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HISTORY OF PRINTING.
5th . of that name, Idng of Scottis ; and imprentit in Edinburgh be me Thomas Davidson, prenter to the kingis nubyll grace, dwellvng fomens the Frere wynd. Cumprimlegio. Folio.
1542," Henry VIII. proceeded to the further dissolution of colleges, hospitals, and other foun- dations of that nature. The courtiers had been dealing with the presidents and governors to make a surrender of their revenues to the king, and they had succeeded with eight But there was an obstacle to their farther progress ; it had been provided by the local statutes of most of these foundations, that no president nor any fel> lows could make such a deed without the unani- mous consent of all the fellows. This consent would not have been easily obtained, but the parliament proceeded in a summary manner to annul all these statutes; by which means the revenues of those houses were exposed to the rapacity of the king and his favourites.
Heni-y also extorted from most of the bishops a surrender of their chapter-lands; by which means he pillaged the sees of Canterbury, York, and London, and enriched his favourites with their spoils. He engaged the parliament to miti- gate the penalties of the six articles, as far as regarded the marriage of priests, who were now only subjected to a forfeiture of goods, chattels, ancl lands during life; he was still equally bent on maintaining a rig^d purity in speculative prin- ciples. He had appointed a commission consist- ing of two archbishops and several bishops of both provinces, together with a considerable num- ber of doctors of divinity; and by virtue of his ecclesiastical supremacy, he had charged them to choose a religion for his people. Before the commissioners, however, had made any progress in this arduous undertaking, the parliament had passed a law by which they ratified all the tenets which these divines should establish with the king's consent. One clause of this statute seems to favour somewhat of the spirit of liberty. It was enacted, that the ecclesiastical commission- ers should establish nothing repugnant to the laws and statutes of the realm.
The same year the king suppressed the only religious order remaining in England, namely, the knights of St. John of Jerusalem. This order had by their valour done great service to Christendom. During the general surrender of the religious houses in England, they had obsti- nately refused to give up their revenues to the king ; and Henry, who would endure no society that professed obedience to the pope, was obliged to have recourse to parliament for the dissolution of this order. Their revenues were large, and formed a considerable addition to the acquisitions which the king had already made.
1542, Januari/. In the privy purse expenses of the princes Mary,* is the following item :— " Was paied to the boke bynder for a boke limmed w* golde, the same geuen to the p'nce g'ce for a newyer' gifte, xxixs. In the following year, to
- Edited by F. Madden, Esq., F.8.A. 8vo. l«ndon:
Pickering.
my ladye Herbert, a boke cou'ed wt silv' and gylt, vij 8. vj d.; and in 1637, was paid for a claspe for a boke, vj s." And in the British Museum, among the royal manuscripts, is the Old TestO' ment, Hymm, Ptalter, &c., formerly belonging to the princes after she became queen, bound in a truly regal style. It has thick boards covered with crimson velvet, richly embroidered with large flowers in coloured silks and gold twist. It IS further embellished with gilt brass bosses and clasps, on the latter of which are engraved the arms of England.
1542. An act of parliament is passed in 1542, which declares that " It shall be felony to prac- tise, or cause to be prtu:tised, conjuration, witch- craft, enchantment, or sorcery, to get money; or to consume any person in his body, members or goods, or to provoke any person to unlawful love ; oT for the despite of Christ, or lucre of money, to pull down any cross, or to declare where goods stolen be."
1542. Robert Wver, an early printer, who printed many books without dates. Palmer only mentions two with a date. By the number of his works, rather than by the beauty of his typo- graphy,this printer has attained to a considerable eminence in the history of the early professors of the art; yet there are comparatively few of his productions to which his name is attached. Generally speaking, his types were exceedingly rude; but some of his pieces, which are printed in the foreign secretary Gothic, and large lower case Gothic, are at least of creditable execution. His residence was at the sign of St. John the Evangelist, which he also used for a device in St. IV^Urtin's parish, in the rents of the bishop of Norwich, near Charing Cross. His employers seem to have been William Marshall, Henry Dabbe, Richard Bankes, and John Goughe. The number of his productions amount to 63. His first book is dated 1527, and the last 1542. In the whole he printed sixty-three books, and the greater portion without dates. Among them is the following title : — Here begyrmeth a lyttle boke named fke icole hawse, wherein every man man rede a goodly prayer of the condycyans of women. Within the leaf tLere is a border of naked women. This satire upon women is in seven line verse ; the author, has shewed himself very severe on the ladies in these words : —
Trewljr some men there be
Tbat Ijrae alwayes In great hoiToure,
And say it goth bj destenye :
To bang or wed, both taatb one taoorc.
And whether it be, 1 am well tore,
Hangynge is better, of the twayne.
Sooner done, and shorter payne.
Another of Wyer's books has the following title : — Here begyrmeth a lytell boke, that *peak- eth of purgatorye : and what purgatory it, and of the pains that be therein, and which toult do abyde therein till they be pourged ofsynne, and which abide not there. And for what synnei a soul goeth to hell, and of the helpe that sondes in purgatory may haue of their friends that be on lyne : and what pardon aueyleth to mannes soule . In veise, cum privilegio regali, 4to.
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