I had omitted in their Places not meeting with them in Cranmer's Register The former I suppose was consecrated with Shaxton in April as the latter might be with Fox and Barlow in September his Temporalties having been restored to him in the beginning of October This Hilsey was a great Assistant to Archbishop Cranmer and a learned man He wrote a Book of Prayers with Epistles and Gospels in English I suppose which he dedicated to the Lord Crumwel by whose command it was published P. 57. l. 17. After Him add But he could not see his Desire effected by these men till it was happily done by other hands P. 75. l. 7. r. Superstitions P. 58. l. 6. * f. Three or four r. Four or five P. 59. l. 14. del Some years after came forth c to thâ— end of the Paragraph P. 77. l. 4. * After Winton Whereas I had said That the Bishop of Winchester was not in a Commission there specified it appears by Crumwel's Speech set down by the Bishop of Sarum that that Bishop was then indeed a Commissioner Here my MS. deceived me But be it noted what the L. Paget testified before the Commissioners at that Bishop's Trial in 1549 namely That because he was so wilful in his opinion and addicted to the Popish part the King left him out of the Commission for Compiling the last Book of Religion And what that Book was I know not unless the Necessary Erudition P. 78. l. 13. * after Hands dele the Period P. 85. l. 21. * Remove thâ— Close of the Parenthesis after That P. 94. l. 8. * r. Translation P. 95. l. 13. after Bulkley insert was Consecrated P. 97. l. 4. * r. Abused P. 104. l. 17. * r. one P. 109. l. 16. r. Archbishop's Endeavour P. 126. l. 13. * After Arms Whereas it was conjectured there that the King changed Archbishop Cranmer's Coat of Arms about 1544 it must have been several years before For his New Coat of the Pelicans may be seen in the Frontispiece of the great English Bible printed 1540. And how long before that time I know not P. 135. l. 16. * r. Church living P. 146. l. 7. * f. Counties r. Episcopal Sees P. 149. l. 25 26. These words When the old Order was broken and a New brought in by Homilies to be within a Parenthesis Ibid. l. 5. * after and add said P. 151. l. 17. dele and. Ibid. after Charge add was P. 153. l. 4. r. Protectors P. 154. l. 17. after them instead of a Period make a Colon. P. 186. l. 16. f. them r. it P. 196. l. 15. * r. Bucer P. 197. l. 4. in the Marg. r. Vit. P. 219. l. 8 9 10 11. dele the Comma's on the sides P. 220 l. 1. r. Augmentations P. 226. l. 4. r. Wreaked P. 234. l. 25. r. Strangers P. 235. l. 7. r. Embark P. 237. l. 12. of the Marg. r. Extent P. 238. l. 14. * dele the Comma's before Leave P. 239. l. 4. r. Strasburgh P. 243. l. 14. r. Glastenbury P. 266. l. 22. r. Superstitious P. 268. l. 5. r. Counsil P. 270. l. 12. * add in the Margent The Sweating Sickness P. 271. l. 12. r. two P. 286. l. 12. f. were r. was P. 306. l. 23. r. other Ibid. l. â—5 dele the Comma P. 307. l. 16. * r. Hand P. 311. l. 14. r. one P. 314. l. 14. * r. Joh. Ibid. l. ult after Humfrey make a Comma P. 315. l. 24. â— r. convince P. 349. l. 19. after all add and. P. 351. l. 11. * r. Conversation P. 352. l. 5. * after it add in P. 354. l. 25. r. Corpus P. 378. l. ult r. but. P. 395. l. 10. f. Contrived r. Composed P. 396. l. 21. del With a Preface P. 394 395 396 397 398 399 400. on the Top of each Margent del An. 1555. P. 411. l. 10. r. was P. 421. l. 21. * after him add be P. 422. l. 1â— f. Flesh r. Fish P. 424. l. 4. * r. one Ibid. l. 3. * f. John r. Thomas P. 425. l. 2. after two add to P. 427. l. 20. after appointed add a. P. 437. l. 9. * f. Historiae r. Historia P. 444 l. 18. * f. 1538 or 1539. r. 1537 or 1538. P. 448. l. 1. f. that r. the. Ibid. l. 9. * r. Sanctuary P. 461. l. 5. f. infringing r. incurring Ibid. l. 28. after about add with P. 464. l. 22. f. is r. was Errata in the Appendix PAge 7. in the Margent for Sir W. S. read Sir W H. P. 8. l. 10. * r. Popes P. 45. l. 9. * r. Controversiam P. 46. l. 13. * r. Oecolampadio Ibid. l. 3. * r. nec P. 55. l. 9. dele the Colon. P. 56. l. 13. r. Concedant Ibid. r. concessit P. 116. l. 18. after Parcyalyte add as P. 131. l. 18. r. Circumcision And so P. 132. l. 21. and l. 29. and l. 31. P. 143. l. 15. * r. praeponenda P. 180. l. 6. * r. Decanatu P. 183. l. 18. after Verbo add a Comma and after Consentientibus dele the Comma l. 19. after Authoritatibus add a Comma P. 188. l. 18. after Liberantes instead of the Period make a Semicolon Ibid. l. 20. after Legati dele the Period P. 190. l. 22. before dam add quibus Ibid. l. 6. * Draw the Comma after Eos before it P. 191. l. 12. r. Procedetur P. 193. l. 10. * r. deterrimo carcere P. 194. l. 13. * f. ita r. ira P. 195. l 17. r. Bernher P. 197. l. 6. * f. quin r. quum P. 199. l. 5. Cognoscentiae perhaps for Ignoscentiae Ibid. l. 11. * r. imbuerat P. 212. l. 3. r. your P. 222. l. 14. Remove the Comma after Abripere before it P. 224. l. 20. * r. punitus P. 232. l. 20. r. habes P. 237. l. 16. * r. angustijs P. 238. l. 17. f. 1552. r. 1553. P. 251. l. 9. r. Appointment MEMORIALS OF Arch-Bishop CRANMER BOOK I. CHAPTER I. Cranmer's Birth Education and Rise THE Name of this most Reverend Prelate deserves to stand upon Eternal Record having been the first Protestant Arch-Bishop of this Kingdom and the greatest Instrument under God of the happy Reformation of this Church of England In whose Piety Learning Wisdom Conduct and Blood the Foundation of it was laid And therefore it will be no unworthy Work to revive his Memory now though after an hundred and thirty Years and upwards I pretend not to write a compleat Narrative of his Life and Death that being scarce possible at such a distance of Time and in the want of full Intelligence and Information of the various Matters that passed through his Hands and the Events that befel him All that I attempt by this present Undertaking is to retrieve and bring to light as many Historical Passages as I can concerning this Holy Prelate by a careful and long search not only into printed Books of History but the best Archives and many most precious and inestimable Manuscripts
great Moment and that he would not be wanting to him in any Matters of that sort being a Person of that Knowledg in Sacred Prophane Learning of that Prudence Circumspection and Dexterity in managing Business And so finally joined him with Pope to perform all this piously and catholickly according to the Rule of Evangelick Religion and the Exigency of the Laws and Statutes of this Kingdom And deputed him his Vice-gerent This Letter was dated at Croydon the 20 th of August This Commission seemed to be somewhat extraordinary The occasion whereof might be because the Arch-bishop did not confide in this Chancellor of the Church suspecting his Religion and Compliance with the King's Proceedings therefore he thought good to associate him with Taylor the Dean of whom he was well assured The Church of Worcester became also Vacant by the Deprivation of Hethe the Bishop The Arch-bishop committed the Spiritualties thereof to Iohn Barlo Dean of the said Church and Roland Taylor LL. D. his Domestick Chaplain These he constituted his Officials to exercise all Episcopal Jurisdiction This Commission was dated at Lambeth Ian. 10. 1554 by an Error of the Scribe for 1551. as appears by a Certificate sent from the Church to that Arch-bishop signifying the Vacation of it Upon the Vacancy of the Church of Chichester by the Deprivation of Day the Arch-bishop made Iohn Worthial Arch-deacon of Chichester and Robert Taylor LL. B. Dean of the Deanery of South-Malling his Officials This Commission to them dated Novemb. 3 1551 was to Visit c. Upon the Vacancy of the Church of Hereford by the Death of Skip late Bishop there the Spiritualties were committed to Hugh Coren LL. D. Dean of that Church and Rich. Cheny D.D. Arch-deacon of Hereford Their Commission was to Visit c. Upon the Vacancy of the Bishoprick of Bangor either by the Death of Bulkly the Bishop or his Resignation upon his blindness the Arch-bishop made his Commissaries Griffin Leyson his principal Chancellor and Official Rowland Merick a Canon of S. David's and Geofrey Glynn L L. D D. The Church of Rochester also became this Year Vacant by the Translation of Scory to Chichester In these Vacancies the Bishopricks were lamentably pilled by hungry Courtiers of the Revenues belonging to them This Year Bishop Hoper was by the Council dispatched down as was said before into his Diocess where things were much out of order and Popery had great footing and therefore it wanted such a stirring Man as he was That he might do the more Good he had the Authority of the Lords of the Council to back him by a Commission granted to him and others He brought most of the Parish-Priests and Curates from their old Superstitions and Errors concerning the Doctrine of the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper The Recantation of one of them of more note named Phelps the Incumbent of Ciciter which he made publickly and subscribed may be seen in the Appendix This Year there happened two learned Conferences in Latin privately managed about the Corporeal Presence in the Sacrament The one on the 25 th of November in the House of Sir William Cecyl Secretary of State performed by the said Cecyl Sir Iohn Cheke Horne Dean of Durham Whitehead and Grindal on the Protestant side and Feckenham and Yong on the Popish But first before they began Cecyl under his solemn Protestation assured them that every Man should have free Liberty to speak his Mind and that none should receive any Dammage or incurr any Danger Cheke began by propounding this question Quis esset verus germanus sensus verborum Coenae Hoc est corpus meum Num quem verba sensu grammatico accepta prae se ferebant an aliud quiddam To whom Feckenham answered There were present besides those that disputed these noble and learned Persons The Lord Russel Sir Anthony Coke Mr. Hales Mr. Wroth Mr. Frogmartin Mr. Knolles Mr. Harrington The second Disputation was Decemb. 3. following in Mr. Morisin's House where were present the Marq. of Northampton the Earl of Rutland the Lord Russel and those above named and Watson added on the Papists side Then Cheke again propounded the Question Whether the words of the Supper are to be understood in a grammatical or in a figurative Sense To which Watson Responded Both these Disputations are too large for this place but they are set down in one of the Manuscript Volumes of the Benet-Library In November died Dr. Iohn Redman Master of Trinity-College in Cambridg and one of the great Lights of that University for the bringing in solid Learning among the Students a Prebendary of the Church of Westminster and who in the Year 1549 assisted in the compiling the English Book of Common-Prayer and preached a Sermon upon the Learned Bucer's Death the day following his Funeral He was a Person of extraordinary Reputation among all for his great Learning and Reading and profound Knowledg in Divinity So that the greatest Divines gave a mighty Deference to his Judgment And therefore when he lay sick at Westminster many learned Men repaired to him desiring to know his last Judgment of several Points then so much controverted And he was very ready to give them Satisfaction Among the rest that came were Richard Wilks Master of Christ's College Cambridg Alexander Noel afterwards Dean of Paul's and Yong a Man of Fame in Cambridg for his disputing against Bucer about Justification In these Conferences with these learned Man he called the See of Rome Sentina Malorum A Sink of Evils he said That Purgatory as the Schoolmen taught it was ungodly and that there was no such kind of Purgatory as they fancied That the offering up the Sacrament in Masses and Trentals for the Sins of the Dead was ungodly That the Wicked are not partakers of the Body of Christ but receive the outward Sacrament only That it ought not to be carried about in Procession That nothing that is seen in the Sacrament or perceived with the outward Sense is to be worshipped That we receive not Christ's Body Corporaliter grosly like other Meats but so Spiritualiter that nevertheless Verè truly That there was not any good ground in the old Doctors for Transubstantiation as ever he could perceive nor could he see what could be answered to the Objections against it That Priests might by the Law of God marry Wives That this Proposition Faith only justifies so that this Faith signify a true lively Faith resting in Christ and embracing him is a true godly sweet and comfortable Doctrine That our Works cannot deserve the Kingdom of God And he said that it troubled him that he had so much strove against Justification by Faith only A Treatise whereof he composed which was printed at Antwerp after his Death in the Year 1555. He said also to Yong That Consensus Ecclesiae was but a weak Staff to lean to and exhorted him to read the Scriptures
silent in some things more fully and largely treated of elsewhere But here are numberless Notices given concerning the Archbishop some which are no where else others very imperfectly observed besides the Narrations of the State and History of the Church which are every where interposed in most of which the Archbishop bore a part The Cathedral Church of Canterbury now called Christ-Church I have in some places stiled Trinity Church because I so find it named in those particular Records I make use of in those places and it seems in some of the first years of our Archbishop it ordinarily went by that old Name My Stile may seem rough and unpolished and the Phrases here and there uncouth the reason of which is because I confess I have often taken the very Expressions and Words of the Papers I have used and so may fall sometimes into obsolete Terms and a Style not so acceptable to the present Age whose Language is refined from what it was an Hundred and fifty or forty years ago But I have chosen to do this that I might keep the nearer Truth and lest that by varying of the Language I might perhaps sometimes vary from the true meaning of my Writer And in truth he that is a Lover of Antiquity loves the very Language and Phrases of Antiquity The Reader will find some few things here which are already published in the late Specimen put forth by Anthony Harmer he and I it seems lighting unwittingly upon the same Records to wit K. Edward's Council-Book and the Register of Christ-Church Cant. Nor could I strike out of my Book what I found published in the said Specimen having fully finished it and the Copy being under the Press some Weeks before that Book came forth and the matters there related interwoven into the Contexture of my History And now after all this Pains that I have taken in fulfilling this Task which I assure the Readers have not been small nor of a few Years let me not for every little slip fall under their Censure and Reproach but rather let them use me with Gentleness and Charity considering how few tho much abler will trouble themselves to Labour and Drudge and take Journeys and be at Expences in making such Collections for the Publick Good It calls to mind what happened upon the Death of the Laborious Antiquary Iohn Stow who had been a Collector of Matters for the English History Seven and forty years and dyed 1605. and had all the Collections of Reiner Wolf another Historian and a Printer in K. Edward the Sixth's days and if he had lived but one year longer intended to have published his long Labours But after his death there was not a man to be found to take the small Pains to review his Papers and fit them for the Press Many indeed were talked of to do it both Persons of Quality among the Laity and Clergy For the World had great and earnest expectation to see Stow in Print But when they were spoke to to take the good Work in hand some of them said That they thought the giving out of their Names was rather done by secret Enemies on purpose to draw them into Capital Displeasure and to bring their Names and Lives into a general question Others said That they who did such a Work must flatter which they could not neither wilfully would they leave a Scandal unto their Posterity Another said he could not see how in any Civil action a man should spend his Travel Time and Money worse than in that which acquires no Regard or Reward except Backbiting and Detraction And one among the rest swore an Oath and said He thanked God that he was not yet mad to waste his Time spend Two hundred Pounds a Year which it seems Stow had done trouble himself and all his Friends only to gain assurance of endless Reproach loss of Liberty and bring all his days in question Yet at last one Edward Howes undertook it and effected it But it happened just so to him having been intolerably abused and scandalized for his Labour So slothful and backward are most to take Pains in Works of this nature and so apt to censure those that do I hope I shall meet if not with Thanks at least with more candid men and better usage But whatever happens I shall arm my self with Patience to undergo it since I intend nothing hereby but to be serviceable unto my Countrey and God's Church and to Justify the excellent Reformation of it in these Kingdoms and finally to do Right unto the Memory of that truly Great and Good Archbishop of Canterbury And thus recommending the Success of this Work unto God's Blessing I here make an End J. STRYPE Sept. 29. 1693. Low-Leyton I desire the Reader to take Notice That when I quote Fox's Acts and Monuments it is the Edition in the Year 1610. And when the Life of K. Henry VIII by the L. Herbert it is the Edition of 1672. And when the History of the Reformation by Bishop Burnet it is that of the Year 1681. Farewel A TABLE OF THE Books Chapters and Contents OF THESE MEMORIALS OF ARCHBISHOP CRANMER BOOK I. CHAP. I. Cranmer 's Birth Education and Rise A Worthy Work to revive his Memory His Family Account of his younger years Sent to Cambridge An. 1503. Sets himself to study the Scripture Is made Doctor of Divinity Marries Refuses to go to Wolsey's College Oxon. He is made one of the University-Examiners The King 's great Cause first proposed to the Universities The occasion of his Rise His Opinion of the King's Cause The King sends for him Suitably placed with the Earl of Ormond Friendship and Correspondence between the Earl and Cranmer A Providence in his being placed here Cranmer disputes at Cambridge Grows dear to the King and his Court. CHAP. II. Pole 's Book about the King's Matrimony Pole's Book against the King's dissolving his Marriage Cranmer peruses it His Account of it His Censure thereof CHAP. III. Cranmer 's Embassies He is employed in Embassies To the Pope Offers him a Dispute in favour of the King's Cause To the Emperor Cornel. Agrippa gained by Cranmer to the King's Cause Becomes acquainted with Osiander and marries his Kinswoman Treats with the Emperor about the Contract of Traffick and about sending Supplies against the Turk Sends the King the News in those Parts And the Proclamation for a General Council And the Tax of the States of the Empire He goes in an Embassy to the Duke of Saxony and other Protestant Princes CHAP. IV. Cranmer made Archbishop of Canterbury Made Archbishop of Canterbury His Dignities before he was Archbishop Archbishop Warham foretels a Thomas to succeed him Archbishop Warham for the King's Supremacy Cranmer's Testimony of Warham A Reflection upon a Passage relating to Cranmer in Harpsfields History Cranmer tries to evade the Archbishoprick Declares the reason thereof to the King The Archbishop's Brother is made Archdeacon of Canterbury
his Memory famous to Posterity within the Realm among all such as should hereafter be favourers of God's Word and that he should hear of this good Deed of his at the last Day That for his part it was such a content to his Mind that he could not have done him a greater pleasure if he had given him a thousand Pounds And that such Knowledg would ensue hereupon that it should appear he had done excellent Service both to God and the King He also particularly spake of the Bishop of Worcester how highly obliged he was sure he was to him for this But I refer the Reader to his own Letters which follow MY very singular good Lord In my most harty wise I commend me unto your Lordship And whereas I understand that your Lordship at my Request hath not only exhibited the Bible which I sent unto you to the King's Majesty but also hath obtained of his Grace that the same shall be allowed by his Authority to be bought and read within this Realm My Lord for this your Pains taken in this behalf I give you my most hearty Thanks Assuring your Lordship for the Contentation of my Mind you have shewed me more pleasure here than if you had given me a thousand Pounds and I doubt not but that hereby such Fruit of good Knowledg shall ensue that it shall well appear hereafter what high and excellent Service you have done unto God and the King Which shall so much redound to your Honour that besides God's Reward you shall obtain perpetual Memory for the same within this Realm And as for me you may reckon me your Bondman for the same And I dare be bold to say so may ye do my Lord of Worcester Thus my Lord right hartily fare ye well At Ford the xiii day of August Your own Bound-man ever T. Cantuarien And in another Letter fifteen days after he again renewed his Thanks MY very singular and special good Lord In my most harty wise I commend me to your Lordship These shall be to give you most hearty Thanks that any Heart can think and that in the Name of them which favour God's Word for your diligence at this time in procuring the King's Highness to set forth the said God's Word and his Gospel by his Grace's Authority For the which Act not only the King's Majesty but also you shall have a perpetual Laud and Memory of all them that be now â—or hereafter shall be God's faithful People and the Favourers of his Word And this Deed you shall hear of at the Great Day when all things shall be opened and made manifest For our Saviour Christ saith in the said Gospel that whosoever shrinketh from Him and his Word and is abashed to profess and set it forth before Men in this World he will refuse him at that Day And contrary whosoever constantly doth profess Him and his Word and studieth to set that forward in this World Christ will declare the same at the Last Day before his Father and all his Angels and take upon him the Defence of those Men. Now because by these Letters of the Arch-bishop it appears how instrumental Crumwel was when the Bible was printed to procure the setting it forth by the King's Authority I will here relate more at large what Countenance and Assistance he gave to this pious Work all along and those that were concerned and employed in the doing of it The Bible as Fox speaks had been printed in the Year 1532 and reprinted again three or four Years after The Undertakers and Printers were Grafton and Whitchurch who printed it at Hamburgh The Corrector was Iohn Rogers a Learned Divine afterwards a Canon of St. Paul's in King Edward's Time and the first Martyr in the next Reign The Translator was William Tyndal another Learned Martyr with the help of Miles Coverdale after Bishop of Exeter But before all this second Edition was finish'd Tyndal was taken and put to death for his Religion in Flanders in the Year 1536. And his Name then growing into ignominy as one burnt for an Heretick they thought it might prejudice the Book if he should be named for the Translator thereof and so they used a feigned Name calling it Thomas Matthews Bible though Tyndal before his death had finished all but the Apocrypha which was translated by Rogers abovesaid who added also some Marginal Notes In this Bible were certain Prologues and a special Table collected of the common Places in the Bible and Texts of Scripture for proving the same And chiefly the common Places of the Lord's Supper the Marriage of Priests and the Mass. Of which it was there said that it was not to be found in Scripture This Bible giving the Clergy offence was gotten to be restrained Some Years after came forth the Bible aforesaid wherein Cranmer had the great Hand which as I suppose was nothing but the former corrected the Prologues and Table being left out When Grafton had finished this Work and printed off fifteen hundred Bibles at his great Charge amounting to five hundred Pounds a round Sum in those days the Ld. Crumwel desired to have six of his Books Which he forthwith sent by his Servant a clear Man of all suspicion of any Infection coming that day out of Flanders Grafton not adventuring to come himself with the Books because of the Infection at London where he was These Books therefore he sent together with a Letter of Thanks for being so assistant in the publication which as he writ in his Letter the Arch-bishop said the Tidings of did him more good than the Gift of ten thousand Pounds and for procuring the King's Licence which was thought fit to be signified in the Title Page in red Letters thus Set forth by the King 's most gracious Licence But several would not believe the King had licensed it and therefore he desired further of Crumwel that he would get it licensed under the Privy Seal which would be a Defence for the present and for the future But take the Letter as Grafton himself penned it MOST humbly beseeching your Lordship to understand that according to your Request I have sent your Lordship six Bibles which gladly I would have brought my self but because of the Sickness which remaineth in the City and therefore I have sent them by my Servant which this day came out of Flanders Requiring your Lordship if I may be so bold as to desire you to accept them as my simple Gift given to you for those most godly Pains for which the heavenly Father is bound even of his Justice to reward you with the Everlasting Kingdom of God For your Lordship's moving our most gracious Prince to the Allowance and Licensing of such a Work hath wrought such an Act worthy of Praise as never was mentioned in any Chronicle in this Realm and as my Lord of Canterbury said the Tydings thereof did him more good than the gift of 10000 l.
