Judg of the Prerogative Court and Counsellor to the Emperor and a Man of deep Learning Who confessed to the said Ambassador that the Marriage was naught but that he durst not say so openly for fear both of the Pope and Emperor Yet he was afterwards cast into Prison where he died for expressing his Mind as was thought somewhat more plainly in this Affair While he was now abroad in Germany he went to Norimberg where Osiander was Pastor And being a Man of Fame and Learning our Ambassador became acquainted with him sending for him sometimes to discourse with him and sometimes he would go to Osiander's House to visit him and his Study This eminent Divine of the German Protestant Church he also gained to favour the King's Cause For he wrote a Book of Incestuous Marriages wherein he determined the King's present Matrimony to be unlawful But this Book was called in by a Prohibition printed at Augsburgh And there was also a Form of a Direction drawn up by the same Osiander how the King's Process should be managed Which was sent over hither Cranmer's Discourse with Osiander at these their Meetings concerning divers Matters relating especially to Christian Doctrine and True Religion were so wise and good that that great Divine stood in admiration of him as though he had been inspired from Above In one of their Conferences Osiander communicated to him certain Papers wherein he had been attempting to harmonize the Gospels but by reason of the Difficulty that often arose had thrown them aside A thing this was which Cranmer declared to him his great Approbation of as he was always a Man greatly studious of the Scripture and earnestly desirous that the right knowledg thereof might be encreased So he vehemently exhorted him to go forward in this Study and to finish it with all convenient speed For that it would not only he said be of use to the Church of Christ but adorn it These Admonitions gave new strength to Osiander to fall afresh about this Work and at last to bring it to a conclusion In the Year 1537 he published it and dedicated it to Cranmer then Arch-Bishop the great Encourager of the Author In some of these Visits Crâ—nmer saw Osiander's Niece and obtained her for his Wife Whom when he returned from his Embassy he brought not over with him But in the Year 1534. he privately sent for her And kept her with him till the Year 1539 in the severe time of the six Articles when he sent her back in Secret to her Friends in Germany for a time By these Visits and this Affinity there grew a very cordial Love between Cranmer and Osiander and a great Correspondence was maintained by Letters between them long after A parcel of these Letters in Manuscript the Right Reverend the Bishop of Sarum mentioned in his History of the Reformation Which he met with in the exquisite Library of Mr. Richard Smith as he told a Friend of mine But notwithstanding my enquiry after them I had not the good fortune to see them nor to find into whose Hands they were come after the selling of that Library by Auction Which Letters if I could have procured a sight of might have served somewhat perhaps in this my Undertaking We are now slipp'd into the Year 1532. And among other Services which he did Abroad besides his promoting the King's great Matrimonial Cause among the German Princes and States as well as others he was employed for the establishing and securing a Traffick between the Merchants of England and the Emperor 's Low Countries Concerning which the former Contract it seems began to shake occasioned by that Luke-warmness of Affection that now grew between these two Monarchs About this Affair our Ambassador had divers Conferences with Monsieur Grandeville the Emperor 's great Minister at Regensburgh The effect of his last Sollicitation was that Grâ—ndeville had told him that the Diet concerning the said Contract was held in Flanders where the Queen of Hungary was Governess and therefore that the Emperor would do nothing therein without her advice and that he would make answer by her rather than by him And so Cranmer desired the King that it would please his Grace no further to look for Answer from him therein but from the Queen unto whom the whole Answer was committed Another Business our Ambassador was now agitating at this Court for the King was about sending Supplies to the Emperor against the Turk Who had now made a formidable Invasion in Hungary with an Army consisting of three hundred thousand Men. The Emperor had lately by virtue of a former League and for the Common Cause of Christianity demanded certain Forces of the King for this purpose Now what measures his Ambassador was to take with the Emperor in this Affair William Paget his Majesty's Servant the same that was afterward Secretary of State was dispatched to him with Instructions Wherein were contained what Answer he should make to the Emperor's Demands Which he reported accordingly to Grandeville The which Answer he delivered to him in writing upon the desire of Grandeville for this Reason as he urged that he might relate the same the more truly to the Emperor He was now in the Month of September drawing towards the Turk from Abagh a Place not far from Regensburgh where our English Ambassador now resided not having yet returned any Reply to him prevented by that hurry of Business that then lay upon the Emperor So that upon Grandeville's intimation to repair unto the Emperor at Lintz which was in his way to Vienna and that there he should have an Answer in Writing again the Ambassador followed thither in Company with the Ambassador of France And so he with the other Ambassador in eight or ten days space furnished themselves with Wagons Horses Ships Tents and other things necessary to the Journey for themselves and their Train But before his departure he informed the King of the News in those Parts As that the Turk resided still in Hungary in the same Place invironed on all parts Of which more at large he had written in his former Letters That King Ferdinando the Emperor's Brother who was then at Regensburgh was to meet the Emperor at Passaw fourteen miles from thence and so both were to pass forth to Lintz which was the mid-way from Regensburgh to Vienna That the Emperor would tarry there to take Counsel what to do and there all the Ambassadors should know his Pleasure He sent the King also the Copy of the Emperor's Proclamation concerning a General Council and a Reformation to be had in Germany for the Controversies of the Faith Which he was constrained to do his Affairs with the Turk pressing him so much The Sum thereof was That his Imperial Majesty declared Peace throughout all Germany Enjoining that none should be molested for the Cause of Religion until the Council should be called or in case there were
stuff their Histories with strange Prophecies and Falshoods mixed with some Truth And I suppose the Matter might be no more than this This grave and sober Arch-Bishop was sensible of the gross Encroachments of the Bishops of Rome upon the Authority of the Kings of this Realm in their own Dominions and his Judgment stood for the restoring of this Imperial Crown to its antient Right and Soveraignty and for the abridging the Papal Power And knowing how learned a Man Dr. Thomas Cranmer was and perceiving what an able Instrument he was like to prove in vindicating the King 's Right to the Supremacy in his own Kingdoms the Arch-Bishop upon these Accounts might think him the fittest to succeed in the Archiepiscopal Chair and might have some reason to believe that the King intended him thereunto And that Arch-Bishop Warham was of this Judgment it may appear if we trace some Footsteps of him In the Year 1530 when all the Clergy were under a Praemunire and a Petition was drawing up in the Convocation for that Cause the King in the said Petition was addressed to by the Title of Supream Head of the Church and Clergy of England At this Title when the Arch-Bishop found some of the Clergy to boggle who were yet afraid openly to declare their disallowance of it he took the opportunity of their Silence to pass the Title by saying That Silence was to be taken for their Consent In the last Synod wherein this Arch-Bishop was a Member and the main Director many things were debated about Abolishing the Papacy This Synod was prorogued from April 26 to October 5. In the mean time he died But had he lived and been well unto the next Sessions some further Steps had been made in evacuating the Bishop of Rome's Usurpations as may be guessed by what was done under his influence the last Sessions when the Supremacy of that foreign Prelate was rejected Something more of this Arch-Bishop's Endeavours of restoring the King to his Supremacy appears by what Arch-Bishop Cranmer said to Brooks Bishop of Glocester before a great Assembly not long before his Burning Brooks had charged him for first setting up the King's Supremacy To which Cranmer replied That it was Warham gave the Supremacy to Henry VIII and that he had said he ought to have it before the Bishop of Rome and that God's Word would bear it And that upon this the Universities of Cambridg and Oxford were sent to to know what the Word of God would allow touching the Supremacy Where it was reasoned and argued upon at length and at last both agreed and and set to their Seals and sent it to the King That he ought to be Supreme Head and not the Pope All which was in Arch-Bishop Warham's Time and while he was alive three quarters of a Year before ever Cranmer had the Arch-Bishoprick of Canterbury as he also added in that Audience So that these things considered we may conclude that Warham did think that none would be so fit to come after him as Cranmer a Learned and diligent Man to carry on this Cause which he before him had begun and so might speak of him as the properest Person to be advanced to this See To this I will add the Sense of an Ingenious and Learned Friend of mine concerning this Passage in Harpsfield's History Which the Author also of the Athenae Oxonienses hath made use of to the good Arch-Bishop's Discredit and which Somner also had unluckily selected though without design to hurt his good Name and is all he writes of him But may it not be considered saith he that the pretended Martyr Thomas Becket though he died in vindication of the Privileges of the Church yet he was the first betrayer of the Rights of his See He made the greatest Breach upon the Authority of the Primacy of Canterbury by resigning the Arch-Bishoprick into the Pope's Hands and receiving it again from him as the Pope's Donation But it is the Honour of the blessed Martyr Thomas Cranmer that he was the first who began to claim the Primacy and retrieve the Rights of his See from being slavishly subjected to the Roman Power Indeed little credit is to be given to the Author who first published this Story considering what a Violent Man he was and how much prejudiced against Cranmer and interessed in the Popish Cause and coming into the Arch-Deaconry of Canterbury by the deprivation of the Arch-Bishop's Brother Cranmer Noluit Episcopari had no mind to be Arch-Bishop He loved his Studies and affected Retirement and well knew the Dangers and Temptations of a publick Station But especially he could not induce his Mind to take his Office from the Pope and to swear Fidelity to him as well as to the King whereby he should ensnare himself in two contrary Oaths Wherefore when the King sent for him home from his Embassy in Germany with a design to lay that honourable Burden upon him he guessing the Reason first endeavoured to delay his coming by signifying to the King some Matters of Importance that would require his tarrying there somewhat longer for the King's Service Hoping in that while the King might have bestowed the Place upon some other In fine our Historians say he stayed abroad one half Year longer But I find him in England in the Month of November which was not much more than a quarter of a Year after Warham's Death Then the King was married to the Marchioness of Pembroke and Cranmer was present So that the King must have sent for him home in Iune two or three Months before the Arch-Bishop's Death probably while he was in a declining dying Condition But after when that which Cranmer seemed to suspect of certain Emergences in those parts wherein the English State might be concerned fell not out the King again commanded his return Home Now more perfectly knowing by some of his Friends the King's Intentions to make him Arch-Bishop he made means by divers of his Friends to shift it off desiring rather some smaller Living At length the King brake his Mind to him that it was his full Purpose to bestow that Dignity upon him for his Service and for the good Opinion he conceived of him But his long disabling himself nothing disswaded the King till at last he humbly craved the King's Pardon for that he should declare to him and that was That if he should accept it he must receive it at the Pope's Hand which he neither would nor could do for that his Highness was the only Supream Governour of the Church of England as well in Causes Ecclesiastical as Temporal and that the full Right of Donation of all manner of Benefices and Bishopricks as well as any other temporal Dignities and Promotions appertained to him and not to any other Foreign Authority And therefore if he might serve God him and his Countrey in that Vocation he would accept it of his Majesty and of no Stranger
