hear of the abolishing especially of that law that gave that title of the Supremacy of the Church in the Realm to the Crown Suspecting that to be an introduction of the Popes authority into the Realm Which they cannot gladly hear of And for this cause cannot gladly hear of my Legation in the Popes Name Wherupon her G. in the same letters doth exhort me to stay my voyage until a more opportune time And asketh my counsil in case the lower House make resistance in the renouncing of the title of Supremacy what her G. were best to do and what course she had best to take One other poynt is that her G. desireth in the same letter to be certified by me how it came to pass that a Commission given by her to Mr. Francisco Commendone in secret was published in the Consistory as her Graces Ambassador resident in Venice doth certify her These be the two points wherin her G. requireth my answer And for to obey her demand which to me is a Commandment I do send you not only to present my letters but also my mouth and with these present Instructions for more satisfaction of her G. in al points As touching the first point which is of most weight and so great touching the honor and wealth of her G. both spiritual and temporal as none can be more ye shal shew her G. that my first advise and counsil shal be to obtain of God by prayer that which I pray him to give me writing this Which is to have Spiritum Consilij Fortitudinis And this her G. must now pray for that as in the attaining the Crown his high providence shewed by manifest tokens to have given her these two graces so in the maintaining therof he wil confirm these two gifts in her mind Her Highnes knowes if she had relented at that time for any peril when that both mans counsil and force were against her she had lost So if she for any fear do relent and do not renounce the title of Supremacy which took the name of Princess and Right heire from her she cannot maintain that she hath gotten already by the spirit of Council and Fortitude So that my first counsil is this that obtaining by prayer these two gifts which her G. had at that time to shew her self no less ardent in the leaving of the title of Supremity for to maintain her right then the King her father was in the acquisition therof to the privation of her right Which so much more she ought to do and be more fervent in this then her Father was in that Because that was done against al law both of God and man and this that her Majesty doth now shewing her self most fervent herein doth fulfil both Gods law and mans And that is her very duty if she should loose both state and life withal As she hath known she ought to do by the example of the best men of her realm Which for this cause resisting the Kings unlawful lawes lost both And now the goodnes of God putting no such hard conditions to her G. nor laying afore her eyes only Praemia futura with loss of temporal as he did to those men but praemia coelestia with terrena joyned together That serving to the honor of God which is in this poynt to render the title of Supremacy of the church in earth to whom God hath given it she doth establish her own Crown withal If now she should relent herein for any fear of men being brought to that state that other men should rather fear her then she them especially in so good a cause this afore God and men were most perpetually to be blamed Wherfore what my Counsil is herein on this maner now rehersed you may inform her Highnes Now to come to the execution of the thing After her G. is determined to have it done casting away al fear the same stondeth to have it put forth and causing it to pass by the Parlament this is another council necessarily to be pondered Consisting the whole after my opinion in the proponement of the person that hath to put forth the same that with les difficulty and more favour it may pass Here ye may say that I much pondering the same and considering that it must be a person of Authority that should propone the same if it should take effect When I look in my mind upon al them I know of the Lords both Spiritual and Temporal and persons of the Lower House that might have authority I do see none but that other he hath defended the contrary cause by his Sentence and writing as the Spiritual men have done which taketh away a great part of authority to persuade others when men heareth them accepting that matter that aforetime they have oppugned Or else to speak of the Temporal Lords or others being al intangled with private profit enjoying goods of the Church by rejecting the authority of the same they cannot speak with that freenes of spirit as such a matter requireth Wherfore yee may conclude with her G. mine opinion herein that after long consideration hereof I see no person but one that is able with authority and also favour to propone this matter And that person is her G. her self God having brought it to her hand alone She being in this matter and al other immaculate and without blot ordered of God to defend his cause and her own withal And this ye may say the Counsil that it pleased God to put in my mind is that her G. do in this case as I remember the Emperor did in his own case passing by Rome wheras his mind was to justify his quarrel touching the war betwixt him and the French king afore the Pope and the Cardinals When doubting if onye other person should propose the same it might have contradiction of that party that did favor France he determined without any conference either with his Councel or others to put forth the matter himself And so when nother the Pope nor no other looked for any such thing his Holines and the Cardinals being now congregate he entred in among them in the Consistory and made a long Oration in justifying his cause and obtained that he would without any resistance Underneath this maner my poor advise should be that her Majesty should personally come into the Parlament and put forth the same her self and I dare be bold to say what for her authority and the justnes and the equity of the cause it self she shal have no contradiction And if need were also to shew her self to the Lower house the thing it self so neer toucheth her wealth both godly and temporally that it would be taken rather cum applausu then otherwise Further and jointly with this it shal be necessary her highnes make mention of the Popes Legate in my person to be admitted and sent for Wherin her G. hath this first to entreat that the law of my banishment may be abolished and
I restored to name and bloud And herein her G. doth know what extreme injustice hath been done to me and al our house And touching my person what ever was done that could be layd against me why I should be ashamed which never thought nor did in that cause I was banished for but that wherby I deserved rather great reward then any pain being so given with heart and mind to the Kings honor and wealth both of him and his realm that with no reward that was offered me great the King himself could not persuade me to do or sentence any thing against his honor and the wealth of the realm and to his damnation Here is al the cause why I suffered banishment with so great loss of those kinsfolks that were dearer to me then my life And this being done by consent of the Parlament though I doubt not against their mind the Parlament is bound afore God and man to revoke me again and especially now coming with extraordinary Commission that bringeth the establishment of your Graces Crown to the comfort of the whole realm both temporally and spiritually And this her G. may boldly say of al the time of my exile wherin God hath given me honor more then I did require or would have had if it had layn in my own choise and goods sufficient to maintain my state if ever it should be found that for any respect of persons for ambition pleasure or lucre I swarved from that I judged the honor of God and in matters of my Country from the wealth therof I am content not only to be excepted at this time but perpetually to be banished But if they prove al the contrary and that with the King your Father not only as a faithful subject but with that love also that no servant could shew to his master more nor son to his father I shewed ever to exteame more his honor and wealth then mine own goods or Country and never procured other then the wealth of the same then let them believe now that I never would come unto them after so many years absence your G. bearing the crown with other Commission than that I know surely should be to the honor comfort and wealth of your G. and the whole Country And so touching this point of my counsil that her G. requireth of me here ye have explicated how the whole matter wherin my counsil is required may be concluded For otherwise at this time I se not what might be taken nor can imagine no other so good as this way Which me seemeth God hath ordered should be taken and preferred above al other After this ye shal shew her G. if this way be not followed or deferred what I most fear And this is first that the Popes Holines being already persuaded to graunt to the stay of my journey contrary to his first Commission when her G. shewed more fervency to receive the obedience of the Church that the next Commission I shal have shal be to return back into Italy again And the cause why I fear this is that the Pope shal think by offering to her G. and the Realm al those graces that do pertain to the reconciliation of both to the church when he seeth it is not accepted with that promptnes it is offered he shal think that both afore God and man he hath satisfied al that could be required of him touching the demonstration of his paternal affection to her G. and the realm In the which the College of Cardinals peradventure wil judge that his Sanctity hath been over much bountiful especially when they hear of this my staying being made without their consent Which they wil ever take for a great indignity hearing no greater nor more urgent cause therof then hitherto hath been shewed and knowing how her G. cannot maintain her Right nether afore God nor man without having recourse to his Holines and to the See Apostolic and of whose Authority and Dispensation the whole right of her cause doth depend as some of them then would have had his Holines at the beginning not to have sent his Legate until he had been required and much more now after he hath sent and he not accepted they wil al be of opinion that he shal be revoked And then what peril both her G. and the whole realm standeth in by the reason of the Schism yet remaining it is manifest of it self And yet this is not al my fear of my revocation but that which may follow that I fear more Which is this that wheras now if I had been accepted with that promptnes and sincere affect as I was sent of the Popes Holines and that I brought with me my Person I trust should have brought more comfort to her Highnes and the rest of the Country then any stranger as the Popes Holines thought when he made me Legate so now on the contrary for the self same circumstances and causes that pertain to my Person not being accepted it shal more aggravate the cause at all times that the Realm hereafter should require to be absolved of the Schism and al other that would seek to prevail against her Graces title by the reason of the Schism for the self cause that I was not accepted returning again to Rome would take this for a great proof of the obstinate enduring in the same which al divine lawes doth most condemn So that my Person I desiring nothing more then to bring comfort to her and the realm not accepted shal be cause of more discomfort which as I say God of his mercy forbid Expounded under this maner my fear which stondeth in my revocation not for my self but for the domage that may come to her Majesty and the realm therby the same being very likely if my stay be deferred ony longer space knowing that his Holines and the College wil not suffer such indignity then you may declare withal the remedies that I thought best to be used at this time to avoyd this inconveniency And herein you may shew how the first Remedy is that the Pope and the College of Cardinals be wel persuaded that my stay here is but for a smal time and for to bring a more sure conclusion and to make the way more plain as I have caused the Popes Holines to be informed by a servant of mine sent by post shewing the tenor of the bil her G. wrote Herrye my servant Wherin was conteined that her Highnes shortly trusted that the matters of the Parlament should have that conclusion that I most desired And upon this hope that messenger had to shew his Holines that I had sent my stuf afore towards Flaunders and now also for confirmation of that hope I have sent a part of my company afore to tarry me there So that this you may say is the first remedy I can find to keep the Pope and the College in hope of a brave and good resolution One other chief Remedy is because I
such men should be driven from them provided they do reside a good part of the year upon their Churches V. Since the Dispensation of two or three benefices hath been granted by former Princes to some Priests for the merit of their life and maners they cannot without injury be deprived of them Nor yet can they in al respects reside personally and perpetually VI. When many have designed their sons for the Universities and have been at no smal charges to give them learning because they have entertained good hope that they might hereafter be assistant to their friends and relations this hope being gone their care about this matter wil also grow cold otherwise of it self cold enough For as he said Where there is no honor there is no Art VII The houses of the Rectories in many places are either ruined or none at al or let out by Indentures Going to the Court of Rome Going to a General Councel Going to a Synod or Parlament Violent detaining Remedies That there be a les number of those that follow the Court who heap up benefices upon benefices That they who have many Benefices reside a certain time upon each That a way be found wherby such as live in Towns and Cities may be forced to pay Personal tiths Which being now almost quite taken a way the Benefices in such places are in a great part lessened When some of the Bishops by reason of the slendernes of their possessions cannot afford Stipends to the Priests their fellow laborers that they who serve them reside for a certain time of the year in their own parishes That Rectors who heretofore have payd pensions to Monasteries in ready mony be not now compelled to pay the same in bread-corn to Lay-proprietors That in Woody places where the custome hath alwayes obtained tith may be payd of Sylvae caeduae that is Wood that is cut to grow again especially when there is a great scarcity of corn in such places Parishes are not divided jure divino Whence followeth that as many Benefices may be layd into one so one by reason of the greatnes of it may be divided into two NUM LXXXIX Pole Cardinal Legate to Archbishop Cranmer in answer to the Letter he had sent to the Queen ALmighty God the Father by the grace of his only son god and man that dyed for our sins may geve yow trew and perfect repentance This I daylie pray for my self being a Synner but I thank God never obstinate synner And the same grace the more earnestly I do pray for to be geven to them that be obstinate the more neade they have thereof being otherwise past al mannes cure and admonition to save them As your open sayings in open audience doyth show of yow Which hath cawsed that those judges that hath syt apon the examination of your greviouse fautes seing no lykelod of ony repentaunce in yow hath utterlie cast awaye al hope of your recoverie Whereof doith follow the most horrible sentence of condempnation both of your body and soule both your temporal death and eternal Which is to me so great an horrour to here that if there were ony way or mean or fashion that I might fynd to remove you from errour bryngeng yow to the knowledge of the truth for your Salvation This I testifie to you afore God apon the Salvation of myne owne sowle that I would rather chuse to be that meane that yow might receive this benefyt by me then to receive the greatest benefyt for my self that can be geven under heaven in this world I easteme so moch the salvation of one sowle And becawse it happened to me to see your private lettres directed to the Qwenes Highnes sent by the same unto me wherein you utter and express such appearaunt reasons that cause yow to swarve from the rest of the Church in these Articles of the authoritie of the Pope and of the Sacrament of the aulter Concluding with these words That if ony man can show yow by reason that the authoritie of the Pope be not prejudicyal to the wealth of the realm or that your doctrine in the Sacrement be erroneous then you wold never be so perverse to stond wylfullie in your own opinion but shal with al humilitie submytt your self to the truthe in al things and gladly embrace the same Thise your words written in that lettre geveth me some occasion desyring your wealth not utterly to dispayr thereof but to attempt to recover yow by the same way that yow open unto me Which is by reason to show yow the error of your opinion and withal the light of the treuthe in both causes But whither this may healp yow indede or bring you to revoke the same with trew repentaunce this I know not and I fear moche the contrarie For that I see the ground and begynning how you fel into errour in both thise articles not to be of that sort that maketh men commonly to fall into errours and heresies Which sort and way is by medling with your wyt and discourse natural to examen the Articles of the faith Makeing your reason judge thereof which ought to bee judged and ruled by the tradition of the faith Which abuse causeth men dayly to fall into errours and heresies And the same also is in yow and is joyned with that yow have done But here standeth not the grownde of your errour nor yet in this other common maner of faulling from the trouthe which S. Paul noteth in the Gentiles and is in al meâ— commonlie that followeth their sensual appetites Qui veritatem Dâ—i in injustitia detinent Which thing also hath been occasion of your â—rrour But yet not this is the very grownde thereof but a further sawte that you geveng your othe to the truthe yow mocked with the same as the Iewes mocked with Christ when thei saluted him saing Ave Rex Iudaeorum and afterwards did crucifie hym For so did yow to the Vicar of Christ Knowledgeng the Pope of Rome by the words of your othe to be so and in mynde entendeng to crucifie the same authoritie Whereof came the plague of deape ignoraunce and blyndnes unto yow Which is now that bringeth you to this greivous peryl to perish both bodie and sowle From which peril no reason can deliver yow But yow discovereng your self touching the entrie when yow shuld make the customable othe of al legitimate Busshops in Christendom which is the dore for you to entre to the service of God in the highest spiritual office withyn this realme and seeing you made the same but for a countenaunce nothing meaneng to observe that yow promised by the othe this is a dore that every thieffe may entre bye This is not the dore that thei entre by that mean earnestlie the service of God Wherein the Prophets sentence is playne askeng this question Quis ascendet in montem Domini aut quis stabit in loco sancto ejus And then answering to the same
