and put forth by Henry Lord Stafford in King Edward's Days The King affecting to be thought Learned affected also to have Books called by his Name not that he was always the Author of them but that they came out by his Authority and had undergone his Corrections and Emendations But before we pass away from hence it may be convenient to give the Reader a little taste of so famous a Treatise as that Bishop's Book was in those Days And I will do it not in my own words but in the words of a very Learned and Eminent Man the Answerer to Dr. Martin's Book against Priests Marriage not far from the beginning of Q Mary supposed to be Ponet Bishop of Winchester then in Exile Applying himself in his Preface unto the Queen's Prelats he told them That in their Book intituled The Institution of a Christian Man presented by their whole Authorities to the King of famous Memory K. Henry VIII In the Preface thereof they affirmed to his Highness with one assent by all their Learnings that the said Treatise was in all Points concordant and agreeable to Holy Scripture yea such Doctrine that they would and desired to have it taught by all the Spiritual Pastors to all the King 's loving Subjects to be Doctrine of Faith And there intreating of the Sacrament of Orders they desired to have it taught that we be in no subjection to the Bishop of Rome and his Statutes but meerly subject to the King's Laws under his only Territory and Jurisdiction And that the Canons and Rules of the Church were therefore allowable in the Realm because the Assent of the King and of the People accepted the same And that Priests and Bishops whatsoever never had any Authority by the Gospel in Matters Civil and Moral but by the Grant and Gift of Princes and that it was alway and ever shall be lawful unto Kings and Princes and to their Successors with the Consent of their Parliaments to revoke and call again into their own Hands or otherwise to restrain all their Power and Jurisdiction given and permitted by their Authority Assent or Sufferance c. Without the which if the Bishop of Rome or any other Bishop whatsoever should take upon them any Authority or Jurisdiction in such Matters as be Civil No doubt said they that Bishop is not worthy to be called a Bishop but rather a Tyrant and an Usurper of other Mens Rights contrary to the Laws of God and is to be reputed a Subverter of the Kingdom of Christ. Yea besides these things and many other as he added they put in our Creed or Belief as an Article of Salvation or Damnation that the Church of England is as well to be named a Catholick and Apostolick Church as Rome Church or any other Church where the Apostles were resident And that they willed us to believe in our Faith that there is no difference in Superiority Preeminence or Authority one over the other but be all of equal Power and Dignity and that all Churches be free from the Subjection and Jurisdiction of the Church of Rome And that no Church is to be called Schismatical as varying from the Unity of the Church of Christ if it persist in the Unity of Christ's Faith Hope and Charity and Unity of Christ's Doctrine and Sacraments agreeable to the same Doctrine And that it appertained to Christen Kings and Princes in the discharge of their Duty to God to reform and reduce again the Laws to their old Limits and pristine State of their Power and Jurisdiction which was given them by Christ and used in the Primitive Church For it is say they out of all doubt that Christ's Faith was then most firm and pure and the Scriptures of God were then best understood and Vertue did then most abound and excel And therefore the Customs and Ordinances then used and made must needs be more conform and agreeable unto the true Doctrine of Christ and more conducing to the edifying and benefit of the Church of Christ than any Custom or Laws used or made since that Time This he collected out of their Exposition of the Sacrament of Orders The said Learned Author observed that this Doctrine was set forth by the whole Authority of the Bishops in those Days presented by the Subscription of all their Names And since the time of their presenting thereof by the space almost of twenty Years that is to the middle of Queen Mary never revoked but continually from time to time taught by this Book and by such other Declarations And that one more Particular relating to this Book may be known namely who the Bishops and other Divines were that composed it and that were commissioned so to do I shall record their Names as they were found writ by the Hand of Dr. Sam. Ward in his own Book now in the possession of N. B. a Reverend Friend of mine who hath well deserved of this History Thomas Cant. Io. Lond. Steph. Winton Io. Exon. Io. Lincoln Io. Bathon Roland Coven Litch Tho. Elien Nic. Sarum Io. Bang Edward Heref. Hugo Wigorn. Io. Roffen Ric. Cicestr Guilielm Norv Guilielm Menevens Rob. Assav Rob. Landav Edoard Ebor. Cuthb Dunelm Rob. Carliolen Richard Wolman Archidiac Sudbur Guil. Knight Archid. Richmon Io. Bell Archid. Gloc. Edmund Bonner Archid. Leicestr Iohn Skip Archid. Dorset Nic. Hethe Archid. Stafford Cuthb Marshal Archid. Nottingham Rich. Curren Archid. Oxon. Gulielm Cliff Galfridus Downes Robertus Oking Radul Bradford Richardus Smith Simon Matthew Ioannes Pryn Guliel Buckmaster Guliel May Nic. Wotton Ric. Coxe Ioannes Edmunds Thomas Robertson Ioannes Baker Thomas Barret Ioannes Hase Ioannes Tyson Sacrae Theologiae Juris Ecclesiastici Civilis Professores In the Year 1543. The same Book was printed again amended much both in Sense and Language yet not having any step in the Progress of the Reformation more than the former each Edition express positively the Corporal Presence in the Sacrament But in this is much added about Free-Will which it asserts and Good Works In 1544 the same was printed again at London in Latin intituled Pia Catholica Christiani Hominis Institutio CHAP. XIV The Arch-bishop visits his Diocess AS soon as this Business was over with the Arch-bishop and Bishops at Lambeth no Parliament sitting this Year and a Plague being in London and Westminster he went down as was said before into his Diocess But before he went he expressed a great desire to wait upon the King being then I suppose at Hampton-Court or Windsor but he feared he should not be permitted coming out of the smoaky Air as he wrote to the Lord Crumwel in that time of Infection Yet he desired to know the King's Pleasure by him He had a mind indeed to leave some good Impressions upon the King's Mind in the behalf of the Book that he and the rest had taken such Pains about and but newly made an end of But whether he saw the King now or no
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-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
was much offended that he was named in the Book and pretended this to be one Reason why he did write against it to vindicate himself as well as the Papal Church hereby so dangerously struck at This Book of Cranmer's was turned into Latin by Iohn Yong who complied afterwards with the old Religion under Queen Mary and was Master of Pembroke-Hall Cambridg At this Book the Defenders of Popery were so nettled that in the same Year 1550 Winchester then in the Tower and fickle Dr. Smith then at Lovain printed Answers Of Smith's Book I shall only note by the way that March 8. 