because by this means all hope of ripe and compleated Learning was immaturely cut off in the very Bud and also all the Expectations of the poorer sort whose whole Time was spent in good Studies was eluded by these Drones occupying those Places and Preferments which more properly belonged unto them For Parts Learning Poverty and Election were of no strength at Home where Favour and Countenance and the Letters of Noblemen and such-like extraordinary and illegal Courses from Abroad bore all the Sway. CHAP. VII Dr. Smith and others recant AND now before I conclude this Year let me pass from more publick Matters and present the Reader with two or three Passages wherein the Arch-bishop had to do with private Men. May the 15 th Richard Smith D. D. Master of Whittington College and Reader of Divinity in Oxford a hot turbulent Man made his Recantation at Pauls Cross convinced and moved thereunto by the Pains of the Arch-bishop What his Errors were that he had publickly vented in the University and in his Writings may be known by the words of his Recantation which were these I do confess and acknowledg that the Authority as well of the Bishop of Rome whose Authority is justly and lawfully abolished in this Realm as of other Bishops and others called the Ministers of the Church consisteth in the Dispensation and Ministration of God's Word and not in making Laws Ordinances and Decrees over the People besides God's Word without the Consent and Authority of the Prince and People I say and affirm that within this Realm of England and other the King's Dominions there is no Law Decree Ordinance or Constitution Ecclesiastical in force and available by any Man's Authority but only by the King's Majesty's Authority or of his Parliament This Man had wrote two Books in favour of Popish Doctrine and those he also now disclaimed viz. A Book of Traditions and another of the Sacrifice of the Mass. In the former of which he maintained That Christ and his Apostles taught and left to the Church many things without writing which he asserted were stedfastly to be believed and obediently fulfilled under pain of Damnation In the other Book he maintained That Christ was not a Priest after the Order of Melchizedeck when he offered himself upon the Cross for our Sins but after the Order of Aaron and that when Christ did offer his Body to his Father after the Order of Melchizedek to appease his Wrath it was to be understood not of the Sacrifice of the Cross but of the Sacrifice that he made at his Maundy in form of Bread and Wine In which Book were other Errors He that is minded to see his Recantation of these his Books may have it in the Appendix as I transcribed it out of an old Book made by Becon intituled Reports of certain Men. This Recantation he not long after made at Oxon viz. in August following Where he also protested openly That he would abide in the sincere and pure Doctrine of Christ's Gospel all humane trifling Traditions set apart even unto Death though it should cost him his Life And this Recantation he also printed for further Satisfaction to the World Bishop Gardiner who was now at Winchester was very uneasy at the News of this Recantation which some took care to bring down to him He signified to the Protector That Smith was a Man with whom he had no Familiarity nor cared for his Acquaintance That he had not seen him in three Years nor talked with him in Seven He was greatly displeased with the first words of his Recantation which yet were but the words of Scripture Omnis Homo mendax Making all the Doctors in the Church as he inferred to be Liars with himself How it argued his Pride for he that sought for such Company in Lying had small Humility and that he would hide himself by that Number that his depraving of Man's Nature in that sort was not the setting out of the Authority of Scripture He said he neither liked his Tractation nor yet his Retractation That he was mad to say in his Book of Vnwritten Verities that Bishops in this Realm could make Laws wherein he said he lied loudly About this time Chadsey Standish Yong Oglethorp and divers others recanted whose Recantations Fox had by him to shew as well as Smith whom we have now before us After this Recantation he carried not himself according to it but favoured the Old Errors And in the Year 1549 offered some Affront unto Arch-bishop Cranmer opposing him in the Doctrine of the Lawfulness of Priests Marriage and endeavoured to make a Rout in Oxford to the endangering P. Martyr's Life and printed a Book the same Year against him De Votis Monasticis Whereupon incurring as he apprehended some Danger he fled into Scotland But weary of being there and willing to have his Peace made in England he wrote two Letters to the Arch-bishop from thence professing that he would out of hand by open Writing in the Latin Tongue revoke all that erroneous Doctrine which he had before taught and published and set forth the pure Doctrine of Christ. And for a Proof hereof he would straight after his return into England set forth a Book in Latin in defence of the most lawful Marriage of Priests In the Year 1550 he wrote certain Treatises against P. Martyr printed at Lovain And the same Year came out his Book against the Arch-bishop's Treatise of the Sacrament This Man was of a most inconstant as well as turbulent Spirit For in the Reign of Queen Mary he turned to the Religion then professed and was great with Bishop Boner in those Times but greatly despised for his Fickleness He once attempted to discourse with Hawks in Boner's House in London Hawks threw in his Dish his Recantation To which when he said it was no Recantation but a Declaration the other gave him this Rub To be short I will know whether you will Recant any more ere ever I talk with you or believe you and so departed from him We shall hear of him again in the Reign of Queen Elizabeth when he again complied and submitted himself to Arch-bishop Parker And last of all returned to his old Opinions and fled to Lovain Pass we from this Man to another of the same Strain with whom the Arch-bishop had to do As the Popish Clergy in the former King's Reign had made all the rudest and eagerest Opposition they dared against the Steps that were then made towards a Reformation so they ceased not to do in this King 's nay and more hoping to shelter themselves under a milder Government One Instance of this appeared in what was done by the Quondam Abbot of Tower-hill London Who for some Recompence of the loss of his Abby was made Vicar of Stepney-Church succeeding I suppose Mr. Hierom burnt to death in the Year 1540 with Dr. Barnes and Garret He being a bold Man and
MEMORIALS OF The Most Reverend Father in God Thomas Cranmer SOMETIME Lord Archbishop of CANTERBURY WHEREIN The HISTORY of the CHURCH and the REFORMATION of it during the Primacy of the said ARCHBISHOP are greatly Illustrated and many singular Matters relating thereunto now First Published In Three Books Collected chiefly from RECORDS REGISTERS Authentick LETTERS and other ORIGINAL MANUSCRIPTS By IOHN STRYPE M. A. LONDON Printed for RICHARD CHISWELL at the Rose and Crown in St. Paul's Church-Yard MDCXCIV EFFIGIES VERA REVERENDISSIMI Câ—â—â—MERI ARCHIEPISCOPI CANTUARIENSIS H Holbein pinxit Natus 1489 July 2. Consecratus 1533. Marzo Martyrio Coronatus 1556. Mar 21. pag 179 Printed for Ric Chiswell at the Rose and Crowne in S t Pauls Church yard TO THE Most Reverend Father in God JOHN By the DIVINE PROVIDENCE Lord Archbishop of CANTERBVRY Primate of all England and Metropolitan AND One of Their Majesties most Honourable Privy Council May it please Your Grace TO pardon the Presumption of the Obscure Person that dedicates this Book to Your GRACE for the sake of the Renowned Man it treats of Viz. One of your Illustrious Predecessors an Archbishop of Canterbury that hath deserved so eminently of that See nay and of the whole British Church I may say that deserved Best of any Archbishop before him that wore that Mitre To whose solid Learning Deliberation and indefatigable Pains both the Kings and People of this Realm owe their Deliverance from the long and cruel Bondage of Rome For it is true what the Romanists say in Obloquy of this Archbishop and we Protestants say it to his Eternal Fame That he was the first of all the Archbishops of Canterbury that made a Defection from the Papal Chair Thereby vindicating this Crown from a base Dependance upon a Foreign Jurisdiction But whereas Parsons saith That this was the first Change of Religion in any Archbishop of Canterbury from the beginning unto his days this is not so true For sundry of Archbishop Cranmer's Predecessors to look no further than Two or Three hundred Years backward were of different Judgments from the Church of Rome in some Points His immediate Predecessor Warbam approved of the King's Title of Supreme Head of the Church under Christ in his own Kingdom against the Doctrine of the Pope's Universal Authority And a Century of Years before him Archbishop Chichely tho he were made the Pope's Legate refused to exercise his Power Legantine further than he should be authorized thereunto by the King And Archbishop Islip as long before him disliked of Dissolving those Marriages that were contracted by such as had before vowed the single Life For tho he laid a Punishment upon a Countess of Kent who being a Widow and then Professed afterwards secretly married to a certain Knight named Abrincourt yet he divorced them not but permitted them to live together And the Judgment of Archbishop Arundel who lived in K. Richard the Second's Reign was for the Translation of the Scriptures into the Vulgar Tongue and for the Laities use thereof For He preaching the Funeral Sermon of Queen Anne the beloved Wife of that King after she deceased at Sheen in the Year 1392. commended her as for her other Vertuous Accomplishments so particularly for her Study of the Holy Scriptures and of the Sense of them and for having them in the Vulgar Tongue as I find by an Ancient MS. Fragment writ near Three hundred Years ago formerly belonging to the Church of Worcester in these Words following Also the Bushop of Caunterbury Thomas of Arundel that now is sey a Sermon at Westminster thereas was many an hundred of people at the buryeng of quene Anne of whose Sowle God have mercy And in his commendation of her he seyd That it was more joy of her than of any woman that ever he knew For notwithstanding that she was Alien born being the Daughter of the Emperor Charles IV. she had on English al the iiij gospels with the Doctors upon hem And he seyd that she sent them unto him And he seyd that they were good and true and commended her in that she was so great a Lady and also an Alyan and wolde study so holy so vertuouse bokes And he blamed in his Sermon sharply the negligence of the Prelates and other men c. So that it is not true what Parsons saith if he mean That no Archbishops of Canterbury before Cranmer varied from the Church of Rome in any of her Doctrines But true it is tho not so much to their Credits that none of them however sensible they were of the Roman Errors and Superstitions did in good earnest bestir themselves to set this Church free of them before our abovenamed Archbishop being the sixty eighth from Augustine the Monk resolutely and bravely undertook and effected it Indeed they spent not their Zeal their Treasure and their Interest this way so much as in contending about Superiority and their Prerogatives in exempting their Clergy from the Cognizance of the Temporal Magistrate in Applications to and Courting of the Bishops of Rome in Persecuting those they called Hereticks in Eternizing their own Names by founding Religious Houses and building Stately Palaces and Shrines and in exhibiting themselves in great Worldly Pomp and Appearance But blessed be God for Archbishop Cranmer by means of whose Reformation succeeded a Series of better tho not so splendid Archbishops Who made conscience of minding things more suitable to their high Vocation and the Spiritual Trust committed to them Men that regarded little or nothing the vain shews of exterior Grandeur and Glory nor sought Great Things for themselves but with their great Predecessor St. Paul on whom lay the Care of all the Churches spent and wore out themselves in the Restoration of the Kingdom of Christ so happily begun by the said Archbishop Cranmer in this Island Such were Parker Grindal Whitgift the Three first Protestant Archbishops next after him what he planted they watered and God gave a Blessed Increase to Whose most excellent Lives and Conducts in the Government of this Church as well as in their own more private and Domestick Conversation their rare Piety Prudence Patience Courage and Activity I can scarcely temper my Pen from making excursions into Of which I could fill even Volumes had I Leisure Favour and Countenance from those Large Collections which I have for divers Years been storing up with great delight partly out of their own Original Letters and partly from other MSS. in their times But besides these first Archbishops during the Long Reign of Q. Elizabeth who by their Care and Diligence established and settled that Reformation of which Archbishop Cranmer laid the first Stones we are beholden unto the same Archbishop for all the rest of the Worthy and Painful Prelates of that Metropolitical See who have taken Care of this Excellently Reformed Church even unto Your GRACE Whose Deserts towards this Church and the Reformation have raised you to sit in Archbishop Cranmer's
White-meats About Alhallontide was twelve-month he preached in S. Dunstan's Church beside Canterbury that Men should love God and fear God but not to trust him too much Turnor in the time of his being at Chartham did cast no Holy Water neither before the Sacrament nor upon any Altar in the Church except the high Altar Nor also before the Crucifix in the Rood-loft according to the laudible Ceremony He christned three Children upon one day and did not anoint them with Holy Oil neither upon Back nor Belly He neither incensed the Crucifix in the Rood-loft nor any Altar in the Church except the high Altar Nor distributed any Holy Candles among his Parishioners as hath been accustomed Sir Iames Newnam and one Lawrence took down an Image of our Lady to the which was no Offering except Candles at the Purification of Women nor any Miracles noted to be done there by the said Image Scory one of the six Preachers said that much Superstitions were used in the Church as making of Crosses upon Palm-Sunday setting of them up and Blessing them with the Holy Candles Ringing of Bells in the Thunder For think you said he that the Devil will be afraid or flee away at Cross-making hurling of Holy Water ringing of Bells and such other Ceremonies when he was not afraid to take Christ himself and cast him on his Back and set him on a Pinacle Those things that be good of themselves may not utterly be put away although they be abused For then the Holy Sacrament of the Altar should be set aside which is daily bought and sold. Serles one of the six Preachers in a Sermon said If the Preacher preach Error and erroneous Doctrine the simple Man though he receive it and believe it it doth not infect nor corrupt him And this he repeated twice He said also that Moses sent Letters from Hell to teach the State thereof and how Men should live And another likewise out of Heaven Item they say said he that only Faith justifies and that it maketh no matter how we do live Christ died for us and by his Blood hath washed all our Sins away therefore what needeth us to fast or pray Sandwich a Canon of Christ's-Church said in his Sermon in the Year 1542. Whereas a good Christian or Evil preached unto you truly the Word of God as I report me to the Conscience of you all yet some that have evil Ears did Evil report of me But if their Ears were cut off as Malchus's was and set up where every Man might wonder at them I think therein a Man should not wish much against Charity At another time in the Year 1543. he said in his Sermon Some if they are given to Goodness to follow the Decrees of Holy Church to kneel before the Blessed Sacrament they will counsel them from the same and say Deus in manufactis Templis non habitat They will have none of the Holy Doctors They will not have S. Augustin S. Ambrose S. Hierom S. Gregory Basil Gregory Nazianzen c. Since the time we have been given to new Fangles the Spirit of new Fangle hath brought in the Spirit of Error But what Remedy then said he to obtain the Spirit of Truth again Of that said he I spake the last time that I preached and shewed you that we must return where we went out We must return to our Dog to our Conscience again and that will certify us where is the Truth Shether one of the six Preachers said That there was one strait Way to the Truth in which we all Men have gone a long time saving a few now of late not being content to follow that Trade have wandred in divers Pathways to seek a neerer way to the Truth But they are like unto one that being clean lost was fain to ask which way he might go to the end of his Journey And to such it was answered You be clean out of the Way and there is none other means for you but even to turn back again and to begin your Journey again where you left Nothing at all as the Informer adds admonishing the People of the Way which Men had lost by defending and retaining the Usurpations of Rome Nor no mention that the King's Majesty hath reformed the Abuses of Superstitious Religion But even as one that would have all things honestly reformed to revert again into their Superstition for the maintenance of all Blindness and Error commanded every Man to turn back and to begin where they left Dr. Willowby the Vicar of Chilham keepeth still in his Church a certain Shrine gilt named S. Austin's Shrine Which Shrine was conveyed from S. Austin's of Canterbury unto the Parish-Church of Chilham at the suppression of the Monastery of S. Austin's Item a Rood there which had Shoes of Silver being a Monument of Pilgrimage or Offering standeth yet still being only spoiled of the Monument He said Images had Power of God to help sick People vowing unto them the Communication then being of our Lady of Cutupstreet between the said Vicar and own Dawson of Chartham a Miller Memorandum that Potter's Wife was banished out of Feversham for her suspect lying with Dr. Willowby and also was compelled to forsake Chilham for the same about two or three Years past and yet she remains in the Company of the said Doctor Serles mentioned before in a Sermon made in the Chapter-house of Christ's-Church An. 1543 said Some that occupy this place of Preaching say no Mattins Mass nor Even-song once in a Quarter They be never seen confessed nor to occupy Porteous nor mass-Mass-Book These use no Vocal Prayer Beware of their Doctrine In the Church of Leneham in the Day of Assumption he said That as the Moon is in the Full at fourteen Days even so Mary was conceived fully with Christ when she was fourteen Years old Item he said That if one had looked in Mary when she was full conceived with Christ he should have perceived him in his Mother's Womb with a Bush of Thorns on his Back For he was Crucified Crowned and pricked with Thorns That Mary bare Christ poorly for she had no Fire but begged a Coal of one and a Stick of another to warm her Child He preached that Mary nourished her Son with Milk but not with material Milk but with Milk that came from Heaven For no Woman else can nourish her Child with material Milk than she that is conceived by knowledg of Man And no question this Heavenly Milk came along the milky Way That all the whole Faith of the World remained in Mary only for the space of three Days and three Nights That Faith was dead in the Apostles and in all the World from the Death of Christ till his Resurrection and remained in the Virgin Mary whole and only That the Sorrows that she had were greater and more painful than Christ's but for Death only That Christ descended into Hell and rose the third Day and ascended into
this Year flying so much upon the Spoil of the Church Bucer by the Arch-bishop's Instigation as well as his own Inclinations wrote to the Marquess of Dorset to forbear disswading him from spoiling the Church of her Maintenance In which Letter he hath these Expressions Antiquum dictum est neminem posse vere ditari furtis aut rapinis quibus invaduntur res alienae multo minus peculatu quo defraudatur Respublica Quem igitur habeat sensum Dei qui dubitet minimè omnium posse cujusquam opes augeri salutariter Sacrilegiis quibus acciduntur res Ecclesiasticae Sunt nimium amplae hae opes addictae Ecclesiis in luxum permulti eas diripiunt Homines planè otiosi nec ullam Reip. conferentes utilitatem Submoveantur igitur hi fuci ab Ecclesiae alvearibus nec depasci permittantur apum labores Deinde procurentur ut restitutis passim Scholis nusquam desint Ecclesiarum frugi ministri c. That is It is an old Saying No body can grow Rich by the stealing and taking away of private Peoples Possessions much less by robbing of the Publick What Sense therfore hath he of God that doubts not that his Riches shall encrease to good purpose that commits Sacrilege and robs the Church of what belongs to it But it is objected the Church hath too much and many spend it in Luxury The Church-men are idle and bring no Profit to the Common-Wealth Let these Drones therefore be removed from the Hives of the Church but let not the Pains of the Bees be eaten up And then having Schools of good Literature every where restored let not the Church want sober Ministers c. A Review was made of the Book of Common-Prayer about the latter end of the Year by Arch-bishop Cranmer and the Bishops Divers things that savoured too much of Superstition were endeavoured to be changed or amended But there were among them some that made what opposition they could The Arch-bishop had now by Wilkes Master of Christ's College desired Bucer that great Divine then at Cambridg that he would take an impartial view of the whole Book having procured him a Translation of it into Latin done by Aless the Learned Scotch Divine for his understanding of it and that he should judg if he thought any thing in the Book might be more explained agreeable with God's Word and for better Edification of Faith Bucer in answer sent the Arch-bishop word first what his Judgment was of the Book and then what Course he intended to use in the Examination of it that he was now to make He said That when he first came into England and by the help of an Interpreter took some knowledg of the Rites and Doctrines of this Church that he might see whether he could join his Ministry with it he thanked God That had inclined the Officers of the Church to reform the Ceremonies to that degree of Purity and that he found nothing in them that was not taken out of the Word of God or at least was not repugnant to it being fitly taken For some few things there were added he that unless they were candidly interpreted might seem not so sufficiently agreeable with the Word of God As for what he was now to do in order to the fulfilling what the Arch-bishop required of him he intended in short Notes at every Chapter of the Book to observe what he thought to be according to God's Word and to be retained and vindicated what to be taken away or mended and what to be more plainly explained and allowed After his perusal of the Book he gave this Judgment in general That in the Description of the Communion and daily Prayers he saw nothing enjoined in the Book but what was agreeable to the Word of God either in Word as the Psalms and Lessons or in Sense as the Collects Also that the Manner of their Lessons and Prayers and the Times of using them were constituted very agreeable both with God's Word and the Observation of the Ancient Churches And therefore that that Book ought to be retained and vindicated with the greatest strictness What particular Animadversions the said Learned Man made upon the Book may be seen in his Scripta Anglicana and in the Bishop of Sarum's History as he hath there abridged them And such a Deference was given to his Judgment that most of the things that he excepted against were corrected accordingly And that the Book might be the more exact and perhaps be the more agreeable to the Doctrine and Practice of Foreign Churches the Arch-bishop recommended the diligent examination of it unto another great Divine Peter Martyr who was now at Lambeth the Arch-bishop desiring him to note what he thought good concerning the Book and because he knew not the Language the Version of Sir Iohn Cheke who had also translated it into Latin was given him He was also requested to set down in writing what he thought deserved Correction And he accordingly made his Annotations Martyr agreed clearly in Judgment with Bucer about the Book as he wrote to him in a Letter sent him to Cambridg extant among Arch-bishop Parker's Manuscripts On the back-side of which Letter is written by that Arch-bishop's own Hand Censura libri communium precum In this Letter Martyr told Bucer that the same things that he disapproved of the same likewise had he P. Martyr done And that afterward he drew them up into Articles and shewed them to the Arch-bishop of Canterbury That to all that Bucer judged ought to be amended he had subscribed and that he thanked God that had given occasion to admonish the Bishops of these things From this Letter it appears that the Arch-bishop had told Martyr that in the Conference among the Divines concerning the Correction of these Publick Prayers it was concluded to make many Alterations But what those things were as the Arch-bishop told him not so neither as he wrote did he dare to ask him But what Cheke told him did not a little refresh him viz. That if they themselves would not change what ought to be changed the King would do it of himself and when they came to a Parliament the King would interpose his Majesty's own Authority CHAP. XVII Hoper's Troubles IN the Month of Iuly Iohn Hoper who had lived long abroad in Germany and in Switzerland and conversed much with Bullinger and Gualâ—er the chief Reformers there but returned into England in King Edward's Reign and retained by the Duke of Somerset and a famous Preacher in the City was nominated by the King to the Bishoprick of Gloucester But by reason of certain Scruples of Conscience he made to the wearing of the old Pontifical Habits as the Chimere and Rochet and such-like and disliking the Oath customarily taken he was not Consecrated till eight Months after and endured not a little Trouble in the mean Season Soon after his nomination he repaired to the Arch-bishop desiring
W. Wilts I. Bedford E. Clynton T. Ely A. Wyngfeld W. Herbert W. Petre. Edw. North. Accordingly Iune 9. The Duke of Somerset the Marquess of Northampton the Lord Treasurer the Earl of Bedford and Secretary Petre went to the Bishop of Winchester to know what he would stick to Whether to conform to and promote the King's Laws or no He answered That he would obey and set forth all things set forth by the King and Parliament And if he were troubled in Conscience he would reveal it to the Council and not reason openly against it And then he desired to see the King's Book of Proceedings At Greenwich Iune 10. Report was made by the Duke of Somerset and the rest sent to the Bishop of Winchester that he desired to see the said Book The next day were the Books sent to him and delivered to him by the Lieutenant of the Tower as the Council appointed to see if he would set his Hand to them and promise to set them forth to the People At Greenwich Iune 13. the Lieutenant of the Tower declared unto the Council that the Bishop having perused the Books of the Proceedings said unto him He could make no direct answer unless he were at Liberty and so being he would say his Conscience On the 14 th Day the Duke of Somerset and five more of the Council again repaired to the Bishop to whom he made this Answer I have deliberately seen the Book of Common-Prayer Altho I would not have made it so my self yet I find such things in it as satisfy my Conscience And therefore I will both execute it my self and also see others my Parishioners to do it And this the Councellors testified under their Hands as his Saying Iuly the 9 th There were certain Articles drawn up signed by King and Council for the Bishop to subscribe which contained the Confession of his Fault the Supremacy of the King and his Successors the establishing of Holy Days or dispensing with them to be in the King the Service-Book to be Godly and Christian the acknowledgment of the King to be Supream Head and to submit to him and his Laws under Age the abolishing the Six Articles and the King's Power of correcting and reforming the Church These Articles together with a Letter from the King the Earl of Warwick Lord great Master the Lord S. Iohn Lord Treasurer Sir William Herbert Master of the Horse and Secretary Petre carried to the Bishop requiring him to sign them Which he did only making exception to the first Iuly 10. The said Lords made report unto the Council that they had delivered the King's Letter unto the Bishop together with the Articles Unto all which Articles he subscribed thus with his own Hand Stev Winton saving the first Against which he wrote in the Margin these words I cannot in my Conscience confess the Preface knowing my self to be of that sort I am indeed and ever have been To which Articles thus subscribed by the Bishop these of the Council wrote their Names E. Somers W. Wilts I. Warwick I. Bedford W. Northampton E. Clynton G. Cobham William Paget W. Herbert W. Petre Edw. North. Iuly 11. at Westminster This was brought to the Council And his boggling in this manner at the Confession displeased the King that being the principal Point But to the intent he should have no just cause to say he was not mercifully handled it was agreed that Sir VVilliam Herbert and the Secretary should go the next day to him to tell him that the King marvelled he refused to put his Hand to the Confession And that if the words thereof seemed too sore then to refer it to himself in what sort and with what words he should devise to submit himself That upon the acknowledgment of his Fault the King might extend his Mercy towards him as was determined Iuly 13. Sir VVilliam Herbert and the Secretary reported that the Bishop stood precisely in his own Justification He said That he could not subscribe to the Confession because he was Innocent and also because the Confession was but the preface to the Articles Upon this it was agreed by the Council that a new Book of Articles and a new Submission should be devised for the Bishop to subscribe And the Bishop of London Secretary Petre Mr. Cecyl and Goodrick a Common Lawyer were commanded to make these Articles according to Law And then for the more authentick proceeding with the Bishop the two former Persons were again to resort to him with the new Draught and to take with them a Divine which was the Bishop of London and a Lawyer which was Goodrick These Articles were 22 in Number and to this Tenor That King Henry VIII had justly supprest Monasteries That persons may Marry who are not prohibited to contract Matrimony by the Levitical Law without the Bishop of Rome's Dispensation That vowing or going Pilgrimages were justly abolished the Conterfeyting S. Nicholas St. Clement c. was mere Mockery That it is convenient that the Scriptures should be in English That the Late King and the present did upon just ground take into their Hands Chauntries which were for maintenance of private Masses That private Masses were justly taken away by the Statutes of the Realm and the Communion placed instead thereof is very Godly That it is convenient that the Sacrament should be received in both Kinds That the Mass where the Priest doth only receive and others look on is but the Invention of Man That it was upon good and Godly Consideration ordered in the Book that the Sacrament should not be lifted up and shewed to the People to be adored That it is politickly and godly done that Images in Churches and Mass-Books were enacted to be abolished That Bishops Priests and Deacons have no Commandment in the Law of God to vow Chastity or abstain from Marriage And that all Canons and Constitutions which do prohibit Marriage to the Clergy be justly taken away by Parliament That the Homilies and the Forms set forth of making Arch-bishops Bishops Priests and Deacons are Godly and wholsome and ought to be received That the Orders of Subdeacon Benet and Colet c. be not necessary and justly left out in the Book of Orders That the Holy Scriptures contain sufficiently all Doctrines necessary to Salvation That upon good and godly Consideration it was injoined that Erasmus's Paraphrases should be set up in Churches And that it was the King's Pleasure that the Bishop should affirm these Articles by Subscription of his Hand and declare himself willing to publish and preach the same These Articles were brought to the Bishop by the Master of the Horse and Secretary Petre with the Bishop of London and Goodrick To whom the Bishop answered That he would not consent to the Article of Submission Praying to be brought to his Trial and desired nothing but Justice And for the rest of the Articles when he was at Liberty then it should appear what he