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
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
Apostles of Iesus Christ. And wished heartily that the Christian Conversation of the People were the Letters and Seals of their Offices as the Corinthians were to St. Paul who told them that They were his Letters and the Signs of his Apostleship and not Paper Parchment Lead or Wax Great indeed and painful was his Diligence in promoting God's Truth and reforming this Church Insomuch that he raised up against himself the Malice and Hatred of very many thereby These Memorials before related do abundantly evince the same The Words of Thomas Becon in an Epistle Dedicatory deserve here to be transcribed In plucking up the Enemies Tares and in purging the Lord's Field that nothing may grow therein but pure Wheat your most godly and unrestful Pains most Reverend Father are well known in this Church of England and thankfully accepted of all faithful Christen Hearts Insomuch that very many do daily render unto God most humble and hearty Thanks for the singular and great Benefits which they have received of him through your vertuous Travel in attaining the true Knowledg of Justification and of the Sacrament of Christ's Body and Blood those two things especially he laboured to retrieve and promote a true Knowledg of and such other Holy Mysteries of our Profession And albeit the Devil roar the World rage and the Hypocrites swell at these your most Christian Labours which you willingly take for the Glory of God and the Edifying of his Congregation yet as you have godly begun so without ceasing continue unto the end And so he did to the effusion of his Blood not many Years after For he was very sensible of the gross Abuses and Corruptions into which the Christian Church had sunk Which made him labour much to get it purged and restored to its Primitive Constitution and Beauty And this he ceased not to make King Henry sensible of putting him upon the Reformation of the English Church as he could find Occasion and Convenience serve him to move him thereunto Which found at last that good effect upon the King that towards the latter Years of his Reign he was fully purposed to proceed to a regulating of many more things than he had done But the subtilty of Gardiner Bp of Winton and his own Death prevented his good Designs While the aforesaid Bishop was Ambassador Abroad employed about the League between the Emperor and the English and French Kings our Arch-bishop took the opportunity of his Absence to urge the King much to a Reformation and the King was willing to enter into serious Conference with him about it And at last he prevailed with the King to resolve to have the Roods in every Church pulled down and the accustomed Ringing on Alhallow-Night suppress'd and some other vain Ceremonies And it proceeded so far that upon the Arch-bishop's going into Kent to visit his Diocess the King ordered him to cause two Letters to be drawn up prepared for him to sign The one to be directed to the Arch-bishop of Canterbury and the other to the Arch-bishop of York Who were therein to be commanded to issue forth their Precepts to all the Bishops in their respective Provinces to see those Enormities redressed without delay Which our Arch-bishop accordingly appointed his Secretary to do And the Letters so drawn up were sent by the Arch-bishop up to Court But the King upon some Reasons of State suggested to him in a Letter from Gardiner his Ambassador beyond Sea being by some made privy to these Transactions suspended the signing of them And that put a stop to this Business for that time till some time after the King at the Royal Banquet made for Annebault the French King's Ambassador leaning upon him and the Arch-bishop told them both his Resolution of proceeding to a total Reformation of Religion signifying that within half a Year the Mass both in his Kingdom and in that of France should be changed into a Communion and the usurped Power of the Bishop of Rome should be wholly rooted out of both and that both Kings intended to exhort the Emperor to do the same in his Territories or else they would break off the League with him And at that time also he willed the Arch-bishop to draw up a Form of this Reformation to be sent to the French King to consider of This he spake in the Month of August a few Months before his Death This his Purpose he also signified to Dr. Bruno Ambassador here from Iohn Frederick Duke of Saxony some little time after saying That if his Master's Quarrel with the Emperor was only concerning Religion he advised him to stand to it strongly and he would take his part But the King's Death prevented all And as for this King 's next Successor King Edward the Arch-bishop had a special Care of his Education Whose Towardliness and zealous Inclination to a Reformation was attributed to the said Arch-bishop and three other Bishops viz. Ridley Hoper and Latimer by Rodulph Gualter of Zurick Who partly by his living sometime in England and partly by his long and intimate Familiarity and Correspondence with many of the best Note here was well acquainted with the Matters relating to this Kingdom Of the great Influence of one of these upon this King viz. the Arch-bishop the former Memorials do sufficiently shew CHAP. XXXIII Arch-bishop Cranmer procures the Use of the Scriptures THE Arch-bishop was a great Scripturist and in those darker Times of Popery was the chief Repairer of the Reputation of the Holy Scriptures Urging them still for the great Standard and Measure in all controverted Matters relating to Religion and the Church By these he disintangled King Henry VIII his great Matrimonial Cause when all his other Divines who had the Pope's Power and Laws too much in their Eyes were so puzzled about it Shewing how no Humane Dispensation could enervate or annul the Word of God And in the Course he took about the Reforming of Religion the Holy Scripture was the only Rule he went by casting by School-men and the Pope's Canons and Decretals and adhering only to the more sure Word of Prophecy and Divine Inspiration And so Roger Ascham in a Letter to Sturmius in the Year 1550 when they were very busy in the Reformation writes Thaâ—â—uch was the Care of their Iosiah meaning King Edward the Arch-bishop of Canterbury and the whole Privy-Council for true Religion that they laboured in nothing more than that as well the Doctrine as Discipline of Religion might be most purely drawn out of the Fountain of the Sacred Scriptures and that that Roman Sink whence so many Humane Corruptions abounded in the Church of Christ might be wholly stopped up This his high Value of the Scriptures made him at last the happy Instrument of restoring them to the Common People by getting them after divers Years opposition printed in the English Tongue and set up in Churches for any to read that would for
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
Chair tho with as much Reluctancy in You as was in Him Of Your GRACE'S Endowments to qualify You for this most Eminent Station I will be wholly silent knowing how abhorrent Your Generous Nature is from Reading or Hearing Your Own Commendations Nor MY LORD is this my End in this my Dedication But this it is That You would so far Encourage these my Weak and Imperfect Labours done out of a Good Intent as to cast a Favourable Eye upon them for the sake of Your Glorious Predecessor the Subject of this Book and to repute me among the Number May it please Your GRACE Of Your most Humble and most Obedient Servants JOHN STRYPE THE PREFACE I Think it fit by way of Preface to these Memorials to admonish the Reader of a few things preparatory to the Perusal thereof As What it was put me at first upon making these Collections concerning Archbishop Cranmer and the State of the Church in his time What induced me to make them Publick And What Credit may be given to them with some other occasional matters I. As to the first I have been for a long time not a little addicted to read whatsoever I could of the Reformation of this famous Church that I might truly understand for what Reasons it was at first attempted in what Methods it proceeded by what Men it was chiefly managed and carried on and how it stood in truth as to its Doctrine Discipline and Government Reputation Learning Piety and such like in its first Establishment and the Earlier Times of it For which purpose I did not only read over what we have in Print of these Matters but for more satisfaction I was carried on to look into MSS. whether Registers Records Letters Instruments and such like A great sort of which by Providence fell into my hands And besides them I have turned over many more in Libraries and elsewhere from whence I made Transcriptions Extracts and Collections for my own use and satisfaction which swelled to no little bulk And while I was doing this I took always a more curious View into the Lives Manners and Doings Learning Virtues and Abilities of the chief leading men whether Archbishops and Bishops or other Church-men of whom we have but little Account extant tho many of them very Great and Good men little more remaining of some of them than their Names The Reverence I bore in my mind to Archbishop Cranmer the Father of the Reformation here in England and the first of that Ancient Metropolitan See that so bravely shook off the Pope and his Appendages inclined me especially to gather up what Notices I could of him Afterwards as my leisure served me out of my indigested Mass of Notes I compiled into some order Memorials of him and of the Affairs of the Church during his Primacy in which he for the most part was concerned and bore a great share with K. Henry and the Lord Cromwel his Vicegerent in Spirituals After some Years these Memorials lying by me I enlarged considerably and digested them into Annals and had thoughts of making them Publick being excited and encouraged thereunto by my Friends who were privy to these my Doings II. And indeed many Considerations induced me hereunto As in general the great Benefit of reading Histories of former Times which what that is take in the Words of Iohn Fox For the things which be first are to be preferred before those which be later And then is the reading of Histories much necessary in the Church to know what went before and what followed after And therefore not without cause History in old Authors is called The Witness of Times the Light of Verity the Life of Memory the Teacher of Life and Shewer of Antiquity Without the knowledge whereof man's Life is blind and soon may fall into any kind of Error as by manifest experience we have to see in these desolate later Times of the Church whenas the Bishops of Rome under colour of Antiquity have turned Truth into Heresy and brought in such new-found Devices of strange Doctrine and Religion as in the former Ages of the Church were never heard of And all through Ignorance of Times and for lack of True History And therefore the Use of History being so considerable Historians in some Kingdoms have been maintained by Publick Encouragement And so the Writer of the Epistle to K. Edward before Erasmus's Paraphrase Englished propounded once to that King That there should be a Publick Salary allotted to some able Persons to Translate good Books and to Write Chronicles for bestowing so great a Benefit on the Commonwealth But particularly the History of the Church and matters relating to Religion have a more special benefit as being conversant about Spiritual things which are weightier by far and concern us more a great deal than Temporal But the more is the pity in this sort of History there is a greater Defect than in the other I speak of our own Nation for tho the History of the State in the last Age was excellently done by the Pens of the Lord Herbert and Mr. Cambden yet the Matters of the Church they professedly declined or did but touch at the former saying expresly His intention was not in an History to discuss Theological Matters as holding it sufficient to have pointed at the places where they are controverted And the latter in his History as often as he came to matters of the Church tells us That he left his Readers to the Ecclesiastical Historian Which hath made me wonder at and apt to accuse the Slothfulness of that Age that during all the time of K. Henry K. Edward and Q. Mary wherein Religion was so tossed about and took up so much of those Reigns there is no one Ecclesiastical History thereof written except that of the diligent and learned Mr. Fox and during the long Reign of Q. Elizabeth and K. Iames I think none at all Till of late years when by length of time and destruction of many Original MSS. by the Civil Wars divers remarkable Transactions were buried and lost some few Learned Men employed themselves in Collecting and Publishing what Memorials of Religion and the Church they could retrieve as namely Dr. Fuller Dr. Heylin and especially Dr. Burnet now the Right Reverend Bishop of Sarum to whom the English Church must be ever beholden for his great and happy Pains contributed hereunto But yet there be good Gleanings after these Writers and many things of remark there are relating to the Church in those Three busie Reigns of Henry Edward and Mary whereof these Historians are either wholly silent or speak imperfectly or erroneously Some whereof in my Searches I have met with which I have disposed in these Memorials But besides the General Benefit of History especially Ecclesiastical this Particular History now recommended unto the English Nation may produce this good effect To make us value and esteem as we ought our Reformed Religion when we see by
