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
them After that the printed Injunctions and others not printed with the Book of Homilies were delivered both to the Bishop for his Church and the Arch-deacons for their respective Arch-deaconries strictly injoining them to see them speedily executed reserving other new Injunctions to be ministred afterwards as they should see cause Their next Work was to examine the Canons and Priests by virtue of their Oaths which they had taken concerning their Lives and Doctrines What was discovered in other Places concerning the Vices of the Clergy we may conlude from what was found among the Dignitaries of St. Pauls For when the Canons and Priests belonging to this Church were examined one of them named Painter openly confessed that he had often carnally used a certain Married-man's Wife whom he would not name And divers others both of the Canons and Priests confessed the same of themselves There be remaining in the Archives of the Church of Canterbury the Injunctions of the King's Visitors to the Dean and Chapter there bearing date Sept. 22. An. 1 Edw. VI. subscribed by the Visitors Hands Which Injunctions do all relate to the particular Statutes of the Church and are of no other moment There was now a Book of Homilies prepared for present use to be read in all Churches for the Instruction of the People and Erasmus's Paraphrase upon the New Testament in English was to be set up in all Churches for the better instruction of Priests in the Sense and Knowledg of the Scriptures And both these Books by the King's Injunctions aforementioned were commanded to be taught and learned CHAP. III. Homilies and Erasmus's Paraphrase ARch-bishop Cranmer found it highly convenient to find out some Means for the Instruction of the People in true Religion till the Church could be better supplied with learned Priests and Ministers For which purpose he resolved upon having some good Homilies or Sermons composed to be read to the People which should in a plain manner teach the Grounds and Foundation of true Religion and deliver the People from popular Errors and Superstitions When this was going in hand with the Arch-bishop sent his Letters to the Bishop of Winchester to try if he could bring him to be willing to join in this Business shewing him that it was no more than what was intended by the former King and a Convocation in the Year 1542 wherein himself was a Member to make such a stay of Errors as were then by ignorant Preachers spread among the People But this Bishop was not for Cranmer's Turn in his Answer signifying to him That since that Convocation the King his old Master's Mind changed and that God had afterwards given him the Gift of Pacification as he worded it meaning that the King made a stop in his once intended Reformation He added That there was a Convocation that extinguished those Devices and this was still in force And therefore that now nothing more ought to be done in Church-Matters And a Copy of this Letter he sent to the Lord Protector trying to perswade him also to be of his Mind The Arch-bishop answered these Letters of Winchester Wherein he again required these Homilies to be made by virtue of that Convocation five Years before and desired Winchester to weigh things But he replied It was true they communed then of such things but they took not effect at that time nor needed they to be put in execution now And that in his Judgment it could not be done without a new Authority and Command from the King's Majesty Then he used his Politicks urging That it was not safe to make new Stirs in Religion That the Lord Protector did well in putting out a Proclamation to stop vain Rumors and he thought it not best to enterprize any thing to tempt the People with occasion of Tales whereby to break the Proclamation And as in a natural Body he said Rest without Trouble did confirm and strengthen so it was in a Common-wealth Trouble travaileth and bringeth things to loosness Then he suggested the Danger the Arch-bishop might involve himself in by making Alterations That he was not certain of his Life when the old Order was broken and a new brought in by Homilies that he should continue to see the new Device executed For it was not done in a Day He wished there were nothing else to do now He suggested that a new Order engendred a new Cause of Punishment against them that offend and Punishments were not pleasant to them that have the Execution And yet they must be for nothing may be contemned There were two Letters Winchester sent to the Arch-bishop in answer to as many from the Arch-bishop In which he laboured to perswade the Arch-bishop not to innovate any thing in Religion during the King's Minority and particularly to forbear making Homilies and refusing for himself to meddle therein An imperfect part of one of these Letters I have laid in the Appendix as I transcribed it from the Original So when it was perceived that Winchester would not be brought to comply and join in with the Arch-bishop and the rest they went about the composing the Homilies themselves Cranmer had a great hand in them And that Homily of Salvation particularly seems to be of his own doing This while he was in composing it was shewn to Winchester by the Arch-bishop to which he made this Objection That he would yield to him in this Homily if they could shew him any old Writer that wrote how Faith excluded Charity in the Office of Justification and that it was against Scripture Upon this Canterbury began to argue with him and to shew him how Faith excluded Charity in the Point of Justifying And Winchester denied his Arguments And in fine such was his Sophistication that the Arch-bishop at last told him He liked nothing unless he did it himself and that he disliked the Homily for that Reason because he was not a Counsellor The Council had now put this Bishop in the Fleet for his Refractoriness to the King's Proceedings where if his Complaint to the Lord Protector were true he was somewhat straitly handled For he was allowed no Friend or Servant no Chaplain Barber Taylor nor Physician A sign he gave them high Provocation While he was here the Arch-bishop sent for him once or twice to discourse with him and to try to bring him to comply with their Proceedings in reforming Religion He dealt very gently with him and told him That he was a Man in his Opinion meet to be called to the Council again but withal told him that he stood too much in Obstinacy that it was perverse Frowardness and not any Zeal for the Truth And laboured to bring him to allow the Book which was now finished and the Paraphrase of Erasmus The former he could not allow of because of the Doctrine therein by Cranmer asserted of Justification by Faith without Works Which Cranmer took pains to perswade him about
that the Protector was privy to what was done there The Bishop answered That he would receive them as far as God's Law and the King's would bind him And because he saw they drew to such Preciseness he told them there were three Weeks of Delay to the coming of the Visitors to him In the mean time he offered to go to Oxford to abide the Discussion there That Offer was not allowed He desired to go to his House at London and have Learned Men speak with him there That was not accepted He entred then the Allegation of the Gospel of the Servant that said he would not do a thing and yet did it And so the Bishop said it might be that although he then said Nay as his Conscience served him yet he might change and was a Man that might be tempted But as his Conscience was then he thought that God's Laws and the King 's letted him Then they asked him if he had spoken to any Man of what he found in the Books To which he answered truly acknowledging he had But told the Lords that he thought it hard unless there were a greater Matter than this to send him to Prison for declaring his Mind before-hand what he minded to do before it had been by him done who had all the mean time to repent himself In the End the Council committed him to the Fleet. Of his Behaviour under this Censure he hath these words That he had well digested it and so all might be well he cared not what became of his Body That he departed as quietly from them as ever Man did and had endured with as little grudg He had learned this Lesson in the World never to look backward as S. Paul saith ne remember that is past That he would never grudg or complain of any thing for himself To the Lord Protector to whom he wrote all this Account of himself turning his Discourse he said That he thought it very weighty to have these Books recommended to the Realm in the King's Name by his the Protector Direction since the King himself knew nothing of them and therefore nothing could be ascribed to him And his Grace had been so occupied as all Men knew that he had no leisure to peruse them And yet of such sort were the Books according to the Account he had before written and that if no Man had advertised the Council as he had it was because they had not read them as he had done In Vindication of the Learned Author of the Paraphrase so bedashed by Winchester I will here use the words of him that writ the Epistle Dedicatory before the translated Paraphrase on the Acts. I cannot but judg that whoso are prompt and hasty Condemners of Erasmus or eager Adversaries unto his Doctrine do under the Name and Colour of Erasmus rather utter their Stomach and Hatred against God's Word and the Grace of the Gospel which Erasmus for his part most diligently and most simply laboureth to bring to light And to such as said that his Doctrine was scarcely sincere and that he did somewhat err he answered That Erasmus forasmuch as he was a Man and so esteemed himself would that his Works should none otherwise be read or accepted than the Writings of other mortal Men. And that after his Judgment a little Trip among so many notable good Works for the interpretation of Scripture and for the help of the Simple should rather be born withal than so many good Things to be either rejected or kept away from the hungry Christian Reader It is a cold Charity that can bear with nothing and an eager Malice it is that for a Trifle or a Matter of nothing would have the Ignorant to lack so much good edifying as may be taken of Erasmus Mention was made a little above of the Bishop of Winchester's Objections aganst the Paraphrase of Erasmus sent by him in a Letter to the Lord Protector This Paper I have met with in Sir Iohn Cotton's Library and being somewhat long I have put it into the Appendix Wherein may be seen at large the Bishop's Quarrels both against the Paraphrase and the Homilies labouring here to shew that the Book of Homilies and Erasmus's Paraphrase did contradict each other and therefore could not both be received and that there were Errors in each and so neither ought to be admitted Moreover he urged the Danger of making Alterations in Religion contrary to the Laws then in Force designing thereby if he could over-perswade the Protector to enervate the King 's late Injunctions For the Papists whose chief Instrument was VVinchester saw it was time now to bestir themselves to overthrow these Proceedings that were in hand if it were possible When this Affair happened between the Council and the Bishop for which they cast him into the Fleet Somerset the Protector was absent in an Expedition against the Scots By whose Conduct in the Month of September God blessed the King with a very glorious Victory in a Battel fought near Musselburrough Which redounded much to the Protector 's Honour wherein was more Danger than he looked for which gave him the greater occasion to shew his Valour For there were but few lost on the English-side but fifteen thousand Scots reckoned to be slain and two thousand taken Prisoners For this Victory a Publick Thanksgiving was thought fit to be Celebrated And the Arch-bishop required of the Bishop of London to procure a Sermon at S. Pauls before the Mayor and Aldermen and immediately after a Procession in English and Te Deum The Arch-bishop's Letter which will shew what the Court thought of that good Success was as followeth AFter our right hearty Commendations Whereas it hath pleased Almighty God to send the King's Majesty such Victory against the Scots as was almost above the Expectation of Man and such as hath not been heard of in any part of Christendom this many Years In which Victory above the Number of 15000 Scots be slain 2000 taken Prisoners and among them many Noble-men and others of good Reputation all their Ordnance and Baggage of their Camp also won from them The King's Majesty with Advice of his Highness Privy-Council presently attending upon his Majesty's most Royal Person well-knowing this as all other Goodness to be Gifts of God hath and so doth account it And therefore rendereth unto him the only Glory and Praise for the same And so hath willed me not only in his Majesty's Cathedral Church and other Churches of my Diocess to give Thanks to Almighty God but also to require in his Name all other Bishops in the Province of Canterbury to do or cause to be done semblably in their Course Which his Majesty's Pleasure I have thought good to signify unto you Requiring you not only to cause a Sermon to be made in your Cathedral Church the next Holy-day after receipt hereof declaring the Goodness of God and exhorting the People to Faith and amendment of
of old Popish Curats The Letter is dated the 23 d of Iuly and is extant in Fox In London by the Connivance and Remisness of the Bishop many neglected the Divine Service then established and others did in secret Places of the Diocess often frequent the Popish Mass and other Superstitious Rites not allowed by the Laws of England The Sins of Adultery greatly encreased The Churches and particularly the Mother-Church of S. Paul's ran into Dilapidations the Glass was broken and the Ornaments and other Buildings belonging to Churches neglected Many refused to pay Tithes to their Curates probably of both sorts such as were Papists to those Curats as more diligently preached Reformation and obeyed the King's Laws and such as were not so to such Curats as were more backward thereunto Bishop Boner also himself now seldom came to Church seldomer preached and celebrated the English Communion Wherefore the Council sent certain private Injunctions to Boner for the redress of these things That he should preach in his own Person at Paul's Cross and declare certain Articles relating to the before-mentioned Neglects which the Council now sent to him to redress That he should preach once in a Quarter and exhort the People to Obedience and that he should be present at every Sermon at Paul's Cross that he should on the principal Feasts celebrate the Communion and at all times that his Predecessors used to Celebrate and sing High Mass. That he should call before him all such as did not frequent the Church and Common-Prayer and the Holy Communion and punish them as also Adulterers and that he should look to the Reparation of S. Paul's and other Churches and that the People pay their Tithes The Adulteries before hinted which the Council thought fit to recommend to the Bishop to take particular cognizance of makes me add that about this time the Nation grew infamous for this Crime It began among the Nobility and so spread at length among the inferior sort Noblemen would very frequently put away their Wives and marry others if they liked another Woman better or were like to obtain Wealth by her And they would sometimes pretend their former Wives to be false to their Beds and so be divorced and marry again such whom they fancied The first occasion of this seemed to be in the Earl of Northampton divorcing himself from his first Wife Anne Daughter to the Earl of Essex and after marrying Elizabeth Daughter to the Lord Cobham In like manner Henry Son of William Earl of Pembroke put away Katharine Daughter to Henry the Duke of Suffolk and married Mary the Daughter of Sir Henry Sidney These Adulteries and Divorces encreased much yea and marrying again without Divorce which became a great Scandal to the Realm and to the Religion professed in it and gave much Sorrow and Trouble in good Men to see it In so much that they thought it necessary to move for an Act of Parliament to punish Adultery with Death This Latimer in a Sermon preached in the Year 1550 signified to the King For the Love of God saith he take an order for Marriage here in England This is some Account of the Retardation of Religion On the other hand the Endeavors of those that wished well to it were not wanting Now the Protestants began more freely to put forth Books and to disperse such as were formerly printed beyond Sea in the behalf of Religion against Popery and concerning such as had suffered under the Cruelties of the Church of Rome Bale about these Days dispersed his Books One was The Image of both Churches applying the Divine Prophecy of the Revelations to the Apostate Church of Rome Another was a Vindication of the Lady Anne Ascue who suffered the cruel Death of Burning about the end of King Henry's Reign Whose Cause the Papists studiously had rendred bad This Book he intitled The Elucidation of Anne Ascue's Martyrdom Which was this Year exposed publickly to sale at Winchester and the Parts thereabouts as a Reproach to the Bishop of Winchester who was the great Cause of her Death Four of these Books came to that Bishop's own Eyes being then at Winchester they had Leaves put in as Additions to the Book some glewed and some unglewed which probably contained some further Intelligences that the Author had gathered since his first writing of the Book And herein some Reflexions were made freely according to Bale's Talent upon some of the Court not sparing Paget himself though then Secretary of State Another of Bale's Books that went now about was touching the Death of Luther Therein was a Prayer of the Duke of Saxony mentioned which the Bishop of Winchester gladly took hold on Wherein that Duke as to the justness of his Cause remitted himself to God's Judgment to be shewed on him here in this World if the Cause he undertook were not Just concerning Religion and desired God if it were not Good to order him to be taken and spoiled of his Honors and Possessions Since which the Duke was taken Prisoner and at the very time of his taking the Papists made an Observation that the Sun appeared so strangely in England as the like had not been seen before So apt are Men to interpret Events according to their own preconceived Opinions But at this Winchester took much Advantage Whereas indeed the Issues of God's Providence in this World are not favourable always even to the best Causes The keeping of Lent was now called into Controversy and asserted that it was not to be observed upon a religious Account And this was done the rather because the Papists placed so much Religion in the bare Fast. In the Pulpit it began to be cried down Tongue and Ioseph two great Preachers in London said That Lent was one of Christ's Miracles which God ordained not Men to imitate or follow And that it was an insupportable Burden There was a set of Rhimes now made about the burial of Lent which was called Iack of Lent 's Testament and publicly sold in Winchester Market therein Steven Gardiner the Bishop was touched who was a great Man for keeping it For in the Ballad Stephen Stockfish was bequeathed in this Will to Stephen Gardiner Of this he made a long Complaint to the Protector But yet this Neglect of Lent was not encouraged by the Superiors For it was kept at Court and Preparations for the King's Diet were made accordingly this Lent by the Protector The Protestants indeed were for keeping it and an Order was issued out for that purpose tho not upon a Religious but Politick Account But the greater part of the ordinary People would not be brought to it by this Distinction So that the Preachers were fain to be employed Latimer preached That those that regard-not Laws and Statutes were despisers of Magistrates There be Laws made of Diet he said what Meats we shall eat at all times And this Law is made in Policy as I suppose for
even from the very first Times The Festivals of the Resurrection of the Nativity of Pentecost and of the Death of Christ are all Footsteps of the Old Law And are they to be therefore abolished He wished with all his Heart that the Churches in Germany by this one Loss might obtain their former Liberty As to the second Argument He could not see how it could be asserted upon good Grounds that nothing is to be used by us that is observed in the Popish Religion We must take heed that the Church of God be not prest with too much Servitude that it may not have liberty to use any thing that belonged to the Pope Our Ancestors took the Idol-Temples and used them for Sacred Houses to worship Christ. And the Revenues that were Consecrated to the Gentile Gods and to the Games of the Theatre and of the Vestal Virgins were made use of for the maintenance of the Ministers of the Church when these before had served not only to Antichrist but to the Devil Nor could he presently grant that these Differences of Garments had their Original from the Pope For we read in Ecclesiastical History that Iohn at Ephesus wore a Petalum a Mitre And Pontius Diaconus saith of Cyprian that when he went to be Executed he gave his Birrus to the Executioner his Dalmatica to the Deacons and stood in Linnen And Chrysostom makes mention of the white Garments of Ministers And the Ancients witness that when the Christians came to Christ they changed their Garments and for a Gown put on a Cloak for which when they were mocked by the Heathens Tertullian wrote a Learned Book De Pallio And he knew Hoper was not ignorant that to those that were initiated in Baptism was delivered a white Garment Therefore before the Tyranny of the Pope there was a Distinction of Garments in the Church Nor did he think that in case it were granted that it was invented by the Pope that the iniquity of Popery was so great that whatsoever it touched was so dyed and polluted thereby that good and godly Men might not use it to any holy purpose Hoper himself granted that every humane Invention was not therefore presently to be Condemned It was an humane Invention to communicate before Dinner it was an humane Invention that the things sold in the Primitive Church were brought and laid at the Apostles Feet That he was ready to confess with him that these Garments were an humane Invention and of themselves edified not but it was thought by some conducive to be born with for a time For that it might be a cause of avoiding those Contentions whereby greater Benefits might be in danger to be obstructed But that if hence an occasion of Erring might be given to the Weak they were to be admonished that they should hold these things indifferent and they were to be taught in Sermons that they should judg not God's Worship to be placed in them Hoper had writ that the Eyes of the Standers-by by reason of these Garments would be turned away from thinking of serious things and detained in gazing upon them But this would not happen when the Garments were simple and plain without Bravery and such as hitherto were used in the Service of God But Martyr answered That Use and Custom would take away Admiration And perhaps when the People were moved with Admiration they would the more attentively think of those things that are serious For which end he said the Sacraments seemed to be invented that from the Sight and Sense of them we might be carried to think of Divine Things Hoper urged moreover That whatsoever was not of Faith was Sin But said Martyr That we may enjoy a quiet Conscience in our Doings that of the Apostle seems much to tend and that to the Clean all things are clean saith the same Apostle to Titus and to Timothy that every Creature of God is good He urged also That we ought to have express Scripture for what we do in holy things But Martyr was not of that Mind But that that was enough in general to know by Faith that indifferent things cannot defile those who act with a pure and sincere Mind and Conscience And this was the substance of P. Martyr's Judgment of these things Which might give much light to that Reverend Man in this Controversy though he was not yet convinced nor could comply As Hoper all this while refused the Habits so we may conjecture by a Passage in the former Letter that he liberally declamed against them in the London Pulpits For Martyr takes notice to him of his unseasonable and too bitter Sermons Whether it were for this or his incompliance or both together I know not but at length he was by the Privy-Counsel commanded to keep his House unless it were to go to the Arch-bishop of Canterbury or the Bishops of Ely London or Lincoln for Counsel and Satisfaction of his Conscience and neither to Preach nor Read till he had further Licence from the Council But notwithstanding this Command he kept not his House and writ a Book and Printed it intituled A Confession of his Faith Written in such a manner that it gave more distaste and wherein was contained Matter he should not have written He went about also complaining of the King's Councellors as Martyr wrote in a private Letter to Bucer On Ianuary the 13 th The Court then at Greenwich he appeared there before the Council the Arch-bishop being then present touching the matter of not wearing the Apparel and for disobeying the Council Who for this Disobedience and for that he continued in his former Opinion of not wearing the Apparel prescribed for Bishops to wear committed him to the Arch-bishop of Canterbury's Custody either there to be reformed or further punished as the obstinacy of his Cause required Being with the Arch-bishop he did his endeavour to satisfy him But Hoper was as immoveable to whatsoever the said ABp could propound and offer as he was before with Ridley So the Arch-bishop signified to the Council that he could bring him to no Conformity but that he declared himself for another way of Ordination than was established The Effect of this was that on Ianuary 27 Upon this Letter of the Arch-bishop That Hoper could not be brought to any Conformity but rather persevering in his Obstinacy they are the words of the Council-Book coveted to prescribe Orders and necessary Laws of his Head it was agreed that he should be committed to the Fleet. And a Letter was drawn for the Arch-bishop to send Mr. Hoper to the Fleet upon the occasion aforesaid and another Letter to the Warden of the Fleet to receive him and to keep him from the Conference with any Person saving the Ministers of that House This Disobedience of Hoper to the Council's Orders will make the severity of the Council less liable to censure Neither was Cranmer any other ways