yet certain there are which believe not that it pleased the King's Grace to license it to go forth Wherefore if your Lordship's Pleasure were such that we might have it Licensed under your Privy Seal it would be a Defence at this present and in time to come for all Enemies and Adversaries of the same And forasmuch as this Request is for the maintenance of the Lord's Word which is to maintain the Lord himself I fear not but that your Lordship will be earnest therein And I am assured that my Lord of Canterbury Worcester and Salisbury will give your Lordship such Thanks as in them lieth And sure ye may be that the Heavenly Lord will reward you for the Establishment of his Glorious Truth And what your Lordship's Pleasure is in this Request if it may please your Lordship to inform my Servant I and all that love God heartily are bound to pray for your Preservation all the days of our Life At London the xxviii day of this present Month of August 1537. Your Orator while he lâ—veth Richard Grafton Grocer And as this Printer had addressed to Crumwel for the Privy Seal so he apprehended now a further need of the Corroboration of Authority upon another Account For some observing how exceeding acceptable the English Bible was to the common People were designing to print it in a less Volume and smaller Letters whereby it would come to pass that Grafton would be undersold and so he and his Creditors would be undone and besides it was like to prove a very ill Edition and very Erroneous Insomuch that Grafton affirmed they would commit as many Faults as there were Sentences in the Bible And it must needs be so because then the Printers were generally Dutchmen within the Realm that could neither speak nor write true English nor for Covetousness-sake would they allow any Learned Men at all to oversee and correct what they printed as formerly it had been printed but Paper Letter Ink and Correction would be all naught Therefore he desired one Favour more of the Lord Crumwel and that was to obtain for him of the King that none should print the Bible for three Years but himself And to move him he said he was sure the Bishop of Canterbury and other his special Friends would not be unthankful to him He urged to him that his whole Living lay upon this Point And for the better and quicker sale of his Books he desired also that by his Commandment in the King's Name every Curate might be obliged to have one â—hat they might learn to know God and to instruct their Parishioners and that every Abby should have six to be laid in several places of the Convent He wished some Commissions might be issued out to the Arch-bishop of Canterbury and the Bishops of Sarum and Worcester and they would readily cause this to be done in their Diocesses To which he earnestly added his own Arguments to provoke Crumwel to yield to his request This Letter may be found in the Appendix CHAP. XVI Many Suffragan Bishops made IT was now forbidden by the Parliament and in pursuance thereof by the Bishops in their several Diocesses that the Feast of S. Thomas a Becket the pretended Martyr should be celebrated any more nor of S. Laurence nor of divers others the Feasts of the Twelve Apostles excepted and of our Lady S. Michael and Mary Magdalene Also the Feast of the Holy Cross was forbid and commanded that none should presume to keep those Feasts Holy that is they should ring no Bells nor adorn their Churches nor go in Procession nor do other such-like things as belonged to the Celebration of Festivals So when S. Thomas's Eve came which had used constantly by the Arch-bishops of Canterbury and their Domesticks to be celebrated by Fasting Arch-bishop Cranmer took no notice of that Eve but eat Flesh and supped in his Parlour with his Family Which created much Observation it having never been seen before the Arch-bishop thinking it unworthy that a Man of that Devotion to the See of Rome and disloyalty to his natural Prince should bâ— so religiously commemorated Bishops Diocesan Consecrated March the 25 th Robert Holgate Master of the Order of Sempringham was consecrated Bishop of Landaff in the Chappel of S. Mary in the Conventual Church of Friars Preachers of the City of London by Iohn Bishop of Rochester by virtue of Letters Commissional from the Arch-bishop to him Iohn Bishop of Bangor and Nicolas Bishop of Sarum assisting This Holgate was either Abbot or Prior of S. Mary Watte an House of Gilbertines which he held in Commendam and surrendred in the Year 1539. Suffragan Bishops Iune the 24 th Iohn Bird S. Th. P. Provincial of the Order of Friars Carmelites of the City of London was consecrated Suffragan of the See of Penrith in Landaff Diocess And Lewis Thomas formerly Abbot of the Monastery of Kynmer Suffragan Bishop of the See of Salop both consecrated at Lambeth by the Arch-bishop The Assistant Bishops at this Consecration not mentioned in the Register Of Bird a word or two I find him in Norwich about the Year 1531. busy with Bilney before his Death He was a Person K. Henry made use of for in the Year 1535 he with Fox the Almoner and Bedel a Clark of the Council were sent to Q. Katharine divorsed from the King to forbear the Name of Queen Which nevertheless she would not do He preached certain Sermons before the King against the Pope's Supremacy Bale in his Exposition upon the Revelations makes him to be one of the Ten Horns that shall hate the Whore Godwin asserts of him that he was once Bishop of Ossory Bale in his Centuries mentions not at all his being an Irish Bishop but naming his Preferments first calls him Episcopus Penricensis In 1539 made Bishop of Bangor and removed to Chester 1541. He was married and therefore upon Q. Mary's access to the Crown was deprived of his Bishoprick but complied with the old Religion I find him alive in the Year 1555 being then at Fulham at Bishop Bonner's and there he lodged Upon his coming he brought his Present with him a Dish of Apples and a Bottle of Wine While he was here he exhorted Mr. Hawkes Convented for pretended Heresy before Bonner to learn of his Elders and to bear with some things and be taught by the Church and not to go too far In that Queen's Reign he became Bonner's Suffragan and Vicar of Dunmow in Essex November the 4 th Thomas Morley formerly Abbot of Stanley in Sarum Diocess of the Cistertian Order was consecrated in the Chappel of Lambeth Suffragan of the See of Marlborough by the Arch-bishop assisted by Iohn Bishop of Lincoln and Iohn Bishop of Rochester December the first the Arch-bishop according to the Direction of the Act for Suffragan Bishops nominated to the King two Persons out of which he might elect a
of two Houses of Religious Persons namely that of Christ's-Church Canterbury and that of Rochester Towards the latter end of this Year several new Bishopricks were founded out of old Monasteries and several Deaneries and Colleges of Prebends out of divers Priories belonging to Cathedral Churches Herein as Crumwel so Cranmer had a great Hand Who laboured with the King that in these New Foundations there should be Readers of Divinity Greek and Hebrew and Students trained up in Religion and Learning From whence as a Nursery the Bishops should supply their Diocesses with honest and able Ministers And so every Bishop should have a College of Clergy-men under his Eye to be preferred according to their Merits For it was our Arch-bishops regret that the Prebendaries were bestowed as they were This Complaint Bishop Burnet tells us he saw in a long Letter of Cranmer's own hand Bishops Confirmed In Arch-bishops Cranmer's Register I find these Bishops Confirmed their Consecrations being omitted August the 11 th Iohn Bell LL. D. brought up in Baliol College and Arch-deacon of Glocester was Confirmed Bishop of Worcester upon the Resignation of Bishop Latimer in the Chappel of Lambeth He is stiled in the Register the King's Chaplain and Councellor November the Iohn Skyp D. D. Arch-deacon of Dorset and once Chaplain to Queen Ann Boleâ— was Confirmed Bishop of Hereford The King's Letter to the Archbishop to consecrate him bears date November 8. CHAP. XX. The Arch-bishop in Commission THE next Year viz. 1540. The Arch-bishop lost his great Friend and Assistant in carrying on the Reformation I mean the Lord Crumwel And when he was by Popish Craft and Malice taken off their next Work was to sacrifice Cranmer And many were the Accusations that were put up against him and Trial was made many ways to bring him to his Death or at least to bring him in disgrace with the King And first they thought to compass their Ends against him by occasion of a Commission now issued out from the King to a select Number of Bishops whereof the Arch-bishop was one which Commission was confirmed by Act of Parliament for inspecting into Matters of Religion and explaining some of the chief Doctrines of it These Commissioners had drawn up a set of Articles favouring the old Popish Superstitions And meeting together at Lambeth they produced them and vehemently urged that they should be established and that the Arch-bishop would yield to the Allowance of them especially seeing there was a signification that it was the King's Will and Pleasure that the Articles should run in that Tenour But they could not win the Arch-bishop neither by Fear nor Flattery No though the Lord Crumwel at this very time lay in the Tower There was not one Commissioner now on his part but all shrank away and complied with the Time and even those he most trusted to viz. Bishop Hethe of Rochester and Bishop Skip of Hereford The Arch-bishop as he disliked the Book already drawn up by them so he presented another Book wherein were divers Amendments of theirs After much arguing and disputing nor could the Arch-bishop be brought off Hethe and Skip with a Friend or two more walked down with him into his Garden at Lambeth and there used all the Perswasion they could urging to him that the King was resolved to have iâ— so and the Danger therefore of opposing it But he honestly persisted in his constancy telling them That there was but one Truth in the Articles to be concluded upon which if they hid from his Majesty by consenting unto a contrary Doctrine his Highness would in process of Time perceive the Truth and see how colorably they had delt with him And he knew he said his Grace's Nature so well that he would never after credit and trust them And they being both his Friends he bad them beware in time and discharge their Consciences in maintenance of the Truth But though nothing of all this could stir them yet what he said sufficiently confirmed the Arch-bishop to persist in his Resolution The Arch-bishop standing thus alone went himself to the King and so wrought with him that his Majesty joined with him against all the rest of them and the Book of Articles past on his side When indeed this stifness of Canterbury was the very thing his Enemies desired thinking that for this Opposition the King would certainly have thrown him into the Tower and many Wagers were laid in London about it So that this ended in two good Issues that the Arch-bishop's Enemies were clothed with Shame and Disappointment and a very good Book chiefly of the Arch-bishop's composing came forth for the Instruction of the People known by the Name of A necessary Erudition of any Christian Man A particular Account whereof may be read in the History of the Reformation This vexed Winchester to the Heart that his Plot took no better Effect but he put it up till he should find other Opportunities to attack him which after happened as we shall see in the sequel of this Story But this Matter deserves to be a little more particularly treated of The King had as was said before appointed several of the Eminent Divines of his Realm to deliberate about sundry Points of Religion then in Controversy and to give in their Sentences distinctly And that in regard of the Germans who the last Year had sent over in Writing the Judgment of their Divines respecting some Articles of Religion and had offered his Majesty to appoint some of their Divines to meet some others of the King 's in any Place he should assign or to come over into England to confeâ— together And also in regard of a more exact review of the Institution of a Christian Man put forth about two or three Years before and now intended to be published again as a more perfect Piece of Religious Instruction for the People The King therefore being minded thorowly to sift divers Points of Religion then started and much controverted commanded a particular number of Bishops and other his Learned Chaplains and Dignitaries to compare the Rites and Ceremonies and Tenets of the present Church by the Scriptures and by the most Ancient Writers and to see how far the Scripture or good Antiquity did allow of the same And this I suppose he did by the instigation of Arch-bishop Cranmer The Names of the Commissioners were these Cranmer ABp of Canterbury Lee ABp of York Boner Bishop of London Tunstal Bishop of Durham Barlow Bishop of S. David's Aldrich Bishop of Carlisle Skyp Bishop of Hereford Hethe Bishop of Rochester Thirleby Bishop Elect of Westminster Doctors Cox Robinson Day Oglethorp Redman Edgeworth Symonds Tresham Leyghton Curwen Crayford Where we may wonder not to see the Name of the Bishop of Winton But if we consider the Reason the King gave why he left him out of the Number of his Executors viz. because as he told several
Feast that they should be without it The said Proclamation also set the Price at ten Shillings a Book unbound and well Bound and Clasped not above twelve Shillings And charged all Ordinaries to take care for the seeing this Command of the King the better executed And upon this Boner being now newly Bishop of London set up six Bibles in certain convenient Places of S. Paul's Church together with an Admonition to the Readers fastned upon the Pillars to which the Bibles were chained to this Tenor That whosoever came there to read should prepare himself to be edified and made the better thereby That he should join thereunto his readiness to obey the King's Injunctions made in that behalf That he bring with him Discretion honest Intent Charity Reverence and quiet Behaviour That there should no such Number meet together there as to make a Multitude That no Exposition be made thereupon but what is declared in the Book it self That it be not read with Noise in time of Divine Service Or that any Disputation or Contention be used at it But it was not much above two Years after that the Popish Bishops obtained of the King the suppression of the Bible again For after they had taken off the Lord Crumwel they made great complaint to the King their old Complaint of the Translation and of the Prefaces Whereas indeed and in truth it was the Text it self rather than the Prefaces or Translation that disturbed them Whereupon it was forbid again to be sold the Bishops promising the King to amend and correct it but never performed it And Grafton was now so long after summoned and charged with printing Matthews's Bible Which he being timerous made Excuses for Then he was examined about the great Bible and what the Notes were he intâ—nded to set thereto He replied that he added none to his Bible when he perceived the King and the Clergy not willing to have any Yet Grafton was sent to the Fleet and there remained six Weeks and before he came out was bound in three hundred Pounds that he should neither sell nor imprint any more Bibles till the King and the Clergy should agree upon a Translation And they procured an Order from the King that the falsâ— Translation of Tindal as they called it should not be uttered either by Printer or Bookseller and no other Books to be retained that spoke against the Sacrament of the Altar No Annotations or Preambles to be in Bibles or New Testaments in English that so they might keep Scripture still as obscure as they could Nor the Bible to be read in the Church and nothing to be taught contrary to the King's Instructions And from henceforth the Bible was stopp'd during the remainder of King Henry's Reign But however for some certain Ends the King restrained now and then the use of the Scriptures to comply with the importunate Suits of the Popish Bishops yet his Judgment always was for the free use of them among his Subjects and in order to that for the translating and printing them For proof of which I will recite the words of the Translator of Erasmus's Paraphrase upon S. Luke in his Preface thereunto viz. Nic. Vdal a Man of Eminency in those Days a Canon of Windsor and a Servant unto Q. Katharine the King 's last Wife His most Excellent Majesty from the first day that he wore the Imperial Crown of this Realm foresaw that to the executing the Premisses viz. to destroy counterfeit Religions and to root up all Idolatry done to dead Images it was necessary that his People should be reduced to the sincerity of Christ's Religion by knowing of God's Word He considered that requisite it was his Subjects were nurâ—led in Christ by reading the Scriptures whose Knowledg should easily induce them to the clear espying of all the Slights of the Romish Juggling And therefore as soon as might be his Highness by most wholsome and godly Laws provided that it might be lawful for all his most faithful loving Subjects to read the Word of God and the Rules of Christ's Discipline which they professed He provided that the Holy Bible should be set forth in our own Vulgar Language to the end that England might the better attain to the Sincerity of Christ's Doctrine which they might draw out of the clear Fountain and Spring of the Gospel CHAP. XXII The Arch-bishop retired OUR Arch-bishop after the unhappy Death of the Lord Crumwel so excellent an Instrument in correcting the Abuses of Religion out of sorrow and care of himself betook himself to more Retirement and greater Privacy For in and after this Year 1540 I find nothing in his Register but the Acts of Confirmations and Elections and Consecrations of Bishops as Bishopricks fell vacant the Arch-bishop very seldom Consecrating any himself but commissionating others by his Letters to Confirm and Consecrate And nothing to be found a great way on in the Register concerning giving Ordinances and Injunctions to the Diocess or Province And no wonder for there was now no Vicegerent in Ecclesiasticals to be ready to hearken to the Arch-bishop's Directions and Counsels for reforming Abuses and to see them executed in the Church And his own Sorrows and the Troubles he met with in these Times from his Enemies made him judg it convenient for him now more warily to conceal himself till better Days But before the Death of Crumwel when Boner Bishop Elect of London was to be consecrated the Arch-bishop probably not liking him and seeing through him whatever his Pretences were and therefore declining to have any hand in his Preferment sent his Commission in April to Stephen Bishop of Winchester Richard Bishop of Chichester Robert Bishop of S. Asaph and Iohn Bishop of Hertford i. e. Hereford to consecrate him Which it is said in the Register they did accordingly per Sacri chrismatis unctionem manuum suarum impositionem In this Consecration the Prior and Chapter of Canterbury insisted it seems upon an ancient Privilege of their Church which I do not find in this Register they had at other Consecrations done namely that the Consecration should be celebrated at the Church of Canterbury and at no other Church or Oratory without their Allowance And so in a formal Instrument they gave their Licence and Consent directed to the Arch-bishop to proceed to the Consecration elsewhere The Letter is from Thomas the Prior and the Chapter of Canterbury and it ran thus Licet antiquitus fuerit salubriter ordinatum hactenusque in per totam vestram Provinciam Cantuar ' inconcussè observatum quod quilibet Suffraganâ—us Ecclesiae vestrae Metropoliticae Christi Cantuar ' memoratae in Ecclesia vestra Metropolit ' Cantuar ' non alibi pntialiter consecrari benedici debeat c. Yet they gave their Consent that he might be Consecrated in any other Oratory But yet so that neither they nor the Church received any Prejudice and reserving to