vented Asheton's Recantation Other Errors still Ioan Bocher's Heresy Latimer's Censure of her George Van Paris CHAP. IX The Archbishop visits The Archbishop visits his Diocess His Articles for the Clergy and for the Laity An exchange made between the Archbishop and the L. Windsor Farrar Bishop of S. Davids Consecrated Some account of this Bishop The Archbishop sway'd by Farrar's Enemies CHAP. X. The Archbishop answers the Rebels Articles Rebellion in Devon The Archbishop answers the Rebels Articles Some account thereof Crispin Moreman Cardinal Pole The Archbishop procures Sermons to be made against the Rebellion Peter Martyr's Sermon upon this occasion The French take occasion at this Rebellion Bucer's Discourse against the Sedition The Archbishop's Prayer composed for this occasion CHAP. XI Bishop Boner deprived The Archbishop deprives Boner Discourse between the Archbishop and him concerning his Book and concerning the Sacrament Chargeth the Archbishop concerning the Preachers he allowed The Archbishop's Answer to Boner's Declaration Papists insist upon the Invalidity of the Laws made in the King's Minority An Ordination of Priests and Deacons The Office of Ordination reformed The Archbishop visits some vacant Churches S. Davids Glocester Norwich London A new Dean of the Arches CHAP. XII Duke of Somerset's Troubles The Common-Prayer ratified The Archbishop writes to the Lords at Ely-House Their Answer The Archbishop gets the Common-Prayer-Book confirmed CHAP. XIII The Archbishop entertains learned Foreigners The Archbishop harbours Learned Strangers Bucer writes in the Archbishop's Family The Archbishop's Guests Martyr dedicates his Lectures at Oxon to the Archbishop The Archbishop writes to Bucer to come over Bucer and Fagius Professors at Cambridge Fagius dies The Archbishop sends Money to Fagius's Widow Bucer laments his Loss CHAP. XIV Peter Martyr disputes in Oxford being challenged thereunto Peter Martyr challenged publickly to a Disputation His Answer hereunto Declines it at present and why They agree upon the Conditions of a Disputation They Dispute Martyr sends the Sum of the Disputation to the Archbishop The Disputation published by Martyr And by Tresham Smith writes to the Archbishop from Scotland Disputations at Cambridge before the Commissioners Bucer disputes His Judgment of the Sacrament CHAP. XV. Matters of the Church and its State now Relicks of Popery remaining The Council gives Orders to the Justices And writes to the Bishops Neglect in London Adulteries frequent Books dispersed by Protestants Preaching against Lenâ— Gardiner's Judgment of a Rhime against Lent Latimer counsels the King about Marriage Foreign Protestants their Offer to K. Edward CHAP. XVI Ridley made Bishop of London The Communion-Book reviewed Ridley made Bishop of London Rochester vacant Bucer writes to Dorset not to spoil the Church The Common-Prayer-Book reviewed Bucer and Martyr employed in it CHAP. XVII Hoper's Troubles Hoper nominated for Bishop of Glocester He and Ridley confer about the Habits The Archbishop writes to Bucer for his Judgment in this matter The Questions Martyr writes to Hoper Hoper's Two Objections Considered Another Objection of Hoper considered Other things urged by him Hoper confined to his House and Silenced Committed to the Archbishop's Custody Sent to the Fleet. Hoper Conforms Martyr to Gualter concerning Hoper's Conformity CHAP. XVIII Bishop Hoper visits his Diocess Hoper visits his Diocess His Articles of Religion His Injunctions and Interrogatories Holds Worcester in Commendam And visits that Church and See Goes over both hâ—â— Diocesses again The Councels Order concerning the two Canons License for the Bishop of Glocester to attend upon the Dutchess of Somerset in the Tower Other matters relating to this Bishop CHAP. XIX Troubles of Bishop Gardiner Divers great Lords repair to Gardiner The Council's proceedings with him Articles propounded to him to subscribe Winchester sequestred for three months The Sequestration expires The Commissioners sit to examine him A Letter of some Noblemen whom he had bely'd Gardiner offers his Book against Cranmer to the Commissioners He is deprived The Council's Order for his strait Confinement Poynet made Bishop of Winton CHAP. XX. Bishop Hethe and Bishop Day their Deprivations Other Popish Bishops dealt with Bishop Hethe's Troubles Sent for before the Council Day Bishop of Chichester his Troubles Bishop Day will not pull down Altars Appears before the Council The Archbishop and Bishop of Ely reason with him The Council give him time to confer Before the Council again Before the Council the third time And the fourth time when he was sent to the Fleet. Commissioners appointed for Worcester and Chichester They are deprived Placed the one with the L. Chancellor and the other with the Bishop of London Day writes to Kings-College for leaving off Masses His unnatural Carriage towards his Brother Preaches against Transubstantiation His Change charged on him CHAP. XXI Papists grow bold Loose Professors restrained The Papists write Libels Several Papists now taken up Chedsey Morgan Sir Ant. Brown White Other Professors restrained CHAP. XXII Foreigners allowed a Church A Lasco The Archbishop's care of the Souls of Strangers residing here The Dutch Congregation under Iohn a Lasco The occasion of his coming into England His business here From Embden he wrote to the Archbishop And to Cecyl The sad condition of the Protestants there Latimer mentions A Lasco to the King Contest among A Lasco's people The care of A Lasco over his Church and its Privileges Favourably received by the L. Chancellor Goodrich Labours with the Secretary to procure Letters from the Council in behalf of his Church The extent of his Superintendency Melancâ—hon thought to shelter himself under him His great Abilities for Government Erasmus's Praise of him Purchased Erasmus's Library A Lasco a married man His Influence in the Reformation under Q. Elizabeth Blamed for medling in our Controversies A Church of Italians constituted in London Michael Angelo their Minister The Service the Archbishop did for this Church And for the Minister Divers of this Church fall out with their Minister and go to Mass again A Conjecture at the Cause thereof Their Minister sends their Names to the Secretary and accuses them The Morals of this man tainted Writes a Penitent Letter to the Secretary A French Church also in London CHAP. XXIII The Church at Glastenbury Another Church of Strangers at Glastenbury Their Trade Weaving Valerandus Pollanus their Preacher and Superintendent How they came to fix here Conditions of Trade between them and Somerset Their Trade obstructed by the Troubles of Somerset Apply themselves again to the Council and to the Secretary Cecyl The Council become their Patrons and assist them Orders from the Lords to set this Manufacture forwards Pollanus very serviceable to them An Apology for the largeness of the former relation After the King's Death they remove to Frankford Prove Friends to the English Exiles there A Spanish Church Cassiodorus and Corranus their Preachers Many of K. Philip's Spaniards become Protestants Great Numbers of Protestants in Spain and Italy
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
't is said from the Arch-bishop Therefore the King prest by some of the Papists about him who began now after Lambert's Death to listen to them set forth a Proclamation Novemb. 16. for the stopping of such Matrimonies Which ran in this Tenor. That the King's Majesty understanding that a few in number of this his Realm being Priests as well Religious as other had taken Wives and married themselves c. His Highness in no wise minding that the generality of the Clergy of this his Realm should with the Example of such a few number of light Persons proceed to Marriage without a common Consent of his Highness and his Realm Did therefore streightly charge and command as well all and singular the said Priests as have attempted Marriages that be openly known as all such as would presumptuously proceed to the same that they ne any of them should minister any Sacrament or other Ministry Mystical Ne have any Office Dignity Cure Privilege Profit or Commodity heretofore accustomed and belonging to the Clergy of this Realm but should be utterly after such Marriages expelled and deprived from the same and be had and reputed as Lay-persons to all intents and purposes And that such as should after this Proclamation contrary to his Commandment of their presumptuous Mind take Wives and be married should run in his Grace's Indignation and suffer further Punishment and Imprisonment at his Grace's Will and Pleasure Dat. xvi Novembris Anno Regni sui xxx Wherein we may observe what a particular regard the King had for the Arch-bishop in relation to his Wife that the danger of the Proclamation might not reach him by limiting the Penalty not to such as were married and kept their Wives secretly but to such as should marry hereafter and such as kept them openly And we may observe further that it seemed to be in the King's Mind in due time to tolerate Marriages to Priests by Act of Parliament which that Clause seems to import that these Priests had married themselves without a common Consent of his Highness and his Realm And Bishop Ponet or whoever else was the Author of the Defence of Priests Marriage assures us that the King intended to permit Priests to take Wives knowing how necessary it was to grant that Liberty and he affirms that it was not unknown to divers that heard him speak oft of that Matter But was hindred by some jealous Councellors that pretended how ill the People would take it had it been done by his Authority The Sect of Anabaptists did now begin to pester this Church and would openly dispute their Principles in Taverns and publick places and some of them were taken up Many also of their Books were brought in and printed here also which was the cause that the King now set out a severe Proclamation against them and their Books To which he joined the Sacramentaries as lately with the other come into the Land Declaring That he abhorred and detested their Errors and that those that were apprehended he would make Examples Ordering that they should be detected and brought before the King or his Council and that all that were not should in eight or ten days depart the Kingdom This Proclamation may be read in the Appendix Num. VIII Where I have misplaced it A Commission also was then given out to the Arch-bishop to Iohn Bishop of Lincoln Rich. Bishop of Chichester and others against this Sect. Which Commission was signed at the bottom by Thomas Crumwel It was observed that the Parsons Vicars and Curates did read confusedly the Word of God and the King's Injunctions lately set forth and commanded by them to be read humming and hauking thereat that almost no Man could understand the meaning of the Injunction And they secretly suborned certain spreaders of Rumors and false Tales in Corners who interpreted the Injunctions to a false sense And because there was an Order that all