that had the Gift of God and that they pronounced it wicked and abominable and termed it a Doctrine of Devils and the Invention of Antichrist All which Bishop Ponet in the Name of all the Protestants in his Book did utterly deny that ever they said writ or thought so This Book was indeed made by the Bishop of Winchester when he was in the Tower and he borrowed much of it from Albertus Pighius and published about that time Martin being then a Student at the University of Bourges in France it once happened in some Conversation there that Edward the King of England was commended whether it were for his Vertue or Learning or Abilities beyond his Years whereat Martin began as it seemed to eclipse the King's Honour by mentioning the Imprisonment of Winchester saying That there was a Head-Papist Prisoner in England meaning him Upon which several asked him Whether it was not the same Winchester that had set out an Hodgpodg concerning Marriage of Priests He laughing answered It was even he But that no Man ought to marvel for that VVinchester was more meet for Warlike than for Ecclesiastical Disputations Which Passage I have from Bale who was acquainted at that University with Franciscus Baldwin the Learned Professor of Law there Out of this Book Martin framed that which went under his Name with Winchester's Privity And this was well enough known to Bale and others in those Times Ponet said that Martin was abused by others who set him a-work to bear the Name and to desire the Fame of so gay a Book rather than he was the Author of it indeed The said Ponet or Poinet late Bishop of Winchester but now an Exile very learnedly answered this Book in two several Treatises The first was intitled An Apology against Tho. Martin's Blasphemies In this Treatise upon occasion of the Papists prohibition of Marriage to Priests he proved that the said Papists were Hereticks and had taken part in the most principal Parts with all the Hereticks that had corrupted the true Church of Christ. The Second Treatise replenished with great Learning he lived not to finish though some doubt whether he were the Author of this Book but the Copy falling into the Hands of Matthew Parker Arch-bishop of Canterbury he published it in the beginning of Q. Elizabeth's Reign with very large and excellent Additions of his own Ponet had thorowly studied this Point and I believe was put upon the Study of it by Arch-bishop Cranmer whose Chaplain he was For before this he put forth two Books upon this Argument viz. Of the Marriage of Ministers And a Defence of that Marriage The last thing I have to say concerning these Orders taken with the Married Clergy is That there were two things thought very Hard which were put upon those that were willing to comply and put away their Wives The one was in relation to the publick Confessions they were to make Which were put into their Mouths by others and drawn up for them in that manner as made them tell horrible Lies They must speak their own Shame in Bills of their Penance lying against themselves most vilely and most shamefully disabling their Credit and Estimation for ever And to give an Instance One such Confession which was much cried out against was made by one Sir Iohn Busby of Windsor Iune 29. in the Year 1555. Which Ponet calleth a goodly Confession of his hearty and earnest Repentance Which saith he was so finely penned and so Catholickly tracted that I warrant you it was none of the smallest Fools that forged it The other thing was that after these poor Men had thus done their Penances and spoke their Confessions the Imposers of these Penalties upon them were not so good as they pretended they would be and as the Queen's Instructions required them to be towards them Not restoring them to their Ministration Some that had been two or three Years parted from their Wives could not be admitted again to Ministration yet they must do open Penance and go by the Cross without any Redemption or Entreaty that could be made CHAP. IX Evils in this Change A Parliament BY this time the face of the Church was perfectly changed and all the Reformation that was made for twenty Years before namely from Cranmer's first ascent to the Archiepiscopal Chair to this time was unravelled in less than a Year and abolished But the Favourers of the Gospel lamented it exceedingly And Bishop Ridley writ a Treatise wherein he shewed what a deplorable Change in Religion this was by setting down at large what Religion was in K. Edward's Days and what it was at that present laying the Cause of this sore Judgment upon the vile and naughty Lives of the People so unsuitable to the good Religion professed The Professors lamented two great Evils lighting upon the People upon this turn of Religion Not only that it brought the People into error and Superstition but involved them universally in the Crime of Perjury The blame of which they laid upon the Popish Clergy For they not only had connived at but allowed and encouraged the casting off the Pope's Supremacy and made both Priests and Laity swear to the King And now they set up the Pope's Authority again in England and required all to swear to that For they compelled not only such as were Priests to perjure themselves but all the Laity Nobility Gentry Magistrates Merchants and others for hardly any were exempted the Oath of Supremacy in the former Reigns For in every Law-day the Keepers of the same were sworn to call all the Young Men of their Hundred even as they came to Years of Discretion to swear never to receive the Bishop of Rome nor no other Foreign Potentate to be Head of the People of England but only the King and his Successors Which Oath if it were unlawful as the Clergy-Men now said then all the Realm had reason of high Displeasure against them that so led them and knew it Such gross Dissembling were the Bishops guilty of to the involving the People in Guilt And this dissembling Quality the Priests still retained in this Queen's Days For when any came to some of them shewing them that his Conscience was not satisfied in the present way of Religion the Priest would tell him that he said the Truth My Conscience would he say is as yours but we must bear for a time and that he himself looked for another Change When another of a contrary Opinion came to the Priests and talked about Religion they would say to him That they had been deceived and thanks be to God said they that ye kept your Conscience all this while And even so was mine but I durst not do any otherwise but trusted that this time would come as is now thanks be to God Nay and sometimes in the same Town they would minister the Service two ways to the People to please both In
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
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
know nothing can pass by the Parlament more to the establishment of her Highnes State both afore God and man then the sure establishing of these two And for this cause whatsoever lacketh to the establishing therof me seemeth I am bound to utter plainly to her G. and truly to say what doth not satisfy me in those Acts my whole satisfaction depending of the fruit that may redound to her G. and the realm when they shal be perfectly concluded And therfore herein you shal not let pass to enform her G. pleasing the same to give you benign audience as wel wherin they were not to my utter satisfaction as also wherin they satisfied me and brought me some comfort And first of al how the former Act of the ratifying of the Matrimony seemed unto me much defectuous in that the Parlament taking for chief grouâ—d the Wisdome and Goodnes of the Parents of both parties in making the Matrimony doth not follow that wisdome in the conclusion and establishing of the same Their wisdome in making it was that they thought not sufficient to conclude the Matrimony notwithstanding the consent of the parties unles by the Popes dispensation and authority of the See Apostolic the impediments of conjunction named in the lawes of the Church were taken away and it so made legitimate And hereof the Act of Parlament that would justify the same with derogation of another Act made to the condemnation of that Matrimony maketh no mention Which me seemeth as great a defect as if one should take a cause to defend which hath divers causes al concurrent to one effect wherof the one dependeth upon the other and one being principal of al the other and would in defence therof name the other causes and leave out the principal For so it is in the case of the Matrimony the consent of the parties and parents depended upon the Dispensation of the church and the See of Rome Without the which the wisdom of the Parents did not think it could be wel justified as the effect did shew in demanding the same and this is that which now is left out in the justification that the Parents have made alledging the wisdome of the two Parents the Kings of England and of Spain And if it be here said as I understand some do say that the Dispensation was asked of those Princes not because it was so necessary that the marriage could not be justified without that but as they say ad majorem cautelam how this answer cannot stand to that effect I have so sufficiently informed you that you of your self I doubt not without further declaration by writing can expound the same Therfore leaving that to your memory and capacity to fly multiplication oâ— writing this only I wil put you in remembrance of that if the Dispensation of the Pope in that matter was asked of those two Princes ad majorem cautelam which was to stop al mens mouths making pretence of justice that might have been brought forth or objected against the Matrimony unles this Dispensation had been obtained at the least for this cause in this Act should also have been made mention of the Dispensation following the wisdome of those Princes ad majorem cautelam being now more fear of pretenced justice against the Matrimony as the effect hath and doth shew then ever could be imagined by the wit of those Princes when they obtained first the Dispensation As touching the other Act of the Confirmation of the Sacraments ye shal shew also wherin it seems to me defective Which is that wheras the ground of the making therof as the Act doth express is taken to redress the temerity of them who being affected to nuelty of opinion did other take them away or abuse the administration of them against the antient and laudable custom of the Catholick church This being a very necessary and pious cause to make that Act in the prosecuting and concluding of the same I find this great defect that never being approbate by the Church that those persons which remain in Schisma should have the right use of the Sacraments but rather to such is interdict the use of them This Act maketh the gate open to them that be not yet entred into the Unity of the Church to the use of the Sacraments declaring it self how they should be mâ—nistred with relation to the time and year of that King and nameing him that is known to be the chief author of the Schism What defect this is it seemeth manifest of it self This shewed wherin both these Acts were defectuous and therby not bringing me ful comfort ye shal then expound wherin at the reading of them I took some comfort Which was that the conclusion of both was passed graunted and inacted by the Parlament So that touching the effect there could be no difficulty hereafter in the Parlament the same being now bound to the approving and observance of their own Act. And wherin they were defectuous this ought to be supplyed by the Princes Authority that is to say by her G.'s authority as right Queen To whom it appertaineth as chief head of the Parlament and of the whole realm withal in al Acts that the Parlament doth determe both to interpret that that is obscure and to supply and make perfect that which is defectuous as wel in the time of the Parlâ—ment as when it is dissolved So that now these both Acts being past by the Parlament they are brought to her G.'s hand to interpret and supply as it shal be judged by her G.'s wisdom how they may best take effect And to do the same other out of the time of Parlament or in another Parlament binding them by their own decre ratifying the mariage and the use of the Sacraments according to the form of the Catholic church to admit the authority of the See of Rome Which not admitted nother the one Act nor the other can take effect And admitting and establishing of the same both those Acts by this one reason wherin is comprized the reduction of the realm to the unity of the Church shal be established and made perfect For conclusion of al this ye shal inform her G. that as I consider daily the wonderful goodnes of God to her Highnes with al paternal care of her soul person and estate and his so manifest protection every day and by so many ways calling her G. to establish this unity of the Church in the realm wherof the breaking hath been cause of so great misery in the realm both spiritual and temporal with travail temporal of her M. and utter jeopardy of loosing her State So also I do consider what wayes the enemy of mankind Satan Qui expetivit cribrare â—cclesiam tanquam triticum hath used and continually usâ—th to let that her G. cannot put in execution that wherunto God continually doth cal her I dare be bold to say in this particular case that that the Apostle saith generally speaking of Satans
CHAP. XXIV The Archbishop's care of the Revenues of the Church Bucer dies The Archbishop labours to preserve the Revenues of the Church The detaining the Church-Revenues a Scandal to the Reformation Calvin to the Archbishop upon this matter And to the Duke of Somerset Bucer publickly disputeth at Cambridge Dieth The University wrote up concerning his Death Bucer's Library His Widow retires to Germany The Correspondence between him and Martyr A Plot of the Papists at Oxon against Martyr at an Act. Martyr's Judgment of the Communion-Book Bucer's great dangers Poynet Consecrated and Hoper CHAP. XXV The Archbishop publisheth his Book against Gardiner Cranmer publisheth his Book of the Sacrament His first Book of that Subject Wrote against by Gardiner and Smith Vindicated in another Book by the Archbishop The Method of the Archbishop's Reply The Judgments made of this Book How the Archbishop came off from the Opinion of the Corporal Presence The Archbishop's great Skill in Controversy Peter Mâ—rtyr enlightned by Cranmer Fox's Conjecture of the Archbishop A second Book of Gardiner against the Archbishop The Archbishop begins a third Book Martyr takes up the Quarrel Cranmer puts out his Book of the Sacrament in Latin Printed again at Embden Cranmer's second Book intended to be â—ut into Latin Some Notes of Cranmer concerning the Sacrament Martyr succeeds Cranmer in this Province Writes against Gardiner And Smith CHAP. XXVI The Duke of Somerset 's Death The Duke of Somerset's Death Winchester suppos'd to be in the Plot. Articles against the Duke What he is blamed for The new Book of Common-Prayer established Coverdale made Bishop of Exon. Scory Bishop Elect of Rochester The Archbishop appoints a Guardian of the Spiritualties of Lincoln And of Wigorn And of Chichester And of Hereford And of Bâ—ngor Hoper visits his Diocess Two Disputations concerning the Sacrament Dr. Redman dies The Archbishop and others appointed to reform Ecclesiastical Laws The method they observed Scory Coverdale Consecrated CHAP. XXVII The Articles of Religion The Articles of Religion framed and published The Archbishop's diligence in them The Archbishop retires to Ford. CHAP. XXVIII Persons nominated for Irish Bishopricks Consulted with for fit Persons to fill the Irish Sees Some account of the four Divines nominated by him for the Archbishoprick of Armagh Mr. Whitehead Mr. Turner Thomas Rosse or Rose Robert Wisdom The Character the Archbishop gave of the two former Turner designed for Armagh But declines it Goodacre made Archbishop of Armagh Letters from the Council to Ireland recommending the Irish Bishops CHAP. XXIX The Archbishop charged with Covetousness A Rumour given out of the Archbishop's Covetousness and Wealth Which Cecyl sends him word of The Archbishop's Answer for himself and the other Bishops This very slander raised upon him to K. Henry K. Henry promised him Lands This Promise performed by K. Edward His Purchases The Archbishoprick fleeced by K. Henry Lands past away to the Crown by Exchange Lands made over to the Archbishop The Archbishop parted also with Knol and Otford to the King What moved him to make these Exchanges His Cares and Fears for the King CHAP. XXX His care for the Vacancies Falls sick His Care for filling the Vacancies of the Church Laboured under an Ague this Autumn The great Mortality of Agues about this time That which most concerned him in his Sickness The Secretary sends the Archbishop the Copy of the Emperor's Pacification CHAP. XXXI His Kindness for Germany His Kindness for Germany His Correspondence with Germany And with Herman Archbishop of Colâ—n The suitableness of both these Archbishops Dispositions Their diligence in Reforming CHAP. XXXII Troubles of Bishop Tonstal The Troubles of Bishop Tonstal The Causes of this Bishop's Punishment A Bill in Parliament to attaint Tonstal The Care of the Diocess committed to the Dean CHAP. XXXIII The New Common-Prayer The Archbishop in Kent The New Common-Prayer began to be used This Book put into French for the King's French Subjects The Age still vicious A new Sect in Kent The Archbishop's business in Kent A Letter for Installing Bishop Hoper The Vicar of Beden Sampson and Knox. The Council favour Knox. Iohn Taylor Consecrated CHAP. XXXIV A Catechism The Archbishop opposeth the Exclusion of the Lady Mary Great use made of the Archbishop at Council The Articles of Religion enjoined by the King's Authority The Catechism for Schools A Catechism set forth by the Synod The Archbishop opposeth the New Settlement of the Crown Denyeth before the Council to subscribe to the Exclusion of the Lady Mary Sets his hand The Archbishop ungratefully dealt with The Council subscribe and swear to the Limited Succession CHAP. XXXV The King dies The King dies His Character The Archbishop delights in this Prince's Proficiency K. Edward's Writings The King 's Memorial for Religion The Archbishop frequent at Council His Presence in the Council in the year 1550. In the year 1551. In the year 1552. And 1553. Iohn Harley Consecrated Bishop BOOK III. CHAP. I. Queen Mary soon recognized The Archbishop slandered and imprisoned THE Archbishops and Counsellors concern with the Lady Iane. They declare for Q. Mary And write to Northumberland to lay down his Arms. The Queen owned by the Ambassadors The Archbishop misreported to have said Mass. Mass at Canterbury Which he makes a Publick Declaration against The Declaration Appears before the Commissioners at Pâ—uls And before the Council The Archbishop of York committed to the Tower and his Goods seized At Battersea At Cawood Gardiner's passage of the two Archbishops CHAP. II. Protestant Bishops and Clergy cast into Prisons and deprived This Reign begins with Rigor The Protestant Bishops deprived The hard usage of the Inferior Clergy Professors cast into the Mâ—rshalsea Winchester's Alms. P. Martyr writes of this to Calvin The state of the Church now The Queen leaves all matters to Winchester The Queen Crowned The Service still said The Queen's Proclamation of her Religion Signs of a Change of Religion CHAP. III. The Archbishop adviseth Professors to fly The Archbishop adviseth to flight Cranmer will not fly Whither the Professors fly And who Duke of Northumberland put to Death His Speech Sir Iohn Gates his Speech And Palmer's The Duke lâ—bours to get his life Whether he was always a Papist CHAP. IV. Peter Martyr departs A Parliament P. Martyr departs Malice towards him A Scandal of the Queen A Parliament The Parliament repeal Q. Katherine's Divorce And Cranmer taxed for it CHAP. V. The Archbishop attainted The Archbishop attainted of Treason The Dean of Canterbury acts in the Vacancy The Archbishop sues for Pardon of Treason Obtains it He desires to open his mind to the Queen concerning Religion CHAP. VI. A Convocation A Convocation How it opened The Archbishop and three more crowded together in the Tower CHAP. VII The Queen sends to Cardinal Pole The Queen sends to Pole The Contents of her Letters Concerning the
Nicene Creed The beginning of their Acquaintance The Archbishop propounds a weighty matter to Melancthon for the Union of all Protestant Churches The diligence of the Archbishop in forwarding this Design Mâ—lancthon's Judgment and Approbation thereof His Caveat of avoiding ambiguous expressions Renews the same Caution in another Letter Peter Martyr of this judgment What Melancthon thought of the Doctrine of Fate CHAP. XXV The Archbishop corresponds with Calvin The Archbishop breaks his purpose also to Calvin Calvin's Approbation thereof and Commendation of the Archbishop Offers his Service Excites the Archbishop to proceed This excellent purpose frustrated Thinks of drawing up Articles of Religion for the English Church Which he communicates to Calvin And Calvin's Reply and Exhortation Blames him for having not made more Progress in the Reformation But not justly The Clergy preach against Sacrilege The University-men declaim against it in the Schools And the Redress urged upon some at Court Calvin sends Letters and certain of his Books to the King Well taken by the King and Council What the Archbishop told the Messenger hereupon CHAP. XXVI The Archbishop highly valued Peter Martyr P. Martyr and the Archbishop cordial Friends The use the Archbishop made of him Martyr saw the Voluminous Writings and Marginal Notes of the Archbishop Two Letters of Martyr from Oxford An Instance of his love to the Archbishop CHAP. XXVII The Archbishop's favour to John Sleidan the Historian The Archbishop's favour to Iohn Sleidan Procures him a Pension from the King The Payment neglected Sleidan labours with the Archbishop to get the Pension confirmed by Letters-Patents Sends his Commentaries to the King Designs to write the History of the Council of Trent For the King's use Sends the King a Specimen thereof In order to the proceeding with his Commentaries desires Cecyl to send him the whole Action between K. Henry VIII and Pope Clement VII Bucer writes to Cecyl in behalf of Sleidan Iohn Leland CHAP. XXVIII Archbishop Cranmer 's Relations and Chaplains His Wives and Children His Wife survived him Divers Cranmers The Archbishop's stock Aslacton Whatton The Rectories whereof the Archbishop purchased His Chaplains Rowland Taylor His Epitaph A Sermon preached the day after his Burning Wherein the Martyr is grosly slandered Iohn Ponett Thomas Becon Richard Harman CHAP. XXIX Archbishop Cranmer 's Officers Robert Watson the Archbishop's Steward His Secretary Ralph Morice His Parentage Well known to divers eminent Bishops Presents Turner to Chartham And stands by him in his Troubles for his faithful Preaching An Instance of the Archbishop's Kindness to this his Secrerary Morice his Suit to Q. Elizabeth for a Pension His second Suit to the Queen to confirm certain Lands descended to him from his Father He was Register to the Commissioners in K. Edward's Visitation Suffered under Q. Mary Morice supplied Fox with many material Notices in his Book Morice a Cordial Friend to Latimer CHAP. XXX A Prospect of the Archbishop's Qualities Morice's Declaration concerning the Archbishop His Temperance of Nature His Carriage towards his Enemies Severe in his behaviour towards offending Protestants Stout in God's or the King's Cause His great Abilities in answering the King's Doubts Cranmer studied three parts of the Day Would speak to the King when none else durst Lady Mary Q. Katherine Howard His Hospitality Falsly accused of Ill Housekeeping CHAP. XXXI Archbishop Cranmer preserved the Revenues of his See The preserving the Bishops Revenues owing to the Archbishop The Archbishop vindicated about his Leases By long Leases he saved the Revenues Justified from diminishing the Rents of the See Oâ—ford and Knol Curleswood Chislet Park Pasture and Medow Woods Corn. The best Master towards his Servants An Infamy that he was an Hostler CHAP. XXXII Some Observations upon Archbishop Cranmer Observations upon the Archbishop His Learning very profound His Library An excellent Bishop His Care of his own Diocess At the great Towns he preached often Affected not his high Stiles His diligence in reforming Religion Puts K. Henry upon a purpose of reforming many things The King again purposeth a Reformation Hs Influence upon K. Edward CHAP. XXXIII Archbishop Cranmer procures the use of the Scriptures A great Scripturist Procures the publishing the English Bible The Bishops oppose it The first Edition of the Bible The Preface to the Bible made by the Archbishop The Contents thereof The Frontispiece of Cranmer's Edition of the Bible CHAP. XXXIV Archbishop Cranmer compassionate towards Sufferers for Religion His Affection and Compassion towards Professors of the Gospel Particularly for Sir Iohn Cheke a Prisoner And the Lord Russel A Patron to such as preached the Gospel in K. Henry's days His Succour of Afflicted Strangers in K. Edward's days England harborous of Strangers The Archbishop's favour to Foreigners Unjustly charged with Covetousness His Words to Cecyl upon this Charge Reduced as he feared to stark Beggary before his Death CHAP. XXXV Some account of Archbishop Cranmer'â— Housekeeping Some Account of his Housekeeping Retrenches the Clergy's superfluous House-keeping His Pious Design therein Others charged him with Prodigality CHAP. XXXVI Archbishop Cranmer Humble Peaceable Bold in a good Cause Humble and Condescending Peaceable and Mild. His Speech upon the News of Wars abroad Unacquainted with the Arts of Court-Flattery Would never crouch to Northumberland He and Ridley fall under that Duke's displeasure Bold and undaunted in God's Cause Falsly charged with Cowardice and too much Flexibility Of ardent Affections Cranmâ—r compared with Cardinal Wolsey CHAP. XXXVII Osiander 's and Peter Martyr 's Character of the Archbishop Osiander's Character of the Archbishop And Peter Martyr's Bale's Character of the Archbishop The difficult times wherein Cranmer lived CHAP. XXXVIII The Archbishop vindicated from Slanders of Papists A lying Character of this Archbishop by a late French Author Allen's Calumny of the Archbishop Wiped off Cleared from his Charge of Apostacy Saunders Falshoods of the Archbishop Parsons his Complements to the Archbishop Fox in behalf of Cranmer The Conclusion Errata and Emendations belonging to the Memorials Where the Reader finds this mark * after the Figure denoting the Line he is to tell from the bottom PAge 5. Line 21. for At read All. P. 29. l. 11. r. Imprisoned P. 30 31. in the Margent in three places r. 1534. P. 36. l. 8. after Appendix Note That the Dissolution of S. Swithins in Winchester tho laid here under the year 1535. happened not that year but about five years after viz. 1540. But the occasion of the Discourse there which was of the vast Wealth obtained to the King by the Fall of Religious Houses made the Author produce it in this place as an Instance thereof Ibid. l. 20. * r. Diocesan P. 37. Among the Diocesan Bishops Consecrated under the year 1535 place Hugh Latymer Consecrated Bishop of Worcester and Iohn Hildesly or Hilsey a Friar of the Order of Preachers first of Bristow and afterwards of Oxford Consecrated Bishop of Rochester next after Iohn Fisher Executed for Treason These two
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
it a Matter of Conscience and Sin to abandon their Titles Also that it might tend to stop the Emperor's Mouth and the Mouths of other their Friends when Fisher and More who had stickled so much for them should now own that Succession which would be in effect a disowning of them Secondly That it might be a means to resolve and quiet also many others in the Realm that were in doubt when such great Men should affirm by Oath and Subscription that the Succession mentioned in the said Act was good and according to God's Laws And he thought that after two such had sworn there would be scarce one in the Kingdom would reclaim against it And thirdly That though a great many in the Realm could not be brought to alter from their Opinions of the Validity of the King 's former Marriage and of the Bishop of Rome's Authority that it would be a great Point gained if all with one accord would own and acknowledg the Succession Weaver the Author of the Funeral Monuments transcribed this Letter out of the Cotton Library and inserted it into his said Book and the thing he takes notice of therein is the Wisdom and Policy of the prudent Arch-bishop I shall take notice of another thing and which I suppose was the great Cause that employed his Pen at this time namely his tender Heart and abhorrence from Blood-shedding Propounding these Politick Considerations to the Secretary which were the properest Arguments to be used with a Statesman and for him to use and urge before the King that so he might be an Instrument of saving the Lives of these Men however they differed from him and it may be were none of his very good Friends This Letter of the Arch-bishop's as I my self took it from the Original I thought worthy depositing among Cranmer's Monuments in the Appendix But this Offer of theirs notwithstanding the Arch-bishop's Arguments and Endeavours would not be accepted The King would not be satisfied with this Swearing by halves CHAP. VII The Arch-bishop visits the Diocess of Norwich THE Popish Bishops were now at a low ebb and being under the Frowns of their Prince other Men took the opportunities upon their Slips to get them punished A Storm now fell upon Richard Nix Bishop of Norwich a vitious and dissolute Man as Godwin writes Against him was a Premunire this Year 25 of Hen. VIII brought That De tout temps there had been a Custom in the Town of Thetford in the County of Norfolk that no Inhabitant of the same Town should be drawn in Plea in any Court Christian for any Spiritual Causes but before the Dean in the said Town And there was a Presentment in the King's Court before the Mayor of the Town by twelve Jurors that there was such a Custom And beside that whosoever should draw any Man out of the said Town in any Spiritual Court should forfeit six shillings and eight pence The Bishop nevertheless cited the Mayor to appear before him pro Salute animae And upon his appearance libelled for that Cause and enjoined him upon pain of Excommunication not to admit the said Presentment And whenas the Bishop could not deny his Fact Judgment was given that he should be out of the King's Protection his Goods and Chattels forfeited and his Body in Prison during the King's Pleasure For which he had the King's Pardon Which was afterwards confirmed in Parliament This Bishop's Diocess was now in such disorder that the Arch-bishop instituted a Visitation of that See wherein William May LL. D. was the Arch-bishop's Commissary The 28 th of Iuly the Bishop was called and summoned to appear but appeared not And so was pronounced Contumax But at another meeting he sent Dr. Cap his Proctor by whom he made a Protestation against their Doings and Jurisdiction and that it was not decent for that Reverend Father to appear before him the Arch-bishop's Official However at another meeting the Bishop not appearing at the Time and Place appointed Dr. May declared him obstinate and to incur the Penalty of Obstinacy After this the Bishop by his Proctor was willing to submit to obey Law and to stand to the Command of the Church and to do Penance for his said Contumacy to be enjoined by the Arch-bishop or his Commissary At another Court the Bishop appeared in Person and then shewed himself willing to take the said Commissary for Visitor or any other in the Name of the Arch-bishop of Canterbury This Bishop was now fourscore Years old and blind as appears by a Writing of his sent by his Proctor dated Septemb. 1534. He died two Years after and came in to be Bishop in the Year 1500. This Bishop seems to have made himself very odious in his Diocess by his Fierceness and Rigors against such as were willing to be better informed in Religion whom he would stile Men savouring of the Frying-pan He seized such Books as were brought from beyond-Sea of which sort there were now many which tended to lay open the Corruptions of the Church and especially the New Testament which he could not endure should be read And when some of these commonly gave out that it was the King's Pleasure that such Books should be read he sent up studiously by the Abbot of Hyde to have this shewed to the King and begged his Letters under his Seal to be directed to him or any body else whom the King pleased in his Diocess to declare it was not his Pleasure such Books should be among his Subjects and to punish such as reported it was He sent also a Letter to Warham then Arch-bishop of Canterbury making his Complaint and Information to him desiring him to send for the said Abbot who should tell him what his Thoughts were for the suppression of these Men and intreating the Arch-bishop to inform the King against these erroneous Men as he called them Some part of his Diocess was bounded with the Sea and Ipswich and Yarmouth and other Places of considerable Traffick were under his Jurisdiction And so there happened many Merchants and Mariners who by Converse from Abroad had received knowledg of the Truth and brought in divers good Books This mightily angred the zealous Bishop and he used all the Severity he could to stop the Progress of Evangelical Truth and wished for more Authority from the King to punish it for his Opinion was that if they continued any time he thought they would undo them all as he wrote to the Arch-bishop This Letter is in the Appendix Bishops Consecrated April the 19 th the Arch-bishop of Canterbury invested in his Pontificals consecrated Thomas Goodrick Doctor of Decrees Bishop of Ely in his Chappel at Croydon together with Rowland Lee Doctor of Law Bishop of Litchfield and Coventry and Iohn Salcot alias Capon Doctor of Law Bishop of Bangor being assisted by Iohn Bishop of Lincoln and Christopher Bishop of Sidon CHAP. VIII The Arch-bishop preacheth