at Canterbury IN order to the bettering the State of Religion in the Nation the Arch-bishop's Endeavours both with the King and the Clergy were not wanting from time to time And something soon after fell out which afforded him a fair opportunity which was this The King resolving to vindicate his own Right of Supremacy against the Encroachments of Popes in his Dominions especially now the Parliament had restored it to him being at Winchester sent for his Bishops thither about Michaelmas ordering them to go down to their respective Diocesses and there in their own Persons to preach up the Regal Authority and to explain to the People the Reason of excluding the Pope from all Jurisdiction in these Realms Our Arch-bishop according to this Command speeds down into his Diocess to promote this Service for the King and the Church too He went not into the neerer parts of Kent about Otford and Knol where his most frequent Residence used to be because his Influence had a good effect for the Instruction of the People thereabouts in this as well as in other Points of sound Religion But he repaired into the East parts of his Diocess where he preached up and down upon the two Articles of the Pope's Usurpations and the King's Supremacy But the People of Canterbury being less perswaded of these Points than all his Diocess besides there in his Cathedral Church he preached two Sermons wherein he insisted upon three things I. That the Bishop of Rome was not God's Vicar upon Earth as he was taken Here he declared by what Crafts the Bishop of Rome had obtained his usurped Authority II. That the Holiness that See so much boasted of and by which Name Popes affected to be stiled was but a Holiness in Name and that there was no such Holiness at Rome And here he launched out into the Vices and profligate kind of living there III. He inveighed against the Bishop of Rome's Laws Which were miscalled Divinae Leges and Sacri Canones He said that those of his Laws which were good the King had commanded to be observed And so they were to be kept out of obedience to him And here he descended to speak of the Ceremonies of the Church that they ought not to be rejected nor yet to be observed with an Opinion that of themselves they make Men holy or remit their Sins seeing our Sins are remitted by the Death of our Saviour Christ. But that they were observed for a common Commodity and for good Order and Quietness as the Common Laws of the Kingdom were And for this Cause Ceremonies were instituted in the Church and for a remembrance of many good things as the King's Laws dispose Men unto Justice and unto Peace And therefore he made it a general Rule that Ceremonies were to be observed as the Laws of the Land were These Sermons of the Arch-bishop it seems as they were new Doctrines to them so they were received by them at first with much gladness But the Friars did not at all like these Discourses They thought such Doctrines laid open the Truth too much and might prove prejudicial unto their Gains And therefore by a Combination among themselves they thought it convenient that the Arch-bishop's Sermons should be by some of their Party confuted and in the same place where he preached them So soon after came up the Prior of the black Friars in Canterbury levelling his Discourse against the three things that the Arch-bishop had preached He asserted the Church of Christ never erred that he would not slander the Bishops of Rome and that the Laws of the Church were equal with the Laws of God This angry Prior also told the Arch-bishop to his Face in a good Audience concerning what he had preached of the Bishop of Rome's Vices that he knew no Vices by none of the Bishops of Rome And whereas the Arch-bishop had said in his Sermon to the People that he had prayed many Years that we might be separated from that See and that he might see the Power of Rome destroyed because it wrought so many things contrary to the Honour of God and the Wealth of the Realm and because he saw no hopes of amendment and that he thanked God he had now seen it in this Realm for this the Prior cried out against him that he preached uncharitably The Arch-bishop not suffering his Authority to be thus affronted nor the King's Service to be thus hindred convented the Prior before him before Christmass At his first examination he denied that he preached against the Arch-bishop and confessed that his Grace had not preached any thing amiss But sometime afterward being got free from the mild Arch-bishop and being secretly upheld by some Persons in the Combination he then said he had preached amiss in many things and that he purposely preached against him This created the Arch-bishop abundance of Slander in those parts The Business came to the King's Ears who seemed to require the Arch-bishop to censure him in his own Court But upon occasion of this the Arch-bishop wrote his whole Cause in a Letter to the King dated from his House at Ford 1535. Declaring what he had preached and what the other had preached in contradiction to him And withal entreated his Majesty that he the Arch-bishop might not have the judging of him lest he might seem partial but that he would commit the hearing unto the Lord Privy Seal who was Crumwel or else to assign unto him other Persons whom his Majesty pleased that the Cause might be jointly heard together He appealed to the King and his Council If the Prior did not defend the Bishop of Rome though he had said nothing else than that the Church never erred For then they were no Errors as he inferred that were taught of the Pope's Power and that he was Christ's Vicar in Earth and by God's Law Head of all the World Spiritual and Temporal and that all People must believe that de necessitate Salutis and that whosoever did any thing against the See of Rome is an Heretick But if these be no Errors then your Grace's Laws said he be Erroneous that pronounce the Bishop of Rome to be of no more Power than other Bishops and them to be Traitors that defend the contrary In fine in the stomach of an Arch-bishop and finding it necessary to put a stop to the ill designs of these Friars he concluded That if that Man who had so highly offended the King and openly preached against him being his Ordinary and Metropolitan of the Province and that in such Matters as concerned the Authority Mis-living and Laws of the Bishop of Rome and that also within his own Church if he were not looked upon he left it to the King's Prudence to expend what Example it might prove unto others with like colour to maintain the Bishop of Rome's Authority and of what estimation he the Arch-bishop should be reputed hereafter and what Credence would be
't is said from the Arch-bishop Therefore the King prest by some of the Papists about him who began now after Lambert's Death to listen to them set forth a Proclamation Novemb. 16. for the stopping of such Matrimonies Which ran in this Tenor. That the King's Majesty understanding that a few in number of this his Realm being Priests as well Religious as other had taken Wives and married themselves c. His Highness in no wise minding that the generality of the Clergy of this his Realm should with the Example of such a few number of light Persons proceed to Marriage without a common Consent of his Highness and his Realm Did therefore streightly charge and command as well all and singular the said Priests as have attempted Marriages that be openly known as all such as would presumptuously proceed to the same that they ne any of them should minister any Sacrament or other Ministry Mystical Ne have any Office Dignity Cure Privilege Profit or Commodity heretofore accustomed and belonging to the Clergy of this Realm but should be utterly after such Marriages expelled and deprived from the same and be had and reputed as Lay-persons to all intents and purposes And that such as should after this Proclamation contrary to his Commandment of their presumptuous Mind take Wives and be married should run in his Grace's Indignation and suffer further Punishment and Imprisonment at his Grace's Will and Pleasure Dat. xvi Novembris Anno Regni sui xxx Wherein we may observe what a particular regard the King had for the Arch-bishop in relation to his Wife that the danger of the Proclamation might not reach him by limiting the Penalty not to such as were married and kept their Wives secretly but to such as should marry hereafter and such as kept them openly And we may observe further that it seemed to be in the King's Mind in due time to tolerate Marriages to Priests by Act of Parliament which that Clause seems to import that these Priests had married themselves without a common Consent of his Highness and his Realm And Bishop Ponet or whoever else was the Author of the Defence of Priests Marriage assures us that the King intended to permit Priests to take Wives knowing how necessary it was to grant that Liberty and he affirms that it was not unknown to divers that heard him speak oft of that Matter But was hindred by some jealous Councellors that pretended how ill the People would take it had it been done by his Authority The Sect of Anabaptists did now begin to pester this Church and would openly dispute their Principles in Taverns and publick places and some of them were taken up Many also of their Books were brought in and printed here also which was the cause that the King now set out a severe Proclamation against them and their Books To which he joined the Sacramentaries as lately with the other come into the Land Declaring That he abhorred and detested their Errors and that those that were apprehended he would make Examples Ordering that they should be detected and brought before the King or his Council and that all that were not should in eight or ten days depart the Kingdom This Proclamation may be read in the Appendix Num. VIII Where I have misplaced it A Commission also was then given out to the Arch-bishop to Iohn Bishop of Lincoln Rich. Bishop of Chichester and others against this Sect. Which Commission was signed at the bottom by Thomas Crumwel It was observed that the Parsons Vicars and Curates did read confusedly the Word of God and the King's Injunctions lately set forth and commanded by them to be read humming and hauking thereat that almost no Man could understand the meaning of the Injunction And they secretly suborned certain spreaders of Rumors and false Tales in Corners who interpreted the Injunctions to a false sense And because there was an Order that all Christnings Marriages and Burials should be registred from time to time and the Books surely kept in the Parish Churches they blew abroad that the King intended to make new Exactions at all Christnings Weddings and Burials adding that therein the King went about to take away the Liberties of the Realm for which they said Thomas a Becket died And they bad their Parishioners notwithstanding what they read being compelled so to do that they should do as they did in Times past to live as their Fathers and that the old Fashion is the best and other crafty and seditious Parables they gave out among them This forced the King to write his Letters to the Justices of Peace to take up such seditious Parsons Vicars and Curates And in these Letters is explained the true Reason of Thomas a Beckeâ—'s Contention with K. Henry II. As that he contended that none of the Clergy offending should be called to account or corrected but in the Bishop's Courts only and not by the Laws of the Realm and that no King should be Crowned but by the Arch-bishop of Canterbury only The Church of Hereford being now become vacant by the Death of Fox an excellent Instrument of the Reformation the Archbishop committed the custody of the Spiritualities to Hugh Coren Doctor of Canon Laws and Prebendary of that Church and by him visited the Church and Diocess and gave certain Injunctions to the Parsons Vicars and other Curats there These Injunctions as I find them in Cranmer's Register were eight in number Which I shall not here insert at large because they may be met with in the History of the Reformation But in short they enjoined the Observation of the King's Injunctions given by his Majesty's Commissaries in the Year 1536. They enjoined that they should have by the first of August a whole Bible in Latin and English or at least a New Testament in the same Languages That they should every day study one Chapter of the Bible or Testament conferring the Latin and English together and to begin at the beginning of the Book and so continue to the End That they should not discourage any Lay-men from reading the Bible but encourage them to it And to read it for the Reformation of their Lives and Knowledg of their Duty and not to be bold and presumptuous in judging of things before they have perfect Knowledg That they should both in their Preachings and Confessions and in other their Doings excite their Parishioners unto such Works as are commanded by God expresly Adding that for this God should demand of them a strict Reckoning And to teach them that other Works which they do of their own Devotion are not to be so highly esteemed as the other And that for the not doing them God will not ask any Account That no Friar have any Cure or Service in their Churches unless he were dispensed withal and licensed by the Ordinary That they admit no young Person to the Sacrament who never received it before unless such