themselves a decent Cope as every Suffragan of the Church of Canterbury according as his Profession was ought to give to the same Church by Right and ancient Custom and the Rights Liberties Privileges and other Customs of the said Church always and in all things being safe The renewing of this their old pretended Privilege look'd like some check to the Arch-bishop and as though they required of him a sort of dependence on them now more than before and it shewed some secret Ill-will towards him which brake out more openly not long after as we shall shew in the Process of our Story In the Register is also recorded Boner's Oath of Fidelity to the King against the Bishop of Rome Which I will add here that Men may see with what little Affection to the Pope this Man was let into the Bishoprick which he afterwards made so much use of for him and his Usurpations though thereby he stands upon Record for ever for Perjury But the Oath was this Ye shall never consent nor agree that the Bishop of Rome shall practise exercise or have any manner of Authority Jurisdiction or Power within this Realm or any other the King's Dominions but that ye shall resist the same at all times to the uttermost of your Power And that from henceforth ye shall accept repute and take the King's Majesty to be the only Supream Head in Earth of the Church of England c. So help you God and all Saints and the Holy Evangelists Signed thus ✚ In fidem praemissorum Ego Edm. Boner Elect. Confirmat Londoniens huic praesenti chart a subscripsi By the Arch-bishop's Letters bearing date May 20. he made Robert Harvey B. LL. his Commissary in Calais and in all the other Neighbouring Places in France being his Diocess A Man surely wherein the good Arch-bishop was mistaken or else he would never have ventured to set such a Substitute of such bigotted cruel Principles in that place This Harvey condemned a poor labouring Man of Calais who said he would never believe that any Priest could make the Lord's Body at his pleasure Whereupon he was accused before the Commissary who roundly condemned him to be burnt inveighing against him and saying He was an Heretick and should die a vile Death The poor Man said He should die a viler shortly And so it came to pass for half a Year after he was hang'd drawn and quartered for Treason He seemed to have succeded in the room of a Man of better Principles called Sir Iohn Butler Who was deprived of his Commissariship by some Bishops Commissioners from the King for the examining several Persons suspect of Religion in Calais The Council there had about the Year 1539 complained of him as a maintainer of Damplip a learned and pious Preacher there So he was sent for into England and charged to favour Damplip because he preached so long there and was not restrained nor punish'd by him He answered warily and prudently that the Lord Lisle Lord Deputy and his Council entertained and friendly used him and countenanced him by hearing him preach so that he could not do otherwise than he did After long attendance upon the King's Commissioners he was discharged and returned home but discharged also of his Commissary's place too And having been an Officer of the Arch-bishop's I will add a word or two more concerning him About the Year 1536 he was apprehended in Calais and bound by Sureties not to pass the Gates of that Town upon the Accusation of two Souldiers that he should have said in contempt of the Corporal Presence That if the Sacrament of the Altar be Flesh Blood and Bone then there is good Aqua vitae at John Spicer's Where probably was very bad This Butler and one Smith were soon after brought by Pursevants into England and there brought before the Privy-Council in the Star-Chamber for Sedition and Heresy which were Charges ordinarily laid against the Professors of the Gospel in those Times and thence sent to the Fleet and brought soon after to Bath-place there sitting Clark Bishop of Bath Sampson Bishop of Chichester and Reps Bishop of Norwich the King's Commissioners And no wonder he met with these Troubles For he had raised up the hatred of the Friars of Calais against him by being a Discoverer and Destroyer of one of their gross Religious Cheats There had been great talk of a Miracle in S. Nicolas Church for the conviction of Men that the Wafer after Consecration was indeed turned into the Body Flesh and Bones of Christ. For in a Tomb in that Church representing the Sepulchre there were lying upon a Marble Stone three Hosts sprinkled with Blood and a Bone representing some Miracle This Miracle was in writing with a Pope's Bull of Pardon annexed to those I suppose that should visit that Church There was also a Picture of the Resurrection bearing some relation to this Miracle This Picture and Story Damplip freely spake against in one of his Sermons saying that it was but an Illusion of the French before Calais was English Upon this Sermon the King also having ordered the taking away all superstitious Shrines there came a Commission to the Lord Deputy of Calais to this Sir Iohn Butler the Arch-bishop's Commissary and one or two more that they should search whether this were true and if they found it not so that immediately the Shrine should be plucked down and so it was For breaking up a Stone in the corner of the Tomb instead of the three Hosts the Blood and the Bone they found souldered in the Cross of Marble lying under the Sepulchre three plain white Counters which they had painted like unto Hosts and a Bone that is in the tip of a Sheep's Tail This Damplip shewed the next Day being Sunday unto the People and after that they were sent to the King by the Lord Deputy But this so angred the Friars and their Creatures that it cost Damplip his Life and Commissary Butler much trouble and the loss of his Office After Harvey Hugh Glazier B. D. and Canon of Christ's-Church Canterbury succeeded in the Office of Commissary to the Arch-bishop fo◠Calais He was once a Friar but afterwards favoured the Reformation He was put up to preach at Paul's Cross the first Lent after King Edward came to the Crown and then asserted the observation of Lent to be but of human Institution This Year the Cathedral Church of Canterbury was altered from Monks to Secular Men of the Clergy viz. Prebendaries or Canons Petticanons Choristers and Scholars At this Erection were present Thomas Cranmer Arch-bishop the Lord Rich Chancellor of the Court of the Augmentation of the Revenues of the Crown Sir Christopher Hales Knight the King's Attorney Sir Anthony Sentleger Knight with divers other Commissioners And nominating and electing such convenient and fit Persons as should serve for the Furniture of the said Cathedral Church according to the
Heaven and many more with him saying thus Multa corpora ascenderunt cum Christo ut perhiberent testimonium In Ashford he preached that Prayer was not acceptable with God but in the Church only and no where else alledging this Text Domus mea domus orationis vocabitur Then and there he said also You Fellows of the new Trick that go up and down with your Testaments in your Hands I pray you what Profit take you by them this last Passage relating to the Testament was interlined by Cranmer himself As Adam was expulsed out of Paradise for meddling with a Tree of Knowledg even so be we for meddling with the Scripture of Christ. He said There were some that said that part of the Ave Maria was made to a Strumpet That Christ in the Gospel confounded Mary Magdalene with two Parables likening her to an Alestake and to a poor Woman whom an Emperor had married and in his presence did lie with a leprous Lazar-man Anno 1542 Preaching in Kennyngton-Church on Good-friday he said That as a Man was creeping to the Cross upon a Good-friday the Image loosed it self off the Cross and met the Man before he came to the Cross and kiss'd him At the Funeral of Mr. Boys he preached That by the receiving of the Sacraments and Penance all a Man 's deadly Sins were forgiven clearly but the venial Sins remained and for them they that died should be punished except they were relieved by Masses and Dirges after their Death This that follows is Cranmâ—r's hand He preacheth no Sermon but one part of it is an Invective against the other Preachers of Christ's Church Shether preached at Sandwich in the Year 1542 That Baptism taketh away but only Original Sin At another time there That every Man since the Passion of Christ hath us much Liberty and Free-will as ever Adam had in Paradise before his Fall That the new Preachers with the liberty of the Gospel have caused our Livings to be worse than the Turks That Zacharias and Elizabeth his Wife kept all the Commandments of God and that it was a light thing for every Man to keep them if he would That Christ and Baptism did nothing else but wash away Original Sin and that if any Man after Baptism did fall he must purchase Remission of his Sins by Penance as Mary Magdalene did That a certain King was sick of a Leprosy and had a Vision to go to Iordan to be washed and should be whole And as he was in his good Intent going hâ— thought that he had as good and sweet Water in his own Country as that was and so returned back and washed himself therein but nothing at all he thereby mended And then he went to Iordan and so was made whole He compared Man's Conscience to a Dog Beware of these false Preachers which preach to you new Fangles Will you know how to discern a true Preacher from a False You have a Dog which is your Conscience Whensoever you shall come to any Sermon ask your Dog What he saith unto it If he say it be good then follow it but if your Dog bark against it and say it is naught then beware and follow it not Adding these words If you will ask your Conscience What she thinks of such new Fangles as are brought into the Church of God she will say that they be naught He also preached that Men now-a-days say that Holy Water signifieth of Christ Blood O! these are very glorious words But it is not fit good Christians that such new Fangles and Fantasies of Men should be brought into the Church of God Item In all his Sermons he commonly useth to make Invectives against the other Preachers of this Cathedral Church making the People believe that the Preachers of the Church preach nothing but a carnal Liberty new Fangles new Auricular Confession Prayers Fasting and all good Works This last is added by Cranmer's Hand as are also several other Passages above according as he himself took the Examination And as the Gospellers thus articled against the Papists so the Papists were as hot in drawing up Articles against the Gospellers Scory before-mentioned was accused that he preached in a Sermon at S. Elphies on Ascension-day 1541. That there was none in Heaven but Christ only meaning I suppose as Mediators there with God in opposition to the Intercession of Saints Then followeth writ by Cranmer's hand these words The Witnesses against him were Bradkirk Priest Shether Marden Colman Adding These four be Witnesses against all the Articles of Ridley and Scory in the first Detection made to me two Years past Then follow more Accusations of Scory He preached in August â—ast in the Chapter-house of Christ's-Church That no Man may pray in any wise in Latin or other Tongue except he understand what he prayeth And that Priests and Clarks do offend taking any Money or Reward for saying Dirige and Mass. He said that some Preachers brought in their Sermons Gesta Romanorum perswading to the People that it was the Gospel or the Bible Another time Anno 1541 he preached in Lent in Christ's-Church Canterbury That only Faith justifies and he that doth deny that only Faith doth justify would deny if he durst be so bold that Christ doth justify He preached at Christ's-Church another time That the Supper of the Lord which is Sacrificium Hostia is not Hostia pro peccatis but Hostia Lâ—â—dis He preached at Faversham Anno 1542 in the Feast of Dedication That the Dedication of material Churches was instituted for the Bishop Profits and that he could not see by Scripture that they might use any such Fashions for that purpose as for Conjuration And then they must conjure the Devil out of the Ground or out of the Lime and Stones And if so then it were as necessary for every Man's House to be consecrate or dedicate Admit quoth he that the Dedication of the same were lawful yet the Bishops should always preach for that is their Office and other Men might and may consecrate them as well as they Item This sumptuous adorning of Churches is against the old Fashion of the Primitive Church They had no such Copes nor Chalices nor other Jewels nor Gildings nor Paintings of Images as we now have And therefore if I were Curate I would sell all such things or lay them to pledg to help the Poor At Christmass last there was a general Procession by the King's Majesty and Mr. Scory preached these words Every Country hath a Custom to chuse a Patron As England hath chosen S. George Scotland S. Andrew c. thinking rather by intercession of Saints to obtain the Victory of their Enemies But good People quoth he forasmuch as Saints be circumscript it is not possible for the Saint that is in the North to hear the Prayer that is made in the South nor that Saint that is in the South to hear the Prayer that is made in the North. But this last
Possession of Arch-bishop Parker From whence he published the Book in the Year 1571 intituling it Reformatio Legum Ecclesiasticarum c. Which was printed again in the Year 1640. Both these Manuscript Draughts were diligently compared together by Iohn Fox and the main Difference seemed to consist in putting the latter into a new Method and placing the Titles differently For in this Matter Cranmer was much busied in King Edward's Reign also being greatly desirous to bring that good Work to perfection For he thought it greatly inconvenient when the Pope's Power was abrogated that his Laws should remain in Force holding it highly necessary that the Nation might have a Body of wholsome Laws for the good Administration of Justice in the Spiritual Courts Wherefore he procured in the fifth Year of that King Letters Commissional to him and seven more diligently to set about the perusal of the old Church-Laws and then to compile such a Body of Laws as should seem in their Judgments most expedient to be practised in the Ecclesiastical Courts and Jurisdictions These seven were Thomas Goodrick Bishop of Ely Richard Cox the King's Almoner Peter Martyr William May Rowland Taylour Iohn Lucas and Richard Goodrick But the Matter was in effect wholly intrusted by the King to the Arch-bishop who associated to himself in the active part of this Work Taylour Martyr and Haddon The Method they observed in managing this Affair was that after they had finished a Title and drawn it up it was then sent to Dr. Haddon who was a Civilian and an accurate Latinist to peruse And if any thing was less elegantly expressed to correct it So I find at the Title De Decimis these words writ by Cranmer This is finished by us but must be over-seen again by Dr. Haddon Thus for instance I observe these Corrections by Haddon's Pen in the Chapter intituled De Commodis quae perveniunt à Sacris ritibus instead of Gratiarum actionis mulierum a partu he corrected it Levatarum puerperarum And in another place Cuicunque hoc Praerogativum est instead of hoc Praerogativum he put Hoc peculiare jus tribuitur quod Praerogativum vocant But his Corrections are very few and but of words less proper The Work and Words were mainly Cranmer's own But all this great and long Labour of the Arch-bishop came to no effect by reason of the King 's untimely Death and it may be the secret opposition of Papists At the same time that he being at Hampton-Court dealt with the King concerning the Reformation of the Canon-Laws he also gave him an Account of a Business his Majesty had imployed him in and with him also Heth and Day Bps of Worcester and Chichester and some other of his Chaplains and Learned Men whom he had of late appointed with the Arch-bishop to peruse certain Books of Service delivered by the King to them wherein there were many Superstitions fit to be amended Which the Arch-bishop in the Name of the rest at this time acquainted the King with As namely the Vigil and ringing of Bells all the Night long upon Alhallow-Night and the covering of Images in the Church in the time of Lent with the lifting the Vail that covereth the Cross on Palm-Sunday and kneeling to the Cross at the same time He moved the King in his own Name and the Name of the rest that these things might be abolished and the Superstitions and other Enormities and Abuses of the same And that because all other Vigils which in the beginning of the Church were godly used yet for the manifold Superstitions and Abuses which did after grow by means of the same were many Years past taken away throughout Christendom and there remained nothing but the Name of the Vigil in the Calendar saving only upon Alhallow-Day at Night he moved that it might be observed no more And because creeping to the Cross was a greater Abuse than any of the other for there the People said Crucem tuam adoramus Domine And the Ordinal saith Procedant Clerici ad Crucem adorandum nudis pedibus and it followeth in the said Ordinal Ponatur Crux ante aliquod Altare ubi à Populo adoretur Which by the Bishop's Book intituled A necessary Instruction is against the second Commandment therefore he desired of the King that the creeping to the Cross might also cease hereafter These superstitious Usages were allowed in the Articles of Religion put forth Anno 1536. Cranmer then not having Interest enough to procure the laying them aside or thinking it then not a fitting season to attempt it as being in vain to oppose what the King himself at that time approved of But now the King listned to the Arch-bishop and bad him confer with the Bishop of Worcester and send to him their Thoughts what course they would advise him to take for Redress The Arch-bishop accordingly consulted with the said Bishop who then went along with Cranmer in the Reformation The Effect of which was as the Arch-bishop wrote to the King soon after from Bekesbourn That his Majesty should send his Letters to both the Arch-bishops to reform these Superstitions and they to send in the King's Name to all the Prelates within their respective Provinces to the same purpose The Arch-bishop withal sent to the King the Minutes of a Letter to be sent to him the said Arch-bishop to that intent He also advised the King that at the same time that this Alteration was commanded to be made he should set forth some Doctrine which should declare the Cause of the abolishing these Usages for the Satisfaction of the Consciences of the People For he knew well as he wrote that the People would think the Honour of Christ was taken away when this honouring of the Cross was taken away And therefore that they should need some good Instruction herein He nominated the Bishops of Worcester and Chichester and some other his Graces Chaplains for the preparing this And this he said would make the People obey him without murmuring nay be thankful to him for shewing them the Truth And it would be a Satisfaction to other Nations when they should see the King do nothing but by the Authority of God's Word and for the setting forth of God's Honour and not the diminishing thereof This Letter of the Arch-bishop to the King is extant in the Paper-Office whence the Bishop of Sarum extracted a Copy These things were agitated in the Bishop of VVinchester's Absence whom the King had sent Ambassador this Year with the Bishop of VVestminster to Charles the Emperor about the Mediation of a Peace between England and France The Arch-bishop took this occasion to move the King in these good Purposes for a further Reformation of Abuses in Religion towards the which the King appeared to be in so good a Mind VVinchester being absent who if he had been at Home would undoubtedly have done his Endeavour to put a Check to these Attempts But it
because by this means all hope of ripe and compleated Learning was immaturely cut off in the very Bud and also all the Expectations of the poorer sort whose whole Time was spent in good Studies was eluded by these Drones occupying those Places and Preferments which more properly belonged unto them For Parts Learning Poverty and Election were of no strength at Home where Favour and Countenance and the Letters of Noblemen and such-like extraordinary and illegal Courses from Abroad bore all the Sway. CHAP. VII Dr. Smith and others recant AND now before I conclude this Year let me pass from more publick Matters and present the Reader with two or three Passages wherein the Arch-bishop had to do with private Men. May the 15 th Richard Smith D. D. Master of Whittington College and Reader of Divinity in Oxford a hot turbulent Man made his Recantation at Pauls Cross convinced and moved thereunto by the Pains of the Arch-bishop What his Errors were that he had publickly vented in the University and in his Writings may be known by the words of his Recantation which were these I do confess and acknowledg that the Authority as well of the Bishop of Rome whose Authority is justly and lawfully abolished in this Realm as of other Bishops and others called the Ministers of the Church consisteth in the Dispensation and Ministration of God's Word and not in making Laws Ordinances and Decrees over the People besides God's Word without the Consent and Authority of the Prince and People I say and affirm that within this Realm of England and other the King's Dominions there is no Law Decree Ordinance or Constitution Ecclesiastical in force and available by any Man's Authority but only by the King's Majesty's Authority or of his Parliament This Man had wrote two Books in favour of Popish Doctrine and those he also now disclaimed viz. A Book of Traditions and another of the Sacrifice of the Mass. In the former of which he maintained That Christ and his Apostles taught and left to the Church many things without writing which he asserted were stedfastly to be believed and obediently fulfilled under pain of Damnation In the other Book he maintained That Christ was not a Priest after the Order of Melchizedeck when he offered himself upon the Cross for our Sins but after the Order of Aaron and that when Christ did offer his Body to his Father after the Order of Melchizedek to appease his Wrath it was to be understood not of the Sacrifice of the Cross but of the Sacrifice that he made at his Maundy in form of Bread and Wine In which Book were other Errors He that is minded to see his Recantation of these his Books may have it in the Appendix as I transcribed it out of an old Book made by Becon intituled Reports of certain Men. This Recantation he not long after made at Oxon viz. in August following Where he also protested openly That he would abide in the sincere and pure Doctrine of Christ's Gospel all humane trifling Traditions set apart even unto Death though it should cost him his Life And this Recantation he also printed for further Satisfaction to the World Bishop Gardiner who was now at Winchester was very uneasy at the News of this Recantation which some took care to bring down to him He signified to the Protector That Smith was a Man with whom he had no Familiarity nor cared for his Acquaintance That he had not seen him in three Years nor talked with him in Seven He was greatly displeased with the first words of his Recantation which yet were but the words of Scripture Omnis Homo mendax Making all the Doctors in the Church as he inferred to be Liars with himself How it argued his Pride for he that sought for such Company in Lying had small Humility and that he would hide himself by that Number that his depraving of Man's Nature in that sort was not the setting out of the Authority of Scripture He said he neither liked his Tractation nor yet his Retractation That he was mad to say in his Book of Vnwritten Verities that Bishops in this Realm could make Laws wherein he said he lied loudly About this time Chadsey Standish Yong Oglethorp and divers others recanted whose Recantations Fox had by him to shew as well as Smith whom we have now before us After this Recantation he carried not himself according to it but favoured the Old Errors And in the Year 1549 offered some Affront unto Arch-bishop Cranmer opposing him in the Doctrine of the Lawfulness of Priests Marriage and endeavoured to make a Rout in Oxford to the endangering P. Martyr's Life and printed a Book the same Year against him De Votis Monasticis Whereupon incurring as he apprehended some Danger he fled into Scotland But weary of being there and willing to have his Peace made in England he wrote two Letters to the Arch-bishop from thence professing that he would out of hand by open Writing in the Latin Tongue revoke all that erroneous Doctrine which he had before taught and published and set forth the pure Doctrine of Christ. And for a Proof hereof he would straight after his return into England set forth a Book in Latin in defence of the most lawful Marriage of Priests In the Year 1550 he wrote certain Treatises against P. Martyr printed at Lovain And the same Year came out his Book against the Arch-bishop's Treatise of the Sacrament This Man was of a most inconstant as well as turbulent Spirit For in the Reign of Queen Mary he turned to the Religion then professed and was great with Bishop Boner in those Times but greatly despised for his Fickleness He once attempted to discourse with Hawks in Boner's House in London Hawks threw in his Dish his Recantation To which when he said it was no Recantation but a Declaration the other gave him this Rub To be short I will know whether you will Recant any more ere ever I talk with you or believe you and so departed from him We shall hear of him again in the Reign of Queen Elizabeth when he again complied and submitted himself to Arch-bishop Parker And last of all returned to his old Opinions and fled to Lovain Pass we from this Man to another of the same Strain with whom the Arch-bishop had to do As the Popish Clergy in the former King's Reign had made all the rudest and eagerest Opposition they dared against the Steps that were then made towards a Reformation so they ceased not to do in this King 's nay and more hoping to shelter themselves under a milder Government One Instance of this appeared in what was done by the Quondam Abbot of Tower-hill London Who for some Recompence of the loss of his Abby was made Vicar of Stepney-Church succeeding I suppose Mr. Hierom burnt to death in the Year 1540 with Dr. Barnes and Garret He being a bold Man and