1550. there was an Order of Council to examine the bringer over of his Book against Cranmer Such a Countenance did the State give to the Arch-bishop and his Book Gardiner's Book made the greatest noise Which was printed in France and intituled An Explication and Assertion of the true Catholick Faith touching the most Blessed Sacrament of the Altar with the Confutation of a Book written against the same In the Beginning of his Book he wrote That his Sermon before the King on St. Peter's Day touching the Sacrament of the Altar gave occasion to the Arch-bishop's Book against it and that he was called before the King's Commissioners at Lambeth for his Catholick Faith in the Sacrament Whereas indeed this was not the Cause of his Troubles nor had some former Copies of his Book these words But after the Commission was issued forth against him to make his Cause appear the more specious as if it were the Cause of the Church he thought fit to make an Alteration in the beginning of his Book in the manner abovesaid And to carry on the Scene he in open Court offered his Book before the King's Commissioners To this Book of Gardiners our Arch-bishop studied and composed an Answer holding himself bound for the Vindication of the Evangelical Truth as well as of his own Writing and for the Satisfaction of the People not to suffer it to lie untaken notice of When it was known the Arch-bishop was preparing an Answer against Gardiner the People were in very great expectation and conceived an earnest desire to see and read it Having therefore dispatched his Copy and sent it to Rainold Wolf his Printer it was printed off in the Month of September 1551. But there was some stop put to the publishing of it occasioned by a Proclamation issued out from the King whereby for some political Ends both the printing and selling of English Books without the Allowance of the King's Majesty or six of his Privy-Council was forbidden The Arch-bishop being desirous that his Book might come abroad the next Term for the Contentation of many who had long expected the same sent to Secretary Cecyl and Sir Iohn Cheke to procure either from the King or Council a Licence to the said Wolf for printing and selling his Book Which was obtained and the Book published accordingly This Letter of the ABp's dated Sept. 29. I have thought not amiss to reposit in the Appendix Octob. 1. A Licence was granted to Wolf to publish the Book under the King's Privilege the Court then being at Hampton-Court and the Arch-bishop himself present The Title this second Book of the Arch-bishop's bore was An Answer by the Reverend Father in God Thomas Arch-bishop of Canterbury Primate of all England and Metropolitan unto a crafty and sophistical Cavillation devised by Stephen Gardiner Doctor of Law late Bishop of Winchester against the true and godly Doctrine of the most Holy Sacrament of the Body and Blood of our Saviour Christ. Wherein is also as occasion serveth answered such Places of the Book of Dr. Richard Smith as may seem any thing worthy the answering Also a true Copy of the Book written and in open Court delivered by Dr. Stephen Gardiner not one Word added or diminished but faithfully in all Points agreeing with the Original This Book of Arch-bishop Cranmer's was printed again at London 1580 with his Life and some other things His Reply to Gardiner was in the most fair and candid Method that could be devised For he first set down his own Treatise Piece by Piece then Gardiner's Reply thereunto Word for Word leaving not one Paragraph without a full Answer His Reply to Smith was only of some things most worthy to be taken notice of the rest of Smith's Book being meer Trifles This Reply to Smith he inserted in the Body of his Answer to Gardiner as occasion served Only at the end he made a particular Reply to Smith's Preface It seemed to be a very compleat Exercitation upon that Subject The Book was stored with so great Learning and Plenty of Arguments Vt ea Controversia saith one of his Successors a nemine unquam contra Pontificios accuratius tractata esse videatur That no one Controversy was by any ever handled against the Papists more accurately It may not be amiss to mention here the Opinion that Cranmer himself had of his Book in that famous and renowned Confession he made of his Faith in S. Mary's Church Oxon immediately before he was led away to his Burning Where he expressed his full Approbation and great Confidence of the Doctrine contained therein saying That as for the Sacrament he believed as he had taught in his Book against the Bishop of VVinchester The which Book he said taught so true a Doctrine of the Sacrament that it should stand at the last Day before the Judgment of God where the Papistical Doctrine contrary thereto should be ashamed to shew her Face The Papists spake as much against this Book being much galled by it Dr. Tresham in his Disputation with Latimer said There were six hundred Errors in the Book Weston thinking to invalidate the Book by the pretended Novelty of the Doctrine asked the same Father How long he had been of that Opinion He said Not past seven Years that is about the Year 1547 and that Arch-bishop Cranmer's Book confirmed his Judgment therein and added That if he could but remember all therein contained he would not fear to answer any Man in this Matter The Arch-bishop had acknowledged to the Queen's Commissioners at Oxford that Ridley had first begun to enlighten him as to the true Notion of the Presence as he had maintained it in his Book Hereupon one of them took occasion to try to baffle the true Doctrine by making the whole stress of it to depend upon the Authority of single Ridley Latimer said he leaned upon Cranmer and Cranmer leaned upon Ridley Whereas the truth of this was no more but that Ridley reading Bertram's Book of the Body and Blood of Christ was sharpened to examine the old Opinion more accurately of the Presence of Christ's Flesh and Blood and looking into Ecclesiastical Authors he found it greatly controverted in the ninth Century and learnedly writ against Which made him begin to conclude it none of the ancient Doctrines of the Church but more lately
to bring the same more easily to pass some have abused the Name of Me Thomas Arch-bishop of Canterbury bruting abroad that I have set up the Mass at Canterbury and that I offered to say Mass before the Queen's Highness and at Paul's Church and I wot not where I have been well exercised these twenty Years to suffer and bear evil Reports and Lies and have not been mych grieved thereat and have born all things quietly Yet when untrue Reports and Lies turn to the hindrance of God's Truth they be in no wise to be tolerate and suffered Wherefore these be to signify to the World that it was not I that did set up the Mass at Canterbury but it was a false flattering lying and dissembling Monk which caused the Mass to be set up there without my Advice or Counsel And as for offering my self to say Mass before the Queen's Highness or in any othea Place I never did as her Grace knoweth well But if hâ—r Grace will give me leave I shall be ready to prove against all that will say the contrary and that the Communion-Book set forth by the most innocent and godly Prince K. Edward VI in his High Court of Parliament is conformable to the Order which our Saviour Christ did both observe and command to be observed and which his Apostles and Primitive Church used many Years Whereas the Mass in many things not only hath no Foundation of Christ his Apostles nor the Primitive Church but also is manifest contrary to the same and containeth many horrible Blasphemies in it And altho many either unlearned or maliciously do report that Mr. Peter Martyr is unlearned yet if the Queen's Highness will graunt thereunto I with the said Mr. Peter Martyr and other four or five which I shall choose will by God's Grace take upon us to defend that not only our Common-Prayers of the Churches Ministration of the Sacraments and other Rites and Ceremonies but also that all the Doctrine and Religion by our said Soveraign Lord K. Edward VI is more pure and according to God's Word than any that hath been used in England these thousand Years so that God's Word may be the Judg and that the Reason and Profes may be set out in writing To th entent as well all the World may examine and Judg them as that no Man shall start back from their Writing and what Faith hath been in the Church these fifteen hundred Years we will joyne with them in this Point and that the Doctrine and Usage is to be followed which was in the Church fifteen hundred Years past And we shall prove that the Order of the Church set out at this present in this Church of England by Act of Parliament is the same that was used in the Church fifteen hundred Years past And so shall they never be able to prove theirs Some Copies of this Declaration soon fell into the Hands of certain Bishops who brought them to the Council The Council sent a Copy to the Queen's Commissioners Who soon after ordered him to appear before them and to bring in an Inventory of his Goods The reason as is alledged of his being ordered to bring in this Inventory was because it was then intended that he should have a sufficient Living assigned him and to keep his House and not meddle with Religion So on the Day appointed which