Christnings Marriages and Burials should be registred from time to time and the Books surely kept in the Parish Churches they blew abroad that the King intended to make new Exactions at all Christnings Weddings and Burials adding that therein the King went about to take away the Liberties of the Realm for which they said Thomas a Becket died And they bad their Parishioners notwithstanding what they read being compelled so to do that they should do as they did in Times past to live as their Fathers and that the old Fashion is the best and other crafty and seditious Parables they gave out among them This forced the King to write his Letters to the Justices of Peace to take up such seditious Parsons Vicars and Curates And in these Letters is explained the true Reason of Thomas a Beckeâ—'s Contention with K. Henry II. As that he contended that none of the Clergy offending should be called to account or corrected but in the Bishop's Courts only and not by the Laws of the Realm and that no King should be Crowned but by the Arch-bishop of Canterbury only The Church of Hereford being now become vacant by the Death of Fox an excellent Instrument of the Reformation the Archbishop committed the custody of the Spiritualities to Hugh Coren Doctor of Canon Laws and Prebendary of that Church and by him visited the Church and Diocess and gave certain Injunctions to the Parsons Vicars and other Curats there These Injunctions as I find them in Cranmer's Register were eight in number Which I shall not here insert at large because they may be met with in the History of the Reformation But in short they enjoined the Observation of the King's Injunctions given by his Majesty's Commissaries in the Year 1536. They enjoined that they should have by the first of August a whole Bible in Latin and English or at least a New Testament in the same Languages That they should every day study one Chapter of the Bible or Testament conferring the Latin and English together and to begin at the beginning of the Book and so continue to the End That they should not discourage any Lay-men from reading the Bible but encourage them to it And to read it for the Reformation of their Lives and Knowledg of their Duty and not to be bold and presumptuous in judging of things before they have perfect Knowledg That they should both in their Preachings and Confessions and in other their Doings excite their Parishioners unto such Works as are commanded by God expresly Adding that for this God should demand of them a strict Reckoning And to teach them that other Works which they do of their own Devotion are not to be so highly esteemed as the other And that for the not doing them God will not ask any Account That no Friar have any Cure or Service in their Churches unless he were dispensed withal and licensed by the Ordinary That they admit no young Person to the Sacrament who never received it before unless such
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
Irenicum published by him from a Manuscript Volume once belonging to Arch-bishop Cranmer In this Convocation the Arch-bishop bore the great Sway and what things were agitated herein were chiefly by his Motion and Direction Some whereof were turned into Laws by the Parliament that was now sitting through his Activeness and Influence As particularly that Repeal of the Statute of the Six Articles and of some other severe Laws decreeing divers things Treason and Felony made in the former King's Reign For when the Arch-bishop in the Convocation had made a Speech to the Clergy exhorting them to give themselves to the study of the Scriptures and to consider what Things in the Church needed Reformation that so the Church might be discharged of all Popish Trash not yet thrown out Some told him that as long as the Six Articles remained it was not safe for them to deliver their Opinions This he reported to the Council Upon which they ordered this Act of Repeal By his means also another great thing moved in the Convocation was now ratified and made a Law by this Parliament which was for the Administration of the Communion under both Kinds throughout the Kingdom of England and Ireland And upon this the King appointed certain Grave and Learned Bishops and others to assemble at Windsor-Castle there to treat and confer together and to conclude upon and set forth one perfect and uniform Order of Communion according to the Rules of Scripture and the Use of the Primitive Church And this being framed it was enjoined to be used throughout the Realm by a Proclamation and all required to receive it with due Reverence I meet with a Writing of the Arch-bishop without Date consisting of Queries concerning the Mass in order to the abolishing it and changing it into a Communion Which I know not where so well to place as here now the Convocation was employed upon this Matter For it seems to have been drawn up by the Arch-bishop on purpose to be laid before the Consideration of this House The Queries were these What or wherein Iohn Fasting giving Alms being Baptized or receiving the Sacrament of the Altar in England doth profit and avail Thomas dwelling in Italy and not knowing what Iohn in England doth Whether it profit them that be in Heaven and wherein Whether it lieth in the Faster Giver of Alms Receiver of the Sacrament him that is Baptized to defraud any Member of Christ's Body of the Benefit of Fasting Alms-Deeds Baptism or Receiving of the Sacrament and to apply the same Benefit to one Person more than to another What thing is the Presentation of the Body and Blood of Christ in the Mass which you call the Oblation and Sacrifice of Christ And wherein standeth it in Act Gesture or Word and in what Act Gesture or Word Is there any Rite or Prayer and expressed in the Scripture which Christ used or commanded at the first Institution of the Mass which we be now bound to use and what the same be Whether in the Primitive Church there were any Priests that lived by saying of Mass Mattens and Even-song and praying for Souls only And where any such State of Priesthood be allowed in the Scriptures or be meet to be allowed now For what Cause were it not expedient nor convenient to have the whole Mass in the English Tongue Wherein consisteth the Mass by Christ's Institution What Time the accustomed Order began first in the Church that the Priests alone should receive the Sacrament Whether it be convenient that the same Custom continue still within this Realm Whether it be convenient that Masses Satisfactory should continue that is to say Priests hired to sing for Souls departed Whether the Gospel ought to be taught at the Time of the Mass to the understanding of the People being present Whether in the Mass it were convenient to use such Speech as the People may understand To proceed to some other Things wherein our Arch-bishop was this Year concerned In Iune the Church of S. Pauls was hanged with Black and a sumptuous Hearse set up in the Choire and a Dirige there sung for the French King who deceased the March precedent And on the next Day the Arch-bishop assisted with eight Bishops more all in rich Mitres and their other Pontificals did sing a Mass of Requiem and the Bishop of Rochester preached a Funeral Sermon A nice Matter was now put by the Council to the Arch-bishop having some other Bishops and Learned Men joined with him to the Number of Ten. The Case was Whether a Man divorced from his Wife for her Adultery might not lawfully marry again This was propounded upon the Account of a great Man in those Times namely the Brother of Queen Katherine Par Marquess of Northampton who had gotten a Divorce from his Wife the Daughter of Bourchier Earl of Essex for Adultery The Canon Law would not allow marrying again upon a Divorce making Divorce to be only a Separation from Bed and Board and not a Dissolving the Knot of Marriage This was a great Question depending among the Civilians And it being committed to the Determination of our Arch-bishop and some other Delegates tho the Marquess staid not for their Resolution but in this Interval married Elizabeth Daughter of the Lord Brook he searched so diligently into the Scriptures first and then into the Opinions of Fathers and Doctors that his Collections swelled into a Volume yet remaining in the Hands of a Learned Bishop of this Realm The Sum whereof is digested by the Bishop of Saâ—â—m Cranmer seemed to allow of Marriage in the Innocent Person He was a Means also to the Council of forbidding Processions Wherein the People carried Candles on Candlemass-day Ashes on Ash-wednesday Palms on Palm-sunday because he saw they were used so much to Superstition and looked like Festivals to the Heathen Gods So that this Year on Candlemass-day the old Custom of bearing Candles in the Church and on Ash-wednesday following giving Ashes in the Church was left off through the whole City of London He was a Member of a Committee this Winter appointed to examine all the Offices of the Church and to consider where they needed Reformation and accordingly to reform them Of this Commission were most of the Bishops and several others of the most Learned Divines in the Nation And a new Office for the Communion was by them prepared and by Authority set forth as was observed before and received all over England CHAP. V. The Arch-bishop's Catechism THIS Year the Arch-bishop put forth a very useful Catechism intituled A short Instruction to Christian Religion for the singular Profit of Children and young People This Catechism went not by way of Question and Answer but contained an easy Exposition of the Ten Commandments the Creed the Lord's Prayer and the two Sacraments The first and second Commandments were put together as one and the whole recital
of Superstition flowed in such a plentiful measure from the Egyptians as might easily be proved and thence derived themselves first to the Greeks then to the Romans and afterwards to our Times through that Sink of Popery that that single worthy Counsel and Remedy of those most Learned Men enjoined for the enlarging and spreading of Learning should be debarred us to follow and that by such as were either unlearned themselves or superstitious Men Whereby the best Wits received so great Prejudice and Dammage That none knew better than his Lordship whence this Custom arose by whom cherished and by what kind of Men brought down to us And lastly how unwholsome and unfit all eating of Flesh was in the Spring-time And that he might obtain this Favour he would use it without giving Offence or making any common Speech of it with Quietness and Silence with Abstinence and Thanksgiving This Letter he got his Friend Poinet the Arch-bishop's Chaplain the same I suppose who after was Bishop of Winchester to put into his Grace's Hand and to further his Request what he could The Issue whereof was to his Heart's desire For though the Arch-bishop knew him not nor was easily drawn to dispence with the Church's Ancient Discipline and Rites yet he received his Suit with all Humanity and such he found to be the Modesty and Ingenuity of the Man and what he requested to be grounded upon such reasonable and just Causes that he readily yielded to it And whether he thought it out of his Power to grant a Licence of that Latitude to discharge a Person for all Time to come from the Obligation of keeping Lent or to avert the Censure he might incur if he should have done it by his own Authority or reckoning it a Matter of Law rather than Religion he put himself to the trouble of procuring the King's Licence under the Privy Seal for this Man And when he had done that considering an Academick's Poverty he released him of the whole Charges of taking it out paying all the Fees himself and so conveyed it to him by Dr. Tayler the Master of his College And indeed the Arch-bishop's Opinion concerning Lent made way for his more ready yielding to Ascham's Request For he held the keeping of Lent as founded in a Positive Law rather than as a Religious Duty and thought it necessary that so the People should be taught and instructed As appears by his Articles of Visitation in the second Year of King Edward One whereof ran thus That enquiry should be made whether the Curats had declared and to their Wit and Power had perswaded the People that the manner and kind of Fasting in Lent and other Days in the Year was but a meer positive Law And that therefore all Persons having just Cause of Sickness or other Necessity or being licensed by the King's Majesty may moderately eat all kind of Meat without grudg or scruple of Conscience The same Ascham knowing well how the Arch-bishop's Mind stood affected to Cambridg his old Nurse and how well he wish'd it for the sake of Religion acquainted him with the State