resolved to do it by himself and his Parliament without them In this Letter he speaks something concerning Hoper whose Behaviour he disliked and concerning Dr. Smith who had lately written against the Arch-bishop's Book of the Sacrament and against himself concerning Monastick Vows Both these Letters as well worthy the sight and perusal of the Reader I have reposited in the Appendix Thus this Reverend and Learned Foreigner after many great Difficulties passed through for the Cause of Religion flying from one place to another came at last to a natural Death and a quiet End in this Land For his Fame and Wisdom he was called by the Electors Palatine and of Brandenburgh with the Emperor's Permission to temper the Emperor's Rescript about Religion which was to be published that so it might please both Parties But he thought he could not do it with any Honesty and rather than meddle with it he fled to Strasburgh with his Wife and Children hereby he fell under the Displeasure of those Princes as well as before he had done under that of the Emperor for the Reformation of Colen the Envy of which Melancthon escaped but it fell on poor Bucer Being at Strasburgh he also contracted much Ill-will by means of the Anabaptists and others whom he opposed and who by their pretended Sanctimony had a great Party there His Friends apprehended him on these Accounts in great Danger but he thought of no removal to any other Place Patron or Church trusting himself in God's Hands till Sturmius and some others advised him by all means to depart into England Which he at length yielding to the said Sturmius admonished him for his safer Travel to take a more uncommon Way through Lorain and Rhemes and some other parts of France to Calais and there to cross over the Sea Which he did and was very hospitably here entertained as was said before Bishops Consecrated Iune 29. Iohn Ponet or Poynet D.D. Chaplain to the Arch-bishop was Consecrated Bishop of Rochester at Lambeth-Chappel by the Arch-bishop of Canterbury assisted by Nicolas Bishop of London an◠Arthur Bishop of Bangor This Consecration was performed with all the usual Ceremonies and Habits probably for this Reason to give as little occasion of Offence to Papists as might be and to keep close to the old Usages avoiding Superstition Therefore it was set down in the Register at large in what Formalities all was now done The Arch-bishop is described Vsitatis insigniis redimitus uno Epitogio sive Capa indutus Oratorium suum praedictum honestè decenter ornatum ingressus c. Having on his Mitre and Cope usual in such Cases went into his Chappel handsomly and decently adorned to celebrate the Lord's Supper according to the Custom and by Prescript of the Book intituled The Book of Common-Service Before the People there assembled the Holy Suffrages first began and were publickly recited and the Epistle and Gospel read in the Vulgar Tongue Nicolas Bishop of London and Arthur Bishop of Bangor assisting and having their Surplices and Copes on and their Pastoral Staves in their Hands led Dr. Iohn Ponet endued with the like Habits in the middle of them unto the most Reverend Father and presented him unto him sitting in a decent Chair and used these words Most Reverend Father in God we present unto you this godly and well-learned Man to be consecrated Bishop The Bishop Elect forthwith produced the King's Letters Patents before the Arch-bishop Which by command of the said ABp being read by Dr. Glyn the said Ponet took the Oath of renouncing the Bishop of Rome and then the Oath of Canonical Obedience to the Arch-bishop These things being thus dispatched the Arch-bishop exhorted the People to Prayer and Supplication to the Most High according to the Order prescribed in the Book of Ordination set forth in the Month of March 1549. According to which Order he was Elected and Consecrated and endued with the Episcopal Ornaments the Bishop of London first having read the third Chapter of the first Epistle of Paul to Timothy in manner of a Sermon These things being done and the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper celebrated upon a Table covered with a white Linen Cloth by the Arch-bishop and the two assisting Bishops the same Arch-bishop decreed to write to the Arch-deacon of Canterbury for the Investiture Installation and Inthronization of the said Bishop of Rochester as it was customary Present Anthony Huse principal Register of the Arch-bishop Peter Lilly Iohn Lewis Iohn Incent publick Notaries and many others as well Clerks as Laicks March 8. Iohn Hoper was consecrated Bishop of Glocester just after the same manner by the Arch-bishop Nicholas Bishop of London and Iohn Bishop of Rochester assisting clothed say the Words of the Register in Linen Surplices and Copes and Iohn Elect of Glocester in the like Habit. CHAP. XXV The Arch-bishop publisheth his Book against Gardiner THIS Year our Arch-bishop published his Elaborate Book of the Sacrament confuting the gross and carnal Presence of Christ there in vindication of a former Book of his wrote against by Bishop Gardiner and Dr. Smith For to give the Reader some distinct Account of this Matter in the Year 1550 Cranmer printed a Book in English in Quarto with this Title A Defence of the True and Catholick Doctrine of the Sacrament of the Body and Blood of our Saviour Christ with a Confutation of sundry Errors concerning the same Grounded and established upon God's Holy Word and approved by the Consent of the most ancient Doctors of the Church The great Reason that moved him to write this Book was that he might the more effectually purge the Church of Popery esteeming Transubstantiation and the Mass to be the very Roots of it The taking away of Beads Pilgrimages Pardons and such-like Popery was as he wrote in his Preface but the lopping off a few Branches which would soon spring up again unless the Roots of the Tree which were Transubstantiation and the Sacrifice of the Mass were pulled up Therefore out of a sincere Zeal to the Honour of God he would labour he said in his Vineyard to cut down that Tree of Error Root and Branch By this Book very many were enlightned to perceive the Errors of the Popish Doctrines of the Sacrament This Treatise he divided into five Books or Points I. Of the True and Catholick Doctrine and Use of the Sacrament of the Body and Blood of Christ. II. Against the Error of Transubstantiation III. The manner how Christ is present in the Sacrament IV. Of the eating and drinking of the Body and Blood of Christ. V. Of the Oblation and Sacrifice of our Saviour Christ. In the third Part he made mention of the Bishop of Winchester in these words As many of them i. e. of the Papist Writers as I have read the Bishop of Winchester only excepted do say That Christ called not the Bread his Body This Bishop
was much offended that he was named in the Book and pretended this to be one Reason why he did write against it to vindicate himself as well as the Papal Church hereby so dangerously struck at This Book of Cranmer's was turned into Latin by Iohn Yong who complied afterwards with the old Religion under Queen Mary and was Master of Pembroke-Hall Cambridg At this Book the Defenders of Popery were so nettled that in the same Year 1550 Winchester then in the Tower and fickle Dr. Smith then at Lovain printed Answers Of Smith's Book I shall only note by the way that March 8. 1550. there was an Order of Council to examine the bringer over of his Book against Cranmer Such a Countenance did the State give to the Arch-bishop and his Book Gardiner's Book made the greatest noise Which was printed in France and intituled An Explication and Assertion of the true Catholick Faith touching the most Blessed Sacrament of the Altar with the Confutation of a Book written against the same In the Beginning of his Book he wrote That his Sermon before the King on St. Peter's Day touching the Sacrament of the Altar gave occasion to the Arch-bishop's Book against it and that he was called before the King's Commissioners at Lambeth for his Catholick Faith in the Sacrament Whereas indeed this was not the Cause of his Troubles nor had some former Copies of his Book these words But after the Commission was issued forth against him to make his Cause appear the more specious as if it were the Cause of the Church he thought fit to make an Alteration in the beginning of his Book in the manner abovesaid And to carry on the Scene he in open Court offered his Book before the King's Commissioners To this Book of Gardiners our Arch-bishop studied and composed an Answer holding himself bound for the Vindication of the Evangelical Truth as well as of his own Writing and for the Satisfaction of the People not to suffer it to lie untaken notice of When it was known the Arch-bishop was preparing an Answer against Gardiner the People were in very great expectation and conceived an earnest desire to see and read it Having therefore dispatched his Copy and sent it to Rainold Wolf his Printer it was printed off in the Month of September 1551. But there was some stop put to the publishing of it occasioned by a Proclamation issued out from the King whereby for some political Ends both the printing and selling of English Books without the Allowance of the King's Majesty or six of his Privy-Council was forbidden The Arch-bishop being desirous that his Book might come abroad the next Term for the Contentation of many who had long expected the same sent to Secretary Cecyl and Sir Iohn Cheke to procure either from the King or Council a Licence to the said Wolf for printing and selling his Book Which was obtained and the Book published accordingly This Letter of the ABp's dated Sept. 29. I have thought not amiss to reposit in the Appendix Octob. 1. A Licence was granted to Wolf to publish the Book under the King's Privilege the Court then being at Hampton-Court and the Arch-bishop himself present The Title this second Book of the Arch-bishop's bore was An Answer by the Reverend Father in God Thomas Arch-bishop of Canterbury Primate of all England and Metropolitan unto a crafty and sophistical Cavillation devised by Stephen Gardiner Doctor of Law late Bishop of Winchester against the true and godly Doctrine of the most Holy Sacrament of the Body and Blood of our Saviour Christ. Wherein is also as occasion serveth answered such Places of the Book of Dr. Richard Smith as may seem any thing worthy the answering Also a true Copy of the Book written and in open Court delivered by Dr. Stephen Gardiner not one Word added or diminished but faithfully in all Points agreeing with the Original This Book of Arch-bishop Cranmer's was printed again at London 1580 with his Life and some other things His Reply to Gardiner was in the most fair and candid Method that could be devised For he first set down his own Treatise Piece by Piece then Gardiner's Reply thereunto Word for Word leaving not one Paragraph without a full Answer His Reply to Smith was only of some things most worthy to be taken notice of the rest of Smith's Book being meer Trifles This Reply to Smith he inserted in the Body of his Answer to Gardiner as occasion served Only at the end he made a particular Reply to Smith's Preface It seemed to be a very compleat Exercitation upon that Subject The Book was stored with so great Learning and Plenty of Arguments Vt ea Controversia saith one of his Successors a nemine unquam contra Pontificios accuratius tractata esse videatur That no one Controversy was by any ever handled against the Papists more accurately It may not be amiss to mention here the Opinion that Cranmer himself had of his Book in that famous and renowned Confession he made of his Faith in S. Mary's Church Oxon immediately before he was led away to his Burning Where he expressed his full Approbation and great Confidence of the Doctrine contained therein saying That as for the Sacrament he believed as he had taught in his Book against the Bishop of VVinchester The which Book he said taught so true a Doctrine of the Sacrament that it should stand at the last Day before the Judgment of God where the Papistical Doctrine contrary thereto should be ashamed to shew her Face The Papists spake as much against this Book being much galled by it Dr. Tresham in his Disputation with Latimer said There were six hundred Errors in the Book Weston thinking to invalidate the Book by the pretended Novelty of the Doctrine asked the same Father How long he had been of that Opinion He said Not past seven Years that is about the Year 1547 and that Arch-bishop Cranmer's Book confirmed his Judgment therein and added That if he could but remember all therein contained he would not fear to answer any Man in this Matter The Arch-bishop had acknowledged to the Queen's Commissioners at Oxford that Ridley had first begun to enlighten him as to the true Notion of the Presence as he had maintained it in his Book Hereupon one of them took occasion to try to baffle the true Doctrine by making the whole stress of it to depend upon the Authority of single Ridley Latimer said he leaned upon Cranmer and Cranmer leaned upon Ridley Whereas the truth of this was no more but that Ridley reading Bertram's Book of the Body and Blood of Christ was sharpened to examine the old Opinion more accurately of the Presence of Christ's Flesh and Blood and looking into Ecclesiastical Authors he found it greatly controverted in the ninth Century and learnedly writ against Which made him begin to conclude it none of the ancient Doctrines of the Church but more lately
for there was that which would comfort him when he should be in such a case as he was then in One asked him concerning the Doctrine of the School-Doctors that Bread remained not after Consecration He replied There was none of the School-Doctors knew what Consecratio did mean And pausing a while said It was Tota actio The whole Action in ministring the Sacrament as Christ did institute it After the Conference with him was ended Yong retiring into another Chamber said to Wilks that Dr. Redman so moved him that whereas he was before in such Opinion of certain things that he would have burned and lost his Life for them now he doubted of them But I see said he a Man shall know more and more by process of time and by reading and hearing others And Mr. Dr. Redman's saying shall cause me to look more diligently for them Ellis Lomas Redman's Servant said he knew his Master had declared to King Henry that Faith only justifieth but that he thought that Doctrine was not to be taught the People lest they should be negligent to do good Works All this I have related of this Divine that I may in some measure preserve the Memory of one of the Learnedest Men of his Time and lay up the dying Words of a Papist signifying so plainly his dislike and disallowance of many of their Doctrines The Sweating-sickness breaking out this Year in great violence whereby the two Sons of the Duke of Suffolk were taken off Letters from the Council dated Iuly 18 were sent to all the Bishops to perswade the People to Prayer and to see God better served It being enacted 1549 That the King might during three Years appoint sixteen Spiritual Men and sixteen Temporal to examine the old Ecclesiastical Laws and to compile a Body of Ecclesiastical Laws to be in force in the room of the old this third Year Octob. 6. a Commission was issued out to the same number of Persons authorizing them to reform the Canon Laws that is to say to eight Bishops eight Divines eight Civil Lawyers and eight Common Whose Names as they occur in an Original are as follow BISHOPS The Arch-bishop of Canterbury the Bishops of London Winchester Ely Exeter Glocester Bath Rochestre DIVINES Mr. Taylor of Lincoln Cox Almoner Parker of Cambridg Latimer Cook Sir Anthony I suppose Peter Martyr Cheke Ioannes a Laseo CIVILIANS Mr. Peter Cecyl Sir Tho. Smith Taylor of Hadeligh Dr. May Mr. Traheron Dr. Lyel Mr. Skinner LAWYERS Justice Hales Justice Bromly Goodrick Gosnal Stamford Carel Lucas Brook Recorder of London It was so ordered that this number should be divided into four distinct Classes or Companies each to consist of two Bishops two Divines to Civilians and two Common-Lawyers And to each Company were assigned their set parts Which when one Company had finished it was transmitted to the other Companies to be by them all well considered and inspected But out of all the number of two and thirty eight especially were selected from each rank two viz. out of the Bishops the Arch-bishop and the Bishop of Ely out of the Divines Cox and Martyr out of the Civilians Taylor and May out of the Common-Lawyers Lucas and Goodrick To whom a new Commission was made Novemb. 9 for the first forming of the Work and preparation of the Matter And the Arch-bishop supervised the whole Work This Work they plied close this Winter But lest they should be straitned for time the Parliament gave the King three Years longer for accomplishing this Affair So Feb. 2. A Letter was sent from the Council to make a new Commission to the Arch-bishop and to the other Bishops and Learned Men Civilians and Lawyers for the establishment of the Ecclesiastical Laws according to the Act of Parliament made in the last Session This was a very noble Enterprize and well worthy the Thoughts of our excellent Arch-bishop Who with indefatigable Pains had been both in this and the last King's Reign labouring to bring this Matter about and he did his part for he brought the Work to perfection But it wanted the King's Ratification which was delayed partly by Business and partly by Enemies Bishops Consecrated August the 30 th Iohn Scory Ponet being translated to Winchester was consecrated Bishop of Rochester at Croyden by the Arch-bishop of Canterbury assisted by Nicolas Bishop of London and Iohn Suffragan of Bedford Miles Coverdale was at the same time and place Consecrated Bishop of Exon all with their Surplices and Copes and Coverdale so habited also CHAP. XXVII The Articles of Religion OUR Arch-bishop and certain of the Bishops and other Divines but whom by Name I find not were this Year chiefly busied in composing and preparing a Book of Articles of Religion which was to contain what should be publickly owned as the Sum of the Doctrine of the Church of England This the Arch-bishop had long before this bore in his Mind as excellently serviceable for the creating of a Concord and Quietness among Men and for the putting an End to Contentions and Disputes in Matters of Religion These Articles the Arch-bishop was the Penner or at least the great Director of with the assistance as is very probable of Bishop Ridley And so he publickly owned afterwards in his Answer to certain Interrogatories put to him by Queen Mary's Commissioners viz. That the Catechism the Book of Articles and the Book against Winchester were his Doings These Articles were in number Forty two and were agreed to in the Convocation 1552. And in the Year 1553 they were published by the King's Authority both in Latin and English After they were finished he laboured to have the Clergy subscribe them but against their Wills he compelled none though afterwards some charged him falsly to do so Which he utterly denied as he declared before the said Queen's Commissioners But to enter into some Particulars concerning so eminent a Matter Ecclesiastical as this was In the Year 1551 the King and his Privy-Council ordered the Archbishop to frame a Book of Articles of Religion for the preserving and maintaining Peace and Unity of Doctrine in this Church that being finish'd they might be set forth by Publick Authority The Arch-bishop in obedience hereunto drew up a set of Articles which were delivered to certain other Bishops to be inspected and subscribed I suppose by them Before them they lay until this Year 1552. Then May 2. a Letter was sent from the Council to our Arch-bishop to send the Articles that were delivered the last Year to the Bishops and to signify whether the same were set forth by any Publick Authority according to the Minutes The Arch-bishop accordingly sent the Articles and his Answer unto the Lords of the Council In September I find the Articles were again in his Hands Then he set the Book in a better Order and put Titles upon each of the Articles and some Additions for the better perfecting of the Work and supply
be excused from taking the Archbishoprick of Canterbury because this Promotion would so much interrupt his beloved Studies Desiring rather some smaller Living that he might more quietly follow his Book And as he had been an hard Student so he was a very great Writer both in respect of the number of Books and Treatises he compiled as of the Learning Judgment and Moment of them The first Treatise he wrote was that which was done at the Command of Henry VIII viz. Concerning the Unlawfulness of his Marriage with his Brother Arthur's Widow Which he made appear to be both against the Word of God and against the Judgment of the Antient Fathers of the Church and therefore a Case indispensable by the Pope And so well had he studied the Point and so well was assured of what he had wrote that he undertook before the King to maintain the Truth of it at Rome in the presence of the Pope himself The King accordingly dismissed him to the Pope in joint Embassy with the Earl of Wiltshire and some others for that purpose He presented his Book to the Pope offering to stand by it against any whomsoever that should attempt to gainsay it But the Pope thought not fit to suffer so tender a Point to be disputed wherein his Prerogative was so much touched When he had finished thâ—s Discourse it was sent to Cambridg and had the Approbation and Subscription of the eminentest Doctors there viz. Sâ—lcot Repps Câ—me and divers others Among which I suppose were Heines Litiner Shaxton Skip Goodrick Hethe who were then Gremials After this Book â—e was much employed in writing more at various Times and â—pon various Occasions Fox mentioneth Cranmer's Book of the â—eformation which I suppose was that of the Publick Service the Catechism the Book of Homilies which was part by him contrâ—ed and part by his Procurement and by him approved and pubished Likewise the Confutation of eighty eight Articles devised and propounded by a Convocation in King Henry's Reign and laboâ—red to be received and enjoined though they were not But his Discoâ—rse wherein he stated the Doctrine of the Sacrament in five â—ooks must especially be remembred Which he wrote on purpose for the publick Instruction of the Church of England And it â—s the more to be valued as being writ by him in his mature Age after all his great Readings and Studies and most diligent and serioâ—s perusals of all the Ecclesiastical Writers whereby he became throughly acquainted with their Judgments and Opinions in that Doctrine And in it are contained his last and ripest Thoughts on â—hat Argument This Book displayeth the great Weakness of that â—istinguishing Doctrine of the Church of Rome that asserts Transubstantiation Besides these many other Writings and Discourses were made by him Which we are beholden to the Bishop of Sarum for retrieving the Memory of and preserving the Substance of divers of them in his excellent History viz. A Learned Speech made to the Lords concerning the Pope and a general Council Which that Right Reverend Author thinks was made about the Year 1534 which was soon after his being made Arch-bishop Some Queries in order to the correcting of several Abuses in Religion whereby the People had been deceived Some Queries concerning Confirmation With the Answers which were given to them by Arch-bishop Cranmer Some Considerations to induce the King to proceed to a further Reformation These three last were presented by the Arch-bishop to the King about the Year 1536 as the Bishop of Sarum supposeth And having seen the Originals thereof in the Cotton-Library hath transcribed them to us in the Addenda to the Collections His Resolution of seventeen Questions concerning the Sacraments Anno 1540. A Collection of Passages out of the Canon Law to shew the necessity of Reforming it Anno 1542. His Letters to Osiander and Letters of Osiander to him concerning the Proceedings of the German Divines Whose Violence the Arch-bishop disliked A Speech made in the Convocation Wherein he exhorted the Clergy to give themselves to the study of the Scriptures and to consider seriously what things in the Church neeâ—ed Reformation Anno 1547. His Answer to the Demands of the Rebels in the West drawn up by him by Order of the Council Anno 1549. His Declaration to vindicate himself from an Aspersion That he had caused Mass to be sung in Canterbury Aâ—d offering therein a publick Dispute to maintain the Reformation Anno 1553. Besides two Volumes in Folio writ by Cranmer own Hand upon all the Heads of Religion Consisting of Allegtions of Texts of Scripture and of antient Fathers and later Doctos and School-men upon each Subject There were also six or seveâ— Volumes of his Writings which were in the Lord Burleigh's Iâ—ssession as appeared by a Letter of the said Lord which the Bishop of Sarum saw But he thought these may now be lost Most of tâ—e forementioned Writings are preserved in the Cotton-Library or iâ— that of Corpus-Christi Cambridg or among the Manuscripts of the Right Reverend Bishop Stillingsleet To which we must add the mention of a bundle of Books lying in the Palace-Treasury in Westminster in defence of the King's Title of Supream Head and concerning the Divorce and seveal other Matters with a Pâ—eface against Cardinal Pole Which aâ—e supposed to be written partly by Dr. Clark Bishop of Bath and Wels and partly by our Arch-bishop Several other Letters Speeches and Arguments of our Arch-bishop may be found in these Memorials which I omit here rehersing But I will add to these divers Pieces besides of this Prelat's writing as they are set down by Melchior Adam at the End of Cranmer's Life Who indeed did but transcribe them from Gesner and he from Iohn Bale's Centuries I. A Preface to the English Translation of the Bible This is transcribed in the Appendix II. A Catechism of Christian Doctrine printed by Gualter Lynn Anno 1548. This Catechism was first framed in Germany and by the Arch-bishop himself or his special Order turned into English And to fix an Authority to the same he caused it to be published in his own Name and owned it for his own Book This Dr. Rowland Taylor who lived in the Arch-bishop's Family declared before Gardiner Bishop of Winchester and Lord Chancellor at his Examination before him And in this sense we must understand the Author of the History of the Reformation when speaking of this Catechism he stiles it A Work that was wholly his own It was said before that Iustus Ionas he I suppose that dwelt with the Arch-bishop was the Translator of it into Latin It treated of the Sacrament after the Lutheran way Which Way the Arch-bishop embraced next after his rejection of the gross Papal Transubstantiation This Catechism was printed first by the Arch-bishop's Order about the Time of King Henry's Death or soon after In a second Edition tâ—e word