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
Lordship writeth to me in the favour of this Bearer Massey an old Servant to the King's Highness that being contracted to his Sister's Daughter of his late Wife deceased he might enjoy the Benefit of a Dispensation in that behalf especially considering it is none of the Causes of Prohibition contained in the Statute Surely my Lord I would gladly accomplish your Request herein if the Word of God would permit the same And where you require me that if I think this Licence may not be granted by the Law of God then I should write unto you the Reasons and Authorities that move me so to think that upon Declaration unto the King's Highness you may confer thereupon with some other Learned Men and so advertise me the King 's farther Resolution For shortness of time I shall shew you one Reason which is this By the Law of God many Persons be prohibited which be not expressed but be understood by like Prohibition in equal degree As S. Ambrose saith that the Niece is forbid by the Law of God although it be not exprest in Leviticus that the Unkle shall not marry his Niece But where the Nephew is forbid there that he shall not marry his Aunt by the same is understood that the Niece shall not be married unto her Unkle Likewise as the Daughter is not there plainly expressed yet where the Son is forbid to marry his Mother it is understood that the Daughter may not be married to her Father because they be of like degree Even so it is in this Case and many others For where it is there expressed that the Nephew shall not marry his Unkle's Wife it must needs be understood that the Niece shall not be married unto the Aunt 's Husband because that also is one equality of degree And although I could allege many Reasons and Authorities mo for this purpose yet I trust this one Reason shall satisfy all that be Learned and of Judgment And as touching the Act of Parliament concerning the Degrees prohibited by God's Law they be not so plainly set forth as I would they were Wherein I somewhat spake my Mind at the making of the said Law but it was not then accepted I required then that there must be expressed Mother and Mother-in-Law Daughter and Daughter-in-Law and so in further degrees directly upwards and downwards in Linea recta also Sister and Sister-in-Law Aunt Aunt-in-Law Niece and Niece-in-Law And this Limitation in my Judgment would have contained all degrees prohibited by God's Law expressed and not expressed and should have satisfied this Man and such others which would marry their Nieces-in-Law I have no News to send you from these Parts but I much long to hear such News as be concurrent with you And therefore if you have any good News I pray you to send me some Thus my Lord right heartily fare you well At Ford the 7 th Day of September Your Lordship 's own Tho. Cantuarien About this Year as near as I can guess the Arch-bishop made an Order concerning the Proctors of his Court of Arches The Numerousness and Irregularities of Proctors made these Civil Courts uneasy to the People Complaints were made of their Clamorousness by reason of the plenty of them that neither Advocates nor Judges could be heard of the Injuries they did to Advocates in retaining and concluding Causes oftentimes without them and of thrusting themselves into Causes without the knowledg or will of the Parties and such like The Evils of which long after endured were endeavoured to be redrest by the Canons and Constitutions made in the beginning of the Reign of King Iames I. Our Arch-bishop conceived that in order to the Reformation of the Proctors it were good to begin at first with a restraint of the Numbers of them Wherefore he decreed That whereas the Number of the Proctors in the Court of Arches was heretofore about Twenty or four and Twenty and my Lord's Grace at liberty to add more Thenceforth no more should be admitted till the Number were reduced to Ten and then that Number never to be encreased This liberty which his Predecessors always had he willingly infringed himself of out of no other intent but for the benefit and ease of the People whom he saw were inticed to Contention by the crafty Insinuations of this kind of Men setting Neighbours together by the Ears for their own Lucre. And therefore the fewer of them the better And this Number he thought sufficient for the necessary Business of the Court. But some looked upon this as a crafty Fetch and Plot of the Proctors of that Time upon the good Nature and pious Disposition of the Arch-bishop That so all others being excluded from officiating as Proctors they might have all the Business of the Arches in their own Hands And hence might divers Abuses come into that Court. And for the confirmation of this Order of the Arch-bishop for the tying of his Hands they who were Counsellors to the Arch-bishop in this matter got it confirmed by the Chapter and Convent of Christ's-Church Canterbury This giving Offence to many there were some who drew up a long Paper against this Order and presented it to the consideration of the Parliament because it could be redressed no other way the Arch-bishop having put it out of his own Power to do it In this Paper they set forth that the said Statute was prejudicial unto the Common-wealth because the Number of ten Proctors was not sufficient to dispatch the Causes that came into that Court and so there must be Delays and prolix Suits while these Proctors were attending other Causes in the Arch-bishop's Court of Audience and the Bishop of London's Court of Consistory Whereas before it had been seen by experience that Twenty Proctors could not suffice for the managery of the Causes in these Courts without Delays and Prorogations from Day to Day That Causes by this means could not be diligently attended when there were many Causes and few Proctors to look after them And hereby many good Causes were like to perish for lack of good looking after That this had occasioned the Proctors to neglect a very good Oath called Iuramentum Calumpniae which was the best Provision that could be against unlawful Suits and lengthning them out further than was necessary This Oath was that the Parties or the Proctors should swear that they believed their Cause was just and that they should not use unlawful Delays whereby Justice might be deferred that they should answer the Judg truly to what he should demand of them that nothing should be given or promised to the Judges or any other Officer besides the Fees allowed by Law and that they should not procure any false Witness Again this Paper urged for a good Number of Proctors that this would be a means that the Judges could not so easily keep them in subjection and fear of them whereby they had been hindred sometimes in speaking freely before them in
their Clients Causes It was urged also that it was a great discouragement to young Men in studying the Law when there is so little prospect of Benefit thereby Lastly That it was contrary to the Civil and Canon Law that permits any Man to be Proctor for another a few excepted But this Paper notably enough written may be read at large in the Appendix And so I leave the Reader to judg of the Expediency of this Order of the Arch-bishop by weighing the Arch-bishop's Reasons with these last mentioned Surely this his Act deserved commendation for his good Intentions thereby though some lesser Inconveniences attended which no doubt he had also well considered before he proceeded to do what he did When Queen Ann on May the 2 d was sent to the Tower by a sudden Jealousy of the King her Husband The next day the Arch-bishop extreamly troubled at it struck in with many good Words with the King on her behalf in form of a Letter of Consolation to him yet wisely making no Apology for her but acknowledging how divers of the Lords had told him of certain of her Faults which he said he was sorry to hear And concluded desiring that the King would however continue his Love to the Gospel lest it should be thought that it was for her sake only that he had favoured it Being in the Tower there arose up new Matter against Queen Ann namely concerning some lawful Impediment of her Marriage with the King and that was thought to be a Pre-Contract between her and the Earl of Northumberland Whereupon the Arch-bishops of Canterbury and York were made Commissioners to examine this Matter And she being before the Arch-bishop of Canterbury confessed certain just true and lawful Impediments as the Act in the 26 of Hen. VIII expresseth it but not mentioning what they were So that by that Act the said Marriage is declared never to have been good nor consonant to the Laws Yet the Earl of Northumberland being examined upon Oath before both the Arch-bishops denied it Upon the Truth of which he received also the Blessed Sacrament And the Lord Herbert saw an Original Letter to Secretary Crumwel to the same import But her Confession of it so far prevailed with the King that he would be divorced from her and with our Arch-bishop that he performed it by due Order and Process of Law And an Act passed that the Marriage between the King and Queen Ann was null and void and the Issue illegitimate The Arch-bishop granted a Licence dated Iuly the 24 th with the full Consent of Richard Withipol Vicar of Walthamstow in Essex to George Monoux Alderman of London and Thomas his Son to have the Sacrament administred in his Chappel or Oratory in his House De Moones now a Farm near Higham-hill in the said Parish of VValthamstow Indulging therein to the Wife of the said Thomas to be purified or churched in the same Chappel I the rather mention this that it may serve to recal the Memory of that pious and charitable Citizen and Draper Sir Geo. Monoux who built the fair Steeple of that Parish-Church and allowed a Salary for ever for ringing the great Bell at a certain Hour in the Night and Morning the Winter half Year He built also the North Isle of the said Church in the Glass-windows whereof is yet remaining his Coat of Arms. In the Chancel his Body was interred under a fair Altar-Monument yet standing In the Church-yard he founded an Hospital and Free-School and very liberally endowed it though now the Endowments are sadly diminished He also made a Causeway over Walthamstow-Marsh to Lockbridg over the River Lee for the conveniency of Travellers from those Parts to London and left wherewith to continue and keep it in Repair but that also is lost and the Ruins now only to be seen But enough of that The Germans conceived great hope of good to befal the Church by Cranmer's Influence and Presidency in England and took their opportunities of addressing to him This Year Martin Bucer published a large Book in Folio upon the Epistle to the Romans intituled Metaphrasis Enâ—rratio and dedicated it in a long Epistle to the Arch-bishop Wherein are sundry Expressions which will shew how well known abroad the Arch-bishop was already among the Protestants and what an excellent Bishop they looked upon him to be and how fixed their Eyes were upon him for doing great things towards a Reformation in England For thus he writ in this Epistle Te omnes praedicant animo praeditum Archiepiscopo tanti sicque ad gloriam Christi comparati regni Primate digno c. That all Men proclaimed him endowed with a Mind worthy of an Arch-bishop and Primate of so great a Kingdom and so disposed to the Glory of Christ. That he had so attained to this high Estate in Christ by his spiritual Wisdom Holiness of Life and most ardent Zeal to render Christ's Glory more illustrious that gathering together the Humble and taking pity upon the Sheepfold being indeed dispersed and scattered abroad he always sought and saved that which was lost and brought back Christ's poor Sheep to his Fold and the Pastures of everlasting Life when they had been before most miserably harassed by the Servants of Superstition and the Emissaries of the Roman Tyranny And after speaking of the King 's rooting out the Usurpation of the Pope and his pretended Jurisdiction by taking to himself the Supremacy the said Learned Man excited Cranmer to a further Reformation by telling him How easy now it would be for him and the other Arch-bishops and Bishops who were endued with the Spirit and Zeal of Christ from the remainders of the Ecclesiastical Administration to retain what might contribute to the true edifying of Consciences the saving Instruction of Youth and to the just Discipline and Polity of the whole Christian People For when the Enemies were once removed out of the way there could not then happen among us any extraordinary great Concussion of Religion and Ecclesiastical Discipline or any dashing one against another as among them in Germany of necessity came to pass striving so many Years for the Church of Christ against such obstinate Enemies The Consecrations this Year were these Diocesan Bishops Iune the 10 th Richard Sampson Doctor of Decrees and Dean of the King's Chappel was elected and confirmed Bishop of Chichester by Resignation of Robert Sherburn who was now very old No Consecration set down in the Register Iune William Rugg a Monk was consecrated Bishop of Norwich This is omitted also if I mistake not in the Register Probably he was consecrated with Sampson Iuly the 2 d Robert Warton Abbot of Bermondsey was consecrated Bishop of S. Asaph at Lambeth by the Arch-bishop Iohn Bishop of Bangor and William Bishop of Norwich assisting Suffragan Bishops Octob. 20. William More B. D. consecrated Suffragan of Colchester by Iohn Bishop of
he had his Commission and took it down with him Which he advisedly did the better to warrant and bear him out in what he intended to do in his Diocess which he purposed to visit This was a Year of Visitation For there was a new Visitation now again appointed throughout all England to see how the People stood affected to the King to discover Cheats and Impostures either in Images Relicks or such like The Arch-bishop also thinking good now to visit his Diocess procured the Licence of the Vice-Gerent Lord Crumwel so to do Because I suppose all other Visitations were to cease to give way to the King's Visitation And to render his Power of Visiting the more unquestionable and void of scruple he desired the Vice-gerent that in drawing up of his Commission his Licence to visit might be put into it by Dr. Peter who was then if I mistake not Master of the Faculties to the said Vice-gerent and afterwards Secretary of State And because he would not do any thing without the Counsel and Allowance of the Vice-gerent he asked his Advice how he should order in his Visitation such Persons as had transgressed the King's Injunctions Which came out the Year before under Crumwel's Name Whereof some were for the restraint of the Number of Holy Days a great cause of Superstition and of the continuance of it And afterwards other Injunctions came out whereof the first was that in all Parishes once every Sunday for a quarter of a Year together the Supremacy should be taught and the Laws to that intent read These Injunctions were in number Eleven as they are set down in the Lord Herbert's History The Vicar of Croydon under the ABp's Nose had been guilty of certain Misdemeanors Which I suppose were speaking or preaching to the disparagement of the King's Supremacy and in favour of the Pope Now before he went into the Countrey and having as yet divers Bishops and Learned Men with him at Lambeth he thought it advisable to call this Man before them at this time But before he would do it he thought it best to consult with Crumwel and take his Advice whether he should now do it and before these Bishops or not So ticklish a thing then was it for the Bishops to do any things of themselves without the privity and order of this great Vice-gerent Cranmer was aware of it and therefore required Direction from him in every thing But whatsoever was done with this Vicar the Arch-bishop was soon down in his Diocess and having taken an Account of the People and Clergy what Conformity they bare to the King's Laws and Injunctions he found them superstitiously set upon the observation of their old Holy Days Some whereof he punished and others he admonished according to the degree of their Crimes And he discovered the chief Cause to lie in the Curates and Priests who did animatâ— the People to what they did indeed their Interest and Gain was concerned The great inconvenience of these Holy Days lay partly in the numerousness of them so that the attendance upon them hindred dispatching and doing Justice in Westminster-hall in the Terms and the gathering in Harvest in the Countrey partly in the Superstitions that these Holy Days maintained in the idolatrous Worship of supposed Saints and partly in the Riot Debauchery and Drunkenness that these Times were celebrated with among the common People and lastly the Poverty it brought upon the meaner sort being detained from going about their ordinary Labours and Callings to provide for themselves and Families For the prevention of these Superstitions for the Future and to make the People more obedient to the King's Laws he gave out strict Orders to all Parsons of Parishes upon pain of Deprivation that they should cause the abrogated Holy Days not to be observed for the future and to present to the Arch-bishop all Persons in their respective Parishes as should do contrary to any of the King's Ordinances already set forth or that should be hereafter by his Authority relating to the Doctrine and Ceremonies of the Church And this course he conceived so good an Expedient that he counselled the Lord Vice-gerent that all Bishops in their several Diocesses might be commanded to do the same for the avoiding of Disobedience and Contention in the Realm By which means he said The Evil-Will of the People might be conveyed from the King and his Council upon the Ordinaries And so the Love and Obedience of the People better secured to their Soveraign Such was his care of his Prince to preserve him in the Affections of his People that he was willing to take upon himself their Enmity that it might not light upon the King But Cranmer had observed these Holy Days were kept by many even in the Court under the King's Eye which he well knew was an Example and Encouragement to the whole Nation And therefore he signified to the Lord Crumwel that they could never perswade the People to cease from keeping them when the King 's own Houshold were an Example unto the rest to break his own Ordinances See his Letter to Crumwel in the Appendix CHAP. XV. The Bible printed HE was now at Ford and it was in the Month of August when something fell out that gave the good Arch-bishop as much Joy as ever happened to him in all the time of his Prelacy It was the printing of the Holy Bible in the English Tongue in the great Volume Which was now finished by the great Pains and Charges of Richard Grafton the Printer Osiander who knew the Arch-bishop well when he was the King's Ambassador in Germany saith of him that he was Sacrarum Literarum Studiossimum Indeed he always had a great value for the Scriptures because they were the Word of God and extraordinary desirous he was from the very first entrance upon his Bishoprick that the People might have the liberty of reading it and for that purpose to have it interpreted into the Vulgar Language And so by Crumwel's means he got leave from the King that it might be translated and printed The care of the Translation lay wholly upon him assigning little Portions of this Holy Book to divers Bishops and Learned Men to do and being dispatched to be sent back to him And to his inexpressible Satisfaction he saw the Work finished in this Year about Iuly or August As soon as some of the Copies came to his Hand one he sent to Crumwel entreating him that he would present it from him to the King and no question he thought it the noblest Present that ever he made him and withal to intercede with his Majesty that the said Book might by his Authority be both bought and used by all indifferently Both which Crumwel did For which the Arch-bishop was full of Gladness and Gratitude and wrote two Letters to him soon after one another wherein he thanked him most heartily telling him How he had hereby made
Crumwel speak against it the Reason being no question because they saw the King so resolved upon it Nay it came to be a flying Report that the Arch-bishop of Canterbury himself and all the Bishops except Sarum consented But this is not likely that Cranmer who had so openly and zealously opposed it should be so soon changed and brought to comply with it Nay at the very same time it passed he staid and protested against it though the King desired him to go out since he could not consent to it Worcester also as well as Sarum was committed to Prison and he as well as the other resigned up his Bishoprick upon the Act. In the foresaid Disputation in the Parliament-house the Arch-bishop behaved himself with such humble modesty and obedience in word towards his Prince protesting the Cause not to be his but God's that neither his Enterprize was misliked of the King and his Allegations and Reasons were so strong that they could not be refuted Great pity it is that these Arguments of the Arch-bishop are lost which I suppose they are irrecoverably because Fox that lived so near those Times and so elaborate a Searcher after such Papers could not meet with them and all that he could do was to wish that they were extant to be seen and read However I will make my Conjecture here that I am apt to think that one of the main Matters insisted on by him at this time was against the cruel Penalty annexed to these Articles For I find in one of the Arch-bishop's Manuscript Volumes now in Benet-College Library there is in this very Year a Discourse in Latin upon this Subject Num in haereticos jure Magistratui gravius animadvertere liceat Decisio Vrbani Rhegii Interprete Iacobo Gisleno Anno 1539. Which Book I suppose he might at this juncture have read over and made use of The Dukes and Lords of Parliament that as above was said came over to Lambeth to visit and dine with him by the King's Command used words to him to this Tenor The King's Pleasure is that we should in his behalf cherish and comfort you as one that for your travail in the late Parliament declared your self both greatly Learned and also Discreet and Wise And therefore my Lord be not discouraged for any thing that past there contrary to your Allegations The Arch-bishop replied In the first place my Lords I heartily thank the King's Highness for his singular good Affection towards me and you all for your pains And I hope in God that hereafter my Allegations and Authorities shall take place to the Glory of God and Commodity of the Realm Every of the Lords brought forth his Sentence in commendation of him to shew what good-will both the King and they bare to him One of them entred into a Comparison between the said Arch-bishop and Cardinal Wolsey preferring the Arch-bishop before him for his mild and gentle Nature whereas he said the Cardinal was a stubborn and churlish Prelate that could never abide any Noble-man The Lord Crumwel as Cranmer's Secretary relates who himself heard the words You my Lord said he were born in an happy Hour I suppose for do or say what you will the King will always take it well at your Hands And I must needs confess that in some things I have complained of you to his Majesty but all in vain for he will never give credit against you whatsoever is laid to your Charge But let me or any other of the Council be complained of his Grace will most seriously chide and fall out with us And therefore you are most happy if you can keep you in this State The Roman Zealots having obtained this Act of the Six Articles desisted not but seconded their Blow by a Book of Ceremonies to be used by the Church of England so intituled all running after the old Popish strain It proceeded all along in favour of the Roman Church's superstitious Ceremonies endeavouring to shew the good signification of them The Book first begins with an Index of the Points touched therein viz. Churches and Church-yards the hallowing and reconcileing them The Ceremonies about the Sacrament of Baptism Ordering of the Ministers of the Church in general Divine Service to be sung and said in the Church Mattins Prime and other Hours Ceremonies used in the Mass. Sundays with other Feasts Bells Vesture and Tonsure of the Ministers of the Church and what Service they be bound unto Bearing Candles upon Candlemass-day Fasting Days The giving of Ashes The covering of the Cross and Images in Lent Bearing of Palms The Service of Wednesday Thursday and Friday before Easter The hallowing of Oil and Chrism The washing of the Altars The hallowing of the Font upon Saturday in the Easter-Even The Ceremonies of the Resurrection in Easter-Morning General and other particular Processions Benedictions of Bells or Priests Holy Water and holy Bread A general Doctrine to what intent Ceremonies be ordained and of what value they be The Book it self is too long to be here inserted but such as have the Curiosity may find it in the Cotton Library and may observe what Pains was taken to smooth and varnish over the old Supperstions I do not find this Book mentioned by any of our Historians The Bishop of Winchester with his own Pen hath an Annotation in the Margin of one place in the Book And I strongly suspect he was more than the Revisor of it and that it was drawn up by him and his Party and strongly pushed on to be owned as the Act of the Clergy For this Year there was a Convocation The King had sent his Letters written March the 12 th in the 30 th Year of his Reign viz. 1538. to the Arch-bishop of Canterbury for summoning a Convocation to meet together at St. Paul's the second day of May. But this Assembly by the King's Letters to him was prorogued till November the 4 th At this Convocation I suppose these Articles were invented and propounded to the House All this long Book in behalf of the Ceremonies did our laborious Metropolitan put himself to the pains of answering and thereby hindred the Reception of it For concerning this I do interpret that Passage of Fox viz. That the Arch-bishop confuted eighty eight Articles devised by a Convocation and which were laboured to be received but were not But to return to the six Articles Great triumphing now there was on the Papists Side as appears by a Letter wrote from some Roman Catholick Member of the House of Lords to his Friend Which may be read in the Appendix But after some time the King perceiving that the said Arch-bishop and Bishops did this thing not of Malice or Stubbornness but out of a zeal they had to God's Glory and the Common-wealth reformed in part the said Six Articles and somewhat blunted the Edg of them March 20. Two Commissions were sent to the Arch-bishop to take the Surrender
