Catalogue description MISCELLANEOUS PAPERS

Four separate manuscripts bound together by Archbishop Sancroft in whose hand is a list of contents at f.ivv.

1 Copies of letters, memoranda, and other papers perhaps made for Archbishop Whitgift by his secretary Michael Murgatroid, c.1587-9. Several items concern Sir Christopher Hatton, whose appointment as Lord Chancellor on April 29th 1587 is noted on f.iv. The contents of this item are as follows:

List of contents (f.1r-v).

Letter from Sir Thomas Wilkes, diplomat, to Queen Elizabeth I, [August 1587], against peace with Spain in the Low Countries (f.4).

Letter from Sir Thomas Wilkes, diplomat, to Queen Elizabeth I, [13 July 1587], on policy in the Low Countries and in particular the dangers of the Earl of Leicester's policies (f.8).

[Translation] of a letter from Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester, to the States of Holland and Zealand, [6 December 1587] on his departure (f.12).

"Whether hir majestie be bounde by ye worde of God to assist the United Provinces against the K. of Spaine'. Printed Strype, Whitgift, 1822, I, 439-40 (f.15).

'Certaine observations and reasons why there shoulde not be an heire apparent nominated' (ff.17-20).

'That such papists as of late have bene executed were by a statute of Ed:3 lawfullie executed as trayters' (ff.20-3).

'Of magistrates in generall howe they were instituted and ought to be obeyed' (ff.24-5).

'A perfect definition of a kinge and of his office and government over the people' (ff.25v-30v).

'The olde order of the Romaines when either there cheif governer was deade or absent by reason of war' (f.31r-v).

'Of calumination' (f.32v).

'We ought first and principallie to seeke the true worship of God and the preservation of his church' (f.33).

Biblical and classical texts on 'Of our dutie to hir majestie and care of hir defence and safetie' (f.33v).

Classical texts on 'Of our dutie to our Countrie and preservation of hir defence and safetie' (f.34).

Biblical texts on 'The judgments of God against kings for disturbinge ye church' (f.34).

'On the duties of subjects' (ff.34v-35v).

'That princes by mulcts maie use compulsion against hereticques' (ff.36-37v).

'If anie violence be attempted against Princes the treason maye rightlie touch them who graspe for the crowne' (ff.38-39v).

Prayer of thanksgiving for the defeat of the Spanish Armada, 1588. Heading in Sancroft's hand (f.40).

'That the Jesuits maye laufullie be banished: yt upon the contempte of such order they may be executed and theire receivers punished severelie' (ff.41-2).

Classical and other texts on 'Ambitio' (f.42v).

Biblical and classical texts on 'De proditione et proditoribus' (f.43).

Biblical and classical texts on 'Malum in auctores plerumque recidit' (f.43v).

Classical and biblical texts 'to be applied to the Queene' (f.44).

Biblical texts that 'It is not lawfull for anie subiecte either to kill or resiste his prince' (f.44v).

Texts from the Psalms 'to be applied to ourselves' (f.45).

Biblical and classical texts 'In Jesuitas authores seditionum et sanguinis' (f.45v).

'The maner of the Oxforde men signifyinge to my L. Chaunceler [Sir Christopher Hatton] yt they had chosen him ye Chaunceler of Oxforde written by waie of a letter to Mr. Murgetrode', [October 1588] (ff.46-47v).

'A discourse upon the bill and booke of the Puritanes in ye Parliament 1586'. Attributed by Strype to Hatton (Whitgift, 1822, I, 489-91, and printed Ibid., III, no.XXXI (ff.48-51).

'That the presente forme of our ecclesiasticall government in Englande is both godlie and necessarie' (ff.52-3).

'That the ordinances of our church and the meanes appointed by lawe for ye execution are good and commendable' (f.54v).

'That yf anie thinge be generallie amisse in ecclesiasticall affaires it appertaineth under hir majestie unto the clergy, the Convocation house or synode to be reformed' (ff.54v-55v)

'That when orders are agreed upon by ye clergie and confirmed by hir majestie those men ought to be punished yt wilfullie oppose themselves and will not obey them' (ff.56-7).

'The papists treecheries maye appeare by these 3 pointes: yr slaunderous wordes in yr writings against hir majestie: yr trayterous practises: yr fanaticall and develish doctrine' (ff.58-9).

'Certaine places of scripture wch ye precisians use' (f.59v).

'That godlie kinges maye not onelie laufullie suppresse ye wicked but destroye all yr children and allyes' (f.60r-v).

'Certaine petitions for a reformation in causes ecclesiasticall' (ff.61-62v).

'Errours and untruthes in ye bill exhibited for a farther reformation of ye church' (ff.62v-63).

'Certaine mischeifs ensuinge the Puritans demandes and platforme'. Printed Strype, op.cit., I, 491-3 (ff.63v-64).

'Abby livinges to be conferred to the use of our presbiteries'. An additional passage in the hand of Archbishop Whitgift (f.64v).

'Orders for the better increase of learninge in the inferior ministers and for more diligent preachinge and catachisinge', [1586]. Printed Strype, op.cit., III, no.XXXII (f.65r-v).

'Of the abrogation of the morall lawe by waye of a letter to Mr. Byrde', from Cambridge, 18 March 1577. Signed 'R.B.' (ff.66-74v).

Speech at the opening of Parliament by Sir Christopher Hatton, February 1589 (ff.75-81v).

'A breviate of ye Chaunceler's authoritie and iurisdiction collected by delegates laufullie authorised for yt purpose and afterwards published and [blank] in the Convocation of Oxforde in Januarie 1588' (ff.83-84v).

'The proiecte and platforme of outwarde church government exhibited in a bill and booke ye last parliament by such as disturbe the peace of this church by seekinge innovation, is absurde in divinitie and daungerous in pollicie to this State as it appeareth by the severall writings of such as are favourers and divisers thereof and by ye bill and booke itself' (ff.85-87v).

'Why you ought not to deale with matters of religion' (f.88).

To the Speaker of the House of Commons: 'The effect of your speech

(to disable yourself

(to be dismissed' (f.88v-89)

'Reasons agaynst the bill now exhibited in the lower howse of parlayment against pluralityes of benefices etc' (ff.89v-91).

Old numbers #C.[GREEK]. 5. fol.vol.231 and R.14.

2 'Disciplina et politeia Ecclesiae Anglicanae' by Richard Moket, Warden of All Souls College, Oxford. Printed in his Doctrina et politia Ecclesiae Anglicanae, 1617, 291-350 (ff.93-142).

Old numbers #C.[GREEK]. 4 and fol.vol.230.

3 Sir John Burgh, Keeper of the Records in the Tower of London, 'The Souueraigntie of the seas of England proued by Record, Historie, and the Municipall Lawes of the Kingdome. Also a particular Relation concearning the inestimable Riches and Commodities of the British Seas' (ff.143-207).

4 'The prologue of Dom. Godfrey monk of Clarevallis upon the three last bookes of Saint Bernard's life'. A translation of the life of St. Bernard by Geoffrey of Auxerre (Migne P.L., 185, 302-22) (ff.208-29).

230 ff.