of the University about the beginning of King Edward's Reign and the Course of the Studies that were then used That there were very many began to affect the Study of Divinity A new Study it seems then the Pope's Laws and the School-men having before employed the Heads of almost all That the Doctrines of Original Sin and Predestination were much canvased But many went rather according to Pighius highly applauding him than according to S. Augustin though he exceeded all others that either went before or followed after him for the excellency of his Wit and Learning and the greatness of his Industry and Opportunities That others among them made the reading of God's Word their daily Exercise And for the helping their Understandings in the sense of it they made use of and adhered to the Judgment of S. Augustin chiefly and studied hard the Tongues The Knowledg of Languages began to be affected And such as studied them were reckoned the best Masters as qualifying them best for teaching of others or understanding themselves That for Oratory they plied Plato and Aristotle from whose Fountains among the Greeks Loquens illa prudentia as he stiled Oratory that speaking Prudence might be fetched And to these among the Latins they added Cicero They conversed also in Herodotus Thucididâ—s and Xenophon the three Lights of Chronology Truth and Greek Eloquence and which brought a great Lustre to their other Studies The Greek Poets which they took delight in were Homer Sophocles and Euripides the one the Fountain the two others the Streams of all Eloquence and Learned Poetry Which they were of Opinion did more largely water their other Studies than Terence or Virgil which in some former Years were chiefly read Thus was the Method of University-Studies altered so much for the better from reading the Schoolmen and Metaphysical Niceties the Pope's Canons and Decretals to converse in politer and more manly Learning which tended so much to solid Knowledg and preparation of Mens Minds to the Entertainment of the Gospel The great setter on foot of this ingenuous Learning in the University was Sir Iohn Cheke of S. Iohn's College now preferred to be the King's Tutor a Person for whom the Arch-bishop had a very tender Love and affectionate Kindness For so Ascham writ to him in his former Letter That many had addicted themselves to this course of Study by the Aid and Conduct Example and Counsel of that excellent Man And that they bore the better his going from them to the Court who had brought them on in so good a Course because they knew their Disprofit was abundantly recompensed by the Profit and Safety that would accrue to the whole Common-wealth by him Applying that of Plato to him Plurimum Reip. interesse ut unus aliquis existat semper praestans excellensque Vir ad cujus virtutis imitationem caeteri voluntate industria studio spe erecti totos sese effingant accommodent Afterwards he acquainted the most Reverend Person to whom he wrote with those things which proved great Hindrances to the flourishing Estate of the University that by his Counsel and Authority if possible they might be redressed And they were two The one was That they wanted elderly Men very few such remaining among them by whose Example the younger Sort might be excited to study and by whose Authority the Manners of the rest might be rightly formed and fashioned The other Impediment was occasioned by such as were admitted Who were for the most part only the Sons of Rich Men and such as never intended to pursue their Studies to that degree as to arrive at any eminent Proficiency and Perfection in Learning but only the better to qualify themselves for some Places in the State by a slighter and more superficial Knowledg The Injury accruing thence to the University was double both
Cause So that now if we look back upon this first Year of the King we may perceive how busy and diligent our Arch-bishop was in redressing Abuses and restoring the Church to its true State of Christian Piety and Devotion by procuring a Royal Visitation over England for inspection into the Manners and Abilities of the Clergy and for taking away of Superstitions by getting a Book of plain Homilies to teach the common People in the composing whereof he himself had a very great hand and Erasmus his Paraphrase in English upon the New Testament for the better furnishing the Clergy and others with a sound and sober understanding of the Scriptures and by encouraging Preachers and such-like means So that if you would particularly know in what forwardness the ABp had already put Religion taking in his Endeavours in the last King's Reign hitherto I recommend to your reading his Homily or Sermon Of Good Works Shewing out of what abundance of Superstitions the Church was now emerged Briefly to pass over the Ungodly and Counterfeit Religion he means of Monks and Friars let us reherse some other kinds of Papistical Superstitions and Abuses as of Beads of Lady-Psalters and Rosaries of fifteen O's of S. Bernard's Verses of S. Agathe's Letters of Purgatory of Masses Satisfactory of Stations and Jubilees of fained Relicks or hallowed Beads Bells Bread Water Psalms Candles Fire and such other Of superstitious Fastings of Fraternities or Brotherhoods of Pardons with such-like Merchandize Which were so esteemed or abused to the great Prejudice of God's Glory and Commandments that they were made most high and most holy Things whereby to obtain to the everlasting Life or Remission of Sins Yea also vain Inventions unfruitful Ceremonies and ungodly Laws Decrees and Conceits of Rome wherein such were advanced that nothing was thought comparable in Authority Wisdom Learning and Godliness unto them So that the Laws of Rome as they said were to be received of all Men as the four Evangelists To the which all the Laws of Princes must give place And the Laws of God also partly were left off and less esteemed that the said Laws Decrees and Councils with their Traditions and Ceremonies might be more duly kept and had in greater Reverence Thus were the People through Ignorance so blinded with the godly Shew and Appearance of those things that they thought the keeping of them to be more Holiness more perfect Service and honouring of God and more pleasing to God than the keeping of God's Commandments Such have been the corrupt Inclinations of Man ever superstitiously given to make new honouring of God of his own Head and then to have more Affection and Devotion to keep that than to search out God's Holy Commandments and to keep them And furthermore to take God's Commandments for Man's Commandments and Man's Commandments for God's Commandments yea and for the highest and most perfect and holiest of all God's Commandments And so was all confused that scant well-learned Men and but a small number of them knew or at the least would know and durst affirm the Truth to separate or sever God's Commandments from the Commandments of Men. Whereupon did grow such Error Superstition and Idolatry vain Religion overthwart Judgment great Contention with all ungodly Living A Bishop Consecrated September the 5 th being Sunday Nicolas Ridley D. D. Prebend of Canterbury was Consecrated Bishop of Rochester by Henry Bishop of Lincoln assisted by Iohn Suffragan of Bedford and Thomas Suffragan of Sidon in the Chappel belonging to the House of May Dean of S. Pauls He was Consecrated according to the old Custom of the Church by the Unction of holy Chrism as well as Imposition of Hands Present among others Iohn Whytwel the Arch-bishop's Almoner Rich. Tayler M. A. Nic. Bullingham Gregory Tod and Tho. Bernard his Chaplains CHAP. VIII The Church's Goods embezelled New Opinions broached AS the Reformation of Abuses in Religion went forward under such a King and such an Arch-bishop so there wanted not for Evils accompanying it as there do commonly the best Things the Profaneness of some and the Covetousness of others giving occasion thereunto Sacred Places set apart for Divine Worship were now greatly profaned and so probably had been before by ill Custom For in many Churches Cathedral as well as other and especially in London many Frays Quarrels Riots Blood-sheddings were committed They used also commonly to bring Horses and Mules into and through Churches and shooting off Hand-guns Making the same which were properly appointed to God's Service and Common-Prayer like a Stable or Common Inn or rather a Den or Sink of all Unchristiness as it was expressed in a Proclamation which the King set forth about this Time as I suppose for I am left to conjecture for the Date by reason of the Insolency of great Numbers using the said evil Demeanours and daily more and more encreasing Therein forbidding any such Quarrelling Shooting or bringing Horses and Mules into or through the Churches or by any other Means irreverently to use the Churches upon pain of his Majesty's Indignation and Imprisonment For it was not thought fit that when Divine Worship was now reforming the Places for the said Worship should remain unreformed Beside the profanation of Churches there prevailed now another Evil relating also to Churches viz. That the Utensils and Ornaments of these Sacred Places were spoiled embezelled and made away partly by the Church-wardens and partly by other Parishioners Whether the Cause were that they would do that themselves which they imagined would e're long be done by others viz. robbing the Churches Which it may be those that bore an Ill-will to the Reformation might give out to render it the more odious But certain it is that it now became more or less practised all the Nation over to sell or take away Chalices Crosses of Silver Bells and other Ornaments For the stopping of this in the Month of April the Protector and the Lords of the Council writ to our Arch-bishop this Letter upon the Information and Complaint as it is likely of the said Arch-bishop himself in whose Diocess especially this Sacrilege prevailed AFter our right hearty Commendations Whereas we are informed that the Church-wardens and Parochians of divers Parishes do alienate and sell away their Chalices Crosses of Silver Bells and other Ornaments of the Church Which were not given for that purpose to be alienated at their pleasure but either to be used to the Intent they were at first given or to some other necessary and convenient Service of the Church Therefore this is to will and require you immediately upon the sight hereof to give strait Charge and Commandment on the King's Majesty's behalf to every Parish-Church within your Diocess that they do in no wise sell give or otherwise alienate any Bells or other Ornaments or Jewels belonging unto their Parish-Church upon pain of his highest Displeasure as they will answer to the contrary at
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
Ely By the way one might enquire why he resorted not rather to his Friend and Patron the Arch-bishop of Canterbury But the reason may soon be guessed namely That after the Fall of Somerset the Arch-bishop's good Friend he came not so often to Court or transacted Business there unless sent for knowing his Interest likewise to be but little with the Duke of Northùmberland who now bare all the Sway and who had a jealous Eye of him as he had of all Somerset's Friends And so the Arch-bishop might have rather hindred than forwarded A Lasco's Business if he had appeared in it But this en passent The Chancellor gently received A Lasco and dismissing him sent him to Secretary Cecyl with this Message to get him to propound the Business the next Day in the Afternoon at the Council-Board when himself should be there promising him likewise that he would be assistant to him in procuring him a Warrant in Writing to be directed to all Ministers and Church-wardens of the Parishes of Southwark and S. Katharines that for the time to come the Strangers of this Congregation should receive no Molestation in that regard any more Accordingly A Lasco the next Morning sent one of the Elders of his Church to Cecyl with his Letter excusing himself that he came not being grievously afflicted with a Pain in his Head Therein he acquainted him with the Sum of his Conference with the Lord Chancellor adding that the obtaining such a Warrant would be necessary for them to produce and shew to such as at that present did annoy them and to be hereafter kept by the Church That they might not be forced at other times upon the like Occasions to create new trouble to the King's Council or himself in suing for new Warrants of that Nature Meaning hereby to put the Secretary upon drawing this up the more formally and substantially And so intreating him to hear what the Elder had to say and to dispatch him he took his leave This Letter also is inserted in the Appendix The Superintendency of A Lasco seemed to extend not only to this particular Congregation of Germans but over all the other Churches of Foreigners set up in London as also over their Schools of Learning and Education They were all subject to his Inspection and within his Jurisdiction And Melancthon in an Epistle to him in the Month of Septemb. 