was August 27 the Arch-bishop together with Sir Thomas Smith Secretary of State to K. Edward and May Dean of S. Pauls came before the Queen's Commissioners in the Consistory of Pauls and the Arch-bishop brought in his Inventory We are left to guess what he was now cited for I suppose it was to lay to his charge Heresy and his Marriage What more was done with him at this time I find not He retired to his House at Lambeth where he seemed to be confined For about the beginning of August as may be collected from a Letter of the Arch-bishop's to Cecyl he was before the Council about the Lady Iane's Business without all question And then with the severe Reprimands he received was charged to keep his House and be forth-coming At that time he espied Cecyl who was in the same Condemnation and would fain have spoken with him but durst not as he told him in a Letter dated August 14 as it seems out of his Love and Care of him lest his very talking with Cecyl might have been prejudicial to that Pardon which he now lay fair for But by Letter he desired him to come over to him to Lambeth because he would gladly commune with him to hear how Matters went and for some other private Causes Cecyl being now at Liâ—erty September 13 following the Arch-bishop was again summoned to appear that Day before the Queen's Council Then he appeared and was dismissed but commanded to be the next Day in the Star-Chamber And so he was The effect of which appearance was that he was committed to the Tower partly for setting his Hrnd to the Instrument of the Lady Iane's Succession and partly for the publick Offer he made a little before of justifying openly the Religious Proceedings of the deceased King But the chief Reason was the inveterate Malice his Enemies conceived against him for the Divorse of K. Henry from the Queen's Mother the blame of which they laid wholly upon him though Bishop Gardiner and other Bishops were concerned in it as deep as he In the Tower we leave the good Arch-bishop a while after we have told you that soon after the Queen coming to the Tower some of the Arch-bishop's Friends made humble suit for his Pardon and that he might have access to her but She would neither hear him nor see him Holgate also the other Arch-bishop about the beginning of October was committed to the Tower upon pretence of Treason or great Crimes but chiefly I suppose because he was Rich. And while he was there they rifled his Houses at Battersea and Cawood At his former House they seized in Gold coined three hundred Pounds in Specialties and good Debts four hundred Pounds more in Plate gilt and Parcel gilt sixteen hundred Ounces A Mitre of fine Gold with two Pendants set round about the sides and midst with very fine pointed Diamonds Saphires and Balists and all the Plain with other good Stones and Pearls and the Pendants in like manner weighing one hundred twenty five Ounces Six or seven great Rings of fine Gold with Stones in them whereof were three fine blew Saphires of the best an Emerald very fine a good Turkeys and a Diamond a Serpent's Tongue set in a Standard of Silver gilt and graven the Arch-bishop's seal in silver his Signet an old Antick in Gold The Counterpane of his Lease of Wotton betwixt the late Duke of Northumberland and him with Letters Patents of his Purchase of Scrowby Taken from Cawood and other Places appertaining to the Arch-bishop by one Ellis Markham First in ready Money nine hundred
order thereunto What they performed may be perceived by the Bible that goes under the Name of the Geneva Bible at this Day It was in those Days when it first came forth better esteemed of than of later Times At Frankford where they had great Countenance of the Magistrates of the City arose great Contentions and Quarrels among themselves about the Discipline of the Church and in framing a New Service different from what was before set forth in K. Edward's Reign to be used in the publick Congregation which new Service came nearer to the Form of the Church of Geneva This occasioned great Troubles Animosities and Separations to the discredit of themselves and the Reformation These Matters may be seen at large in the Troubles at Frankford There is one thing which that Book making I think no mention of I will here relate Some of the English upon this Dissension carried their Children to be baptized by Lutheran Priests for tho the Lutherans were against the poor Exiles they thought so well of them as to be willing their Children should be initiated into the Church by their Ministry The Occasion whereof seemed to be that in the Divisions of this Church one Party would not let their Children be baptized by the English Minister This causing a new Disturbance some wrote to the great Divine P. Martyr now at Argentine for his Resolution of this Question An liceat hominibus Evangelicis Baptismum a Lutheranis accipere To this he answered in a Letter to the Church disapproving of their doings Telling them That the way to heal their Differences was to bring their Children to be baptized in such Churches with which they agreed in Faith and Doctrine So that this created a new Quarrel among them for some held it unlawful to receive Baptism from those that were not Orthodox in their Doctrine and others again thought it lawful And this made them send to Martyr for his Judgment as aforesaid Who wrote That he would not say it was unlawful for that it could not be judged by the Word of God but he disliked the Practice and propounded divers Arguments against it Those that were for it said It was an indifferent thing To which Martyr made this reply That indifferent things were not to be used to the Scandal of the Weak They said The Difference was not so great between us in the matter of the Sacrament But Martyr said It was of great Moment because in it there was a Contest concerning the chief Head of Religion They added that the Lutheran Divines did think in the Matter of Baptism as they did But Martyr answered That they were mistaken for those Divines affirmed more of the Sacrament than is fit and tied the Grace of God to Baptism and that they thought there was no Salvation without Baptism and that they affirmed that Infants had Faith To the Exiles residing here at Frankford some in the Year 1555 conveyed Gardiner's Book against Cranmer intitled Marcus Antonius with Ridley's Answer to the Objections of that Book and a Treatise in English of Transubstantiation wrote by the same Ridley This last they intended to turn into Latine and so to print both But on second Thoughts they demurred upon it fearing it might enrage Gardiner the more against Ridley who was yet alive Whereupon Grindal wrote to him to know his Mind therein before they proceeded to Print Many of the Fugitives took up their Residence at Basil upon two Reasons one was because the People of that City were especially very kind and courteous unto such English as came thither for Shelter the other because those that were of slenderer Fortunes might have Imployment in the Printing-houses there the Printers in Basil in this Age having the Reputation of exceeding all others of that Art throughout Germany for the Exactness and Elegancy of their Printing And they rather chose English Men for the Overseers and Correctors of their Presses being noted for the most careful and diligent of all others Whereby many poor Scholars made a shift to subsist in these hard Times Indeed many of these Exiles assisted in promoting of Learning and Religion by publishing to the World their own or other Mens Writings Iohn Scory that had been Bishop of Chichester wrote a very comfortable Epistle unto all the Faithful that were in Prison or in any other Trouble for the Defence of God's Truth Printed in the Year 1555. He was Preacher to the English Congregation at Embden and stiled their Superintendent From hence this and many other good Books were sent into England by certain Persons to be dispersed about in London and other Places There was one Elizabeth Young that came thence with a Book called Antichrist and several others Who was taken up for bringing in Prohibited and Heretical Books and endured much Trouble There was also another named Thomas Bryce that brought Books from Wesel into Kent and London he was watched and dogged but escaped several Times Sir Iohn Baker a Kentish Man and a great Papist