would deal sincerely with him without Fraud or Craft and use him as they would wish to be used in the like case themselves Bidding them remember that with what Measure they meet it should be measured to them again Therefore to make himself some amends for all this foul Dealing his last Refuge was an Appeal Whereof he seriously bethought himself when and in what manner to make it The Causes for his resolving upon it besides those already mentioned were because he remembred Luther once did so in such a Case and that he might not seem rashly to cast away his own Life and because he was bound by his Oath never to receive the Pope's Authority in this Realm and because the Commissioners had broken their Promise with him as above was said and because he thought the Bishop of Rome was not an indifferent Judg in this Cause which was his own Cause for all the Arch-bishop's Troubles came upon him for departing from him He therefore wrote privately to a trusty Friend and Learned in the Law then in the University to instruct him in the Order and Form of an Appeal and whether he should first Appeal from the Judg-Delegate to the Pope or else from that Judg immediately to a General Council And so earnestly entreated him to lay aside all other Studies and to take this in Hand presently because he was summoned to make his Answer at Rome the sixteenth Day of this Month that is of February There was one reason more moved him to Appeal which must not be omitted namely that he might gain Time to finish his Answer to Marcus Antonius He feared after all they would not admit his Appeal But he did not much pass and desired God's Will might be done So that God might be glorified by his Life or Death He thought it much better to die in Christ's Quarrel than to be shut in the Prison of the Body unless it were for the advancement of God's Glory and the Profit of his Brethren This Letter of the Arch-bishop being writ with so much Strength and Presence of Mind and shewing so much Prudence and Wit is happily preserved in Fox's Monuments where it may be read This Appeal when the Arch-bishop had produced and preferred to the Bishop of Ely he told him That they could not admit of it because their Commission was to proceed against him Omni Appellatione remota Cranmer replied That this Cause was not every private Man's Cause but that it was between the Pope and him immediately and none otherwise and that no Man ought to be Judg in his own Cause And therefore they did him the more Wrong So at last Thirlby received it of him and said If it might be admitted it should And so after this Interruption they proceeded to degrade him taking off the rest of his Habits And then put him on a poor Yeoman-Beadle's Gown threadbare and a Towns-man's Cap. And Boner told him He was no Lord any more and so was sent to Prison CHAP. XX. Cranmer Writes to the Queen AND now having undergone these Brunts with all this Gravity Discretion Learning and Courage he next resolved to give the Queen a true and impartial Account of these Transactions to prevent Misreports and to justify himself in what he had said and done Two Letters therefore he wrote to her but thought not fit to entrust them with the Commissioners since Weston had served him such a Trick in the like Case before In these Letters he related the reason of his refusing the Bishop of Glocester for his Judg and of his Appeal For as he thought it his Duty at that juncture to declare himself in that publick manner against the Bishop of Rome so he reckoned he ought to declare himself also to the Supream Magistrate And therefore before the Bishop of Glocester and the Commissioners he said That as he had thus discharged his own Conscience towards the World so he would also write his Mind to her Grace touching this Matter He wrote to her That the twelfth Day of that Month he was cited to appear at Rome the eightieth Day after And that it could not but grieve the Heart of a natural Subject to be accused by the King and Queen of his own Country and before any outward Judg as if the King and Queen were Subjects within their own Realm and were fain to complain and require Justice at a Stranger 's Hand against their own Subject being already condemned to Death by their own Laws As though the King and Queen could not have or do Justice within their own Realm against their own Subjects but they must seek it at a Stranger 's Hand in a strange Land Then he proceeded to shew her why he refused the Pope's Authority when Brooks Bishop of Glocester came to try him namely Because he was sworn never to consent that the Bishop of Rome should have or exercise any Authority or Jurisdiction in the Realm of England Another reason why he denied his Authority was Because his Authority repugned to the Crown Imperial of this Realm and to the Laws of the same For the Pope saith all manner of Power both Temporal and Spiritual is given unto him of God and that Temporal Power is given to Kings and Emperors to use it under him Whereas contrary to this Claim said the Arch-bishop the Imperial Crown of this Realm is taken immediately from God to be used under him only and is subject to none but God alone Moreover to the Imperial Laws of this Realm all the Kings in their Coronations and all Justices when they receive their Offices are sworn and all the whole Realm bound to defend them But contrary hereunto the Pope he said made void and commanded to blot out of our Books all Laws and Customs repugnant to his Laws Then he proceeded to shew how contrary the Laws of the Realm and the Pope's Laws were And therefore that the Kings of this Realm had provided for their Laws by the Premunire So that if any Man let the execution of the Law by any Authority from the See of Rome he fell into the Premunire And to meet with this the Popes had provided for their Law by Cursing He supposed that these things were not fully opened in the Parliament-house when the Pope's Authority was received again For if they were he could not believe that the King and Queen the Nobles and Commons would again receive a Foreign Authority so hurtful and prejudicial to the Crown and to the Laws and State of this Realm He rebuked the Clergy who were the main Movers of this at the Parliament for their own Ends. For they desired to have the Pope their chief Head to the intent that they might have as it were a Kingdom and Laws within themselves distinct from the Laws of the Crown and live in this Realm like Lords and Kings without damage or fear of any Man And then he glanced at some of the Clergy probably
as one of the truest Glories of that See Though these three Martyrs Cranmer Ridley and Latimer were parted asunder and placed in separate Lodgings that they might not confer together yet they were suffered sometimes to eat together in the Prison of Bocardo I have seen a Book of their Diet every Dinner and Supper and the Charge thereof Which was at the Expence of Winkle and Wells Bailiffs of the City at that time under whose Custody they were As for example in this Method The first of October Dinner Bread and Ale ii d. Item Oisters i d. Item Butter ii d. Item Eggs ii d. Item Lyng viii d. Item A piece of fresh Salmon x d. Wine iii d. Cheese and Pears ii d.  ii s. vi d. From this Book of their Expences give me leave to make these few Observations They ate constantly Suppers as well as Dinners Their Meals amounted to about three or four Shillings seldom exceeding four Their Bread and Ale commonly came to two pence or three pence They had constantly Cheese and Pears for their last Dish both at Dinner and Supper and always Wine the price whereof was ever three Pence and no more The Prizes of their Provisions it being now an extraordinary dear time were as follow A Goose 14 d. A Pig 12 or 13 d. A Cony 6 d. A Woodcock 3 d. and sometimes 5 d. A couple of Chickens 6 d. Three Plovers 10 d. Half a dozen Larks 3 d. A dozen of Larks and two Plovers 10 d. A Brest of Veal 11 d. A Shoulder of Mutton 10 d. Rost Beef 12 d. The last Disbursements which have Melancholy in the reading were these  s. d. For three Loads of Wood-Fagots to burn Ridley and Latimer 12 0 Item One Load of Furs-Fagots 3 4 For the carriage of these four Loads 2 0 Item A Post 1 4 Item Two Chains 3 4 Item Two Staples 0 6 Item Four Labourers 2 8 Then follow the Charges for burning Cranmer  s. d. For an 100 of Wood-Fagots 06 0 For an 100 and half of Furs-Fagots 03 4 For the carriage of them 0 8 To two Labourers 1 4 It seems the Superiors in those Days were more zealous to send these three good Men to Oxon and there to serve their Ends upon them and afterwards to burn them than they were careful honestly to pay the Charges thereof For Winkle and Wells notwithstanding all their Endeavours to get themselves reimbursed of what they had laid out which came to sixty three Pounds ten Shillings and two Pence could never get but twenty Pounds Which they received by the means of Sir William Petre Secretary of State In so much that in the Year 1566 they put up a Petition to Arch-bishop Parker and the other Bishops That they would among themselves raise and repay that Sum which the said Bailiffs were out of Purse in feeding of these three Reverend Fathers In which Petition they set forth That in the second and third Years of King Philip and Queen Mary Arch-bishop Cranmer Bishop Latimer and Bishop Ridley were by order of Council committed to the Custody of them and so continued a certain Time and for them they disbursed the Sum of 63 l. 10 s. 2 d. Whereof but 20 l. was paid to them Therefore they pray his Grace and the rest of the Bishops to be a means among themselves that the remaining Sum may be paid to them being 43 l. 10 s. 2 d. Or some part thereof Otherwise they and their poor Wives and Children should be utterly undone And to give the better countenance to these Men that were going to carry up their Petition Laurence Humfrey President of Magdalen College and the Queen's Professor wrote this Letter on their behalf to Arch-bishop Parker IEH MY humble Commendations presupposed in the Lord. To be a Suitor in another Man's Case it seemeth Boldness and in a Matter of Money to write to your Grace is more than Sauciness Yet Charity Operiens multitudinem peccatorum doth move me and will perswade you to hear him A Debt is due unto him for the Table of Mr. Dr. Cranmer by the Queen's Majesties Appointment And Mr. Secretary in Oxford wished him at that time of Business in Progress to make some Motion to the Bishops for some Relief The Case is miserable The Debt is just His Charges in the Suit have been great His Honesty I assure your Grace deserves pitiful Consideration And for that my Lord of Sarum writeth to me as here in Oxford he promised That his part shall not be behind what Order soever it please my Lords to take for the dispatch of the same I request your Grace as Successor to that right Reverend Father and chief Patron of such poor Suitors to make by your good Means some Collection for him among the rest of my Lords the Bishops that his good Will shewed to that worthy Martyr may of you be considered And so he bound to your Goodness of his part altogether undeserved Thus recommending the Common Cause of Reformation to you and my self and this poor Man to your good remembrance I leave to trouble you Requesting you once again to hear him and tender his Cause even of Charity for God his Sake To whose Protection I commend your Grace From Oxon November 22 Anno 1566. Your Grace's humble Orator Laur. Humfrey Though I cannot trace this any further yet I make no doubt this Petition was favourably received with the Arch-bishop and Bishops It seems in Cranmer's Life-time Money was sent to Oxford for the sustentation of these Prisoners of Christ but embezzelled For one W. Pantry of Oxford received forty Pounds at Mr. Stonelye's Hand for my Lord Cranmer and the other two in like Case This was declared by the Bailiffs to Thomas Doyley Esquire Steward to Arch-bishop Parker CHAP. XXII Cranmer's Books and Writings HAving brought our History of this singular and extraordinary Light of the Church to this Period we will before we take our leave of him gather up some few Fragments more thinking it pity that any thing should be lost that may either serve to communicate any Knowledg of him to Posterity or to clear and vindicate him from Aspersions or Misrepresentations vulgarly conceived of him And here will fall under our consideration first his Books and Writings after them his Acquaintance with Learned Men and his Favour to them and Learning then some Matters relating to his Family and Officers And lastly we shall conclude with some Observations upon him For the Pen of this great Divine was not idle being employed as earnestly as his Authority and Influence for the furtherance of Religion and rescue of this Church from Popish Superstition and Foreign Jurisdiction He laid a solid Foundation in Learning by his long and serious Studies in the University To which he was much addicted Insomuch that this was one of the Causes which made him so labour by the interest of his Friends with King Henry to
Visitationem Archiep. Cant. FIrst That the Archbp. of Canterbury in al his Monitions and Writings sent to the Bp. Abbots Prior and Archdeacon of London concerning this his Visitation called himself Apostolicae Sedis Legatum and that therefore the Bp. of London with the Chapter did not only advertise the Archbp. therof by their Letters before the day of Visitation But also the same day of the Commencement thâ—reof in the Chapter house of Powles the said Bp. and Chapter before the delivery of the Certificate to the ABp made there openly a â—rotestation reading it in writing signifying that they would neither accept him as such a Legate or admit or obey his Visitation jurisdiction or any thing that he would attempt by the pretext or color of that name of Legate or otherwise against the Crown of our Soveraign his Regality Statutes or customes of his realm And required the said Archbp. to command his Register there present to enact the said Protestation Which he refused utterly to do shewing himself not willing to admit the said Protestation Item That the Archbp. in his said Monition to the Bp. did expresly intimate and signify to him that he would in his Visitation suspend al the jurisdiction of the Bp. the Dean and Archdeacons from the beginning thereof to the ending In such wise that the Bp. nor his Officers Dean nor Archdeacon should or might at that time which he would not determine how long it should endure use no jurisdiction whatsoever causes or necessities should chance of correction institutions of benefices Confirmations of Election Consecrations of Churches Celebrations of Orders or Probation of Testaments with many other things mo appertaining ad forum contentiosum But al and every of these the Archbp. and his Officers would have and suffer none other to use and exercise the same unto the end of his Visitation Which he hath now continued until the first day of December pretending that then he may likewise continue it other six months and so forth without end at his plesure during his life from time to time So that by this means he only and none other should be Bp. but Titularis in all his Province during his life but at his plesure Which were an inconvenience intolerable and such as never was read nor heard of that ever any Metropolitan private Legate or Bp. of Rome in the most Tyranny had usurped the semblable Item That al men learned and Books of the Canon Law doth aggree that no Metropolitan or Primate may thus by any law written suspend al the jurisdiction of the Bishops for the time of their Visitations or exercise the premises during the same Iure Metropolitico And this the Councel of the Archbishop doth not deny nor cannot Item Where the said AB doth pretend that his Predecessors times past hath put in use and exercise al the premises And so though the Common law doth not favor him yet he may lean to prescription First it is to be considered and remembred that the suspension of al jurisdiction of al the Bishops in maner aforesaid seemeth to be against holy scripture and the authority given unto them by God and as it was said before that Suspension were a thing pernitious not read nor heard of to have bee attempted by the most tyranny of al the Bishops of R. without the great offence of the Bishop And as for the rest considering that none of his Predecessors this hundred years did visit thus his Province and therfore no man Living can know this by experience it had been necessary for the Archbp. to have shewed books for the proof of these his sayings and pretences Which he and his Officers being therunto desired as wel before the Visitation as sithence ever did refuse and deferr to do Item It is to be remembred that in case it shal appear in any Book of the AB that his Predecessors have attempted any of the Premisses First that his Predecessors were Legates and though they did visit jure Metropolitico yet they might peradventure as Legates attempt some things which they had had no right nor colour to do if they had be only Metropolitans and Primates Secondarily In this behalf and case it is to be remembred that many of those Archbps. of Canterbury were not only Legates but also Chancellors of England By the which authority they peradventure did enforce and maintain many things attempted against the Law as the late Cardinal did And therfore it is to be dissevered what they did as Legates and what as Metropolitans and what by force after repealed and what by right peaceably enjoyed And not to now jure Metropolitico such things as were done by his Predecessors as Legates nor to chalenge prescription now the authority of the See of Rome is repealed and here extinguished in such things as were attempted only by the pretext of the authority of that See or else after were appealed repealed or resisted Thirdly In This cause it is to be remembred that it appears by the ancient Registers of the Bishops and their Churches that when the Predecessors of the AB did attempt any of these causes aforesaid the Bishops and their Clergies did appeal to the See of Rome And divers times they obtained sentences and executions against him and some remained undecided by the reason of the death of the AB or Bp. complainant for remedy and redress of the same In like maner as we your faithful Subjects have now for this our grief appeled unto your Majesty Item It is to be considered Whether any Metropolitan in other Christen realmes being now Legate doth exercise the premisses after the form now here pretended in his Visitation And in case they do not as it is said they do not attempt any such things but only in their Visitations Provincial useth that the Common Law giveth them then here to be repealed and extinguished for ever To the intent that the Bishops of R. hereafter shal have no color to maintain and justify that they keep here yet and continue the possession of their authority and of our subjection by their Legate Saying that although the AB doth relinquish the name of a Legate yet nevertheless he exerciseth such jurisdiction as the Laws never gave to Metropolitans nor no AB in Christendome doth exercise Legates of the See of R. only excepted And therfore it is to be provided that no sparks remain wherby he might suscitate any such flame if the matter should come in question Finally It is to be remembred that the Bishops nor their Clergies do not refuse to accept and obey the Visitation of the AB as Metropolitan and to pay to him proxies due and accustomed But where the Bishops hath not only the common Laws but also Bulls and Sentences executed against his Predecessors and that long before the making of the Statutes against Provisions declaring what sums he shal not pass for the Proxies of their Churches the Officers of the AB demandeth much more