Supremacy Concerning the New Bishops Pole's Advice to the Queen Instructions to Goldwâ—l Disgusts his Stop Sends to Rome about this his Stop And to the Emperor His Judgment of two late Acts of Parliament CHAP. VIII The Dealings with the Married Clergy The Married Clergy deprived and divorced Married Priests in London cited to appear Interrogatories for the Married Clergy Turnor's Confession Boner deprives the Married Clergy in London without Order Married Prebendaries in Canterbury proceeded against Edmund Crâ—nmer deprived of all The Injustice of these Proceedings Martin's Book against Priests Marriage Wherein Winchester had the greatest hand Answered by Poyneâ— The Confessions of the Married Priests Married Priests that did their Penance hardly dealt with CHAP. IX Evils in this Change of Parliament A twofold Evil upon this Turn of Religion The Dissimulation of the Priests A Parliament restore the Pope A design to revive the Six Articles CHAP. X. Archbishop Cranmer disputes at Oxon. A Convocation appoint a Dispute with Cranmer at Oxford The Questions Sent to Cambridge The Disputants of Oxford and Cambridge Cranmer brought before them His Behaviour Ridley brought And Latimer Cranmer brought to his Disputation His Notaries Cranmer's Demands Cranmer disputes again The Papists undecent management of the Disputation The Protestants glad of this Disputation Dr. Taylor to the three Fathers after their Disputations Ridley pens the Relation of his Disputation The University sends the Disputations up to the Convocation Various Copies of these Disputations CHAP. XI Cranmer condemned for an Heretick Cranmer condemned for Heresy Cranmer writes to the Council Disputation intended at Cambridge Their condition after Condemnation Their Employment in Prison Other Works of Ridley in Prison CHAP. XII A Parliament Pole reconciles the Realms The Queen's Letters directing the Elections of Parliament men Pole comes over The Cardinal absolves Parliament and Convocation The Clergy again wait upon the Legate A Commission granted by him against Hereticks His Commissions to all the Bishops to reconcile their Diocesses The Commission to the Dean and Chapter of Canterbury The Legate's Instructions to the Bishops Pole a severe Persecutor CHAP. XIII A Convocation Articles framed therein A Convocation Articles presented to the Upper-House Cranmer's Book to be burnt Men burnt to death without Law CHAP. XIV The Condition of the Protestants in prison Free-Willers Popery fully established Protestants The Pastors in Prison Free-Willers Bradford's Concern with them His Kindness to them Bradford gaineth some of them Careless's pains with them Philpot's counsel Careless draws up a Confession of Faith Some few Arians The Prisoners offer to justify K. Edward's Proceedings And again offer it CHAP. XV. The Exiles and their Condition The Exiles The Lutherans refuse to give harbour to them The English at Wesel The Lutherans Heat against Sacramentaries At Zurick and other places well received Their Employments Contentions at Frankford Some Children of the Exiles baptized by Lutherans Pieces of Ridley's Writings conveyed to Frankford Exiles at Basil. Divers of the Exiles Writers Scory Old Sampson Turner Iuel Becon Humfrey Traheron Fox His Acts and Monuments Books by him published in Exile Translates Cranmer's Book of the Sacrament into Latin Lever to Fox Bale Knox. How the Exiles subsisted CHAP. XVI Many Recant Some go to Mass. Many Recant The Persecution hot Gospellers go to Mass. Bradford labours to hinder it Ann Hartipoll goes to Mass. The Lady Vane puts certain Cases concerning the Mass. CHAP. XVII A Bloody Time The Queen 's Great Belly A Convocation Many burned Instructions to the Justices Orders sent in to Norfolk against the Professors The effect thereof The Earl of Sussex receiveth Information against some Popish Spies set every where The Protestants frequently assâ—mble Conâ—idently reported that a Male Heir to the Crown was born The Queen 's Great Belly Like a Design The Queen's Zeal A Convocation CHAP. XVIII Ridley and Latimer burnt Some petition the Queen for Cranmer He seeth Ridley and Latimer going to their Burning Latimer's Character Cranmer's Employment in Prison Report of the Queen's Death CHAP. XIX The last proceedings with Cranmer Proceedings against Cranmer Martin acts as the Queen's Proctor Cranmer's greatest Trouble at this time Interrogatories put to him with his Answers Witnesses sworn against him Cited to Rome The Pope's Lâ—tters against him The Process against him at Rome The Pope's Letters read They degrade him He appeals He is ill dealt with in his Process The Reasons of his Appeal He presseth his Appeal CHAP. XX. Cranmer writes to the Queen Writes two Letters to the Queen The Contents of the first The Contents of his second Letter The Bailiff of Oxford carries his Letters Cardinal Pole answereth them Some account of the Cardinal's Letter to Cranmer Another Letter of the Cardinal to Cranmer CHAP. XXI He Recants Repents and is Burnt He Recants Notwithstanding his Burning is ordered A Letter from Oxford concerning Cranmer's Death Cranmer brought to S. Maries Cole's Sermon Turns his Speech to Cranmer After Sermon all pray for him His Penitent Behaviour Speaks to the Auditory He Prayeth His Words before his Death Conâ—esseth his Dissembling His Reply to my Lord Williams Goes to the place of his burning His Talk and Behaviour at the Stake He burneth his Right Hand Two Remarks upon his Martyrdom Who instigated the Queen to put him to death No Monument for him but his Martyrdom His Heart unconsumed The Bailiffs Expences about these three Martyrs The Bailiffs not repaid Humfrey to Archbishop Parker in their behalf CHAP. XXII Cranmer 's Books and Writings His Books and Writings His first Book Other of his Writings His Book of the Doctrine of the Sacrament Other Writings mentioned by Bishop Burnet More of his Writings still Archbishop Parker was in pursuit of certain MSS. of Cranmer concealed What the Subject of his numerous Writings were CHAP. XXIII The Archbishop's Regard to Learned Men. Paul Fagius and Martin Bucer placed at Cambridge by his means Procures them Honorary Stipends from the King Allowances to P. Martyr and Ochin Dr. Mowse Master of Trinity-Hall favoured by Cranmer His Inconstancy And Ingratitude Becomes Readâ—r of the Civil Law at Oxon. The Archbishop a Patron to Learned Foreigners To Erasmus allowing him an Honorary Pension To Alexander Alâ—ss a Scoth-man By him Melancthon sends a Book to the Archbishop And to the King Aless brought by Crumwel into the Convocation Where he asserts Two Sacraments only Writes a Book to clear Protestants of the Charge of Schism Translated a Book of Bucer's about the English Ministry Received into Crumwel's Family Aless Professor of Divinity at Leipzig Four others recommended by Melancthon to the Archbishop Viz. Gualter Driander Driander placed at Oxon. Eusebius Menius Iustus Ionas CHAP. XXIV Melancthon and the Archbishop great Friends Divers memorable Passages between Melancthon and our Archbishop Sends Melancthon certain Publick Disputations in Oxford and Cambridge Melancthon's Reflections thereupon Sends the Archbishop his Enarration upon the
themselves and are as much bound to obey as their Temporal Subjects or Lay-men as the Priests call them that the Issue was the abolishing of that Foreign Papal Power and the expulsion of it out of this Realm by the full consent of Parliament A Licence dated Feb. 13. this Year was granted by the Arch-Bishop to Mary the Relict of Sir Henry Guilford Kt. to have the Eucharist Matrimony and Baptism ministred in any Chappel or Oratory within her Mannors where she should reside during her Life And such a Licence dated also Feb. 13. the next Year was granted by him to Margaret Marchioness of Dorset Whether indulged to them by the Arch-Bishop the rather to free them from danger for not frequenting their Parish-Churches and for the avoiding the Superstitious and Idolatrous Worship there performed and that there might be some private Places for purer worshipping God and administration of the Sacraments or only for the Convenience of those Ladies the Reader hath liberty to judg CHAP. VI. The Arch-bishop presseth the Translation of the Bible THIS Rub of the Papal Power being now taken out of the way and the King's Supremacy settled in the next Sessions of Parliament in Novemb. 1534. a Way was opened for a Reformation of Errors and Abuses in Religion So that as the Arch-bishop judged it a thing impossible to make any amendment of Religion under the Pope's Dominion so he thought it now the same being dispatched out of the Realm a meeâ— time to restore the true Doctrine of Christ according to the Word of God and the old Primitive Church within his Jurisdiction and Cure and with the said Pope to abolish also all false Doctrine Errors and Heresies by him brought into the Church for the accomplishing of which he let pass no Opportunities A Convocation now afforded him one Our Arch-bishop from his first entrance upon his Dignity had it much in his mind to get the Holy Scriptures put into the Vulgar Language and a Liberty for all to read them The Convocation now was so well disposed by the influence of the Arch-bishop and his Friends that they did petition the King that the Bible might be translated by some Learned Men of his Highnesses nomination And as this good Motion was briefly made in the House by the Arch-bishop so they agreed upon him to carry their Petition But they clogged it with another which the Arch-bishop did not so well approve of For about the Month of December they pass'd this Order of Convocation The Bishops Abbots Priors of this Upper House of Convocation of the Province of Canterbury met together in the Chapter-House of St. Paul unanimously did consent that the most Reverend Father the Arch-bishop should make instance in their Names to the King that his Majesty would vouchsafe for the encrease of the Faith of his Subjects to decree and command That all his Subjects in whose possession any Books of suspect Doctrine were especially in the Vulgar Language imprinted beyond or on this side the Sea should be warned within three Months to bring them in before Persons to be appointed by the King under a certain Pain to be limited by the King And that moreover his Majesty would vouchsafe to decree that the Scriptures should be translated into the Vulgar Tongue by some honest and learned Men to be nominated by the King and to be delivered unto the People according to their Learning This was resolved in the Convocation Decemb. 19. Accordingly the King issued out soon after his Proclamation What this Proclamation was I do not know unless it were one I meet with about this time against bringing in or printing seditious Books of Anabaptists and Sacramentaries who were said to be lately come into the Realm and against some of his own Subjects who publickly disputed in Taverns and other open Places upon those Points of Religion which the King was offended withal For the Correction and Regulating of which the King in the said Proclamation commanded sundry Articles to be observed which for the length of them I have put into the Appendix Unless perhaps this Proclamation may belong to the Year 1538. About the month of Iune this Year was a Book drawn up for Bishops and Priests wherein was an Order for preaching and in the same were Forms devised for the Beads as well for Preachers as Curates In which Forms the King's Title of Supream Head was specified In this Book was commandment given by the King that â—very Preacher should before Easter once in solemn Audience deâ—â—are the usurped Jurisdiction within this Realm of the Bishop of â—ome and the King 's just Cause to decline from the same and also to open and declare such things as might avow and justify the King's refusal of Marriage with the Princess Dowager and his contract anew with Queen Ann. And also in the same Book an Order was given for the suppression of the General Sentence or Curse This Book the Arch-bishop who we may well suppose had a great hand in it sent by the King's Commandment to all the Bishops and to the Arch-bishop of York though out of his Province that Arch-bishop lying under some Jealousy as it seems with the King Therefore after the receit of the Book the said Arch-bishop of York the next Sunday which was the second Sunday after Trinity went from Cawood to York and there in his own Person declared as well the King's Cause touching the Matrimony as his refusal of the Pope's Jurisdiction so fully that nothing that needed to be opened was left unspoken as that Arch-bishop wrote himself to the King in his own Vindication And that the Auditory might be the greater he sent to York forthwith upon the receit of the Book to publish there that he would be there the next Sunday following and caused the Churches to make an end of their Service in such time as every Man might have opportunity to be at the Sermon and especially required the Mayor and his Brethren and one Mr. Magnus and Sir George Lawson his Majesty's Chaplains to be there And a very great Confluence there was Then the Arch-bishop preached from that Text Vxorem duxi c. Whence he took occasion to utter and declare both his foresaid Matters and the Injury done to the King's Highness by Pope Clement As the Convocation this Year had declared the Pope to have no Jurisdiction in this Kingdom so this would not serve the King till all the Learned and Spiritual Men in England had subscribed to it with their Hands The Arch-bishop's Church of Canterbury began For the Prior and Convent thereof moved and influenced not a little by their Diocesan solemnly subscribed an Instrument for abolishing the Pope's Supremacy and for acknowledgment of the King Supream Head of the Church of England under this Position Quod Romanus Episcopus non habet majorem aliqâ—am jurisdictionem a Deo sibi collatam in hoc regno
Rochester by virtue of the Arch-bishop's Letters Commissional to him assisted by Robert Bishop of S. Asaph and Thomas Bishop of Sidon This More held the Monastery of Walden in Essex an House of Benedictines in Commendam where Audley-end now stands and surrendred it to the King 1539. CHAP. XIII The Bishops Book THE pious ABp thought it highly conducible to the Christian Growth of the common People in Knowledg and Religion and to disintangle them from gross Ignorance and Superstition in which they had been nursled up by their Popish Guides that the Ten Commandments the Lord's Prayer and the Creed and the Grounds of Religion should be explained soundly and orthodoxly and recommended unto their reading Wherefore he consulting with the Lord Crumwel his constant Associate and Assistant in such Matters and by his and other his Friends importuning the King a Commission was issued out from him in the Year 1537. to the Arch-bishop to Stokesly Bishop of London Gardiner of Winchester Sampson of Chichester Repps of Norwich Goodrick of Ely Latimer of Worcester Shaxton of Salisbury Fox of Hereford Barlow of S. Davids and other Bishops and Learned Divines to meet together and to devise an wholsome and plain Exposition upon those Subjects and to set forth a Truth of Religion purged of Errors and Heresies Accordingly they met at the Arch-bishop's House at Lambeth Their Course was that after they had drawn up their Expositions upon each Head and agreed thereto they all subscribed their Hands declaring their Consent and Approbation In the Disputations which happened among them in this Work Winchester the Pope's chief Champion with three or four other of the Bishops went about with all subtil Sophistry to maintain all Idolatry Heresy and Superstition written in the Canon Law or used in the Church under the Pope's Tyranny But at the last whether overpower'd with Number or convinced by the Word of God and consent of Ancient Authors and the Primitive Church they all agreed upon and set their Hands to a Godly Book of Religion Which they finished by the end of Iuly and staid for nothing but the Vicar-General's Order whether to send it immediately to him or that the Bishop of Hereford should bring it with him at his next coming to the Court But the Plague now raging in Lambeth and People dying even at the Palace-Doors the Arch-bishop desired Crumwel for the King's Licence to the Bishops to depart for their own Safety their Business being now in effect drawn to a Conclusion Soon after the Bishops and Divines parted and the Arch-bishop hastened to his House at Ford near Canterbury The Book was delivered by Crumwel to the King which he at his leisure diligently perused corrected and augmented And then after five or six Months assigned Crumwel to dispatch it unto the Arch-bishop that he might give his Judgment upon the King's Animadversions A Pursevant brought it to Ford. The Arch-bishop advisedly read and considered what the King had writ and disliking some things made his own Annotations upon some of the Royal Corrections there especially we may well imagine where the King had altered the Book in favour of some of the old Doctrines and Corruptions And when he sent it back again with those Annotations he wrote these Lines to Crumwel therewith on the 25 th day of Ianuary MY very singular good Lord After most hearty Commendations unto your Lordship these shall be to advertise the same That as concerning the Book lately devised by me and other Bishops of this Realm which you sent unto me corrected by the King's Highness your Lordship shall receive the same again by this Bearer the Pursevant with certain Annotations of mine own concerning the same Wherein I trust the King's Highness will pardon my Presumption that I have been so scrupulous and as it were a picker of Quarrels to his Grace's Book making a great Matter of every little Fault or rather where no Fault is at all Which I do only for this Intent that because now the Book shall be set forth by his Grace's Censure and Judgment I would have nothing therein that Momus could reprehend And I refer all mine Annotations again to his Grace's most exact Judgment And I have ordered my Annotations so by Numbers that his Grace may readily turn to every place And in the lower Margin of this Book next to the Binding he may find the Numbers which shall direct him to the Words whereupon I make the Annotations And all those his Grace's Castigations which I have made none Annotations upon I like them very well And in divers places I have made Annotations which places nevertheless I mislike not as shall appear by the same Annotations At length this Book came forth printed by Barthelet in the Year 1537 and was commonly called the Bishops Book because the Bishops were the Composers of it It was intituled The godly and pious Institution of a Christian Man and consisted of a Declaration of the Lord's Prayer and of the Ave Mary the Creed the Ten Commandments and the Seven Sacraments It was Established by Act of Parliament having been signed by the two Arch-bishops nineteen Bishops eight Arch-deacons and seventeen Doctors of Divinity and Law The Opinion that the Favourers of the Gospel had of this Book in those Times may appear by what I find in a Manuscript of the Life of this Arch-bishop by an unknown Author that wrote it soon after the said Arch-bishop's Death A godly Book of Religion not much unlike the Book set forth by K. Edward VI. except in two Points The one was the real Preâ—ence of Christ's Body in the Sacrament of the Altar Of the which Opinion the Arch-bishop was at that time and the most part of the other Bishops and learned Men. The other Error was of Praying Kissing and Kneeling before Images Which saith he was added by the King after the Bishops had set their Hands to the contrary But this Book came forth again two Years after viz. 1540. unless my Manuscript mistake this Year for 1543. very much enlarged and reduced into another Form and bearing another Name A necessary Doctrine and Erudition of any Christian Man And because the King had put it forth by his own Authority it was called now The King's Book as before it was called The Bishops But that none might be confounded in these Books he may know that there was in the Year 1536 another Book also called The Bishops Book upon the same reason that this was so called because the Arch-bishops and Bishops had the making thereof It was a Declaration against the Papal Supremacy written upon occasion of Pole's Book of Ecclesiastical Vnion mentioned before And in the Year 1533 there came forth another Book in Latin called The King's Book intituled The Difference between the Kingly and Ecclesiastical Power reported to be made as Bale writes by Fox the King's Almoner Which was translated into English
be neither Patron nor Approver of that Doctrine until he saw stronger Proofs for it And so much did he dislike Oecolampadius and Zuinglius their Opinion in this Matter that he applied that Censure of S. Hierom concerning Origen to them That where they wrote well no body writ better and where ill no body worse And he wished those Learned Men had gone no further than to confute Papistical Errors and Abuses and had not sown their Tares with their good Corn. That which detained our Arch-bishop in this Error was the Veneration he had for the Ancient Doctors of the Church whose Writings as he then thought approved the Doctrine of this gross Presence judging that none could ever reconcile those Authors to the contrary Opinion Indeed he judged it the very Doctrine of the Fathers from the beginning of the Church And he reckoned that it must be a Truth because otherwise it could not consist with God's Goodness to his Spouse to leave her in such blindness so long It seemed also that he built this his Error upon the words of Scripture taking the sense of This is my Body literally Vadian by this Book had intended to have brought Cranmer off from this Opinion And before him several Attempts had been made that way but he remained so rooted therein that he seemed to be ever unmoveable He supposed also that the giving up this Doctrine would prove a great Impediment to the Work of the Gospel that now proceeded well in the Nation He advised and beseeched all both Lutherans and Zuinglians that the Churches of Christ would lay aside their Controversies in that Matter and agree and unite in a Christian Concord together that they might propagate one sound pure Doctrine consonant to the Discipline of the Primitive Church And this would be the way to convert even Turks themselves to the Obedience of the Gospel But I recommend the Reader to the Arch-bishop's own Letter to the said Vadianus wherein he may see how fast and firm he stuck to this Doctrine in these days He will find it in the Appendix Sanders in his lying Book of the English Schism would make his Reader believe that Cranmer was of this Opinion for another Reason namely because his Master K. Henry thought so and that he had so devoted himself to him that he in all things whatsoever believed and did in conformity to him giving Cranmer therefore the Nick-name of Henricianus But we must attribute that Suggestion to the well-known venemous Pen of that Man who cared not what he writ so he might but throw his Dirt upon the Reformation and the Reformers The said Author with the same Malice would have it that Cranmer was very variable and inconstant having been first for a Corporeal Presence afterwards a Lutheran and then a Calvinist And that he thus changed his Opinion as a Sycophant and Flatterer to comply with every Man's Humour that was uppermost That all the time of K. Henry he remained of that King's Opinion who was a vehement Enemy to Luther but when he was dead he became wholly Lutheran and put forth a Catechism dedicated to K. Edward and printed it in which he taught that every Christian that received the Sacrament either under the Bread or in the Bread or with the Bread certainly received into his Mouth the very true Body and Blood of Christ. But that scarce a Month passed when the Wretch that is his word understood that the Duke of Somerset the King's Governour was a Calvinist and not a Lutheran What should he do He printed his Catechism again changed the word and of an Henrician and a Lutheran became a Calvinist But to give a more true and respectful account of our Arch-bishop as to his continuance in this Opinion and his change of it Hitherto we have seen his Opinion for a Corporal Presence In the next Year viz. 1539. I find one Adam Damplip of Calais a Learned Preacher convented before him and several other Bishops for not holding the Real Presence From which Opinion the Arch-bishop with the rest did endeavour to bring him off Though then he marvelled much at the Answers that Damplip made and confessed openly and plainly that the Scripture knew no such term as Transubstantiation In the Year 1541 he had one Barber a Master of Arts of Oxford brought before him for denying the said Corporal Presence the Arch-bishop disputed again earnestly for that Doctrine against this Man yet could not but admire at his readiness in citing his Places out of S. Augustin nor could tell how to confute them as Mr. Raphe Morice his Secretary related afterward to Iohn Fox And this Tenet he held to the very last Year of K. Henry that is to the Year 1546. When by more mature and calm deliberation and considering the Point with less prejudice and the sense of the Fathers more closely in conference with Dr. Ridley afterwards Bishop of Rochester and his Fellow-Martyr he at last quitted and freed himself from the Fetters of that unsound Doctrine as appears by the Epistle Dedicatory before his Book of the Sacrament in Latin printed by the Exiles at Embden Which Epistle we may give credit to being written as is thought by Sir Iohn Cheke who well knew the Arch-bishop and Matters relating to him After Arch-bishop Cranmer and Ridley had changed their Opinion Latimer not long after changed his in this Point For as they all three died Martyrs at Oxon I am willing to join them together here It was but seven Years before his Burning that he relinquish'd that old Error that is about the Year 1547 as he confessed to Dr. VVeston in his Disputation There is an Argument the said Latimer made use of to prove the deceit of the Blood of Hales which Argument supposes him then of this Opinion It was pretended by the Priests that none could see this Blood but those that were confessed and absolved by the Priest and so clean in Life and their seeing of it was a sign they were so But said Latimer in those Times for the exposing of this Fraud Those Wretches that scourged Christ and nailed him to his Cross did see his Blood with their bodily Eyes and yet were not in clean Life And we see the self-same Blood in form of Wine when we have consecrate and may both see it feel it and receive it to our Damnation as touching bodily receiving We shall perhaps say more of the Arch-bishop's Opinion in the Eucharist when we come to speak of his Book relating to that Argument Divers Priests now as well Religious as Secular had married themselves after the Example of the Arch-bishop who kept his Wife secretly with him But some of these married Priests were so indiscreet that they lived publickly and openly with their Wives though the Ecclesiastical Laws were in force against such Marriages nor had they any Allowances by the King and Realm in Parliament Only some had Dispensations as
but for his own proper Offences either Actual or Original Which Original Sin every Man hath of his own and is born in it although it came from Adam The principal means viz. God's Favour whereby all Sinners attain their Iustification This Sentence importeth that the Favour and Love of the Father of Heaven towards us is the Means whereby we come to his Favour and Love And so should one thing be the Means to it self And it is not the use of Scripture to call any other the Means and Mediator for us but only Jesus Christ by whom our access is to the Father Having assured Hope and Confidence in Christ's Mercy willing to enter into his perfect Faith He that hath assured Hope and Confidence in Christ's Mercy hath already entred into a perfect Faith and not only hath a Will to enter into it For perfect Faith is nothing else but assured Hope and Confidence in Christ's Mercy Vpon the Explication of the Tenth Commandment Without due Recompence This Addition agrees not well with the Coveting of another Man's Wife wherein is no Recompensation And in the other things although Recompensation be made yet the Commandment nevertheless is transgrest and broken Vpon another Chapter concerning Obedience to the Civil Power By his Ordinate Power This word Ordinate Power obscureth the Sentence in the understanding of them that be simple and unlearned and among the Learned it gendreth Contention and Disputation rather than it any thing edifieth Therefore methinketh it better and more plain as it is in the print or else to say By his Ordinance For the Scripture speaketh simply and plainly Potestati ejus quis resistit By these few Passages which I have carefully taken out of the Arch-bishop's own Book may be seen of what a Critical and Exact Judgment he was But besides these Adversaria in these Papers of the Arch-bishop's Annotations there be divers large Discourses of his upon several Heads of Religion drawn up as I conceive upon the King's Command to be inserted into his Book above mentioned I have extracted some of these Discourses as upon Faith Justification and Forgiveness of Injuries Wherein may be seen his sound Opinion in those great Doctrines of Christian Religion I took also out of the same Volume some Specimen of three other Discourses of his One with this Title writ by his own Hand De Consolatione Christianorum contra metum mortis Ex Doctoribus Ecclesiasticis Compiled I guess as well for his own use being not inapprehensive of his ticklish Station and Danger from so many and implacable Enemies which he had as to be inserted in the aforesaid Book The others were two Exhortations to take the Pains of Sickness well and Adversity patiently the one taken out of Cyprian the other out of S. Augustin Lib. De visitatione infirmorum The Specimen of them are in the Appendix as also the Discourses of Faith Justification and Forgiveness of Injuries This Year Boner Bishop of London set forth Injunctions for the Clergy of his Diocess containing Directions for their Preaching and Conversation together with a Catalogue of certain Books prohibited Which the Curats were to enquire after in their respective Parishes and to inform their Ordinaries of them and of those in whose possessions they found them Among these Books were the English Testament of Tindal and divers other Pieces of the said godly and learned Man some Prefaces and Marginal Glosses of Thomas Matthews in his English Bible A Book of Friar Barnes The Supplication of Beggars The Practice of Prelates The Revelation of Antichrist The Church of Iohn Rastal The Disputation between the Father and the Son The Preface made in the English Primers by Marshal This Marshal was he I suppose whose Christian Name was Cutbert and was D. D. and Arch-deacon of Nottingham and died about 1549. At this Book I will stop a little being a Book of Eminency and Remark in those Times and that hath such a strain of Truth and serious Piety in it that it seems very probable that the Arch-bishop had a considerable hand it and procured the Publication of it Cum privilegio Regali It was stiled A Goodly Primer or Book of Prayers and called The King's Primer I speak of the second Edition which was about the Year 1535. It began with an Admonition to the Reader containing very sharp and severe Reflections upon the Popish Devotions and praying to Saints And towards the conclusion the Writer professeth That this his Admonition proceded neither of blynde Zele or Affection neyther of Wyll or Purpose to offend or displease any Man moch less than to displease any Saint in Heven and in no wyse than our blessed Lady but evin of very pure Love to the Honour of God and Helth of Mennes Souls Then followeth a pious Exposition of the Ten Commandments and the Creed Then is a general Confession of Sin Which goes according to the Commandments after this manner 1. I have not set my whole Belief Confidence Trust and Hope in thee c. 2. I have divided thy Worship and Honour from Thee and given it to thy Creatures and to dead things imagined of my own fond Fantasy I mean in the misusing of Images 3. I have abased thy Name c. 4. In the Sabbath-day I have not given my self to hearing reading and learning the Holy Scriptures c. Then comes an Exposition upon the Lord's Prayer and the Salutation Some short Prayers Some Graces before and after Meat most of which are Graces still retained in our English Primers after the Catechism And the Method of the Book is the same with our Childrens Primer now in use In this Edition there was a Litany added with a Preface before it directly against praying to Saints and shewing the difference of the Case between presenting our Petitions to God and presenting a Petition to an Earthly King that though this latter cannot be done without the mediation of some Servant of the King yet the former may be done immediately to God in the Name of Christ. Besides he said there were many doubtful Saints that many Saints canonized by the Bishop of Rome whether they were Saints or no he committed to the secret Judgment of God By this taste of the Preface you easily see why Bishop Boner placed it among the prohibited Books to be diligently searched for The Litany the Author added for the sake of many People that thought there could be no right Prayers without they were in the old form of Processions which were by way of Litany or Supplication to Angels and Saints And so he writ in this Preface that it was for the Contentation of such weak Minds and somewhat to bear their Infirmities that he had at this his second Edition of the Primer caused the Litany to be printed In this Litany all doubtful Saints are left out and he addresseth only to the Holy Angels S. Michael S. Raphael c. to pray for us And the Blessed