and a Courtier laid his Spies to attack him Iohn Old printed a Book at Waterford 1555 intitled The Acquittal or Purgation of the most Catholick Christen Prince Edward VI. against all such as blasphemously and traiterously infamed him or the Church in his Reign of Heresy or Sedition The writing of this Book was occasioned from the Preachers of England in Q. Mary's Time in their Sermons at S. Paul's Cross and in other Pulpits spewing out as the Book expresseth it with Scolding Roaring and Railing the Poison of Antichrist's Traditions and infaming the Order Form and Vse of Preaching Prayers and Administration of the Holy Sacraments set forth and exercised by common Authority in the Church of England reformed under the Government of Edward VI. and vilely slandering of his Father K. Henry VIII for banishing the violent usurped Power and Supremacy of the Romish antient Antichrist for his Brother 's known Wife and for taking justly upon him the Title and Estate of Supremacy incident and appertaining by the undoubted Ordinance of God to his Regal Office and Imperial Crown Thomas Sampson formerly Dean of Chichester wrote an Epistle to the Inhabitants of Alhallows-Breadstreet where in K. Edward's Time he had been Incumbent William Turner Doctor of Physick and that had been Physician in the Duke of Somerset's Family and after Dean of Wells another Exile put forth a Book Anno 1555. called A new Book of Spiritual Physick for divers Diseases of the Nobility and Gentlemen of England Dedicating it to divers of the chief Nobility It consisted of three Parts In the first he shewed who were Noble and Gentlemen and how many Works and Properties belong unto such and wherein their Office chiefly standeth In the second Part he shewed great Diseases were in the Nobility and Gentry which letted them from doing their Office In the third Part he specified what the Diseases were as namely the whole Palsy the Dropsy
return to Ionas He had written some Pieces and presented them to the King for which he intended to reward him And being now ready to go to France for the improvement of his Knowledg and so after a time to return into England again for which he had a great Affection he besought Secretary Cecyl in a well-penned Letter That whatsoever the King intended to bestow on him he would do it out of hand for the supply of his travelling Necessity This Letter for the Antiquity of it and the Fame of the Man I have inserted in the Appendix In which is also contained an Extract of part of Ionas the Father's Letter to his Son concerning the Miseries of Germany CHAP. XXIV Melancthon and the Arch-bishop great Friends THESE Occasions of the frequent mention of Melancthon do draw us into a relation of some further Passages between him and our Arch-bishop In the Year 1549 happened several Disputations chiefly concerning the Doctrine of the Lord's Supper before the King's Commissioners in both Universities In Oxford they were managed chiefly by Peter Martyr And in Cambridg Ridley then Bishop of Rochester and a Commissioner was the chief Moderator Soon after Martin Bucer in this University defended three Points one of the Sufficiency of the Scripture another concerning the Erring of Churches and the last concerning Works done before Iustification against Pern Sedgwick and Yong. They on the Popish Side pretended much in their Disputations to have Antiquity and the Fathers for them These Disputations did our most Reverend Prelate together with his own Letter convey to Melancthon by the Hand of one Germanicus a German Who probably might be one of those Learned Strangers that the Arch-bishop hospitably entertained The Reflection that that Divine in an Answer to his Grace in the Year 1550 made upon perusal of these Papers was That he was grieved to see that those who sought so much for the Antient Authorities would not acknowledg the Clearness of them Nor was there any doubt what the sounder Men in the Antient Church thought But that there were new and spurious Opinions foisted into many of their Books Into that of Theophylact most certainly for one And that there was some such Passage in the Copy that Oecolampadius made use of when he translated Theophylact which he liked not of but yet translated it as he found it But this was wholly wanting in the Copy that Melancthon had That the same happened in Bede's Books which he supposed might be found more incorrupt among us Bede being our Country-Man The same Melancthon with this his Letter sent our Arch-bishop a part of his Enarration upon the Nicene Creed for this end that he might pass his Judgment thereon As he also did for the same purpose to A Lasco Bucor and Peter Martyr all then in England The beginning of this Learned German's Acquaintance with our Prelat was very early For the Arch-bishop's Fame soon spred abroad in the World beyond the English Territories Which was the Cause of that Address of Melancthon mentioned before in the Year 1535 and in the Month of August when he sent a Letter and a Book to him by Alexander Aless. In the Letter he signified what a high Character both for Learning and Piety he had heard given of him by many honest and worthy Men and That if the Church had but some more such Bishops it would be no difficult Matter to have it healed and the World restored to Peace congratulating Britain such a Bishop And this seems to have been the first entrance into their Acquaintance and Correspondence PHILIP MELANCTHON In the Year 1548 Cranmer propounded a great and weighty Business to Melancthon and a Matter that was likely to prove highly useful to all the Churches of the Evangelick Profession It was this The ABp was now driving on a Design for the better uniting of all the Protestant Churches viz. by having one common Confession and Harmony of Faith and Doctrine drawn up out of the pure Word of God which they might all own and agree in He had observed what Differences there arose among Protestants in the Doctrine of the Sacrament in the Divine Decrees in the Government of the Church and some other things These Disagreements had rendred the Professors of the Gospel contemptible to those of the Roman Communion Which caused no small grief to the Heart of this good Man nearly touched for the Honour of Christ his Master and his true Church which suffered hereby And like a Person of a truly publick and large Spirit as his Function was seriously debated and deliberated with himself for the remedying this Evil. This made him judg it very adviseable to procure such a Confession And in order to this he thought it necessary for the chief and most Learned Divines of the several Churches to meet together and with all freedom and friendliness to debate the Points of Controversy according to the Rule of Scripture And after mature deliberation by Agreement of all Parties to draw up a Book of Articles and Heads of Christian Faith and Practice Which should serve for the standing Doctrine of Protestants As for the Place of this Assembly he thought England the fittest in respect of Safety as the Affairs of Christendom then stood And communicating this his purpose to the King that Religious Prince was very ready to grant his Allowance and Protection And as Helvetia France and Germany were the chief Countries abroad where the Gospel was prosessed so he sent his Letters to the most eminent Ministers of each namely to Bullinger Calvin and Melancthon disclosing this his pious Design to them and requiring their Counsel and Furtherance Melancthon first of all came acquainted with it by Iustus Ionas junior to whom the Arch-bishop had related the Matter at large and desired him to signify as much in a Letter to the said Melancthon and that it was his Request to him to communicate his Judgment thereupon This Ionas did and Melancthon accordingly writ to our Arch-bishop on the Calends of May this Year to this purpose That if his Judgment and Opinion were required he should be willing both to hear the Sense of other Learned Men and to speak his own and to give his Reasons 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Perswading and being perswaded as ought to be in a Conference of good Men letting Truth and the Glory of God and the Safety of the Church not any private Affection ever carry away the Victory Telling him withal That the more he considered of this his Deliberation than which he thought there could be nothing set on foot more Weighty and Necessary the more he wish'd and pressed him to publish such a true and clear Confession of the whole Body of Christian Doctrine according to the Judgment of Learned Men whose Names should be subscribed thereto That among all Nations there might be extant an illustrious Testimony of Doctrine delivered by grave Authority and
