drew up an excellent answer Anno 1549.]
[dangerous rebellion; and though they were once or at good length.” The archbishop wrote this answer]
[twice appeased, and scattered in some places, yet after the rout at Exeter given them by the lord]
[they made insurrections in others: and chiefly in Russel, and the taking prisoners divers of their cap-.]
[Devon, where they were very formidable for their tains and priests, and between the condemnation]
[numbers. The reason they pretended was double. and execution of Humphrey Arundel, and Bray,]
[The one was, the oppression of the gentry in in- mayor of Bodmin.” Strype’s Mem. of Abp. Cran-]
[closing of their commons from them: the other, the mer, Vol. I. pp. 264, 5. Ed. Oxon. 1840. The text]
[laying aside the old religion; which, because it was follows that of Strype, but has been collated for this]
[old, and the way their forefathers worshipped God, edition with the C. C. C. C. MS. of which the dif-]
[they were very fond of. The lord Russel, lord ferent readings are given in the notes. Vid. Foxe’s]
[privy seal who was sent against them, offering to Acts and Monuments, p. 1305 et seqq. Lond. 1583.]
[receive their complaints, the rebels sent them to Burnet’s Hist. of Reformat. Vol. II. pp. 237—242.]
[him, drawn up under fifteen articles: as beforethey Oxon. 1829. Holinshed’s Chronicles, Vol. III. p.]
[had sent their demands in seven articles, and a pro- 1002. Inthe C. C. C. C. MS.it is headed Against]
[testation that they were the king’s, body and goods. the Articles of the Devonshire men.”]]
[In answer to which the king sent a message to them, [? Papists, MS. C. C. C. C.]]
[that may be seen in Foxe. “They sent also a sup- [ I dare boldly say, Ibid.]]
[plication to the king, to the which an answer was [5 Vid. Speech on the Authority ofthe Pope and]
[made by the king’s learned council. To the fifteen of General Councils, p. 76 et sqq.] 11—2]
to your own realm: and if you mean it not, consider what persons they be, and how they have deceived you, that make you ask you wot not what.
And as for the general councils, you say you will have them all kept: but you be not so destitute of all reason, that you would have spoken such words, if you had known what you had said. For a great number of the councils repugn one against another. How should they then be all kept, when one is contrary to another, and the keeping of one is the breaking of another? And among your own articles you say, you will have divers things observed, which be not only contrary to the general councils, but also contrary to the law of this realm, and also to God’s laws, as it shall be plainly declared when we come to the articles.
And all reason is contrary that you should have asked such things, if you had known what you had asked. I have this opinion of the great number of you, that you would fain walk in the right way, if you could find it. And forasmuch as I perceive that wicked and false guides, under pretence to bring you to the high way, have brought you clean out of it, my good-will shall be, seeing you so far wandering out of the way, and so blindfolded with evil persuasions, that you cannot see where you go, to open your eyes that you may see, and to set you again into the right way. And when your eyes be so opened that you may see, and the right way shewed unto you, wherein you should walk; then if you will still wink, and not see, and run headlong in error, and not come to the right way, you may no longer be called simple and ignorant people, but perverse, froward, and wicked papists and traitors, enemies to God and your own realm.
But now I will come to your articles particularly, opening every one of them by himself, that you may see the bowels thereof, and what is contained in the same; that when you shall understand the whole, you may judge whether you knew before what you asked, or you were deceived by subtle and wily papistical traitors.