them After that the printed Injunctions and others not printed with the Book of Homilies were delivered both to the Bishop for his Church and the Arch-deacons for their respective Arch-deaconries strictly injoining them to see them speedily executed reserving other new Injunctions to be ministred afterwards as they should see cause Their next Work was to examine the Canons and Priests by virtue of their Oaths which they had taken concerning their Lives and Doctrines What was discovered in other Places concerning the Vices of the Clergy we may conlude from what was found among the Dignitaries of St. Pauls For when the Canons and Priests belonging to this Church were examined one of them named Painter openly confessed that he had often carnally used a certain Married-man's Wife whom he would not name And divers others both of the Canons and Priests confessed the same of themselves There be remaining in the Archives of the Church of Canterbury the Injunctions of the King's Visitors to the Dean and Chapter there bearing date Sept. 22. An. 1 Edw. VI. subscribed by the Visitors Hands Which Injunctions do all relate to the particular Statutes of the Church and are of no other moment There was now a Book of Homilies prepared for present use to be read in all Churches for the Instruction of the People and Erasmus's Paraphrase upon the New Testament in English was to be set up in all Churches for the better instruction of Priests in the Sense and Knowledg of the Scriptures And both these Books by the King's Injunctions aforementioned were commanded to be taught and learned CHAP. III. Homilies and Erasmus's Paraphrase ARch-bishop Cranmer found it highly convenient to find out some Means for the Instruction of the People in true Religion till the Church could be better supplied with learned Priests and Ministers For which purpose he resolved upon having some good Homilies or Sermons composed to be read to the People which should in a plain manner teach the Grounds and Foundation of true Religion and deliver the People from popular Errors and Superstitions When this was going in hand with the Arch-bishop sent his Letters to the Bishop of Winchester to try if he could bring him to be willing to join in this Business shewing him that it was no more than what was intended by the former King and a Convocation in the Year 1542 wherein himself was a Member to make such a stay of Errors as were then by ignorant Preachers spread among the People But this Bishop was not for Cranmer's Turn in his Answer signifying to him That since that Convocation the King his old Master's Mind changed and that God had afterwards given him the Gift of Pacification as he worded it meaning that the King made a stop in his once intended Reformation He added That there was a Convocation that extinguished those Devices and this was still in force And therefore that now nothing more ought to be done in Church-Matters And a Copy of this Letter he sent to the Lord Protector trying to perswade him also to be of his Mind The Arch-bishop answered these Letters of Winchester Wherein he again required these Homilies to be made by virtue of that Convocation five Years before and desired Winchester to weigh things But he replied It was true they communed then of such things but they took not effect at that time nor needed they to be put in execution now And that in his Judgment it could not be done without a new Authority and Command from the King's Majesty Then he used his Politicks urging That it was not safe to make new Stirs in Religion That the Lord Protector did well in putting out a Proclamation to stop vain Rumors and he thought it not best to enterprize any thing to tempt the People with occasion of Tales whereby to break the Proclamation And as in a natural Body he said Rest without Trouble did confirm and strengthen so it was in a Common-wealth Trouble travaileth and bringeth things to loosness Then he suggested the Danger the Arch-bishop might involve himself in by making Alterations That he was not certain of his Life when the old Order was broken and a new brought in by Homilies that he should continue to see the new Device executed For it was not done in a Day He wished there were nothing else to do now He suggested that a new Order engendred a new Cause of Punishment against them that offend and Punishments were not pleasant to them that have the Execution And yet they must be for nothing may be contemned There were two Letters Winchester sent to the Arch-bishop in answer to as many from the Arch-bishop In which he laboured to perswade the Arch-bishop not to innovate any thing in Religion during the King's Minority and particularly to forbear making Homilies and refusing for himself to meddle therein An imperfect part of one of these Letters I have laid in the Appendix as I transcribed it from the Original So when it was perceived that Winchester would not be brought to comply and join in with the Arch-bishop and the rest they went about the composing the Homilies themselves Cranmer had a great hand in them And that Homily of Salvation particularly seems to be of his own doing This while he was in composing it was shewn to Winchester by the Arch-bishop to which he made this Objection That he would yield to him in this Homily if they could shew him any old Writer that wrote how Faith excluded Charity in the Office of Justification and that it was against Scripture Upon this Canterbury began to argue with him and to shew him how Faith excluded Charity in the Point of Justifying And Winchester denied his Arguments And in fine such was his Sophistication that the Arch-bishop at last told him He liked nothing unless he did it himself and that he disliked the Homily for that Reason because he was not a Counsellor The Council had now put this Bishop in the Fleet for his Refractoriness to the King's Proceedings where if his Complaint to the Lord Protector were true he was somewhat straitly handled For he was allowed no Friend or Servant no Chaplain Barber Taylor nor Physician A sign he gave them high Provocation While he was here the Arch-bishop sent for him once or twice to discourse with him and to try to bring him to comply with their Proceedings in reforming Religion He dealt very gently with him and told him That he was a Man in his Opinion meet to be called to the Council again but withal told him that he stood too much in Obstinacy that it was perverse Frowardness and not any Zeal for the Truth And laboured to bring him to allow the Book which was now finished and the Paraphrase of Erasmus The former he could not allow of because of the Doctrine therein by Cranmer asserted of Justification by Faith without Works Which Cranmer took pains to perswade him about
telling him his Intent was hereby only to set out the Freedom of God's Mercy But Winchester challenged him to shew Scripture for it or any one ancient Writer That Faith in justifying excludeth Charity This Winchester afterward declared at large to the Lord Protector and added That the Arch-bishop in that Homily of Salvation had taken such a Matter in hand and so handled it as if he were his extream Enemy he would have wished him to have taken that Piece in hand and so to have handled it as he did He represented one of the Arch-bishop's Arguments for Faith excluding Charity to be thus out of that Homily We be justified by Faith without all Works of the Law Charity is a Work of the Law Ergo We are justified without Charity But I warn the Reader to consult the Homily it self before he pass his Judgment upon Cranmer's Argument as it is here represented by one that was none of his Friend In fine he said There were as many Faults in that Homily of Salvation as he had been Weeks in Prison and that was seven besides the Matter viz. making a Trouble without Necessity In short he charged the Arch-bishop for troubling the World with such a needless Speculation as this is because he said that in Baptism we are justified being Infants before we can talk of the Justification we strive for For all Men receive their Justification in their Infancy in Baptism And if they fall after Baptism they must arise again by the Sacrament of Penance And so this Doctrine he said was to be sent to the Universities where it is meet to be talked and disputed of and not fit for Homilies And to disparage further the Arch-bishop's Judgment he told the Protector That if my Lord of Canterbury would needs travail in this Matter he should never perswade that Faith excluded Charity in Justification unless he borrowed Prisons of the Protector and then he might percase have some to agree to it As poor Men kneel at Rome when the Bishop of Rome goeth by or else are knocked on the Head with a Halbard And then he made some scoffing mention of the Strength of God's Spirit in the Arch-bishop and his Learning in his Laws so as to be able to overthrow with his Breath all Untruths and establish Truths I make no Reflection upon all this unseemly Language of this Bishop but leave it to the Reader to judg hereby of the Learning and Spirit that was in him And could we have retrieved the Arch-bishop's own Arguments and Replies to these Barkings of Winchester they would have left to the World a full Vindication of Cranmer and his Doctrine As to Erasmus's Paraphrase the said Bishop pretended He found divers things in it to condemn the Work and that he agreed with them that said Erasmus laid the Eggs and Luther hatched them and that of all the monstrous Opinions that have risen evil Men had a wondrous Occasion ministred to them from that Book He also wrote to the Protector the particular Objections he made against it He said He might term it in one word Abomination both for the Malice and Untruth of much Matter out of Erasmus's Pen and also for the arrogant Ignorance of the Translator of it considering that Book was authorized by the King and a Charge laid upon the Realm of twenty thousand Pounds by enjoining every Parish to buy one Whereof he had made an Estimate by the probable number of Buyers and the Price of the Book He charged the Translator with Ignorance both in Latin and English a Man he said far unmeet to meddle with such a Matter and not without Malice on his part Finally The Matter he had to shew in both the Books was in some part dangerous and the Concealment thereof a great Fault if he did not utter it And that he pretended made him some-while ago write to the Council declaring his Mind in relation thereunto For which he was sent to the Fleet. The true Occasion whereof as I take it from his own Letter written with his own Hand which I have before me was this Upon the Departure of the Lord Protector against the Scots the King's Visitors began their Visitation Then as soon as the Bishop heard of the Visitation and the Books of Homilies and Injunctions were come to his hands he wrote to the Council trusting upon such earnest Advertisements as he made they would incontinently have sent for him and upon knowledg of so evident Matter as he thought he had to shew would have staid till the Protector 's Return He saw as he said a Determination to do all things suddenly at one time Whereunto though the Protector had agreed yet of his Wisdom as the Bishop conjectured he had rather these Matters should have tarried till his Return had he not been pressed on both Sides an Expression which the Protector in a Letter to him had used He reckoned that if he could have staid this Matter in his Absence though by bringing himself into extream Danger besides his Duty to God and the King he should have done the Protector a Pleasure of whom he had this Opinion that willingly and wittingly he would neither break the Act of Parliament nor command Books to be bought by Authority that contained such Doctrine as those Books did Thus he had he said remembrance of his Grace in these his Letters to the Council but he chiefly made not his Grace but God his Foundation with the Preservation of the late deceased King's Honour and the Surety of the King then being His Writing he confessed was vehement but he would have none offended with it for he wrote it with a whole Heart and if he could have written it with the Blood of his Heart he would have done it to have staid the thing till it had been more maturely digested He touched lively one Point in his Letter to the Council and considered whether the King might command against a Common Law or an Act of Parliament and shewed the Danger of it in the late Lord Cardinal and the Lord Typtoft before him who was Executed on Tower-hill for acting against the Laws of the Land though it were by the King's Commission and by other Precedents Not long after these Letters of the Bishop to the Council they sent for him When he came before them he came furnished with his Trinkets his Sleeves and Bosom trussed full of Books to furnish his former Allegations He was heard very well and gently Then he shewed Matter that he thought would have moved them For there he shewed the two contrary Books meaning the Homilies and Erasmus's Paraphrase But the Council told him they were not moved and added That their Consciences agreed not with his using many good Words to bring him to Conformity After he had been aside from them and was returned again they entred a precise Order with him either to receive the Injunctions or to refuse In which Case they told him
of the Second omitted according to the use in those Times But that Commandment is explained under the first The Substance of this Book is grave serious and sound Doctrine It is said in the Title Page to be overseen and corrected by the Arch-bishop Indeed it was a Catechism wrote originally in the German Language for the use of the younger Sort in Norinberg Translated into Latin by Iustus Ionas Junior who now was entertained by the Arch-bishop in his Family and thence turned into our Vulgar Tongue by the said Arch-bishop or his special Order But 't is certain so great a Hand he had therein that in the Arch-bishop's first Book of the Sacrament he said that it was translated by himself and set forth Bishop Gardiner in his Book against the Arch-bishop takes advantage of two things in this Catechism against him as though he himself when he put it forth was of the Opinion of the Corporal Presence The one was a Picture that stood before the Book where was an Altar with Candles lighted and the Priest apparelled after the old Sort putting the Wafer into the Communicant's Mouth The other is an Expression or two used somewhere in the Book That with our bodily Mouths we receive the Body and Blood of Christ And that in the Sacrament we receive truly the Body and Blood of Christ. And this we must believe if we will be counted Christen Men. But to both Cranmer in his next Book against Gardiner made answer That as for the Picture it was that was set before the Dutch Edition of the Book and so none of his doing but that he afterwards caused the Popish Picture to be altered into a Picture representing Christ eating his last Supper with his Disciples As for the Expressions he said he taught that we in the Sacrament do receive the Body and Blood of Christ spiritually and that the words Really and Substantially were not used but Truly And in his Answer to Dr. Richard Smith's Preface wrote against the said Arch-bishop who it seems had twitted him also with this Catechism he spake largely of these his Expressions in his own Vindication There was another Book of the Arch-bishop's against Vnwritten Verities which I do by Conjecture place here as put forth under this Year or near this Time Which I suppose Dr. Smith nibbled at in his Book of Traditions which this Year he recanted The Book was in Latin and consisted only of Allegations out of the Bible and Ancient Writers In Queen Mary's Days the Book was again published by an English Exile naming himself E. P. The Title it now bore was A Confutation of Vnwritten Verities by divers Authorities diligently and truly gathered out of the Holy Scripture and Ancient Fathers By Tho. Cranmer late Arch-bishop and burned at Oxford for the Defence of the true Doctrine of our Saviour Translated and set forth by E. P. Before it is a Preface of the Translator to his Country-men and Brethren in England In it he lamented the woful State of Things in England by the Restoring of Popery and the Persecution of Protestants there and shewed what a kind of Man the chief Bishop then in England viz. Cardinal Pool was who in the last King's Reign went from Prince to Prince to excite them to make War against his own Prince and Country This Treatise is but a bare Collection of places of Holy Scripture and Ancient Fathers to prove That the Canon of the Bible is a true and sound and perfect Doctrine containing all Things necessary to Salvation That neither the Writing of the Old Fathers without the Word of God nor General Councils nor the Oracles of Angels nor Apparitions from the Dead nor Customs can be sufficient in Religion to establish Doctrine or maintain new Articles of Faith Then Reasons are given against Unwritten Verities and the places of Holy Scripture and other Writers which the Papists bring to maintain Unwritten Verities are answered At last the Objections of the Papists are confuted in a concluding Chapter Which last part was not writ by the Arch-bishop but by the Translator For relating here the Story of the Holy Maid of Kent he saith she was examined by Tho. Cranmer Arch-bishop of Canterbury And at last he saith I have plainly and fully answered to all that I remember the Papists do or can allege by Writing Preaching or Reasoning for the Defence of their Unwritten Verities on which they build so many detestable Idolatries and Heresies But yet if any be able to answer so plainly and truly to the Scriptures Authorities and Reasons rehearsed by me as I have done to theirs and to prove their Doctrines by as plain Testimonies and Reasons as I have done mine I shall not only acknowledg my Ignorance and Error but I shall gladly return into England recant my Heresies c. Hence it is plain that the Conclusion of the Book as well as the Preface was writ by the Translator I will add one Passage taken out of this Book about the middle whereby it may be seen what a Clergy was now in England Having quoted the Canons of the Apostles Let not a Bishop or Deacon put away his Wife c. He makes a heavy complaint against the frequent practice of beastly Sins in the Priests Adultery Sodomy c. and that they never were punished And in my Memory as he proceeds which is above thirty Years and also by the Information of others that be twenty Years elder than I I could never learn that one Priest was punished This is some Account of the Care he took for the Church in general as Metropolitan But he had a particular Care of his own Diocess now his Power was not checked as it was in the former Reign especially of the City of Canterbury which had been formerly the backwardest in Religion of any other Place of his Diocess He supplied this City with store of excellent Learned Preachers Turner the two Ridleys Becon Besely and Iohn Ioseph who this Year went along with the King's Visitors as one of their Preachers These converted not a few to sincere Religion as may appear by those Numbers of Canterbury that in Queen Mary's Reign suffered the Torment of Fire for their Profession of the Gospel But in that Reign all the Preachers fled so that there was scarce one remaining in the City Which was looked upon as a particular Sign of God's Displeasure against that Place because the Professors there and others reformed not themselves according to those Opportunities of Grace which God had put into their Hands And so I find in a Letter to them wrote by some eminent Person in Prison in Queen Mary's Reign Alas how few faithful Servants hath the Lord of Life in these troublesome Days within Canterbury to whom above all other People in comparison of multitude he hath sent most plenteously his Word in the Mouths of most excellent Preachers But even as the People were Negligent Hard-hearted nothing willing
their Peril Thus fare you well From Westminster the last day of April 1548. Your loving Friends E. Somerset Tho. Cheyney Will. Seint-Iohn Will. Paget I. Russell Tho. Smith Will. Herbert H. Arundel A. Denny Ioh. Baker It is not an improbable Conjecture that the Arch-bishop procured this Letter to arm Church-wardens with an Answer to such greedy Courtiers and Gentlemen as used often to resort to them and in their own or the Council's Name required these Goods of their Churches to be yielded up to them and threatned them if they did not The next Month the Council sent the Arch-bishop a Form of Prayer to be used by himself and those of his Diocess Wherein God was implored to grant the Nation Peace and Victory over her Enemies For now all things round about appeared in a Posture of War and Preparation of Arms were making Which caused the King also to raise Forces And for a Blessing upon them the Privy-Council sent to the Arch-bishop together with the Form an Order for the speedy using of it The Tenor of the Letter follows AFter our hearty Commendations to your good Lordship Hearing tell of great Preparations made of Foreign Princes and otherwise being inforced for the Procurement and Continuance of Peace to make Preparation of War Forasmuch as all Power and Aid valuable cometh of God the which he granteth as he hath promised by his Holy Word by nothing so much as by hearty Prayers of good Men The which is also of more Efficacy made of an whole Congregation together gathered in his Holy Name Therefore this is to will and require you to give Advertisement and Commandments to all the Curats in your Diocess That every Sunday and Holy-day in their Common-Prayer they make devout and hearty Intercessions to Almighty God for Victory and Peace And to the Intent that you should not be in Doubts what sort and manner thereof we do like we have sent unto you one Which we would that you and they should follow and read it instead of one of the Collects of the King's Majesty's Procession Thus we pray you not to fail to do with all speed and bid you farewel From Westminster the 6 th of May 1548. Your loving Friends E. Somerset R. Rich Canc. W. Seint-Iohn I. Russel Th. Cheyney Now that the Liberty of the Gospel began to be allowed divers false Opinions and unsound Doctrines began to be vented with it of which publick Cognizance began now to be taken As that the Elect sinned not and that they could not sin That they that be Regenerate never fall away from godly Love That the Elect have a right to take so much of the Things of the World as may supply their Necessities And there were some that openly preached these Doctrines and set forth and published Books to the same Tenor. Several of these Hereticks in the Month of April were convented before the Arch-bishop of Canterbury Sir Thomas Smith Richard Cox Hugh Latimer Doctors of Divinity William May Dean of St. Pauls William Cook Richard Lyel Doctors of Law and others the King's Commissioners Then did one Iohn Champneys of Stratford on the Bow abjure He taught and wrote and defended 1. That a Man after he is Regenerate in Christ cannot sin 2. That the outward Man might sin but the inward Man could not 3. That the Gospel hath been so much persecuted and hated ever since the Apostles Times that no Man might be suffered openly to follow it 4. That godly Love falleth never away from them which be regenerate in Christ. Wherefore they cannot do contrary to the Commandments of Christ. 5. That that was the most principal of our marked Mens Doctrine that make the People believe that there was no such Spirit given unto Men whereby they should remain Righteous and always in Christ. Which is as he wrote and asserted a most devilish Error 6. That God doth permit to all his Elect People their bodily Necessities of all earthly Things All these he revoked Granting or confessing now 1. That a Man after he is regenerate in Christ may sin being destitute of his Spirit 2. That the inner Man doth sin when the outward Man sinneth actually with the consent of the Mind 3. That divers times sithence the Apostles Times to follow the Doctrine of Christ hath been suffered openly 4. That godly Love falleth from them that be regenerate in Christ being destitute of the Spirit and that then they may do contrary to the Commands of Christ. 5. That it is no erroneous Doctrine which he affirmed in his Book to be a devilish Error and our marked Mens Doctrine viz. To make the People believe that there was no such Spirit given unto Man whereby he should remain Righteous always in Christ. But I confess saith the Abjurer that a Man having the Spirit may afterwards fall and not be Righteous 6. That God doth not permit to all his Elect People their bodily Necessities of all worldly things to be taken but by a Law and Order approved by the Civil Policy To which by me now spoken I mean ne understand any other Sense than hath been here opened to use again his very words in his Abjuration And so touching the Holy Gospel with his Hand before the King's Commissioners he abjured promising That he should never hold teach or believe the said Errors or damned Opinions above rehearsed And so subscribed his Name Then the Arch-bishop in his own Name and in the Name of the other Commissioners gave him his Oath 1. That he should not by any means hereafter teach or preach to the People nor set forth any kind of Books in print or otherwise nor cause to be printed or set forth any such Books that should contain any manner of Doctrine without a special Licence thereunto of the King's Majesty or some of his Grace's Privy-Council first had and obtained 2. That the said Champneys with all speed convenient and with all his diligence procure as many of his Books as are passed forth in his Name to be called in again and utterly destroyed as much as in him should lie 3. That he should the Sunday following attend at Pauls Cross upon the Preacher all the time of the Sermon and there penitently stand before the Preacher with a Faggot on his Shoulder And then he had two Sureties bound in five hundred Pounds that he should perform his Penance This was done April 27. There were other Heresies also now vented abroad as the denial of the Trinity and of the Deity of the Holy Ghost And the Assertion That Jesus Christ was a mere Man and not true God because he had the Accidents of Humane Nature such as hungring and thirsting and being visible And that the Benefit Men receive by Jesus Christ was the bringing them to the true Knowledg of God There was one Iohn Assheton a Priest that preached these Doctrines Who on the 28 th of December was summoned to Lambeth to
any Arguments for the Popish Doctrine brought them all to him many whereof were windy and trivial enough and he out of the heap made his Collections as he thought good But Watson and Smith were his chief Assistants The Arch-bishop though the Times now soon after turned and he cast into Prison was very desirous to prepare another Book in Confutation of Marcus Antonius and in Vindication of his own Writing He lived long enough to finish three Parts whereof two unhappily perished in Oxford and the third fell into Iohn Fox's Hands and for ought I know that by this time is perished also But the great desire he had to finish his Answer to that Book was the chief cause that at his last Appearance before the Queen's Commissioners he made his Appeal to a General Council That thereby he might gain some time and leisure to accomplish what he had begun before his Life were taken away which he saw was likely to be within a very short space Otherwise as he writ to his Lawyer who was to draw up his Appeal it was much better for him to die in Christ's Quarrel and to reign with him than to be shut up and kept in that Body Unless it were to continue yet still a while in this Warfare for the Commodity and Profit of his Brethren and to the further advancing of God's Glory Peter Martyr his surviving and learned Friend being solicited by many English-Men by Letter and word of Mouth undertook the answering this Book But before he had finished it an English Divine and Friend of Martyr's with whom he held Correspondence in Q. Mary's Reign wrote him word in the Year 1557. that an Answer to Antonius by some other hand was then in the Press naming the Author Martyr replied That he was rather glad of it than any ways moved or disturbed at it as a disappointment of what he was doing and added that he expected nothing from that Man but what was very exquisite acute and elaborate But that he feared the noise thereof would not hold true And so it proved Whether this Learned Man withdrew his Book that he might give way to that which P. Martyr was writing or whether it were a Flam given out to stop Martyr in his Design it is uncertain But not long after this Learned Italian put forth his Answer He had it under the Press at Zurick in December 1558 and it came out the next Year Wherein as he wrote to Calvin he did unravel and confute all the Sophisms and Tricks of the Bishop of Winchester And it came forth very seasonably as Martyr hoped For hereby the English Papalins might see at this time especially that that Book was not as they boasted hitherto invincible He gave this Title to his Book Defensio Doctrina veteris Apostolicae de S.S. Eucharistiae Sacramento In the Preface to which he shewed How this Work fell to his Lot Not that that most Reverend Father wanted an Assistant for he could easily have managed Gardiner himself For he knew how Cranmer in many and various Disputes formerly had with him came off with Victory and great Praise but because the ABp when in Prison was forced to leave his Answer which he had begun unfinished by reason of his strait keeping having scarce Paper and Ink allowed him and no Books to make use of and being cut off so soon by Death before he could bring to perfection what he had writ Wherein as Martyr said he had harder measure by far from the Papists than Gardiner had from the Protestants in K. Edward's Days when he wrote his Book Gardiner in that Book of his under the Name of M. Constantius had shewn such foul play with Cranmer's Book mangling it and taking Pieces and Scraps of it here and there and confounding the Method of it to supply himself with Objections to give his own Answers to with the most advantage that the Arch-bishop thought that if Learned Foreigners saw but his first Book of the Sacrament as he wrote it it would be vindication enough against Gardiner's new Book against it And therefore he took order to have it translated into the same Language in which Gardiner wrote that is Latin that impartial Strangers might be able to read and judg and Sir Iohn Cheke elegantly performed it for his Friend the Arch-bishop This Book of Cranmer's thus put into Latin with some Additions came forth 1553. Before it he prefixed an Epistle to King Edward VI. dated at Lambeth Idib Mart. the same Year Wherein he said It was his Care of the Lord's Flock committed to him that put him upon renewing and restoring the Lord's Supper according to the Institution of Christ. And that that was the Reason that about three Years ago he set forth a Book in English against the principal Abuses of the Papistical Mass. Which Book had great Success upon the Peoples Minds in bringing them to embrace the Truth Whereby he said he perceived how great the Force of Truth was and understood the Benefits of the Grace of Christ that even the Blind should have their Eyes opened and partake of the Light of Truth as soon as it was revealed and shewed it self clearly to them But that this gave great Offence unto Gardiner then Bishop of Winchester so that he thought nothing was to be done till he had answered the Book supposing that there would be no helper of so declining forsaken a Cause unless he put to his Hand And so the Arch-bishop proceeded to shew how that Bishop first put forth his English Book endeavouring to overthrow the true Doctrine and to restore and bring again into Repute the Mass with all its Superstitions and afterwards his Latin Book under a feigned Name In which Gardiner had so unfairly dealt with the Arch-bishop's Arguments chopping and changing defacing and disfiguring them that he could not know them for his own and all that he might make it serve his own turn the better Insomuch that he resolved to have his own Book translated out of English into Latin that his true Opinion and Mind in this Controversy might the better be apprehended The whole Epistle is writ in a pure elegant Latin Stile with a good sharpness of Wit The publication of this his Latin Book he thought sufficient for the present to entertain the World till he should put forth in Latin also a full Answer to Gardiner which he intended shortly to do To this Latin Book the Arch-bishop occasionally reviewing it while he was in Prison made sundry Annotations and Additions not of any new Arguments but only of more Authorities out of the Fathers and Ancient Writers This valuable Autograph fell into the Hands of some of the English Exiles at Embden it may be by the Means of Bp Scory who was Superintendent of the English Church there or Sir Iohn Cheke who also for some time was in this Place both great Friends of the Arch-bishop In the