appear there before the Arch-bishop Where Iohn Whitwel the Arch-bishop's Almoner and Thomas Langley both Priests and his Grace's Chaplains exhibited a Schedule of divers Heresies and damned Opinions against the said Assheton Which are recited in the Abjuration which he made The Tenor whereof is as followeth In the Name of God Amen Before you most Learned Father in God Thomas Arch-bishop Primate and Metropolitan of all England Commissary of our most dread Soveraign Lord and excellent Prince Edward VI by the Grace of God c. I Iohn Assheton Priest of my pure Heart Free-will voluntary and sincere Knowledg confess and openly recognize that in Times past I thought believed said heard and affirmed these Errors Heresies and damnable Opinions following that is to say 1. That the Trinity of Persons was established by the Confession of Athanasius declared by a Psalm Quicunque vult c. And that the Holy Ghost is not God but only a certain Power of the Father 2. That Iesus Christ that was conceived of the Virgin Mary was a holy Prophet and especially beloved of God the Father but that he was not the true and living God Forasmuch as he was seen and lived hungred and thirsted 3. That this only is the Fruit of Iesus Christ's Passion that whereas we were strangers from God and had no knowledg of his Testament it pleased God by Christ to bring us to the acknowledging of his holy Power by the Testament Wherefore I the said Iohn Assheton detesting and abhorring all and every my said Errors Heresies and damned Opinions willingly and with all my Power affecting hereafter firmly to believe in the true and perfect Faith of Christ and his Holy Church purposing to follow the true and sincere Doctrine of holy Church with a pure and free Heart voluntarily mind will and intend utterly to forsake relinquish renounce and despise the said detestable Errors Heresies and abominable Opinions Granting and confessing now 1. That the blessed Trinity consisteth in Three distinct Persons and one Godhead as God the Father God the Son and God the Holy Ghost coequal in Power and Might 2. That Jesus Christ is both God and Man after his holy Nature eternally begotten of his Father of his own Substance and in his Humanity was conceived by the Holy Ghost incarnate and for our Redemption being very God became Man 3. That by the Death of Iesus Christ we be not only made Partakers of the Testament and so disposed to the Knowledg of his godly Will and Power but also that we have full Redemption and Remission of our Sins in his Blood Then he subscribed his Hand to this Confession before the Arch-bishop exhibiting it for his Act and lifting up his Hand beseeched his Grace to deal mercifully and graciously with him and touching the Gospel gave his Faith that he would faithfully and humbly obey the Commands of the Holy Mother-Church and whatsoever Penance the said most Reverend Father should lay upon him To these erroneous Doctrines we must add others that now also spread themselves As that Christ took not Flesh of the Virgin That the Baptism of Infants was not profitable Of which Error one Michael Thombe of London Butcher recanted the Year following viz. 1549 May 11. having been then convented before the Arch-bishop at Lambeth I Michael Thombe of London Bocher of my pure Heart and free Will voluntarily and sincerely acknowledg and confess and openly recognize that in times past I thought believed said heard and affirmed these Errors and Heresies and damnable Opinions following that is to say That Christ took no Flesh of our Lady and that the Baptism of Infants is not profitable because it goeth before Faith Wherefore I the said Michael Thombe detesting and abhorring all and every such my said Errors Heresies and damned Opinions and with all my Power affecting hereafter firmly to believe in the true and perfect Faith of Christ and of the Holy Church purposing to follow the true and sincere Doctrine of Holy Church with a pure and free Heart voluntarily mind will and intend utterly to forsake relinquish renounce and despise the said detestable Errors Heresies and damnable Opinions granting and confessing now That Christ took Flesh of the Virgin Mary and that the Baptism of Infants is profitable and necessary And by this Submission and Penance doing Thombe escaped But another of the same Opinion more obstinate came to a sadder End and was Burnt namely Ioan Bocher or Ioan of Kent Her Opinion is in the Instrument drawn up against her in the ABp's Register Which ran thus That you believe that the Word was made Flesh in the Virgin 's Belly but that Christ took Flesh of the Virgin you believe not because the Flesh of the Virgin being the outward Man was sinfully gotten and born in Sin But the Word by the Consent of the inward Man of the Virgin was made Flesh. This she stood perversely in So the Arch-bishop himself excommunicated her judicially the Sentence being read by him April 1549 in S. Mary's Chappel within the Cathedral Church of Pauls Sir Thomas Smith William Cook Dean of the Arches Hugh Latimer Richard Lyell LL. D. the King's Commissioners assisting She was committed afterwards to the Secular Arm and certified so to be by an Instrument made by the Commissioners to the King After she was condemned she was a Sevennight in the Lord Chancellor Rich his House and every day the Arch-bishop and Bishop Ridley came and reasoned with her that if possible they might save her from the Fire But nothing would do I will here produce Latimer's Censure of her who well knew her Case being one of the Commissioners that sat upon her She would say saith he in his Sermon on S. Iohn Evangelist's Day That our Saviour was not very Man nor had received Flesh of his Mother Mary And yet she could shew no reason why she should believe so Her Opinion was this The Son of God said she penetrated through her as through a Glass taking no Substance of her This foolish Woman denied the common Creed Natus ex Maria Virgine and said that our Saviour had a fantastical Body A Dutch Man an Arian named George van Paris denying Christ to be true God came to a like End with Ioan namely that of burning to Death being condemned for Heresy that was in the Year 1551. But tho I make some Anticipation in my History yet I do it that I may lay these Heresies here together that started up or rather shewed themselves more visibly in this Reign CHAP. IX The Arch-bishop Visits THE Arch-bishop in this Year held a Visitation in divers Places throughout his Diocess Wherein enquiry was to be made concerning the Behaviour both of the Priests and the People in eighty six Articles Whereby may be seen the Arch-bishop's conscientious Care and Solicitude for the abrogating of Superstition and the promoting of true Religion That he might reduce the Clergy to Learning
Young Chaunter after Arch-bishop of York who pulled down the great Hall in the Palace there for lucre of the Lead and Rowland Mericâ— one of the Canons after Bishop of the said See of S. Davids and Father to Sir Gilly Merick that came to an untimely Death by being in the Business of the Earl of Essex These two having been before Commissaries of this Diocess had spoiled the Cathedral Church of Crosses Chalices and Censors with other Plate Jewels and Ornaments to the value of five hundred Marks or more and converted them to their own private Benefit and had sealed many Blanks Sede Vacante without the King's Licence or Knowledg Whereupon the Bishop issued out his Commission to his Chancellor for visiting the Chapter as well as the rest of the Diocess But the Commission was it seems drawn up amiss by the said Chancellor to whom the Bishop left the forming the Draught For it ran in the old Popish Form and so the King's Supremacy not sufficiently acknowledged therein though he professed to visit in the King's Name and Authority This these two in Combination with his own ingrateful Register George Constantine whom he had preferred took their Advantage of not only to disobey the said Commission but to accuse the poor Bishop of a Praemunire For which he was sain to go down from London whither they had before brought him up to answer at the Assizes of Carmarthen And when by reason of the Molestations they gave him and their detaining him in London he could not be so exact in paying in the Tenths and First-Fruits and Subsidies due from the Clergy of his Diocess they took hold of this as another Crime to lay to his Charge And hereupon in fine he was kept in Prison a long time and so remained when Queen Mary entred upon the Government Upon which Occasion he fell into the Hands of the Pope's Butchers Who at last for maintaining the Truth sent him into his Diocess and burnt him at a Stake And thus these Men became the Instruments of his Death In their vexatious Suits against this good Bishop undertaken the better to conceal their own Faults our Arch-bishop seemed to be engaged giving too much credit to the ill Reports that Farrar's Enemies raised against him in a great heap of frivolous and malicious Articles exhibited to the King's Council Who appointed Sir Iohn Mason and Dr. VVotton to examine them Though I suppose our pious Arch-bishop afterwards saw through this Malice and forbore any further to give Influence to those that prosecuted this honest Man Understanding by Letters which that afflicted Man sent both to him and Bishop Goodrick Lord Chancellor his unjust Vexations wrought by his Adversaries One whereof I mean his Register remained Register to that very Popish Bishop that succeeded him nay and was assistant at his Trial and Condemnation In short hear what one writes that lived nearer those Times and might therefore be presumed to know more of these Matters This was a Conspiracy of his Enemies against him and of wicked Fellows who had robbed the Church kept Concubines falsified Records and committed many other gross Abuses To conclude I find by a private Letter written to Iohn Fox that these Men knowing how they had wronged the good Bishop came to him before his Death and asked him Forgiveness and he like a good Christian forgave them and was reconciled to them CHAP. X. The Arch-bishop answers the Rebels Articles THE Commons this Year brake out into a dangerous Rebellion and though they were once or twice appeased and scattered in some Places yet they made Insurrections in others And chiefly in Devon where they were very formidable for their Numbers The Reason they pretended was double The one was the Oppression of the Gentry in enclosing of their Commons from them The other the laying aside the old Religion which because it was Old and the Way their Forefathers worshipped God they were very fond of The Ld Russel Ld Privy-Seal who was sent against them offering to receive their Complaints the Rebels sent them to him drawn up under 15 Articles As before they had sent their Demands in seven Articles and a Protestation that they were the King 's Body and Goods In Answer to which the King sent a Message to them that may be seen in Fox They sent also a Supplication to the King To the which an Answer was made by the King 's Learned Counsel I shall take notice only of the fifteen Articles unto which our Arch-bishop drew up an excellent Answer at good length For no Man was thought so fit as he to open and unravel these Mens Requests and to unfold the unreasonableness of them and to shew what real Mischief they would pluck down upon themselves and the Nation should all the Decrees of our Forefathers and the Six Articles be revived again and what great Injury Religion would receive should the Latin Masses and Images and the worshipping the Sacrament and Purgatory and Abbies be restored and Cardinal Pole come Home and the English Bible be called in and such-like things which their Demands consisted of This Answer of the Arch-bishop I judg worthy preserving and therefore though somewhat long I have laid in the Appendix because it will shew his Wisdom Learning and the Knowledg of the State of the Kingdom that he was furnished with I met with these Writings in the Manuscript Librarary of Benet College being the rough Draught of them all under the Arch-bishop's own Hand He charged them with Ignorance in putting up such Articles And concluded them not to be their own Minds to have them granted had they understood them but that they were indeed devised by some Priests and rank Papists and Traitors to the Realm which he would not so much as think of them So that he gently told them that he must use the same expression to them that Christ did to Iames and Iohn They asked they wot not what The Arch-bishop wrot this Answer after the Rout at Exeter given them by the Lord Russel and the taking Prisoners divers of their Captains and Priests and between the Condemnation and Execution of Humphrey Arundel and Bray Mayor of Bodmin Whom he prayed God to make penitent before their Deaths to which they were adjudged For which two the Rebels in one of their Articles had required safe Conduct to make their Grievances known to the King As they had in another Article demanded two Divines of the same Popish stamp to be sent to them to preach namely Moreman and Crispin Who both seemed now being Priests of that Country to be under Restraint upon suspicion Men as the Arch-bishop told them ignorant of God's Word but of notable Craft Wilfulness and Dissimulation and such as would poison them instead of feeding them Of Crispin I find little but that he was once Proctor of the University of Oxon and Doctor of the Faculty of Physick and of
Year when Ridley was translated thither as we shall see by and by Indeed this was the most plausible Pretence the Papists had and which they made much use of Which Boner and Gardiner had cunningly invented viz. That though the King were to be obeyed and all were bound to submit to his Laws yet not to the Orders and Placits of his Counsellors who made what Innovations they pleased in his Name and were none of his Laws and that therefore things should remain in the State wherein the former King left them till the King now a Child came to Years of Discretion to make Laws himself This the Rebels in Devon made use of And this also the Lady Mary urged very boldly to the Lords of the Council for her incompliance with the Communion-Book and for continuance of the use of the Mass telling them in a Letter That she was resolved to remain obedient to her Father's Laws till the King her Brother should have perfect Years of Discretion to order that Power that God had given him Which Letter whereof I have the Original may be seen in the Appendix For the satisfying therefore of the People in this the Preachers were fain to do their Endeavours in the Pulpits Shewing them that those that were in Office under the King were by the Word of God to be obeyed as the King himself There be some Men that say as Latimer in one of his Sermons in these Days when the King's Majesty himself commandeth me so to do then I will do it not afore This is a wicked Saying and damnable For we may not so be excused Scripture is plain in it and sheweth us that we ought to obey his Officers having Authority from the King as well as unto the King himself Therefore this Excuse will not nor cannot serve afore God Yet let the Magistrates take heed to their Office and Duty This Year the Arch-bishop celebrated a great Ordination consisting of such chiefly as shewed themselves Favourers of the King's Proceedings to be sent abroad to preach the Gospel and to serve in the Ministry of the Church At this Ordination Bishop Ridley also assisted the Arch-bishop The old Popish Order of conferring of Holy Orders was yet in force the new Office as yet not being prepared and established But this Ordination nevertheless was celebrated after that Order that was soon after established At this Ordination great Favour was shewn and Connivance to such who otherwise being well qualified for Piety and Learning scrupled wearing the Habits used by the Popish Priests I meet with two famous Men now ordained The one was Robert Drakes who was Deacon to Dr. Tayler Parson of Hadley at the Commandment of Arch-bishop Cranmer afterwards Parson of Thundersley in Essex and in the Year 1556 burnt to death in Smithfield for his constant Profession of Christ's Religion The other was Thomas Sampson Parson of Breadstreet London and successively Dean of Chichester and Christ's-Church Oxon. Who in a Letter of his written to Secretary Cecyl in Q. Elizabeth's Reign said That at his Ordination he excepted against the Apparel and by the Arch-bishop and Bishop Ridley he was nevertheless permitted and admitted All the Divine Offices were now reformed but only that for Ordination of Ministers Therefore for the doing of this the Council appointed Twelve Learned Men consisting half of Bishops and half of other inferior Divines Whose Names I do not meet with excepting Hethe Bp of Worcester Who because he would not assist in this Work was sent to Prison The chief of them no doubt was the Arch-bishop After mature deliberation this Office was agreed upon and finished And Ponet was the first Bishop Consecrated after this new Form And that I suppose may be the reason that it is set down at length in the Arch-bishop's Register in that manner as it is there to be seen as we shall see under the next Year Upon the Vacancy of Cathedral Churches the Arch-bishop used to visit So now the Church of S. Davids being vacant upon the remove of Barlow to Bath and Wells the Arch-bishop issued out a Commission to Eliseus Price to visit that Church And upon the Vacancy of Glocester by the Death of Wakeman there was a Commission to I. Williams LL. D. and Prebendary there to be his Commissary and to visit that Church and to be Keeper of the Spiritualties of the City and Diocess of Glocester in this third Year of the King This Year also the Church of Norwich being become Vacant by the Resignation of Repps the Arch-bishop granted a Commission to Iohn Bishop Suffragan of Thetford and Dean of the Church of the Holy Trinity Norwich to be his Deputy and Commissary for Visitation and Jurisdiction But somewhat before this he constituted Roland Taylor LL.D. and Will. Wakefeld D. D. to be Keepers of the Spiritualties of Norwich From whose Jurisdiction he protested not to derogate by those his Commissional Letters to the Suffragan nor to withdraw from them any Authority of Jurisdiction This was dated February 15. Also the Church of London being Vacant by the Deprivation and Destitution of Boner the Arch-bishop constituted Gabriel Donne Residentiary of S. Pauls to be his Official and Keeper of the Spiritualties to exercise all manner of Episcopal Jurisdiction in the said City and Diocess This Year he made Griffin Leyson LL.D. Dean of the Arches CHAP. XII Duke of Somerset's Troubles The Common-Prayer Ratified WHEN most of the Council had combined together in the Month of October against the Protector of the King's Person the Duke of Somerset and had withdrawn themselves to Ely-House the King then being at Hampton-Court and suddenly conveyed by the said Duke to Windsor upon the fear of Tumult then I find the Arch-bishop and but two Privy-Counsellors more with the King and the Protector there Being here the good Arch-bishop though he would not forsake his Friend the Duke nor the King his Master yet he did what lay in him to appease and pacify these Heats And so he with the Lord Paget and Secretary Smith in their own and the King's Name wrote an earnest Letter to the Separating Counsellors and sent it by Sir Philip Hoby Wherein as appears by their Answer They were charged by the Arch-bishop with creating much Care and Sorrow to the King and that he thought they had not that Care that beseemed them of pacifying the present Uproars and for the preservation of the State from Danger That they forgat the Benefits they had received from the King's Father nor were mindful of their Duty of Allegiance That their Doings bespake Wilfulness and that the Protector meant nothing but the Safety and Protection of the King in what he had done and that he had that consideration of his Duty to God that the Promise and Oath he made required They were advised to do as they would be done unto And mention was made of Cruelty more than once charging
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