to take the lively Word unto their Defence against the World the Devil and the Flesh Even so hath he permitted the same Preachers to be dispersed that not one of them should be a comfortable Example to such an unkinde People CHAP. VI. The Arch-bishop's Care of the University THE Arch-bishop was a great Patron of all solid Learning being a very Learned Man himself And knowing very well how much the Libertas Philosophandi and the Knowledg of Tongues and the other Parts of Humane Learning tended to the preparing Mens Minds for the reception of True Religion and for the detecting of the gross Errors and Frauds of Popery which could subsist only in the thick Darkness of Ignorance these things made him always cast a favourable Aspect upon the Universities and especially that of Cambridg whereof he himself was once a Member Which the Governors and the rest of the Gremials very well knew and therefore did frequently apply to him as often as they had need of the Favour of the Court or Parliament Roger Ascham Fellow of S. Iohn's College and one of the floridest Wits of this University and who succeeded Sir Iohn Cheke in reading the Greek Lecture said of him in a Letter he sent him wherein he stiled him Literarum Decus Ornamentum That he was the Man who was accustomed to express great Joy at the good Progress of Learning such was his singular good-will towards it and when it went otherwise than well with it he alone could apply a Remedy such was his Sway and Authority And so much was he the known Mecaenas of Learning that according to the publick Encouragement or Prejudice it received so the Vulgar accounted the Praise or Dispraise thereof to redound upon Cranmer So that if Learning were Discountenanced it was esteemed to cast some Disparagement upon him if it flourished it was a sign that Cranmer prevailed at Court For to that purpose do those words of the said Ascham to the Archbishop in another Letter seem to tend Nulla hoc tempore literis vel insperata clades vel expectata commoditas accidere potest cujus tu non aut author ad magnam commendationem aut particeps ad aliquam reprehensionem voce ac sermone omnium jactatus eris In this Year 1547 and in the Month of October there fell out an Accident in S. Iohn's College in Cambridg which made those of that College that favoured Learning and Religion as that House was the chief Nursery thereof in that University judg it highly necessary to apply themselves to the Arch-bishop to divert a Storm from them The Case was this A French Lad of this College Cizer to one Mr. Stafford there had one Night in hatred to the Mass secretly cut the String whereby the Pix hung above the Altar in the Chappel The like to which was indeed done in other Places of the Nation by some zealous Persons who began this Year without any Warrant to pull down Crucifixes and Images out of the Churches As was particularly done in S. Martins Ironmonger-lane London This Affront to the Popish Service made a great Noise in the College And the sober Party among them feared the ill Effect it might have upon the whole College either to its Disparagement or Prejudice when the News of it should come to Court especially by the means of such who stomached much the Decay and Downfal of Superstition and endeavoured what in them lay to obscure and eclipse the rising Light of the Gospel Therefore after the Matter had been taken into Examination by themselves quietly and without Tumult they thought fit by Consent to acquaint the Arch-bishop with it in a Letter which one of their Members Thomas Lever a Learned and grave Man carried who likewise should inform him of all Circumstances and so committed both the Cause and Person to his Grace's Judgment and Censure But withal letting him know that the Youth was well Learned and before this had carried himself quietly and modestly and that Mr. Stafford who was a great Student could not tell how to be without him But however such was his Prudence that he was willing to leave his Scholar and his Fault to the Arch-bishop's Discretion By which Message they warily avoided the Odium of this Action as though they had countenanced any violent or illegal Methods for the removal of Superstition before it were done by Publick Authority and likewise rescued their Scholar from Expulsion or too rigorous Punishment which some in the College would have been apt to inflict upon him had not the Matter been thus prudently removed from them Let me here insert another Matter that happened the Year after in the same College whereat divers took Occasion so to represent it to our Arch-bishop as to create in him as much as they could an ill Opinion of the better sort of the Members thereof About November or December in the Year 1548 some of the College got this Question to be disputed in the Chappel concerning the Mass Ipsáne Coena Dominica fuerit nécne It was handled with great Learning by two Learned Fellows of the House Thomas Lever and Roger Hutchinson The Noise of this soon spread in the University and many were much displeased at it At last Ascham being a very fit Person to undertake it was prevailed with by the rest to bring this Question out of the private Walls of the College into the publick Schools yet as was pretended with this mind and meaning not dogmatically to assert any thing but modestly and freely to learn from Learned Men what could be fetched out of the Holy Scriptures to defend the Mass which had taken up not only the chiefest Place in Religion and Mens Consciences but took away in effect all the Use and Benefit of the faithful Ministry of the Word and Sacraments from Christians This Business they set about with Quietness they conferred their common Studies together propounded to themselves the Canonical Scriptures by the Authority whereof they wish'd the whole might be decided They took also along with them concerning this Matter the Ancient Canons of the Early Church the Councils of Fathers the Decrees of Popes the Judgments of Doctors the great Plenty of Questionists all the Modern Authors both German and Roman But this Design of theirs was not only the Subject of Talk in the University but noted in the publick Sermons and such Labour there was among some in opposition to it that Dr. Madew then Vice-chancellor was prevailed with by his Letters to forbid the Disputation They obeyed but took it hardly that they might not as well dispute in favour of the Question as others might preach as much as they would against it But it ended not here for their Adversaries industriously carried the Report hereof to our Prelate and did so blacken the Business by their Slanders and loud and tragical Clamours that he became somewhat offended with the Undertakers These on the other hand no question applied
Victual's sake that Fish might be uttered as well as other Meat Now as long as it goeth so politickly we ought to keep it Therefore all except those that be dispensed withal as sick impotent Persons Women with Child old Folk c. ought to live in an ordinary obedience to those Laws and not to do against the same in any wise Gardiner urged the great Inconvenience these Rhimes against Lent might occasion That they could serve for nothing but to learn the People to rail and to make others forbear to make their usual Provisions of Fish against the ensuing Year fearing Lent to be sick as the Rhime purported and like to die About these Times there arose much talk of the King 's matching The Protestants were much afraid of his marrying with some Foreign Princess Abroad that might turn his Heart from Religion But the Popishly-affected did their endeavours to perswade him to please himself with some Lady Abroad as best agreeable with Politick Ends as the enlarging of his Dominions and the Surety and Defence of his Countries Some therefore put Latimer upon giving the King Counsel in this Matter from the Pulpit So he advised the King to chuse him one that is of God that is which is of the Houshold of Faith and such an one as the King can find in his Heart to love and lead his Life in pure and chaste Espousage with Let him chuse a Wife that fears God Let him not chuse a Proud Wanton and one full only of rich Treasures and worldly Pomp. The Sentiments of the Protestant Foreigners concerning the present English State deserves a particular Remark They took such great Joy and Satisfaction in this good King and his Establishment of Religion that the Heads of them Bullinger Calvin and others in a Letter to him offered to make him their Defender and to have Bishops in their Churches as there were in England with the tender of their Service to assist and unite together This netled the Learned at the Council of Trent who came to the knowledg of it by some of their private Intelligencers and they verily thought that all the Hereticks as they called them would now unite among themselves and become one Body receiving the same Discipline exercised in England Which if it should happen and that they should have Heretical Bishops near them in those Parts they concluded that Rome and her Clergy would utterly fall Whereupon were sent two of their Emissaries from Rotterdam into England who were to pretend themselves Anabaptists and preach against baptizing Infants and preach up Rebaptizing and a Fifth Monarchy upon Earth And besides this one D. G. authorized by these Learned Men dispatched a Letter written in May 1549 from Delf in Holland to two Bishops whereof Winchester was one signifying the coming of these pretended Anabaptists and that they should receive them and cherish them and take their Parts if they should chance to receive any Checks Telling them that it was left to them to assist in this Cause and to some others whom they knew to be well-affected to the Mother-Church This Letter is lately put in print Sir Henry Sydney first met with it in Queen Elizabeth's Closet among some Papers of Queen Mary's He transcribed it into a Book of his called The Romish Policies It came afterwards into the Hands of ABp Vsher and was transcribed thence by Sir Iames Ware Let it be remembred here and noted that about this time Winchester was appointed with Ridley Bishop of Rochester to examine certain Anabaptists in Kent I find no Bishops Consecrated this Year CHAP. XVI Ridley made Bishop of London The Communion-Book reviewed RIdley Bishop of Rochester was designed to succeed Boner lately deprived in the Bishoprick of London and April 3. took his Oath an half Year being almost spent before he entred upon the Care of that See after Boner's Deprivation At his entrance he was exceeding wary not to do his Predecessor the least Injury in Goods that belonged to him He had not one Penny-worth of his moveable Goods for if any were found and known to be his he had Licence to convey them away otherwise they were safely preserved for him There was some quantity of Lead lay in the House which he used about it and the Church but Ridley paid for it as Boner's own Officers knew He continued Boner's Receiver one Staunton in his Place He paid fifty three or fifty five Pounds for Boner's own Servants common Liveries and Wages which was Boner's own Debt remaining unpaid after his Deposition He frequently sent for old Mrs. Boner his Predecessor's Mother calling her his Mother and caused her to sit in the uppermost Seat at his own Table as also for his Sister one Mrs. Mongey It was observed how Ridley welcomed the old Gentlewoman and made as much of her as though she had been his own Mother And though sometimes the Lords of the Council dined with him he would not let her be displaced but would say By your Lordships favour this Place of Right and Custom is for my Mother Boner But to see the base Ingratitude of Boner when he was restored again in Q. Mary's Reign he used Ridley far otherwise than Ridley had used him For he would not allow the Leases which Ridley had made which was in danger to redound to the utter Ruin and Decay of many poor Men. He had a Sister with three Children whom he married to one Shipside a Servant of his and provided for them This Sister Boner turned out of all and endeavoured the Destruction of Shipside had not Bishop Hethe delivered him Ridley in his Offices and in an Iron Chest in his Bed-Chamber had much Plate and considerable Quantities of other Goods all which Boner seized upon Insomuch that Ridley but a little before his Burning wrote a Supplicatory Letter to the Queen to take this into her Consideration That the poor Men might enjoy their Leases and Years renewed for that they were made without Fraud or Covin either for their Parts or his and the old Rents always reserved to the See without any kind of Dammage thereof Or at least that they might be restored to their former Leases and Years and might have rendred to them again such Sums of Money as they paid him and the Chapter as Fines for their Leases and Years taken from them Which Fines he desired the Queen would command might be made good out of the Plate and other Things he left in his House half whereof would disburse those Fines This did so much run in the good Man's Mind that at the time of his Burning he desired the Lord Williams then present to remember this his Suit to the Queen Which he promised him he would do But what Effect it had I cannot tell In the Vacancy of the Church of Rochester by the remove of Ridley the Arch-bishop committed the Spiritualities to William Cook LL. D. April 18. The Nobility and Gentry
would do in them it not being reasonable he should subscribe them in Prison This being reported to the Council Iuly 15 it was agreed that he should be sent for before the whole Council and examined Whether he would stand at this Point Which if he did then to denounce the Sequestration of his Benefice for three Months with intimation if he reformed not in that space to deprive him This Order was Signed by Somerset Wilts Bedford Clynton Paget Wyngfield Herbert Iuly 19. The Bishop of VVynton was brought before the Council and there the Articles before mentioned were read unto him distinctly Whereunto he refused either to subscribe or consent Answering in these words That in all things his Majesty would command him he was willing and most ready to obey but forasmuch as there were divers things required of him which his Conscience would not bear therefore he prayed them to have him excused And thereupon Secretary Petre by the Council's Order proceeded to read the Sequestration Thus fairly and calmly was this Bishop dealt with by the King and his Council from Iune 8. to Iuly 19. And notwithstanding this Sentence the Council favorably ordered that the Bishop's House and Servants should be maintained in their present State until the expiration of the three Months and that the Matter in the mean time should be kept secret The three Months expired Octob. 19. but with such Clemency was he used that it was November 23 before his Business was renewed And then considering the time of his Intimation was long sithence expired it was agreed that the Bishop of Ely Mr. Secretary Petre Dr. May and Dr. Glynne all Learned in the Civil Law should substantially confer upon the Matter and upon Tuesday next the 26 th day of this present to certify unto the Council what was to be done duly by order of the Law in this Case And now the Arch-bishop of Canterbury began to be concerned in this troublesome Business A Commission dated Decemb. 12 was issued out from the King to the said Arch-bishop and to the Bishops of London Ely Lincoln to Sir VVilliam Petre Sir Iames Hales and some other Lawyers to call the said Bishop of VVinchester before them and continuing in his Contempt to proceed to deprive him December 14. The Lieutenant of the Tower was ordered to bring the Bishop on Monday next to Lambeth before my Lord of Canterbury and other Commissioners upon his Cause and likewise upon their Appointment to bring him thither from day to day at times by them prefixed December 15 was the day of VVinchester's first Appearance The Business done this Session was the opening and reading the Commission and after that divers Articles against the Bishop Who then made a Speech Wherein first He protested against these his Judges and excepted against their Commission and required this his Protestation to be entred into the Acts of the Court. Then desiring a Copy of the Commission it was granted him together with that of the Articles too to make his Answers to Next the Archbishop gave him his Oath to make true Answer Which he took still with his Protestation Then the Bishop desiring Counsel the Arch-bishop and the rest not only granted his Request but allowed him whomsoever he should name Which was the next Day allowed also by an Order of Council Certain honourable Persons were deposed and sworn for Witnesses as Sir Anthony Wingfield Controller of the Houshold Sir William Cecyl Secretary Sir Rafe Sadleir Sir Edward North Dr. Cox Almoner and others The Bishop also protested against them and the Swearing of them At this first Sessions he had also said in the hearing of a great Multitude present concerning the Duke of Somerset and some other Privy-Counsellors sent to him in the Tower That they had made an end with him before for all the matters for which he was committed In so much that he verily thought he should never have heard any more of it This coming soon to the Ears of these Nobles highly offended them as reporting falsely of them So that to justify themselves in as publick a manner the next Sessions they sent their Letter dated December 17 signed by the Duke of Somerset the Earls of Wiltshire and Bedford and Sir Edward North wherein they denied any such Matter saying That the Bishop defended his Cause with Untruths and that upon their Fidelities and Honours his Tale was false and untrue For that their coming to him in the Tower was to do their endeavour to reclaim him And they prayed the Commissioners that for their Vindication they would cause this their Letter to be publickly read Which was accordingly done though the Bishop thinking how this would reflect upon him under his former Protestation laboured hard that he might first be heard and that he had something to propose why it should not be read Which notwithstanding they would not grant Ianuary 19. The Council sitting at Greenwich the Bishop's Servants came and desired that certain of them might be sworn upon certain Articles for Witness on his behalf And if they might not be sworn that upon their Honours as they would answer before God they would witness truly according to their Conscience and as effectually as if they were sworn upon a Book And they were allowed The Bishop to make his Cause the more plausible as though he were the publick Defender of the Roman Catholick-Church in England at this time laboured to make it believed that he fell into all this Trouble for the Defence of the Real Presence in the Sacrament and for maintaining the Catholick Doctrine in a Sermon before the King and that he made his Book to vindicate himself therein And therefore in one of his Appearances before the Commissioners openly in the Court delivered them his Book against Arch-bishop Cranmer printed in France and to make it suit the better he had altered some lines in the beginning of his Book so as to make it to relate to his present Case But in truth Gardiner had wrote and finished his Book before This Cranmer unvailed in his Answer to this Book of Gardiner's Saying there That he made his Book before he was called before the Commissioners as he could prove by a Book under his own Hand-writing and that he was called before the Commissioners by his own Suit and Procurement and as it were inforcing the Matter But indeed the true Cause was That he was called to Justice for his manifest Contempt and continual Disobedience from time to time or rather Rebellion against the King's Majesty and was deprived of his State for the same In short after a greal deal of Pains and Patience the Bishop was by the Arch-bishop and the rest of the Commissioners deprived after no less then two and twenty Sessions held at divers places that is from the 15 th of December to the 14 th of February though Stow falsely nameth but seven The Bishop when he saw the
Sentence Definitive ready to be pronounced made an Appeal from them to the King For his doing which he produced these Reasons For that these his pretended Judges were not indifferent but prejudiced against him That my Lord of Canterbury had caused him to be sent to Prison whereas the Arch-bishop was only present at the Council when he was by them ordered to the Tower And so had Hales Goodrick and Gosnold counselled to send him thither Also that the Arch-bishop and the Bishops of London and Lincoln did contrary to the Laws Ecclesiastical and taught and set forth manifest condemned Errors against the Presence in the Sacrament And because the Bishop as well in his Writings as otherwise did set forth the Catholick Faith of the very Presence of Christ's Body and Blood therefore they shewed themselves unduly affected towards him That Sir William Petre decreed the Fruits of his Bishoprick to be sequestred de facto sed non de jure and now was Judg in his own Cause But notwithstanding this Appeal the Arch-bishop with the rest of the Commissioners pronounced him Deprived and his Bishoprick void After this was done the Bishop appealed again to the King instantly more instantly most instantly from their Sentence as Injust and of no effect in Law and asked of them Letters Dimissory to be granted to him and a Copy of the Judgment But the Judges declared they would first know the pleasure of the King and his Council therein And so this last Session brake up The day after being the 15 th of February the Council sitting at VVestminster upon debating the Bishop of VVinton's Case Forasmuch as it appeared he had at all times before the Judges of his Cause used himself unreverently to the King's Majesty and slanderfully towards his Council and especially Yesterday being the Day of his Judgment given against him he called his Judges Hereticks and Sacramentaries they being there the King's Commissioners and of his Highness's Council it was therefore concluded by the whole Board that he should be removed from the Lodging he hath now in the Tower to a meaner Lodging and none to wait upon him but one by the Lieutenant's Appointment in such sort as by the resort of any Man to him he have not the liberty to send out to any Man or to hear from any Man And likewise that his Books and Papers be taken from him and seen and that from henceforth he have neither Pen Ink nor Paper to write his detestable Purposes but be sequestred from all Conferences and from all means that may serve him to practise any way March 8. at VVestminster This day by the King's Majesty 's own Appointment Dr. Poynet Bishop of Rochester was chosen Bishop of VVinchester And the Arch-bishop of Canterbury had given him 266 l. 13 s. 4 d. i. e. 400 Marks for his Pains and Charges about the Bishop of VVinchester And thus I have from very Authentick Authority gathered together these Memorials of this turbulent haughty Man who was now so seasonably laid aside in this King's Reign till we hear of him loudly in the next when he sufficiently wracked his Revenge against our good Arch-bishop and the true Religion CHAP. XX. Bishop Hethe and Bishop Day their Deprivations WHile the aforesaid Bp lay under Sequestrationin the Tower two other Bps that were wayward to the King's Proceedings in the Reformation of the Church viz. of Worcester and Chichester came under the Hands of the Privy-Council resolving to make them comply or deprive them That others more willing and better affected to Reformation might succeed and do service in the Church and that the Arch-bishop might go forward with less Stop and Impediment in the good Work he had dedicated himself unto Both of them were of the Arch-bishop's raising and seemed very compliant with the Arch-bishop during K. Henry's Reign But now both hung off from him seeming much offended with him for his relinquishing the Doctrine of the Corporeal Presence and for writing a Book against it Whereof they made mention with dislike in their Depositions in the Bishop of Winchester's Trial before the Commissioners In the last Year the Year 1549 Twelve Learned Divines Bishops and others were appointed by the Council to prepare a new Book for the Ordination of Ministers purged of the Superstitions of the old Ordinal Hethe Bishop of Worcester was nominated for one of these But he not liking the thing would not agree to what the others did nor subscribe the Book when made For which in March he was committed to the Fleet where he lay under easy Confinement all the next Year the Year 1550 during which time I find him once produced as a Witness on Bishop Gardiner's behalf But in the Year 1551 the Court being at Chelsey and the Council sitting September 22. by virtue of the King 's express Commandment Nicolâ—s Bishop of Worcester was sent for and came before the Lords and others To whom was repeated the Cause of his Imprisonment to be For that he refused to subscribe the Book devised for the Form of making Arch-bishops Bishops Priests and Deacons being authorized by Parliament At the time of which refusal being not only gently and reasonably required to subscribe it but also being manifestly taught by divers other Learned Men that all Things contained in the Book were Good and True and that the Book was expedient and allowable the said Bishop declared himself to be a vâ—ry obstinate Man And for this his doing it was now shewed unto him that he deserved longer Imprisonment Nevertheless the King's Majesty's Clemency was such that now if he had or would reconcile himself to obey his Majesty in this former Commandment he should recover the King's Majesty's Favour For which Cause it was told him That he was then presently sent for and willed now to subscribe the same Whereunto he answered That he took the Cause of his Imprisonment to be as was alleged and that also he was very gently used rather like a Son than a Subject Nevertheless he said he remained still in the same mind not willing to subscribe it although he would not disobey it And although he was reasoned withal by every of the said Council in disproving his manner of answer that he would not subscribe it being every thing in the said Book True and Good and being devised by eleven other Learned Men to which he was joined as the twelfth and received of all the whole Estate of the Realm agreeing also that he would obey it not subscribe it which contained a Contradiction in Reason Yet he still as a Man not removeable from his own Conceit refused to subscribe it Whereupon to prove all manner of Ways for the winning of him to his Duty he was offered to have Conference with Learned Men and to have time to consider the Matter better Whereunto he said That he could not have better Conference than he had heretofore and well might he have
time but of other Mind he thought never to be Adding that there were many other things whereunto he would never consent if he were demanded as to take down the Altars and set up Tables And in this sort seeing him obstinately settled in Mind not to be conformable he was in the King's Majesty's Name expresly commanded and charged to subscribe the same Book before Thursday next following being the 24 th hereof upon pain of Deprivation of his Bishoprick to all and singular Effects which might follow thereof And hearing the Commandment he resolutely answered He could not find in his Conscience to do it and should be well content to abide such End either by Deprivation or otherwise as pleased the King's Majesty And so as a Man incorrigible he was returned to the Fleet. This Order was subscribed by these of the Privy-Council W. Wilts I. Warwyck W. Herbert W. Cecyl Io. Mason That which gave the Council the first Occasion against Day Bishop of Chichester was partly his refusal of complying with the Order of changing the Altars in his Diocess into Tables and partly going down into his Diocess and there preaching against it and other Matters of that nature then in agitation to the raising of dangerous Tumults and Discontents among the People This came to the Council's Ears and Octob. 7. this Year Dr. Cox the King's Almoner was ordered to repair into Sussex to appease the People by his good Doctrine which were now troubled through the seditious preaching of the Bishop of Chichester and others Novemb. 8. The said Bishop appeared before the Council to answer such things as should be objected against him for preaching And because he denied the words of his Accusation therefore he was commanded within two days to bring in writing what he preached Novemb. 30. This day the Duke of Somerset declared to the Council That the Bishop of Chichester came within two days past and shewed to him that he received Letters from the King's Majesty signed with his Majesty's Hand and subscribed with the Hands of divers Lords of the Council The Tenor of which Letter here ensueth Right Reverend Father in God c. It is the same Letter as is printed in Fox's Acts about pulling down Altars According to this Letter the said Bishop said He could not conform his Conscience to do that he was by the said Letter commanded and therefore prayed the said Duke he might be excused Whereunto the said Duke for Answer used divers Reasons moving the said Bishop to do his Duty and in such things to make no Conscience where no need is Nevertheless the said Bishop would not be removed from his former Opinion Therefore the said Duke said He would make report to the rest of the Council And so in the end he prayed the Lords of the Council this Day that the Bishop might be sent for and shew his Mind touching this Case Which was agreed and Commandment given for the Bishop to be at the Council the next Day Decemb. 1. The Bishop came before the Council and being asked what he said to the Letters sent to him from the King's Majesty He answered That he could not conform his Conscience to take down the Altars in the Churches and in lieu of them to set up Tables as the Letter appointed For that he seemed for his Opinion to have the Scripture and Consent of the Doctors and Fathers of the Church and contrariwise did not perceive any strength in the six Reasons which were set forth by the Bishop of London to perswade the taking down Altars and erection of Tables And then being demanded what Scripture he had he alledged a saying in Esay Which place being considered by the Arch-bishop of Canterbury the Bishop of London and other Lords of the Council was found of no purpose to maintain his Opinion And thereupon by the said Arch-bishop and Bishop of Ely divers good Reasons were given to prove that it was convenient to take down the Altars as things abused and in lieu of them to set up Tables as things most meet for the Supper of the Lord and most agreeable to the first Constitution And besides that his other Reasons were then fully answered Wherefore the Council commanded him expresly in the King's Name to proceed to the execution of his Majesty's Commandment in the said Letter expressed Whereunto he made request That he might not be commanded to offend his Conscience saying If his Conscience might be instructed to the contrary he would not thus molest the Council with his refusal Which his Saying considered by the Council moved them to shew thus much Favor unto him that they willed him to resort unto the Arch-bishop of Canterbury the Bishops of Ely or London and confer with them in the Matter so as he might be instructed by them to accept the just Command of the King's Majesty with a safe Conscience And for his second Answer Day was given him until the 4 th of this Month. At which day he was commanded to return again Decemb. 4. This day the Bishop of Chichester came before the Council and was demanded Whether he had been with the Arch-bishop of Canterbury and the other Bishops according to former Order given him Who answered That he was one Afternoon at Lambeth to have waited on the Arch-bishop but he was answered that he was at the Court. And upon a demand what time his Grace would come home one of the Chamberlains as he saith answered That he doubted it would be late e're his Grace come home because he so used Therefore he tarried not And to any other Bishops he made no repair saying further He had not been well in Health For the which cause he took some Physick yesterday The Arch-bishop thereunto said that the same Afternoon that the Bishop of Chichester had been there he came home very early on purpose to have conferred with the said Bishop For the which cause he had leave of the King's Majesty to depart the same day home sooner than for other Business he might conveniently To the Matter he was asked what mind he was of touching the executing the King's Command and what he could say why the same should not be obeyed Who answered as he did before That his Conscience would not permit him to do the same for that the same was against the Scripture and the Doctors And being asked of the first he alledged a place in the last to the Hebrews mentioning the word ALTAR Which place being considered was manifestly by the Arch-bishop of Canterbury and the Bishop of Ely declared to be meant of Christ as by the very Context of the same most manifestly appeared to every Reader Next to this he alledged the former place of Esay which also was most evident to be meant otherwise than he alledged and so proved As to the use of the Primitive Church besides the Texts of the New Testament it was most clearly by Origen