Year 1557 the Exiles here printed it with this Title Defensio c. a Thoma Cranmero Martyre scripta Ab Authore in Vinculis recognita aucta Before it is a new Preface to the Reader made as it is thought by Sir Iohn Cheke relating to the Arch-bishop and this his Book shewing how well-weighed and well-thought on this Doctrine of the Sacrament was before he published it and that he let it not go abroad till he had diligently compared and pondred all Scriptures and Ancient Authors and confirmed it at last by his Blood In the body of the Book the places where any Enlargements are are signified by an Hand pointing thereunto In the Margent is often to be found this word Object with certain Numbers added Which Numbers shew those Places which Gardiner under the Name of Marcus Antonius did endeavour to confute The very Original these English Exiles here at Embden kept as a great Treasure among them and as a Memorial of the Holy Martyr Besides this the Arch-bishop fully intended to have his Vindication of his Book impugned by Gardiner put into Latin also but he lived not to see that done But care was taken of this Business among the Exiles Insomuch that both Sir Iohn Choke and Iohn Fox were busied about it at the same time But the former surceased and left the whole Work to Fox then at Frankford after he had finished the first part In this Piece done by Cheke Iohn a Lasco had an hand for he put in the Latin School-Terms instead of more pure good Latin which Cheke had used And it was judged fit that such Words should be used where the ABp in his English had used them And this Cheke and A Lasco themselves wrote to Fox Fox undertook the rest by the Incitation and Encouragement of P. Martyr and of Grindal and Pilkington both Bishops afterwards Who gave him Directions for the translating and as Doubts occurred concerning the Sense of certain Matters in the Book as he met with them he consulted with these Men for their Judgments therein Grindal in one Letter bad him write a Catalogue of all Passages by him doubted of and send it to him Fox finished his Translation in the Year 1557 before Iune For which he had a Congratulatory Letter from Grindal who was his chief Assistant and Counsellor herein The Work was dispatched to the Press at Basil I suppose and when one Part was printed the Censors of the Press thought it would be better to defer an Argument of that Nature to better Times the Controversy having been bandied up and down so much already But Froscover undertook the printing of the whole Book Fox would do nothing of himself but leaving himself to the Judgment of his Learned Brethren to commit the Work now to Froscover or no Queen Mary's Death and the return of the Exiles I suppose stopped further progress in this Matter The Original Manuscript under Fox's own Hand in very cleanly elegant Latin I have lying by me It bears this Title De totâ Sacramenti Eucharistiae causa Institutionum Libri V. Autore D. THOMA CRANMERO Archiepiscopo Cantuariensi Quibus Stephani Garneri Episcopi Wintoniensi SMYTHI Doctoris Theologi impugnationibus respondetur And that I may bring here together all that relates to Cranmer as to this Matter of the Sacrament I must not omit what I saw in the Benet-Library There is a thin Note-book of this Arch-bishop's with this Title wrote by his own Hand De re Sacramentaria which I verily believe are his Meditations and Conclusions when he set himself accurately to examine the Sacramental Controversy and fell off from the Opinion of the Carnal Presence The Notes consist of nothing but Quotations out of ancient Ecclesiastical Authors about the Lord's Supper interlined in many Places by the Arch-bishop's Pen. On the top of some of the Pages are these Sentences writ by himself being Doctrines provable out of the Sentences there produced and transcribed Panis vocatur Corpus Christi Vinum Sanguis Panis est Corpus meum Vinum est Sanguis meus figurativae sunt locutiones Quid significet haec figura Edere carnem bibere sanguinem Mali non edunt bibunt corpus sanguinem Domini Patres Vet. Testamenti edebant bibebant Christum sicut Nos Sicut in Eucharistia ita in Baptismo presens est Christus Contra Transubstantiationem After this follow these Writings of the Arch-bishop's own Hand which Arch-bishop Parker elsewhere transcribed for his own Satisfaction Multa affirmant crassi Papistae seu Capernaitae quae neque Scriptura neque ullus Veterum unquam dixerat Viz. Quod Accidentia maneant sine subjecto Quod Accidentia panis vini sunt Sacramenta non panis vinum Quod Panis non est figura sed accidentia panis Quod Christus non appellavit panem corpus suum Quod cum Christus dixit Hoc est corpus meum pronomen Hoc non refertur ad panem sed ad corpus Christi Quod tot corpora Christi accipimus aut toties corpus ejus accipimus quoties aut in quot partes dentibus secamus panem Thus having set down divers Assertions of Papists or Capernaites as he stiled them which neither Scripture nor Ancient Fathers knew any thing of his Notes proceed to state wherein Papists and Protestants disagree Praecipua Capita in quibus a Papisticis dissentimus Christum Papistae statuunt in pane nos in homine comedente Illi in comedentis ore nos in toto homine Illi Corpus Christi aiunt evolare masticato vel consumpto pane Nos manere in homine dicimus quamdiu membrum est Christi Illi in pane statuunt per annum integrum diutius si duret panis Nos in homine statuimus inhabitare quamdiu Templum Dei fuerit Illorum Sententiâ quod ad realem praesentiam attinet non amplius edit homo quam bellua neque magis ei prodest quam cuivis animanti Thus God made use of this Arch-bishop who was once of the most violent Asserters of the Corporal Presence to be the chiefest Instrument of overthrowing it But this good Work required to be carried on after Cranmer's Death For great Brags were made of Gardiner's second Book and it was boasted that none dared to encounter this their Goliath P. Martyr was thought the fittest Man to succeed Cranmer in this Province to maintain the Truth that began now to shine forth He overcome by the Solicitation of Friends composed a Book against Gardiner as was said before and printed it at Zurick Wherein I. He defended the Arguments of our Men which had been collected together and pretended to be confuted by Gardiner's Book II. He defended those Rules which Cranmer had put forth in his Tract of the Sacrament III. He maintained those Answers whereby the Arguments of the Adversaries were wont to be refuted And IV. He asserted the just and
true Interpretation of certain Places out of the Fathers which Gardiner and his Companions brought for themselves and their Errors After this Defence followed another by the same Author printed in the same Town of Zurick against two Books of Dr. Rich. Smith concerning the single Life of Priests and Monastick Vows which he wrote at Lovain against Martyr For when Martyr had read at Oxford upon 1 Corinthians Chap. vii where the Apostle speaks much of Virginity and Matrimony the Notes of which Readings Smith had very diligently taken being constantly present at them from thence he composed two Books not so strong as malicious Of the Celibacy of Priests and of Vows designing thereby to confute Martyr's Arguments Which he therefore thought fit to vindicate In this Book he not only answered Smith's Arguments but whatever else he could meet with upon that Subject But it was thought to be a very improper Undertaking and proved cause of Mirth that so filthy a Fellow as Smith was known to be and once taken in the Act of Adultery should write a Book of Priestly Chastity Which occasioned these Verses made by Laur. Humfrey Haud satis affabrè tractans fabrilia Smithus Librum de vita caelibe composuit c. Dúmque pudicitiam dum vota monastica laudat Stuprat sacra notans foedera conjugii CHAP. XXVI The Duke of Somerset's Death New Bishops THE Arch-bishop of Canterbury this Year lost the Duke of Somerset whom he much valued and who had been a great Assistant to him in the Reformation of the Church and a true Friend to it His violent Death exceedingly grieved the good Arch-bishop both because he knew it would prove a great Let to Religion and was brought about by evil Men to the shedding of Innocent Blood for the furthering the Ends of Ambition and begat in him Fears and Jealousies of the King's Life It is very remarkable what I meet with in one of my Manuscripts There was a Woman somewhat before the last apprehension of the Duke Wife of one Woocock of Pool in Dorsetshire that gave out that there was a Voice that followed her which sounded these words always in her Ears He whom the King did best trust should deceive him and work Treason against him After she had a good while reported this Sir William Barkley who married the Lord Treasurer Winchester's Daughter sent her up to London to the Council with two of his Servants She was not long there but without acquainting the Duke of Somerset whom it seemed most to concern he being the Person whom the King most trusted was sent home again with her Purse full of Money And after her coming home She was more busy in that talk than before So that She came to a Market-Town called Wimborn four Miles from Pool where she reported that the Voice continued following her as before This looked by the Circumstances like a practice of some Popish Priests accustomed to dealing in such Frauds to make the World the more inclinable to believe the Guilt of the good Duke which Somerset's Enemies were now framing against him And so some of the Wiser Sort thereabouts did seem to think For there were two Merchants of Pool that heard her and took a Note of her Words and came to the House of Hancock Minister of Pool who was known to the Duke counselling him to certify my Lord of her Which Hancock accordingly did and came to Sion where the Duke then was and told him of the Words He added Whom the King doth best trust we do not know but that all the King 's loving Subjects did think that his Grace was most worthy to be best trusted and that his Grace had been in Trouble and that all the King 's Loving Subjects did pray for his Grace to the Almighty to preserve him that he might never come in the like trouble again Then the Duke asked him whether he had a Note of the Words Which when he had received from Hancock he said to him suspecting the Plot Ah! Sirrah this is strange that these things should come before the Councellors and I not hear of it I am of the Council also He asked Hancock Before whom of the Council this matter was brought Who replied He knew not certain but as he supposed The Duke asked him Whom he supposed He answered Before the Lord Treasurer because his Son-in-Law Sir W. Barkley sent her up The Duke subjoyned It was like to be so This was three weeks before his last Apprehension This I extract out of Mr. Hancock's own Narration of himself and and his Troubles to which he added That at his first apprehension the report was that the Duke what time as he was fetch'd out of Windsor-Castle having the King by the Hand should say It is not I that they shoot at This is the Mark that they shoot at meaning the King Which by the Sequel proved too true For that good Godly and vertuous Prince lived not long after the Death of that good Duke Indeed it seemed to have been a Plot of the Papists and the Bishop of Winchester at the Bottom of it This is certain when in October 1549. the Duke was brought to the Tower the Bishop was then born in hand he should be set at Liberty Of which he had such Confidence that he prepared himself new Apparel against the Time he should come out thinking verily to have come abroad within eight or ten Days But finding himself disappointed he wrote an expostulatory Letter to the Lords within a Month after to put them in remembrance as Stow writes The Articles that were drawn up against the Duke upon his second Apprehension and Trial were in number Twenty which I shall not repeat here as I might out of a Manuscript thereof because they may be seen in Fox But I do observe one of the Articles is not printed in his Book namely the Tenth which ran thus Also you are charged that you have divers and many times both openly and privately said and affirmed That the Nobles and Gentlemen were the only Causes of the Dearth of things whereby the People rose and did reform things themselves Whence it appears that one Cause of the hatred of the Nobility and Gentry against him was because he spake against their Debauches and Excesses Covetousness and Oppressions But that which I chiefly observe here is that the draught of these Articles which I have seen were made by Bp Gardiner being his very Hand unless I am much mistaken So that he I suppose was privately dealt with and consulted being then a Prisoner in the Tower to be a Party in assisting and carrying on this direful Plot against the Duke to take away his Life Notwithstanding his outward Friendship and fair Correspondence in Letters with the said Duke But Gardiner was looked upon to be a good Manager of Accusations and he was ready enough to be employed here that he might put to his Hand in taking off one
corrupt Religion within his Province and Territories But finding the Opposition against him so great and lying under the Excommunication of the Pope for what he had done and being deprived thereupon by the Emperor of his Lands and Function he resigned his Ecclesiastical Honour and betook himself to a retired Life which was done about the Year 1547. But no question in this private Capacity he was not idle in doing what Service he could for the good of that Cause which he had so generously and publickly espoused and for which he had suffered so much I find that in this Year 1552 our Arch-bishop had sent a Message to Secretary Cecyl who accompanied the King in this Summer's Progress desiring him to be mindful of the Bishop of Colen's Letters And in another Letter dated Iuly 21 he thanked the Secretary for the good remembrance he had thereof What the Contents of these Letters of the Arch-bishop of Colen were it appeareth not But I am very apt to think the Purport of them was that Cranmer would solicite some certain Business in the English Court relating to the Affairs of Religion in Germany and for the obtaining some Favour from the King in that Cause But the King being now abroad and the Arch-bishop at a distance from him he procured the Secretary who was ever cordial to the State of Religion to solicit that Arch-bishop's Business for him sending him withal that Arch-bishop's Letters for his better Instruction And this whatever it was seems to have been the last good Office that Arch-bishop Herman did to the Cause of Religion for he died according to Sleidan in the Month of August and our Arch-bishop's Letter wherein that Elector's Letters are mentioned were writ but the Month before And if one may judg of Mens commencing Friendship and Love according to the sutableness of their Tempers and Dispositions our Arch-bishop of Canterbury and the Arch-bishop of Colen must have been very intimate Friends It was said of this Man that he often wished That either he might be instrumental to the propagating the Evangelical Doctrine and Reformation of the Churches under his Iurisdiction or to live a private Life And when his Friends had often told him what Envy he would draw upon himself by the changing of Religion he would answer like a true Christian Philosopher That nothing could happen to him unexpectedly and that he had long since fortified his Mind against every Event These two Passages spake the very Spirit and Soul of Cranmer Which they may see that are minded to read what Fox saith of him as to his Undauntedness and Constancy in the maintaining of the Truth against the many Temptations and Dangers that he met with during these three Reigns successively And lastly as our Arch-bishop devoted himself wholly to the reforming of his Church so admirable was the Diligence Pains and Study this Arch-bishop took in contriving the Reformation of his He procured a Book to be writ concerning it called Instauratio Ecclesiarum which contained the Form and Way to be used for the redressing the Errors and Corruptions of his Church It was composed by those great German Divines Bucer and Melancthon which Book was put into English and published here as a good Pattern in the Year 1547. This Book he intended to issue forth through his Jurisdiction by his Authority to be observed But first he thought fit well and seriously to examine it and spent five Hours in the Morning for five Days to deliberate and consult thereupon Calling to him to advise withal in this great Affair his Coadjutor Count Stolberg Husman Ienep Bucer and Melancthon He caused the whole Work to be read before him and as many Places occurred wherein he seemed less satisfied he caused the Matter to be disputed and argued and then spake his own Mind accurately He would patiently hear the Opinions of others for the information of his own Judgment and so ordered things to be either changed or illustrated And so dextrously would he decide many Controversies arising that Melancthon thought that those great Points of Religion had been long weighed and considered by him and that he rightly understood the whole Doctrine of the Church He had always lying by him the Bible of Luther's Version and as Testimonies chanced to be alledged thence he commanded that they should be turned to that he might consider that which is the Fountain of all Truth Insomuch that the said Melancthon could not but admire and talk of his Learning Prudence Piety and Dexterity to such as he conversed with and particularly to Iohn Caesar to whom in a Letter he gave a particular Account of this Affair And it is to be noted by the way that the said Book according to which the Reformation was to be modelled contained only as Melancthon in his Letter suggested a necessary Instruction for all Children and the Sum of the Christian Doctrine and the Appointments for the Colleges and Ecclesiastical Hierarchy were very moderate the Form of the Ecclesiastical Polity being to remain as it was and so were the Colleges with their Dignities Wealth Degrees Ornaments thereunto belonging only great Superstitions should be taken away Which the wise Melancthon aforesaid did so approve of that he professed he had often propounded it in Diets of the German Nation as the best way to Peace And this I add that it might be observed how Arch-bishop Cranmer went by the same Measures in the Reformation of the Church of England maintaining the Hierarchy and the Revenues Dignities and Customs of it against many in those Times that were for the utter abolishing them as Relicks of Popery Such a Correspondence there was between our Arch-bishop and the wisest moderatest and most learned Divines of Germany But let us look nearer Home CHAP. XXXII Troubles of Bishop Tonstal AS the last Year we heard of the Deprivation of two Popish Bishops so this Year another underwent the like Censure I mean Tonstal Bishop of Durham whose Business I shall the rather relate because our Arch-bishop had some Concern in it Septemb. 21. A Commission was issued out to the Lord Chief Justice and his Colleagues to examine and determine the Cause of Tonstal Bishop of Durham and eight Writings touching the same which he is willed to consider and to proceed to the hearing and ordering of the Matter as soon as he may get the rest of his Colleagues to him It was not long after viz. about the midst of October that this Bishop by these Commissioners whose Names besides the Chief Justice do not occur was deprived and his Estate confiscated Octob. ult Sir Iohn Mason was ordered by the Council to deliver to the use of Dr. Tonstal so he is now stiled remaining Prisoner in the Tower such Money as should serve for his Necessities until such time as further Order shall be taken touching his Goods and Money lately appertaining to him Decemb. 6. It was agreed by the Council that Dr.
I have presumed to marry one Amy German Widow and under pretence of that Matrimony contrary to the Canons and Custom of the Universal Church have kept her as my Wife and lived contrary to the Canons and Ordinances of the Church and to the evil Example of good Christen People Whereby now being ashamed of my former wicked living here I ask Almighty God Mercy and Forgiveness and the whole Church and am sorry and penitent even from the bottom of my Heart therefore And in token hereof I am here as you see to declare and shew unto you this my Repentance that before God on the latter Day you may testify with me of the same And I most heartily and humbly pray and desire you all whom by this evil Example doing I have greatly offended that for your part you will forgive me and remember me in your Prayers that God may give me Grace that hereafter I may live a continent Life according to his Laws and the godly Ordinances of our Mother the holy Catholick Church through and by his Grace And do here before you all openly promise for to do during my Life The manner of the Restitution of these Priests thus performing their Penance may be seen in the Appendix And this is some Account of the Church of Canterbury's Doings in pursuance of the Queen's Instructions before-mentioned But Bishop Boner with his Zeal was before-hand with the Queen not staying for any Orders from Above in dealing with his Clergy but of his own Power in the latter end of February deprived all married Priests in his Diocess in London from their Livings And after this done commanded them all to bring their Wives within a fortnight that they might be divorced from them These were some of the Doings with the Married Priests in London And in the same manner did they proceed about this time in Canterbury with Edmund Cranmer the Arch-bishop's Brother Arch-deacon and Prebendary of that Church together with William Willoughby William Devenish and Robert Goldson Prebendaries and divers others For March 15. At the Chapter-house in Canterbury before Henry Harvey LL. D. Vicar-general Richard Bishop of Dover Subdean Richard Parkhurst and Iohn Mills Prebendaries of the said Church personally appeared the said Arch-deacon and Prebendaries Thomas Brook and Tho. Stevens Preachers and Sherland and Goodrick Petty Canons of the said Church Who all subscribed with their own Hands to a Confession of certain Articles exhibited against them touching their being Married And being asked what they could say why they should not be suspended and deprived for the said pretended Marriages They gave this Answer as it is set down in the Register of that Church Se nihil habere dicendum c. That they had nothing to say that might be profitable for them the Ecclesiastical Law and the Decrees of the Holy Fathers standing in their full Force But by the Law of God they thought they had lawfully married their Wives and being married might not forsake them with a safe Conscience Then Sentence of Suspension from Priestly Function Sequestration Deprivation and Prohibition to live with their Wives was pronounced It is registred that they acquiesced in these Sentences against them no one of them appealing but all remaining silent This is the Account of the good Arch-bishop's Brother his manner of Deprivation and his peaceable Behaviour under it Thus he was deprived of his Prebend and one Robert Collins was admitted into the same Of his Rectory of Ickham and Robert Marsh succeeded him there April 12. 1554. and of his Arch-deaconry and Nicolas Harpsfield was admitted thereunto Who at the same time entred into Obligation to pay out of the Profits of the said Arch-deaconry unto William Warham late Arch-deacon during his Life a yearly Pension of forty Pounds Sterling March 31. 1554. But some of the Church then appeared not being either fled or in Prison and those were pronounced Contumacious viz. Iohn Ioseph Peter Alexander and Bernard Ochin Prebendaries Lancelot Ridley Richard Turner Thomas Becon and Richard Besely Preachers These Doings in all Quarters of the Realm raised great Admiration among the People upon divers and sundry Considerations incident and depending upon such Proceedings Since these Marriages were no more than what were agreeable to the Laws of the Land So that these married Preachers in Marrying themselves were no Transgressors of the Law and yet underwent as great Punishments as though they were so in some high Degree And the Proceedings seemed contrary even to the Queen's Commission comprized in certain Articles before-mentioned to her Bishops Which was That they should proceed according to Learning and Discretion in these weighty Matters and that they should not put any other Canons and Constitutions of the Church in exercise than such as might stand with the Law of the Realm Yet they went in most Places both against Learning and Discretion and the Laws of the Land For the bringing this to pass they first possest the Queen with great Prejudices against these Marriages They cried in her Ears how uncomely these Copulations were how against God and his Honour how against the Churches Decrees and Discipline and how worthy to be dissolved again And when they had obtained their Ends with the Queen and gotten out her Letter and Instructions for that purpose and by Warrant thereof executed their Purposes then for the giving a better Countenance to a thing that looked so odious and had so much Severity in it to the ruining of so many thousand Families Books were thought fit to be published the purpose of which was to make Married Priests contemptible and to shew how unlawful and wicked Marriage was in Men of Holy Orders Dr. Thomas Martin's Book made the greatest Noise a Book writ with a Brow of Brass so did it abound with confident Untruths and Falshoods And to the further accumulation of the heavy State of the Ministers deprived were added in this Book most slanderous Accusations and untrue Matters surmised against them to the Queen and Realm The Author greatly pretended Antiquity and Authority all along for his Doctrine Whereas indeed it was nothing but counterfeited Imitation of Authority and belying Antiquity And in short to give you the sense of one who wrote against the Book and did sufficiently expose it It was meer Subtilty without Substance Wit without Wisdom Zeal without Knowledg and Heat without Charity To give but one Instance of the unfair and false dealing of the Author he saith in his Book That the Hereticks affirmed that all Priests and Bishops must of necessity Marry whether they have the Gift of sole Life or no and that they were so beastly and ignorant that they should teach that the Fellowship and Company of a Woman in a Spiritual Man is a means to perfect Religion and that single Life was an hindrance to the same and that they should despise all manner of Virginity and single Life in them
this Time by a pious Italian to his Friend who had conceived these good Opinions of him This I have put in the Appendix and the rather because it will give some Light into our present History CHAP. XIII A Convocation Articles framed therein AT a Convocation the latter end of this Year an Address was made by the Lower House to the Upper wherein they petitioned for divers things in 28 Articles meet to be considered for the Reformation of the Clergy One whereof was That all Books both Latin and English concerning any heretical erroneous or slanderous Doctrines might be destroyed and burnt throughout the Realm And among these Books they set Thomas Cranmer late Arch-bishop of Canterbury his Book made against the Sacrament of the Altar in the forefront and then next the Schismatical Book as they called it viz. the Communion-Book To which they subjoined the Book of ordering Ecclesiastical Ministers and all suspect Translations of the Old and New Testament and all other Books of that nature So that if Cranmer's Book was burnt it was burnt with very good Company the Holy Bible and the communion-Communion-Book And that such as had these Books should bring the same to the Ordinary by a certain Day or otherwise to be taken and reputed as Favourers of those Doctrines And that it might be lawful for all Bishops to make enquiry from time to time for such Books and to take them from the Owners And for the repressing of such pestilent Books Order should be taken with all speed that none such should be printed or sold within the Realm nor brought from beyond Sea upon grievous Penalties And from another Article we may learn from what Spring all the Bloody Doings that followed the ensuing Years sprang namely from the Popish Clergy For they petitioned That the Statutes made in the fifth of Richard II. and in the second of Henry IV. and the second of Henry V. against Heresy Lollards and false Preachers might be revived and put in force And that Bishops and other Ecclesiastical Ordinaries whose Hands had been tied by some later Acts might be restored to their pristine Jurisdiction against Hereticks Schismaticks and their Fautors in as large and ample manner as they were in the first Year of Henry VIII I shall not recite here the whole Address as I find it in a Volume of the Benet-College Library because the Bishop of Sarum hath faithfully printed it thence in his History Only I observe that the 17 th Article is in the Manuscript scratched out and crossed viz. That all exempt Places whatsoever might be from henceforth under the Jurisdiction of the Arch-bishop or Bishop or Arch-deacon in whose Diocesses or Arch-deaconaries they were That they judged might grate a little too much upon the Pope's Authority which they were now receiving since these Exemptions were made by Popes And the last or 28 th Article was added by another Hand viz. That all Ecclesiastical Persons that had lately spoiled Cathedral Collegiate or other Churches of their own Heads might be compelled to restore them and all singular things by them taken away or to the true value and to reedify such things as by them were destroyed or defaced This I suppose was added by Boner's Interest that he might hereby have a pretence against Ridley his Predecessor it affording a fair opportunity to crush the good Bishops and Preachers that had in Zeal to God's Glory taken away out of their Churches all Instruments of Superstition and Idolatry And it might serve their turn who had lately in a most barbarous manner plundered the rich Arch-bishop of York And as they of this Convocation were for burning Hereticks Books so they were as well disposed to the burning of the Hereticks themselves For Protestants were already not only imprisoned but put to Death without any Warrant of Law but only by virtue of Commissions from the Queen and the Lord Chancellor Whereupon when one in the Convocation started this Objection That there was no Law to condemn them Weston the Prolocutor answered It forceth not for a Law We have a Commission to proceed with them and when they be dispatched let their Friends sue the Law CHAP. XIV The Condition of the Protestants in Prison Free-Willers BY this time by the diligence of the Papists the Popish Religion was fully established in England This Apostacy Cranmer saw with a sad Heart before his Death and all his Labour overturned And Ridley sends the bad News of it from Oxon to Grindal beyond Sea in these words To tell you much naughty Matter in a few words Papismus apud nos ubique in pleno suo antiquo robore regnat As for the Protestants some were put in Prisons some escaped beyond Sea some went to Mass and some recanted and many were burned and ended their Lives in the Flames for Religion's sake They that were in Prison whereof Cranmer was the chief being the Pastors and Teachers of the Flock did what in them lay to keep up the Religion under this Persecution among the Professors Which made them write many comfortable and instructive Letters to them and send them their Advices according as Opportunity served One thing there now fell out which caused some disturbance among the Prisoners Many of them that were under restraint for the Profession of the Gospel were such as held Free-will tending to the derogation of God's Grace and refused the Doctrine of Absolute Predestination and Original Sin They were Men of strict and holy Lives but very hot in their Opinions and Disputations and unquiet Divers of them were in the King's-Bench where Bradford and many other Gospellers were Many whereof by their Conferences they gained to their own Perswasions Bradford had much discourse with them The Name of their chief Man was Harry Hart Who had writ something in defence of his Doctrine Trew and Abingdon were Teachers also among them Kemp Gybson and Chamberlain were others They ran their Notions as high as Pelagius did and valued no Learning and the Writings and Authorities of the Learned they utterly rejected and despised Bradford was apprehensive that they might now do great Haâ—m in the Church and therefore out of Prison wrote a Letter to Cranmer Ridley and Latimer the three chief Heads of the Reformed though Oppressed Church in England to take some Cognizance of this Matter and to consult with them in remedying it And with him joined Bishop Ferrar Rowland Taylor and Iohn Philpot. This Letter worthy to be read may be found among the Letters of the Martyrs and transcribed in the Appendix Upon this Occasion Ridley wrote a Treatise of God's Election and Predestination And Bradford wrote another upon the same Subject and sent it to those three Fathers in Oxâ—ord for their Approbation and theirs being obtained the rest of the eminent Divines in and about London were ready to sign it also I have seen another Letter of Bradford to