Part and Opinion to be on his Part. For being now after some absence returned to Cambridg divers of the University and some of those Doctors that before had given in their Judgments to the King for the Validity of the Pope's Dispensation repaired to him to know his Opinion And after long Reasoning he changed the Minds of Five of the Six Then almost in every Disputation both in Private Houses and in the Common Schools this was one Question Whether the Pope might dispense with the Brother to marry the Brother's Wife after Carnal Knowledg And it was of many openly defended that he might not The Secretary when he came Home acquainted the King with what they had done and how Dr. Cranmer had changed the Minds of Five of the said Learned Men of Cambridg and of many others beside Afterward this University as well as the other determined the King's Cause against the Pope's Dispensation From an Academic our Doctor being now become a Courtier he so prudently demeaned himself that he was not only dear to the Earl of Wiltshire's Family but grew much favoured by the Nobility in general as the Lord Herbert collects from the Historians of those Times and especially by the King himself He was very much about him the King holding frequent Communication with him and seemed unwilling to have him absent Which may appear from hence that when Cranmer was minded for some reason to resort to the Earl of Wiltshire who was then from Hampton-Court and as it seems at London upon some Occasions of his own he doubted whether the King would let him go And so he writ to him that he would come the next Day to him If the King's Grace let him not CHAP. II. Pole's Book about the King's Matrimony ABout this time a Book of Reginald Pole afterwards Cardinal earnestly perswading the King to continue his Marriage with his Queen fell into Dr. Cranmer's Hands I do not find mention of this Book in any Historian that hath come to my Hands No not in his Life published by Bacatellus Bishop of Ragusa though he hath there given us a Catalogue of his Books But in likelihood the Reason was because this was some private Discourse or Letter chiefly intended for the King 's own Use as appears from some words of Cranmer concerning it Viz. That it was writ with that Eloquence that if it were set forth and known to the common People an evidence it was a more private Writing it were not possible to perswade them to the contrary It was penned about the Year 1530 as may be collected from another Passage in the said Writing wherein he mentioneth the King's living in Wedlock with Queen Katherine twenty Years the expiration of which fell in about that Time What induced Pole to write on this Subject is to me uncertain for he avoided as much as could be to meddle in this Affair out of Fear of the King's Displeasure which was the Reason of his departing Abroad Probably it was at the King's Command like as some Years after he commanded him to write his Judgment of the Title of Supream Head which he had lately assumed Which occasioned Pole's four Books of Ecclesiastical Vnity For some about the King had told him it would have a great Influence upon the People especially the Nobility if he could bring Pole over to allow and approve of his Marriage Who was a Person tho then but Young yet highly valued in the Nation for his Piety and Learning and great Descent The Book was soon delivered whether by the Earl of Wiltshire or the King himself unto the Examination and Consideration of Cranmer now the great Court-Divine Who after he had greedily perused it sent the Contents of it in a Letter to his Friend and Patron the Earl being then absent from Court The Book though the Argument of it chiefly depended upon Divinity proceeded more on Political Principles than Divine Take the following account of it as Cranmer gave it in his said Letter First Pole treated of the Danger of Diversity of Titles to the Crown Which might follow if the present Marriage with Queen Katherine were rejected in which there was an Heir and another consummated As appeared by the Titles and Pretensions of the two Houses of Lancaster and York And that the King ought to provide against the Miseries that might be brought upon his Realm by the People if he should reject his Daughter whom they took for his Lawful Heir and should perswade them to take another Then he urged the Danger of incurring the Emperor's Displeasure the Queen being his Aunt and the Princess his Cousin Then he proceeded to consider the Reasons that moved the King to his present Resolutions Namely That God's Law forbad marrying the Brother's Wife And that the People however averse at first besides that it belongâ—d not to them to judg of such Matters would be content in the King's Doings when they should know how the ancient Doctors of the Church and so many great Universities were on the King's Side And that however the Emperor might fall out with the King for this Matter yet God would never fail those that stood on his part and refused to transgress his Commandments and that England might depend on the French King's Aid by virtue of the League which he had entred into with the King and the old Grudg which he bore towards the Emperor Afterwards Pole goes on to review these Reasons And first his Judgment was that Scripture might be brought to justify this Marriage and that there was as good ground of Scripture for that as for the part which the King then took namely the unlawfulness of it That if indeed he thought the King's Part was just and that his Marriage were undoubtedly against God's Pleasure then he could not deny but that it should be well done for the King to refuse it and take another Wife Yet he confessed that for his own part he could not find in his Heart to have any Hand or be any furtherer or abetter in it Acknowledging however that he had no good Reason for it but only out of Affection and Duty to the King's Person Because he would not disannul the Princess his Daughter's Title nor accuse the most part of the King's Life as the Books written on the King's part did As though he had lived in a Matrimony Shameful Abominable Bestial and against Nature This seemed an high Complement of Pole's indeed that he would rather chuse to let the King live and die in an habitual Breach of God's Law than be guilty of something that might argue a want of civil Affection and Duty in him And as concerning the People his Judgment was That neither by Learning nor Preaching would they ever be brought into an ill Conceit of the King 's former Marriage and to think so dishonourably of their King as to live so many Years in Matrimony so abominable But as they had
Judg of the Prerogative Court and Counsellor to the Emperor and a Man of deep Learning Who confessed to the said Ambassador that the Marriage was naught but that he durst not say so openly for fear both of the Pope and Emperor Yet he was afterwards cast into Prison where he died for expressing his Mind as was thought somewhat more plainly in this Affair While he was now abroad in Germany he went to Norimberg where Osiander was Pastor And being a Man of Fame and Learning our Ambassador became acquainted with him sending for him sometimes to discourse with him and sometimes he would go to Osiander's House to visit him and his Study This eminent Divine of the German Protestant Church he also gained to favour the King's Cause For he wrote a Book of Incestuous Marriages wherein he determined the King's present Matrimony to be unlawful But this Book was called in by a Prohibition printed at Augsburgh And there was also a Form of a Direction drawn up by the same Osiander how the King's Process should be managed Which was sent over hither Cranmer's Discourse with Osiander at these their Meetings concerning divers Matters relating especially to Christian Doctrine and True Religion were so wise and good that that great Divine stood in admiration of him as though he had been inspired from Above In one of their Conferences Osiander communicated to him certain Papers wherein he had been attempting to harmonize the Gospels but by reason of the Difficulty that often arose had thrown them aside A thing this was which Cranmer declared to him his great Approbation of as he was always a Man greatly studious of the Scripture and earnestly desirous that the right knowledg thereof might be encreased So he vehemently exhorted him to go forward in this Study and to finish it with all convenient speed For that it would not only he said be of use to the Church of Christ but adorn it These Admonitions gave new strength to Osiander to fall afresh about this Work and at last to bring it to a conclusion In the Year 1537 he published it and dedicated it to Cranmer then Arch-Bishop the great Encourager of the Author In some of these Visits Crâ—nmer saw Osiander's Niece and obtained her for his Wife Whom when he returned from his Embassy he brought not over with him But in the Year 1534. he privately sent for her And kept her with him till the Year 1539 in the severe time of the six Articles when he sent her back in Secret to her Friends in Germany for a time By these Visits and this Affinity there grew a very cordial Love between Cranmer and Osiander and a great Correspondence was maintained by Letters between them long after A parcel of these Letters in Manuscript the Right Reverend the Bishop of Sarum mentioned in his History of the Reformation Which he met with in the exquisite Library of Mr. Richard Smith as he told a Friend of mine But notwithstanding my enquiry after them I had not the good fortune to see them nor to find into whose Hands they were come after the selling of that Library by Auction Which Letters if I could have procured a sight of might have served somewhat perhaps in this my Undertaking We are now slipp'd into the Year 1532. And among other Services which he did Abroad besides his promoting the King's great Matrimonial Cause among the German Princes and States as well as others he was employed for the establishing and securing a Traffick between the Merchants of England and the Emperor 's Low Countries Concerning which the former Contract it seems began to shake occasioned by that Luke-warmness of Affection that now grew between these two Monarchs About this Affair our Ambassador had divers Conferences with Monsieur Grandeville the Emperor 's great Minister at Regensburgh The effect of his last Sollicitation was that Grâ—ndeville had told him that the Diet concerning the said Contract was held in Flanders where the Queen of Hungary was Governess and therefore that the Emperor would do nothing therein without her advice and that he would make answer by her rather than by him And so Cranmer desired the King that it would please his Grace no further to look for Answer from him therein but from the Queen unto whom the whole Answer was committed Another Business our Ambassador was now agitating at this Court for the King was about sending Supplies to the Emperor against the Turk Who had now made a formidable Invasion in Hungary with an Army consisting of three hundred thousand Men. The Emperor had lately by virtue of a former League and for the Common Cause of Christianity demanded certain Forces of the King for this purpose Now what measures his Ambassador was to take with the Emperor in this Affair William Paget his Majesty's Servant the same that was afterward Secretary of State was dispatched to him with Instructions Wherein were contained what Answer he should make to the Emperor's Demands Which he reported accordingly to Grandeville The which Answer he delivered to him in writing upon the desire of Grandeville for this Reason as he urged that he might relate the same the more truly to the Emperor He was now in the Month of September drawing towards the Turk from Abagh a Place not far from Regensburgh where our English Ambassador now resided not having yet returned any Reply to him prevented by that hurry of Business that then lay upon the Emperor So that upon Grandeville's intimation to repair unto the Emperor at Lintz which was in his way to Vienna and that there he should have an Answer in Writing again the Ambassador followed thither in Company with the Ambassador of France And so he with the other Ambassador in eight or ten days space furnished themselves with Wagons Horses Ships Tents and other things necessary to the Journey for themselves and their Train But before his departure he informed the King of the News in those Parts As that the Turk resided still in Hungary in the same Place invironed on all parts Of which more at large he had written in his former Letters That King Ferdinando the Emperor's Brother who was then at Regensburgh was to meet the Emperor at Passaw fourteen miles from thence and so both were to pass forth to Lintz which was the mid-way from Regensburgh to Vienna That the Emperor would tarry there to take Counsel what to do and there all the Ambassadors should know his Pleasure He sent the King also the Copy of the Emperor's Proclamation concerning a General Council and a Reformation to be had in Germany for the Controversies of the Faith Which he was constrained to do his Affairs with the Turk pressing him so much The Sum thereof was That his Imperial Majesty declared Peace throughout all Germany Enjoining that none should be molested for the Cause of Religion until the Council should be called or in case there were
who had no Authority within this Realm Whereat the King made a Pause and then asked him how he was able to prove it At which time he alledged several Texts out of Scripture and the Fathers proving the Supream Authority of Kings in their own Realms and Dominions and withal shewing the intolerable Usurpations of the Bishops of Rome Of this the King talked several times with him and perceiving that he could not be brought to acknowledg the Pope's Authority the King called one Dr. Oliver an eminent Lawyer and other Civilians and devised â—ith them how he might bestow the Arch-Bishoprick upon him salving his Conscience They said he might do it by way of Protestation and so one to be sent to Rome to take the Oath and do every thing in his Name Cranmer said to this It should be super animam suam and seemed to be satisfied in what the Lawyers told him And accordingly when he was consecrated made his Protestation That he did not admit the Pope's Authority any further than it agreed with the express Word of God And that it might be lawful for him at all times to speak against him and to impugn his Errors when there should be occasion And so he did Whether Warham the Arch-deacon had conceived any Prejudice against our new Arch-Bishop by some warning given him by the former Arch-Bishop as was hinted above or whether he was willing to give place upon Cranmer's Entreaty that he might provide for his Brother so it was that Edmund Cranmer Brother to the Arch-Bishop succeeded Warham in the Arch-deaconry of Canterbury and the Provostship of Wingham Who parted with both these Dignities by Cession And by the Privity and Consent of the Arch-Bishop he had a Stipend or Pension of sixty pounds per Annum allowed him during his Life out of the Arch-deaconary and twenty pounds per Annum out of Wingham by his Successor aforesaid Who continued Arch-deacon until Queen Mary's Days and was then deprived and his Prebend and his Parsonage of Ickham all taken from him in the Year 1554 for being a married Clerk The first was given to Nicholas Harpsfield the second to Robert Collins Bachelour of Law and Commissary of Canterbury and the third to Robert Marsh. The King had before linked him into his great Business about Queen Katharine and the Lady Anne So now when he had nominated him for Arch-Bishop he made him a Party and an Actor in every step almost which he took in that Affair For to fetch the Matter a little backward Not long before the Archiepiscal See was devolved upon Cranmer the King had created the Lady Anne Marchioness of Pembroke and taken her along with him in great State into France when by their mutual Consent there was an Interview appointed between the two Kings At Calais King Henry permitted Francis the French King to take a view of this Lady who then made both Kings a curious and rich Mask where both honoured her by dancing This was in the month of October In the Month before I find a parcel of very rich Jewels were sent from Greenwich to Hampton Court by Mr. Norrys probably he who was Groom of the Stole and executed upon Queen Ann's Business afterwards Which Jewels as some of them might be for the King 's own wearing now he was going into France so in all probability others were either lent or given to the Marchioness to adorn and make her fine when she should appear and give her entertainment to the French King For the sake of such as be curious I have set down in the Appendix a Particular of these most splendid and Royal Jewels from an Original signed with the King 's own Hand in token of his Receit of them Immediately after the King's and â—â—e Marchionesses return from France he married her At which Wedding though very private the