things should be put in the same posture they were before To which the College by Dr. Haddon's elegant Pen wrot an Answer That as to their abolishing Masses they said they were private Masses and the Statutes of the College did seem to enjoin only Masses wherein was a Communion of the Body and Blood of Christ. That that was not Perjury when by the common Consent of the College some minuter Matters of the Statutes were changed That had he himself been there he would have done as they did considering the Reports that came from the Court brought by Witnesses worthy of Credit And that as for their Disputations they urged that it was free for them to dispute Matters controverted for better Inquiry into the Truth And that it was done with Lenity without any perversness of Speech He had a younger Brother named William who was above forty Years after Bishop of Winton This Man was a Scholar of the College while his Brother was Provost and Bishop To whom he sent once a Request to supply him with a little Money to buy him some Books and other Necessaries he stood in need of at that time His Brother answered him knowing him to be well affected to the Gospel That for his part he held it not fit to relieve those that were not of the True Church and therefore he would not in any wise relieve him Thus had his Religion destroyed in him the very Principles of Nature This Bishop had been a vehement Asserter of Transubstantiation yet in April 1550. he preached against it at Westminster which King Edward thought fit to take notice of in his Journal and he complied and went along with all the Steps of the Reformation till the declining of this Year 1550 when the Matter of taking down Altars was set on Foot For then it seems either there was a Prospect that the Reformation carring on would have a Stop or it was secretly agreed among the Popishly affected now to fall off In Queen Mary's Days he was a mighty busy Man and one of the Commissioners for the examination and condemning to Death the Professors of Religion When in Conference with Bradford that Holy Man had charged him for departing from the Reformed Church as it was in King Edward's Days he told him That he was but a young Man and yet in the first Year of that King he was five or six and forty Years of Age and that coming from the University he went with the World But it was always against his Conscience He could it seems dispense with his Conscience upon Occasion and yet what a Man of Conscience was he when Altars were to be pulled down He sat a Commissioner upon Hoper together with Winchester London Durham and Landaff and however gently he had been used in his Trouble that was forgot and he treated that Reverend Man most rudely undecently falling upon him with foul Words and with a scornful Countenance calling him Hypocrite CHAP. XXI Papists grow bold Loose Professors restrained THUS indeed when the Papists found they could not prevail by outward Force which they had tried to the utmost the last Year they now used other Arts. One among the rest was to libel the Government and disperse scurrilous Rhimes and Ballads upon the Preachers One of these was this Year fastned upon the Pulpit of some eminent Church probably of S. Paul's Which nevertheless soon had an Answer to it And not long after a more witty Ballad was put abroad glancing as it seems at the Arch-bishop upon occasion of the Liberty of reading the Bible and of the English Service and the publishing the Homily-Book and other good Books Whipping the Government under the Person of one Iohn No-body because that notwithstanding all these religious Pretences there was so much Sin Lechery Adultery Bribery and want of Charity A tast of this their Poetry I have put into the Appendix because some probably may be so Curious as to peruse the Fancy of that Age. The Papists were at this Juncture very bold whether it were that they had taken up a Conceit that the old Religion would be again restored upon the Disgrace of the Duke of Somerset or upon some other Reasons To stay these Men the Council as they had proceeded before against some Popish Bishops so they thought fit to use some Rigors towards others noted to be the forwardest Men. One of these was Dr. Chedsey who was one of the Disputants against P. Martyr the King's Professor He took now upon him to preach openly at Oxford against the Steps of the Reformation that were made and making Wherefore March 16 he was commited to the Marshalsea for seditious Preaching Where he lay till November the 11 th 1551. And then he was ordered to be brought to the Bishop of Ely's where he enjoyed his Table and an easier Restraint March 19. Serjeant Morgan was committed to the Fleet for hearing Mass in the Lady Mary's Chappel March 22 Sir Anthony Brown was committed to the Fleet for the same Offence And three days after viz. March 25. Mr. White Warden of Winchester appeared before the Council and confessed that he had divers Books and Letters from beyond Sea and namely from one Martyn a Scholar there who opposed the King's Majesty's Proceedings utterly And it being manifest that he had consented to things of that sort in such wise that greater Practices were thought to be in him that ways he was committed to the Tower where lying for some months he shewed better Conformity in Matters of Religion So that in Iune 14 1551. The Council wrote a Letter to the Arch-bishop that he should send to the Lieutenant of the Tower for Mr. White to be brought to him and with him to remain till such time as he should reclaim him Which being done he was to be sent back again to the Tower until the King's Majesty's further Pleasure upon his Lordship's Certificate of his Proceedings with him This White however he complied now was in Queen Mary's Reign made Bishop successively of Lincoln and Winchester and preached that Queen's Funeral Sermon and was deprived by the next Queen for refusing Conformity to the Religion then established And while the Papists on one hand were so busy in promoting their Ends there were a looser sort of Professors of Religion disgraced the Reformation on the other For some there were that took the liberty of meeting together in certain Places and there to propound odd Questions and vent dangerous Doctrines and Opinions Of these also the Council having notice they thought it very fit to discountenance and restrain them Ianuary 27. A number of Persons a sort of Anabaptists about sixty met in a House on a Sunday in the Parish of Bocking in Essex where arose among them a great Dispute Whether it were necessary to stand or kneel bare-head or covered at Prayers and they concluded the Ceremony not to be material
Year 1557 the Exiles here printed it with this Title Defensio c. a Thoma Cranmero Martyre scripta Ab Authore in Vinculis recognita aucta Before it is a new Preface to the Reader made as it is thought by Sir Iohn Cheke relating to the Arch-bishop and this his Book shewing how well-weighed and well-thought on this Doctrine of the Sacrament was before he published it and that he let it not go abroad till he had diligently compared and pondred all Scriptures and Ancient Authors and confirmed it at last by his Blood In the body of the Book the places where any Enlargements are are signified by an Hand pointing thereunto In the Margent is often to be found this word Object with certain Numbers added Which Numbers shew those Places which Gardiner under the Name of Marcus Antonius did endeavour to confute The very Original these English Exiles here at Embden kept as a great Treasure among them and as a Memorial of the Holy Martyr Besides this the Arch-bishop fully intended to have his Vindication of his Book impugned by Gardiner put into Latin also but he lived not to see that done But care was taken of this Business among the Exiles Insomuch that both Sir Iohn Choke and Iohn Fox were busied about it at the same time But the former surceased and left the whole Work to Fox then at Frankford after he had finished the first part In this Piece done by Cheke Iohn a Lasco had an hand for he put in the Latin School-Terms instead of more pure good Latin which Cheke had used And it was judged fit that such Words should be used where the ABp in his English had used them And this Cheke and A Lasco themselves wrote to Fox Fox undertook the rest by the Incitation and Encouragement of P. Martyr and of Grindal and Pilkington both Bishops afterwards Who gave him Directions for the translating and as Doubts occurred concerning the Sense of certain Matters in the Book as he met with them he consulted with these Men for their Judgments therein Grindal in one Letter bad him write a Catalogue of all Passages by him doubted of and send it to him Fox finished his Translation in the Year 1557 before Iune For which he had a Congratulatory Letter from Grindal who was his chief Assistant and Counsellor herein The Work was dispatched to the Press at Basil I suppose and when one Part was printed the Censors of the Press thought it would be better to defer an Argument of that Nature to better Times the Controversy having been bandied up and down so much already But Froscover undertook the printing of the whole Book Fox would do nothing of himself but leaving himself to the Judgment of his Learned Brethren to commit the Work now to Froscover or no Queen Mary's Death and the return of the Exiles I suppose stopped further progress in this Matter The Original Manuscript under Fox's own Hand in very cleanly elegant Latin I have lying by me It bears this Title De totâ Sacramenti Eucharistiae causa Institutionum Libri V. Autore D. THOMA CRANMERO Archiepiscopo Cantuariensi Quibus Stephani Garneri Episcopi Wintoniensi SMYTHI Doctoris Theologi impugnationibus respondetur And that I may bring here together all that relates to Cranmer as to this Matter of the Sacrament I must not omit what I saw in the Benet-Library There is a thin Note-book of this Arch-bishop's with this Title wrote by his own Hand De re Sacramentaria which I verily believe are his Meditations and Conclusions when he set himself accurately to examine the Sacramental Controversy and fell off from the Opinion of the Carnal Presence The Notes consist of nothing but Quotations out of ancient Ecclesiastical Authors about the Lord's Supper interlined in many Places by the Arch-bishop's Pen. On the top of some of the Pages are these Sentences writ by himself being Doctrines provable out of the Sentences there produced and transcribed Panis vocatur Corpus Christi Vinum Sanguis Panis est Corpus meum Vinum est Sanguis meus figurativae sunt locutiones Quid significet haec figura Edere carnem bibere sanguinem Mali non edunt bibunt corpus sanguinem Domini Patres Vet. Testamenti edebant bibebant Christum sicut Nos Sicut in Eucharistia ita in Baptismo presens est Christus Contra Transubstantiationem After this follow these Writings of the Arch-bishop's own Hand which Arch-bishop Parker elsewhere transcribed for his own Satisfaction Multa affirmant crassi Papistae seu Capernaitae quae neque Scriptura neque ullus Veterum unquam dixerat Viz. Quod Accidentia maneant sine subjecto Quod Accidentia panis vini sunt Sacramenta non panis vinum Quod Panis non est figura sed accidentia panis Quod Christus non appellavit panem corpus suum Quod cum Christus dixit Hoc est corpus meum pronomen Hoc non refertur ad panem sed ad corpus Christi Quod tot corpora Christi accipimus aut toties corpus ejus accipimus quoties aut in quot partes dentibus secamus panem Thus having set down divers Assertions of Papists or Capernaites as he stiled them which neither Scripture nor Ancient Fathers knew any thing of his Notes proceed to state wherein Papists and Protestants disagree Praecipua Capita in quibus a Papisticis dissentimus Christum Papistae statuunt in pane nos in homine comedente Illi in comedentis ore nos in toto homine Illi Corpus Christi aiunt evolare masticato vel consumpto pane Nos manere in homine dicimus quamdiu membrum est Christi Illi in pane statuunt per annum integrum diutius si duret panis Nos in homine statuimus inhabitare quamdiu Templum Dei fuerit Illorum Sententiâ quod ad realem praesentiam attinet non amplius edit homo quam bellua neque magis ei prodest quam cuivis animanti Thus God made use of this Arch-bishop who was once of the most violent Asserters of the Corporal Presence to be the chiefest Instrument of overthrowing it But this good Work required to be carried on after Cranmer's Death For great Brags were made of Gardiner's second Book and it was boasted that none dared to encounter this their Goliath P. Martyr was thought the fittest Man to succeed Cranmer in this Province to maintain the Truth that began now to shine forth He overcome by the Solicitation of Friends composed a Book against Gardiner as was said before and printed it at Zurick Wherein I. He defended the Arguments of our Men which had been collected together and pretended to be confuted by Gardiner's Book II. He defended those Rules which Cranmer had put forth in his Tract of the Sacrament III. He maintained those Answers whereby the Arguments of the Adversaries were wont to be refuted And IV. He asserted the just and
true Interpretation of certain Places out of the Fathers which Gardiner and his Companions brought for themselves and their Errors After this Defence followed another by the same Author printed in the same Town of Zurick against two Books of Dr. Rich. Smith concerning the single Life of Priests and Monastick Vows which he wrote at Lovain against Martyr For when Martyr had read at Oxford upon 1 Corinthians Chap. vii where the Apostle speaks much of Virginity and Matrimony the Notes of which Readings Smith had very diligently taken being constantly present at them from thence he composed two Books not so strong as malicious Of the Celibacy of Priests and of Vows designing thereby to confute Martyr's Arguments Which he therefore thought fit to vindicate In this Book he not only answered Smith's Arguments but whatever else he could meet with upon that Subject But it was thought to be a very improper Undertaking and proved cause of Mirth that so filthy a Fellow as Smith was known to be and once taken in the Act of Adultery should write a Book of Priestly Chastity Which occasioned these Verses made by Laur. Humfrey Haud satis affabrè tractans fabrilia Smithus Librum de vita caelibe composuit c. Dúmque pudicitiam dum vota monastica laudat Stuprat sacra notans foedera conjugii CHAP. XXVI The Duke of Somerset's Death New Bishops THE Arch-bishop of Canterbury this Year lost the Duke of Somerset whom he much valued and who had been a great Assistant to him in the Reformation of the Church and a true Friend to it His violent Death exceedingly grieved the good Arch-bishop both because he knew it would prove a great Let to Religion and was brought about by evil Men to the shedding of Innocent Blood for the furthering the Ends of Ambition and begat in him Fears and Jealousies of the King's Life It is very remarkable what I meet with in one of my Manuscripts There was a Woman somewhat before the last apprehension of the Duke Wife of one Woocock of Pool in Dorsetshire that gave out that there was a Voice that followed her which sounded these words always in her Ears He whom the King did best trust should deceive him and work Treason against him After she had a good while reported this Sir William Barkley who married the Lord Treasurer Winchester's Daughter sent her up to London to the Council with two of his Servants She was not long there but without acquainting the Duke of Somerset whom it seemed most to concern he being the Person whom the King most trusted was sent home again with her Purse full of Money And after her coming home She was more busy in that talk than before So that She came to a Market-Town called Wimborn four Miles from Pool where she reported that the Voice continued following her as before This looked by the Circumstances like a practice of some Popish Priests accustomed to dealing in such Frauds to make the World the more inclinable to believe the Guilt of the good Duke which Somerset's Enemies were now framing against him And so some of the Wiser Sort thereabouts did seem to think For there were two Merchants of Pool that heard her and took a Note of her Words and came to the House of Hancock Minister of Pool who was known to the Duke counselling him to certify my Lord of her Which Hancock accordingly did and came to Sion where the Duke then was and told him of the Words He added Whom the King doth best trust we do not know but that all the King 's loving Subjects did think that his Grace was most worthy to be best trusted and that his Grace had been in Trouble and that all the King 's Loving Subjects did pray for his Grace to the Almighty to preserve him that he might never come in the like trouble again Then the Duke asked him whether he had a Note of the Words Which when he had received from Hancock he said to him suspecting the Plot Ah! Sirrah this is strange that these things should come before the Councellors and I not hear of it I am of the Council also He asked Hancock Before whom of the Council this matter was brought Who replied He knew not certain but as he supposed The Duke asked him Whom he supposed He answered Before the Lord Treasurer because his Son-in-Law Sir W. Barkley sent her up The Duke subjoyned It was like to be so This was three weeks before his last Apprehension This I extract out of Mr. Hancock's own Narration of himself and and his Troubles to which he added That at his first apprehension the report was that the Duke what time as he was fetch'd out of Windsor-Castle having the King by the Hand should say It is not I that they shoot at This is the Mark that they shoot at meaning the King Which by the Sequel proved too true For that good Godly and vertuous Prince lived not long after the Death of that good Duke Indeed it seemed to have been a Plot of the Papists and the Bishop of Winchester at the Bottom of it This is certain when in October 1549. the Duke was brought to the Tower the Bishop was then born in hand he should be set at Liberty Of which he had such Confidence that he prepared himself new Apparel against the Time he should come out thinking verily to have come abroad within eight or ten Days But finding himself disappointed he wrote an expostulatory Letter to the Lords within a Month after to put them in remembrance as Stow writes The Articles that were drawn up against the Duke upon his second Apprehension and Trial were in number Twenty which I shall not repeat here as I might out of a Manuscript thereof because they may be seen in Fox But I do observe one of the Articles is not printed in his Book namely the Tenth which ran thus Also you are charged that you have divers and many times both openly and privately said and affirmed That the Nobles and Gentlemen were the only Causes of the Dearth of things whereby the People rose and did reform things themselves Whence it appears that one Cause of the hatred of the Nobility and Gentry against him was because he spake against their Debauches and Excesses Covetousness and Oppressions But that which I chiefly observe here is that the draught of these Articles which I have seen were made by Bp Gardiner being his very Hand unless I am much mistaken So that he I suppose was privately dealt with and consulted being then a Prisoner in the Tower to be a Party in assisting and carrying on this direful Plot against the Duke to take away his Life Notwithstanding his outward Friendship and fair Correspondence in Letters with the said Duke But Gardiner was looked upon to be a good Manager of Accusations and he was ready enough to be employed here that he might put to his Hand in taking off one
Catalogue of Learned Men and such as he esteemed fit for Places of Preferment in the Church and University that so as any Place fell in the King's Gift the said Secretary might be ready at the least Warning to recommend fitting and worthy Men to supply such Vacancies and to prevent any Motion that might be made by any Courtiers or Simonists for ignorant Persons or corrupt in Religion In answer to which Letter the Arch-bishop writ him word That he would send him his Mind in that Matter with as much Expedition as he could And undoubtedly we should have seen the good Fruits of this afterwards in the Church had not the untimely Death of that admirable Prince that followed not long after prevented this good Design This Year the Arch-bishop laboured under two Fits of Sickness at Croydon The latter was caused by a severe Ague of which his Physicians doubted whether it were a Quotidian or a double Tertian and seizing him in the declining of the Year was in danger to stick by him all the Winter But by the Care of his Physicians in the latter end of August it had left him two Days which made him hope he was quit thereof yet his Water kept of an high Colour That second Day he wrote to Cecyl and desired him to acquaint Cheke how it was with him And now the most Danger was as he said that if it came again that Night it was like to turn to a Quartan a most stubborn Ague and likelier to continue and wear him out A Disease indeed that carried off his Successor Cardinal Pole and was as Godwin observed a Disease deadly and mortal unto elder Folk The Arch-bishop's Friends had reason to fear his Distemper if we think of the Severity of Agues in that Age greater as it seems than in this Roger Ascham complaineth to his Friend Iohn Sturmius Anno 1562 That for four Years past he was afflicted with continual Agues that no sooner had one left him but another presently followed and that the State of his Health was so impaired and broke by them that an Hectick Fever seiz'd his whole Body And the Physicians promised him some Ease but no solid Remedy And I find six or seven Years before that mention made of hot burning Feavers whereof died many old Persons and that there died in the Year 1556 seven Aldermen within the space of ten Months And the next Year about Harvest-time the Quartan Agues continued in like manner or more vehemently than they had done the Year before and they were chiefly mortal to old People and especially Priests So that a great number of Parishes became destitute of Curats and none to be gotten and much Corn was spoiled for lack of Harvest-men Such was the Nature of this Disease in these Days But the Severity or Danger of the Arch-bishop's Distemper did not so much trouble him as certain Inconveniences that attended it viz. That it put him off from â—hose pious and holy Designs that he was in hand with for God's Glory and the Good of the Church For so he exprest his Mind to his Friend the Secretary However the Matter chance the most Grief to me is that I cannot proceed in such Matters as I have in hand according to my Will and Desire This Terrenum Domicilium is such an Obstacle to all good Purposes So strongly bent was the Heart of this excellent Prelat to the serving of God and his Church But out of this Sickness he escaped for God had reserved him for another kind of Death to glorify him by A little before this Sickness befel him something fell out which gave him great Joy Cecyl knew how welcome good News out of Germany would be to him and therefore in Iuly sent him a Copy of the Pacification that is the Emperor's Declaration of Peace throughout the Empire after long and bloody Wars which consisted of such Articles as were favourable unto the Protestants after much persecution of them As that a Diet of the Empire should shortly be summoned to deliberate about composing the Differences of Religion and that the Dissensions about Religion should be composed by placid and pious and easy Methods And that in the mean time all should live in Peace together and none should be molested for Religion with divers other Matters And in another Letter soon after the said Cecyl advised him of a Peace concluded between the Emperor and Maurice Elector of Saxony a warlike Prince and who headed the Protestant Army Which being News of Peace among Christians was highly acceptable to the good Father But he wanted much to know upon what Terms out of the Concern he had that it might go well with the Protestant Interest And therefore Cecyl having not mentioned them the Arch-bishop earnestly in a Letter to him desired to know whether the Peace were according to the Articles meaning those of the Pacification or otherwise Which when he understood for upon the same Articles that Peace between the Emperor and Duke Maurice stood it created a great Tranquillity to his pious Mind Thus were his Thoughts employed about the Matters of Germany and the Cause of Religion there Which he rejoiced not a little to see in so fair a way to a good Conclusion CHAP. XXXI His Kindness for Germany TO this Country he had a particular Kindness not only because he had been formerly there in quality of Ambassador from his Master King Henry and had contracted a great Friendship with many eminent Learned Men there and a near Relation to some of them by marrying Osiander's Niece at Norinberg but chiefly and above all because here the Light of the Gospel began first to break forth and display it self to the spiritual Comfort and Benefit of other Nations He had many Exhibitioners in those Parts to whom he allowed Annual Salaries Insomuch that some of his Officers grumbled at it as though his House-keeping were abridged by it For when once in King Henry's Reign one in discourse with an Officer of his Grace had said He wondred his Lordship kept no better an House though he kept a very good one He answered It was no wonder for my Lord said he hath so many Exhibitions in Germany that all is too little to scrape and get to send thither He held at least a monthly Correspondence to and from Learned Germans and there was one in Canterbury appointed by him on purpose to receive and convey the Letters Which his Enemies once in his Troubles made use of as an Article against him And Gardiner a Prebend of Canterbury and preferred by the Arch-bishop of this very thing treacherously in a secret Letter informed his grand Enemy and Competitor Gardiner the Bishop of Winton Among the rest of his Correspondents in Germany Herman the memorable and ever-famous Arch-bishop and Elector of Colen was one who by the Counsel and Direction of Bucer and Melancthon did vigorously labour a Reformation of