them either by Writiting or by Disputation in the English Tongue By whom this Declaration was drawn up unless by Iohn Bradford I know not for I meet with it a MS. which contains divers Pieces of that good Man This remarkable Declaration I have reposited in the Appendix This now is the second time a publick Challenge was made to justify K. Edward's Reformation the former the last Year by Cranmer the latter now by divers of the Learned Men in Prison After they had lain fifteen or sixteen Months thus in Prison their Livings Houses and Possessions Goods and Books taken from them they made such another Address unto the King and Queen and the Parliament therein undertaking either by Word or Writing before them or indifferent Arbiters to be appointed by them to prove themselves no Hereticks nor Teachers of Heresy as they were pretended to be nor cut off from the true Catholick Church though by the Popish Clergy excommunicated and Secondly By the Testimony of Christ his Prophets and Apostles and the Godly Fathers of the Church to prove the Doctrine of the Church the Homilies and Service taught and used in K. Edward's Time to be the true Doctrine of Christ's Catholick Church and most agreeable to the Articles of the Christian Faith And this was the third publick Challenge they made This being preserv'd in Fox's Acts I forbear to transcribe it CHAP. XV. The Exiles and their Condition BUT let us now turn our Eyes from the Prisoners which were kept under close Confinement here in England unto the Exiles that by the good Providence of God made their Flight into foreign Countries from these Storms at home These were both of the Clergy and Laity Who though great watch was laid for them and Prohibitions given out against any that should privately attempt to transport themselves yet by taking their Opportunities and the favour of divers Masters of small Vessels at Lee in Essex and upon the Coasts in those Parts they safely got to the other side of the Sea They scattered themselves and took up their Harbours as they could But they found little Hospitality in Saxony and other places in Germany where Lutheranism was professed But on the contrary the Exile English were much hated by those of that Profession because they looked upon them as Sacramentaries and holding as Calvin and Peter Martyr did in the Doctrine of the Sacrament Therefore when any English came among them for Shelter they expelled them out of their Cities And when a grave Pastor of Saxony a Friend of P. Martyr's who though he were a Minister yet was not of their Mind had entertained some of them the rest clamoured against him and hated him for it About this time the Saxon Divines wrote many Books against the Sacramentaries and namely one Ioachim Westphalus wrote a Book against Calvin And he and the rest got these Books printed at Frankford on purpose as Martyr conjectured the more to spight the English and French Churches that abode now there and to provoke them At Wesel the English were under some trouble and the Senate were about to command them to depart thence because of their different Sentiments from the Augustan Confession in some Points But Philip Melancthon interposed and interceded with the Senate on their behalf And when some clamoured against them he took their part saying That their Case ought to be weighed by friendly Disputations and not exploded by Noise and Hissing and declared his judgment to be That these poor Exiles were to be retained and helped not afflicted and vexed by any rough Sentence He wrote also to the Governors of Frankford to the same purpose viz. That the English were not to be oppressed but to be cherished considering their Sentiments were found in the main Articles of the Christian Confession and that whereas they differed in some Points they were to be instructed and informed and not to be rudely thrown out from among them by Force and Violence And indeed it was admirable to observe at this Time the exceeding Heats that were in the Lutherans against all other Protestants only for differing from them in this one Point of the Sacrament There was a Book published in the Year 1555. in favour of their Opinion of the Corporeal Presence which was called Farrago Doctrinae Lutheranae This P. Martyr called Valdè insulsa a very foolish Book It contained a Collection of Sentences out of the Fathers and also out of the Writings of Luther Philip Brentius Pomeran c. They added some out of Bucer Illyricus and Ioachim Westphalus to shew that they agreed together They inserted divers Letters sometime writ against the Sacramentaries Indeed Calvin and Martyr they mentioned not by Name but A Lasco they did In this Book there was a Discourse added under this Title Quod Christi Corqus sit ubique Which was to serve as a Proof of their Doctrine And in the conclusion there was a Common-place De Magistratus officio Which was thought to be put in upon no other reason but to inflame and irritate Princes against the Sacramentaries These Saxon Divines were exceeding hot against those that believed not as they did In their ordinary Discourses they stiled them Hereticks False Prophets Suermeros Sacramentiperdas About this Time they were gathering new Votes against Calvin and as it was thought they intended to attempt some Excommunication against such as differed from them in this Point And this that I have said is enough to explain the Reason of the Inhospitality of the Lutherans to our Exiles But in other Places they were received with much Kindness and had the Liberty of their Religious Worship granted them as in Strasburgh Frankford Embden Doesburge Basil Zurick Arrow Geneva At Zurick they were received into one House with Bullinger and had great Favour and Countenance shewn them by the Towns-men and Magistrates Who offered them by Bullinger to supply them with such a quantity of Bread-corn and Wine as should serve to sustain thirteen or fourteen People But they with Thanks refused it Having I suppose wherewith to subsist otherwise of themselves and being willing to be as little burthensome as might be In these Places some followed their Studies some taught Schools some wrote Books some assisted at the Printing-Presse and grew very dear to the Learned Men in those Places At Embden they â—aving gotten among them by Sir Iohn Cheke's Means as was thought an Original Copy of Arch-bishop Cranmer's Book of the Sacrament translated it into Latin and printed it there with a Preface before it And there they preserved the said Original as a most invaluable Treasure Here they printed other good Books in English and conveyed them into England At Geneva a Club of them employed themselves in translating the Holy Bible into English intending to do it with more Correctness than had hitherto been done having the opportunity of consulting with Calvin and Beza in
First the King and Queen sent their Information to the Pope against Thomas Arch-bishop of Canterbury viz. That he had brought this noble Realm from the Unity of the Catholick Church That he was a Person guilty of Heresy and many other grand Crimes and not worthy to enjoy his Bishoprick and most worthy greater Punishments and they requested that Process might be made against him For the better enquiry into and taking cognizance of the Truth of these Accusations the Pope gave a special Commission signed with his Hand to Iames Puteo Cardinal of S. Mary's and afterwards of S. Simeon to cite the said Thomas before him and all such Witnesses as should be needful to come to a true knowledg of the Arch-bishop's Crimes and accordingly to give the Pope an account of all he should find This he was to do in his own Person or to constitute any dignified Person abiding in these Parts to do the same So the said Cardinal appointed Brookes Bishop of Glocester and some Collegues with him to manage this Commission in his stead This Brookes having been Bishop Gardiner's Chaplain was probably nominated and recommended by the said Gardiner as I do suppose he was the Person that directed the whole managery of this Process against the Arch-bishop And so Brookes being now by this Deputation the Pope's Sub-delegate proceeded in this Cause as was said before In regard of the Arch-bishop's Citation to Rome to answer there and make his personal appearance before the Pope the Letters Executory say Comparere non curaret as an Aggravation of his Crime that he took no care to appear which was false and that therefore as the said Letters ran the King and Queen's Proctors at Rome named Peter Rouilius and Anthony Massa de Gallesio and Alexander Palentarius the Proctor of the Pope's Treasury had sued that Contumacy might be definitively pronounced against the said Thomas Cranmer being cited and not appearing Therefore He Pope Paul IV. sitting in the Throne of Justice and having before his Eyes God alone who is the Righteous Lord and judgeth the World in Righteousness did make this definitive Sentence pronouncing and decreeing the said Thomas Cranmer to be found Guilty of the Crimes of Heresy and other Excesses to be wholly unmindful of the Health of his Soul to go against the Rules and Ecclesiastical Doctrines of the Holy Fathers and against the Apostolical Traditions of the Roman Church and Sacred Councils and the Rites of the Christian Religion hitherto used in the Church especially against the Sacrament of the Body and Blood of our Lord and Holy Orders by thinking and teaching otherwise than the Holy Mother Church preacheth and observeth and by denying the Primacy and Authority of the Apostolick See and against the Processions which every Year on Corpus Christi Day were wont to be celebrated by the Pope's Predecessors Mention also is made of his Bringing in again the Heresy abjured by Berengarius of his believing the false and heretical Doctrines of Wicklif and Luther those Arch-Hereticks printing of Books of that nature and publishing them and defending those Doctrines in publick Disputations and that before his Sub-delegate and persisting herein with Obstinacy Therefore the Pope excommunicated him and deprived him of his Arch-bishoprick and all other Places and Privileges whatsoever and adjudged him to be delivered over to the Secular Court and all his Goods to be confiscate And the Pope absolved all Persons from any Oath of Fidelity given to Cranmer and imposed perpetual Silence upon him And moreover upon the instance of the abovesaid Proctors commanded the Bishops of London and Ely to degrade him and so to deliver him over to the Secular Court This bore date December 14. In obedience to these Letters from Rome the two Bishops the Pope's Delegates came down to Oxford and sitting in the Choire of Christ's-Church before the High Altar the said Commissional Letters were read wherein it was specified That all things were indifferently examined on both Parties and Counsel heard as well on the King 's and Queen's behalf who were Cranmer's Accusers as on the behalf of Cranmer so that he wanted nothing to his necessary Defence Whereat the Arch-bishop could not but exclaim while these things were reading against such manifest Lies That as he said when he was continually in Prison and could never be suffered to have Counsel or Advocate at Home he should produce Witness and appoint his Counsel at Rome God must needs punish added he this open and shameless Lying But this Command of Degrading our Arch-bishop was presently proceeded upon Thomas Thirlby Bishop of Ely his old Friend infinitely before-time obliged by the Arch-bishop shed many Tears at the doing of it So that Cranmer moved at it was fain to comfort him and told him He was well contented with it So they apparelled the Arch-bishop in all the Garments and Ornaments of an Archbishop only in mockery every thing was of Canvas and old Clouts And the Crosier was put into his Hand And then he was piece by piece stript of all again When they began to take away his Pal he asked them Which of them had a Pal to take away his Pal They then answered acknowledging they were his Inferiors as Bishops but as they were the Pope's Delegates they might take away his Pal. While they were thus spoiling him of all his Garments he told them That it needed not for that he had done with this Gear long ago While this was doing Boner made a Triumphant Speech against the poor Arch-bishop But when they came to take away his Crosier he held it fast and would not deliver it but pulled out an Appeal out of his left Sleeve under his Wrist and said I appeal unto the next General Council and herein I have comprehended my Cause and the Form of it which I desire may be admitted And prayed divers times to the standers by to be Witnesses naming them by their Names This Appeal is preserved in Fox which is well worthy the reading The Arch-bishop was all along ill dealt with in divers respects in this his Process which himself was well sensible of One was That he had desired the Court that considering he was upon his Life he might have the use of Proctors Advocates and Lawyers But they would allow him none After the Court wherein Brooks was Sub-delegate had done they promised him that he should see his Answers to Sixteen Articles that they had laid against him that he might correct amend and change them where he thought good And that Promise they performed not And so entred his Answers upon record though his Answer was not made upon Oath nor reserved nor made in judicio but extra judicium Which Cranmer made a Protest of But not to the Bishop of Glocester as Judg whom he would not own but to the King 's and Queen's Proctors Martin and Story To them for these Reasons he wrote a Letter That he trusted they
Not was inserted in a certain place of the Book to alter the Doctrine of the Real Presence which was asserted in the first Edition This Dr. Martin one of Queen Mary's Commissioners threw in his Dish at his Examination in Oxford But the Arch-bishop professed his Ignorance concerning the foisting in of that Word The addition of which Word indeed he thought was needless still holding the Body and Blood truly present in the Holy Supper though after a spiritual manner III. The Ordinances or Appointments of the Reformed Church This was the Book of Common-Prayer with the Preface before it beginning There was never any thing c. as I learn out of Bale IV. One Book of Ordaining Ministers Which I suppose was the Form of Ordination published in the Year 1550. V. One Book concerning the Eucharist with Luther With whom Cranmer once consented in the Doctrine of the Presence VI. A Defence of the Catholick Doctrine in five Books Which was his excellent Work in vindication of himself against Bishop Gardiner and Dr. Richard Smith Whereof much hath been said before VII Ecclesiastical Laws in the Time of King Edward This was the Book of the Reformation of the Ecclesiastical Laws the management of which was by the King's Letters committed to eight whereof Cranmer was the chief VIII The Doctrine of the Lord's Supper against Gardiner's Sermon This Sermon is the same I suppose with that Book of his intituled A Detection of the Devil's Sophistry wherewith he robbeth the unlearned People of the true Belief of the most Blessed Sacrament of the Altar Which gave occasion to the Arch-bishop's first writing upon this Argument IX One Book against the Error of Transubstantiation X. One Book How Christ is present in the Supper XI One Book Concerning eating the Lord's Supper XII One Book Concerning the offering up of Christ. These five Books last mentioned are nothing else but the five Parts of his Book of the Holy Sacrament mentioned before XIII One Book of Christian Homilies Which must be the first Part of our Book of Homilies published under King Edward XIV One Book in answer to the Calumnies of Richard Smith For this Man had writ against Cranmer's Book of the Sacrament as well as Gardiner but done so scurrilously that Cranmer calls it his Calumnies XV. Confutations of Unwritten Verities Written against a Book of the same Smith intituled De veritatibus non scriptis Which he afterward recanted XVI Twelve Books of Common-Places taken out of the Doctors Those Volumes mentioned by Bishop Burnet I suppose were some of these Common-Place Books XVII Concerning not marrying the Brother's Wife Two Books Which must be those drawn up for the Use and by the Command of King Henry XVIII Against the Pope's Supremacy Two Books This was the Declaration against the Papal Supremacy said to be put forth by the Bishops in the Year 1536 upon occasion of Pole's Book of Ecclesiastical Vnion XIX Against the Pope's Purgatory Two Books XX. Concerning Justification Two Books I cannot trace these two last-mentioned Books unless by them be meant those two Treatises of Justification and Purgatory that are set at the end of the Institution XXI Pious Prayers One Book This Book I suppose was the Orarium seu libellus precationum put forth by the King and Clergy 1545. From whence a Book of Prayers was translated into English Anno 1552. XXII Letters to Learned Men One Book This I cannot hear any tidings of XXIII Against the Sacrifice of the Mass and against the Adoration of the Bread One Book Said to be writ while he was a Prisoner Which makes me conclude it to be part of his Reply to Gardiner's second Assault of him under the Name of Constantius XXIV To Queen Mary One Book or rather one Letter which was that he writ after his Examinations before her Commissioners and the Pope's Sub-delegate If some body of Leisure and that had the Opportunity of Libraries would take the pains to collect together all these Books and other Writings of this Arch-bishop and publish them it would be a worthy Work as both retrieving the Memory of this extraordinary Man who deserved so well of this Church and serving also much to illustrate the History of its Reformation But I know nothing of this nature done since the industrious Iohn Day in the Year 1580 printed a Book in Folio containing our Arch-bishop's Answer unto Stephen Gardiner Bishop of Winchester against the true Doctrine of the Sacrament Also to Richard Smith Also a true Copy of the Book writ by Stephen Gardiner Also The Life and Martyrdom of Cranmer extracted out of the Book of Martyrs And now we are mentioning this great Prelat's Writings it may not be unworthy to take notice of what I meet with in a Letter of Arch-bishop Parker to Secretary Cecyl in the Year 1563 his Grace being then at Canterbury Where he spake of the Great notable written Books as he stiles them of his Predecessor Dr. Cranmer which he had left behind him at some of his Houses at or near Canterbury whether Ford or Bekesborn or both or with some Friends in those Parts These Manuscripts it seems were embezeled and surreptitiously taken away by private Hands probably during his restraint in Queen Mary's Days and now studiously concealed by some that were minded it may be to stifle them being chiefly levelled against the Roman Church and Bishop Parker who was a great and painful Searcher after Antient and Learned Manuscripts and a diligent Retriever of eminent Mens Writings had by credible Information learn'd in what Hands many of those Books were and had sent either for the Persons concerned or to them to demand the said Books But they denied them Whereupon knowing no other way to recover them he desired the Secretary by some Power from the Queen's Council to authorize him to enquire and search for those Books and such-like Monuments by all Ways as by the said Parker's Discretion should be thought good whether giving the Parties an Oath or viewing their Studies Wishing he might recover them to be afterwards at the Queen's Commandment Adding that he should be as glad to win them as he would be to restore an old Chancel to Reparation This Letter of Arch-bishop Parker I have inserted in the Appendix But whether after all his diligence he succeeded in the recovery of those Manuscripts I know not I am apt to think he did and that these Writings of Cranmer that were in his Possession and afterwards bequeathed unto the Library of Benet-College and those other divers Volumes which were as was before-said in the keeping of the Lord Burghley might be some at least of them An inquisitive Man would be glad to know what the Matter and Contents of these numerous Writings of our Arch-bishop were and that seeing so many of them are perished the knowledg of the various Subjects of them at least might be preserved This besides what hath been shewn already may be gathered by what
return to Ionas He had written some Pieces and presented them to the King for which he intended to reward him And being now ready to go to France for the improvement of his Knowledg and so after a time to return into England again for which he had a great Affection he besought Secretary Cecyl in a well-penned Letter That whatsoever the King intended to bestow on him he would do it out of hand for the supply of his travelling Necessity This Letter for the Antiquity of it and the Fame of the Man I have inserted in the Appendix In which is also contained an Extract of part of Ionas the Father's Letter to his Son concerning the Miseries of Germany CHAP. XXIV Melancthon and the Arch-bishop great Friends THESE Occasions of the frequent mention of Melancthon do draw us into a relation of some further Passages between him and our Arch-bishop In the Year 1549 happened several Disputations chiefly concerning the Doctrine of the Lord's Supper before the King's Commissioners in both Universities In Oxford they were managed chiefly by Peter Martyr And in Cambridg Ridley then Bishop of Rochester and a Commissioner was the chief Moderator Soon after Martin Bucer in this University defended three Points one of the Sufficiency of the Scripture another concerning the Erring of Churches and the last concerning Works done before Iustification against Pern Sedgwick and Yong. They on the Popish Side pretended much in their Disputations to have Antiquity and the Fathers for them These Disputations did our most Reverend Prelate together with his own Letter convey to Melancthon by the Hand of one Germanicus a German Who probably might be one of those Learned Strangers that the Arch-bishop hospitably entertained The Reflection that that Divine in an Answer to his Grace in the Year 1550 made upon perusal of these Papers was That he was grieved to see that those who sought so much for the Antient Authorities would not acknowledg the Clearness of them Nor was there any doubt what the sounder Men in the Antient Church thought But that there were new and spurious Opinions foisted into many of their Books Into that of Theophylact most certainly for one And that there was some such Passage in the Copy that Oecolampadius made use of when he translated Theophylact which he liked not of but yet translated it as he found it But this was wholly wanting in the Copy that Melancthon had That the same happened in Bede's Books which he supposed might be found more incorrupt among us Bede being our Country-Man The same Melancthon with this his Letter sent our Arch-bishop a part of his Enarration upon the Nicene Creed for this end that he might pass his Judgment thereon As he also did for the same purpose to A Lasco Bucor and Peter Martyr all then in England The beginning of this Learned German's Acquaintance with our Prelat was very early For the Arch-bishop's Fame soon spred abroad in the World beyond the English Territories Which was the Cause of that Address of Melancthon mentioned before in the Year 1535 and in the Month of August when he sent a Letter and a Book to him by Alexander Aless. In the Letter he signified what a high Character both for Learning and Piety he had heard given of him by many honest and worthy Men and That if the Church had but some more such Bishops it would be no difficult Matter to have it healed and the World restored to Peace congratulating Britain such a Bishop And this seems to have been the first entrance into their Acquaintance and Correspondence PHILIP MELANCTHON In the Year 1548 Cranmer propounded a great and weighty Business to Melancthon and a Matter that was likely to prove highly useful to all the Churches of the Evangelick Profession It was this The ABp was now driving on a Design for the better uniting of all the Protestant Churches viz. by having one common Confession and Harmony of Faith and Doctrine drawn up out of the pure Word of God which they might all own and agree in He had observed what Differences there arose among Protestants in the Doctrine of the Sacrament in the Divine Decrees in the Government of the Church and some other things These Disagreements had rendred the Professors of the Gospel contemptible to those of the Roman Communion Which caused no small grief to the Heart of this good Man nearly touched for the Honour of Christ his Master and his true Church which suffered hereby And like a Person of a truly publick and large Spirit as his Function was seriously debated and deliberated with himself for the remedying this Evil. This made him judg it very adviseable to procure such a Confession And in order to this he thought it necessary for the chief and most Learned Divines of the several Churches to meet together and with all freedom and friendliness to debate the Points of Controversy according to the Rule of Scripture And after mature deliberation by Agreement of all Parties to draw up a Book of Articles and Heads of Christian Faith and Practice Which should serve for the standing Doctrine of Protestants As for the Place of this Assembly he thought England the fittest in respect of Safety as the Affairs of Christendom then stood And communicating this his purpose to the King that Religious Prince was very ready to grant his Allowance and Protection And as Helvetia France and Germany were the chief Countries abroad where the Gospel was prosessed so he sent his Letters to the most eminent Ministers of each namely to Bullinger Calvin and Melancthon disclosing this his pious Design to them and requiring their Counsel and Furtherance Melancthon first of all came acquainted with it by Iustus Ionas junior to whom the Arch-bishop had related the Matter at large and desired him to signify as much in a Letter to the said Melancthon and that it was his Request to him to communicate his Judgment thereupon This Ionas did and Melancthon accordingly writ to our Arch-bishop on the Calends of May this Year to this purpose That if his Judgment and Opinion were required he should be willing both to hear the Sense of other Learned Men and to speak his own and to give his Reasons 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Perswading and being perswaded as ought to be in a Conference of good Men letting Truth and the Glory of God and the Safety of the Church not any private Affection ever carry away the Victory Telling him withal That the more he considered of this his Deliberation than which he thought there could be nothing set on foot more Weighty and Necessary the more he wish'd and pressed him to publish such a true and clear Confession of the whole Body of Christian Doctrine according to the Judgment of Learned Men whose Names should be subscribed thereto That among all Nations there might be extant an illustrious Testimony of Doctrine delivered by grave Authority and
