SIXTEENTH CENTURY.
313
1551. Bichard Grafton printed the following proclamations : —
March 9. For forbiddyng the eating of flesh in the tyme of Lent, and other days prohibited.
This proclamation was to abstain from flesh oa Fridays and Saturdays : exhorted on the principle, not only that " men should abstain on those days, and forbear their pleasures and the meats wherein they have more delight, to the intent to subdue tiieir bodies to the soul and spirit, but also for worldly policy. To use Jlsh for the benefit of the commonwealth, and proKt of many who be fishert and men using that trade, unto the which this realm, in every part environed with the seas, and so plentiful of fresh waters, be increased the nourishment of the land by saving flesh."*
April 28. For the reformation of vagabonds, telleis of newes, sowers of seditious rumours, players, and printers without licence, unless allowed by his majestie, or six of his privy coun- cil under their hand, and divers other disorderly persons.
Jtfoy 22. Concerning casters, and spreaders abrode of slanderous and seditious billes.
May 30. For the prices of victuals. In this year alehouses were first licensed. Both ale and alehouses are mentioned in the laws of Ina, king of Wessex. — See page 42 ante.
In one proclamation the king denounces to the people " those who despise the sacrament by calling it idol, or such otner vile name.
Another is against such "as innovate any ceremony," and who are described as " certain private preachers and other laiemen who rashly attempt of their oven and singtdar wit and mind, not only to persuade the people from the old and accustomed rites and ceremonies, but also them- selves bring in new and strange order according to their phantaties. The which, as it is an evi- dent token of pride and arrogancy, so it tendeth both to confusion and disorder."
Another proclamation, to press " a godly con- formitv throughout his realm," where we learn the following curious fact, of " divers unlearned and indiscreet priests of a devilish mind and intent, teaching that a man may forsake his wife and marry another, his first wife yet living; like- wise that the wife may do the same to the hus- band. Others that a man may have two mves or more at once, for that these things are not prohibited by God's law, but by the bishop of Rome's law ; so that by such evil and phantas- tical opinions some have not been afraid indeed to marry two wives."
The proclamations of every sovereign would characterise his reign, and open to us some of the interior operations of the cabinet. The despotic will, yet vacillating conduct of Henry VIII. towards the close of his reign, may be traced in the proclamation to abolish the translations of the scriptures, and even reading of bibles by the
- Bbhoj) Burnet, in Us mstorji of Ike Reformation,
mi. U . p. s6, folio, hu made s just observation on religious
ale ; commanding all printers of English s to affix their names to them, and forbid- ding the sale of any English books printed abroad. — (See p. 266, ante.) When the people were not permitted to publish their opinions at home, all the opposition flew to foreign presses, and their writings were then smuggled into the country in which they ought tofaave been printed. Hence many volumes printed in a foreign type at this period are found in our collection.
The proclamations of Edward VI. curiously exhibit the unsettled state of the reformation, where the rites and ceremonies of Catholicism were still practised by the new religionists, while an opposite party, was resolutely bent on an eternal separation from the church of Rome.*
The catholics,< in their expiring cause, took refuge in the theatre, and disg^ii^ the invec- tives they would have vented in sermons, under the more popular forms of the drama, where they freely ridiculed the chiefs of the new religion, as they termed the Reformation, and "the new Gospellers," or those who quoted their Testa- ment as an authority for their proceedings.
On the side of the Reformed we have no deficiency of attacks on the superstitions and idolatries of the Romish church ; and Satan, and his only son Hypocrisy, are very busy at their intrigues with another hero called " Lusty Juven- tus," and seductive mistress they introduce him to, Abominable Living : this drama was printed and published at this period. It is odd enough to see quoted in a dramatic performance chapter and verse, as formally as if a sermon were to be performed. There we find such rude learning as this : —
Read the V. to the GaUtians, and there you shall lee That the flesh rebeUeth against the spirit
or in homely rhymes like these —
I will show you what St. Paul doth declare
In his epistle to the Hebrews, and the X chapter.
In a proclamation of this period, the king charges his subjects that they snould not openly or secretly play in the English tongue any kind of Interlude, -P'ow, Dialogue, or other matter set forth inform of Play, on pain of imprisonment, &c. ; so that we may infer that the government was not alarmed at treason in Latin.
- These proclamations, or royal edicts, in oar country,
were never armed with the foree of laws — only as they enforce the execution of laws already established ; and the proclamation of a British monarch may become even an illegal act, if it be in opposition to the law oi the land. Once indeed it was enacted, under the arbitrary govern* ment of Henry VIII., by the sanction of a pusillanimous parliament, Uiat the force of acts of parliament should be given to the king's proclamations. Royal proclamations, however, in their own nature are innocent enough ; for since the manner, time, and circumstances of pnttine: laws in execution, murt frequently be left to the discretion of the executive magistrate, a proclamation that is not adverse to existing laws need not create any alarm : the only danger they incur is that they seem never to have been attended to, and rather testified the wishes of the government than the compliance of the subjects. They were not laws, and were therefore considered as sermons or pamphlets, or any thing forgotten in a week's time ! It seems that our national freedom, notwithstanding our ancient constitution, has had several narrow escape*.
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