Synodal Authority unto them committed And moreover he desired the Prolocutor would be a Means unto the Lords that some of those that were Learned and the publishers of this Book might be brought into the House to shew their Learning that moved them to set forth the same and that Dr. Ridley and Rogers and two or three more might be Licensed to be present at this Disputation and be associate with them But this would not be allowed The last thing we hear of concerning our Arch-bishop in this King's Reign was his denial to comply with the new Settlement of the Crown devised and carried on by the domineering Duke of Northumberland for the Succession of Iane Daughter to Gray Duke of Suffolk whom he had married to one of his Sons This he did both oppose and when he could not hinder refused to have any hand in it First he did his endeavour to stop this Act of the King He took the boldness to argue much with the King about it once when the Marquess of Northampton and the Lord Darcy Lord Chamberlain were present And moreover he signified his desire to speak with the King alone that so he might be more free and large with him But that would not be suffered But if it had he thought he should have brought off the King from his Purpose as he said afterward But for what he had said to the King the Duke of Northumberland soon after told him at the Council-Table That it became him not to speak to the King as he had done when he went about to disswade him from his Will To the Council the Arch-bishop urged the entailing of the Crown by K. Henry upon his two Daughters and used many grave and pithy Reasons to them for the Lady Mary's Legitimation when they argued against it But the Council replied That it was the Opinion of the Judges and the King 's Learned Counsel in the Law that that Entailing could not be prejudicial unto the King and that he being in possession of the Crown might dispose of it as he would This seemed strange unto the Arch-bishop Yet considering it was the Judgment of the Lawyers and he himself unlearned in the Law he thought it not seemly to oppose this Matter further But he refused to sign Till the King himself required him to set his Hand to his Will and saying That he hoped he alone would not stand out and be more repugnant to his Will than all the rest of the Council were Which words made a great Impression upon the Arch-bishop's tender Heart and grieved him very sore out of the dear Love he had to that King and so he subscribed And when he did it he did it unfeignedly All this he wrote unto Queen Mary To which I will add what I meet with in one of my Manuscripts When the Council and the chief Judges had set their Hands to the King's Will last of all they sent for the Arch-bishop who had all this while stood off requiring him also to subscribe the same Will as they had done Who answered That he might not without Perjury For so much as he was before sworn to my Lady Mary by King Henry's Will To whom the Council answered That they had Consciences as well as he and were also as well sworn to the King's Will as he was The Arch-bishop answered I am not judg over any Man's Conscience but mine own only For as I will not condemn their Fact no more will I stay my Fact upon your Conscience seeing that every Man shall answer to God for his own Deeds and not for other Mens And so he refused to subscribe till he had spoken with the King herein And being with the King he told the Abp that the Judges had informed him that he might lawfully bequeath his Crown to the Lady Iane and his Subjects receive her as Queen notwithstanding their former Oath to King Henry's Will Then the Arch-bishop desired the King that he might first speak with the Judges Which the King gently granted And he spake with so many of them as were at that time at the Court and with the King's Attorney also Who all agreed in one that he might lawfully subscribe to the King's Will by the Laws of the Realm Whereupon he returning to the King by his Commandment granted at last to set his Hand From the whole Relation of this Affair we may note as the Honesty so the Stoutness and Courage of the Arch-bishop in the management of himself in this Cause against Northumberland who hated him and had of a long time sought his Ruin and the Ingratitude of Q. Mary or at least the Implacableness of Cranmer's Enemies that the Queen soon yielded her Pardon to so many of the former King's Council that were so deep and so forward in this Business but would not grant it him who could not obtain it till after much and long suit And that it should be put into two Acts of her Parliament to make him infamous for a Traitor to Posterity that he and the Duke of Northumberland were the Devisers of this Succession to deprive Q. Mary of her Right Which was so palpably false and untrue on the Arch-bishop's part But this was no question Winchester's doing through whose Hands being now Lord Chancellor all these Acts of Parliament past and the wording of them Finally I have only one thing more to add concerning this matter Which is that besides the Instrument of Succession drawn up by the King's Council Learned in the Law signed by himself and 32 Counsellors and dated Iune 21 according to the History of the Reformation there was another Writing which was also signed by 24 of the Council And to this I find our Arch-bishop's Name Herein they promised by their Oaths and Honours being commanded so to do by the King to observe all and every Article contained in a Writing of the King 's own Hand touching the said Succession and after copied out and delivered to certain Judges and Learned Men to be written in Order This Writing thus signed with the other Writing of the King being his Devise for the Succession may be seen in the Appendix as I drew them out of an Original CHAP. XXXV The King dies THE good King made his most Christian departure Iuly the 6 th to the ineffable loss of Religion and the Kingdom being in aâ—â— likelihood by his early Beginnings to prove an incomparable Prince to the English Nation It was more than whispered that he died by Poison And however secretly this was managed it was very remarkable that this Rumour ran not only after his Death but even a Month or two before it Reports spred that he was dead For which as being rash Speeches against the King they studiously took up many People and punished them Before his Father K. Henry had him his only Son lawfully begotten it was 28 Years from his first entrance upon his Kingdom And
this Heir made amends for the Nation 's so long expectation of a Prince His singular Excellency in all kind of Princely Towardliness to use the words of one who lived in those Times was such that no Place no Time no Cause no Book no Person either in publick Audience or else in private Company made any mention of him but thought himself even of very Conscience bound to powdre the same with manifold Praises of his incomparable Vertues and Gifts of Grace And again How happy are we English-Men of such a King in whose Childhood appeareth as perfect Grace Vertue godly Zeal desire of Literature Gravity Prudence Justice and Magnanimity as hath heretofore been found in Kings of most mature Age of full Discretion of antient Fame and of passing high Estimation And again That God hath of singular Favour and Mercy towards this Realm of England sent your Grace to reign over us the thing it self by the whole Process doth declare The Arch-bishop his Godfather took exceeding complacency in a Prince of such Hopes and would often congratulate Sir Iohn Cheke his School-master having such a Scholar even with Tears His Instructors would sometimes give Account to the Arch-bishop of his Proficiency in his Studies a thing that they knew would be acceptable to him Thus did Dr. Cox his Tutor in a Letter acquaint the ABp of the Prince's Towardliness Godliness Gentleness and all honest Qualities and that both the Arch-bishop and all the Realm ought to take him for a singular Gift sent of God That he read Cato Vives his Satellitium Esop's Fables and made Latin besides things of the Bible and that he conned pleasantly and perfectly The Arch-bishop out of his dear Love to him and to encourage him would sometimes himself write in Latin to him And one of his Letters to him is yet extant in Fox His great Parts might be seen by his Letters Journals Memorials Discourses and Writings which were many divers lost but of those that are yet extant these are the most A Letter to the Arch-bishop of Canterbury his God-father from Ampthil in Latin being then but about seven Years old Another in Latin to the Arch-bishop from Hartford which was an Answer to one from the Arch-bishop A Letter in French to his Sister the Lady Elizabeth writ Decemb. 18 1546. A Letter to his Unkle the Duke of Somerset after his Success against the Scots 1547. To Q. Katharine Par after her Marriage with the Lord Admiral his Unkle Another Letter to her A Letter to the Earl of Hartford his Cousin in Latin A Letter to Barnaby Fitz-Patrick concerning the Duke of Somerset's Arraignment Another to B. Fitz-Patrick consisting of Instructions to him when he went into France Another to Fitz-Patrick giving him an Account of his Progress in August 1552. Orders concerning the Habits and Apparel of his Subjects according to their Degrees and Qualities Mention is also made in the History of the Reformation of Letters in Latin to K. Henry his Father at eight Years old and to Queen Katharine Par. His Journal writ all with his own Hand from the beginning of his Reign 1547 until the 28 th of Novemb. 1552. A Collection of Passages of Scripture against Idolatry in French Dedicated to the Protector A Discourse about the Reformation of many Abuses both Ecclesiastical and Temporal A Reformation of the Order of the Garter Translated out of English into Latin by K. Edward These four last are published in the History of the Reformation Volume II. among the Collections A Book written in French by him at twelve Years of Age against the Pope intitled A L'encontre les abus du Monde A Memorial February 1551. Another Memorial dated Octob. 13. 1552. Another Memorial His Prayer a little before his Death I shall reherse none of these Writings but only one of the Memorials because it bordereth so near upon our present History and shews so much this Young Prince's Care of Religion and for the good Estate of the Church animated admonished counselled and directed in these Matters by the Arch-bishop For Religion Octob. 13. 1552. I. A Catechism to be set forth for to be taught in all Grammar-Schools II. An Uniformity of Doctrine to which all Preachers should set their Hands III. Commissions to be granted to those Bishops that be Grave Learned Wise Sober and of good Religion for the executing of Discipline IV. To find fault with the slightfulness of the Pastors and to deliver them Articles of Visitation willing and commanding them to be more diligent in their Office and to keep more Preachers V. The abrogating of the old Canon-Law and establishment of a New VI. The dividing of the Bishoprick of Durham into two and placing of Men in them VII The placing of Harley into the Bishoprick of Hereford VIII The making of more Homilies IX The making of more Injunctions X. The placing of one in a Bishoprick in Ireland which Turner of Canterbury hath refused Some of these things were already done and some in Hand Hereby we may see what further Steps in the Reformation would have been made had the good King lived So that in this King's Reign Religion made a good Progress and Superstition and Idolatry was in a good manner purged out of the Church Which was the more to be wondred at considering the Minority of the King the grievous Factions at Court and the too common Practice then of scoffing and buffooning Religion and the more conscientious Professors of it For of this sort of Men Russians and dissolute Livers there were many followed the Court and were Favorites to the Leading-Men there I mean the two Dukes and proved after base Time-servers and Flatterers in the Reign of Queen Mary During this Reign Arch-bishop Cranmer was a very active Man and great Deference seemed to be given to his Judgment by the King and Council in the Matters that were then transacting especially as concerning the Reformation of Religion For I find him very frequently at the Council-Board and often sent for thither or sent unto when absent And here I will not think much to set down all the particular Days when and Places where he was present in Person with the Privy-Counsellors from the Year 1550 beginning unto the middle of the Year 1553 near the the Time of the King's Death as it was extracted carefully out of a Council-Book that commenceth at the above-said Year Anno 1550 April 19. He was present at the Council then at Greenwich This Month one Putto who had been put to silence for his lend Preaching that is against the Steps made in the Reformation and did now nevertheless of his own Head preach as lendly as he had done before was referred to the Arch-bishop and the Bishop of Ely to be corrected April 28. The Arch-bishop present at Council May 2 4 7 11 On
had Married the said Iane. In Prison he was Visited by Bishop Hethe and afterwards pretended to be brought off by him to the acknowledgment of the Roman Catholick-Religion After his Condemnation he with the Marquess of Northampton Sir Andrew Dudley Sir Iohn Gates Sir Thomas Palmer heard a Mass within the Tower and received the Sacrament in one kind after the Popish fashion The Duke of Northumberland was drawn hereunto by a Promise that was made him That if he would Recant and hear Mass he should have his Pardon yea though his Head were upon the Block In his Speech August 22 when he was Executed he acknowledged How he had been misled by others and called the Preachers Seditious and Leud and advised the People to return home to the old Religion And that since the new Religion came among them God had plagued them by Wars and Tumults Famine and Pestilence He propounded the example of the Germans how their new Doctrine had brought Ruin upon them And quoted that Article in the Creed to them I believe the Catholick Church to convine them of the Roman Catholick Faith If this Speech were not of Hethe's inditing to be used by the Duke yet this Argument from the Creed I am apt to think was his it being his Custom to make use of it For I find in a Conference betwixt this Bishop and Rogers he asked him if he did not know his Creed and urged Credo sanctam Ecclesiam Catholicam But Rogers could tell him that he did not find the Bishop of Rome there If any be minded to see the Duke's Speech at length he may have recourse to the Appendix where I have set it down as I found it in one of the Cottonian Volumes But Gates and Palmer notwithstanding their hearing Mass at their Execution the same Day and Place confessed the Faith they had learned in the Gospel The former confessed That he had lived as vitiously and wickedly all his Life as any in the World And yet that he was a great reader of the Scripture but a worse follower there was not living For he read it not to edify but to dispute and to make Interpretations after his own Fancy Exhorting the People to take heed how they read God's Word and played and gamed with God's Holy Mysteries For he told them that except they humbly submitted themselves to God and read his Word charitably and to the intent to be edified thereby it would be but Poison to them and worse And so asked the Queen and all the World Forgiveness Palmer thanked God for his affliction For That he had learned more in one little dark Corner of the Tower than ever he learned by any Travailes in as many Places as he had been There he had seen God what he was and his numerous Works and his Mercies And seen himself thorowly what himself was a Lump of Sin and Earth and of all Vileness the vilest And so concluding that he feared not Death That neither the sprinkling of the Blood of two shed before his Eyes nor the shedding thereof nor the bloody Ax it self should make him affraid And so praying all to pray for him he said some Prayers and without any daunting laid down his Head upon the Block But the Duke of Northumberland submitted himself to base and mean Practices to save his Life He renounced his Religion nay disavowed That he ever was of the Religion professed in K. Edward's Days if we may believe Parsons but only hypocritically for worldly Ends complied with it And if he might but have lived he could have been contented to spend his Days in a Mouse-hole For from a Priest I have this Relation and the Papists best knew the Intrigues of Queen Mary's Reign After Sentence pronounced upon him he made Means to speak with Bishop Gardiner who he knew could do most of any with the Queen When the Bishop came to him in Company with another Councellor to be Witness of their Discourse who himself told my Author these Passages the Duke asked the Bishop If there were no hope at all for him to live and to do some Penance the rest of his Days for his sins past Alass said he let me live a little longer though it be but in a Mouse-hole The Bishop replied That he wished to God any thing could have contented his Grace but a Kingdom when he was at liberty and in prosperity And even at that present he wished it lay in his Power to give him that Mousehole For he would allow him the best Palace he had in the World for that Mousehole And did moreover then offer to do for him what he could possible But because his offence he said was great and Sentence past against him and his Adversaries many it would be best for him to provide for the worst and especially that he stood well with God in matter of Conscience and Religion For to speak plainly as he went on it was most likely he must Die The Duke answered He would dispose himself and desired he might have a learned Priest sent him for his Confession and spiritual Comfort And as for Religion said he you know my Lord Bishop that I can be of no other but of Yours which is the Catholick For I never was of any other indeed nor ever so foolish as to believe any of that which we had set up in K. Edward's Days but only to use the same for my own purpose of Ambition For which God forgive me And so I mean to testify publickly at my Death For it is true The Bishop saith my Author went away with an afflicted Heart and shed many Tears as he returned and went to the Queen and entreated so earnestly for him as he had half gained her Consent for his Life Which so much terrified the Duke's Adversaries as presently they got the Emperor Charles that was in Flanders to write to the Queen a very resolute and earnest Letter that it was not safe for her nor his Estate to Pardon his Life And with that he was Executed Whatever credit is to be given to the rest of this Relation I can hardly believe that Passage that he is reported to say to the Bishop That he was never otherwise than a Roman-Catholick and that he did all along dissemble his Religion for worldly Ends and that he would testify as much at his Death Because this doth no ways comport with his Speech upon the Scaffold wherein he mentioneth no such thing but rather the contrary Nor did he declare any such thing when he came to Die He said indeed that he was deceived and misled but no where that he dissembled And if he were deceived he dissembled not CHAP. IV. Peter Martyr departs A Parliament THE Strangers had this piece of Mercy shewn them that they were suffered to depart the Kingdom Among the rest that went away this Year was Peter Martyr the famous and learned Professor of Divinity in