Arch-Bishop was one that assisted according to the Lord Herbert but according to the Author of the Britannic Antiquities did the Sacred Office When she was crowned Queen which was Whitsontide following the Arch-Bishop performed the Ceremonies When after that the King had a Daughter by her he would have the Arch-Bishop assist at the Christening and be her Godfather And before this when Queen Katharine was to be divorced from the King and the Pope's Dispensation of that Marriage declared Null our Arch-Bishop pronounced the Sentence and made the Declaration solemnly and publickly at Dunstable Priory Thus the King dipped and engaged Cranmer with himself in all his Proceeding in this Cause Now as all these doings had danger in them so especially this last highly provoked the Pope for doing this without his Leave and Authority as being a presumptuous Encroachment upon his Prerogative Insomuch that a publick Act was made at Rome that unless the King undid all that he had done and restored all things in integrum leaving them to his Decision he would excommunicate him And this Sentence was affixed and set up publickly at Dunkirk Which put the King upon an Appeal from the Pope to the next General Council lawfully called The Arch-Bishop also foreseeing the Pope's Threatning hovering likewise over his Head by the King's Advice made his Appeal by the English Ambassador there I have seen the King's Original Letter to Dr. Bonner ordering him to signify to the Pope in Order and Form of Law his Appeal sending him also the Instrument of his Appeal with the Proxy devised for that purpose This bare date August 18 th from his Castle at Windsor I have reposited it in the Appendix Which Order of the King Bonner did accordingly discharge at an Audience he got of the Pope at Marceilles November 7. And that Letter which the Lord Herbert saith he saw of Bonner to the King wherein he signified as much must be his Answer to this of the King to him Dr. Cranmer having now yielded to the King to accept the Arch-Bishoprick it was in the beginning of the next Year viz. 1533. March 30. and in the 24 th of King Henry that he received his Consecration But that ushered in with abundance of Bulls some dated in February and some in March from Pope Clement to the number of Eleven as may be seen at length in the beginning of this Arch-Bishop's Register The first was to King Henry upon his Nomination of Cranmer to him to be Arch-Bishop The Pope alloweth and promoteth him accordingly The second was a Bull to Cranmer himself signifying the same The third Bull absolved him from any Sentences of Excommunication Suspension Interdiction c. It was written from the Pope to him under the Title of Arch-deacon of Taunton in the Church of Wells and Master in Theology and ran thus Nos ne forsan aliquibus sententiis censuris poenis Ecclesiasticis ligatus sis c. Volentes te a quibusvis excommunicationis suspensionis interdicti aliisque Ecclesiasticis sententiis censuris poenis a jure
Serenissimam Catharinam necessario esse faciendum The twelfth and concluding Article is this We think that the pretended Matrimony of Henry King of England and Catharine the Queen hath been and is none at all being prohibited both by the Law of God and Nature CHAP. V. The Arch-Bishop visits his Diocess AFter his Sentence against Q. Katharine and confirmation of Q. Ann's Marriage one thing he did which looked as if he was not like to prove any great Friend to a Reformation For he forbad all Preaching throughout his Diocess and warned the rest of the Bishops throughout England to do the same as I have it from an old Journal made by a Monk of St. Augustine's Canterbury But this was only for a time till Orders for Preachers and the Beads could be finished it being thought convenient that Preaching at this Juncture should be restrained because now the Matter of Sermons chiefly consisted in tossing about the King's Marriage with the Lady Anne and condemning so publickly and boldly his doings against Q. Katharine the Priests being set on work by her Friends and Faction In October or November the Arch-bishop went down to Canterbury in order to a Visitation The third day of December the Arch-bishop received the Pontifical Seat in the Monastery of the Holy Trinity And soon after viz. the Ninth of the same Month began to go on Visitation throughout all his Diocess that he might have finished that Work before the Sessions of the Parliament This same Year a remarkable Delusion was discovered in the Arch-bishop's Diocess and even under his Nose the Scene being chiefly laid in Canterbury by some belonging to the Cathedral Church For a certain Nun called Elizabeth Barton by marvellous Hypocrisy mocked all Kent and almost all England For which Cause she was put in Prison in London Where she confessed many horrible things against the King and the Queen This forenamed Elizabeth had many Adherents but especially Dr. Bocking Monk of Christ's-Church in Canterbury who was her chief Author in her Dissimulation All of them at the last were accused of Treason Heresy and Conspiracy And so stood in Penance before the open Cross of S. Paul's in London and in Canterbury in the Church-yard of the Monastery of the Holy Trinity at the Sermon time they stood over the high Seat where of the Preacher they were grievously rebuked for their horrible Fact And in April the next Year she with Bocking and Dering another Monk of Canterbury were led out of Prison through all the Streets of London unto Tyburn where she and these Monks and also two Brothers of the Minors suffered with the rest upon the Gallows for Treason and Heresy In the Month of November the Arch-bishop sent a Letter to Bonner the King's Ambassador at Marseilles together with his Appeal from the Pope to be there signified as was hinted before The reason whereof was this Upon the King's Divorce from Q. Katharine the Pope had by a publick Instrument declared the Divorce to be null and void and threatned him with Excommunication unless he would revoke all that he had done Gardiner Bishop of Winton about this time and upon this occasion was sent Ambassador to the French King and Bonner soon after followed him to Marseilles Where Gardiner at the interview between the French King and the Pope now was For the King and the Council apprehended some Mischief to be hatching against the Kingdom by the Pope who was now inciting the Emperor and other Princes to make War upon us And indeed he had vaunted as the Ld Herbert declares that he would set all Christendom against the King And the Emperor in discourse had averred that by the means of Scotland he would avenge his Aunt 's Quarrel The Arch-bishop in this Juncture had secret intimation of a Design to excommunicate him and interdict his Church Whereupon as the King by Bonner Novemb 7 had made his Appeal from the Pope to the next General Council lawfully called so by the King and Council's Advice the Arch-bishop soon after did the same sending his Appeal with his Proxy under his Seal to Bonner desiring him together with Gardiner to consult together and to intimate his Appeal in the best manner they could think expedient for him And this Letter he wrote by the King 's own Commandment It was not the Hand of the Arch-bishop nor of his Secretary So I suppose it was drawn up by some of his own Lawyers and is as followeth In my right hearty manner I commend me to you So it is as you know right well I stand in dread lest our Holy Father the Pope do intend to make some manner of prejudicial Process against me and my Church And therefore having probable Conjectures thereof I have appeal'd from his Holiness to the General Council accordingly as his Highness and his Council have advised me to do Which my Appeal and Procuracie under my Seal I do send unto you herewith desiring you right-heartily to have me commended to my Ld of Winchester and with his Advice and Counsel to intimate the said Provocation after the best manner that his Lordship and you shall think most expedient for me I am the bolder thus to write unto you because the King's Highness commandeth me this to do as you shall I trust further perceive by his Grace's Letter Nothing doubting in your Goodness but at this mine own desire you will be contented to take this Pains though his Highness shall percase forget to write unto you therein Which your Pains and Kindness if it shall lie in me in time to come to recompense I wol not forget it with God's Grace Who preserve you as my self From Lambeth the xxvii th day of November Thomas Cantuar. Cranmer being now placed at the Head of the Church of England next under God and the King and the chief care of it devolved upon him his great study was conscientiously to discharge this high Vocation And one of the first things wherein he shewed his good Service to the Church was done in the Parliament in the latter end of this Year 1533. When the Supremacy came under debate and the usurped Power of the Bishop of Rome was propounded then the old Collections of the new Arch-bishop did him good service for the chief and in a manner the whole burden of this weighty Cause was laid upon his Shoulders Insomuch that he was forced to answer to all that ever the whole Rabble of the Papists could say for the defence of the Pope's Supremacy And he answered so plainly directly and truly to all their Arguments and proved so evidently and stoutly both by the Word of God and Consent of the Primitive Church that this usurped Power of the Pope is a meer Tyranny and directly against the Law of God and that the Power of Emperors and Kings is the highest Power here upon Earth Unto which Bishops Priests Popes and Cardinals ought to submit
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
Angliae quam quivis externus Episcopus That is That the Bishop of Rome hath not some greater Iurisdiction conferred upon him by God in this Realm of England than any other Foreign Bishop This was consented to by the Prior's own Hand subscribed and sixty nine of the Convent besides The Original whereof is in a Volume of the Cotton Library In another place of the same Volume is extant the Subscription of the Bishops Deans and several Abbots and after that of the University of Oxford and all the particular Colleges and after that the Names of all the subscribing Priors of England The Arch-bishop was one employed about the Act of Succession that was made the last Sessions of Parliament which was to invest the Succession to the Crown upon the Heirs of Q. Ann and that Q. Katharine should be no more called Queen but Princess Dowager In the Preamble to the Act there were certain Touches against the Pope's Supremacy and against his Power of dispensing in the King 's former Marriage with his Brother's Wife carnally known by him To this Act all Persons were to swear to accept and maintain the same upon pain of Treason The Arch-bishop of Canterbury the Ld Chancellor Audley Secretary Crumwel the Abbot of Westminster and others were the King's Commissioners appointed to tender this Oath The Nobility and Gentry took it none denying to which they set their Hands in a long List. On the 13 th of April the Commissioners sat at Lambeth to receive the Oaths of the Clergy and chiefly those of London that had not yet sworn who all took it not one excepted And a certain Doctor Vicar of Croyden that it seems made some boggle before went up with the rest of whom Sir Thomas More who then stood by made an Observation how as he past he went to my Lord 's Buttery-hatch and called for Drink and drank valde familiariter whether saith he sarcastically it were for Gladness or Driness or Quod ille notus erat Pontifici The Oath also now was taken by Dr. Wylson a great Court-Divine in those Days who for Queen Katharine's Business was a Prisoner at this time though a great while he was unsatisfied and consulted much with Sir Thomas More about the Lawfulness of taking it The same Day were conveyed hither from the Tower Bishop Fisher and Sir Thomas More the only Layman at this Meeting to tender this Oath to them Who both being separately called refused it After the Clergy were sworn and dispatched immediately Sir Thomas by himself was sent for the second time Now he had much talk with the Lords who would fain have brought him to comply They urged him to declare the Causes why he would not Swear But he excused his so doing Then they charged him with Obstinacy He said it was not Obstinacy but because he might not declare his Mind without peril of incurring the King's further Displeasure He told the Commissioners that for his part he condemned not the Consciences of any but that he was dissatisfied in his own Conscience for certain Reasons The Arch-bishop taking hold of this spake to him thus That it appeared well that Sir Thomas did not take it for a very sure thing and a certain that he might not lawfully swear but rather as a thing uncertain and doubtful But you know said my Lord for a certainty and for a thing without doubt that you be bound to obey your Soveraign Lord the King And therefore are you bound to leave off the doubt of your unsure Conscience in refusing the Oath and take the sure way in obeying of your Prince who commands you to Swear This Argument as Sir Thomas confessed in one of his Letters to his Daughter Roper seemed so subtil and with such Authority coming out of so Noble a Prelate's Mouth that he could answer again nothing thereto but only that he thought with himself that he might not so do because that in his Conscience this was one of the Causes in which he was bounden that he should not obey his Prince sith that whatsoever other Folks thought in the Matter whose Conscience or Learning as he said he would not condemn or take upon him to judg yet in his Conscience the Truth seemed on the other Side wherein he had informed his Conscience neither suddenly nor slightly but by long leisure and diligent search for the Matter In fine the farthest Sir Thomas could be brought and which he offered voluntarily that Morning was to swear to the Succession which was the main Design of the Act though not to the Preamble At parting the Lord Chancellor bad the Secretary before More take notice that More denied not but was content to swear the Succession More assented and said in that Point he would be contented so that he might see the Oath so framed as might stand with his Conscience Fisher Bishop of Rochester offered the same before this Assembly that More had done and in a Letter of his afterwards writ to the Secretary assigned the Reason why he could with a good Conscience swear to the Succession viz. because he doubted not but that the Prince of a Realm with the Assent of the Nobles and Commons might appoint his Successors according as he pleased In the Appendix this Letter will be found which Bishop Fisher writ upon occasion of the Secretary's Advice who laboured to gain him that he should write to the King to declare his Mind to him in swearing to the Succession and to petition him to let that suffice because his Conscience could not consent to the rest of the Act. The Secretary also had sent unto Fisher lying in the Tower Lee Bishop Elect of Lichfield and Coventry to whom he declared again that he would take the Oath to the Succession and moreover that he would swear never to meddle more in Disputation of the Matrimony and promised all Allegiance to the King But he told Lee his Conscience could not be convinced that the Marriage was against the Law of God because of a Prohibition in the Levitical Law See Lee's Letter in the Appendix to Secretary Crumwel The Arch-bishop soon after that meeting of the Commissioners at Lambeth retired to Croydon And being a Man not kind to his own Party and Perswasion only and fierce and bloody-minded to them that differed from him but compassionate towards all Friend and Foe his tender Spirit suggested to him to make this serve for an Occasion to intercede for More and Fisher to Crumwel shewing him in a Letter dated April the 17 th how adviseable in his Judgment it would be to be satisfied with that Oath they had offered to swear in case they would swear to maintain the said Succession against all Power and Potentates Urging to him that there would be these Advantages gained thereby First That it would be a means to satisfy the Consciences of the Princess Dowager and the Lady Mary who it seems made