that Posterity might have a Rule to follow And he was of opinion that this Confession should be much of the nature of their Confession of Augsburgh only that some few Points in Controversy might be in plainer Words delivered than was in that That Ambiguities might not hereafter occasion new Differences And that in the Church it was best to call a Spade a Spade and not to cast ambiguous Words before Posterity as an Apple of Contention And that if in Germany there had been an intire Consent of all the Churches they had not fallen into those Miseries And so concludes earnestly exhorting our Prelat to apply himself vigorously in these his pious Cares and Thoughts for the good Estate of the Churches Not long after he pursued his first Letter with a second Wherein he again reminded our Reverend Father of that Caution viz. That nothing might be left under general Terms but exprest with all the Perspicuity and Distinctness imaginable Which I suppose he said to meet with the Opinion of some who thought it might be more convenient in order to Peace to suffer some difficult and controverted Points to pass under dubious Expressions or in the very words of Scripture without any particular decisive Sense and Explanation imposed on them And concerning this 't is probable our Arch-bishop had desired his Opinion This Melancthon was against saying That for his part he loved not Labyrinths and that therefore all his study was That whatsoever Matters he undertook to treat of they might appear plain and unfolded That it was indeed the Practice of the Council of Trent which therefore made such crafty Decrees that so they might defend their Errors by things ambiguously spoken But that this Sophistry ought to be far from the Church That there is no Absurdity in Truth rightly propounded and that this Goodness and Perspicuity of things is greatly inviting wheresoever there be good Minds And of this very Judgment was Peter Martyr another great Divine For when Bucer in a Discourse with him at Strasburg had advised him when he spake of the Eucharist to use more dark and ambiguous Forms of Speech that might be taken in a larger Acceptation urging to him That this was the course he himself took and that a certain good Man whom I suspect strongly to be our Arch-bishop had perswaded him That by this means the great Controversy concerning the Real Presence in the Sacrament might be at an end and so Peace so long wanted might be restored to the Church Martyr was over-perswaded by his Friend so to do and used for some time the same Form of Speech with him when he had occasion to discourse of that Doctrine But afterward he returned to his former more dilucid Stile as well in the Matter of the Real Presence as in all other Subjects he treated of And that both because he saw this would not suffice them who held a gross and carnal Presence of Christ's Body unless their gross manner of Expression were received and their as gross Interpretation too and because he found that many weaker Brethren were greatly offended with these Ambiguities of Speech and so intangled and confounded that they scarce knew what to think in this Point And so leaving Bucer to pursue his obscurer Phrases he chose to speak more clearly and distinctly And neither did Bucer disallow of Martyr in this Course nor was Martyr ignorant of Bucer's true Sense however doubtful his Expressions were as the Author of his Life tells us This I mention to shew how exactly Martyr accorded with Melancthon in this Opinion of expressing things in clear and perspicuous Terms which the said Melancthon thought it highly necessary now to be inculcated when deliberation was had of drawing up a General Confession of Faith After he had thus declared his Mind in this Matter he particularly descended to the Doctrine of Fate telling the Arch-bishop how the Stoical Disputes of that Subject among them in the beginning were too rough and horrid and such as were prejudicial to Discipline Which I suppose might be occasioned from some Passage in the Arch-bishop's Letter advising with this Learned Man how to propound the Doctrines of Predestination and Free-Will CHAP. XXV The Arch-bishop corresponds with Calvin THESE his Counsels he brake also to Iohn Calvin the chief Guide of the French Churches Who also highly approved of his pious Proposition The Arch-bishop in a Letter to that great Reformer had been lamenting the Differences that were in the Reformed Churches having his Eye I suppose herein upon those of Geneva and Germany and like a true Father of the Church consulting for the making up of the Breaches he thought no fitter Remedy could be used than for pious and wise Men and such as were well exercised in God's School to meet together and profess their Consents in the Doctrine of Godliness This Calvin acknowledged was rightly and prudently advised by him Applauding him that he did not only lead the way in purging the Doctrine of God's Church from Corruption but did so voluntarily exhort and encourage others therein And that he did not only take care of Religion at Home in his own Country but all the World over And as to the Meeting and Converse of Divines for this purpose which Cranmer had told him he had made the King so sensible of the need and usefulness of that he was forward in it and had offered a Place in his Kingdom for them securely to assemble together in that French Divine wished That Learned and Wise Men from the chief Churches would accordingly meet and diligently discussing the chief Heads of Faith would by common Consent deliver to Posterity the certain Doctrine of the Scripture But that among the great Evils of that Age this also was to be reputed that Churches were so divided from one another that Human Society was scarcely kept up among them much less that Sacred Communion of the Members of Christ which all profest with their Mouths but few did sincerely take care to preserve That as to himself if he might be thought to be of any Use he would not grudg to pass over ten Seas if there were need That if it were only to contribute some Assistance to the Kingdom of England he should esteem it a Reason lawful enough but much more he thought he ought to spare no Labour no Trouble to procure a Means whereby the Churches that were so widely divided might unite among themselves But he hoped his Weakness and Insufficiency being such he might be spared and that he would do his part in prosecuting that with his Prayers and Wishes which should be undertaken by others And whereas our Arch-bishop had hinted to him his Jealousy that the Business would hardly find a good Issue by reason of certain Difficulties attending it Calvin not only exhorted and earnestly beseeched him to go forward till it should have some Effect at least though it succeeded