1551. speaks of the Purity of Doctrine in his Churches His Condition now as to worldly Circumstances began to be so good that he was able to relieve and succour such Learned Foreigners as should retire hither For when one Nicolas Forst a Learned and grave Man who had lived long in the University of Lovain and had spent some time with Melancthon was minded for the sake of Religion to convey himself into England he recommended him earnestly to the Superintendent as a Person fit to teach in his Churches and Schools and that he would friendly entertain him as an Exile for the same Cause himself was and find him some little Nest to remain in Nay and the said Melancthon himself had some thoughts of sheltering himself under A Lasco here as appears by the forementioned Letter wherein he stiles him his Patron For the Superscription of his Letter is thus Illustri Magnifico ac Reverendo Viro Nobilitate generis Virtute Sapientia praestanti Dn. Iohanni a Lasco Patrono suo colendo So much of Deference and Honour did Learned and Pious Men then use to give him In this Letter Melancthon told him that the Calamities of the Churches were great and that he himself expected Banishment and might probably in a short time arrive where he was And in respect of his hospitable reception of Strangers he told him that he believed he did often remember that saying of the exiled Queen Non ignara mali miseris succurrere disco Nor was A Lasco any ways unfurnished for this Spiritual Government being a Man of good Learning and of great Piety Strictness and Gravity from his younger Age and of whom the great Erasmus himself acknowledged that he learned much For in his Epistle to Iohannes a Lasco the Arch-bishop of Gnesne who was Namesake and Unckle to our Superintendent he speaks thus of his Nephew That he was but Young yet Grave beyond his Years and that he himself accounted it none of the least parts of his Happiness that he happened to have his Converse and Society for some Months praising the Endowments that God had given him And particularly concerning the Benefits he received by him he could not but confess Senex juvenis convictu factus sum melior ac sobrietatem temperantiam verecundiam linguae moderationem modestiam pudicitiam integritatem quam juvenis a sene discere debuerat a juvene senex didici That by the Conversation of that young Man he an old Man became better and that Sobriety Temperance Awfulness government of the Tongue Modesty Chastity Integrity which the Young ought to learn of the Old he an old Man had learned of a Young This he wrote in August 1527 soon after A Lasco was gone from him And in Iune the same Year while he resided with him in another Letter to Leonard Cox a Learned English Man he signified the great complacency he took in his Company Iohannis a Lasco tale sum expertus ingenium ut vel hoc uno amico mihi videar satis beatus That he had found A Lasco's Parts to be such that he seemed happy enough in his single Friendship And this good Understanding continued between them as long as Erasmus lived For A Lasco seems to have been with him in his last Sickness when as the last Token of Erasmus's esteem of him he made a purchase to him of his own Library that incomparable Treasure if we may believe the Author of his Life in English A Lasco thought not the Clergy obliged to Celibacy or single Life for he himself was a married Man Who his Wife was I know not but as for her Qualities she was in all probability a pious and discreet Woman whereby she gained a great share in his Affections He stiled her The other part of himself But in August 1552. God deprived him of her Which Stroke put him for some time under much sadness and indisposition both of Mind and Body as appears by one of his Letters He was alive at the Accession of Q. Elizabeth to the English Throne And though he came not back then to England again whence he departed upon K. Edward's Death yet according to that great Interest he had here with the most eminent Persons and even the Queen her self he neglected not by his Letters to promote the Reformation and to give his grave Counsel in order thereunto And Zanchy Publick Professor at Stratsburgh knowing the sway he bare here in a Letter to him in the Year 1558 or 59 excited him in these words Non
be a Prey Which he calls Malum sanè intolerabile And of the same thing and not long after viz. Iuly 1551. he admonished the Duke of Somerset in a French Letter all of his own hand-writing which because of the Antiquity of it and the Matter it treats of referring to our Church and not being among his printed Epistles I have added in the Appendix In which Letter he excites the Duke to take care that there might be fit and able Ministers fixed in Parishes to teach the People The want whereof he attributed to two Causes The one whereof he made to lie in the Universities and the other in the Matter that we are speaking of That the Revenue of the Cures was withdrawn and dispersed away So that there was nothing to maintain good Men who were fit to perform the Office of true Pastors And hence it came to pass that ignorant Priests were put in which made great Confusion For the Quality of the Persons begat great Contempt of God's Word Advising the Duke to endeavour to bring those that had these Spiritual Possessions to be willing to part with them in as much as they could not prosper in defrauding God's People of their Spiritual Food which they did by hindring the Churches of good Pastors Bucer the King's Divinity-Professor at Cambridg was this Year engaged in a publick Disputation as his Collegue Peter Martyr the King's Professor at Oxon had been there the last Before this Disputation happened Bucer communicated his Purpose to his said Collegue and Friend Who having sufficient experience of the vain-glorious Ends of the Papists in these kinds of Disputations and of their unfair Dealings advised him in a Letter not to engage in it but to decline it On which Letter Arch-bishop Parker into whose Hands it fell wrote this Inscription Ad Bucerum prudens Martyris consilium ut non det se in disputatione cum gloriosulis Thrasonibus But it seems he was too far engaged to avoid it with Reputation nor thought he fit to do it for the vindication and sake of Truth The Questions disputed of and his Antagonists were before mentioned It seems he came off with great Credit for his Friend Martyr in a Letter to him soon after it was over professed a great deal of gladness that his Disputations had that good Success and that it so well happened was by God's Providence Which he said he could scarce have believed to have been a thing possible without Visitors or other grave Judges since the Papists reckoned it enough for their Business only to dispute afterwards studiously dispersing their Lies to their own Advantage and the disparagement of those that disputed against them And therefore Martyr said he wondred not that Christ in the beginning confirmed the Disputations of his Apostles with Miracles MARTINUS BUCERUS S.S. Theologiae apaid Cantabrigienyes Profefsor Regius Natus Selestadij Anno MCCCCXCI Denatus MDLI. Bucer's Friends after they had taken care for giving him an honorable Funeral consulted the Supply of his Widow Wibrand Bucerin that she might be well gratified and presented with some Gratuities that might shew the Respect the Nation had for her learned Husband So the University wrote a Letter to the King and Council concerning Bucer's Death and their respectful Interment of him with the signification of their Desire that his Majesty would send them another able Professor in his room With this University-Letter Dr. Parker wrote another to Sir Iohn Cheke entreating him to present their Letter and that he would particularly speak to the Council and to the Arch-bishop of Canterbury to remember the Widow Sir Iohn Cheke March 9. wrote a Letter in answer to Dr. Parker's which I have placed in the Appendix He therein lamented the loss of this Man commended him for his Depth of Knowledg Earnestness in Religion Fartherliness in Life and Authority in Knowledg He added that the King would provide some grave Learned Man to maintain God's true Learning in that University though he thought in all Points they would not meet with Bucer's like He desired Parker that all Bucer's Books and Writings might be sent up and saved for the King's Majesty except Mrs. Bucer might turn them to better Account some other way These Books and Papers were apprized at one hundred Pounds But she received but fourscore Pounds of those that bought them Which she desired Parker and Haddon the Executors here in England to testify under their Hands that she might shew it to vindicate her Truth and Honesty not to have wronged the Heirs The Library was divided into three parts The King had the Manuscripts which was one part The Dutchess of Somerset I suppose had the greater part of the Books and the Arch-bishop of Canterbury had the remainder for which he for his share paid her forty Pounds The University gave her an hundred Crowns the King an hundred Marks more besides her Husband's half-year's Pension though he died before Lady-day when it came due He also allowed for such reasonable Repairs as Bucer had bestowed about the House wherein he lived And March 31. 1551. She had a Passage by Sea granted her with eight Persons in her Company She returned unto Strasburgh whither She retired by Mr. Rich. Hills Merchant the Sum of two hundred twenty six Pounds two Shillings From Strasburgh in February the next Year She wrote a Letter to the Executors wherein She acknowledged their Kindness to her praying God for them in respect of their singular Humanity and Benefits which they had shewed to her Husband and her self and especially when he was dead Miseram me said She in that Letter omnique solatio destitutam non deseruistis sed in vestram me tutelam benigne suscepistis omnia denique Christianae charitatis officia demonstrastis Bucer left a Son named Nathaniel and a Daughter named Elizabeth behind him at Strasburgh when he came into England Which I suppose were all the Children he left surviving him whom he had by a former Wife that died of the Plague there By her he had many more but they died before him As long as Bucer lived there was a dear Correspondence between him and P. Martyr while they were the one at Cambridg and the other at Oxford In the private Library at Benet-College there be still remaining divers Letters from Martyr to him One whereof was writ upon occasion of Bucer's communicating to him his Judgment of the Habits which he had composed for the use of Hoper Which Letter began thus S. P. Perlegi Vir Dei quae de Vestium discrimine doctè piéque scripsisti ac ex illis non mediocrem voluptatem cepi tum quia vera quae praedicas intelligebam tum quod per omnia consentiebant cum his quae ego Londinum ad Hopperum ipsum pridie ejus diei qua tuae mihi redderentur miseram So that hence it appears they were both unanimous for wearing of the Habits enjoined