their own Houses where they received Causes Complaints and Appeals and had learned Civilians living with them that were Auditors of the said Causes before the Arch-bishop gave Sentence pretending that he held it as the Pope's Legat Urging also the great Troubles and Inconveniences it caused both to the Clergy and the Laity and that every Man must by virtue of that Court be forced up to London from the farthest part of the Land for a slanderous Word or a Trifle And that they thought it convenient if it were the King's Pleasure to continue that Court that he would settle it upon some other and not upon the Arch-bishop that so it might appear the Original of that Court was from the King and not from the Pope And lastly that it would not be safe to constitute the Arch-bishop the Pope's Legat because it would infringe the Power of the Vicar-General This was drawn up in way of Petition and Complaint either to the King or Parliament by a Combination of some of the Convocation as I suspect the Paper being writ by the Hand of the Register of the Lower House of Convocation The great Wheel we may be sure that set a moving this Device was Winchester his never-failing Adversary The King notwithstanding bad the Arch-bishop maintain his Court. And he answered all their Pleas against it and by way of Protestation affirmed that he kept not his Court by virtue of his Bull from Rome for Legat and that none could suspect that he did And that he saw no Cause but that he might keep that Court by virtue of the late Act of Parliament that gave Power to enjoy all things that were before had from the See of Rome And finally he answered that it was the King's Will and Command that he should continue his Court. To which the Convocation or rather some part of it made a Reply that may be seen in the Appendix But notwithstanding these Discouragements which were thrown in probably to hinder his good Designs the Arch-bishop vigorously prosecuted a Reformation at this Convocation Where assisted by Crumwel the King's Vicar General he earnestly laboured for the redress of several Abuses and Errors in the English Church And that not without good Success at length For after much deliberation among the Clergy there assembled and much opposition too he got a Book of divers good Articles to that purpose to be agreed upon and subscribed An account of which by and by shall follow CHAP. XI Articles of Religion NOW though I do not find the King went so far as that it should be enjoined on all the Clergy to own the Articles of this Book by their own Hands subscribed yet he published and recommended them to all his loving Subjects in general to accept and repute them to be agreeable to God's Laws and proper for the establishment of Peace and Concord And further probably in prudence the King thought not fit yet to go considering the great Disputes and Arguments that had happened in the Convocation hereupon Now because this was one of the great Services our pious Prelate contributed to the Church and was one of the first Steps made in the Reformation of the Doctrine and Worship it will not be amiss here in order to the inlightning this History to set down the Heads of this Book though it be done by others before me And notwithstanding what the Noble Author of the History of Henry VIII saith he gathered by some Records that this Book was devised by the King himself and recommended afterwards to the Convocation by Crumwel yet we have reason to attribute a great share therein to the Arch-bishop They that are minded to see a Draught of these Articles from the Original with the Royal Assent prefixed to them may have it in Dr. Fuller's Church-History Which he tells us he transcribed out of the Acts of the Convocation The Bishop of Sarum also met with an Original of them in the Cotton Library wrote out fairly as it seems for the King 's own Use and subscribed with all the Hands of the Convocation thereunto He also hath inserted the Transcript of them in the first part of his History of the Reformation In the Rebellion in the North which happened this Year 1536 chiefly raised by Priests and Friars many Copies of these Articles for the Book was printed by Barthelet did Crumwel send by the King's Order to the Duke of Norfolk the King's Lieutenant there to disperse in those Parts together with the Original Copy it self as it was signed by the Hands of the Convocation amounting to the number of 116 Bishops Abbots Priors Arch-deacons and Proctors of the Clergy Which the said Duke had order to shew unto the Clergy and others as occasion served that they might understand it was a proper Act of the Church and no Innovation of the King and a few of his Counsellors as they gave out And after he had made his use of this Original he was required to reserve it safe for the King This choice Treasure which the King himself required such care to be taken of Sir Robert Cotton afterwards procured at his no small Expence no doubt It is very fairly written in Vellam and at the bottom of the first Page is written Robertus Cotton Bruceus by Sir Robert's own Hand signifying his Value of this Monument It is still extant in that incomparable Library in the Volume Cleopatra E. 5. And there I have seen it and diligently compared it Excuse this Digression and I now proceed to the Articles themselves These Articles were of two sorts some concerning Faith and some concerning Ceremonies The former sort were digested under these five Titles following I. The Principal Articles of Faith And they were these That all those things that be comprehended in the whole Body and Canon of the Bible and in the three Creeds are true and constantly to be believed That we take and hold the same for the most holy and infallible Words of God That the Articles of the Faith contained in the Creeds are necessary to be believed for Man's Salvation That the same words be kept in which the Articles of Faith are conceived That all Opinions contrary to the Articles and which were condemned in the four first Councils are to be utterly refused II. The Sacrament of Baptism That it was instituted and ordained by Iesus Christ as necessary to Everlasting Life That by it all as well Infants as such as have the use of Reason have Remission of Sins and the Grace and Favour of God offered them That Infants and Innocents must be Baptized because the Promise of Grace and Everlasting Life pertains as well to them as to those who have the use of Reason And that therefore Baptized Infants shall undoubtedly be saved That they are to be Baptized because of Original Sin which is remitted only by Baptism That they that are once Baptized must not be
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
so much that the Bishops and Priests grew for this Cause as well as for their Cruelty into great dislike with the People This more at large is shewed in a short Manuscript Treatise I have made by a certain Person nameless imprisoned for Religion intitled thus All sorts of People of England have just Cause of displeasure against the Bishops and Priests of the same There was this Year April 2 a new Parliament that the last Year being dissolved Great was the Sadness that now possessed the Hearts of the English Nation even of Papists themselves the most considerate and wisest part of them seeing the great Slavery the Kingdom was like to be ensnared in by what the Parliament was now in doing that is to say restoring the Pope's Tyranny here in England that had been so long and happily cast out and allowing the Queen's matching with Prince Philip whereby a Spaniard should become King of England Which when P. Martyr had signified in a Letter from Strasburgh to Calvin May 8 he told him Tanta est rerum perturbatio ut nullo pacto explicari queat That it could not be told what a Disturbance there now was and that all good Men that could fled away from their own Country from all Parts of the Land Mentioning three noble Knights to be come lately to Strasburg not less famous for Piety then Learning Morisin Cheke and Cook At this Parliament wherein the Mass was set up and confirmed by an Act all that were suspected to favour the Truth were turned out of the House Which made Hoper out of Prison in one of his Letters write Doubtless there had not been seen before our Time such a Parliament as this that as many as were suspected to be Favourers of God's Word should be banished out of both Houses In this Parliament a strong and certain Report went that the bloody Act of the Six Articles should be revived and put in execution This created abundance of Terror in Mens Hearts There was nothing but Sighs and Lamentations every where and a great many were already fled out of the Realm unto whom this Rumor had reached Iohn Fox a Learned and Pious Man who had an excellent pathetick Stile was now set on work Who took his Pen in his Hand and in the Name of the Protestant Exiles wrote a most earnest expostulatory Letter to the Parliament to disswade them from restoring this Law again He told them they had a Queen who as She was most Noble so She was ready to listen to sound and wholesome Counsel And that they had a Lord Chancellor that as he was Learned so of his own Nature he was not Bad were it not for the Counsels of some But that as among Animals some there were that were born to create Trouble and Destruction to the other so there were among Mankind some by Nature cruel and destructive some to the Church and some to the State The Letter is worthy the Reading Which I have therefore placed in the Appendix as I transcribed it out of a Manuscript Collection of Fox's Letters There was indeed such a Design in the House of Commons of bringing again into force that Act of the Six Articles but whether it were by the importunity of this and other Petitions or that the Court thought it not convenient so much to countenance any of K. Henry's Acts this Business fell And this Parliament was short-liv'd for in May it was dissolved by reason of a Bill for confirming Abby-Lands to the present Possessors which it seems gave offence to the Court. CHAP. X. Arch-bishop Cranmer disputes at Oxon. A Convocation of the Clergy now met in S. Paul's but was adjourned the Prolocutor Dr. Weston Dean of Westminster and some other of the Members being sent to Oxon and it was generally thought the Parliament would remove thither too to dispute certain Points of Religion in Controversy with three of the Heads of the Protestant Party Arch-bishop Cranmer Bishop Ridley and old Father Latimer now all Prisoners Who for that purpose in the Month of April were removed from the Tower by the Queen's Warrant to the Lieutenant towards Windsor and there taken into Custody of Sir Iohn afterwards Lord Williams who conveyed them to Oxford there to remain in order to a Disputation The Convocation while they sat at London agreed upon the Questions to be disputed and they resolved that these three pious Men should be baited by both the Universities and therefore that they of Cambridg should be excited to repair to Oxford and engage in this Disputation also The Questions were these I. In Sacramento Altaris virtute verbi divini a Sacerdote prolati praesens est realiter sub speciebus panis vini naturale corpus Christi conceptum de virgine Maria item naturalis ejus sanguis II. Post consecrationem non remanet substantia panis vini neque alia ulla substantia nisi substantia Christi Dei Hominis III. In Missa est vivisicum Ecclesiae Sacrificium pro peccatis tam vivorum quam mortuorum propitiabile These Questions the Convocation sent to the University of Cambridg requiring them seriously to weigh and deliberate upon them and if they contained true Doctrine then to approve of them Accordingly the Senate of that University met and after due deliberation found them agreeable in all things to the Catholick Church and the Scripture and the antient Doctrine taught by the Fathers and so did confirm and ratify them in their said Senate And because Cranmer Ridley and Latimer the Heads of the Hereticks that held contrary to these Articles were formerly Members of their University and being to be disputed withal at Oxford concerning these Points they decreed in the Name of all the University to send seven of their Learned Doctors to Oxford to take their parts in disputing with them and to use all ways possible to reclaim them to the Orthodox Doctrine again And accordingly the said Senate April 10. made a publick Instrument to authorize them in their Names to go to Oxford and dispute Which Instrument may be seen in the Appendix They also wrote a Letter the same Date to the University of Oxford to signify that they had appointed those Persons to repair unto them not so much to dispute Points so professedly Orthodox and agreeable to the Fathers and General Councils and the Word of God as to defend those Truths in their Names and reduce those Patrons of false and corrupt Doctrine if possible unto a sound Mind This Letter is also in the Appendix So that this coming of the Cambridg-Divines to Oxford was to seem a voluntary thing to shew their Zeal for Popery and vindication of their University against liking or approbation of Cranmer and his two Fellow-Prisoners So roundly was the University already come about to the old forsaken Religion This Oxford-Disputation was after this manner Hugh Weston S.T.P. Prolocutor of the
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
meaning Thirlby Hethe Tonstal c. that they held their Peace for this Consideration though they knew this well enough Who if they had done their Duty to the Crown and Realm should have opened their Mouths at this Time and shewn the Peril and Danger that might insue to the Crown hereby Another Cause he urged to the Queen why he could not allow the Pope's Authority was Because he subverted not only the Laws of the Nation but the Laws of God So that whosoever be under his Authority he suffered them not to be under Christ's Religion purely For proof of which he gave these Instances God's Will and Commandment is that when the People be gathered together to serve God the Ministers should use such a Language as the People might understand and take profit thereby For God said by the Mouth of S. Paul As a Harp or Lute if it give no certain sound that Men may know what is stricken who can dance after it it is put in vain So it is in vain profiteth nothing if the Priest speak to the People in a Language they know not And whereas when he urged this to the Commissioners they told him That that Place respected Preaching only He told the Queen That S. Paul's words meant it not only of Preaching for that he spake expresly of Praying Singing and giving Thanks and of all other things which the Priests say in the Churches And so he said all Interpreters Greek and Latin Old and New School-Authors and others that he had read understood it Till about thirty Years past Eckius and others of his Sort began to invent this new Exposition And so he said all the best Learned Divines that met at Windsor 1549 for the Reformation of the Church both of the New Learning and the Old agreed without Controversy not one opposing that the Service of the Church ought to be in the Mother-Tongue and that that Place of S. Paul was so to be understood Again Christ ordained the Sacrament to be received of Christian People under both Forms of Bread and Wine and said Drink ye all of this The Pope gives a clean contrary Command That no Lay-man shall drink of the Cup of their Salvation So that if he should obey the Pope in these things he must needs disobey his Saviour Again He instanced in the Pope's taking upon him to give the Temporal Sword to Kings and Princes and to depose them from their Imperial States if they were disobedient to him and in commanding Subjects to disobey their Princes Assoiling them as well from their Obedience as their lawful Oaths made unto them directly contrary to God's Commandment that commandeth all Subjects to obey their Kings and their Rulers under them Then he spake of the Superiority the Pope claimed above Kings and Emperors and making himself Universal Bishop And how his Flatterers told him he might dispense against God's Word both against the Old and New Testament and that whatsoever he did tho he drew innumerable People by heaps with himself to Hell yet might no mortal Man reprove him because he is the Judg of all Men and might be judged by no Man And thus he sat in the Temple of God as he were a God and named himself God and dispensed against God If this were not he said to play Antichrist's part he knew not what Antichrist was that is Christ's Enemy and Adversary Now added he until the time that such a Person may be found Men might easily conjecture where to find Antichrist He took God to record that what he spake against the Power and Authority of the Pope he spake it not for any Malice he ought to the Pope's Person whom he knew not nor for fear of Punishment or to avoid the same thinking it rather an Occasion to aggravate than to diminish the same but for his most bounden Duty to the Crown Liberty Laws and Customs of this Realm of England and most especially to discharge his Conscience in uttering the Truth to God's Glory casting away all Fear by the Comfort which he had in Christ who saith Fear not them that kill the Body As touching the Sacrament he said That forasmuch as the whole Matter stood in the understanding those words of Christ This is my Body This is my Blood He told the Commissioners That Christ in those words made demonstration of the Bread and Wine and spake figuratively calling Bread his Body and Wine his Blood because he ordained them to be Sacraments of his Body and Blood And he told them He would be judged by the old Church which Doctrine could be proved Elder and that he would stand to And that forasmuch as he had urged in his Book Greek and Latin Authors which above a thousand Years continually taught as he did if they could bring forth but one old Author that said in these two Points as they said he offered six or seven Years ago and offered so still that he would give place Then he shewed her how fond and uncomfortable the Papists Doctrine of the Sacrament is For of one Body of Christ is made two Bodies One natural having distance of Members with Form and Proportion of Man's perfect Body and this Body is in Heaven But the Body of Christ in the Sacrament by their own Doctrine must needs be a monstrous Body having neither distance of Members nor Form Fashion or Proportion of a Man's natural Body And such a Body is in the Sacrament teach they as goes into the Mouth with the Form of Bread and entreth no further than the Form of Bread goes nor tarrieth no longer than the Form of Bread is by natural Heat digesting So that when the Form of Bread is digested the Body of Christ is gone And what Comfort said he can be herein to any Christian Man to receive Christ's unshapen Body and it to enter no further than the Stomach and depart by and by as soon as the Bread is consumed It seemed to him a more sound and comfortable Doctrine that Christ hath but one Body and that hath Form and Fashion of a Man's true Body Which Body spiritually entreth into the whole Man Body and Soul And though the Sacrament be consumed yet whole Christ remaineth and feedeth the Receiver unto eternal Life if he continue in Godliness and never departeth until the Receiver forsaketh him That if it could be shewed him that the Pope's Authority be not prejudicial to the things before-mentioned or that his Doctrine of the Sacrament be erroneous then he would never stand perversly in his own Opinion but with all humility submit himself to the Pope not only to kiss his Feet but another Part also For all these Reasons he could not take the Bishop of Gloucester for his Judg representing as he did this Pope But another Reason was in respect of his own Person being more than once perjured having been divers times sworn never to consent that the Bishop of Rome should have any Jurisdiction within this Realm