contra Celsum proved That in his time Christen Men had no Altars by direct negative Propositions Besides this the abuse of the Altars was shewed unto him and Reasons declared how necessary it was to reform the same Touching the naming the Table an Altar it was left indifferent to him because Antient Writers sometimes call the Table an Altar But yet notwithstanding that his own Reasons were fully solved and divers good and weighty Reasons made he persevered in the pertinacy of his own singular Opinion Whereupon the Council rehersing to him the evil that should come of this his Disobedience if he should be suffered commanded him in the King's Majesty's Name upon his Allegiance expresly to become an obedient Subject and so to execute the King's Commandment And for that it should appear to him that there was as much Favor meant as might be not offending the King's Majesty in his Majesty's behalf they would be so bold as to appoint him Sunday next to make his final Answer And in the mean time he might advise himself and weigh the Cause as it ought to be And so the day was given him Decemb. 7. The Bishop of Chichester again appeared before the Council and being asked touching the execution of his Majesty's Commandment in the Letter he answered plainly He could not do it saving his Conscience For the Altars seemed to him a thing antiently established by the agreement of the Holy Fathers and confirmed by Antient Doctors with the Custom also of a number of Years and as he thought according to the Scriptures Wherefore he could not in Conscience consent to the abolishing of them and determined rather to lose all that ever he had than to condemn his own Conscience with many other Circumstances to that effect Finally the Matter being well debated it was thought good yet to give him two Days respit further to be advised in hope he might reconcile himself which if he did not upon his next Answer appointed to be upon Tuesday next the Council agreed to proceed ordinarily against him as against a contemptuous Person by way of Sequestration December 9. This day the Bishop of Chichester appeared before the Council and being demanded whether he would obey the King's Commandment in pulling down the Altars as is before rehersed he answered That he thanked both the King's Highness and his Council of their great Clemency used towards him but he said he could not by any means perswade himself to do that thing that was against his Conscience Wherefore he prayed them to do with him what they thought requisite for he would never obey to do the thing that his Conscience would not bear Whereupon for his Contempt he was by the Order of the whole Council committed to Ward in the Fleet till further Order should be taken for him We hear no more of him and his Fellow the Bishop of Worcester till nine Months hence And so we leave them both in the Fleet till September 27 1551. When we find Sir Roger Cholmely Kt. Lord chief Baron of the Exchequer Sir Richard Read Richard Goodrick Iohn Gosnold Iohn Oliver and Richard Ryel being Commissioners appointed by the King's Majesty for the Proceedings in the Causes laid against these two Bishops were commanded by Letter from the Council to call the said Bishops before them at Whitehall and beginning with the Bishop of Worcester's Cause to proceed also with Chichester So as the Judgment of the one might succeed the other without any delay of time more then needed And when the Acts of the Council proceeded in those Causes should be requisite the same upon knowledg given thither should be sent them And in the mean time to use for their Instruction the Acts that were passed upon Worcester's Cause and those that Mr. Read had already concerning Chichester with Admonition seeing their Contempts so evident not to give them any long delay by granting any Learned Counsel or otherwise by such Pretexts Septemb. 28. The Council sent a Letter to the Lord-Chancellor with the Commission directed to the above-named Persons for the examination and determining of the Bishops of Worcester and Chichester's Causes Praying him to send the same to such of the Council as are at or near London whose Hands be not thereto that they might sign it and then to seal it and send it with a Letter from the said Lords inclosed within his to the said Commissioners According to these Orders within less than a Month these two Bishops were at last Deprived after the expectation of their Compliances a long while And October 24 1551. The Council sent a Letter to the Chancellor of the Augmentations to take immediate Order for seizure in the King's Majesty's Hands of the Temporalties of their Bishopricks lately given to his Highness by the Judgment past by the Commissioners appointed for the hearing of those Bishops Causes These Bishops remained Prisoners in the Fleet after their Deprivation till the next Summer When as it seems for their Healths sake they desired to be removed to some place of better Air and more Liberty Whereupon Iune 15 1552. Dr. Day was sent to the Bishop of Ely Lord Chancellor and Dr. Hethe to the Bishop of London by the appointment of his Majesty And they were directed to use them as to Christian Charity should be most seemly At whose Hands the King doubted not but they should receive such Christian Advice as would tend to the Glory of God Iuly 17. Upon the motion of the Bishop of London the Lords of the Council were content that he should send Dr. Hethe unto the Bishop's own House at London from Fulham to recover his Health and then to have him again So far more kindly were these Popish Bishops dealt withal in this Reign than the Protestant Bishops were in the next Hoper Bishop of Glocester succeeded in the See of Worcester and Scory Bishop of Rochester in that of Chichester I will here crave the Reader 's leave to insert two or three words concerning Bishop Day thereby to judg the better of him About the Year 1547. Saying of Masses was laid aside in King's College in Cambridg the Members of which College generally favoured the Gospel Day the Provost thereof which Place he held in Commendam with his Bishoprick hearing of this wrote an angry Letter to the Vice-provost and in him to the whole College for divers things which they had done relating to Reformation and particularly for leaving off saying Masses In which he said They departed from the Institution of the House and that they did it rashly and besides the Law There being as yet no Law for so doing He charged them with the Breach of Statute and so would involve them in the Sin of Perjury And whereas in their publick Disputations they gave Questions against Popish Doctrines he charged them with disputing wickedly and turbulently to the wounding of tender Consciences and the Infamy of the House And finally required that
but that the Heart before God was required and nothing else Such other like warm Disputes there were about Scripture There were likewise such Assemblies now in Kent These were looked upon as dangerous to Church and State And two of the Company were therefore taken and Committed to the Marshalsea and Orders were sent to apprehend the rest viz. to Sir George Norton Sheriff of Essex to apprehend and send up to the Council those Persons that were assembled for Scripture Matters in Bocking Nine of them were named being Cowherds Clothiers and such like mean People The like Order was sent to Sir Edward Wotton and to Sir Thomas Wyat to apprehend others of them seven whereof are named living in Kent February 3. Those that were apprehended for the meeting at Bocking appeared before the Council and confessed the Cause of their Assembly to be For to talk of the Scriptures that they had refused the Communion for above two Years and that as was judged upon very superstitious and erroneous Purposes with divers other evil Opinions worthy of great Punishment Whereupon five of them were committed and seven of them were bound in Recognizance to the King in forty pound each Man The Condition to appear when they should be called upon and to resort to their Ordinaries for resolution of their Opinions in case they had any Doubt in Religion CHAP. XXII Foreigners allowed Churches A Lasco WE shall now shew a remarkable Instance of the ABp's Episcopal Piety in the care he took of the Souls of Foreigners as well as of the Native English For in King Edward's Reign there were great numbers of Stangers in the Realm French Dutch Italians Spaniards who abode here upon divers Occasions some for Trade and Commerce and some no doubt to be secret Spies and Promoters of the Pope's Affairs and to hinder the Propagation of the Religion But the most were such as fled over hither to escape the Persecutions that were in those Times very violently set on foot in their respective Countries and to enjoy the Liberty of their Consciences and the free Profession of their Religion Our Prelate had a chief hand in forming these Strangers into distinct Congregations for the Worship of God and in procuring them convenient Churches to meet in and setting Preachers of their own over them to instruct them in the true Religion Cecyl and Cheke joining with him in this pious Design and furthering it at Court with the King and Duke of Somerset And this they did both out of Christian Charity and Christian Policy too this being a probable means to disperse the Reformed Religion into Foreign Parts That when any of these Strangers or their Children should return into their own Country they might carry the tincture of Religion along with them and sow the Seeds of it in the Hearts of their Country-men IOHN A-LASCO POLANDER First Pastor of the DUTCH Church in ENGLAND Regn. Edw. 6. Being arrived at Embden he writ to the Arch-bishop relating all Passages that he knew concerning the State of Affairs and particularly of Religion in those Parts desiring him to impart them to the Protector He write also unto Cecyl his Letter bearing date in April 1549 referring him to the Protector 's Letters and withal acquainting him in what a ticklish and dangerous Condition they were That they certainly expected the Cross that they did mutually exhort one another to bear it with invocation upon God's Holy Name that by Patience and Faith they might overcome all whatsoever God should permit to be done against them to the Glory of his Name or for their Trial. They were sure he had a care of them and that he was so powerful that he could in a moment by a Word of his Mouth dash in pieces all the Forces of their Enemies whatsoever they were And that he was so good that he would not suffer so much as an Hair without cause to fall from their Head altho the whole World should make an Assault upon them And that he could no more wish them Harm than a Mother could her own Infant or any one the Apple of his own Eye yea no more than he himself could not be God Who was to be praised in all things whatsoever happened to them since he permitted nothing to fall out to them but for their Good and so for their Welfare And that therefore they committed themselves wholly to him and did expect with all Toleration whatsoever he should allow to be done to them In this pious manner did A Lasco write to Cecyl and no doubt in the same Tenour to the Arch-bishop This made a very great Impression upon the Godly Hearts of them both and caused them vigorously to use their Interest with the Protector to provide a safe Retreat for him and his Congregation Which was obtained for them soon after His whole Letter in a hansome Latin Stile as some Memorial of him I have reposited in the Appendix Latimer also made way for his Reception who in one of his Sermons before K. Edward made honourable mention of him using an Argument proper for that Audience namely How much it would tend to the bringing down God's Blessing on the Realm to receive him and such pious Exiles as he Iohn a Lasco was here a great Learned Man and as they say a Noble-Man in his Country and is gone his way again If it be for lack of Entertainment the more pity I could wish such Men as he to be in the Realm For the Realm should prosper in receiving them He that receiveth you receiveth me said Christ. And it should be for the King's Honour to receive them and keep them It was but a little after the King had received this Congregation of Foreigners into England and had granted them a Church viz. St. Augustins but great Contest happen'd among them about their Church yielded them for their religious Worship This P. Martyr took notice of with grief to Bucer and addeth That their Minds were so implacable to one another that the Difference was fain to be referred to the Privy-Council to make an end of But not to leave our Superintendent yet A Lasco with his Strangers being settled at London and incorporated by the King's Patents being their chief Pastor and a stirring Man was very industrious to procure and maintain the Liberties and Benefits of his Church The Members thereof had planted themselves chiefly in S. Katharines and in great and little Southwark Here they were now and then called upon by the Church-wardens of their respective Parishes to resort to their Parish Churches though the Ministers themselves did not appear in it In the Month of November Anno 1552 some of these Strangers inhabiting the parts of Southwark were again troubled by their Church-wardens and threatned with Imprisonment unless they would come to Church Whereupon their Superintendent A Lasco applied himself to the Lord Chancellor who then was Goodrich Bishop of
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
any Arguments for the Popish Doctrine brought them all to him many whereof were windy and trivial enough and he out of the heap made his Collections as he thought good But Watson and Smith were his chief Assistants The Arch-bishop though the Times now soon after turned and he cast into Prison was very desirous to prepare another Book in Confutation of Marcus Antonius and in Vindication of his own Writing He lived long enough to finish three Parts whereof two unhappily perished in Oxford and the third fell into Iohn Fox's Hands and for ought I know that by this time is perished also But the great desire he had to finish his Answer to that Book was the chief cause that at his last Appearance before the Queen's Commissioners he made his Appeal to a General Council That thereby he might gain some time and leisure to accomplish what he had begun before his Life were taken away which he saw was likely to be within a very short space Otherwise as he writ to his Lawyer who was to draw up his Appeal it was much better for him to die in Christ's Quarrel and to reign with him than to be shut up and kept in that Body Unless it were to continue yet still a while in this Warfare for the Commodity and Profit of his Brethren and to the further advancing of God's Glory Peter Martyr his surviving and learned Friend being solicited by many English-Men by Letter and word of Mouth undertook the answering this Book But before he had finished it an English Divine and Friend of Martyr's with whom he held Correspondence in Q. Mary's Reign wrote him word in the Year 1557. that an Answer to Antonius by some other hand was then in the Press naming the Author Martyr replied That he was rather glad of it than any ways moved or disturbed at it as a disappointment of what he was doing and added that he expected nothing from that Man but what was very exquisite acute and elaborate But that he feared the noise thereof would not hold true And so it proved Whether this Learned Man withdrew his Book that he might give way to that which P. Martyr was writing or whether it were a Flam given out to stop Martyr in his Design it is uncertain But not long after this Learned Italian put forth his Answer He had it under the Press at Zurick in December 1558 and it came out the next Year Wherein as he wrote to Calvin he did unravel and confute all the Sophisms and Tricks of the Bishop of Winchester And it came forth very seasonably as Martyr hoped For hereby the English Papalins might see at this time especially that that Book was not as they boasted hitherto invincible He gave this Title to his Book Defensio Doctrina veteris Apostolicae de S.S. Eucharistiae Sacramento In the Preface to which he shewed How this Work fell to his Lot Not that that most Reverend Father wanted an Assistant for he could easily have managed Gardiner himself For he knew how Cranmer in many and various Disputes formerly had with him came off with Victory and great Praise but because the ABp when in Prison was forced to leave his Answer which he had begun unfinished by reason of his strait keeping having scarce Paper and Ink allowed him and no Books to make use of and being cut off so soon by Death before he could bring to perfection what he had writ Wherein as Martyr said he had harder measure by far from the Papists than Gardiner had from the Protestants in K. Edward's Days when he wrote his Book Gardiner in that Book of his under the Name of M. Constantius had shewn such foul play with Cranmer's Book mangling it and taking Pieces and Scraps of it here and there and confounding the Method of it to supply himself with Objections to give his own Answers to with the most advantage that the Arch-bishop thought that if Learned Foreigners saw but his first Book of the Sacrament as he wrote it it would be vindication enough against Gardiner's new Book against it And therefore he took order to have it translated into the same Language in which Gardiner wrote that is Latin that impartial Strangers might be able to read and judg and Sir Iohn Cheke elegantly performed it for his Friend the Arch-bishop This Book of Cranmer's thus put into Latin with some Additions came forth 1553. Before it he prefixed an Epistle to King Edward VI. dated at Lambeth Idib Mart. the same Year Wherein he said It was his Care of the Lord's Flock committed to him that put him upon renewing and restoring the Lord's Supper according to the Institution of Christ. And that that was the Reason that about three Years ago he set forth a Book in English against the principal Abuses of the Papistical Mass. Which Book had great Success upon the Peoples Minds in bringing them to embrace the Truth Whereby he said he perceived how great the Force of Truth was and understood the Benefits of the Grace of Christ that even the Blind should have their Eyes opened and partake of the Light of Truth as soon as it was revealed and shewed it self clearly to them But that this gave great Offence unto Gardiner then Bishop of Winchester so that he thought nothing was to be done till he had answered the Book supposing that there would be no helper of so declining forsaken a Cause unless he put to his Hand And so the Arch-bishop proceeded to shew how that Bishop first put forth his English Book endeavouring to overthrow the true Doctrine and to restore and bring again into Repute the Mass with all its Superstitions and afterwards his Latin Book under a feigned Name In which Gardiner had so unfairly dealt with the Arch-bishop's Arguments chopping and changing defacing and disfiguring them that he could not know them for his own and all that he might make it serve his own turn the better Insomuch that he resolved to have his own Book translated out of English into Latin that his true Opinion and Mind in this Controversy might the better be apprehended The whole Epistle is writ in a pure elegant Latin Stile with a good sharpness of Wit The publication of this his Latin Book he thought sufficient for the present to entertain the World till he should put forth in Latin also a full Answer to Gardiner which he intended shortly to do To this Latin Book the Arch-bishop occasionally reviewing it while he was in Prison made sundry Annotations and Additions not of any new Arguments but only of more Authorities out of the Fathers and Ancient Writers This valuable Autograph fell into the Hands of some of the English Exiles at Embden it may be by the Means of Bp Scory who was Superintendent of the English Church there or Sir Iohn Cheke who also for some time was in this Place both great Friends of the Arch-bishop In the
corrupt Religion within his Province and Territories But finding the Opposition against him so great and lying under the Excommunication of the Pope for what he had done and being deprived thereupon by the Emperor of his Lands and Function he resigned his Ecclesiastical Honour and betook himself to a retired Life which was done about the Year 1547. But no question in this private Capacity he was not idle in doing what Service he could for the good of that Cause which he had so generously and publickly espoused and for which he had suffered so much I find that in this Year 1552 our Arch-bishop had sent a Message to Secretary Cecyl who accompanied the King in this Summer's Progress desiring him to be mindful of the Bishop of Colen's Letters And in another Letter dated Iuly 21 he thanked the Secretary for the good remembrance he had thereof What the Contents of these Letters of the Arch-bishop of Colen were it appeareth not But I am very apt to think the Purport of them was that Cranmer would solicite some certain Business in the English Court relating to the Affairs of Religion in Germany and for the obtaining some Favour from the King in that Cause But the King being now abroad and the Arch-bishop at a distance from him he procured the Secretary who was ever cordial to the State of Religion to solicit that Arch-bishop's Business for him sending him withal that Arch-bishop's Letters for his better Instruction And this whatever it was seems to have been the last good Office that Arch-bishop Herman did to the Cause of Religion for he died according to Sleidan in the Month of August and our Arch-bishop's Letter wherein that Elector's Letters are mentioned were writ but the Month before And if one may judg of Mens commencing Friendship and Love according to the sutableness of their Tempers and Dispositions our Arch-bishop of Canterbury and the Arch-bishop of Colen must have been very intimate Friends It was said of this Man that he often wished That either he might be instrumental to the propagating the Evangelical Doctrine and Reformation of the Churches under his Iurisdiction or to live a private Life And when his Friends had often told him what Envy he would draw upon himself by the changing of Religion he would answer like a true Christian Philosopher That nothing could happen to him unexpectedly and that he had long since fortified his Mind against every Event These two Passages spake the very Spirit and Soul of Cranmer Which they may see that are minded to read what Fox saith of him as to his Undauntedness and Constancy in the maintaining of the Truth against the many Temptations and Dangers that he met with during these three Reigns successively And lastly as our Arch-bishop devoted himself wholly to the reforming of his Church so admirable was the Diligence Pains and Study this Arch-bishop took in contriving the Reformation of his He procured a Book to be writ concerning it called Instauratio Ecclesiarum which contained the Form and Way to be used for the redressing the Errors and Corruptions of his Church It was composed by those great German Divines Bucer and Melancthon which Book was put into English and published here as a good Pattern in the Year 1547. This Book he intended to issue forth through his Jurisdiction by his Authority to be observed But first he thought fit well and seriously to examine it and spent five Hours in the Morning for five Days to deliberate and consult thereupon Calling to him to advise withal in this great Affair his Coadjutor Count Stolberg Husman Ienep Bucer and Melancthon He caused the whole Work to be read before him and as many Places occurred wherein he seemed less satisfied he caused the Matter to be disputed and argued and then spake his own Mind accurately He would patiently hear the Opinions of others for the information of his own Judgment and so ordered things to be either changed or illustrated And so dextrously would he decide many Controversies arising that Melancthon thought that those great Points of Religion had been long weighed and considered by him and that he rightly understood the whole Doctrine of the Church He had always lying by him the Bible of Luther's Version and as Testimonies chanced to be alledged thence he commanded that they should be turned to that he might consider that which is the Fountain of all Truth Insomuch that the said Melancthon could not but admire and talk of his Learning Prudence Piety and Dexterity to such as he conversed with and particularly to Iohn Caesar to whom in a Letter he gave a particular Account of this Affair And it is to be noted by the way that the said Book according to which the Reformation was to be modelled contained only as Melancthon in his Letter suggested a necessary Instruction for all Children and the Sum of the Christian Doctrine and the Appointments for the Colleges and Ecclesiastical Hierarchy were very moderate the Form of the Ecclesiastical Polity being to remain as it was and so were the Colleges with their Dignities Wealth Degrees Ornaments thereunto belonging only great Superstitions should be taken away Which the wise Melancthon aforesaid did so approve of that he professed he had often propounded it in Diets of the German Nation as the best way to Peace And this I add that it might be observed how Arch-bishop Cranmer went by the same Measures in the Reformation of the Church of England maintaining the Hierarchy and the Revenues Dignities and Customs of it against many in those Times that were for the utter abolishing them as Relicks of Popery Such a Correspondence there was between our Arch-bishop and the wisest moderatest and most learned Divines of Germany But let us look nearer Home CHAP. XXXII Troubles of Bishop Tonstal AS the last Year we heard of the Deprivation of two Popish Bishops so this Year another underwent the like Censure I mean Tonstal Bishop of Durham whose Business I shall the rather relate because our Arch-bishop had some Concern in it Septemb. 21. A Commission was issued out to the Lord Chief Justice and his Colleagues to examine and determine the Cause of Tonstal Bishop of Durham and eight Writings touching the same which he is willed to consider and to proceed to the hearing and ordering of the Matter as soon as he may get the rest of his Colleagues to him It was not long after viz. about the midst of October that this Bishop by these Commissioners whose Names besides the Chief Justice do not occur was deprived and his Estate confiscated Octob. ult Sir Iohn Mason was ordered by the Council to deliver to the use of Dr. Tonstal so he is now stiled remaining Prisoner in the Tower such Money as should serve for his Necessities until such time as further Order shall be taken touching his Goods and Money lately appertaining to him Decemb. 6. It was agreed by the Council that Dr.