Aless turned into Latin and published for the Consolation of the Churches every where in those sad Times as it ran in the Title If any desire to look backward unto the more early Times of this Man the first Tidings we have of him was about the Year 1534. When upon a sharp Persecution raised in Scotland he with other Learned Men fled thence into England and was received into Crumwel's Family And it is said that he became known to and grew into such Favour with King Henry that he called him his Scholar But after Crumwel's Death in the Year 1540 he taking one Fife with him went into Saxony where both of them were for their great Learning made Professors in the University of Leipzig In the Year 1557. I find this Man at Leipzig where he was Professor of Divinity as was said before Hither this Year Melancthon sent to him from Wormes giving him some Account of the Preparations that were making by the Roman Catholick Party in order to a Conference with the Protestants At which the said Aless was to be present and make one of the Disputants on the Protestant side And ten Years before this viz. 1547 he was the Publick Moderator of Divinity both in the Schools and Pulpits of Leipzig or some other University Besides this Aless there were four other pious and learned Persons Foreigners who bringing along with them Letters of Recommendation from the said Melancthon were courteously received and freely entertained by our hospitable Arch-bishop all of them in the Year 1548 at which time the Persecution grew hot upon the Interim One of these was Gualter another Scot by Nation A second was one named Francis Dryander an Acquaintance of Melancthon's of long continuance Whom as he told the Arch-bishop he had tried and known inwardly and found him endowed with excellent Parts well furnished with Learning that he judged rightly of the Controversies altogether free from all wild and seditious Opinions and that he would soon perceive the singular gravity of his Manners after some few Days knowledg of him motioning withal to the Arch-bishop his fitness to be preferred in either of our Universities As he did also to K. Edward in Letters brought at this time to him by the said Dryander Wherein he recommended him to that King as one that would prove a very useful Person either in his Universities or elsewhere in his Kingdom This Recommendation had so much Force that this Man seemed soon after to be sent and placed at Oxon and there remained till in the beginning of Queen Mary's Reign when all Strangers were commanded to depart the Realm he went hence to Paris and from thence to Antwerp Whence he wrote a Letter to one Crispin a Doctor of Physick in Oxon therein relating to him a Passage concerning the coarse Entertainment which the Divines of Lovain gave Gardiner Bishop of Winchester upon the Scandal they took against him for his Book De vera Obedientia Which Letter is extant in Fox The third was Eusebius Menius the Son of Iustus Menius Which Iustus was a Person of great Fame and Esteem both for his Learning in Philosophy and Divinity and for the Government of the Churches within the Territories of Iohn Frederick Duke of Saxony Of this Eusebius his Son Melancthon writ to our Arch-bishop That he had good Preferments in Germany but he could not bear to behold the Calamities of his poor Country which made him seek for a Being in Foreign Parts He recommended him to his Grace desiring him to cherish him Adding That in the Gothick Times what remained of the Church and of right Doctrines were preserved in our Island and that Europe being now in a Combustion it were to be wish'd that some peaceable Harbour might be for Learning He doubted not but that many flocked hither but that it was the part of Piety and Goodness especially to help the Youth of Excellent Men and the Sons of such as had well deserved of the Church especially when they themselves also were eminent for their Parts and Learning And since this Eusebius was a good Mathematician and had read Mathematicks in one of their Schools he propounded him to the Arch-bishop to be a fit Person for the Profession of that Science in our University The fourth was Iustus Ionas the Son also of a great German Divine of the same Name and who was one of the Four that in the Year 1530 came to Augsburgh upon a Diet appointed by the Emperor for Religion with the Elector of Saxony Melancthon Agricola and Georgius Spalatinus being the other Three The Son came over with Letters commendatory from Melancthon as the others did He commended his excellent Parts and his Progress in all kind of Philosophy and good Manners and especially his Eloquence which he said he had a Nature divinely framed to To which it may not be amiss to subjoin what Melancthon somewhere else did observe of his Family Namely That his Grandfather was a Person of Fame for Oratory and Civil Prudence His Father endowed with such Parts as naturally made him an Orator in respect of his fluency of Words and gracefulness of Delivery And this Felicity of Nature he improved by a great accession of Learning Which made him tell our Iustus that he was born in Oratoria Familia And such care did he take of him when he was young that he took the pains to write him a long Letter containing Instructions for his Improvement in the Grounds of Learning This Man the Arch-bishop was very kind to gave him Harbour and admitted him freely into his Society and Converse Insomuch that Iustus Ionas the Father entreated Melancthon That he would take particular notice to the Arch-bishop of his great Favour shewed to his Son Among the Discourses the communicative Prelat held with Ionas while he was with him one happened concerning a noted Question in Divinity Where launching out into free communication with him upon that Point he desired him to impart to Melancthon the Substance of what he had discoursed and that he should signify to him that the Arch-bishop requested his Judgment thereof Which accordingly Ionas did And Melancthon in a Letter to the Arch-bishop stiles it non obscarae Quaestio and that it had already much shaken the Church and says he Concutiet durius shall shake it yet more Giving his Reason for this Conjecture Because those Governours meaning I suppose the Papal Clergy did not seek for a true Remedy to so great a Matter It doth not appear to me what this Question was that the Arch-bishop was so earnest to confer with this great Divine about whether it were concerning the necessity of Episcopal Government and Ordination or concerning the Use of Ceremonies in the Church or about the Doctrine of the Sacrament this last I am apt to believe But either of them hath according to Melancthon's Prediction sufficiently shaken the Churches of Christ. But to
Farm of that Parsonage and the Nomination of the Curat And being a Man of Conscience and Integrity endeavoured to procure here an honest and able Preacher and so presented to the Church one Richard Turner a Man of an irreprehensible Life and well-learned in the Holy Scriptures Who for his Doctrine against the Popish Superstition and the Pope's Supremacy met with great Troubles But his Patron very stifly stood by him and procured the Arch-bishop to favour him And having an Interest with Sir Anthony Denny and Sir William Butts Courtiers he wrote Mr. Turner's Case at large to them and got them to read his Letter before the King Who though before he had been by sinister Reports so incensed against him as to command him to be whip'd out of the Country now by this Means he conceived better Thoughts of him and commanded him to be cherish'd as a good Subject as I have before more at large related Another Passage I meet with of this Man relates to the Kindness of the ABp his Master to him Who in token of his Good-will he bore him and of his readiness to reward his Diligence and Faithfulness in his Service did procure him a Lease of the Parsonage of Ospring in Kent being an Impropriation belonging unto S. Iohns-College in Cambridg worth better than forty Marks by the Year de claro when Wheat was but a Noble the Quarter This the Arch-bishop got a Grant of from the said College for him But when the Lease was prepared and ready to be sealed one Hawkins of the Guard by his importunate Suit got King Henry VIII to obtain it of the College to be sealed for the use of him the said Hawkins The Arch-bishop then solicited the King in his Servant's behalf and the King promised him and also Dr. Day the Master of the College that he would otherwise recompense Morice for the same with like Value or better Which was never done the King dying before he did any thing for him This caused Morice to prefer a Supplication unto Queen Elizabeth setting forth his said Case and desiring therefore her Liberality Aid and Succour especially considering that her Royal Father had in his Will provided that all such who had sustained any manner of Damage or Hinderance by him should be satisfied for the same Suing therefore to her Majesty for a Pension that had been allowed unto one Wilbore late Prior of the Monastery of S. Augustines lately deceased that it might be conferred upon him during his Life And indeed he seemed now in his old Age to have need of some such Favour his Condition being but mean according to worldly Things and having four Daughters all marriageable and not where-withal to bestow them according to their Quality This his Poverty he urged to the Queen and that the granting him this Pension would be a good furtherance of his said Daughters Marriage The same Person had some Lands descended to him from Iames his Father out of two Manors the one called Royden-Manor and the other called The Temple both situate and lying in the Parish of Royden His said Father upon some certain Reasons and Agreements surrendred two long Leases of both these Manors into King Henry VIII his Hands In consideration of which and of long and true Services the said King did give except and reserve certain Tenements Lands Pastures and Meadows out of the said two Lordships to the Use of the said Iames and his Heirs and Assigns for ever as appeared by his Letters Patents And Iames did enjoy them peaceably and quietly without any molestation until his Death which was in the second Year of Queen Mary But of late the Leases of the Manors being sold away unto others they laid Claim and Titlâ— unto the said reserved Lands upon the Information of one Thurgood Steward of the Courts there pretending that there were not Words sufficient in the said Letters Patents to justify the said Exceptions This occasioned Ralph Morice the Son who enjoyed some of the Copy-holds within the said Exceptions to sue unto the Queen for her Majesty's Letters Patents to ratify and confirm the said Exceptions that the King 's Godly Disposition Intent and Meaning might be in Force to Iames Morice's Heirs and Assigns for ever What Success he had in this and the former Petition I find not but am ready to think the Queen gratified him in both as well for his own Merits as out of that high Respect she bore to the Memory of our incomparable Prelat whose Servant he had so long been and for whose sake he recommended himself and his Suit to her I have inserted the former of these Supplications in the Appendix being an Original of Morice's own Hand-writing and containing some memorable Passages in it This Man was by the Arch-bishop's Means appointed Register in King Edward VI his Visitation which was in the second Year of his Reign the Articles whereof were drawn up by the Arch-bishop and preserved to us in Bishop Sparrow's Collections And being ready to depart with the King's Commissioners the Arch-bishop sent for him to Hampton-Court and willed him to make Notes of certain Matters in the said Visitation whereof he gave him particular Instructions and had large Discourse with him of the good Success that this Course was like to have In the beginning of Queen Mary he suffered much Being glad to fly from his own House but afterwards taken by the Justices and committed to Custody Out of which he escaped by breaking Prison His House was often searched But he out-lived those hard Times and was alive in the Year 1565 and then lived at Bekesborn It was this Morice that supplied Mr. Fox the Writer of the Acts and Monuments with those Memorials concerning the Bishop of Winchester which shewed how small a Share he had in King Henry's Affections notwithstanding his boasting thereof which he was very apt to do and particularly how that King came to leave him out of his last Will. All which Sir Anthony Denny related to our Arch-bishop in the hearing of this his Secretary Who was alive when Fox wrote this and whom he asserts towards the end of his eighth Book as a Witness to the same For it is to be noted here that among those Persons that assisted this Author with Matter for the compiling his laborious Books this Morice was one and to whom we are to reckon our selves beholden for divers other material Passages of our Church-History and especially those of his Lord and Master the Arch-bishop which are preserved in the said Books to Posterity To Day the Printer he sent many Papers of Monuments for the furnishing Fox's History and many more he had communicated but that in Queen Mary's Reign his House in two Years was thrice searched by which means he lost a great sort of Things worthy perpetual Memory and especially divers Letters of King Edward to the Arch-bishop and of the Arch-bishop to him
the said Act. There was indeed an Act made which seemed contrary to this Act namely That which in the Year 1536 put by the Succession of Q. Ann and carried it to the King's Children by another Queen and to this Act the Subjects were to swear also And we will suppose that the ABp swore with the rest to this Act. Neither was there any Perjury here for this Oath in truth was not contrary to the former For by reason of some lawful Impediment of Queen Ann's Marriage with the King as was then pretended it was declared by the Parliament That the Issue of that Queen was Illegitimate and not Inheritable And the first Oath was only for the Succession of lawful Issue by Queen Ann. Therefore there being no lawful Issue of that Queen as was then at least supposed the Oath to the lawful Issue of another Queen might certainly be very innocently taken without infringing the breach of the former And where at length is this Notorious Perjury and swearing and forswearing at every turn Allen again lets fly upon him calling him Apostata But surely it is not Apostacy to leave Error Superstition and Idolatry for the true Doctrine and Profession of the Gospel He chargeth him also with often Relapsing and Recanting He made no Relapses nor Recantations at all as I know of unless a little before his Death when he subscribed to a parcel of Popish Articles by the Importunity of Papists working upon his Frailty and long-Sufferings But he soon revoked all again and died most patiently in the Profession of the true Religion And to this at last comes all this mighty Clamour That he was notoriously Perjured an often relapsed Apostata recanting swearing and forswearing at every Turn Saunders his scurrilous and false Accounts of Cranmer are numberless I will only mention one or two He saith That from Cambridg he went to the Service of Sir Tho. Bullen and by his Preferment was made Arch-bishop of Canterbury Whereas from Cambridg he was immediatly made the King's Chaplain and wanted not the Recommendation of any to his Preferment the King being so well acquainted with his Merits And though he abode sometime with the Earl of Wiltshire whom he stileth Sir Tho. Bullen yet it was not in the quality of his Chaplain but of one whom the King recommended to him He writeth That the Arch-bishop carried his Wife about him in a Chest when he removed and addeth a ridiculous Story relating thereunto And his Brother Parsons saith This was a most certain Story and testified at that Day by Cranmer 's Son's Widow to divers Gentlemen her Friends from whom Parsons saith he had it Other Popish Dignitaries in those Days kept and conversed with their Concubines and Whores more publickly and did the Arch-bishop keep his Wife so close But in case he had travelled with her more openly who should examine the Arch-bishop and call him to Account whether she were his Wife or his Concubine and therefore the Story is most improbable The King himself knew he had a Wife well enough And when the Arch-bishop saw the Danger of having her with him he sent her away to her Friends beyond-Sea for a Time And that silly Story comes through too many Hands before it came to Parsons to make it credible Cranmer's Son tells it to his Wife No Body knows where She being a Widow tells it to certain Gentlemen No Body knows who And they tell it to Parsons no Body knows when No one Place Person or Time mentioned And so all the Faith of the Matter lies upon a Woman's Evidence and hers upon the Credit of those two very honest Men Parsons and Saunders In Parsons his three Conversions of England are these many favourable Expressions of our Arch-bishop to be found That he was the first Heretick in that Order of Arch-bishops of Canterbury Because he was the first that laboured a Reformation of the horrible Errors of the degenerate Church of Rome And that he was the first Arch-bishop of Canterbury that ever brake from the Roman Faith And that this was the first Change of Religion in any Arch bishop from the beginning unto his Days Designing thereby to fix a very black Mark upon him which rather redounds to his everlasting Honour That he was an unconstant Man in his Faith and Belief Incontinent in his Life Variable in all his Actions Accommodating himself always to the Times wherein he lived and to the Humours of those who could do most and this in Matters even against Right and Conscience No but quite contrary he was constant in his Faith and Belief to the very last except one Fall which he soon recovered Most chaste in his Life living in the holy State of Marriage Steady in all his Actions accommodating himself always neither to the Times nor to the Humours of any Man let him be as great as he would any farther than he might do in Righâ— and Conscience And often opposing King Parliament Privy-Council and Synods to his utmost Danger in defence of Truth and for the disâ—harge of his own Conscience Again That he was a Roman Catholick in most Points during K. Henry 's Reign Whereas he was so in no Point excepting in that of the Corporeal Presence That he applied himself to the Religion which the State and Prince liked best to allow of in that Time of K. Henry VIII From which he was so far that he often boldly and publickly declared against divers Things which the King was bent upon as in the Act of the Six Articles and in composing the Book called The Necessary Erudition That these three the King Queen Ann and Arch-bishop Cranmer held the Catholick Faith Vsages and Rites and went as devoutly to Mass as ever and so remained they in outward shew even to their Deaths Though some Years before Cranmer's Death namely from the first Year of King Edward the Mass was wholly laid aside and never used at all That Cranmer and Crumwel went to Mass after the King married the Lady Ann Bolen as before What they did as to the going to Mass our Histories tell us little of If they did it was with little Approbation of it And as Crumwel on the Scaffold protested that he was a good Catholick Man but there is difference between a Good Catholick and a Roman Catholick and never doubted of any of the Church-Sacraments then used Thereby intending I suppose to make a Difference between them and the Gospel-Sacraments But surely Crumwel in his Life-time was so utterly against four or five of them that he brought Aless a Learned Man into a Convocation to dispute there for two only And the like Cranmer had done no doubt if he had been brought to the Scaffold in King Henry 's Days Which had been a happy Case for him To a Scaffold they of the Roman Perswasion endeavoured many a Year to bring him and they would have thought it a happy Case for them if they could
Carnal Presence For a Conclusion let the Reader not hear me but another speak for our Arch-bishop against one of these Calumniators and he a Portugal Bishop After Cranmer by hearing of the Gospel began to savour of Christian Profession what Wickedness was ever reported of him With what outrage of Lust was he enflamed What Murders what seditious Tumults what secret Conspiracies were ever seen or suspected so much to proceed from him Unless ye account him blame-worthy for this that when King Henry Father to Mary upon great Displeasure conceived was for some secret Causes determined to strike off her Head this Reverend Arch-bishop did pacify the Wrath of the Father and with mild continual Intercession preserved the Life of the Daughter Who for Life preserved acquitted her Patron with Death As concerning his Marriage if you reproachfully impute that to Lust which Paul doth dignify with so honourable a Title I do answer That he was the Husband of one Wife with whom he continued many Years more chastly and holily than Osorius in that his stinking sole and single Life peradventure one Month tho he flee never so often to his Catholick Confessions And I see no Cause why the Name of a Wife shall not be accounted in each respect as Holy with the true Professors of the Gospel as the Name of a Concubine with the Papists Thus Fox And so I have at last by God's favourable Concurrence finished this my Work and have compiled an imperfect History yet with the best Diligence I could of this singular Arch-bishop and blessed Martyr and in the conclusion have briefly vindicated him from those many false Surmises and Imputations that his implacable Enemies of the Roman Faction have reported and published abroad against him Not contented with the shedding of his Blood unless they stigmatized his Name and Memory and formed the World into a belief that he was one of the vilest Wretches that lived who in Reality and Truth appeareth to have been one of the holiest Bishops and one of the best Men that Age produced THE END THE APPENDIX TO THE MEMORIALS OF Archbishop Cranmer THE APPENDIX TO THE MEMORIALS OF Archbishop Cranmer NUM I. Account of Mr. Pool's Book by Dr. Cranmer To the Ryght honorable and my syngular good Lorde my Lorde of Wylshire IT may please your Lordeshipe to bee advertised that the Kynge his grace my Lady your wyfe my Lady Anne your doughter be in good helth whereof thankes be to God As concernynge the Kinge hys cause Mayster Raynolde Poole hath wrytten a booke moch contrary to the kinge hys purpose wyth such wytte that it appereth that he myght be for hys wysedome of the cownsel to the kinge hys grace And of such eloquence that if it were set forth and knowne to the commen people I suppose yt were not possible to persuade them to the contrary The pryncypal intent whereof ys that the kinge hys grace sholde be contente to commyt hys grete cause to the jugement of the pope wherein me semeth he lacketh moch jugement But he swadeth that with such goodly eloquence both of words and sentence that he were lyke to persuade many but me hee persuadeth in that poynt no thynge at al. But in many other thynges he satysfyeth me very wel The som wherof I shal shortly reherse Furst he sheweth the cause wherfore he had never pleasure to intromytte hymself in this cause And that was the trouble which was lyke to ensue to this realme therof by dyversitie of tytles Wherof what hurte myght come we have had exsample in our fathers dayes by the tytles of Lancaster and Yorke And where os god hath gyven many noble gyfts unto the kinge hys grace as wel of body and mynde os also of fortune yet this excedeth al other that in hym al tytles do mete and come togyder and this Realme ys restored to tranquillitie and peace so oweth he to provide that this londe fal not agayne to the forsaide mysery and troble which may come aswel by the people within this realme which thynke surely that they have an hayre lawful alâ—â—ady with whom they al be wel contente and wolde be sory to have any other And yt wolde be harde to persuade thaym to take any other levynge her os also by the Emperour whych ys a man of so grete power the quene beying hys awnt the Princes hys nece whome he so moch doth and ever hath favored And where he harde reasons for the kynge hys party that he was moved of god hys lawe which doth straytly forbed and that with many gret thretts that no man shal mary hys brother hys wife And os for the people yt longeth not to thayr judgement and yet yt ys to be thought that thay wil be contente whan thay shal knowe that the awncyente Doctores of the Chyrch and the determinations of so many grete vniversities be of the kynge hys sentence And os concernynge the Emperour if he be so unryghtful that he wyl mayntene an unjust cause yet god wil never fayl thaym that stonde opon his party and for any thynge wyl not transgresse hys commawndments And besyde that we shal not lacke the ayde of the Frenshe kynge whyche partely for the Lege whych he hath made with us and partly for the dyspleasure and olde grutch which he bereth toward the Emperour wolde be glad to have occasion to be avenged Thies reasons he bryngeth for the kyngs party agaynst hys owne opynyon To which he maketh answer in this maner Fyrst os towchynge the Lawe of god he thynketh that yf the kinge were pleased to take the contrary parte he myght os wel justifie that and have os good grownde of the scripture therfore os for that parte which he now taketh And yet if he thought the kyngs party never so juste and that this his mariage were undowtedly agaynst godds pleasure than he cowde not deny but yt sholde be wel done for the kynge to refuse this mariage and to take another wyfe but that he sholde be a doar therin and a setter forwarde therof he cowde never fynde in hys harte And yet he grawnteth that he hath no good reason therfore but only affection which he bereth and of dewty oweth unto the kyngs parson For in so doing he sholde not only wayke ye and utterly take away the Princes Title but also he must neds accuse the most and cheife parte of al the kyngs lyfe hiderto which hath bene so infortunate to lyve more than xx yers in a matrimony so shameful so abominable so bestial and agaynst nature yf it be so os the books which do defend the kyngs party do say that the abomination therof ys naturally wrytten and graven in every mans harte so that none excusation can be made by ignorance And thus to accuse the noble nature of the kyngs grace and to take away the title of hys succession he cowde never fynd in hys harte were the kyngs cause never so