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 is easy to see from whence this Author had this Character of our Arch-bishop namely from Parsons and Saunders two malicious calumniating Jesuits The former hath these words of him That to the King's Will and Liking he resolved to conform himself as well in Religion as in other things And that when King Henry was large towards the Protestants Cranmer was so also but when the King became more strict and rigorous especially after the Six Articles Cranmer was ready to prosecute the same And therefore Saunders framed a Name for the Arch-bishop calling him Henricianus in the same sense as Herod's Creatures in the Scriptures were called Herodiani A very false Character of this good Arch-bishop to say no worse of it I must here make a Note of one Quality more of our Archbishop Which was this That he was a Man of ardent Affections and of an open and generous Temper and where he loved he thought he could never enough express it An Instance of this I will give in Bishop Thirleby To whom for the good Qualities he supposed were in him he had a most earnest Love An Account of this I will lay down in the words of Morice the Arch-bishop's Secretary who well knew it Besides his special Favour to him saith he that way in recommending him to the King there was no Man living could more friendly esteem any Man of himself as my Lord Cranmer did this Thirleby For there was no kind of Pleasure which my Lord Cranmer was liable to do that was not at this Man's Commandment Whether it were Jewel Plate Instrument Map Horse or any thing else though he had it from the King's Majesty but if this Man did once like or commend it the gentle Arch-bishop would forthwith give it unto him And many times Dr. Thirleby for Civility-sake would instantly refuse the same yet would he send it unto him the next day after to his House Insomuch that it came into a common Proverb That Dr. Thirleby 's commendation of any Thing of my Lord's was a plain winning or obtaining thereof So that some Men thought that if he would have demanded any Finger or other Member of his he would have cut it off to have gratified him therewith such was his ardent Affection towards him This no small sort of honest Men now living can testify that is about the Year 1565 when this was written It may deserve also a Remark that our good Prelat rose upon the Fall of another great Church-man viz. the Cardinal of York For about that very Time the King rejected Wolsey from his Favour and Employment Cranmer succeeded into them It may be also observed That as the King 's great Matter of the Divorce was first moved and managed by Wolsey so it was taken up and vigorously carried on and successfully ended by Cranmer And as the former started it upon an unjust Policy and so in the Issue by God's secret Judgment prospered no better by it it finally proving his Ruin so the latter acting in it out of a better and more honest Principle of Conscience and Religion became thereby advanced to the greatest Honour in the Church Which he held for twenty Years together Though at last indeed it had the same fatal Issue to him by the secret Malice of Queen Mary as it had to the Cardinal before by the secret Displeasure of Queen Ann. But as they were thus parallel in the Cause of their Falls so their Demeanours under their Calamities were very different The Cardinal under his shewed a most abject and desponding Mind but our Arch-bishop's Carriage was much more decent under his remaining Undaunted and Magnanimous having a Soul well fortified by the Principles of solid Vertue and Religion which the other had not And this appeared in him when being brought forth to be baited before Brooks the Pope's Subdelegate and Martin and Story the King 's and Queen's Commissioners at Oxford he gravely and with an unmoved Spirit used these words That he acknowledged God's Goodness to him in all his Gifts and thanked him as heartily for that State wherein he found himself then as ever he did in the Time of his Prosperity and that it was not the loss of his Promotions that grieved him at all CHAP. XXXVII Osiander's and Peter Martyr's Character of the Arch-bishop THE last Thing I shall observe of him is That he always remained the same Man not altered by his Honours and high Advancements As he was a Person of great Piety Goodness Affability and Benignity before he was Arch-bishop and the Sun-shine of Royal Favour so he continued at all Times after For a Witness of this I will set down two Characters given him by two Foreign learned Men both which knew him well The one shall be of Osiander from whom we may take this Account of what he was before he was Bishop while he remained abroad in Germany Osiander that great Divine of Norinberg professed to love him for some excellent Endowments that were common to him with some other good Men but especially for others more extraordinary and peculiar to himself Of the former sort was That he was a Gentleman of good Birth and Quality that he had an Aspect and Presence that carried Dignity with it an incredible sweetness of Manners that he had Learning beyond the common Degrees of it was Benign and Liberal towards all and especially to those that were Studious and of good Literature Of the latter were those more abstruse and heroical Vertues of his Mind rare to be found in the Age wherein he lived viz. his Wisdom Prudence Fortitude Temperance Justice a singular Love towards his Country the highest Faithfulness towards the King a Contempt of earthly Things a Love of Heavenly a most burning study towards the Evangelick Truth sincere Religion and Christ's Glory And this was Cranmer before he was placed in his high and honourable Station The other Character of Cranmer is that of Peter Martyr who thus speaks of him when he was at the Top of all his earthly Honour in the middle of King Edward's Reign That his Godliness Prudence Faithfulness and his singular Vertues were known to all the Kingdom That he was so adorned with the Grace and Favour of Christ as that though all others are the Children of Wrath yet in him Piety and Divine Knowledg and other Vertues might seem to be naturally born and bred such deep Root had they taken in him So that Martyr often wished and professed he should esteem it as a great Benefit vouchsafed him of God that he might come as near as might be to his Vertues which he admired in him as the wonderful Gifts of God And as to himself and others fled into these Quarters for Religion that Cranmer's Kindness and Humanity Merits and Benefits towards them were such that if he should render just Thanks and speak of them as they deserved he must do nothing but tell of them and
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
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
away and give place unto Romish Decrees And then by your own Article you hold and condemn your selves to be Heretics How be you bewitched by these false Papists Why do you suffer them thus to abuse you by their subtilty to make you condemn your selves of Heresy Why do you not send them unto the Kings Majesty like errant Traitors as indeed they be Saying unto him Most mighty Prince and most drad Soveraign Lord we present here unto you most heinous Traitors against your Majesty and realm and greatest Dissemblers and falsest Deceivers of us your Simple and ignorant people and yet in our own hearts your true and faithful Subjects We have erred We have grievously offended your Majesty but by ignorance being so seduced and provoked by the crafty persuasions of these most hainous Traitors that we wist not what we did But pardon us Soveraign Lord have pity upon our Simplicity and ignorance and these abominable Traitors punish according to their deservings Have mercy most merciful Prince of us your poor flock which were ignorantly led out of the way and strike with the Swords those malicious guides that purposely would have led us to our utter destruction If you did thus then would you do the parts of true faithful and loyal Subjects and should declare to the world that al that you have hitherto done was done by error and ignorance And I would nothing doubt of the Kings Majestie his Clemency and Mercy towards you But yet to the intent that you may further know how unreasonable your first Article is I wil yet reherse another sort of the holy Lawes and Decrees One is That no Lay man may have a Benefice to farm Another is That none of the Clergy may give any thing to the relief of the commonweal and necessity of their own realm without the consent of the Bp. of Rome Another is That no Lay man may meddle with election or any other thing that pertaineth unto any of the Clergy Another is That none of the Clergy ought to give any oath of fidelity to their Princes except they have temporal lands of them Another is That Princes ought to obey the Bps and the Decrees of the Church and to submit their Heads unto their Bps and not to be judges over the Bps. Another is Whosoever offendeth the Liberties of the Church or doth break any Interdiction that cometh from Rome or conspireth against the Person or Estate of the Bp. or See of Rome or by any maner offendeth disobeyeth or rebelleth against the same Bp. or See or that killeth a Priest or offendeth personally against a Bp. or other Prelate or invadeth spoileth withholdeth or wasteth Lands belonging to the Church of Rome or to any other Church immediately subject unto Rome or whosoever invadeth any Pilgrims that go to Rome or any Suitors to the Court of Rome or that let the devolution of causes unto that Court or that put any new charges or impositions real or personal upon a Church or ecclesiastical person and generally All others that offend in the cases contained in the Bul which is usually published by the Bps. of Rome upon Maunday thursday Al these can be assoiled by no Priest Bp Archbp nor by none other but only by the Bp. of Rome or by his express Licence These with an infinite number of like sort be the godly and holy Decrees which you long so sore for and so much desire Now would I know whether you think that these decrees were made for the common wealth of al realmes or only for the private weal of the Bp. of Rome and of his Bps. and Clergy And whether you like and long for these laws or now at the hearing of them your longing is done If you like them Wel for my part I would you had them practised among you for a while so that the rest of the Realm were not troubled neither with you nor with your Decrees unles you repented your selves of your foolish demands I think within a year you would kneel on your knees to the Kings Majestie desiring him to take from your necks the yokes and halters which you had made for your selves But to conclude the sum of the first Article in few words It is nothing else but a clear subversion of the whole State and Lawes of this realm and to make this Realm to be whole governed by Romish Lawes and to crown the Idol and Antichrist of Rome king of this realm and to make our most undoubted and natural King his vile Subject and slave Oh! what was in your minds to ask such a thing and so presumptuously to say that you wil have it I trust there be not in you so much malice and devilishness as the Article containeth but that you were craftily subornate by subtil Papists to ask and demand you wist not what If you had asked that the Word of God might be duly observed and kept every where within this Realm And whosoever would gainsay Gods word to be holden as a Heretic If you had declared your selves to be godly men al that be godly would have commended and furthered your requests But forasmuch as you ask Romish Canons and Decrees to be observed and kept here in England and whosoever shal againsay them to be holdon as hereticks there is neither godly nor truly English man that will allow you or consent to your Articles But clean contrary to your Articles a great number of godly persons within this realm for the very love that they have to God that his Name may be glorified above al things be daily humble Suitors to the Kings Majesty that he following the steps of his Father wil study and travail to weed out of this his Realm al Popish Decrees Lawes and Canons and whatsoever else is contrary to Gods word and that the speakers against Gods word may be taken as they be indeed for Heretics And is any of you so far from reason that he thinketh the Kings Majesty ought to hearken to you that by force and stubbornness say you wil have Romish Laws and Decrees kept in this realm and to turn his ears from them that with al humility be suitors for Gods Word But now wil I come to your other Articles wherein I wil be brief forasmuch as in the first I have been long and tedious II. Your second Article is this WEE wil have the Law of our Soveraign Lord K. Henry VIII concerning the six Articles to be used again as in his time they were Letting pas your rude stile nothing becoming Subjects to say You wil have First I examine you of the cause of your wilful wil wherefore you wil have these six Articles which never were laws in no region but this nor in this realm also until the 31 st year of King Henry VIII And in some things so enforced by the evil Counsil of certain Papists against the truth and common judgment both of Divines and Lawyers that if the Kings Majesty himself