what comfort could your flock loke for to have by yow But that which Christ saith to follow of those Qui non intrant per ostium â—ed aliunde to be stealers and thieffs Qui non intrant nisi ut mactent perdant as the effect hath shewed by yow But here yow deceive your self again and wold deceive other makeng your defence of your simulate oth that yow dyd the same so for the more service of God haveng in your mynd then to reform the church to the which being no way but to make that oth for a countenance this yow thought for such a purpose might be acceptable afore god and also entreng by the authoritie of the Pope called by hym that had authoritie to name yow then yow think it cannot be justlie of onie man objected unto yow that yow did not entre by the dore And this trulie if you could have kept your own counsil toucheng me I durst not object the same unto yow seeyng nothing outwardlie but as that yow were lawfullie called and institute Busshop And of your inward I woâ—d not make my self judge More wanting here and see as is the furst poyncte in your lettres Where yow make a great mervayle sayng it to be a thing that was never seen in the realme that to condempne any subject thereof justice shuld be sought of a forreyn power as is the Popes How this is to be called a Forreyn power I wil declare afterward For this I do not mervel if yow do not wel know not being so open to them that lacketh spiritual doctrine nor of that ignoraunce I do not speak now but of that outward light and knowledge which is open to every man by experience The which yow not knoweng it may be wel said yow be cast In tenebras exteriores and that yow have lost both interiour and exteriour knowledge of things For so yow show in this case where yow say it was never seen in the realm that to condemne ony subject thereof to death shuld be required ony other sentence then that comyth from the Imperial Crowne of the realm and their temporal lawes Wherein that which I note furst is this that in that place yow seme to lament that being condempned alredie as yow say by the lawes of the realme of high treason this dilation is geven to your death not to suffre afore al such things as be layd to your charge were furst known at Rome this being natural unto al that be in jeopardie of liffe if they cannot hope by ony just deâ—eance to extue the same at the least to have tyme al desire followeng that proverb In space comyth grace The which natural affect being extinct in yow this followeth withal natural knowledge to be extinct as in the proheme of your lettre is more declared And now to come neerer to that yow say was never seen that onye subject to be condempned had nede of ony outward Iustice calleng owtward justice the Canon lawes that come from the Pope To this I say the experience and use of the lawes and justice in this realme doith show clene contrarie to your mervel that it was never seen in the realm afore the tyme of your malicious oth that there was ever ony man condempned for the crime of heresies by the mere justice that comyth from the temporal lawes but al were first declared to be such by the spiritual lawes of the Canons which yow call forreyne lawes And this beside I say afore that same tyme of al other crimes as treason and other there was never spiritual man put to execution accordeng to the ordre of the lawes of the realm but he were furst by the Canon Laws condempned disgraded and then gyven to the temporal hondes Wherof there be as menye examples afore the tyme of breakeng the old ordre of the realm thise last years as hath bene delinquents Let al the records be sene and speciallie this is notable of the Busshop of which being emprisoned here for high treason the king wold not procede to his condempnation and ponnishment afore he had the Popes bull geveng hym And this is the trade of justice which the King and Qwene use with yow at this tyme beyng condempned of treason being consecrate Busshop to have the Popes sentence from Rome afore yow suffre Which maner of proceding you say was never afore in the Realm and the practise and experience in like cases doith show never to have bene otherwise afore the tyme of your notable perjurie And so Catholick Kings as it pertayneth to the privilege of the See of Rome when they be crowned doith sweare And now look what ignorance is this to think that the like was never sene in the realme when it was never seen otherwise amongst those princes that were counted to be in the obedience of the Lawes of Christ and of the Church But now to come to that yow speak of the Popes law and power Which after a seditious maner of speakeng yow call A forreyne power this stondeth under such a fashion if God leave yow so moch sence to understond what I say that the Popes power can no more be called Forreyn power comyng not of man alone but of hym that is god and man that was secundus homâ— de coelo coelestis then may be called a Forreyn power that the sowle of man comyng from heaven hath in the body generate in earth And so it is in the poâ—itick body of this realme ruled with politick lawes founded by mâ—ns reason that be called Temporal lawes To them comyng the Popes laws spiritual doith no other but that the sowle in the body to gyve liffe to the same to confirme and strengthen the same And this is it the Aungel speakeng in Christes conception and declareng what his authoritie shuld be signifyed saing he shuld sytt Super Domum Davyd which was a temporal reigne ut confirmet illud corroboret And so doith the spiritual lawes procedynge of his Spirit As be the lawes of the Church and canon lawes Which wheresoever thei be wel observed doith this effect ever to confirme and stablish the temporal lawes of the realm as no realm hath had more experience then this ever sâ—neth the tyme they received the faith and obedience of the Pope from whom came theyr doctrine of the faith There was never notable trouble in the realm of ony kynd if it dured ony space but it was ever lightly eased and the realm established by some Legate sent from the Pope and the See of Rome following the prescript of the Canons and the Spiritual Law Without the which no realme can wel be governed but al be like to the Thornbush Whereof it is written In libro Iudicum when the Sichimites had chosen a Tyrannie over them against the law of God then it was prophesied unto them what shuld come thereof which was that fire shuld come furth of that thorne which was their King that shuld devoure
MEMORIALS OF The Most Reverend Father in God Thomas Cranmer SOMETIME Lord Archbishop of CANTERBURY WHEREIN The HISTORY of the CHURCH and the REFORMATION of it during the Primacy of the said ARCHBISHOP are greatly Illustrated and many singular Matters relating thereunto now First Published In Three Books Collected chiefly from RECORDS REGISTERS Authentick LETTERS and other ORIGINAL MANUSCRIPTS By IOHN STRYPE M. A. LONDON Printed for RICHARD CHISWELL at the Rose and Crown in St. Paul's Church-Yard MDCXCIV EFFIGIES VERA REVERENDISSIMI Câ—â—â—MERI ARCHIEPISCOPI CANTUARIENSIS H Holbein pinxit Natus 1489 July 2. Consecratus 1533. Marzo Martyrio Coronatus 1556. Mar 21. pag 179 Printed for Ric Chiswell at the Rose and Crowne in S t Pauls Church yard TO THE Most Reverend Father in God JOHN By the DIVINE PROVIDENCE Lord Archbishop of CANTERBVRY Primate of all England and Metropolitan AND One of Their Majesties most Honourable Privy Council May it please Your Grace TO pardon the Presumption of the Obscure Person that dedicates this Book to Your GRACE for the sake of the Renowned Man it treats of Viz. One of your Illustrious Predecessors an Archbishop of Canterbury that hath deserved so eminently of that See nay and of the whole British Church I may say that deserved Best of any Archbishop before him that wore that Mitre To whose solid Learning Deliberation and indefatigable Pains both the Kings and People of this Realm owe their Deliverance from the long and cruel Bondage of Rome For it is true what the Romanists say in Obloquy of this Archbishop and we Protestants say it to his Eternal Fame That he was the first of all the Archbishops of Canterbury that made a Defection from the Papal Chair Thereby vindicating this Crown from a base Dependance upon a Foreign Jurisdiction But whereas Parsons saith That this was the first Change of Religion in any Archbishop of Canterbury from the beginning unto his days this is not so true For sundry of Archbishop Cranmer's Predecessors to look no further than Two or Three hundred Years backward were of different Judgments from the Church of Rome in some Points His immediate Predecessor Warbam approved of the King's Title of Supreme Head of the Church under Christ in his own Kingdom against the Doctrine of the Pope's Universal Authority And a Century of Years before him Archbishop Chichely tho he were made the Pope's Legate refused to exercise his Power Legantine further than he should be authorized thereunto by the King And Archbishop Islip as long before him disliked of Dissolving those Marriages that were contracted by such as had before vowed the single Life For tho he laid a Punishment upon a Countess of Kent who being a Widow and then Professed afterwards secretly married to a certain Knight named Abrincourt yet he divorced them not but permitted them to live together And the Judgment of Archbishop Arundel who lived in K. Richard the Second's Reign was for the Translation of the Scriptures into the Vulgar Tongue and for the Laities