Apostles of Iesus Christ. And wished heartily that the Christian Conversation of the People were the Letters and Seals of their Offices as the Corinthians were to St. Paul who told them that They were his Letters and the Signs of his Apostleship and not Paper Parchment Lead or Wax Great indeed and painful was his Diligence in promoting God's Truth and reforming this Church Insomuch that he raised up against himself the Malice and Hatred of very many thereby These Memorials before related do abundantly evince the same The Words of Thomas Becon in an Epistle Dedicatory deserve here to be transcribed In plucking up the Enemies Tares and in purging the Lord's Field that nothing may grow therein but pure Wheat your most godly and unrestful Pains most Reverend Father are well known in this Church of England and thankfully accepted of all faithful Christen Hearts Insomuch that very many do daily render unto God most humble and hearty Thanks for the singular and great Benefits which they have received of him through your vertuous Travel in attaining the true Knowledg of Justification and of the Sacrament of Christ's Body and Blood those two things especially he laboured to retrieve and promote a true Knowledg of and such other Holy Mysteries of our Profession And albeit the Devil roar the World rage and the Hypocrites swell at these your most Christian Labours which you willingly take for the Glory of God and the Edifying of his Congregation yet as you have godly begun so without ceasing continue unto the end And so he did to the effusion of his Blood not many Years after For he was very sensible of the gross Abuses and Corruptions into which the Christian Church had sunk Which made him labour much to get it purged and restored to its Primitive Constitution and Beauty And this he ceased not to make King Henry sensible of putting him upon the Reformation of the English Church as he could find Occasion and Convenience serve him to move him thereunto Which found at last that good effect upon the King that towards the latter Years of his Reign he was fully purposed to proceed to a regulating of many more things than he had done But the subtilty of Gardiner Bp of Winton and his own Death prevented his good Designs While the aforesaid Bishop was Ambassador Abroad employed about the League between the Emperor and the English and French Kings our Arch-bishop took the opportunity of his Absence to urge the King much to a Reformation and the King was willing to enter into serious Conference with him about it And at last he prevailed with the King to resolve to have the Roods in every Church pulled down and the accustomed Ringing on Alhallow-Night suppress'd and some other vain Ceremonies And it proceeded so far that upon the Arch-bishop's going into Kent to visit his Diocess the King ordered him to cause two Letters to be drawn up prepared for him to sign The one to be directed to the Arch-bishop of Canterbury and the other to the Arch-bishop of York Who were therein to be commanded to issue forth their Precepts to all the Bishops in their respective Provinces to see those Enormities redressed without delay Which our Arch-bishop accordingly appointed his Secretary to do And the Letters so drawn up were sent by the Arch-bishop up to Court But the King upon some Reasons of State suggested to him in a Letter from Gardiner his Ambassador beyond Sea being by some made privy to these Transactions suspended the signing of them And that put a stop to this Business for that time till some time after the King at the Royal Banquet made for Annebault the French King's Ambassador leaning upon him and the Arch-bishop told them both his Resolution of proceeding to a total Reformation of Religion signifying that within half a Year the Mass both in his Kingdom and in that of France should be changed into a Communion and the usurped Power of the Bishop of Rome should be wholly rooted out of both and that both Kings intended to exhort the Emperor to do the same in his Territories or else they would break off the League with him And at that time also he willed the Arch-bishop to draw up a Form of this Reformation to be sent to the French King to consider of This he spake in the Month of August a few Months before his Death This his Purpose he also signified to Dr. Bruno Ambassador here from Iohn Frederick Duke of Saxony some little time after saying That if his Master's Quarrel with the Emperor was only concerning Religion he advised him to stand to it strongly and he would take his part But the King's Death prevented all And as for this King 's next Successor King Edward the Arch-bishop had a special Care of his Education Whose Towardliness and zealous Inclination to a Reformation was attributed to the said Arch-bishop and three other Bishops viz. Ridley Hoper and Latimer by Rodulph Gualter of Zurick Who partly by his living sometime in England and partly by his long and intimate Familiarity and Correspondence with many of the best Note here was well acquainted with the Matters relating to this Kingdom Of the great Influence of one of these upon this King viz. the Arch-bishop the former Memorials do sufficiently shew CHAP. XXXIII Arch-bishop Cranmer procures the Use of the Scriptures THE Arch-bishop was a great Scripturist and in those darker Times of Popery was the chief Repairer of the Reputation of the Holy Scriptures Urging them still for the great Standard and Measure in all controverted Matters relating to Religion and the Church By these he disintangled King Henry VIII his great Matrimonial Cause when all his other Divines who had the Pope's Power and Laws too much in their Eyes were so puzzled about it Shewing how no Humane Dispensation could enervate or annul the Word of God And in the Course he took about the Reforming of Religion the Holy Scripture was the only Rule he went by casting by School-men and the Pope's Canons and Decretals and adhering only to the more sure Word of Prophecy and Divine Inspiration And so Roger Ascham in a Letter to Sturmius in the Year 1550 when they were very busy in the Reformation writes Thaâ—â—uch was the Care of their Iosiah meaning King Edward the Arch-bishop of Canterbury and the whole Privy-Council for true Religion that they laboured in nothing more than that as well the Doctrine as Discipline of Religion might be most purely drawn out of the Fountain of the Sacred Scriptures and that that Roman Sink whence so many Humane Corruptions abounded in the Church of Christ might be wholly stopped up This his high Value of the Scriptures made him at last the happy Instrument of restoring them to the Common People by getting them after divers Years opposition printed in the English Tongue and set up in Churches for any to read that would for
Carnal Presence For a Conclusion let the Reader not hear me but another speak for our Arch-bishop against one of these Calumniators and he a Portugal Bishop After Cranmer by hearing of the Gospel began to savour of Christian Profession what Wickedness was ever reported of him With what outrage of Lust was he enflamed What Murders what seditious Tumults what secret Conspiracies were ever seen or suspected so much to proceed from him Unless ye account him blame-worthy for this that when King Henry Father to Mary upon great Displeasure conceived was for some secret Causes determined to strike off her Head this Reverend Arch-bishop did pacify the Wrath of the Father and with mild continual Intercession preserved the Life of the Daughter Who for Life preserved acquitted her Patron with Death As concerning his Marriage if you reproachfully impute that to Lust which Paul doth dignify with so honourable a Title I do answer That he was the Husband of one Wife with whom he continued many Years more chastly and holily than Osorius in that his stinking sole and single Life peradventure one Month tho he flee never so often to his Catholick Confessions And I see no Cause why the Name of a Wife shall not be accounted in each respect as Holy with the true Professors of the Gospel as the Name of a Concubine with the Papists Thus Fox And so I have at last by God's favourable Concurrence finished this my Work and have compiled an imperfect History yet with the best Diligence I could of this singular Arch-bishop and blessed Martyr and in the conclusion have briefly vindicated him from those many false Surmises and Imputations that his implacable Enemies of the Roman Faction have reported and published abroad against him Not contented with the shedding of his Blood unless they stigmatized his Name and Memory and formed the World into a belief that he was one of the vilest Wretches that lived who in Reality and Truth appeareth to have been one of the holiest Bishops and one of the best Men that Age produced THE END THE APPENDIX TO THE MEMORIALS OF Archbishop Cranmer THE APPENDIX TO THE MEMORIALS OF Archbishop Cranmer NUM I. Account of Mr. Pool's Book by Dr. Cranmer To the Ryght honorable and my syngular good Lorde my Lorde of Wylshire IT may please your Lordeshipe to bee advertised that the Kynge his grace my Lady your wyfe my Lady Anne your doughter be in good helth whereof thankes be to God As concernynge the Kinge hys cause Mayster Raynolde Poole hath wrytten a booke moch contrary to the kinge hys purpose wyth such wytte that it appereth that he myght be for hys wysedome of the cownsel to the kinge hys grace And of such eloquence that if it were set forth and knowne to the commen people I suppose yt were not possible to persuade them to the contrary The pryncypal intent whereof ys that the kinge hys grace sholde be contente to commyt hys grete cause to the jugement of the pope wherein me semeth he lacketh moch jugement But he swadeth that with such goodly eloquence both of words and sentence that he were lyke to persuade many but me hee persuadeth in that poynt no thynge at al. But in many other thynges he satysfyeth me very wel The som wherof I shal shortly reherse Furst he sheweth the cause wherfore he had never pleasure to intromytte hymself in this cause And that was the trouble which was lyke to ensue to this realme therof by dyversitie of tytles Wherof what hurte myght come we have had exsample in our fathers dayes by the tytles of Lancaster and Yorke And where os god hath gyven many noble gyfts unto the kinge hys grace as wel of body and mynde os also of fortune yet this excedeth al other that in hym al tytles do mete and come togyder and this Realme ys restored to tranquillitie and peace so oweth he to provide that this londe fal not agayne to the forsaide mysery and troble which may come aswel by the people within this realme which thynke surely that they have an hayre lawful alâ—â—ady with whom they al be wel contente and wolde be sory to have any other And yt wolde be harde to persuade thaym to take any other levynge her os also by the Emperour whych ys a man of so grete power the quene beying hys awnt the Princes hys nece whome he so moch doth and ever hath favored And where he harde reasons for the kynge hys party that he was moved of god hys lawe which doth straytly forbed and that with many gret thretts that no man shal mary hys brother hys wife And os for the people yt longeth not to thayr judgement and yet yt ys to be thought that thay wil be contente whan thay shal knowe that the awncyente Doctores of the Chyrch and the determinations of so many grete vniversities be of the kynge hys sentence And os concernynge the Emperour if he be so unryghtful that he wyl mayntene an unjust cause yet god wil never fayl thaym that stonde opon his party and for any thynge wyl not transgresse hys commawndments And besyde that we shal not lacke the ayde of the Frenshe kynge whyche partely for the Lege whych he hath made with us and partly for the dyspleasure and olde grutch which he bereth toward the Emperour wolde be glad to have occasion to be avenged Thies reasons he bryngeth for the kyngs party agaynst hys owne opynyon To which he maketh answer in this maner Fyrst os towchynge the Lawe of god he thynketh that yf the kinge were pleased to take the contrary parte he myght os wel justifie that and have os good grownde of the scripture therfore os for that parte which he now taketh And yet if he thought the kyngs party never so juste and that this his mariage were undowtedly agaynst godds pleasure than he cowde not deny but yt sholde be wel done for the kynge to refuse this mariage and to take another wyfe but that he sholde be a doar therin and a setter forwarde therof he cowde never fynde in hys harte And yet he grawnteth that he hath no good reason therfore but only affection which he bereth and of dewty oweth unto the kyngs parson For in so doing he sholde not only wayke ye and utterly take away the Princes Title but also he must neds accuse the most and cheife parte of al the kyngs lyfe hiderto which hath bene so infortunate to lyve more than xx yers in a matrimony so shameful so abominable so bestial and agaynst nature yf it be so os the books which do defend the kyngs party do say that the abomination therof ys naturally wrytten and graven in every mans harte so that none excusation can be made by ignorance And thus to accuse the noble nature of the kyngs grace and to take away the title of hys succession he cowde never fynd in hys harte were the kyngs cause never so
value Item One and twenty pair of Hangings for the Altars of the Church Vestments Albes c. Item Twelve Albes of silk Item Of linnin Albes belonging to the Sextre and other Altars 326. Item Vestments belonging to the Altars and Chauntries are of divers Values and works to the number of twenty six Item Corporows cases and Corporaws thirty six Item Altar cloths of Diaper and linnin One and twenty Item Mas books thirteen belonging to the Sextre and Altars The Inventary of our Ladies Chappel Imprimis Five little shrines of copper and guilt Item Three chalices of silver and gilt Item Two Paxes the one of silver and gilt and the other of silver Item Two pair of Beads and silver and gilt being but of ten stones a piece Item Three chappels of divers suites Item Two Copys of silk Item Thirteen Albes and three of them white silk Item Three Collars for the three Altars of silk garnished with plate of silver and gilt and with stones Item Four Altar cloths of linnin Item Two Altars of silk for the Altar The Inventory of the Priors house Imprimis Six salts with three covers of silver and gilt Item Six spoons of silver and gilt Item Five and twenty other spoons of silver Item Three standing Cups one plain and other two swaged with their Covers of silver and gilt Item Seven bollis of silver and gilt with one Cover Item Six silver cupps with one Cover Item Four nuts with three covers Item Two Masers with one cover Item Two silver Basins with their Ewers Item Two Gallon pots of silver and gilt to serve Peter and Paul Item Two smal silver pots Item Two chalices of silver and gilt The Inventary of the Subpriors house Item Two salts of silver and gilt with a Cover Item One little salt of silver with a Cover Item Three silver peeces Item Eighteen silver spoons Item Three old Masers perused The Inventary of the Hordars house Item Two Salts of silver and gilt with a Cover Item One standing Nut with a Cover Item Three silver peeces Item Eighteen silver spoons Item Three old Masers perused The Inventary of the Fratrie Imprimis One standing Cup of mother pearle the foot and Cover being of silver and gilt Item Two great bollys of silver Item One standing Cup of silver and gilt with his Cover Item One standing Massar with a Cover of Wood. Item Three great bollis of Wood with bonds of silver and gilt Item Seven and thirty silver spoons of divers fashions Item Four old Massars perused NUM XVII A Reply to the Archbishop against his Court of Audience TO the first His Protestation sheweth no more but that he is not to be suspected to keep that Court of his Audience by the authority of any Legacy from Rome as by the name of Legate of Rome But forasmuch as no ABp within