Or whether the footmen shall make them ready or set themselves in array or set upon the enemy or retyre to the standard Even so should the Priests be Gods trump in in his Church So that if he blow such a certain blast that the people may understand they be much edified therby But if he give such a sound as is to the people unknown it is clearly in vain saith S. Paul For he speakes to the air but no man is the better or edified therby Nor knoweth what he should do by that he heareth Furthermore in the same place S. Paul saith That if a man giveth thanks to God in a language to the people unknown how can they say Amen to that they understand not He doth wel in giving thanks to God but that nothing availeth or edifieth the people that know not what he saith And S Paul in one brief sentence concludeth his whole Disputation of that matter Saying I had rather have five words spoken in the Church to the instruction and edifying of the people then ten thousand in a language unknown that edifieth not And for this purpose alledgeth the Prophet Esay Who saith that God wil speak to his people in other tongues and in other languages Meaning therby that he would speak to every country in their own language So have the Greeks the Mass in the Greek tongue the Syrians in the Syry tongue the Armenians in their tongue and the Indians in their own tongue And be you so much addict to the Romish tongue which is the Latine tongue that you wil have your Mas in none other language but the Romish language Christ himself used among the Iews the Iews language and willed his Apostles to do the like in every country whersoever they came And be you such enemies to your own country that you wil not suffer us to laud God to thank him and to use his Sacraments in our own tongue but wil inforce us contrary as wel to al reason as to the word of God So many as be godly or have reason wil be satisfied with this But the mere Papists wil be satisfied with nothing Wherfore I wil no â—onger tary to satisfy them that never wil be satisfied but wil procede to the second part of this Article wherin you say that you wil have neither men nor women communicate with the Priest Alas good simple souls how be you blinded with the Papists How contrary be your Articles one to another You say in your first Article that you wil have al General Councels and Decrees observed and now you go from them your selves You say you wil have no body to communicate with the Priest Hear then what divers Canons Decrees and general Councels say clean against you There is one Decree which saith thus When the Consecration is done let al the people receive the Communion except they wil be put out of the Church And in the Canons of the Apostles in the eighth Chapter is contained That whensoever there is any Mas or Communion if any Bp. Priest Deacon or any other of the Clergy being there present do not communicate except he can shew some reasonable cause to the contrary he shal be put out of the Communion as one that giveth occasion to the people to think evil of the Ministers And in the ninth Chapter of the same Canons of the Apostles and in the General Council held at Antioch is thus written That al christen people that come into the Church and hear the holy Scriptures read and after wil not tarry to pray and to receive the holy Communion with the rest of the people but for some misordering of themselves wil abstain therfrom let them be put out of the Church until by humble knowledging of their fault and by the fruits of Penance and prayers they obtain pardon and forgivenes And the Councel Nicene also sheweth the order how men should sit in receiving the Communion and who should receive first Al these Decrees and general Councels utterly condemn your third Article wherein you wil That the Priest shal receive the Communion alone without any man or woman communicating with him And the whole Church of Christ also both Greeks and Latines many hundred years after Christ and the Apostles do al condemn this your Article Which ever received the Communion in flocks and numbers together and not the Priest alone And besides this the very words of the Mas as it is called shew plainly that it is ordained not only for the Priest but for others also to communicate with the Priest For in the very Canon which they so much extol and which is so holy that no man may know what it is and therfore is read so softly that no man can hear it in that same Canon I say is a prayer concerning this that not only the Priest but also as many beside as communicate with him may be fulfilled with grace and heavenly benediction How aggreeth this prayer with your Article wherein you say that neither man nor woman shal communicate with the priest In another place also of the said Canon the priest prayeth for himself and for al that receive the communion with him that it may be a preparation for them unto everlasting life Which prayer were but a very fond prayer and a very mocking with God if no body should communicate with the priest And the Communion concludes with two prayers in the name of the priest and them that communicate with him wherin they pray thus O Lord that thing which we have taken in our mouth let us take it also with pure minds that this Communion may purge us from our sins and make us partakers of heavenly remedy And besides al this there be an infinite sort of postcommons in the Mas-books Which al do evidently shew that in the Masses the people did communicate with the priest And altho I would exhort every good christen man often to receive the holy Communion yet I do not recite al these things to the intent that I would in this corrupt world when men live so ungodly as they do that the old Canons should be restored again which command every man present to receive the Communion with the priest Which Canons if they were now used I fear that many would receive it unworthily But I speak them to condemn your Articles which would have no body neither man nor woman to be communicated with the priest Which your Article condemneth the old Decrees Canons and General Councels condemneth al the old primitive church al the old antient holy Doctors and Martyrs and al the formes and maner of Masses that ever were made both new and old Therfore eat again this Article if you wil not be condemned of the whole world and of your selves also by your first Article Wherin you wil al Decrees and general Councels to be observed But forasmuch as I have been so tedious in this Article I wil endeavour my self to be shorter in
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
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
Bucer writes to Dorset not to spoil the Church MSS. C. C. C. C. Miscellan D. The Common-Prayer-Book reviewed Nec enim quicquam in illis deprehendi quod non sit ex Verbo Dei desumptum aut saltem ei non adversetur commodè acceptum Buceri Scripta Anglican Modus quoque harum Lectionum ac precum tempora sunt admodumcongruenter cum Verbo Dei observationâ— priscarum Ecclesiarum constituta Religione igitur summa retinenda erit vindicanda haec Ceremonia Censura inter Scripta Anglican Bucer Martyr employed in it MSS. C.C.C.C. Vol. intit Epist. Viror illustr German Hoper nominated for Bp of Glocester He and Ridley confer about the Habits MS. of the Council Book The ABp writes to Bucer for his Judgment in this Matter TheQuestions Script Anglic. p. 705. 681. Martyr writes to Hoper Inter P. Mart. Epist. Hoper's two Objections Considered †Episcopal Garments * Episcopal Garments Another Objection of Hoper considered Other things urged by him Hoper Confined to his House and silenced Council-Book Committed to the ABp's Custody Sent to the Fleet. Council-Book Hoper conforms Martyr to Gualter concerning Hoper's Conformity Hoper Visits his Diocess No. XLVII His Articles of Religion His Injunctions and Interrogatories Holds Worcester in Commendam And visits that Church and Sec. Goes over both his Diocesses again No. XLVIII The Council's Order concerning the two Canons MS. Council-Book Licence for the Bp of Glocester to attend upon the Dutchess of Somerset in the Tower Other Matters relating to this Bishop Divers great Lords repair to Gardiner The Council's proceedings with him Articles propounded to him to subscribe Winchester Sequestred for three Months The Sequestration expires Council-Book The Commissioners sit to examine him A Letter of some Noblemen whom he had belied Gardiner offers his Book against Cranmer to the Commissioners Page 2. He is deprived The Council's order for his strait Confinement Council-Book Poynet made Bp of Winton Other Popish Bps dealt with Bp Hethe's Troubles Sent for before the Council Council-Book Bp of Chichester his Troubles Council-Book Bp Day will not pull down Altars Appears before the Council Es. xix 19 The ABp and Bp of Ely reason with him The Council give him time to confer Before the Council again Heb. xiii 10 Before the Council the third Time And the fourth Time when he was sent to the Fleet. Commissioners appointed for Worcester and Chichester They are deprived Placed the one with the Lord Chancellor the other with the Bp of London Day writes to King's College for leaving off Masses Haddoni Ep. p. 169. His unnatural Carriage towards his Brother Hatcher's MS. Catal. of Provosts c. of King's Coll. Preaches against Transubstantiation His Change charged on him The Papists write Libels No. XLIX Several Papists now taken up Council-Book Chedsey Morgan Brown White Other Professors restrained The ABp's Care of the Souls of Strangers residing here The Dutch Congregation begun under Iohn a Lasco From Embden he wrote to the ABp And to Cecyl The sad Condition of the Protestants there No. L. Latimer mentions A Lasco to the King Third Sermon before the King Anno 1549. Contest amongst A Lasco's People MSS. of Benet College The Care of A Lasco over his Church and its Privileges Favourably received by the Lord Chancellor Goodrich Labours with the Secretary to procure Letters from the Councel in behalf of his Church No. LI. The extant of his Superintendency Melancthon's Epistles printed at Leyden 1647. Melancthon thought to shelter himself under him His great Abilities for Government Erasmus's Praise of him Ep. 3. Lib. 28. Lib. 19. Ep. 15. Purchased Erasmus's Library Abel Rediviv A Lasco a married Man His influence in the Reformation under Q. Elizabeth Blamed for medling in our Controversies A Church of Italians constituted in London Michael Angelo their Minister The Service the ABp did for this Church And for the Minister Anno 1552. Divers of this Church fall out with their Minister and go to Mass again A Conjecture at the Cause thereof Their Minister sends their Names to the Secretary and accuses them The Morals of this Man tainted Writes a penitent Letter to the Secretary No. LII LIII A French Church also in London No. LIV. Another Church of Strangers at Glastenbury Their Trade Weaving Valerandus Pollanus their Preacher and Superintendent How they came to fix here Conditions of Trade between Somerset and them Their Trade obstructed by the Troubles of Somerset Apply themselves again to the Council And to the Secretary Cecyl The Council become their Patrons and assist them Orders from the Lords to set this Manufacture forwards Pollanus very serviceable to them No. LV. LVI.LVII An Apology for the largeness of the former Relation After the King's Death they remove to Frankford Troubles at Frankford Prove Friends to the English Exiles there A Spanish Church Cassiodorus and Corraâ—us their Preachers Many of King Philip's Spaniards become Protestants Great numbers of Protestants in Spain and Italy Zanchii Ep. Lib. 2. The ABp labour◠〈◊〉 preserve the Revenues of the Church The detaining the Church-Revenues a Scandal to the Reformation Calvin to the ABp upon this matter Ep. 127. And to the Duke of Somerset No. LVIII Bucer publickly disputeth at Cambridg MSS. C.C.C.C. The University wrote up concerning his Death No. LIX Bucer's Library His Widdow retires to Germany The Correspondence between him and Martyr MSS. C.C.C.C A Plot of the Papists at Oxoâ— against Martyr at an Act. Martyr's Judgment of the Communion-Book Pag. 210. No. LX. LXI Bucer's great Dangers Ponet Cranm. Reg. Hoper An. 1551. Cranmer publisheth his Book of the Sacrament His first Book An. 1551. Wrote against by Gardiner and Smith Vindicated in another Book by the ABp No. LXII The Method of the ABp's Reply The Judgments made of this Book In Antiq. Brit. Fox's Acts. How the ABp came off from the Opinion of the Corporal Presence The ABp's great Skill in this Controversy P. Martyr inlightned by Cranmer Fox's Acts. Fox's Conjecture of the ABp A second Book of Gardiner against the ABp Preface to P. Martyr's Book in Def. of Cranmer The ABp begins a third Book but lives not to â—â—nish it Martyr takes up the Quarrel Maâ—t Epist. P. Martyr Ep. Cranmer puts out his Book of the Sacrament in Latin Constantius libro latinè scripto ita argumenta mea persequitur ut sibi optimum videtur ut causam juvet saepe truncata saepe inversa saepe disjecta sic introducit ut non magis a me agnosci potuerint quam Medeae liberi in multa membra dissecti desormati c. Printed again at Embden Autographon â—jus in nostra apud Aembdanos Ecclesia pro Thesauro quodam clariss viri sanctique Christi Martyris Mnemosyno servamus In Epist. Cranmer's second Book intended to be put into Latin Fox Epp. MSS. Some Notes of Cranmer concerning the Sacrament Miscellan A. Martyr succeeds Cranmer in this Province Writes against Gardiner