use thereof For He preaching the Funeral Sermon of Queen Anne the beloved Wife of that King after she deceased at Sheen in the Year 1392. commended her as for her other Vertuous Accomplishments so particularly for her Study of the Holy Scriptures and of the Sense of them and for having them in the Vulgar Tongue as I find by an Ancient MS. Fragment writ near Three hundred Years ago formerly belonging to the Church of Worcester in these Words following Also the Bushop of Caunterbury Thomas of Arundel that now is sey a Sermon at Westminster thereas was many an hundred of people at the buryeng of quene Anne of whose Sowle God have mercy And in his commendation of her he seyd That it was more joy of her than of any woman that ever he knew For notwithstanding that she was Alien born being the Daughter of the Emperor Charles IV. she had on English al the iiij gospels with the Doctors upon hem And he seyd that she sent them unto him And he seyd that they were good and true and commended her in that she was so great a Lady and also an Alyan and wolde study so holy so vertuouse bokes And he blamed in his Sermon sharply the negligence of the Prelates and other men c. So that it is not true what Parsons saith if he mean That no Archbishops of Canterbury before Cranmer varied from the Church of Rome in any of her Doctrines But true it is tho not so much to their Credits that none of them however sensible they were of the Roman Errors and Superstitions did in good earnest bestir themselves to set this Church free of them before our abovenamed Archbishop being the sixty eighth from Augustine the Monk resolutely and bravely undertook and effected it Indeed they spent not their Zeal their Treasure and their Interest this way so much as in contending about Superiority and their Prerogatives in exempting their Clergy from the Cognizance of the Temporal Magistrate in Applications to and Courting of the Bishops of Rome in Persecuting those they called Hereticks in Eternizing their own Names by founding Religious Houses and building Stately Palaces and Shrines and in exhibiting themselves in great Worldly Pomp and Appearance But blessed be God for Archbishop Cranmer by means of whose Reformation succeeded a Series of better tho not so splendid Archbishops Who made conscience of minding things more suitable to their high Vocation and the Spiritual Trust committed to them Men that regarded little or nothing the vain shews of exterior Grandeur and Glory nor sought Great Things for themselves but with their great Predecessor St. Paul on whom lay the Care of all the Churches spent and wore out themselves in the Restoration of the Kingdom of Christ so happily begun by the said Archbishop Cranmer in this Island Such were Parker Grindal Whitgift the Three first Protestant Archbishops next after him what he planted they watered and God gave a Blessed Increase to Whose most excellent Lives and Conducts in the Government of this Church as well as in their own more private and Domestick Conversation their rare Piety Prudence Patience Courage and Activity I can scarcely temper my Pen from making excursions into Of which I could fill even Volumes had I Leisure Favour and Countenance from those Large Collections which I have for divers Years been storing up with great delight partly out of their own Original Letters and partly from other MSS. in their times But besides these first Archbishops during the Long Reign of Q. Elizabeth who by their Care and Diligence established and settled that Reformation of which Archbishop Cranmer laid the first Stones we are beholden unto the same Archbishop for all the rest of the Worthy and Painful Prelates of that Metropolitical See who have taken Care of this Excellently Reformed Church even unto Your GRACE Whose Deserts towards this Church and the Reformation have raised you to sit in Archbishop Cranmer's
Chair tho with as much Reluctancy in You as was in Him Of Your GRACE'S Endowments to qualify You for this most Eminent Station I will be wholly silent knowing how abhorrent Your Generous Nature is from Reading or Hearing Your Own Commendations Nor MY LORD is this my End in this my Dedication But this it is That You would so far Encourage these my Weak and Imperfect Labours done out of a Good Intent as to cast a Favourable Eye upon them for the sake of Your Glorious Predecessor the Subject of this Book and to repute me among the Number May it please Your GRACE Of Your most Humble and most Obedient Servants JOHN STRYPE THE PREFACE I Think it fit by way of Preface to these Memorials to admonish the Reader of a few things preparatory to the Perusal thereof As What it was put me at first upon making these Collections concerning Archbishop Cranmer and the State of the Church in his time What induced me to make them Publick And What Credit may be given to them with some other occasional matters I. As to the first I have been for a long time not a little addicted to read whatsoever I could of the Reformation of this famous Church that I might truly understand for what Reasons it was at first attempted in what Methods it proceeded by what Men it was chiefly managed and carried on and how it stood in truth as to its Doctrine Discipline and Government Reputation Learning Piety and such like in its first Establishment and the Earlier Times of it For which purpose I did not only read over what we have in Print of these Matters but for more satisfaction I was carried on to look into MSS. whether Registers Records Letters Instruments and such like A great sort of which by Providence fell into my hands And besides them I have turned over many more in Libraries and elsewhere from whence I made Transcriptions Extracts and Collections for my own use and satisfaction which swelled to no little bulk And while I was doing this I took always a more curious View into the Lives Manners and Doings Learning Virtues and Abilities of the chief leading men whether Archbishops and Bishops or other Church-men of whom we have but little Account extant tho many of them very Great and Good men little more remaining of some of them than their Names The Reverence I bore in my mind to Archbishop Cranmer the Father of the Reformation here in England and the first of that Ancient Metropolitan See that so bravely shook off the Pope and his Appendages inclined me especially to gather up what Notices I could of him Afterwards as my leisure served me out of my indigested Mass of Notes I compiled into some order Memorials of him and of the Affairs of the Church during his Primacy in which he for the most part was concerned and bore a great share with K. Henry and the Lord Cromwel his Vicegerent in Spirituals After some Years these Memorials lying by me I enlarged considerably and digested them into Annals and had thoughts of making them Publick being excited and encouraged thereunto by my Friends who were privy to these my Doings II. And indeed many Considerations induced me hereunto As in general the great Benefit of reading Histories of former Times which what that is take in the Words of Iohn Fox For the things which be first are to be preferred before those which be later And then is the reading of Histories much necessary in the Church to know what went before and what followed after And therefore not without cause History in old Authors is called The Witness of Times the Light of Verity the Life of Memory the Teacher of Life and Shewer of Antiquity Without the knowledge whereof man's Life is blind and soon may fall into any kind of Error as by manifest experience we have to see in these desolate later Times of the Church whenas the Bishops of Rome under colour of Antiquity have turned Truth into Heresy and brought in such new-found Devices of strange Doctrine and Religion as in the former Ages of the Church were never heard of And all through Ignorance of Times and for lack of True History And therefore the Use of History being so considerable Historians in some Kingdoms have been maintained by Publick Encouragement And so the Writer of the Epistle to K. Edward before Erasmus's Paraphrase Englished propounded once to that King That there should be a Publick Salary allotted to some able Persons to Translate good Books and to Write Chronicles for bestowing so great a Benefit on the Commonwealth But particularly