Tonstal late Bishop of Durham should have the Liberty of the Tower where he continued till the Time of Queen Mary But we will look back to learn for what Cause this severe Punishment was inflicted upon this Reverend grave Bishop and the rather because the Bp of Sarum could not find as he writes what the Particulars were In the Year 1550 a Conspiracy was hatching in the North to which the Bishop was privy at least if not an Abetter And he wrote to one Menvile in those Parts relating to the same This Menvile himself related unto the Council and produced the Bishop's Letter Which was afterwards by the Duke of Somerset withdrawn and concealed as it seems out of kindness to Tonstal But upon the Duke's Troubles when his Cabinet was searched this Letter was found Upon which they proceeded against Tonstal This is the sum of what is found in the Council-Book Viz. May 20. 1551. The Bishop of Durham is commanded to keep his House Aug. 2. He had licence to walk in the Fields Decemb. 20. Whereas the Bishop of Durham about Iuly 1550 was charged by Vivian Menvile to have consented to a Conspiracy in the North for the making a Rebellion and whereas for want of a Letter written by the said Bishop to the said Menvile whereupon great trial of this Matter depended the final Determination of the Matter could not be proceeded unto and the Bishop only commanded to keep his House the same Letter hath of late been found in a Casket of the Duke of Somerset's after his last Apprehension The said Bishop was sent for and this Day appeared before the Council and was charged with the Letter which he could not deny but to be his own Hand-writing and having little to say for himself he was then sent to the Tower there to abide till he should be delivered by Process of Law Agreeable to this is that King Edward writes in his Journal Decemb. 20. The Bishop of Durham was for concealment of Treason written to him and not disclosed sent to the Tower In the latter end of the Year 1551 a Parliament sitting it was thought convenient to bring in a Bill into the House of Lords attainting him for Misprision of Treason But Arch-bishop Cranmer spake freely against it not satisfied it seems with the Charge laid against him But it past and the Arch-bishop protested But when it was carried down to the Commons they would not proceed upon it not satisfied with the bare Depositions of Evidences but required that the Accusers might be brought Face to Face And so it went no further But when the Parliament would not do Tonstal's Business a Commission was issued out to do it as is above spoken In the mean time that the Bishoprick might not want a due Care taken of it during the Bishop's Restraint Feb. 18. 1551 a Letter was sent from the Council to the Prebendaries of Durham to conform themselves to such Orders in Religion and Divine Service standing with the King's Proceedings as their Dean Mr. Horn shall set forth whom the Lords required them to receive and use well as being sent to them for the Weal of the Country by his Majesty CHAP. XXXIII The new Common-Prayer The Arch-bishop in Kent THE Book of Common-Prayer having the last Year been carefully Revised and Corrected by the Arch-bishop and others the Parliament in April this Year enacted that it should begin to be used every where at All-Saints Day next And accordingly the Book was printed against the Time and began to be read in S. Paul's Church and the like throughout the whole City But because the Posture of Kneeling was excepted against by some and the words used by the Priest to the Communicant at the reception of the Bread gave Scruple as though the Adoration of the Host were intended therefore to take off this and to declare the contrary to be the Doctrine of this Church Octob. 27. a Letter was sent from the Council to the Lord-Chancellor to cause to be joined to the Book of Common-Prayer lately set forth a Declaration signed by the King touching the Kneeling at the receiving of the Communion Which in all probability was done by the Motion of the Arch-bishop who in his late Book had taken such pains to confute the Adoration and now thought it necessary that some publick Declaration should be made in the Church-Service against it So now the first of November being come Dr. Ridley the Bishop of London was the first that celebrated the new Service in S. Paul's Church which he did in the Forenoon And then in his Rochet only without Cope or Vestment preached in the Choir And in the Afternoon he preached at Pauls-Cross the Lord-Mayor and Aldermen and Citizens present His Sermon tended to the setting forth this new Edition of the Common-Prayer He continued preaching till almost five a Clock so that the Mayor and the rest went home by Torch-light By this Book of Common-Prayer all Copes and Vestments were forbidden throughout England The Prebendaries of St. Pauls left off their Hoods and the Bishops their Crosses c. as by Act of Parliament is more at large set forth Provision also was made for the King's French Dominions that this Book with the Amendments should be used there And the Bishop of Ely Lord Chancellor a great forwarder of good Reformation procured a learned French-man who was a Doctor of Divinity carefully to correct the former French Book by this English new One in all the Alterations Additions and Omissions thereof For the first Common-Prayer Book also was in French for the use of the King's French Subjects Being translated by Commandment of Sir Hugh Paulet Governour of Calais And that Translation overseen by the Lord Chancellor and others at his Appointment The Benefit of this last Book was such that one of the French Congregation in London sought by the Means of A Lasco's Interest with Secretary Cecyl for a Licence under the King's Letters Patents to translate this Common-Prayer and the Administration of Sacraments and to print it for the use of the French Islands of Iersey and Guernsey But Cecyl after a Letter received from A Lasco in August to that effect not willing to do this of his own Head and reckoning it a proper Matter to be considered by the Arch-bishop who were to be intrusted with the translating of such a Book desired him being now at Ford to give him his Advice and Judgment herein both as to the Work and as to the Benefit To whom the Arch-bishop gave this Answer That the Commodity that might arise by printing of the Book was meet to come to them who had already taken the Pains in translating the same Enforming the Secretary who they were namely those formerly and now of late employed by Sir Hugh Paulet and the Lord-Chancellor But I find this Book was not presently finished being not printed till the Year 1553 for the Use of Iersey and Guernsey
but according to the Laws then in Force before the Parliament had repealed the Book of Common-Prayer and the rest of K. Edward's Reformation And there were forward Men in most Parishes that were very active and violent for the restoring the old Superstitions For the Queen had set forth a Proclamation which did declare what Religion She did profess in her Youth That She did continue in the same and that She minded therein to end her Life Willing all her Loving Subjects to embrace the same And this they reckoned to be sufficient Warrant to set up Mass and introduce Popish Priests and Popish Usages every-where without staying for Orders and Acts of Parliament Nor was this Change of Religion and these Miseries following it unexpected The Learned and pious Sort in King Edward's Time did reckon upon a great Calamity impending over their Heads Concluding thereupon from two Causes among others One was the corrupt Manners that generally overspred the Nation notwithstanding the Light of the Gospel and the much and earnest preaching up of Sobriety and Vertue The other was the taking off by Death divers most eminent Men the great Stays of Religion So that the Preachers did commonly in their Sermons declare and foretel what afterwards indeed fell out This Becon an Exile in his Epistle to those in England that suffered Persecution for the Testimony of Christ's Gospel spake of in these words Divers Signs had we long before besides the Godly Admonitions of the faithful Preachers which plainly declared unto us an utter subversion of the true Christian Religion to be at Hand except it were prevented by hasty and harty Repentance What shall I speak of that good and mighty Prince Edward Duke of Somerset which in the Time of his Protectorship did so banish Idolatry out of this our Realm and bring in again God's true Religion that it was a wonder so weighty a Matter to be brought to pass in so short a Time Was not the ungentle handling of him and the unrighteous thrusting him out of Office and afterwards the cruel Murthering of him a Man yea a Mirror of true Innocency and Christian Patience an evident token of God's Anger against us The sudden taking away of those most goodly and vertuous young Imps the Duke of Suffolk and his Brother by the sweating Sickness was it not also a manifest Token of God's heavy Displesure against us The Death of those two most worthy and godly Learned Men M. Paulus Fagius and D. Martin Bucer was it not a sure Prognostication some great Mishap concerning Christen Religion to be at Hand But passing over many other to come to that which is most lamentable and can never be remembred of any true English Heart without large Tears I mean the Death of our most Godly Prince and Christen King Edward VI. that true Iosias that earnest destroyer of false Religion that fervent setter up of God's true Honour that most bounteous Patron of the godly Learned that most worthy Maintainer of good Letters and Vertue and that perfect and lovely Mirror of true Nobility and sincere Godliness Was not the taking away of him alas for Sorrow a sure Sign and an evident Token that some great Evil hanged over this Realm of England Who considering these things perceived not a Shipwreck of the Christen Religion to be at Hand CHAP. III. The Arch-bishop adviseth Professors to fly THE Favourers of Religion seeing it was now determined to proceed in all manner of Severity against them began to flee into other Countries for their Safety as fast as they could Indeed there were some that made a Case of Conscience of it Among the rest one Mrs. Wilkinson a Woman of good Quality and a great Reliever of good Men. Her the Arch-bishop out of Prison advised to escape and avoid a Place where She could not truly and rightly serve God He took off with spiritual Arguments the Objections which She or others might make for their stay As their lothness to leave their Friends and Relations and that it might look like a slandering of God's Word if they should thus run away and decline the open and bold Defence of it The Letter of the Arch-bishop deserves to be read as it fell from that Venerable Prelat's own Pen. Which I have therefore put in the Appendix Though Cranmer himself refused to flee being advised by his Friends so to do because of the Reports that were abroad that he should be speedily carried to the Tower For he said It would be no ways fitting for him to go away considering the Post in which he was and to shew that he was not afraid to own all the Changes that were by his means made in Religion in the last Reign But great numbers fled some to Strasburgh some to VVesel some to Embden some to Antwerp some to Duisburgh some to Wormes some to Frankford some to Basil Zuric and Arrow in Switzerland and some to Geneva to the number of eight hundred and upwards And these are the Names of some of these Refugees BISHOPS Poynet of VVinchester Barlow of Bath and Wells Scory of Chichester Coverdale of Exon And Bale of Ossory DEANS Richard Cox Dean of Christ's Church Oxon and of Westminster Iames Haddon Dean of Exeter Robert Horn of Durham William Turner of Wells Thomas Sampson of Chichester ARCH-DEACONS Edmund Cranmer the Arch-bishop's Brother Arch-deacon of Cant. Iohn Aelmer of Stow Bullingham of Lincoln Thomas Young Precenter of S. Davids DOCTORS of Divinity and Preachers Edmund Grindal Robert King Edwin Sands Ios. Iewel Reinolds Pilkingtons two Brothers Iohn Ioseph David Whitehead Iohn Alvey Iohn Pedder Iohn Biddil Thomas Becon Robert and Richard Turner Edmund Allein Levers three Brothers Iohn Pekins Tho. Cottisford Tho. Donel Alex. Nowel with hiâ— Brother Barthol Traheron Iohn Wollock Iohn Old Iohn Medwel Ioh. Rough Iohn Knocks Iohn Appleby Iohn Perkhurst Edward Large Galf. Iones Robert Crowley Robert Wisdome Robert VVatson VVilliam Goodman Ant. Gilby VVill. VVhittingham Iohn Makebrey Hen. Reynolds Iames Perse Iugg Edmunds Cole Mounteyn two Fisher's Da. Simson Iohn Bendal Beaumont Humfrey Bentham Reymiger Bradbridg Saul c. Besides of Noble-men Merchants Trades-men Artificers and Plebeians many hundreds And God provided graciously for them and raised them up Friends in England that made large Contributions from time to time for their Relief and for the maintenance of such as were Scholars and Students in Divinity especially And great was the Favour that the Strangers shewed to their Fugitive Guests Here at home Vengeance was taken upon those that set up the Lady Iane. And the Chief of all the Duke of Northumberland was brought to Towerâ—ill to lose his Head Who indeed was cared for by no Body and was the only Instrument of putting the King upon altering the Succession and who was broadly talked of to have been the shortner of that excellent Prince's Life by Poison to make Room the sooner for his Son's Advancement who
were Iewel afterward Bishop of Sarum and one Gilbert Mounson Who also at Ridley's request were granted him Cranmer required at the Commissioners Hands more time to have these weighty Matters more diligently scann'd and examined Urging that he had so much to speak that it would take up many Days that he might fully answer to all that they could say He required also that he and his Fellows might Oppose as well as Respond that they might produce their Proofs before the Popish Doctors and be answered fully to all that they could say But neither of these Demands would be allowed him Which he in a Letter complained of to the Council For indeed as Cranmer plainly apprehended the Design now was not to look impartially into the Truth or Falshood of these Doctrins but to gain Glory to themselves and to have a shew for the Resolution that was before taken up of condemning them all three The same Week on Thursday Harpsfield disputed for the degree of Bachelor of Divinity And among other Opponents Cranmer was called forth for one by Dr. Weston Where first taking notice of Weston's opposing Harpsfield out of the Scripture against a Corporal Presence which was Harpsfield's Question but whereas he left the sense of the Scripture to the Catholick Church as Judg Cranmer told him he was much mistaken especially because that under the Name of Church he appointed such Judges as had corruptly judged and contrary to the sense of the Scriptures He wondred also he said why Weston attributed so little to the reading of Scriptures and conferring of Places seeing Scripture doth so much commend the same in those very Places which himself had alledged And as to his Opinion of these Questions he said they had neither ground of the Word of God nor the Primitive Church Nay and that the Schools have spoken diversly of them and do not agree among themselves And having prefaced all this he began his Disputation with Harpsfield by asking him some Questions as how Christ's Body was in the Sacrament according to his Mind and Determination And whether he had the Quantity and Qualities Form Figure and such-like Properties of Bodies And when there was great declining to answer this and some affirmed one thing and some another Harpsfield said they were vain Questions and not fit to spend time about and added that Christ was there as it pleased him to be there Cranmer to that said He would be best contented with that Answer if their appointing of the Carnal Presence had not driven him of necessity to have inquired for disputation-sake how they placed him there sithence they would have a natural Body Then some denied it to be Quantum some said it was Quantitativum and some affirmed that it had Modum quanti and some denying it Dr. Weston then stood up and said It was Corpus quantum sed non per modum quanti A very grave decision of the Point Then Cranmer asked Whether good and bad Men do eat the Body in the Sacrament and then how long Christ tarried in the Eater Harpsfield said They were curious Questions unmeet to be asked Cranmer replied He took them out of their Schools and School-men which they themselves did most use Then he asked how far he went into the Body and how long he abode in the Body With these Questions Cranmer puzzled them most heavily For which way soever they answered there would follow Absurdities and Inextricable Difficulties In conclusion Dr. Weston gave him this Complement That his wonderful gentle Behaviour and Modesty was worthy much commendation Giving him most hearty thanks in his own Name and in the Name of all his Brethren At which all the Doctors put off their Caps On Wednesday as soon as Latimer who came up last had ended his Disputation the Papists cried Victoria applauding themselves loudly as though they had vindicated their Cause most strenuously and satisfactorily against Cranmer and his two Fellows And so VVeston had the confidence to tell them to their Faces Though to him that reads the whole Disputation and considereth the Arguments on both sides impartially there will appear no such matter allowing for all the Hissings and Noises confused Talk and Taunts that were bestowed upon these very Reverend and good Men. Whereof Ridley said in reference to his Disputation That he never in all his Life saw or heard any thing carried more vainly and tumultuously and that he could not have thought that there could have been found among English Men any Persons honoured with Degrees in Learning that willingly could allow of such Vanities more fit for the Stage than the Schools He added That when he studied at Paris he remembred what Clamors were used in the Sorbon where Popery chiefly reigned but that that was a kind of Modesty in comparison of this Thrasonical Ostentation Whence he concluded very truly That they sought not for the sincere Truth in this Conference and for nothing but vain Glory But the Professors of the Gospel on the other hand were as glad of this Dispute wherein these three chief Fathers of the Church had so boldly and gallantly stood in the defence of the Truth and maintained the true Doctrine of the Sacrament so well And Dr. Rowland Taylor in Prison elsewhere at this time for Christ's sake wrote them a Congratulatory Letter in the Name of the rest Which is as followeth RIght Reverend Fathers in the Lord I wish you to enjoy continually God's Grace and Peace through Jesus Christ. And God be praised again for this your most excellent Promotion which ye are called unto at this present that is That ye are counted worthy to be allowed amongst the number of Christ's Records and Witnesses England hath had but a few Learned Bishops that would stick to Christ ad ignem inclusive Once again I thank God heartily in Christ for your most happy Onset most valiant Proceeding most constant suffering of all such Infamies Hissings Clappings Taunts open Rebukes loss of Living and Liberty for the Defence of God's Cause Truth and Glory I cannot utter with Pen how I rejoice in my Heart for you three such Captains in the Foreward under Christ's Cross Banner or Standard in such a Cause and Skirmish when not only one or two of our dear Redeemer's strong Holds are besieged but all his chief Castles ordained for our Safeguard are traiterously impugned This your Enterprize in the sight of all that be in Heaven and of all God's People in Earth is most pleasant to behold This is another manner of Nobility than to be in the Forefront in worldly Warfares For God's sake pray for us for we fail not daily to pray for you We are stronger and stronger in the Lord his Name be praised and we doubt not but ye be so in Christ's own sweet School Heaven is all and wholly of our side Therefore Gaudete in Domino semper iterum gaudete exultate Rejoice always in the
Penance and forsaking their Wives Allowing them to minister at the Altar and to serve Cures provided it were out of the Diocesses where they were married The said Bishops by this Commission were also empowered to grant to fit Rectors and Curates a Power to reconcile and absolve their respective Parishes This Commission I have placed in the Appendix as it was transcribed out of the Register of the Church of Canterbury The Lord Legate also for the better discharging of this his mighty Office gave out his Instructions how the Bishops and Officials of the Vacant Sees should perform this Work of the Reconciliation deputed to them by the said Legate together with the Form of Absolution to be pronounced Which Instructions and Form as they were extracted from the said Register may be found in the Appendix Each Bishop was to call before him the Clergy of his respective City and to instruct them in divers things As concerning the Pope's fatherly Love and Charity towards the English Nation in sending Cardinal Pole his Legate hither as soon as he knew the Lady Mary was declared Queen to bring this Kingdom so long separated from the Catholick Church into Union with it and to comfort and restore them to the Grace of God Concerning the joyful coming of the said Legate concerning what was done the last Parliament when the Lords and Commons were Reconciled and concerning the repealing of all the Laws made against the Authority of the Roman See by the two last Kings and restoring Obedience to the Pope and Church of Rome Concerning the Authority restored likewise to the Bishops especially that they might proceed against Hereticks and Schismaticks Then the Bishops were to acquaint their Clergy with the Faculties yielded to them by the Legate which were to be read openly Then all that were lapsed into Error and Schism were to be invited humbly to crave Absolution and Reconciliation and Dispensations as well for their Orders as for their Benefices Next a Day was fixed when the Clergy were to appear and petition for the said Absolutions and Dispensations On which day after they had confessed their Errors and sacramentally promised that they would make Confession of the same to the Bishop himself or some other Catholick Priests and to perform the Penance that should be enjoined them then the Bishop was to reconcile them and to dispense with their Irregularities Always observing a distinction between those that only fell into Schism and Error and those who were the Teachers of them and Leaders of others into Sin The same time was to be appointed another day for a Solemn Festival wherein the Bishops and Curates in their Churches should signify to the People all that the Bishops before had spoken to their Clergy and then should invite them all to confess their Errors and to return into the Bosom of the Church promising them That all their past Crimes should be forgiven if so be they repented of them and renounced them And a certain Term was to be fixed namely the whole Octaves of Easter within which Term all should come and be reconciled But the Time to be reconciled in being lapsed all that remained unreconciled as also all that returned to their Vomit after they had been reconciled were to be most severely proceeded against The said Bishops and Officials where any Sees were Vacant were to name and depute the Rectors of the Parish-Churches and other fit Persons who should absolve the Laity of their Parishes from Heresy and Schism and Censures according to a Form to be given them by the Bishops The Bishops and Officials and Curates were to have each a Book in which were to be writ the Names and Parishes of all that were reconciled That it might afterwards be known who were reconciled and who were not After the Octave of Easter was past the Bishops were to visit first their Cities and then their Diocesses and to summon before them all such as had not been reconciled and to know of them the Cause why they would not depart from their Errors and remaining obstinate in them they were to proceed against them In this Visitation all the Clergy were to be required to shew the Titles of their Orders and Benefices and notice was to be taken if any Defect were therein And now the Bishops were to take care to root out any Errors in their Diocesses and to depute fit Persons to make Sermons and hear Confessions They were also to take care to have the Sacred Canons observed and to have inserted into the Books of Service the Name of S. Thomas the Martyr and of the Pope formerly blotted out and to pray for the Pope according as it was used before the Schism They were advised to insist much upon the great Miseries we were in before and the great Grace that God now had shewed to this People Exhorting them to acknowledg these Mercies and devoutly to pray for the King and Queen that had deserved so exceedingly well of this Kingdom and especially to pray for a happy Off-spring from the Queen In these Instructions there are several Strictures that make it appear Pole was not so gentle towards the Hereticks as the Professors of the Gospel were then stiled as is reported but rather the contrary and that he went hand in hand with the bloody Bishops of these Days For it is plain here that he put the Bishops upon proceeding with them according to the Sanguinary Laws lately revived and put in full Force and Virtue What an Invention was that of his a kind of Inquisition by him set up whereby not a Man might escape that stood not well affected to Popery I mean his ordering Books to be made and kept wherein the Names of all such were to be written that in every Place and Parish in England were reconciled and so whosoever were not found in those Books might be known to be no Friends to the Pope and so to be proceeded against And indeed after Pole's crafty and zealous Management of this Reconciliation all that good Opinion that Men had before conceived of him vanished and they found themselves much mistaken in him especially seeing so many Learned and Pious Gospel-Bishops and Ministers imprisoned and martyred under him and by his Commission Insomuch that now People spake of him as bad as of the Pope himself or the worst of his Cardinals The Gospellers before this did use to talk much among themselves that he did but dissemble at Rome in his present outward Compliances with them and their Superstitions and that he would upon a good Opportunity shew himself an open Professor of the Truth And indeed he often had Conferences before him of Christ and of the Gospel of a living Faith and Justification by Faith alone and he often would wish the true Doctrine might prevail But now the Mask was taken off and he shewed himself what he was A notable Letter to this Purpose was written concerning the Cardinal about
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
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
greatest Blemishes of his Life For now the Popish Party thinking what a piece of Glory it would be to gain this great Man to their Church used all Means all Arts as well as Arguments to bring him to recant They set the Doctors of the University upon him He was entertained at the Dean of Christs-Church his Lodging There they treated him with good Fare They got him to Bowls with them They let him have his Pleasure in taking the Air. Sometimes they accosted him with Arguments and Disputations Sometimes by Flatteries Promises and Threatnings They told him The Noble-men bare him good Will that his Return would be highly acceptable to the King and Queen That he should enjoy his former Dignity in the Church or if it liked him better he should lead a quiet Life in more privacy And that it was but setting his Name in two Words in a piece of Paper They told him the Queen was resolved to have Cranmer a Catholick or no Cranmer at all That he was still lusty and strong and might live many a Year more if he would not willingly cut off his own Life by the terrible Death of Burning He rejected these Temptations a long while but at last was overcome and yielded The Recantation I shall not repeat it being to be seen at large in Fox It was signed by his Hand The Witnesses thereunto were two or three who had been exceedingly busy in tampering with him One Sydal a great Professor in the last Reign and Iohn and Richard two Spanish Friars The Doctors and Prelats caused this Recantation speedily to be printed and dispersed When the Queen saw his Subscription she was glad of it but would not alter her Determination to have him burned by the instigation as I suppose of Pole the Legat. The Writ for which was sent down by Hethe Lord Chancellor in the latter end of February under the Broad Seal It was charged upon his Converters that they were negligent in procuring his Life from the Queen But the true Reason was the Queen was resolved not to grant it She privately gave Instruction to Cole to prepare a Sermon to preach at his Burning And several Lords and other Justices of the Peace in those Parts were ordered to attend there with their Servants and Retinue to keep Peace and to see him Executed Cole coming with his Errand to Oxon visited him in the Prison and asked him if he stood firm to what he had subscribed This was the Day before his Execution but saying nothing to him of his determined Death The next Day being the Day he was to be burned viz. March 21. he came again and asked him if he had any Money And having none he gave him certain Crowns to bestow to what Poor he would and so departed exhorting him to Con-Constancy But the disconsolate Arch-bishop perceived to what this tended and being by and by to be brought to S. Mary's where Cole was to preach there openly to confess what he had more privately subscribed he resolved with himself to disburden his Conscience and to revoke his Recantation And he prepared a Prayer and a Declaration of his Faith which he drew up in writing and carried it privately along with him to make use of it when he saw his Occasion The manner how he behaved himself after Cole's Sermon and how he delivered his last Mind and with what Bitterness and Tears he did it and how he was pulled down by the Scholars Priests and Friars with the greatest Indignation at this their Disappointment and how he was led out of the Church forthwith to the Place of Burning over against Baliol College and how he there first put his right Hand into the Flames to be consumed for that base Subscription that it made and how his Heart was found whole and unconsumed in the Ashes after he was burnt These and the rest of the Particulars of his Martyrdom I might leave to Fox and other Historians from him to relate Yet because it is not convenient so briefly to pass over such a remarkable Scene of his Life being his last appearance upon the Stage of this World I shall represent it in the Words of a certain grave Person unknown but a Papist who was an Eye and Ear-Witness and related these Matters as it seems very justly in a Letter from Oxon to his Friend Which is as followeth But that I know for our great Friendship and long-continued Love you look even of Duty that I should signify to you of the Truth of such things as here chanceth among us I would not at this time have written to you the unfortunate End and doubtful Tragedy of T. C. late Bishop of Canterbury Because I little pleasure take in beholding of such heavy Sights And when they are once overpassed I like not to reherse them again being but a renewing of my Wo and doubling my Grief For although his former Life and wretched End deserves a greater Misery if any greater might have chanced than chanced unto him yet setting aside his Offences to God and his Country and beholding the Man without his Faults I think there was none that pitied not his Case and bewailed his Fortune and feared not his own Chance to see so noble a Prelat so grave a Counsellor of so long-continued Honour after so many Dignities in his old Years to be deprived of his Estate adjudged to die and in so painful a Death to end his Life I have no delight to increase it Alas it is too much of it self that ever so heavy a Case should betide to Man and Man to deserve it But to come to the matter On Saturday last being the 21 th of March was his Day appointed to die And because the Morning was much Rainy the Sermon appointed by Mr. Dr. Cole to be made at the Stake was made in S. Mary's Church Whither Dr. Cranmer was brought by the Mayor and Aldermen and my Lord Williams With whom came divers Gentlemen of the Shire Sir T. A Bridges Sir Iohn Browne and others Where was prepared over against the Pulpit an high Place for him that all the People might see him And when he had ascended it he kneeled down and prayed weeping tenderly which moved a great number to Tears that had conceived an assured hope of his Conversion and Repentance Then Mr. Cole began his Sermon The sum whereof was this First He declared Causes why it was expedient that he should suffer notwithstanding his Reconciliation The chief are these One was for that he had been a great cause of all this Alteration in this Realm of England And when the Matter of the Divorce between King Henry VIII and Queen Katharine was commenced in the Court of Rome he having nothing to do with it set upon it as Judg which was the entry to all the Inconveniences that followed Yet in that he excused him that he thought he did it not of Malice but by the Perswasions and