State And lastly that the Hospitals impoverish'd or wholly beggar'd might by his means be remedied and helped by the King's Council that they might revert to their former Condition that is to succour and help the Poor He urged moreover to Cecyl that the destruction of Schools would be the destruction of the Universities and that all Learning would soon cease and Popery and more than Gothic Barbarism would invade all if Learned Men were not better taken care of than they were and if the Rewards of Learning viz. Rectories Prebends and all were taken away from them This Man had also freely discoursed these Matters to two other great and publick-spirited Men viz. Goodrich the Lord Chancellor who was Bishop of Ely and Holgate Arch-bishop of York To both whom he had also given the Names of a great many Schools Parsonages and Hospitals that had undergon this sacrilegious Usage And he particularly mentioned to Cecyl a Town not far from Cambridg called Childerlay where a Gentleman had pulled down all the Houses in the Parish except his own And so there being none to frequent the Church the Inhabitants being gone he used the said Church partly for a Stable for his Horses and partly for a Barn for his Corn and Straw This Letter of Wilson to the Secretary together with his Arguments against pilling the Church subjoined I have thought worthy preserving in the Repository for such Monuments in the Appendix But to return from this Digression which Calvin's Censure of our Arch-bishop occasioned And when in the Year 1551 he dispatched into England one Nicolas that Nicolas Gallasius I suppose who was afterward by Calvin recommended to be Minister to the French Congregation in London at the desire of Grindal Bishop of London that he would send over some honest able Person for that Place with Letters to the Duke of Somerset and likewise to the King to whom he presented also at the same time his Book of Commentaries upon Esay and the Canonical Epistles which he had Dedicated to him both the King's Council and the King himself were much pleased and satisfied with this Message And the Arch-bishop told Nicolas That Calvin could do nothing more profitable to the Church than to write often to the King The substance of what he wrote to the King that was so well taken was to excite and sharpen the generous Parts of the Royal Youth as Calvin hinted in a Letter to Bullinger CHAP. XXVI The Arch-bishop highly valued Peter Martyr AS for the Learned Italian Peter Martyr who is worthy to be mentioned with Melancthon and Calvin there was not only an Acquaintance between him and our Arch-bishop but a great and cordial Intimacy and Friendship For of him he made particular use in the Steps he took in our Reformation And whensoever he might be spared from his Publick Readings in Oxford the Arch-bishop used to send for him to confer with him about the weightiest Matters This Calvin took notice of and signified to him by Letter how much he rejoiced that he made use of the Counsels of that excellent Man And when the Reformation of the Ecclesiastical Laws was in effect wholly devolved upon Cranmer he appointed him and Gualter Haddon and Dr. Rowland Tayler his Chaplain and no more to manage that Business Which shews what an Opinion he had of Martyr's Abilities and how he served himself of him in Matters of the greatest Moment And in that bold and brave Challenge he made in the beginning of Queen Mary's Reign to justify against any Man whatsoever every Part of King Edward's Reformation he nominated and made choice of Martyr therein to be one of his Assistants in that Disputation if any would undertake it with him This Divine when he was forced to leave Oxford upon the Change of Religion retreated first to the Arch-bishop at Lambeth and from thence when he had tarried as long as he durst he departed the Realm to Strasburgh This Man was he that saw and reported those voluminous Writings of this Arch-bishop which he had collected out of all the Antient Church-Writers upon all the Heads of Divinity and those Notes of his own Pen that he had inserted in the Margin of his Books Which the Arch-bishop communicated to him when he conversed with him at his House And from these and such-like of the Arch-bishop's Labours he acknowledged he had learned much especially in the Doctrine of the Sacrament as he writ in his Epistle before his Tract of the Encharist The Fame of Peter Martyr and the Desire of preserving all Remains of so Learned a Professor and great an Instrument of the Reformed Religion hath inclined me to put two of his Letters into the Appendix though otherwise not to our present Purpose being Originals writ by his own Hand from Oxon. The one to Iames Haddon a learned Court-Divine and Dean of Exon to procure a Licence from the King or the Council for a Friend and Auditor of his to preach publickly The other to Sir William Cecyl to forward the paiment of a Salary due to him that read the Divinity-Lecture in the Room of Dr. Weston a Papist who had claimed it himself and laboured to detain it from him I cannot forbear mentioning here an Instance of his Love and great Concern for our Arch-bishop his old Friend and Patron after the Iniquity of the Times had parted them the one then in Prison and the other at Strasburgh It was in Iune 1555 when Queen Mary supposing her self with Child was reported to have said in her Zeal That she could never be happily brought to Bed nor succeed well in any other of her Affairs unless she caused all the Hereticks she had in Prison to be burnt without sparing so much as One. Which Opinion very likely the Bishop of Winchester or some other of her Zelotical Chaplains put into her Head This Report coming to Martyr's Ears afflicted him greatly not only for the Destruction that was like suddenly to befal many Holy Professors but more especially for the imminent Hazard he apprehended that great and publick Person the Arch-bishop to be in Which made him express himself in this manner in a Letter to Peter Alexander to whom that most Reverend Father had also formerly been a kind Host and Patron That from those Words of the Queen he might discover that my Lord of Canterbury was then in great Danger CHAP. XXVII The Arch-bishop's Favour to John Sleidan TO all these Learned and religious Outlandish-Men to whom the Arch-bishop was either a Patron or a Friend or both we must not forget to join Iohn Sleidan the renowned Author of those exact Commentaries of the State of Religion and the Common-wealth in Germany in the time of Charles V. About the end of March Anno 1551 He procured for him from King Edward an Honorary Pension of two hundred Crowns a Year as some Aid for the carrying on his
losing of Promotion nor hope of Gain or winning of Favour could move him to relent or give place unto the Truth of his Conscience As experience thereof well appeared as well in defence of the true Religion against the Six Articles in the Parliament as in that he offered to combate with the Duke of Northumberland in K. Edward's Time speaking then on behalf of his Prince for the staying of the Chauntries until his Highness had come unto lawful Age and that especially for the maintenance of his better State then But if at his Prince's Pleasure in case of Religion at any time he was forced to give place that was done with such humble Protestation and so knit up for the safeguard of his Faith and Conscience that it had been better his Good-will had never been requested than so to relent or give over as he did Which most dangerously besides sundry times else he especially attempted when the Six Articles past by Parliament and when my L. Crumwel was in the Tower At what time the Book of Articles of our Religion was new penned For even at that Season the whole Rabblement which he took to be his Friends being Commissioners with him forsook him and his Opinion and Doctrine And so leaving him Post alone revolted altogether on the part of Stephen Gardiner Bishop of Winchester As by Name Bishop Hethe Shaxton Day and all other of the meaner sort By whom these so named were chiefly advanced and preferred unto Dignities And yet this sudden Inversion notwithstanding God gave him such Favour with his Prince that Book altogether past by his Assertion against all their Minds More to be marvelled at the Time considered than by any Reason to compass how it should come to pass For then would there have been laid thousands of Pounds to Hundreds in London that he should before that Synod had been ended have been shut up in the Tower beside his Friend the Lord Crumwel Howbeit the King's Majesty having an assured and approved affiance of his both deep Knowledg in Religion and Fidelity both to God and Him suspected in that time other Men in their Judgments not to walk uprightly nor sincerely For that some of them swerved from their former Opinions in Doctrine And having great experience of the constancy of the Lord Cranmer it drave him all along to join with the said Lord Cranmer in the confirmation of his Opinion and Doctrin against all the rest to their great Admiration For at all Times when the King's Majesty would be resolved in any Doubt or Question he would but send word to my Lord over Night and by the next Day the King would have in writing brief Notes of the Doctors Minds as well Divines as Lawyers both Old and New with a Conclusion of his own Mind Which he could never get in such a readiness of any no not of all his Chaplains and Clergy about him in so short a Time For being thorowly seen in all kinds of Expositors he could incontinently lay open thirty forty sixty or more some whiles of Authors And so reducing the Notes of them altogether would advertise the King more in one Day than all his Learned Men could do in a Month. And it was no mervail for it was well known that commonly if he had not Business of the Prince's or special urgent Causes before him he spent three parts of the Day in Study as effectually as he had done at Cambridg And therefore it was that the King said on a time to the Bishop of Winchester the King and my said Lord of Winchester defending together that the Canons of the Apostles were of as good Authority as the four Evangelists contrary to my Lord Cranmer's Assertion My Lord of Canterbury said the King is too old a Truant for us twain Again His Estimation was such with his Prince that in Matters of great Importance wherein no Creature durst once move the King for fear of Displeasure or moving the King's Patience or otherwise for troubling his Mind then was my Lord Cranmer most violently by the whole Council obtruded and thrust out to undertake that Danger and Peril in Hand As beside many other times I remember twice he served the Council's Expectation The first time was when he staied the King 's determinate Mind and Sentence in that he fully purposed to send the Lady Mary his Daughter unto the Tower and there to suffer as a Subject because She would not obey the Laws of the Realm in refusing the Bishop of Rome's Authority and Religion Whose stay in that behalf the King then said unto the Lord Cranmer would be to his utter Confusion at the length The other dangerous Attempt was in the disclosing the unlawful Behaviour of Queen Katharine Howard towards the King in keeping unlawful Company with Durrant her Servant For the King's Affection was so mervailously set upon that Gentlewoman as it was never known that he had the like to any Woman So that no Man durst take in Hand to open to him that Wound being in great perplexity how he would take it And then the Council had no other Refuge but unto my Lord Cranmer Who with over-much Importunity gave the Charge which was done with such Circumspection that the King gave over his Affections unto Reason and wrought mervellous colourably for the Trial of the same Now as concerning the Manner and Order of his Hospitality and House-keeping As he was a Man abandoned from all kind of Avarice so was he content to maintain Hospitality both liberally and honourably and yet not surmounting the Limits of his Revenues Having more respect and foresight unto the Iniquity of the Times being inclined to pull and spoil from the Clergy than to his own private Commodity For else if he had not so done he was right sure that his Successors should have had as much Revenues left unto them as were left unto the late Abbies Especially considering that the Lands and Revenues of the said Abbies being now utterly consumed and spread abroad and for that there remained no more Exercise to set on work or no Officers but Surveyors Auditors and Receivers it was high time to shew an Example of liberal Hospitality For although these said Workmen only brought up and practised in subverting of Monastical Possessions had brought that kind of Hospitality unto utter Confusion yet ceased they not to undermine the Prince by divers Perswasions for him also to overthrow the honourable State of the Clergy And because they would lay a sure Foundation to build their Purpose upon they found the Means to put into the King's Head That the Arch-bishop of Canterbury kept no Hospitality or House correspondent unto his Revenues and Dignity but sold his Woods and by great Incomes and Fines made Money to purchase Lands for his Wife and Children And to the intent that the King should with the more facility believe this Information Sir Thomas Seymor the
trouble And how safe we be in religion when al quietnes is acquired you Wisdome canne consider Our late Soveraine Lord was wont to say which I never forget speaking of himself man had not looked to the Pacification He saw men dâ—sirous to set forth their own fancies which he thought to have excluded by his Pacification If your G. would say to me now that I wasted moch speche in vaine and declared therby I had to much laysor to write so moch in this matier as though I feared that nedeth not to be feared for your G. hath commaunded our late Soveraine Lords book to be redde and mindeth nothing now but oonly Omylies wherin your G. wold I shuld write Which to do wer neyther gret payne ne hardnesse to me and I might as soon wryte an Homilie as these letters As for the facilite of the matier of wryting or wryting by not traverse But then I consider what contraversie may arise in wryting As for example for seing I have laysor to wryte I wil forget what laysor your G. hath to rede if I should make an Homily De vita perfecta I wolde note two parts Oon of life Another of perfiteness For the grownde of the oon I wolde take S Iohn Misit Deus silium suum ut vivamus per eum And for the other Estote perfecti sicut pater vester c. In Declaration of Life I wolde take occasion to speke of Faith the gift of entre to life and of Charite the very gift of Life which who hath not remaineth in detâ—e And therfore S. Iames said Fides sine operibus mortua est Not expounding that so as though Faith without Charite were no Faith as we say a dead man is no man For I wolde wish the people in any wise to beware of that fashion of teaching and such a sophistical understanding of S. Iames and for detection therof declare that deth conteyneth not alwayes a denyal of the thing dead not to be but oonly wher the name of the thing noted now dead conteyned before in it a signification of life As the word man signifyeth a body living and thenne it is truly said that a dead man is no man no more thenne a paynted man But Faith signifieth not alwayes a Life in it For Devils have Faith without life And when we speke of ded faith it is like as when ye speke of a body indeed without life but apt and mete to receyve life As spawne is a body without life and dead but mete to receyve life with convenient circumstance And then we say not that a body dead is no body And therfore we may not say that a dead Faith is no Faith After which understanding we shuld make S. Iames to treate whether no faith might justify a man or no Which were a cold matier And yet so must we say if we wil expound this saying that a dead faith is no faith And in this poynt I wold in my Homily De Vita be most ernest to shew that in charity is life wherunto Faith is thentre Which faith without charite is not noo faith but dead And therfore God that geveth al life geveth with faith charite Wherof I wold make the moo words in the Homily bicause the handling of S. Iames in the other sophistical interpretation is an entre to unwholsome doctrine And if your G. wold say What of this or to what purpose shuld it be wryten to you that myndeth no such matier Surely for nothing but bicause I have plenty of leasour and wryte as though I talked with you And that not al in vaine for that I have hertofor harde of other whom I have harde moch glory in that exposition to say S. Iames meaneth that dead faith is no faith even as a dead man is no man Which by my saye is overfar out of the way and yet myn Omylie might in such an Homiler and company of Omylies encontre with oon of the trade I have spoken of and bring forth matier of contention and altercation without al frute or edification And thus much for example of trouble in Homylies Which these five yeres have rested without any busines and the people wel doon their dueties I trust to God in heven and know wel to ther Soverain Lord in yerth And our Soverain Lord that governed them without these Omylies goen to heven whether I trust we and the people shal go after although we trouble them with noo Homilies Which shal hardly be so accumulate ex diversis tractatibus with diverse fashion of wryting diverse phrase of speches diverse conceits in teachings diverse ends per case entended as some wil construe The rest is wanting NUM XXXVI Gardiner Bishop of Winton to the Duke of Somerset concerning the Book of Homilies and Erasmus Paraphrase englished AFter my most humble Commendations unto your Good Lp. with hearty thanks that it hath pleased you to be content to hear from me Wherein now I have liberty to write at large to you I cannot find the like gentleness in my body to spend so much time as I would And therfore I shal now desire your G. to take in good part tho I gather my matter in brief sentences The Injunctions in this last Visitation contain a commandment to se taught and learned two books One of Homilies that must be taught another of Erasmus Paraphrasis that the Priests must learn These Books strive one against another directly The Book of the Homilies teacheth Faith to exclude charity in the office of Justification Erasmus Paraphrasis teacheth Faith to have charity joyned with him in Justification The Book of Homilies teacheth how men may swear The Paraphrasis teacheth the contrary very extremely The Book of Homilies teacheth how Subjects owe tribute to their Prince and obedience very wel The Book of the Paraphrase in a place upon S. Poule violently and against al truth after it hath spoken of duties to Heathen Princes knitteth the matter up untruly that between the Christen men at Rome to whom he writeth which is a Lesson to al there should be no debt or right but mutual charity Which is a marvailous matter The Book of Homilies in another place openeth the Gospel one way The Paraphrase openeth it clean contrary The matter is not great but because there is contrariety Now to consider each of the aforesaid Books The Book of H. in the sermon of Salvation teacheth the clean contrary to the doctrin established by the Act of Parlament even as contrary as Includeth is contray to Excludeth For these be the words of the Doctrin established by Parlament where in a certain place Faith doth not exclude The doctrin of the Parlament speaketh how they be joyned in Justification The Homilies speak the vertues to be present in the man justified and how Faith excludes them in the office of Justification Which can never be proved and is in the mean time contrary to the Act. The Book of
H. hath in the H. of Salvation how remission of sins is taken accepted and allowed of God for our perfect Justification The Doctrin of the Parlament teacheth Justification for the fulness and perfection therof to have more parts then Remission of sins as in the same appeareth And tho Remission of sins be a justification yet it is not a full and perfect The Book of H. numbreth the hallowing of bread Palmes and Candles among Papistical superstitions and abuses The Doctrin of the Parlament willeth them to be reverendly used And so do the Injunctions now set forth Which made me think the Printer might thrust in an Homily of his own devise The book of H. hath words of S. Chrâ—sâ—stom aâ—ledged untruly and not after suâ—h a sort as might scape by over sight but of purpose As calling that Faith which Chrysostom calleth Hope And in place of one Sentence putteth another which should better serve the purpose of the Maker of the Homilies Now if one would reason with me that Chrysostom meant this I would deny it him as I may But I may afâ—â—rm that Chrysostom saith Not. It is but a defamation of the trâ—th And under such a Princes name as our Soveraign Lord is whose tongue in this so pure innocency hath not been defiled with any untruth I assure you I thought there was not so great hast in Homilies but they might have tarried the printing even for that only cause Truth is able to â—aintain it self and needeth no help of untrue allegations It serves only for enemies to take advantage All which i. e. Enemies use to be câ—rious to know what they may reprove And now al the eyes and ears of the World be turned towards us And as they shal have cause to talk honorably of your valiantness in the wars so they talk otherwise of that that is done in your absence if any thing be amisâ— Now I shal shew your Grace what author Erâ—smus is to be by name and special Commandment had in credit in this realm If he be to be believed the doctrin of Only Faith justifieth is a very poâ—son And he writeth by expres termes and calleth this another poâ—â—on to dâ—ny punishment in Purgatory after this life And another poison to deny the Invocâ—tion of Saints and worshipping of them And this he cal eth a poison to say We need no satisfactory works for that were to mistrust Christ Erasmus in another place conferring the state of the Church in the beginning and now he concludeth that if S. Paul were alive at this daâ— he would not improve i. e. disallow the present state of the Church but cry out of mens faults This is Erasmus judgment in his Latter daâ—es His Work the Paraphrasis which should be authorized in the Realm Which he wrot above six and twenty years ago when his pen was wanton the matter is so hauled as being abroad in 〈…〉 were able to minister occasion to evil men to subvert with religiâ—n the policy and order of the Realm These be the general words the uttering whereof to your Grace in the place you occupy were a great fault unless I would shew ye good ground and truth why to say so And therefore I am glad I do rather write to you then to have come and spake with you because my words in number might fly away whereas written words remain to be read again First as concerning the Policy and state of the Realm Whersoever Erasmus might take an occasion to speak his pleasure of Princes he payeth home as roundly as Bishops have been of late touched in pleas And such places of Scripture as we have used to allege for the state of Princes he wresteth and windeth them so as if the people read them and believed him they would afterward smaâ— regard that allegation of them And if Erasmus did truly and that the Scripture bound him so to say it were more tolerable For truth must have place but when it is done in some place untruly and in some plâ—ce wantonly to check that estimate it can be no good doctrin among people that should obey And this book of Paraphrasis is not like the other expositions of Scripture where the Author speaketh in his own person For Erasmus taketh upon him the Evangelists persons and Christs person and enterpriseth to fit up Christs tale and his words As for example where the Gospel rehearseth Christs speech when he said Give to the Emperor that is the Emperors By which speech we gather and truly gather that Christ confessed the Emperor to have a duty Erasmus writes it with an IF after this sort IF there be any thing due to them Which condition Christ put not to it but spake plainly Give to Cesar the things which are Cesars and unto God the things that are Gods And I write the very words of the Paraphrasis as they be in English for I have the book with me And so shal no man say that I misreport the book The words be these Render therfore unto Cesar if any things appertain unto Cesar. But first of al render unto God the things that appertain unto God Meaning that it is no hurt unto Godlines if a man being dedicate unto God do give tribute unto a prophane prince altho he ought it not These be the words in the book ordered to be set forth Wherin what needeth Erasmus to bring in doubt the duty when God putteth no doubt at al. It were too long to write to your Grace every fault This one I put for example where Erasmus doth corrupt Christs words with a condition which Christ spake not The other places of raylings would encumber your Grace overmuch But as I write your Grace shal find true that whatsoever might be spoke to defame Princes government is not left unspoken Bishops be more gently handled Erasmus maketh them very Kings of the Gospel and calleth the true Kings of the World Profane Kings Bishops have the sword he saith of God given that is to say the Gospel Profane Princes as he calleth them have a sword committed unto them and by Homer he saith be called Pastors of the people This matter is within the compas of the Paraphrasis if it be not left out with a commendation also of Thomas Becket of Canterbury in excommunicating the King of the realm that then was by implication for the manor of Oxford which the King as he rehearseth then withheld It may be the Translator would have left this out But Erasmus pen in those dayes was very light Moreover them Erasmus teacheth that between Christen men is no debt or right but Charity It is a mervailous matter towards the dissolution of laws and duties And therin Erasmus doth violate Gods scripture and saith not true Thus far is the doctrin pernitious for common policy Nevertheles if he had said true let the truth prevail but the truth is not so As touching Religion in this work of Paraphrasis it is so wantonly I
secum deferat Atque ita Communionem in domo Aegrotantis administret Qua in re id me offendit quòd ibi non repetunt quae praecipuè ad coenam Domini pertinent cumque ut tu quoque sentis arbitror verba coenae magis ad homines quam aut ad panem aut ad vinum pertinere Monui omnino mihi videri ut coram aegroto simul cum eo communicantibus omnia quae ad coenam Domini necessariò requiruntur dicantur agantur Et sane mirandum est quomodo ea conspectu aegroti verba dicere graventur cui maximè utilia sunt cum inutiliter eadem repetere velint quando inter communicandum in Templo vinum in poculo deficere contigerit cum homines qui adsunt sacramenta sumunt illa jam audiverint Haec sunt quae putavi alicujus momenti cur omiseris non satis intelligo In omnibus autem quae censuisti emendanda tuae sententiae scripsi Et gratias Deo ago qui occasionem suppeditavit ut de his omnibus Episcopi per nos admonerentur Conclusum jam est in hoc eorum Colloquio quemadmodum mihi retulit Reverendissimus ut multa immutentur Sed quaenam illa sint quae consenserint emendanda neque ipse mihi exposuit neque ego de illo quaerere ausus sum Verum hoc non me parum recreat quod mihi D. Checus indicavit si noluerint ipsi ait efficere ut quae mutanda sint mutentur Rex per seipsum id saciet cum ad Parliamentum ventum suerit ipse suae Majestatis authoritatem interponet De Wintoniensi jam actio quarta in judicio habita est neque dum respondet alio spectat quam ut se a Contumacia purget Verba ejus a Papisticis hominibus ut docta acuta praedicantur a veris autem sanis judicibus vafra subdola alienâ— a causa ut uno verbo dicam sophistica Quod mihi etiam â—it verisimile cum illum in rebus Theologicis non aliter agere animadverterim Verum quicquld sit causa omninò existimatur casurus Quae de Hoppero ad me scribis non potuerunt non videri mira Certè illis auditis obstupui Sed bene habet quod Episcopi meas literas viderunt unde invidia ego quidem sum liberatus Et illius causa sic jacet ut me ioribus pijs nequaquam probetur Dolet dolet inquam mihi gravissimè talia inter Evangelij professores contingere Ille toto hoc tempore cum illi sit interdicta concio non videtur posse quiescere suae sidei confessionem edidit qua rursus multorum animos exacerbavit Deinde queritur de Consiliarijs fortasse quod mihi non refertur de nobis Deus selicem Catastrophen non laetis actibus imponat Doctor Smithus quondam Oxonij Professor qui me de votis Monasticis praeterita jam aestate lacessivit nunc librum Anglicè scripâ—um contra Dominum Cantuariensem edidiâ— de re Sacramentariâ— De quo cum lingua mihi sit ignota nequeo judicare Sed tamen sensum ejus ineptias brevi cognoscam Nam scribit se etiam sub prelo habere quaâ— contra me de eadem re composuit Quanquam haec ego vel parum vel nihâ—â— moâ—or cum a Satanae atque Papae Mancipijs nihil nisi mendacia expectem Peccata nostra me terrent atque pertenuis Evangelij fructus Necnon ex altera parte Caesaris Successus quem Severissimam Dei virgam esse video Et inter haec mala nostris Peregrinorum ecclesijs vacat nugari Est enim inter illas de Templo a Rege concesso exorta magna contentio adeoque sunt animi eorum implacabiles eò exarserunt ut eorum dissidium per Concilium Regium sit dirimendum Precor Deuâ— ut res non malè juxta merita cadat Multo antea voluissem discedere sed hodie tandem abeundi facultatem impetravi Scriptum tuum Petro Alexandro tradam ut id tibi cum ipsum perlegerit remittat Tibi vero interim omnibus tuis cuncta salutaria felicia precor unà cum Iulio qui vos plurimum salvere jubet 10 Jan. 1551. Ad Lambeth Tuus in Christo Petrus Martyr Clarissimo eruditissimo D.D. Martino Bucero Theologâ—ae Professori regio mihi plurimum observando Cantabrigiae NUM LXII The Archbishops letter to procure Wolf the Printer a licence to publish his Book AFter my veray hertie commendations Thies be to signify unto you that Rayner Wolf at my desire hath fully fynyshed the printing of my Book for answer to the late Bishop of Winchesters written against myn of the Doctrine of the Sacrament And forasmuche as both printing and selling of any matiers in thenglishe tounge is prohibited by a Proclamation set furthe onles the same matier be first allowed by the Kings Majestie or vi of his Majesties privey Counsail as you shal more plainly perceyve by the Proclamation which herewith I send unto you Therfor I hertily pray you to be a Sutor to the kings Majestie or to the privye Counsail that Mr. Rayner may have licence for the printing and selling of my said Book accordingly And the same so obtained to send me with convenient spede For in the begynning of the Terme I thinck it wer veray necessary to be set furthe for the contentation of many which have had long expectation of the same Assone as I shal receyve advertisement whan the Kings Majestie wil be at Hampton courte I wil come thither to see his Grace and do my duty towards the same Thus fare ye hertily wel From my Mannour at Croydon the xxix of September 1551. Your Lovynge Frende T. Cant. To my veray lovynge freendes Mr. Cecill one of the Kings Majesties two principal Secretaries Or to Mr. Cheeke NUM LXIII Articles wherunto Wylliam Phelps Pastor and Curate of Ceciter upon good advisement and deliberation after better knowledg geven by Gods grace and goodnes unto him hath subscribed consented and aggreed willingly without force compulsion and all maner of impulsion and is willing and desirous to set forth the same to his parishoners for the better edifying of them and declaration of his new aggreement to Gods verite and holy word FIrst That the holy word of God doth acknowledg confess maintaine avouch hold and defend that in the holy Sacrament and Communion of Christs precious body and bloud the very substance matter nature and condition of bread and wine do remain after the words as they be commonly called of Consecration as verily and truly as they were in substance and matter bread and wine before Although that the use of the bread and wine in the Sacrament be changed For whereas before it was common bread and common wine nâ—w by the virtue of Gods word it is made the Sacrament of the precious body and bloud of Christ and a Seal confirmation and