Christendom hath nor never had any authority to keep any such Court by the reason of the ABric but only Legates of the See of Rome Which Legates what vexations and oppressions they have done by the pretence thereof not only to Ordinaries but also to the Layfee by calling of poor men from the furthest parts of the realm to London for an halfpeny candle or for a little opprobrious word as was declared and proved plainly in this Parliament Which was a great cause of making of a Statute to remedy that before the Statute of the abolishment of the Bishops of Romes authority within this realm Insomuch that this execution of Legacies in other jurisdictions and realms hath been one of the greatest and intolerablest usurpations of the Bp. of Rome these many years among the Commonalty and therfore a thing most necessary of reformation in consideration of the premises no ABp can exercise this authority except he implyeth to al the world tho he speak it not nor write it not that he is a Legate of the See of Rome And in case it shal please the Kings Grace to give like authority notwithstanding so many incommodities to his Graces Subjects by the use therof and not one commodity at al to be abyden by it should seem better to give it to some other by special Commission at his Grace's pleasure Wherby it shal be known certainly to come from his Grace rather than to join it to the ABps See Wherby the old poyson might stil lurk and break out one day again if it should chance some to be ABp of Cant. that would change their copy as hath been in times past And moreover if his Grace should make his Legate it should peradventure derogate the power of his Graces General Vicar And if both should occupy then shall the people so much the rather take occasion to think and say that his Graces Vicar exerciseth the power of a Legate by his Graces authority and the ABp of Canterbury by authority of the Bp. of Rome And where the ABp saith that he seeth no cause why he should not keep that Court at the lest by authority of the Act of Parlament as al others enjoy by that Act al things that they had before from the See of Rome it seems that he never read the said Act nor yet can discern betwixt a thing absolute that may endure without a Dependence and an Advouson in gross and a thing that standeth in a continual Dependence as Service to the Seignory For Exemptions and Dispensations and such others be Absolutes depending nothing of the Grantor after his Grant But Legacies be but respectives And as no longer Lord no longer Service so no longer Bp. of Rome Lord here no longer his Vicar which was but his Servant as appeareth by the text of his Legacy whereof these be the words in the Chapter Quum non ignoretis De officio Legati qui in Provincia sua vices nostras gerere comprobatur And the Act of Parlament which he allegeth is so plain to every Reader that it cannot be drawn with twenty team of Oxen to stretch to the continuance of this Court of his Audience It is in the xxj th Chapter of the Session Anno xxv and in the xxvj th leafe in the latter end The words therof there be these Provided alwayes that this Act or any thing therin contained shal not hereafter be taken nor expounded to the derogation or taking away of any Grants or Confirmations of any Liberties Privileges or Jurisdictions of any Monasteries Abbies Priories or other Houses or Places exempt which before the making of this Act have been obtained at the See of Rome or by the authority thereof Loo this Act speaketh only of Exemptions which is a thing absolute and that only of Houses exempt and of their Jurisdictions Which might be suffered upon their few Parochians and neibours as Prebends have in their Cathedral churches But this Act speaketh not of no jurisdiction universal of Archbishops Bishops or other person Legacy is of that other sort and universal jurisdiction depending on him that usurped an universal
authority through the world And considering that the Bp. of Cant. beside al the Courts within his own Diocess keepeth in London a Court at the Arches sufficiently authorized to hear and to determine al causes and complaints appertaining to a Metropolitane why should he require this other Court of the Audience to keep it in London within the Church and jurisdiction of another Bp. except he mâ—nded to call other Bps. obedientially out of their jurisdiction contrary to the Act Or else at the lest forasmuch as this Court is kept within the Church and jurisdiction of London and the Arches Court within the city but not within the jurisdiction if he may not vex the Citizens and Diocesans of London at the Arches without an Appele first from the Ordinary immediately because of the Canon Lawes yet he might pul them to his Audience at Pauls as he did heretofore by his Legacy and yet offend not that Act made anno xxiij That no man shall be called out of his own Diocess And where the ABp saith that the Kings Grace bad him continue that Court stil it is to be marvelled that he then hath not in his Citations and other wrirings of that Court expressed or signified the same as he did cal himself in al his Writings Legatum Apostolicae Sedis long after that Act of the Abolishing NUM XVIII Archbishop Cranmers order concerning the Proctors of the Court of Arches shewn to be inconvenient by a Paper presented to the Parlament as followeth ALthough it be expedient that every thing which any way may be noyful unto the common wele be duely reformed yet is there nothing that should be rather looked upon for Reformation than such abuses as may be occasion of not indifferent ministration of justice Wherfore among so many things as heretofore hath been wel and condignely reformed touching other the Spiritualty or the Temporalty there is nothing that requireth speedyer Reformation than a certain Ordinance Lately procured in the Court of the Arches at London by the means of the Proctors there for the advancement of their singular wil only By which may and do come divers abuses in the said Court and occasion not indifferent ministration of justice and chargeable and prolix process there The effect whereof is this The Proctors of the said Court of Arches hath of late upon feigned suggestion surmised unto the most reverend Father in God my Lord Archbp. of Canterbury President and Head of the said Court to have been for the common wele and ease of his Provincialls induced his Grace to make such an Ordinance or Statute in the said Court of the Arches That wher heretofore there were in the same twenty or four and twenty Proctors and my said Lords G. at his liberty alwayes to admit mo or fewer Proctors there as should be seen expedient to his G. for the sufficient attending of the causes there depending for the time there shuld be from thenceforth no mo admitted Proctors there until the said nombre of Proctors than being there were decreased and come down to the nombre of Ten and than the said nombre of Ten Proctors never after to be exceeded And furthermore lest my said Lords G. might be advertised afterwards upon better causes and considerations to dissolve the said Statute as his Predecessors did alike other Statutes made in semblable cause long before the said Proctors knowing that his G. would as alwayes did apply himself to that thing that shuld be most profitable for the Common wele and intending to take away that liberty from him abusing also his G's benignity and good zeal to the restraint of his liberties and â—ulfilling of their covetous intent incontinently upon the obtaining of the said Statute procured the same to be confirmed by the Chapter and Convent of Christ's church in Canterbury So that by reason of the same confirmation my said Lords G. ne his Successors cannot as the said Proctors do pretend though they see never so good a cause therto infringe ne dissolve the same And so therby made in maner an Incorporation among them tho they call it not so Wherin be it considered whether they have first offended the King's Laws which do prohibit such Incorporations to be made without licence had of the King's Highness first thereunto And though all Incorporations in any mystery or faculty be not lightly to be admitted in this case wherupon depends good or evil ministration of justice most of al such Confederacies are to be eschued Also the said Statute is divers wayes noyful to the Commonwele of this Royalm and prejudicial to the King's G. Subjects in the same and occasion of divers abuses in the said Court hereafter to be declared But because the said Proctors are persuaded that my said Lord of Canterbury cannot himself Dissolve the same and seeing that no man wil lighty contend alone with al the said Proctors for the Dissolving thereof For though it touch every man generally no man singularly wil suppose the same to touch him so moche that he should for the impugnation of the same put himself in business against so many and so rich a company as the said Proctors be it were not only expedient but also necessary for the indifferent and speedy ministration of justice in the said Court that his said unreasonable Statute were infringed and dissolved by the authority of this present Parliament where al other abuses and excesses noyeful to the Commonwele ought to be reformed for these causes following First The said Statute is prejudicial unto the Commonwele because it is occasion of prolix sutes and superfluous delayes in the said Court else more necessary to be restrained than augmented For the said nombre of Ten Proctors appointed by the said Statute is unsufficient for the speedy and diligent attending of mens causes in the said Court tho al Ten were procuring there at once as it is not like but that three or four of the same shal bee alwayes impotent or absent For such they account also with the nombre of Ten. And besides that the same Ten or fewer that shal be onely procuring shal serve not onely for the said Court of the Arches but also for my said Lord of Canterburies Audience wherein be as many causes as in the Arches and for the Consistory of the Bp. of London For by the Statutes of both the same Courts of Audience and Consistory there is no man admitted to procure in the same unless he be a Proctor admitted first in the Arches So that so few Proctors appoynted for so many causes as shal be under travayl in al the said Courts can never be able to speed their business without great delayes taking For heretofore when there were in the said Court twenty Proctors continually occupying and more it hath been seen that divers of theym hath been than so overlayd with causes that they were driven to take oft and many delayes and Prorogations ad idem for to bring in their matiers
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
was at a stand He was translated from this imaginary Bishoprick to be Bishop of Oxford in the Year 1541. One Iohn Hatton had the Title of Episcopus Negropont He was Suffragan under the Arch-bishop of York Iohn Thornden who was several times Commissiary of Oxon while Arch-bishop Warham was Chancellor of that University was stiled Episcopus Syrinensis And hereafter in the progress of this Book we shall meet with a Bishop of Hippolitanum who assisted Arch-bishop Cranmer at his Ordinations These were but Titulary Bishops and the use of them was to supply the Diocesans absence to consecrate Churches and Church-yards and to reconcile them to assist at Ordinations and confer Orders to confirm Children and the like Sometimes these Suffragans had no Titles at all to any place but were Bishops at large Such an one named Richard Martin is met with in an old Register at Canterbury who was Guardian of the Gray-Fryars there By his last Will made 1498 he gave a Library to the Church and Covent He was Parson of Ickham and Vicar of Lyd in Kent and writ himself in the said Will Bishop of the Vniversal Church By which the Antiquarian supposed nothing else was meant but that he was a Bishop in Name endued with Orders but not with Jurisdiction Episcopal having no particular Charge to intend but generally officiating as Bishop in any part of the Christian Church This I have writ that the Reader may not be put to a stand when he shall in these Commentaries meet with some of these Titular Bishops But proceed we now to the Bishops that were this Year Consecrated Diocesan Bishops April the 11 th Nicholas Shaxton was consecrated Bishop of Sarum in the King's Chappel of S. Stephen by our Arch-bishop Iohn Bishop of Lincoln and Christopher Sidoniens assisting Septemb. the 15 th was the Act of Confirmation and Election of Edward Fox Elect of Hereford and of William Barlow Prior of the Priory of Canons Regular of Bisham of the Order of S. Augustin Sarum for the Bishoprick of S. Asaph The Consecration of these two last are not inserted in the Register March the 18 th the Act of Confirmation and Election of George Brown D. D. Provincial of the Order of Friars Augustin in the City of London for the Arch-bishoprick of Dublin Consecrated March the 19 th by the Arch-bishop at Lambeth Nicholas Bishop of Sarum and Iohn Bishop of Rochester assisting Of this last-mentioned Bishop I shall take some further notice having been the first Protestant Bishop in Ireland as Cranmer was in England a great furtherer of the Reformation in that Land being a stirring Man and of good Parts and Confidence He was first taken notice of by Crumwel Lord Privy Seal and by his sole means preferred to this Dignity in the Church of Ireland upon the observation that was taken of him when he was Provincial of the Augustin Order in England advising all People to make their Application only to Christ and not to Saints Whereby he was recommended unto K. Henry who much favoured him When the King's Supremacy was to be brought in and recognized in Ireland which was the same Year wherein he was made Arch-bishop he was appointed one of the King's Commissioners for the procuring the Nobility Gentry and Clergy to reject the Pope and to own the King for Supream Head of the Church In which Commission he acted with that diligence that it was to the hazard of his Life such opposition was made to it in that Realm At which time in an Assembly of the Clergy George Dowdal Arch-bishop of Ardmagh made a Speech to them and laid a Curse upon those whosoever they were that should own the King's Supremacy Within five Years after this this Arch-bishop Brown caused all Superstitious Relicks and Images to be removed out of the two Cathedrals in Dublin and out of the rest of the Churches in his Diocess and ordered the Ten Commandments the Lord's Prayer and the Creed to be set up in Frames above the Altar in Christ's-Church Dublin In K. Edward VI. his Reign he received the English Common-Prayer-Book into that Realm upon the King's Proclamation for that purpose after much opposition by Dowdal And it was read in Christ's-Church Dublin on Easter Day 1551. He preached also a Sermon in Christ's-Church for having the Scripture in the Mother-Tongue and against Image-worship And for this his forwardness and conformity in Religion and the perverseness of the other Arch-bishop of Ardmagh who had violently resisted all good Proceedings the Title of Primacy was taken from him and conferred upon the Arch-bishop of Dublin And Dowdal was banished or as others say voluntarily left his Bishoprick And then Goodacre sent from England with Bale for the See of Ossory succeeded In Q. Mary's days Dowdal was restored and being a great Man in this Reign expulsed Archbishop Brown from his See for being a married Man Who two or three Years after was succeeded by Hugh Corwin a Complier in all Reigns and Brown soon after died Suffragan Bishops The first of these standing in the Register of the Arch-bishop was the Suffragan of the See of Ipswich The Bishop of Norwich according to the direction of the late Act wherein the Bishop was to nominate two for Suffragan to the King and the King was to name one of them to the Arch-bishop to receive Consecration humbly signified to the King that he was destitute of the Aid of a Suffragan and so prayed him to appoint either George Abbot of the Monastery of S. Mary's of Leyston or Thomas Mannyng Prior of the Monastery of S. Mary's of Butley to be his Suffragan without mentioning for what place And on the 7 th of March in the 27 th of his Reign he sent to the Arch-bishop to make the latter Suffragan of Gipwich Who was accordingly consecrated by the Arch-bishop and invested in insigniis Episcopalibus Nicholas Bishop of Sarum and Iohn Bishop of Rochester assisting The Date not specified but probably on the same Day with the Consecration following there being the same Assistants The said Bishop of Norwich sent to the King recommending to him to be Suffragan Thomas de Castleacre of the Cluniac Order and Iohn Salisbury Prior of S. Faiths of Horsham of the Order of S. Benet both Priors of Monasteries in Norwich Diocess The King sent to the Arch-bishop to consecrate Iohn the Prior of S. Faiths for Suffragan of Thetford Accordingly he consecrated him March the 19 th Nicholas Bishop of Sarum and Iohn Bishop of Rochester assisting CHAP. X. The Audience Court THE good Arch-bishop almost every Year met with new Opposition from the Popish Clergy The late Act for abolishing the Pope's Authority and some Acts before that for restraining of Applications to Rome served them now as a Colour to strike at one of the Arch-bishop's Courts viz. that of the Audience a Court which the Arch-bishops used to hold in