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
It was Sir Thomas Cheyny who in the Year 1549 was one of those that met with Warwick in London and published a Proclamation against the Arch-bishop's Friend the Duke of Somerset as a Traitor Which might be an occasion that the Arch-bishop did not much affect Cheyny nor Cheyny the Arch-bishop Concerning this Difference between them which it seems was taken notice of at Court when his true Friend Cecyl had wrote to him advising a Reconciliation he gave this Christian and meek Answer from his House at Ford That there was no Man more loth to be in Contention with any Man than he was especially with him who was his near Neighbour dwelling both in one County and whose familiar and entire Friendship he most desired and that for the Quietness of the whole County Adding That the Examples of the Rulers and Heads would the People and Members follow His Peaceableness also appeared in his hearty Desires of the Publick Peace as well as Private When upon occasion of hearing of the Wars that were about the Year 1552 eagerly followed both in Christendom and out of it he used these words The Sophy and the Turk the Emperor and the French King not much better in Religion than they such it seems was his Censure of them by reason of the Cruelty and Persecution they exercised and the Disturbances they made in the World rolling the Stone or turning the Wheel of Fortune up and down I pray God send us Peace and Quietness with all Realms as well as among our selves But though he were of so quiet and mild a Spirit yet being a plain down-right Man he would never learn the Arts of Flattery and base Compliances with them that were uppermost Which had like to have created him much trouble from Northumberland to whom he carried not himself with that Deference and Pleasingness as he expected For Cranmer knew the bad Heart of this haughty Man and could not forget the ill Measure his Friend the Duke of Somerset had found at his Hands He did not care to make any Application to him nor to be an Instrument in forwarding any of his designing Business When he was to write up to some of the Court concerning Reiner Wolf I suppose for Licence to print the Articles of Religion Anno 1552 he desired to take Cecyl's Advice to whom he should write For I know not saith he to whom to write but my Lord of Northumberland to whom to make any Address he would fain have avoided if he could There was about the Year 1552 a Commission issued out for a strict Enquiry to be made after all such as had defrauded the King of any Goods or Treasure accruing to him by the suppression of Chauntries or that belonged to Churches Now this was done by Northumberland and his Creatures on purpose that it might light heavy upon Somerset's Friends who had been the chief Visitors in those Affairs and had many of them been supposed to have enriched themselves thereby Commissioners were appointed in each County In Kent the Commission was directed to the Arch-bishop and to several other Gentlemen and Justices of Peace The Arch-bishop perceiving well the Spite and Malice of this Commission acted very slowly in it Insomuch that Northumberland began to be highly angry with him Cecyl observing it and having ever a great Veneration for that good Man and fearing he might feel the Effects of his Fury writ to him signifying Northumberland's Displeasure and giving him Advice to take heed of him For which the Arch-bishop thanked him and prudently writ his Excusatory Letter to that Duke dated November â—0 signifying That the Cause of his Stay of the Commission was because he was alone and that the Gentlemen and Justices of Peace who were in Commission with him were then at London probably because of the Term before whose coming Home if he should proceed without them he might as he said travel in vain and take more Pains than he should do good And by such soft but honest words mollifying him for the Procrastination of that which he had no mind to meddle in But not long after he and Ridley Bishop of London with him fell under great Displeasure with this Duke and the rest of the great Men of his Party who in the latter end of King Edward's Reign governed all The Reason whereof was for opposing as much as they could though to no effect the Spoil of the Church-Goods which were taken away only by a Commandment of the Higher Powers without Request or Consent of them to whom they did belong as Ridley himself relates in his Treatise wherein he lamented the Change of Religion in England Which indeed was more than ever Henry VIII had done Add to the rest that our Bishop was of a bold and undaunted Courage in the Cause of God and his Church It was a brave and generous Act and worthy the chief Bishop of the English Church I mean that publick Challenge which he made to maintain the Common-Prayer Book and the other parts of the Reformation by the Scripture and Fathers in open Disputation against whomsoever if the Queen so pleased to permit it Which was done by him soon after the Queen's coming to the Throne And had he not been prevented by others who dispersed Copies of this Challenge without his knowledg it had been made very solemnly as he freely told the Queen's Council by fixing this his Declaration on the Doors of S. Pauls and other Churches with his Hand and Seal to it And his Courage herein appeared the greater because he was at this very Time under a Cloud and in great Danger having some time before now been convented before the Council and confined to Lambeth And whosoever shall consider that good Progress that by his Means was made in Religion not only in King Edward's Reign but even in that of King Henry under the Discouragements of antiently-rivited Superstition and Idolatry and withal shall ponder the haughty Nature of that Prince of so difficult Address and so addicted to the old Religion and how dangerous it was to dissent from him or to attempt to draw him off from his own Perswasions cannot but judg Cranmer to have been of a very bold Spirit to venture so far as he did And undoubtedly his Courage went an equal pace with his Wisdom and Discretion and was no whit inferior to his other excellent Qualifications And this I say the rather to vindicate the Memory of this most Reverend Prelat from an unworthy Reflection made upon him in a trisling Account of his Life Wherein he is charged to be Of too easy and flexible a Disposition which made him cowardly to comply with the Church of Rome And that though he never did any harm to the Protestants yet he did not unto them so much good as he might or ought For the confutation of which I appeal to numberless Passages which I have written of him But
have brought it to pass But I verily believe the quite contrary to this confident Assertion and that he would have owned the Truth to the last as he did afterwards in the Reign of that King's Daughter Q. Mary That he always fell jump with them that governed and could do most No he never fell in with Gardiner who sometime had the Ascendent over King Henry nor with the Duke of Northumberland who could do most and did all for a time with the King Edward That when King Henry was large towards the Protestants Cranmer was so also joining with Crumwel to protect them But when the King became more strait and rigorous especially after the Six Articles Cranmer was ready to prosecute the same He argued long and earnestly in the House against those Six Articles and when he saw they would pass he protested against it and was so troubled about it that the King sent the Duke of Norfolk and the Lord Crumwel and divers other Noble Persons to comfort him in the King's Name So that I hardly think he would after this be brought to prosecute that bloody Act the making of which he so utterly disliked Nor is there the least Foot-step of it in History Indeed Parsons bringeth in some Persons in whose Deaths he would have the Arch-bishop to have a Hand As may appear saith he by the Sentence of Death pronounced against Lambert Tho. Gerard William Jerome and Ann Ascue and others condemned by him for denying the Real Presence Though in King Henry's Time the Arch-bishop believed the Real Presence yet he was not for putting any to Death that denied it No such extream Rigours for an Error he utterly detested Lambert suffered before the Act of the Six Articles Nor did the Arch-bishop condemn him but only by the King's Command disputed against him Gerard he means Garret and Ierome and Ann Ascue were condemned and burnt indeed but he had no manner of hand either in their Condemnation or Death as we can find in our Histories But Winchester Boner and Wriothesly and others of that Gang shed those good Peoples Blood And it is an impudent Falshood to lay their Condemnation to the Arch-bishop's Charge He saith further That to the King's Will and Liking he resolved to conform himself as well in Religion as in all other Things If he had said this of Bishop Gardiner the Character would have better by far fitted him He saith That he divorced the King of his own Authority from Queen Katherine Whereas in truth what he and Winchester and other Bishops did in this Affair was by Commission from the King and not by their own Authority That he married the King to Queen Ann. That it was in open Parliament under his Hand-writing yet extant in publick printed Records to his eternal shame that the Queen that is Queen Ann was never true Wife unto the said King Where was the eternal Shame of this when he set his Hand to no more than what she her self confessed before him See more of this before That after this he married the King to Jane Seymour and after to Queen Ann of Cleves and after that to Katherine Howard and after that to Katherine Parre Which we must take upon his Word For I think it hard by any good History to know it And what if Cranmer did all this That he joined with the Protector in overthrowing K. Henry 's Will and with Dudley against the Protector Palpable Falshoods The contrary whereof is notoriously known to any ordinary Historian Of the same Truth is That he joined with Dudley and the Duke of Suffolk for the overthrow of the King 's two Daughters and after that with Arundel Pembroke Paget for the overthrow of Northumberland and Suffolk He joined with these for the setting the true Heir in the Throne not for the overthrow of any particular Persons Again he saith Cranmer and Ridley followed K. Henry 's Religion and Humour while he lived and resolved to enjoy the Pleasures and Sensualities of this Time of K. Edward so far as any way they might attain unto No they were Men more mortified and that made littlâ— Account of the Pleasures and Vanities of this wretched World Getting Authority into their Hands by the Protector and others that were in most Place began to lay lustily about them and to pull down all them both of the Clergy and others whom they thought to be able and likely to stand in their way or resist their Inventions Instancing in Gardiner and Boner and speaking of their unjust Persecution and Deprivation by such violent and calumnious manner as is proper to Hereticks to use Whereby a Man may take a taste what they meant to have done if they had had time Here they are set forth as a couple of most worldly ambitious haughty Men contriving by all however base and unlawful ways to build up themselves and their Fortunes upon the Ruin of others and to beat down all that opposed their Designs Whereas to any that shall read their Histories there is nothing in the World so contrary to their Aims Tempers and Inclinations And things were done towards the two Bishops before-mentioned with great Mildness and Patience under unsufferable Provocations offered by them Nor was it Cranmer's and Ridley's doings but rather the King's Council who thought not fit to put up the Affronts those Bishops had offered to the Government He saith That in King Edward 's Time Cranmer plaid the Tyrant That be punished one Thomas Dobb a Master of Arts of Cambridg casting him into the Counter where he died And John Hume imprisoned for the same Cause by Cranmer Both these Passages the Author had from Fox Dobbs indeed in the very beginning of K. Edward's Reign disturbed the Mass that was saying in a Chappel in S. Pauls For which the Mayor complained of him to the Arch-bishop And what could he do better than commit him to the Counter both to punish him for making a publick Disturbance in the Church and also to deliver him from the Rage of the Multitude till his Pardon could be gotten him Which was obtained soon after from the Duke of Somerset But he suddenly died in Prison before his Deliverance And as for Hume he was a Servant to a very stiff Papist who sent him up to the Arch-bishop with a grievous Complaint against him for speaking against the Mass but whether the Arch-bishop imprisoned him or what followed Fox mentioneth not and leaves it uncertain what was done with him He saith That Cranmer stood resolutely for the Carnal Presence in the Sacrament in K. Edward 's first Parliament Wherein a Disputation about it was continued for the space of four Months that is from Novemb 4. to March 14. Which was the full time of the second Session of that first Parliament and was in the Year 1548. What he means by this long Disputation in that Parliament for so many Months I cannot tell Does he mean that the Parliament did nothing else all
good Which he doth knowlege to be only affection Now os concernynge the people he thynketh not possible to satisfye thaym by lernynge or prechynge but os thay now do begyn to hate preists this shal make thaym rather to hate moch more both lerned men and also the name of lernynge and bryng them in abomination of every man For what lovynge men towarde their prynce wolde gladly heare that eyther thayr prynce sholde be so infortunate to lyve so many yers in matrimony so abominable or that thay sholde be taken and cownted so bestial to approve and take for lawful and that so many yeres a matrimony so unlawful and so much agaynst nature that every man in hys harte naturally doth abhorre yt And that ys more whan they heare this matrimony dyspraysed and spoken agaynst neyther by thayr own minds nor by reasons that be made agaynst this matrimony can thay be persuaded to grutge agaynst the matrimony but for any thynge thay do grutge against the divorse Wherin the people sholde shew thaym selfes no men but bests And that the people sholde be persuaded herto he cannot thynke yt And os for the autoritie of the Vniversities he thynketh and sayeth that many tymes thay be led by affections which ys well known to every man and wyssheth that thay never did erre in thayr determinations Than he sheweth with how gret difficultie the Vniversities were brought to the kyngs party And moreover agaynst the autoritie of the Vniversities he setteth the autoritie of the kyngs grace fathâ—r and hys cowncel the quenes father and hys cowncel and the pope and hys cowncel Than he cometh agayn to the pope and themperour and French kynge And fyrst the Pope how moch he ys adversary unto the kyngs purpose he hath shewed diverse tokens alredy and not without a cause For yf he sholde consent to the kyngs purpose he must neds do against hys predecessores and also restrayne hys owne power more than yt hath bene in tyme past which rather he wolde be glad to extend and moreover he sholde set gret sedition in many realmes os in Portugal of which kynge themperour hath maried on suster and the Duke of Savoy the other Than he extolleth the power of themperour and diminish the ayd of the Frensh kynge towarde us sayinge that themperour without drawynge of any sworde but only by forbyddynge the course of marchandise into Flawnders and Spayne may put this realme into gret dammage and ruyne And what yf he wil therto draw hys sworde wherein ys so moch power which beyng of moch lasse power than he ys now subdued the Pope and the French kynge And os for the French men they never used to kepe leage with us but for thayr own advantage and wee can never fynde in our harts to trust thaym And yet yf now contrary to thayr olde nature thay kepe thayr leage yet our nation shal thynk thaymselfes in miserable condition yf thay shal be compelled to trust opon thayr ayde which alwayes have be our mortal enemyes and never we loved thaym nor thay us And yf the French men have any suspicion that this new matrimony shal not continue then we shal have no succur of thaym but opon such conditions os shal be intolerable to this realme And yf thay followynge thayr olde nature and custome than do breake leage with us than we shal loke for none other but that Englonde shal be a prey betwene themperour and thaym After all this he commeth to the poynte to save the kyngs honour sayinge that the kynge stondeth evyn opon the brynke of the water and yet he may save al hys honour but yf he put furth hys fote but on steppe forwarde all hys honour ys drowned And the meanes which he hath devised to save the kyngs honour ys this The reste of this mater I must leave to shewe your Lordshippe by mouth whan I speake with you which I purpose god Willynge shal be to morow yf the kyng's grace let me not Now the berer maketh such hast that I can wryte no more but that I heare no worde from my benefice nor Mayster Russel's servunte ys not yet retourned ageyn whereof I do not a lytle marveil The kynge and my Lady Anne rode yesterday to Windsower and this nyght they be loked for agayne at Hampton Courte god be their guyde and preserve your Lordshippe to hys most pleasure From Hampton courte this xiij day of June You re most humble beideman Thomas Cranmer NUM II. Dr. Cranmer Ambassador with the Emperor his letter to the King To the Kings Highness PLeasith it your Highnes to understande that at my last sollicitacion unto Monsieur Grandeveile for an answer of the contracte of Merchandize betwene the Merchaunts of your graces reaulme and the Merchaunts of themperors Low-Countreys the said Monsieur Grandeveile shewed me that forsomoch as the Diate concernynge the said Contracte was lately held in Flaundres where the Quene of Hungary is Governatrice themperor thought good to do nothynge therein without her advice but to make answere by her rather than by me Wherefore it may please your grace no further to loke for answere of me herin but of the Quene unto whome the whole Answere is commytted Morover whan the said Monsieur Grandeveile enquered of me if I had any answere of the aide and subsidy which themperor desyered of your grace I reported unto hym fully your graces answere accordyngâ— unto myn instructions sent unto me by your graces servant William Paget Which answere he desyered me to delyver hym in wrytynge that he myght referre the same truly unto themperor and so I dyd Nevertheles themperor now at his departynge hath had such importune busynes that Monsieur Grandeveile assigned me to repaire unto themperor agayn at Lintz for there he said I shal have an answere agayn in wrytynge The French Ambassador and I with al diligence do make preparacion to furnish our selfs of wagans horses shippes tents and other thynges necessary to our viage but it wil be at the lest viij or x dayes before we can be redy to depart hens Yet we trust to be at Lyntz before themperor for he wil tary by the way at Passaw x or xij dayes As for the Turke he resideth stil in Hungary in the same place environned opon al parties whereof I wrote unto your Highnes in my last letters And themperor departed from Abagh toward Vienna the seconde day of this month by lande not commynge by this towne but the same day the kynge Ferdinando departed from this Towne by water and at Passaw xiiij myls hens thay shal mete and so pase furth unto Lyntz which is the mydds way from hens unto Vienna And there themperor wil tary to counsel what he wil do and there al the Ambassadours shal know his pleasure as Monsieur Grandeveile shewed me I have sent herewith unto your grace the copy of themperors Proclamation concernynge a general Councel and a reformation to be had in Germany for
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
a Proctor represents him that he is Proctor for and may make or marr his Clients matier by one word speaking wel or il and that the office of a Proctor was first invented for men that might or would not intend to their own business theymself it were more consonant with reason that a man were suffered to take to his Proctor such as he lusteth and may best trust unto of his matier than be driven to commit the order of his cause being mefortune of great weight to such a one as he never knew ne saw before For whan a man is at his choise to choose him what Proctor he lust best if his matier do delay through the default of his Proctor than he can blame no body but himself For that that he would not take better heed to whom he should have committed his matier unto And whan a man is compelled to take one that he knows not if his matier do than delay he may put the blame therof to that Statute that constrained him to take such a Proctor Nevertheles though the tone of both those ways that is the same that is taken by the same Law be moche better than the tother yet the mean way betwixt both as of al other Extremes were best That is to say that nother every man unlearned or unexpert shuld forthwith be admitted to procure for every man in the said Courts lest of that there shuld be no good order but a confuse tumult there Nor yet that there shuld be so few admitted therunto that they were not able ne sufficient for the due exercise of causes there depending But most reasonable and highly expedient for the Common wele it is that it were enacted by the authority of this present Parlament that there should be as many of such as were sufficiently learned and exercised in the experience and practise of the said Courts admitted to procure there as shuld be seen convenient to my said Lord of Canterbury his Grace or other Presidents of the said Courts for the due exercise and expedition of causes there depending as it was used heretofore til the obtaining of the said Statute without prefixion of any precise nombre which for no cause may be exceded For how can a precise nombre of Proctors be prefixed when the nombre of causes can never be appoynted For causes doth grow and encrease as the nature of seasons and men doth require And therfore it were expedient that there were mo Proctors than shuld suffice admitted than fewer For better it were that some of theym shuld lack causes than causes shuld want theym And that such ones so admitted shuld not be removeable from the same their Offices at the said Juges or any other mans plesure as they were heretofore but only for certain great offences proved to be committed by theym after their admission and juged so to be of indifferent Juges chosen to examine the same by the consent of the Proctors that shal be accused therof And because that the Proctors aforesaid are al sworn at the time of their admission that they shal never after be against the Liberty jurisdiction and prerogatives of the said Courts but shal maintain and defend the same to their power And that there may be in the said Courts otherwhiles such causes depending as shuld appertaine to the Kings Gs. determination by his Royal Prerogative or such other as may be there attempted against the Juges or Presidents of the said Courts It were highly expedient as wel for the Conservation and soliciting of the Kings interest there as for the faithful and bold assistence of Proctors there to the Kings Subjects that were called thither at the instance of the said Juges or their fautors or any other person That like as his Grace hath in other his Courts temporal his Solicitors and Atturneys he shuld also have in his said Courts two Proctors or so admitted by his G. and his councel which shuld be sworn to promote and solicite his Gs. interest there and to advertise the same of any thing that shuld appertain to his Gs. prerogative and to defend such of the Kings subjects as shal desire their assistance boldly and without fear or affection of the said Juges And that the same Proctors so admitted be not removeable from the same their offices by any man but the Kings G. or his Councel Which so enacted and established shuld be the readiest means that the foresaid abuses with divers others here not rehearsed caused through the occasion of the said statute shuld be utterly taken away and justice more plainly and speedily proceed in the said Courts than heretofore hath been seen to do And the Kings subjects called thither from al parts of England shuld have plenty of counsil faithful assistance in their matters and speedy process in the same Which ought to be tendred affectantly of every man that regardeth the encrease of the Common wele and true execution of justice NUM XIX The Archbishop to the L. Crumwel giving him some account of his Visitation of his Diocess THese shal be to advertise your Lp. that since my last coming from London into Kent I have found the people of my Diocess very obstinately given to observe and keep with solemnity the hali dayes lately abrogated Wherupon I have punished divers of the Offendors and to divers I have given gentle monitions to amend But inasmuch as by examination I have perceived that the people were partly animated therto by their Curates I have given streit commandment and injunction unto al the Parsons and Vicars within my Diocess upon paine of deprivation of their benefices that they shal not only on their behalf cause the said hali dayes so abrogated from time to time not to be observed within their Cures but also shal from henceforth present to me such persons of their Parishes as wil practise in word or deed contrary to that Ordinance or any other which is or hereafter shal bee set forth by the Kings Graces authority for the redress or ordering of the doctrine or ceremonies of this Church of England So that now I suppose through this means all disobedience and contempt of the Kings Graces Acts and Ordinances in this behalf shal be clearly avoyded in my Diocess hereafter Not doubting also but if every Bp. in this realm had Commandment to do the same in their Diocess it would avoyd both much disobedience and contention in this said realm I would faine that al the enmity and grudge of the people in this matter should be put from the King and his Councel and that wee who be Ordinaries should take it upon us Or else I fear lest a grudge against the Prince and his Council in such causes of religion should gender in many of the peoples hearts a faint subjection and obedience But my Lord if in the Court you do keep such hali dayes and fasting dayes as be abrogated when shal we persuade the people to
satis tentatum est hactenus Et nisi super firmam petram fuisset firmiter aedificata jam dudum cum magnae ruinae fragore cecidisset Dici non potest quantum haec tam cruenta controversia cum per universum orbem Christianum tum maxime apud nos bene currenti verbo Evangelij obstiterit Vobis ipsis affert ingens periculum caeteris omnibus praebet non dicendum offendiculum Quo circa si me audietis hortor suadeo imo vos oro obsecro visceribus Iesu Christi obtestor adjuro uti concordiam procedere coire sinatis in illam confirmandam totis viribus incumbatis pacémque Dei tandem quae superat omnem sensum Ecclesijs permittatis ut Evangelicam doctrinam unam sanam puram cum primitivae Ecclesiae disciplina consonam junctis viribus quam maximè propagemus Facile vel Turcas ad Evangelij nostri obedientiam converterimus modo intra nosmetipsos consentiamus pia quadam conjuratione conspiremus At si ad hunc modum pergimus ad invicem contendere commordere timendum erit ne quod dicens abominor juxta comminationem Apostolicam ad invicem consumamur Habes Optime Vadiane meam de tota controversia illa neutiquam fictam sententâ—am una cum admonitione libera ac fideli Cui si obtemperaveris non modo inter amicos sed etiam vel inter amicissimos mihi nomen tuum ascripsero Bene vale T. Cantuariens NUM XXVI Part of a Letter from a Member of Parlament concerning the transactions of the House about passing the Act of the Six Articles AND also news here I assure you never Prince shewed himself so wise a man so wel learned and so Catholic as the King hath done in this Parlament With my pen I cannot express his mervailous goodnes which is come to such effect that we shal have an Act of Parlament so spiritual that I think none shal dare say in the blessed Sacrament of the Altar doth remain either bread or wine after the Consecration Nor that a Priest may have a wife Nor that it is necessary to receive our Maker sub utraque specie Nor that private Masses should not be used as they have bee Nor that it is not necessary to have Auricular confession And notwithstanding my L. of Canterbury my L. of Ely my L. of Salisbury my L. of Worcester Rochester and St. Davyes defended the contrary long time Yet finally his Highness confounded them all with Gods learning York Durham Winchester and Carlile have shewed themselves honest and wel learned men We of the Temporalty have be al of one opinion And my L. Chancellor and my L. Privy Seal as good as we can devise My L. of Cant. and al his Bishops have given their opinion and come in to us save Salisbury who yet continueth a leud fool Finally al in England have cause to thank God and most heartily to rejoyce of the Kings most godly procedings Without any name subscribed NUM XXVII The Solution of some Bishop to certain Questions about the Sacraments The King's Animadversions of his own hand The Questions The Answers Why then should we cal them so 1. What a Sacrament is 1. Scripture useth the word but it defineth it not 2. What a Sacrament is by the antient Authors 2. In them is found no perfect definition but a general Declaration of the word as a token of a holy thing  3. How many Sacraments be there by the Scripture 3. So named onely Matrimony in effect moo and at the least seven as we find the Scripture expounded Why these Seven to have the name more than al the rest 4. How many Sacraments be there by the antient Authors 4. Authors use the word Sacrament to signify any Mystery in the old or new Testament But especially be noted Baptism Eucharist Matrimony Chrism Impositio manuum Ordo Here is omitted Penance Then why hath theChurch so long erred to take upon them so to name them 5. Whether this word Sacrament be and ought to be attribute to the Seven only 5. The word bycause it is general is attribute to other than the Seven But whether it ought especially to be applied to the Seven only God knoweth and hath not fully revealed it so as it hath been received Whether the Seven Sacraments be found in any of the old Authors or not The thing of al is found but not named al Sacraments as afore  6. Whether the determinate number of seven Sacraments be a doctrin either of the scripture or the old Authors and so to be taught 6. The doctrine of Scripture is to teach the thing without numbring or naming the name Sacrament saving only Matrimony Old Authors number not precisely Twelve Articles of the Faith not numbred in Scripture ne Ten Commandments but rather one Dilectio Seven petitions Seven Deadly sinns * Then Penance is changed to a new term i. e. Absolution Of Penance I read that without it we cannot be saved after relapse but not so of Absolution And Penance to sinners is commanded but Absolution yea in open crimes is left free to the Askers †Laying of hands being an old ceremony of the Church is but a small proof of Confirmation 7. What is found in scripture of the matter nature effect and vertue of such as we cal the seven Sacraments So although the name be not in Scripture yet whether the thing be in Scripture or no and in what wise spoken 7. First of Baptism manifestly Scripture speaketh Secondly Of the holy communion manifestly Thirdly Of Matrimony manifestly 4. Of Absolution * manifestly 5. Of Bishops Priests and Deacons ordered per impositionem manuum cum Oratione expresly 6. Laying †of the Hands of the Bp. after Baptism which is a part of that is done in Confirmation is grounded in Scripture 7. Unction of the sick and prayer is grounded on scripture This answer is not direct and yet it proveth nother of the two poynts to be grounded in scripture 8. Whether Confirmation cum Chrismate of them that be baptized be found in Scripture 8. The thing of Confirmation is found in scripture though the name Confirmation is not there Of Chrisma Scripture speaketh not expressly but it hath been had in high veneration and observed since the beginning  9. Whether the Apostles lacking higher power and not having a Christen King among them made Bishops by that necessity or by authority given them of God 9. The calling naming appointment and preferment of one before another to be Bishop or Priest had a necessity to be done in that sort a Prince wanting  The Ordering appeareth taught by the holy Ghost in the Scripture per manuum impositionem cum oratione  10. Whether Bps or Priests were first And if the Priests were first then the Priest made the Bishop 10. Bishops or not after  11. Whether a Bishop hath authority to make a Priest by the Scripture or