of grace of repentaunce hymself wold draw al other to his dampnation and dissuadeth al retorne to grace This your charitie yow now show to your contrie which as I said hitherto is very vengeaunce of God toward yow Of the which this great blyndnes gyveth a great testimonie that yow show in your lettre writeng of thise thynges as though yow had never knowledge what had been done in the realme afore your tyme nor what was the state of your time nor yet what is the state of the realm at this present bryngeng for a great inconvenient that if the Parlament shuld accept the lawes of the Pope thei shuld be constrayned to repeal those that were done against his lawes and authoritie As though this were not so done already And showeng so great ignoraunce both touching the doctrine of the church and in this â—oyncte touching the Popes authoritie and the experience of the custome of the realm yet yow conclude that ignoraunce might excuse other men how prejudicyal the canon lawes be to the wealth of the realm if thei wold accept the same But you cannot be excused by ignoraunce And seeing in this the very trouthe that ignoraunce cannot excuse yow as in trouthe it cannot being of that kynde it is But if that do not excuse you then malice doith condempne yow Which is the very cause to bring you to ignoraunce inexcusable both in this poincte of the authoritie of the Pope as in the doctrine of the Sacrement Wherin it is no lesse monstrous And this yow show most where yow think to speak with lesse obstinacy As where yow say that if thei that follow the Popes doctrine hereiâ— could bryng in but one old auncyent Doctor of the Church of their opinion you have offred afore as yow offer yet to gâ—ve place unto them and to consent to the same What a proffe is this to show your profound blyndnes If there be no let but this because yow see not of the old Doctors at the least one that were against yowr opinion in the defence of the Popes doctrine other men seeing so many and not one auncient approved doctor that ever dissented what a wonderful blyndnes is this not to see one against yow For this is playne when the Pope showeth his sence and doctrine in this Article he doith not speak thereof as of an Article that he himself hath newly found nor yet ony of his predecessours but that al hath uniformally received one of another of their fathers unto the Apostles tyme and they of Christ. Which argument is so strong so evident to the condempnation of your opinion and confirmatyon of the Popes that manie sage and learned men writing against the opinion yow follow being diverse sortes of arguments to confound the same set apart al form of reasoneng and onelie stick upon the testimony and uniforme consent of al the old Doctors of the Church to this day Which testimonies be so meny that they fyll up great books as amongst other my Lord of Durham at this present in his book written of this matter taketh this way to ground hymself most apon the perpetual consent of the old Doctors continuing unto this age and al against your opinion Which book is abrode and hath been seen of yow Then if yee wil think him of so smal judgment or knowledge that in such a nombre as he bringeth there is not one that maketh to his purpose but al for your purpose whom he entendeth to oppugne other this must prove a wonderful blyndnes in hym and not in hym alone but in so menie learned men that taketh the same way or ells in yow that amongst so menye testimonies som more clerer then som not to see so moche as one alone this is an evydent proff that yee be stark blynd For if yee were not if it were but one brought furth unto yow as is mentioned in that book the condempnation of Berengarius that was of your opinion and that done by a General Councel of all the Nations in Chrystendom growndeng it self upon the uniform doctrine of their forefathers Were not this enough yf yow had yies to see to show that more then one old Doctor were of the Popes doctrin And if this be not sufficyent proff unto yow the same being enough to Berengarius hymself which was converted therby and persuaded to recant his opinion what doth this show but that he was not utterly blynded but that he saw some testimonie against hym yow utterly to have lost al syght that se not so moch as one But of this your monstrous blyndnes I mervell the less the more I see the same to procede of the very justice and wrath of God against yow with whom yow mocking on that maner as yow showed in comyng in such a high place in service of the church as was to be Archbishop and Primate of the Realm as to swere in dolo not onlye Proximo but Vniversae Ecclesiae Wylleng afterward to pervert the old order of the churche which yow called a Reformation me semeth to here the very words and curse of S. Paul that lighted upon the false Prophet Bariesu letting the coorse of the doctrine Evangelical preached by hym when he then curseng hym said O! plene omni malo omni fallaciâ fili diaboli inimice omnis justitiae non desinis pervertere vias Domini rectas Et ecce nunc manus Domini super te eris caecus non videns solem usque ad tempus The effect of this I do see hath lighted upon yow for entreng by deceit to be a chieff Doctour in the church perverteng Vias Domini rectas to be blynded I pray God it be but ad tempus But hitherto I have not known a more deaper blyndnes And if that was ponnyshment of that false prophet to lese his corporal syght for a tyme that being an infidelle for very ignoraunce did put obstacle to the very trew doctrine of the faith never hard of afore to be blynded corporallie for a tyme yow that first knew the doctrine and preached the same which afterward yow do pervert if yow were stricken with a gretter and more notable blyndnes the which yow show now this is evident to come of the verie hond of god which mans hond cannot heale but only the hond of god that justlie ponnyshed yow therewithal And the sorer and more desperate cure is of this your blyndnes the more yow acquyett your self therein as though yow had a great gift of light above al other For so yow show in your lettres persuadeng your self to have found a way in teacheng the doctrine of the Sacrament of the aulter that other hath not seen Which is to take away the absurdity both to the sence and reason of man that is in the catholick doctrine toucheng the Sacrement of the aulter as yow say in that forme of bread and wyne to be the verie trew real presence of the body of Christ and that it is
world it is not for mee to read the Scriptures that belongeth to them that have bidden the world farewel which live in solitarines and contemplation and have been brought up and continually nursilled in Learning and religion To this answering What sayest thou Man saith hee is it not for thee to study and to read the Scripture because thou art encumbred and distract with cares and business So much the more is it behoofful for thee to have defence of Scriptures how much thou art the more distressed in worldly dangers They that bee free and far from trouble and intermedling of worldly things Live in safeguard and tranquillity and in the calm and within a sure haven Thou art in the midst of the Sea of worldly wickednes and therefore thou needest the more of ghostly succour and comfort They sit far from the strokes of battaile and far out of gun-shot and therfore they bee but seldome wounded Thou that standest in the forefront of the Host and nighest to thine enemies must needs take now and then many strokes and bee grievously wounded and therefore thou hast most need to have thy remedies and medicines at hand Thy Wife provoketh thee to anger thy Child giveth thee occasion to take sorrowand pensiveness thine enemies ly in wait for thee thy friend as thou takest him Sometime envieth thee thy neighbour misreporteth thee or piketh quarrels against thee thy Mate or partner undermineth thee thy Lord Judge or Justice threatneth thee Poverty is painful unto thee the loss of thy dear and welbeloved causeth thee to mourn Prosperity exalteth thee Adversity bringeth thee low Briefly so divers and so manifold occasions of cares tribulations and temptations beset thee and besiege thee round about Where canst thou have armour or fortress against thine assaults Where canst thou have salves for thy sores but of holy Scripture Thy flesh must needs be prone and subject to fleshly lusts which daily walkest and art conversant among women seest their beautyes set forth to the ey hearest their nice and wanton words smellest their balm civet and musk with other like provocations and stirrings Except thou hast in a readiness wherewith to suppress and avoyd them which cannot elsewhere bee had but onely out of the holy Scriptures Let us read and seek all remedies that wee can and all shall bee little enough How shal wee then do if wee suffer and take daily wounds and when wee have done wil sit still and search for no medicines Dost thou not mark and consider how the Smith Mason or Carpenter or any other handy craftes man what need soever hee bee in what other shift hee make hee will not sell nor lay to pledg the tools of his occupation For then how should hee work his feat or get his living thereby Of like mind and affection ought wee to bee towards holy Scripture For as mallets hammers sawes chesells axes and hatchets bee the tools of their occupation So bee the Books of the Prophets and Apostles and all holy Writers inspired by the holy Ghost the instruments of our Salvation Wherefore let us not stick to buy and provide us the Bible that is to say the Books of holy Scripture and let us think that to bee a better jewel in our house then either gold or silver For like as thieves bee loth to assault an house where they know to bee good armour and artillery so wheresoever these holy and ghostly books be occupied there neither the Devil nor none of his Angels dare come neer And they that occupy them bee in much safeguard and have a great consolation and bee the readier unto all goodness the slower unto all evil And if they have done any thing amiss anon even by the sight of the books their consciences bee admonished and they wax sorry and ashamed of the fact Peradventure they wil say unto mee How and if wee understand not that wee read that is contained in the Books What then suppose thou understand not the deep and profound Mysteries of Scripture yet can it not bee but that much fruit and holines must come and grow unto thee by the reading For it cannot bee that thou shouldest bee ignorant in al things alike For the holy Ghost hath so ordered and attempered the Scriptures that in them as wel Publicans fishers and sheepherds may find their edification as great Doctors their erudition For those books were not made to vain glory like as were the Writings of the Gentile Philosophers and Rhetoricians to the intent the makers should bee had in admiration for their high stiles and obscure manner of writing wherof nothing can bee understanded without a Master or an Expositor But the Apostles and Prophets wrot their books so that their special intent and purpose might bee understanded and perceived of every reader which was nothing but the edification or amendment of the life of them that read or hear it Who is it that reading or hearing read in the Gospel Blessed are they that bee meek Blessed are they that bee merciful Blessed are they that bee of clean heart and such other like places can perceive nothing except hee have a Master to teach him what it meaneth Likewise the signs and miracles with al other histories of the doings of Christ or his Apostles who is there of so simple wit and capacity but hee may bee able to perceive and understand them These bee but excuses and clokes for the rain and coverings of their own idle slothfulnes But still ye wil say I cannot understand it What mervail How shouldest thou understand if thou wilt not read nor look upon it Take the books into thine hands read the whole story and that thou understandest keep it well in memory that thou understandest not read it again and again If thou can neither so come by it counsail with some other that is better Learned Go to thy Curate and Preacher shew thy self to bee desirous to know and learn And I doubt not but God seeing thy diligence and readines if no man else teach thee wil himself vouchsafe with his holy Spirit to illuminate thee and to open unto thee that which was locked from thee Remember the Eunuch of Candace Queen of Ethiopia which albeit hee was a man of a wild and barbarous country and one occupied with worldly cares and busines yet riding in his charet hee was reading the Scripture Now consider if this man passing in his journey was so diligent as to read the Scripture what thinkest thou of like was hee wont to do sitting at home Again hee letteth not to read albeit he did not understand What did hee then trowest thou after that when hee had learned and gotten understanding For that thou mayest wel know that he understood not what hee read harken what Philip saith there unto him Vnderstandest thou what thou readest And hee nothing ashamed to confess his ignorâ—nce answered How should I understand having no body to shew mee theâ—way Loe when hee lacked one
a Clergy was now in England He makes a heavy Complaint against the frequent practice of beastly sins in the Priests Adultery Sodomy c. and that they never were punished And in my memory as he proceeds which is above thirty years and also by the information of others that be twenty years older than I I could never learn that one Priest was punished These Exiles are a sort of men who generally write with Passion and Prejudice against their own Countrey so that ordinarily little more credit is to be given to their Information than to the Intelligence of Deserters from an Army I am sure he hath shamefully belied the Clergy of England in accusing them of the frequent practice of such beastly sins and then affirming that he could never learn that one Priest was punished for it in the space of fifty years before that time It is true that Crimes of Incontinence as such especially in the Clergy were then cognoscible and punishable only by the Ecclesiastical Law and in the Spiritual Courts but Rapes were then as well as now in Clergy-men as well as Lay-men tryable and punishable at Common-Law And of this the Laity took such malicious advantage immediately before the Reformation that they were wont to pretend all Acts and even Indications of Incontinence in Clergy-men to be so many Rapes and to Indict them as such Insomuch that scarce any Assizes or Sessions passed at that time wherein several Clergy-men were not Indicted of Rapes and a Jury of Lay-men Impannell'd to Try them who would be sure not to be guilty of shewing over-much favour to them in their Verdicts Neither was the Ecclesiastical Authority then so remiss as is pretended as not to have punished any one Priest for Incontinence within the space of fifty years before If I had my Papers by me I could produce Examples of many Incontinent Clergy-men punished and deprived by their Ordinaries within that time About this very time wherein this Preface was wrote Dr. Weston altho otherwise a man of great Note and Interest among the Popish Party was deprived of the Deanry of Windsor for a single Act of Incontinence and about twenty years before this Stokesly Bishop of London is by Iohn Bale reported to have deprived Iohn Lord Abbot of Colchester for an horrible Act of Incontinence Indeed I know Bale to have been so great a Lyar that I am not willing to take any thing of that kind upon his Credit however his Testimony may serve well enough against such another foul-mouth'd Writer as this E. P. seems to have been Ibid. line 11. ab imo The Archbishop supplied the City of Canterbury with store of Excellent Learned Preachers Turner the two Ridleys Becon c. Turner never was Preacher in Ordinary at Canterbury but at Chartham near Canterbury He is said indeed afterwards in this History to have been one of the Six Preachers of the Church of Canterbury which may be true yet to Preach there three or four Sermons in a year upon so many Holidays is not a sufficient ground to say that that City was supplied with such or such Preachers Page 164. in imo The University of Cambridge laboured under great suspicions of being spoiled of its Revenues she having observed how those of her Sister the Church were daily invaded by Secular hands The University hath ever been so dutiful as to own the Church to be her Mother Page 183. line 10. ab imo Farrar was Consecrated Bishop of St. Davids by Thomas Archbishop of Canterbury endued with his Pontificals The latter words are a Translation of Pontificalibus indutus which signifies no other than being Invested or Attired in his Episcopal Habit. Page 184. med Bishop Farrar hearing of great Corruption among those belonging to the Chapter of the Church of Carmarthen and chiefly Thomas Young Chanter after Archbishop of York c. I suppose the Chapter of the Church of St. Davids is here meant for there was no such Church at Carmarthen and Young was at this time Precentor of St. Davids Page 208. line 13. ab imo Bishop Ridley at his entrance upon the See of London was exceeding wary not to do his Predecessor Bonner the least injury but rather did many kindnesses to his Mother Servants and Relations he continued Bonner's Receiver one Staunton in his Place In this last case Ridley could not give any evidence of Kindness or Unkindness for Staunton held his Place of Receiver by Patent for life Page 224. med The Council sitting at Greenwich the Bishop's Gardiner of Winchester Servants came and desired that certain of them might be sworn upon certain Articles for Witness on his behalf And if they might not be sworn c. And they were allowed From this relation any Reader would imagine That the Bishop's Servants desired that themselves might be sworn in behalf of their Lord and Master whereas in the Council-Book from whence this Matter is reported it is plain that they desired that some of the Privy-Counsellors might be sworn or at least be obliged to declare upon their Honour what they knew of the matter then in question in favour of the Bishop Page 267. line 21. This Scory Bishop Elect of Rochester was at first preferred by the Archbishop to be one of the Six Preachers at Canterbury and always continued firm for the Purity of Religion and endured Trouble for it He was a Married man and so deprived at the beginning of Queen Mary's Reign fled beyond Sea c. Scory was so far from continuing always firm to the Purity of Religion that in the beginning of Queen Mary's Reign he reconciled himself to the See of Rome submitted himself to Bishop Bonner made a formal Recantation and did open Penance for his Marriage however afterwards he resumed his former Principles when he had got beyond Sea Page 270. line 17. ab imo All this I have related of this Divine Dr. Iohn Redman who died in 1551. that I may in some measure preserve the Memory of one of the Learnedest men of his time and lay up the Dying Words of a Papist signifying so plainly his dislike and disallowance of many of their Doctrines I cannot imagine why Dr. Redman should be accounted or called a Papist at the time of his Death who had all along lived and then died in the Communion of the Establish'd Church and had but little before joined with the Archbishop and other Bishops and Divines in compiling the Book of Common-Prayer If because he had once held the Popish Doctrines concerning Justification the Sacrament of the Altar c. with equal and for the same reason Cranmer himself and all the Bishops and Eminent Divines of that time may be called Papists Or if it was because he judged it unlawful for any Priest to marry a second time as is related page 157. he therein followed the Canons and received Doctrines of the Ancient Church and hath many Learned and Worthy Divines of our own Time and Church
Instructions to Goldwel Titus B. 2. Disgusts his stop Sends to Rome about this his stop And to the Emperor His Judgment of two late Acts of Parliament No. LXXV The married Clergy deprived and divorced Married Priests in London cited to appear Ex Regist. â—ccl Cant. Interrogatories for the married Clergy Turnor's Confession Ex Regist. Eccl. Cant. No. LXXV Boner deprives the married Clergy in London without order Married Prebendaries in Canterbury proceeded against Edmund Cranmer deprived of all Reg. Eccl. Cant. The Injustice of these Proceedings Martin's Book against Priests Marriage * Supposed to be Bp Ponet Wherein Winchester had the greatest Hand Declaration of Boner's Articles 1554. Thomas Martin or Winchester under that Name Fol. 15. Mr. Martin Winchester 's own Voice Fol. 40. Gardiner in his Book lately spread under the Name of Tho. Martin Fol. 77. Bale's Declar. Answered by Ponet The Confessions of the Married Priests Def. of Pr. Marr. p. 269. Married Priests that did their Penance hardly dealt with A twofold Evil upon this turn of Religion The Dissimulation of the Priests An. 1554. A Parliament restore the Pope A Design to revive the Six Articles No. LXXVI A Convocation appoint a Dispute with Cranmer at Oxford The Questions Sent to Cambridg No. LXXVII No. LXXVIII The Disputants of Oxford and Cambridg Cranmer brought before them His Behaviour Ridley brought And Latimer Cranmer brought to his Disputation His Notarieâ— Cranmer's Demands Cranmer disputes again The Papists undecent management of the Disputation In his Preface to his Account of his Dispute The Protestants glad of this Disputation Dr. Taylor to the three Fathers after their Disputations Ridley pens the Relation of his Disputation The University sends the Disputations up to the Convocation Various Copies of these Disputations Cranmer condemned for Heresy Cranmer writes to the Council No. â—XXIX Disputation intended at Cambridg In his Letter to Bradford Hoper's Letter Their Condition after Condemnation Their Imployment in Prison Letters of the Martyrs Other Works of Ridley in Prison The Queen's Letters directing the Elections of Parliament-men Pole comes over The Cardinal absolves Parliament and Convocation The Clergy again wait upon the Legate A Commission granted by him against Hereticks His Commissions to all the Bishops to reconcile their Diocesses The Commission to the Dean and Chapter of Canterbury No. LXXX The Legate's Instructions to the Bishops No. LXXXI Pole a severe Persecutor No. LXXXII A Convocation Articles presented to the Upper House Cranmer's Book to be burnt Intit Synodalia Hist. Ref. Vol. 2. Collect. p. 266 Men burnt to Death without Law Popery fully established Protestants The Pastors in Prison Free-Willers Bradford's concern with them No. LXXXIII His Kindness to them Bradford gaineth some of them Careless's Painâ— with them Martyrs Letters Philpot's Counsel Careless draws up a Confession of Faith Some few Arians The Prisoners offer to justify K. Edward's Proceedings No. LXXXIV And again offer it Edit 1610. p. 1348. The Exiles The Lutherans refuse to give Harbour to the Exiles Mart. Ep. p. 770. Ep. P. Martyr ad Calvin Anno 1555. The English at Wesel Bal. Praef. ad Act. Pontif. The Lutherans Heat against Sacramentaries At Zurick and other Places well received TheirEmployments Contentions at Frankford Some Children of the Exiles baptized by Lutherans Pieces of Ridley's Writings conveyed to Frankford Exiles at Basil. Divers of the Exiles Writers Scory Old Sampson Turner Iuel Becon Humfrey Traheron Fox His Acts and Monuments Books by him published in Exile Translates Cranmer's Book of the Sacrament into Latin Lever to Fox Foxii MSS. No. LXXXV Bale Knox. Foxe's MSS. How the Exiles subsisted Many recant No. LXXXVI The Persecution hot Tims Letter Gospellers go to Mass. Bradford labours to hinder it Counsels not to consort with them Tripart Hist. lib. 3. cap. 2. Ann Hartipol goes to Mass. Pag. 247. The Lady Vane puts certain Cases concerning the Mass. An. 1555. Many burned Instructions to the Justices Orders sent into Norfolk against the Professors The Effect thereof The Earl of Sussex receiveth Information against some Popish Spies set every where The Protestants frequently assemble Confidently reported that a Male-Heir to the Crown was Born No. LXXXVII The Queen 's great Belly Like a Design Fox p. 1450. The Queen's Zeal Pet. Martyr ad Pet. Alexand. A Convocation Part II. p. 324. Vol. intit Synodalia N. LXXXVIII Some petition the Queen for Cranmer He seeth Ridley and Latimer going to their burning Cranmer's Employment in Prison Report of the Queen's Death Proceedings against Cranmer Martin acts as the Queen's Proctor His greatest Trouble at this Time Interrogatories put to him with his Answers Witnesses sworn against him Cited to Rome The Pope's Letters against him The Process against him at Rome The Pope's Letters read They degrade him He Appeals He is ill dealt with in his Process The Reasons of his Appeal He presseth his Appeal Writes two Letters to the Queen The Contentâ— of the first The Contents of his second Letter The Bailiff of Oxford carrieth his Letters Pole answereth them No. LXXXIX Some Account of the Cardinal's Letter to Cranmer Another Letter of the Cardinal to Cranmer He Recants Notwithstanding his Burning is ordered A Letter from Oxford concerning Cranmer's Death Inter Foxii MSS. Cranmer brought to S. Maries Cole's Sermon Turns his Speech to Cranmerâ— After Sermon all pray for him His penitent behaviour Speaks to the Auditory He prayeth His Words before his Death He quoted also a third place out of Iames against covetous rich Men Weep and howl for the Miseries that shall come upon you your Riches doth rot your Clothes be Moth-eaten your Gold and Silver is cankered c Consesseth his dissembling His Reply to my L. Williams Goes to the place of his Burning His Talk and Behaviour at the Stake He burneth his right Hand Two Remarks upon his Martyrdom Ep. Dedicat. antè Harmon Evan. Who instigated the Queen to put him to death Ep. John 2.10 No Monumenâ— for him but his Martyrdom His Heart unconsumed The Bailiffa Expences about these three Martyrs MSS. C.C.C.C. The Bailiffs not repaid Humfrey to ABp Parker in their behalf Ex Biblioth C.C.C.C. His Books and Writings His first Book Other of his Writings His Book of the Doctrine of the Sacrament Other Writings mention'd by Bp Burnet Hist. Reform P. I. p. 174. Vbi supr p. 364 Ibid. Ibid. Vbi supr p. 289 Vbi supr p. 33â— Pag. 171. Hist. Reform P. II. p. 4â— Pag. 116. Pag. 248. Hist. Res. P. II. p. 171. Athen. Oxon. p. 578. More of his Writings still See Dr. Taylor 's Letter in Fox Hist. Reâ— P. II. p. 71. ABp Parker was in pursuit of certain MSS. of Cranmer concealed No. XC What the Subject of his numerous Writings were Paul Fagius Mar. Bucer placed at Cambridg by his Means Procures them honorary Stipoâ—ds from the King Allowances to P. Martyr and Ochin The third Sermon Dr. Mowse Master of Trinity-Hall favoured by Cranmer No. XCâ— His Inconstancy And Ingratitude
brought into it These his Thoughts he communicated to Arch-bishop Cranmer which was about the Year 1546. Whereupon they both set to examine it with more than ordinary Care And all the Arguments that Cranmer gathered about it he digested into his Book Nor was the good Arch-bishop ashamed to make a publick Acknowledgment in print of this as well as of his other Popish Errors in his Answer to Smith's Preface who it seems had charged him with Inconstancy This I confess of my self that not long before I wrote the said Catechism I was in that Error of the Real Presence as I was many Years past in many other Errors as of Transubstantiation of the Sacrifice propitiatory of the Priests in the Mass of Pilgrimages of Purgatory c. being brought up from my Youth in them For the which and other the Offences of my Youth I do daily pray unto God for Pardon and Mercy After it pleased God to shew me by his Holy Word a more perfect knowledg of his Son Jesus Christ I put away my former Ignorance As God gave me Light so through his Grace I opened my Eyes to receive it And I trust in God's Mercy for pardon of my former Errors I set this down the more at large to shew the great Ingenuity as well as Piety of this good Man Peter Martyr in the Year following this printed a Book of the Sacrament which was the Sum of what he had read before upon that Point in the University of Oxford Which Book he dedicated to his Patron the Arch-bishop of Canterbury And giving the Reason why he made the Dedication to him said That he knew certainly that Cranmer had so great Skill in this Controversy as one could hardly find in any one besides That there was none of the Fathers which he had not diligently noted no antient or modern Book extant that he Martyr had not with his own Eyes seen noted by the Arch-bishop's Hand Whatsoever belonged to the whole Controversy he said that the Arch-bishop had digested into particular Chapters Councils Canons Popes Decrees pertaining hereunto and that with so great labour that unless he had been an Eye-Witness of it and seen it he could not easily have believed others if they had told him in regard of the infinite Toil Diligence and Exactness wherewith the Arch-bishop had done it He added that the Arch-bishop had not bestowed such kind of Pains and Study in the Matter of the Sacrament only but that he had done the same thing as to all other Doctrines in effect which in that Age were especially under Controversy And this that Learned Man said he had made good Observation of Nor as he went on that he wanted Skill a Method and Industry in defending what he held Which might he said be known by this because he had so often conflicted with his Adversaries both publickly and privately and by a marvellous strength of Learning quickness of Wit and dexterity of Management had asserted what he held to be true from the thorny and intricate Cavils of Sophisters glancing at his Controversies with Winchester who was commonly then called the Sophister and that he wanted not a Will yea a Mind ready to defend Sound and Câ—ristian Doctrines That all Men did sufficiently understand who saw him burn with so great an endeavour of restoring Religion that for this Cause only he had great and heavy Enemies and neglected many Commodities of this Life and underwent horrible Dangers The great and intimate Converse that P. Martyr had with Cranmer gave him opportunity to know him very well and therefore I have chosen to set down this Character that he gave of him and particularly of his Ability in this Controversy of thâ— Eucharist And I am apt to think that the careful perusal of these Authorities collected by the Arch-bishop and his Conversation with this Learned Prelate being much with him at Lambeth was a cause of bringing Martyr to the True Doctrine For at his first coming to Oxon he was a Papist or a Lutheran as to the belief of the Presence And so Feckenham Dean of S. Paul's told Bartlet Green at his Examination and that Martyr perceiving the King's Council as he uncharitably suggested to be of another Opinion he to please them forsook the true Catholick Faith But Mr. Green who had been a hearer of him at Oxon replied That he had heard Martyr say That he had not while he was a Papist read S. Chrysostom upon the tenth to the Corinthians nor many other places of the Doctors But when he had read them and well considered them he was content to yield to them having first humbled himself in Prayer desiring God to illuminate him and bring him to the true understanding of Scripture As to the Authorities the Arch-bishop alledgeth in his Book it was the Conjecture of Iohn Fox that he made use of Frith's Book which he wrote of the Sacrament against More divers Years before and that from the said Author the Arch-bishop seemed to have collected the Testimonies of the Doctors which he produced in his Apology against the Bishop of Winchester and that he gathered the principal and chiefest Helps thence that he leaned to But although he might peruse Frith as he did almost all other Authors that wrote of this Controversy yet he was too well versed in the Ecclesiastical Writers that he needed to go a borrowing to the readings of any others for Sentences and Allegations out of them Cranmer lived to see his Book replied again unto by his Adversary Gardiner in Latin under the fained Name of Marcus Antonius Constantius a Divine of Lovain His Book went under this Title Confutatio cavillationum quibus sacrosanctum Eucharistiae Sacramentum ab impiis Capernaitis impeti solet Printed at Paris 1552. In this Book he spared the Name of the Arch-bishop but reduceth all the Arch-bishop's Book into no less then 255 Objections To each of which one by one the Catholick is brought in making answer Next whereas Cranmer had laid down twelve Rules for the finding out the true Sense of the Fathers in their Writings the Catholick examines them and enervates them Then follows a Confutation of the Solutions whereby the Sectary as he is called that is Cranmer endeavoured to take off the Arguments of the Catholicks And which is the fourth and last part of the Book he defends Catholick Mens Sense of the Allegations out of the Fathers against the Sectaries Gardiner when he compiled this Book was in the Tower a Prisoner but yet he was under so easy restraint that he was furnished there with Workmen and Amanuenses As they of old to the building of the Tabernacle so he to the preparing of his Book a kind of Papistical Tabernacle to use the words of Martyr all sorts contributed something For his Book was Pandora's Box to which all the lesser Gods brought their Presents For every Man were his Learning less or more that had