had not come personally into the Parlament house those lawes had never passed And yet within a year or little more the same most noble Prince was faine to temper his said lawes and moderate them in divers points So that the statute of six Articles continued in his force little above the space of one year Is this then so great a matter to make these uproars and to arise against the whole realm Wil you take away the present laws of this Realm which be and ever have been the laws of al other Countreis also and set up new Lawes which never were but in this Realm only and were here in force not fully thirteen months And how chanceth it that you be so earnest in this Article which is directly contrary to your first Article but you know not what neither of the Articles meaneth but be persuaded by Papists to ask you wot not what But now here is the repugnance of the two Articles By your First you wil have al General Councels and Decrees observed and kept and by your Second Article you wil have the six Articles used again Then let us compare the general Councels and Decrees with the Six Articles and you shal see them aggree as wel together as black and white First it is contained in the Canons of the Apostles that a priest under no pretence of holines may put away his wife and if he do he shal be excommunicate And the six Articles say that if any Priest put not away his wife he shal be taken for a Felon If he keep her not â—til he must be excommunicate by the Canon of the Apostles And if he keep her stil he must suffer death by the six Articles You be cunning men if you can set these together Also the Councel of Nice which was the chief of al the General Councels and was celebrated more then twelve hundred years past decreed clean contrary to the six Articles For where the six Articles command al Priests to be separate from their wives Nicen Councel determined clean contrary that they should not be separated confessing such copulation to be holy and godly And the Councel of Gangrense which was about the same time so much allowed the marriage of priests that they accursed them that would abstain from the Ministration of priests because they were married These Councels vary so far from the six Articles that either you must put the General Councels out of your Book or else the six Articles Likewise concerning Private Masses the law of six Articles far differeth from the Canon of the Apostles and from the Councels Nicen and Antioch as shal be declared in the next Articâ—e Other things there be divers also in the six Articles which cannot stand with sundry old Canons Decrees and Councels So that if you wil stand to the Canons Decrees and Councels you must of force be constrained utterly to put out of your book your second Article which requireth the usage of the Six Articles But now for shortnes of time I wil come to your third Article Which is this III. The third Article WE wil have the Mass in Latine as was before and celebrated by the Priest without any man or woman communicating with him Forasmuch as there is nothing with you but Wil let your wil be conferred with reason and Gods word and then you shal se how far your Wil differeth from them both First as touching the Latine Masses Whatsoever the Priest saith in the old Masses whether he pray and ask any thing of God or give thanks to God or make the true Profession of the Faith or whatsoever he doth besides al he doth in your persons and in your names and you answer unto that which he saith sometimes Amen sometimes Et cum spiritu tuo and sometimes other things as the matter serveth For al the whole that is done should be the act of the people and pertain to the people as wel as to the priest And standeth it with reason that the Priest should speak for you and in your name and you answer him again in your own persons and yet you understand never a word neither what he saith nor what you say your selves The Priest prayeth to God for you and you answer Amen you wot not whereto Is there any reason herein Wil you not understand what the Priest prayeth for you What thanks he giveth for you What he asketh for you Wil you neither understand what he saith nor let your hearts understand what your own tongues answer Then must you needs confes your selves to be such people as Christ spake of When he said These people honor me with their lips but their hearts be far from me Had you rather be like Pyes or Parrots that be taught to speak and yet understand not one word what they say then be true christen men that pray unto God in heart and in faith The Priest is your Proctor and Atturney to plead your cause and to speak for you al and had you rather not know then know what he saith for you I have heard Sutors murmur at the bar because their Atturneyes have pleaded their cases in the French tongue which they understood not Why then be you offended that the Priests which plead your cause before God should speak such language as you may understand If you were before the Kings Highnes and should chuse one to speak for you al I am sure you would not chuse one that should speak Greek or Hebrew French or Italian no nor one that should speak Latine neither But you would be glad to provide such one as should speak your own language and speak so loud that you might both hear him and understand him that you might allow or disallow that that he said in your Names Why do you then refuse to do the like unto God When the Priest desireth any thing of God for you or giveth thanks for you how can you in your heart confirm his Sayings when you know not one word what he saith For the heart is not moved with words that be not understand But if reason wil not persuade you I wil prove what Gods word will do unto you S. Paul in the first Epistle to the Corinthians saith that whosoever shal speak to the people in the Church to their edification must speak such language as the people may understand or else he willeth him to hold his peace and speak softly to himself and to God For he which speaketh in a strange language which the people understand not doth not edify them as S. Paul saith And he giveth an example of the trumpet in the field which when it giveth such a sound that the Soldier understandeth it availeth much For every Soldier therby knoweth what to do But if such a blast be blowen as no man understandeth then the blast is utterly in vain For no man knoweth therby whether the horsemen shal make them ready or leap upon horseback or go to their standard
Instrument of the Councel swearing and subscribing to the Succession as limited by the King EDWARD WEE whose Names be underwritten having heretofore manitimes heard the Kings Majesty our most gracious Sovereign Lords earnest desire and express Commandment touching the Limitation of the Succession in the Imperial Crown of this Realm and others his Majesties Realmes and Dominions and having seen his Majesties own Devise touching the said Succession first wholly written with his most Gracious hand and after Copied out in his Majesties presence by his most high Commandment and Confirmed with the Subscription of his Majesties own Hand and by his Highnes delivered to certain Judges and other learned men to be written in sul Order DO by his Majesties special and absolute Commandment eftsoons given us aggree and by these Presents signed with our hands and sealed with our Seales promise by our Oaths and Honors to observe fully perform and keep al and every Article Branch and Matter contained in the said Writing delivered to the Judges and others and subscribed with his Majesties hand in six several places and al such other matters as his Majesty by his Last Wil shal appoint declare or command touching or concerning the Limitation of the Succession of his said Imperial Crown And WEE do further promise by his Majesties said Commandment never to vary or swarve during our lives from his said Limitation of his Succession But the same shal to the uttermost of our powers Defend and Maintaine And if any of us or any other shal at any time hereafter which God forbid vary from this Aggrement or any part therof We and Every of us do assent to â—ake use and repute him for a Breaker of the common Concord Peace and Unity of this Realm and to do our utmost to se him or them so varying or swerving punished with most sharp punishment according to their deserts T. Cant. T. Ely Wynchester Northumberland I. Bedford I. Suffolk W. Northampt. F. Shrewsbury F. Huntyngdon PEMBROKE E. Clynton T. Darcy G. Cobham T. Cheyne R. Ryche Iohn Gate William Petres Ioan Cheek W. Cecyll Edward Mountagu Iohn Bakere Edward Gryffyn Iohn Lucas Iohn Gosnald These are the Names with which this Instrument is signed but there be no Seals The Kings own Writing directing the Succession My Devise for the Succession FOR lack of issue for my Body to the L. Fraunceses heir Masles if she have any such issue before my Death To the Lady Iane and her Heir Masles To the Lady Katerins Heir Masles To the Lady Maryes heir Masles To the Heires Masles of the Daughters which she shal have hereafter Then to the Lady Margarets heires Masles For lack of such issue to the Heire Masles of the Lady Ianes Daughters To the heir masles of the Lady Katerins Daughters and so forth til you come to the Lady Margarets daughters heires masles If after my Death their Masle be entred into eighteen years old then he to have the whole Rule and Governance therof But if he be under 18 then his Mother to be Governess til he enter 18 years old But to do nothing without the Advice and Aggrement of Six Parcel of a Councel to be pointed by my last Wil to the number of Twenty If their Mother dy before their Entry into Eighteen the Realm to be governed by the Councel Provided that after he be 14 years al great matters of Importance be opened to him NUM LXIX A Letter of Q. Jane's Councel to the Lord Rich L. Lieutenant of the County of Essex AFter our right hartie commendations to your Lp. Although the matter conteined in your letters of therle of Oxfords departing to the Ladi Mari be grevous unto us for divers respects yet we must neades give your Lp. our hartie thankes for your redi advertisement therof Requiring your Lp. nevertheless like a Noble man to remain in that promise and steedfastnes to our Sovereign Lady Queen Ianes Service as ye shal find us redi and firm with al our force to the same Which neither with honor nor with saftie nor yet with duty we mai now forsaake From the Toure of London the xix th of Iulie 1553. Your L. assured loving freends T. Cant. T. Ely Canc. I. Suffolk Pembroke William Paget Winchester Arundel T. Darcy T. Cheyne W. Petre S. Io. Bakere I. Bedford F. Shrewsbury Rychard Cotton Io. Cheek Robert Bowes NUM LXX Queen Jane to Sir John Bridges and Sir Nicolas Poyntz to raise forces against a rising in Bucks IANE the Queen TRusty and Welbeloved we grete you wel Because we doubt not but this our most lawful possession of the Crown with the free consent of the Nobility of our realm and other the States of the same is both plainly known and accepted of you as our most loving subjects Therfore we do not reiterate the same but now most earnestly wil and require and by authority hereof warrant you to assemble muster and levy al the power that you can possible make either of your servants Tenants officers or freends as wel horsemen as footmen reserving to our trusty and right wel beloved Cousins the Erles of Arundel and Penbroke their tenants servants and officers and with the same to repair with al possible speed towards Buckinghamshire for the repression and subduing of certain tumults and rebellions moved there against us and our Crown by certain seditious men For the râ—pression wherof we have given ordre to divers others our good subjects and gentlemen of such degree as you are to repair in like maner to the â—ame parties So as we nothing doubt but upon the access of such our loving subjects as be appointed for that purpose to the place where this Seditious people yet remaine the same shal eyther lack harts to abyde in their malicious purpose or ells receive such punishment and execution as they deserve seking the destruction of their native country and the subversion of al men in their degrees by rebellion of the base multitude Whose rage being stirred as of late years hath been seen must needs be the confusion of thole common weale Wherfore our special trust is in your courage wisdome and fidelities in this matter to advaunce your self both with power and speed to this enterprise in such sort as by our Nobility and Councel shal be also prescribed unto you And for the sustentation of your charges in this behalf our said Councel by our Commandment do furthwith give order to your satisfaction as by their letters also shal appear unto you And besides that we do assure you of our special consideration of this your service to us our Crowne and expresly to the preservation of this our Realm and commonweale Yeven under our signet at our Toure of London the xviij day of Iuly the first year of our reigne NUM LXXI The Councellors of Q. Jane their letter to the Lady Mary acknowledging her Queen OUR bownden duties most humbly remembred to your most excellent
the pretended Matrimony of K. Henry c. hath been and is none at all You will please to consider whether the Latin words fuisse esse nullum should not have been rather translated hath been and is null which is the Canonical Term expressing Voidance in Law Page 23. line 44. Licenses were granted this year 1533 to the Lady Guilford and the Marchioness of Dorset to have the Eucharist c. ministred to them in their private Chappels whether indulged to them by the Archbishop the rather to free them from danger for not frequenting their Parish-Churches and for the avoiding the Superstitious and Idolatrous Worship there performed c. or only for the Convenience of those Ladies the Reader hath liberty to judge The Archbishop cannot be hence supposed to have countenanced any Separation from the Parochial Worship of that time or to have insinuated his Judgment of the Danger Superstition or Idolatry of the Publick Worship then used since such Licenses were customary acts very frequent before and at that time Many hundreds of them may be found among the Faculties granted by the Predecessors of this Archbishop more than Two hundred years upwards Private Oratories were then more used and Domestick Chaplains entertained in much greater number than in latter times Yet none then presumed to make use of either without License first obtained of their Diocesans Which Discipline was formerly observed by all strictly and continued in great measure till the time of Archbishop Abbot altho now little regarded So that hereby Archbishop Cranmer gave no occasion for any such Conjecture as is here made any more than Archbishop Parker did when he granted a like License to his own Wife altho she was no Puritan or Separatist from the Established Worship Page 25. line 40. This year 1534 all the Learned and Spiritual men in England subscribed to it with their Hands That the Pope hath no Jurisdiction in this Kingdom The Archbishop's Church in Canterbury began for the Prior and Convent thereof solemnly subscribed an Instrument for abolishing the Pope's Supremacy c. The Original whereof is in a Volume of the Cotton Library The Right Reverend the Bishop of Salisbury in his History of the Reformation giveth two or three such Instruments of the Subscription of so many particular Convents and supposeth that no more remain but that all the rest were in the Reign of Queen Mary destroyed by Bp. Bonner by Virtue of a Commission granted to him for razing of Scandalous Records In truth all those Instruments do yet remain and are a most Authentick Justification of the Proceedings of the King in abolishing the Papal Supremacy The Originals of them do yet remain in their proper place the King's Exchequer into which they were at first returned and where they have been hitherto kept There are in my hands no less than One hundred seventy five such Instruments transcribed long since from thence containing the Subscriptions of all the Bishops Chapters Monastries Colleges Hospitals c. of Thirteen Diocesses The Subscriptions of those of the other Nine Diocesses are to my certain knowledge yet remaining in another place but I have not yet gained Copies of them Some of these Instruments have been transcribed into the Volume of the Cotton Library here mentioned but that is only a Transcript containeth not the Originals as is here supposed Nor did the Church of Canterbury begin the Subscription for however the Instrument of that Church may be placed first upon account of the Preeminence of it the Instruments of several Religious Houses even in that Diocess are dated before it Page 29. line 31. Nix Bishop of Norwich died two years after September 1534. and came in to be Bishop in the year 1500. He died in the middle of Ianuary 1535 6 and was Consecrated Bishop in April 1501. Page 32. line 6. ab imo The Archbishop began his Provincial Visitation Iure Metropolitico the last year 1534. It was somewhat extraordinary for such a Visitation had not been in an hundred years before The Diocess of Winchester having been visited but five years ago by his Predecessor Warham The Archbishop in his Letter in answer to the Bishop of Winchester in the Appendix Pag. 21. saith truly That the Diocess of Winchester was visited by his Predecessor Warham the third year before this But when he addeth That else it had not been visited by any of his Predecessors these forty years he is to be understood cautiously For altho perhaps it had not been visited by any Archbishop since the death of Bishop Langton which was in the year 1493 yet it had been visited Metropolitico by the Chapter of Canterbury in the beginning of the year 1501. Again when it is said from Bishop Stokâ—sly's Letter in the Appendix page 22. That such a Provincial Visitation had not been held by any of the Archbishop's Predecessors in an hundred years before this also is to be understood dextrously For men in their Juridical Answers are wont to alledge any thing which may seem to make for their Cause little regarding whether it be exactly true or no. It is true the Archbishops of Canterbury had not for so long a time undertaken or performed a Metropolitical Visitation of their whole Province at one time but they had often within that time visited particular Diocesses Iure Metropolitico which was a sufficient President to the Cause then in hand Page 36. line 32. Suffragan Bishops were not unusual in the Realm To give some Instances of them Certain bearing the Title of Bishops of Sidon assisted the Archbishops of Canterbury one of these was named Thomas Wellys Prior of St. Gregories by Canterbury he being Archbishop Warham's Chaplain was sent by him c. There was afterwards one Christopher that bore that Title and assisted Archbishop Cranmer about these times 1535. in Ordinations And another Thomas intituled of Sidon succeeded It should seem to be here supposed That the Suffragans of the Diocess of Canterbury did then commonly take their Titles from Sidon whereas indeed none of them save that Thomas Wellys here mentioned was intituled from thence As for Christopher he was not Suffragan to the Archbishops of Canterbury and that other Thomas of Sidon was in Cranmer's time Suffragan to the Bishops of London That Thomas Wellys moreover who was Prior of St. Gregories and Titular Bishop of Sidon was not Chaplain to Archbishop Warham for Archbishops never entertained Regulars in the quality of Chaplains Archbishop Warham had indeed a Chaplain of that name but he was neither Prior nor Bishop but a Secular Doctor of Divinity and Rector of Chartham near Canterbury Ibid. line 47. Long before these I find one William Botlesham Episcopus Navatensis Anno 1382. at the Convocation in London summoned against the Wicklivites If this were a Titular Bishop only he had nothing to do in the Convocation nor any Right to be summoned to it That Willelmus Botlesham Episcopus Navatensis was in truth no other than