my Lord was of Londons own hand For he that copied them out before us was a Gentleman of my L. Winchesters or to him belonging Mr. Londons Copy lying before him This appeareth that this matter was consulted before Serles can tel what the man was and so cannot I that did write them But as I now remember it was German that is German Gardner By me Iohn Willoughby Gardiners penitent letter unto the Archbishop GEntle father Whereas I have not born so good so tender a heart towards you as a true child ought to bear and as you never gave unto me occasion otherwise but rather by benefits provoked me unto the contrary I ask of you with as contrite a heart as ever did David ask of God mercy And I desire you to remember the prodigal Child Which although from his father swarving yet into favour received again to receive me although unkindly now by folly I did forsake you and not born my heart so lovingly so truly towards you as in dutifulness I should have done I am ful sorry for my fault And yet Good father be you wel assured as I opened my conscience unto you at my last communing with you that I never did bear malice against you But the greatest cause that ever occupied my heart against you and for the which I did bear my heart so little towards you was as God shall save the Soul of me that I saw so little quietness among us and so great jars in Christs religion Supposing that by your permission and sufferance which was not so as I do now perceive That it did arise unto the great grief of my conscience I condescended the sooner unto the making of the book against your Grace when I was thereunto moved by that same suggester Willoughby Where and of whom he took occasion to bring his bills unto Canterbury I know not Good father for my setting forth the same book partly by me made heartily confessing my rashness and indeliberate doings I ask of you mercy Requiring of you of your charity to impute the great fault of it unto those which ministred unto me occasion and to remit unto me my lightnes For of truth I was greatly seduced Remember Good father that our Parent was seduced and yet of God forgiven Forgive me Good father By whom I was seduced my Confession doth declare And Father if it shall please you now more of your goodness then of my deserving punishment and that sharp I have deserved to forgive unto me this my fault and unkindness You shal never hereafter perceive in me but that at al times I shal be as obedient and as true unto you as ever was child unto his natural father If otherwise at any time you find of me never trust me never do for me but utterly without al favor cast me into pain as possible is for a wretch to suffer Gentle Father ponder my grief which is at my heart not little And through your goodness remitting unto me my unkindness and granting mercy with liberty I desire your Grace to set me into ease both of heart and body I am yours aud shal be yours and that truly while I live God prosper your Grace per me William Gardiner Good father I have given my self unto you heart body and service and you have taken me unto you Now remember me that I am your true servant Another letter of Gardiner to the Archbishop MOst Honourable Prelate Due commendations premised These be to give thanks unto your Grace for that that you did yesterday so favourably as my sending for unto your presence Whom I thought that I should never pensiveness lay so sore at my heart have seen again And among al your Communications that your Grace had unto me I noted these words of highest comfort Your Grace did note that I did cal you father in my Writings you said unto me yesterday You cal me father In good faith I wil be a Father unto you indeed Words of high comfort unto me Besides this Most honorable Lord you promised that I should have a book of al Articles layd in against me to make answer unto them I beseech your Grace that I may so have For there is nothing that I have done or known to be done but if I can cal it into remembrance I wil truly open it God prosper your Grace By yours and ever shal be William Gardiner Shethers letter of Submission to the Archbishop MY duty always remembred unto your gracious Lordship I most humbly beseech the same to have compassion upon me your prisoner And for as much as I think by the Articles which Mr. Ioseph mentioned that your Grace hath not only the Articles subscribed with the Witnes hands but also other Articles Which I noted since that time as I heard by Mr. Gardiner Coxton Morice and others So that your Gracious Lordship knoweth al that ever I have heard Pleaseth it your Lordship to understand that many of those Articles last noted were of the Book that was presented to my L. of Winchester as unperfect and not proved as indeed many could never be justified as far as ever I heard And therefore my L. of Winchester sent it again as I have said in my first declaration And it was never willed to be shewed as true But Gracious Lord whether I have offended in that that I noted those Articles after that I was willed by Mr. Baker to mark the chiefest fautors of new opinions I refer it to your gracious judgment and whatsoever shal be thought as nothing can be hid nor I would should not of any my life from any of you both that I have offended in I beseech you both of your mercy and favor and to be good to me Instantly and briefly for I am loth to trouble you or to seem to mistrust your goodness desiring you to have in remembrance my weak nature and the long and solatory durance I have suffered with grievous vexation of mind And for refreshing thereof to Licence me to eat and drink at meals with company and being so nigh my chamber that I may remain in the same to the intent I may pas the time with my own Books Heartily desiring your Good Lp. that notwithstanding any thing heretofore done or how ever I have before wandred not conformably to your gracious advertisement or expectation yet Gracious Lord accept a poor heart which would gladly be received into your fatherly favor again to declare his faithful mind he hath conceived towards your Goodness upon such pity as your Gracious Lp. hath shewed and I trust now wil in his extreme need Assuring your Grace that my whole confidence and only trust is reposed in your goodness only and gentle Mr. Doctors Whose native merciful hearts as they have be declared oftentimes towards many so I most meekly beseech you both mercifully to interpretate my acts and declare your pity in releasing my sorrows as shortly as shal seem convenient to your Wisdomes
the next IV. Your fourth Article is this WE wil have the Sacrament hang over the high Altar and there to be worshipped as it was wont to be and they which wil not therto consent we wil have them dy like Heretics against the holy Catholic faith What say you O ignorant people in things pertaining to God Is this the holy Catholic faith that the Sacrament should be hanged over the Altar and worshipped And be they Heretics that wil not consent therto I pray you who made this Faith Any other but the Bishops of Rome And that after more then a thousand years after the Faith of Christ was ful and perfect Innocent III. about 1215 years after Christ did ordain that the Sacrament and Chrism should be kept under lock and key But yet no motion he made of hanging the Sacrament over the high Altar nor of the worshiping of it After him came Honorius III. and he added further commanding that the Sacrament should be devoutly kept in a clean place and sealed and that the priest should often teach the people reverendly to bow down to the host when it is lifted up in the Mass time and when the priests should cary it to the sick folkes And altho this Honorius added the worshipping of the Sacrament yet he made no mention of the hanging therof over the high Altar as your Article proporteth Nor how long after or by what means that came first up into this realm I think no man can tel And in Italy it is not yet used until this day And in the beginning of the Church it was not only not used to be hanged up but also it was utterly forbid to be kept And wil you have al them that wil not consent to your Article to dy like heretics that hold against the Catholic faith Were the Apostles and Evangelists heretics Were the Martyrs and Confessors heretics Were al the old Doctors of the Church heretics Were al christen people heretics until within three or four hundred years last past that the Bishops of Rome taught them what they should do and believe All they before rehearsed neither hanged the Sacrament over the Altar nor worshiped it nor not one of them al spake any one word either of the hanging up or worshiping of the Sacrament Mary they speak very much of the worshiping of Christ himself setting in heaven at the right hand of his Father And no man doth duely receive the Sacrament except he so after that maner do worship Christ whom he spiritually receiveth spiritually feedeth and nourisheth upon and by whom spiritually he liveth and continueth that life that is towards God And this the Sacrament teacheth us Now to knit up this Article shortly Here is the issue of this matter that you must either condemn of heresy the Apostles Martyrs Confessors Doctors and al the holy Church of Christ until the time of Innocentius and Honorius because they hanged not the Sacrament over the Altar to be worshiped or else you must be condemned your selves by your own Article to dy like heretics against the holy Catholic faith Now to your fifth Article V. Your fifth Article is this WE wil have the Sacrament of the Altar but at Easter delivered to the Lay-people and then but in one kind Methinks you be like a man that were brought up in a dark dungeon that never saw light nor knew nothing that is abroad in the world And if a friend of his pitying his ignorance and state would bring him out of his dungeon that he might se the light and come to knowledg he being from his youth used to darknes could not abide the light but would wilfully shut his eyes and be offended both with the light and with his friend also A most godly Prince of famous memory K. Henry VIII our late Soveraign Lord pitying to se his Subjects many years so brought up in darknes and ignorance of God by the erroneous doctrines and superstitions of the Bp. of Rome with the counsil of al his Nobles and learned men studied by al means and that to his no little danger and charges to bring you out of your said ignorance and darknes unto the true light and knowledg of Gods word And our most dread Soveraign Lord that now is succeding his father as wel in this godly intent as in his realmes and dominions hath with no less care and diligence studied to perform his fathers godly intent and purpose And you like men that wilfully shut their own eyes refuse to receive the light saying you wil remain in your darknes Or rather you be like men that be so far wandred out of the right way that they can never come to it again without good and expert guides and yet when the guides would tel you the truth they would not be ordered by them but would say unto them Wee wil have and follow our own wayes And that you may understand how far you be wandred from the â—ight way in this one Article wherin you wil have the Sacrament of the Altar delivered to the Lay-people but once in the year and then but under one kind be you assured that there was never such law nor such request made among christen people until this day What injury do you to many godly persons which would devoutly receive it many times and you command the priest to deliver it them but at Easter Al learned men and godly have exhorted christen people altho they have not commanded them often to receive the Communion And in the Apostles time the people at Ierusalem received it every day as it appeares by the manifest word of the Scripture And after they received it in some places every day In some places four times in the week in some three times some twice commonly every where at the least once in the week In the beginning when men were most godly and fervent in the holy Spirit then they received the Communion daily But when the Spirit of God began to be more cold in mens hearts and they waxed more worldly than godly then their desire was not so hot to receive the Communion as it was before And ever from time to time as the world waxed more wicked the more the people withdrew themselves from the holy Communion For it was so holy a thing and the threatnings of God be so sore against them that come therto unworthily that an ungodly man abhorreth it and not without cause dare in no wise approch therunto But to them that live godly it is the greatest comfort that in this world can be imagined And the more godly a man is the more sweetnes and spiritual plesure and desire he shal have often to receive it And wil you be so ungodly to command the Priest that he shal not deliver it to him but at Easter and then but only in one kind When Christ ordained both the kinds as wel for the Lay-men as for the Priests and that to be eaten and drunken at
the Vilains to rule the Gentlemen and the Servants their Masters If men would suffer this God wil not but wil take vengeance on al them that wil break his order as he did of Dathan and Abiram altho for a time he be a God of much sufferance and hideth his indignation under his mercy That the evil of themselves may repent and se their own folly XIV Your fourteenth Article is this WEE wil that the half part of the Abby lands and Chantry lands in every mans possession howsoever he came by them be given again to two places where two of the chief Abbies were within every County Where such half part shal bee taken out and there to be established a place for devout persons which shal pray for the King and the Common wealth And to the same we wil have al the Almes of the Church box given for these seven years At the beginning you pâ—etended that you meant nothing against the Kings Majesty but now you open your selves plainly to the world that you go about to pluck the Crown from his head and against al justice and equity not only to take from him such lands as be annexed unto his Crown and be parcel of the same but also against al right and reason to take from al other men such lands as they came to by most just title by gift by sale by exchange or otherwise There is no respect nor difference had among you whether they come to them by right or by wrong Be you so blind that you cannot see how justly you proceed to take the sword in your hand against your prince and to dispossesse just Inheritors without any cause Christ would not take upon him to judg the right and title of lands betwixt two brethren and you arrogantly presume not only to judg but unjustly to take away al mens right titles yea even from the King himself And do you not tremble for fear that the Vengeance of God shal fal upon you before you have grace to repent And yet you not contented with this your Rebellion would have your shameful act celebrated with a perpetual memory as it were to boast and glory of your iniquity For in memory of your fact you would have established in every country two places to pray for the King and the Common-wealth Wherby your abominable behaviour at this present may never be forgotten but be remembred unto the worlds end That when the Kings Majesty was in Wars with Scotland and France you under pretence of the Common wealth rebelled and made so great sedition against him within his own realm as never before was heard of And therfore you must be prayed for for ever in every County of this realm It were more fit for you to make humble Supplication upon your knees to the Kings Majesty desiring him not only to forgive you this fault but also that the same may never be put in Chronicle nor writing and that neither shew nor mention may remain to your posterity that ever subjects were so unkind to their Prince and so ungracious toward God that contrary to Gods word they should so use themselves against their Soveraign Lord and King And this I assure you of that if al the whole world should pray for you until Doomsday their prayers should no more avail you then they should avail the Devils in hel if they prayed for them unles you be so penitent and sory for your disobedience that you wil ever hereafter so long as you live study to redubbe and recompence the same with al true and faithful obedience and not only your selves but also procuring al other so much as lyeth in you And so much detesting such uproars and seditions that if you se any man towards any such things you wil to your power resist him and open him unto such Governors and Rulers as may straitway repres the same As for your last Article thanks be to God it needs not to be answered which is this Your last Article is this FOR the particular griefes of our Country we wil have them so ordered as Humfrey Arundel and Henry Bray the Kings Maior of Bodman shal inform the Kings Majesty if they may have salve Conduct in the Kings great Seal to pas und repas with an Herald of Armes Who ever heard such arrogancy in Subjects to require and wil of their Princes that their own particular causes may be ordered neither according to reason nor the lawes of the Realm but according to the Information of two most hainous Traitors Was it ever heard before this time that information should be a judgment altho the Informers were of never so great credit And wil you have suffice the information of two villanous Papistical Traitors You wil deprive the King of his lands pertaining to his Crown and other men of their just possessions and inheritances and judg your own causes as you list your selves And what can you be called then but most wicked judges and most errant Traitors Except only Ignorance or Force may excuse youâ— that either you were constrained by your Capitains against your wills or deceived by blind Priests and other crafty persuaders to ask you wist not what How much then ought you to detest and abhor such men hereafter and to beware of al such like as long as you live and to give most humble and hearty thanks unto God who hath made an end of this Article and brought Arundel and Bray to that they have deserved that is perpetual shame confusion and death Yet I beâ—seech God so to extend his grace unto them that they may dy wel which have lived il Amen NUM XLI The Archbishops notes for an Homily against the Rebellion Sentences of the Scripture against Sedition 1 Cor. 3. CUM sit inter vos zelus contentio nonne carnales estis sicut homines ambulatis Et 1 Cor. 6. Quare non magis injuriam accipitis Quare non magis fraudem patimini Iac. 3. Si zelum amarum habetis contentiones sint in cordibus vestris c. non est ista Sapientia desursum descendens a Patre Luminum sed terrena animalis Diabolica Ubi enim zelus contentio ibi inconstantia omne opus malum c. Et Cap. 4. Unde bella lites inter vos Nonne ex concupiscentijs vestris quae m ilitant in membris vestris How God hath plagued Sedition in time past Num. 18. Dathan and Abiram for ther sedition against Moses and Aaron did miserably perish by Gods just judgment the earth opening and swallowing them down quick 2 Reg. 15. 18. Absalom moving Sedition against David did miserably perish likewise 2 Reg. 20. Seba for his Sedition against David lost his head 3 Reg. 1. 2. Adonias also for his Sedition against Solomon was slain Acts 8. Iudas and Theudas for their Sedition were justly slain Acts 21. An Egyptian likewise which moved the people of Israel to Sedition received that he
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
requite the same I have written lettres unto my Lorde of Northumberlande declarynge unto hym the cause of my staye in the Commission which is bicause that al the gentylmen and Justices of the peace of Kent which be in commission with me be now at London Bifore whos 's comynge home if I sholde procede without them I myght perchaunce travel in vayne and take more payne than I sholde do good I have written also unto hym in the favour of Michael Angelo whose cause I pray you to helpe so moche as lieth in you The Sophy and the Turke themperor and the French kynge not moch better in religion than they rollynge the stone or turnynge the whele of fortune up and downe I pray God send us peace and quyetnes with al realmes as wel as among our selfes and to preserve the Kyngs majestie with al his councill Thus fare you wel From my howse of Forde the xx day of November Anno 1552. Your assured T. Cant. NUM CVIII Signifying his desire to have the good will of the Lord Warden his neighbour To my lovyng frende Sir William Cecill Knyght Secretary to the Kings Majestie Yeve thies AFter my harty commendations and thanks for your letters ther is no man more loth to be in contention with any man than I am specially with my Lorde Warden my nere neighbour dwellynge both in one contray and whose familier and entier frendeshippe I most desier for the quyetnes of the hole contray For the example of the rulers and heades wil the people and membres followe And as towchynge learned men I shal sende you my mynde with as moch expedition as I can which by this poste I can not do evyn in the colde snowe sittynge opon coles untyl he be gone But hartely fare you wel in the Lorde Iesus From Forde the last day of November Your Lovynge frende T. Cant. NUM CIX Desiring Cecyl to enform him of the cause of Chekes indictment To my very Lovynge frende Sir William Cecyl Knight AFter my very harty recommendâ—tions Yester nyght I harde reported that Mr. Cheke is indited I pray you hartely if you know any thynge therof to sende me knowledge and wheruppon he is indited I had grete trust that he sholde be one of them that sholde fele the Queens grete mercie and pardon as one who hath been none of the grete doers in this matier agaynst her and my trust is not yet gone excepte it be for his ernestnes in religion For the which if he suffre blâ—ssed is he of god that suffreth for his sake howsoever the worlde juge of hym For what ought we to care for the jugement of the worlde whan god absolveth us But alas if any means cowde be made for hym or for my Lorde Russel it were not to be omitted nor in any wise neglected But I am utterly destitute both of counseil in this matter and of power being in the same condemnation that they be But that onely thynge which I can do I shal not ceasse to do and that is only to pray from theym and for my selfe with al other that be now in adversity Whan I saw you at the courâ—e I wolde fayne have talked with you but I durst not nevertheless if you cowde fynde a tyme to come over to me I wolde gladly commen with you Thus fare you hartely well with my Lady your wife From Lamhith this 14 day of this month of August Your own assured T. Cant. FINIS READER MY Reverend Friend Mr. Wharton as he formerly Encouraged and Assisted me in the Foregoing History hath also further obliged me by the Perusal of it and by communicating to me his Ingenious and Learned Observations and Animadversions thereupon which do highly deserve to be made more Publick and therefore are here gladly added by me together with his Letter as a Supplement to my Book for the Reader 's Benefit To the Reverend Mr. STRYPE SIR AT the Desire of Mr. Chiswell our Common Friend I have perused your Memorials of Archbishop Cranmer not without great Satisfaction being much pleased to see the Actions of that Excellent Prelate and the Affairs of the Reformation of our Church happily begun and carried on in his Time and by his Conduct disposed in so clear a Method I have not been able to make my Observations upon it with that Exactness and Fulness which I desired and you may perhaps expect being at this time placed at a very great distance from all my Papers and Collections and not enjoying the use even of such Printed Books as would be necessary to this Design So that I have been forced to pass by very many Places of your History wherein I have suspected some Error to have been committed but could not either confirm or remove my Suspicion for want of farther present Evidence However I have noted several Places which at first Reading appeared Suspicious and after farther Consideration were judged Erroneous by me altho even in some of those Places I have only Pointed at the Error not being able always to rectify it without the Assistance of Books and Papers whereof I am now wholly destitute Be pleased to accept of my Performance herein with that Candor wherewith I read your Book and made the following Observations since I willingly profess That the commission of Errors in writing any History especially of times past being altogether unavoidable ought not to detract from the Credit of the History or Merit of the Historian unless it be accompanied with Immoderate Ostentation or Vnhandsome Reflections upon the Errors of others from which Imputation that Indifference and Candor which appear throughout your whole Work wholly exempt you altho no History of those Matters or Times which I have seen be wrote with equal Exactness PAGE 16. Line 4. It is the sense of an Ingenious and Learned Friend of mine That the pretended Martyr Thomas Becket tho he died in Vindication of the Privileges of the Church yet he was the First Betrayer of the Rights of his See viz. of Canterbury He made the greatest Breach upon the Authority of the Primacy of Canterbury by resigning the Archbishoprick into the Pope's hands and receiving it again from him as the Pope's Donation Thomas Becket was not the First nor the Chief Betrayer of the Rights of the See of Canterbury The first and greatest Breach upon the Authority of the Primacy of that See was made by his Predecessor William de Corboil Thirty seven years before who after he had been fully Invested in the Archbishoprick of Canterbury by due Authority solicited and accepted the Bulls of Pope Honorius conferring it upon him as by Papal Gift and other Bulls constituting him the Pope's Legate in England whereby he subjected his own See and the Church of England to the Authority of the See of Rome which were before wholly independent of it Page 21. line 21. The Twelfth Article of Cranmer's Judgment of the Unlawfulness of K. Henry's Marriage is this We think that
Fox Becomes Reader of the Civil Law at Oxon. Ath. Oxoniensâ— The ABp a Patron to Learned Foreigners To Erasmus allowing him an Honorary Pension Eras. Ep. 10. lib. 27. Ep. 7. lib. 27. To Alexander Aless a Scotch-man By him Melancthon sends a Book to the ABp And to the King Aless brought by Cromwel into the Convocation Where he asserts two Sacraments only Writes a Book to clear Protestants of the Charge of Schism Atrox Schismatis crimen Ep. 36. lib. 1. Satis excusat nos istorum horribilis crudelitas quam proâ—ecto nâ—que adjuvare neque approbare debemus Ubi supra Translated a Book of Bucer's about the English Ministry Received into Crumwel's Family Hist. Res. P.I. p. 308. Aless Professor of Divinity at Leipzig Mâ—l Ep. p. 3â—9 Edit 1647 Cum in Templis in Scholis doctrinam gabernes Mel. Ep. 111. lib. 3. Four others recommended by Melancthon to the ABp Viz. Gualter Dryander Ep. 7. lib. 3. Dryander placed at Oxon. Ad Ann. 1555. Eusebius Menius Mel. Ep. 66. lib. 1. Iustus Ionas Sleid. lib. 7. Ep. 129. lib. 1. No. XCII Divers memorable Passages between Melancthon and our ABp Sends Melancthon certain publick Disputations in Oxford and Cambridg Melancthon's Reflections thereupon Ep. 41. lib. 3. Sends the ABp his Enarration upon the Nicene Creed The beginning of their Acquaintance The ABp propounds a weighty Matter to Melancthon for the Union of all Protestant Churches The Diligence of the ABp in forwarding this Design Ep. 66. lib. 1. Melancthon's Judgment and Approbation thereof His Caveat of avoiding ambiguous Expressions In Ecclesia rectius est Scapham Scaphâ—m diceâ—e Renews the same Caution in another Letter Peter Martyr of this Judgment Quod Vir bonus sibi pâ—rsuasisset posse hac ratione tolli gravem quae est de hac causa Controversiam ita Ecclâ—siae pacem diâ— desideratam restitui In Vit. P. Mart. per Iosiam Sinlerâ—m Iosiaâ— Simâ—â— What Melancthon thought of the Doctrinâ— of Fate Calv. Ep. 12â— The ABp breaks his Purpose also to Calvin Calvin's Approbation thereof and Commendation of the ABp Offers his Service Excites the ABp to proceed This excellent Purpose frustrated Thinks of drâ—wing up Articles of Religion for the English Church Which he communicates to Calvin Ep. 125. And Calvin's Reply and Exhortation Blames him for having not made more Progress in the Reformation But not justly The Clergy preach against Sacriledg The University-Men declaim against it in the School And the Redress urged upon some at Court No. XCIII Calvin sends Letters and certain of his Books to the King Ep. 123. Well taken by the King and Council What the ABp told the Messenger hereupon Ep. 120. P. Martyr and the ABp cordial Friends The use the ABp made of him Ep. 127. Martyr saw the Voluminous Writings and Marginal Notes of the Arch-bishop Two Letters of Martyr from Oxford N. XCIV.XCV An instance of his Love to the Arch-bishop P. Martyr Ep. Theolog. The ABp's favour to Iohn Sleidan Procures him a Pension from the King The Paiment neglected Sleidan labours with the ABp to get the Pension confirmed by Letters Patents Sends his Commentaries to the King Designs to write the History of the Council of Trent For the King's Use. Anno 1553. Sends the King a Specimen thereof In order to the proceeding with his Commentaries desires Cecyl to send him the whole Action between K. H. VIII and P. Clement VII Bâ—cer writes to Câ—cyl in behalf of Slâ—idan No. XCVI XCVII.XCVIII.XCIX.C.CI.CII Feb. 27. 1551. Scriptae Anglic. Iohn Leland His Wives and Children His Wife survived him Sincere and modist Defence of English Catholicks MS. Life of Cranmer in Benet College Divers Cranmers Cranm. Regist. Suâ—â—er's Ant. Philpot 's Villar Cantian The AB's Stock Aslacton Whatton The Rectories whereof the ABp purchased His Chaplains Rowland Taylor His Epitaph A Sermon preached the Day after his Burning Inter Foxii MSS. Wherein the Martyr is grosly Slandered Iohn Ponet Stow. Tho. Becon Rich. Harman Rob. Watson the ABp's Steward His Secretary Ralph Morice His Parentage Well known to divers eminent Bishops Presents Turner to Chartham And stands by him in his Troubles for his faitâ—â—ul Preaching An Instance of the ABp's Kindness to this his Secretary Morice his Suit to Q. Elizabeth for a Pension His second Suit to the Queen to confirm certain Lands descended to him from his Father No. CIII He was Register to the Commissioners in K. Edward's Visitation Suffered under Q. Mary Morice supplied Fox with many material Notices in his Book Morice a cordial Friend to Latimer Fox Morice's Declaration concerning the ABp His Temperance of Nature His Carriage towards hiâ— Enemies Severe in his Behaviour towards offending Protestants Stout in God's or the King's Cause * Viz. The Erudition of a Christen Man The King sides with Cranmer against all the Bishops His great Ability in answering the King's Doubts Cranmer studied three parts of the Day Would speak to the King when none else durst Lady Mary Q. Katharine Howard His Hospitality Falsly accused of ill House-keeping The preserving the Bishops Revenues owing to the ABp The ABp vindicated about his Leases By long Leases he saved the Revenues Justified from diminishing the Rents of the See Otford Knol Curleswood Chislet-Park Pasture and Meddow Woods Corn. The best Master towards his Servants An Infamy that he was an Hostler Observations upon the ABp His Learning very profound His Library An excellent Bishop His Care of his own Diocess In the Benet-Library At the great Towns he preached often Affected not his high Stiles His diligence in reforming Religion Before his Treatise of Fasting Puts K. Henry upon a Purpose of reforming many things As long as Q. Ann T. Crumwel Bp Cranmer Mr. Denny Dr. Butts with such-like were about him and could prevail with him What Organ of Christ's Glory did more good in the Church than he As is apparent by such Monuments Instruments and Acts set forth by him in setting up the Bible in the Church in exploding the Pope with his vile Pardons in removing divers superstitious Ceremonies in bringing into order the inordinate Orders of Friars and Sects in putting Chantrey Priâ—sts to their Pensions in permitting white Meats in Lent in â—estroying Pilgrimage-Worship in abbrogating idle and superstitious Holy-days both by Acts Publick and by private Letters to Bóner Acts Monum p. 1147. a. Edit 1610. The King again purposeth a Reformation His Influence upon K. Edward A great Scripturist Ea verae Religionis cura apud Josiam nostrum imprimis Cantuariensem universum Concilium regium excubat ut in nulla re aequè laboratum sit quam ut Religionis tum Doctrina tum Disciplina ex Sacrarum Literarum Fonte purissimè bauriatur ut sentina illa Romana qua tot humanae Sordes in Ecclâ—siam Christi redâ—ndârunt sunditus obstruâ—tur Procures the publishing the English Bible The Bishops oppose it Defence of the EnglishTranslat Ch. 1. p. 4. Edit 1583. The first