the History of the Church and matters relating to Religion have a more special benefit as being conversant about Spiritual things which are weightier by far and concern us more a great deal than Temporal But the more is the pity in this sort of History there is a greater Defect than in the other I speak of our own Nation for tho the History of the State in the last Age was excellently done by the Pens of the Lord Herbert and Mr. Cambden yet the Matters of the Church they professedly declined or did but touch at the former saying expresly His intention was not in an History to discuss Theological Matters as holding it sufficient to have pointed at the places where they are controverted And the latter in his History as often as he came to matters of the Church tells us That he left his Readers to the Ecclesiastical Historian Which hath made me wonder at and apt to accuse the Slothfulness of that Age that during all the time of K. Henry K. Edward and Q. Mary wherein Religion was so tossed about and took up so much of those Reigns there is no one Ecclesiastical History thereof written except that of the diligent and learned Mr. Fox and during the long Reign of Q. Elizabeth and K. Iames I think none at all Till of late years when by length of time and destruction of many Original MSS. by the Civil Wars divers remarkable Transactions were buried and lost some few Learned Men employed themselves in Collecting and Publishing what Memorials of Religion and the Church they could retrieve as namely Dr. Fuller Dr. Heylin and especially Dr. Burnet now the Right Reverend Bishop of Sarum to whom the English Church must be ever beholden for his great and happy Pains contributed hereunto But yet there be good Gleanings after these Writers and many things of remark there are relating to the Church in those Three busie Reigns of Henry Edward and Mary whereof these Historians are either wholly silent or speak imperfectly or erroneously Some whereof in my Searches I have met with which I have disposed in these Memorials But besides the General Benefit of History especially Ecclesiastical this Particular History now recommended unto the English Nation may produce this good effect To make us value and esteem as we ought our Reformed Religion when we see by
Nicene Creed The beginning of their Acquaintance The Archbishop propounds a weighty matter to Melancthon for the Union of all Protestant Churches The diligence of the Archbishop in forwarding this Design Mâ—lancthon's Judgment and Approbation thereof His Caveat of avoiding ambiguous expressions Renews the same Caution in another Letter Peter Martyr of this judgment What Melancthon thought of the Doctrine of Fate CHAP. XXV The Archbishop corresponds with Calvin The Archbishop breaks his purpose also to Calvin Calvin's Approbation thereof and Commendation of the Archbishop Offers his Service Excites the Archbishop to proceed This excellent purpose frustrated Thinks of drawing up Articles of Religion for the English Church Which he communicates to Calvin And Calvin's Reply and Exhortation Blames him for having not made more Progress in the Reformation But not justly The Clergy preach against Sacrilege The University-men declaim against it in the Schools And the Redress urged upon some at Court Calvin sends Letters and certain of his Books to the King Well taken by the King and Council What the Archbishop told the Messenger hereupon CHAP. XXVI The Archbishop highly valued Peter Martyr P. Martyr and the Archbishop cordial Friends The use the Archbishop made of him Martyr saw the Voluminous Writings and Marginal Notes of the Archbishop Two Letters of Martyr from Oxford An Instance of his love to the Archbishop CHAP. XXVII The Archbishop's favour to John Sleidan the Historian The Archbishop's favour to Iohn Sleidan Procures him a Pension from the King The Payment neglected Sleidan labours with the Archbishop to get the Pension confirmed by Letters-Patents Sends his Commentaries to the King Designs to write the History of the Council of Trent For the King's use Sends the King a Specimen thereof In order to the proceeding with his Commentaries desires Cecyl to send him the whole Action between K. Henry VIII and Pope Clement VII Bucer writes to Cecyl in behalf of Sleidan Iohn Leland CHAP. XXVIII Archbishop Cranmer 's Relations and Chaplains His Wives and Children His Wife survived him Divers Cranmers The Archbishop's stock Aslacton Whatton The Rectories whereof the Archbishop purchased His Chaplains Rowland Taylor His Epitaph A Sermon preached the day after his Burning Wherein the Martyr is grosly slandered Iohn Ponett Thomas Becon Richard Harman CHAP. XXIX Archbishop Cranmer 's Officers Robert Watson the Archbishop's Steward His Secretary Ralph Morice His Parentage Well known to divers eminent Bishops Presents Turner to Chartham And stands by him in his Troubles for his faithful Preaching An Instance of the Archbishop's Kindness to this his Secrerary Morice his Suit to Q. Elizabeth for a Pension His second Suit to the Queen to confirm certain Lands descended to him from his Father He was Register to the Commissioners in K. Edward's Visitation Suffered under Q. Mary Morice supplied Fox with many material Notices in his Book Morice a Cordial Friend to Latimer CHAP. XXX A Prospect of the Archbishop's Qualities Morice's Declaration concerning the Archbishop His Temperance of Nature His Carriage towards his Enemies Severe in his behaviour towards offending Protestants Stout in God's or the King's Cause His great Abilities in answering the King's Doubts Cranmer studied three parts of the Day Would speak to the King when none else durst Lady Mary Q. Katherine Howard His Hospitality Falsly accused of Ill Housekeeping CHAP. XXXI Archbishop Cranmer preserved the Revenues of his See The preserving the Bishops Revenues owing to the Archbishop The Archbishop vindicated about his Leases By long Leases he saved the Revenues Justified from diminishing the Rents of the See Oâ—ford and Knol Curleswood Chislet Park Pasture and Medow Woods Corn. The best Master towards his Servants An Infamy that he was an Hostler CHAP. XXXII Some Observations upon Archbishop Cranmer Observations upon the Archbishop His Learning very profound His Library An excellent Bishop His Care of his own Diocess At the great Towns he preached often Affected not his high Stiles His diligence in reforming Religion Puts K. Henry upon a purpose of reforming many things The King again purposeth a Reformation Hs Influence upon K. Edward CHAP. XXXIII Archbishop Cranmer procures the use of the Scriptures A great Scripturist Procures the publishing the English Bible The Bishops oppose it The first Edition of the Bible The Preface to the Bible made by the Archbishop The Contents thereof The Frontispiece of Cranmer's Edition of the Bible CHAP. XXXIV Archbishop Cranmer compassionate towards Sufferers for Religion His Affection and Compassion towards Professors of the Gospel Particularly for Sir Iohn Cheke a Prisoner And the Lord Russel A Patron to such as preached the Gospel in K. Henry's days His Succour of Afflicted Strangers in K. Edward's days England harborous of Strangers The Archbishop's favour to Foreigners Unjustly charged with Covetousness His Words to Cecyl upon this Charge Reduced as he feared to stark Beggary before his Death CHAP. XXXV Some account of Archbishop Cranmer'â— Housekeeping Some Account of his Housekeeping Retrenches the Clergy's superfluous House-keeping His Pious Design therein Others charged him with Prodigality CHAP. XXXVI Archbishop Cranmer Humble Peaceable Bold in a good Cause Humble and Condescending Peaceable and Mild. His Speech upon the News of Wars abroad Unacquainted with the Arts of Court-Flattery Would never crouch to Northumberland He and Ridley fall under that Duke's displeasure Bold and undaunted in God's Cause Falsly charged with Cowardice and too much Flexibility Of ardent Affections Cranmâ—r compared with Cardinal Wolsey CHAP. XXXVII Osiander 's and Peter Martyr 's Character of the Archbishop Osiander's Character of the Archbishop And Peter Martyr's Bale's Character of the Archbishop The difficult times wherein Cranmer lived CHAP. XXXVIII The Archbishop vindicated from Slanders of Papists A lying Character of this Archbishop by a late French Author Allen's Calumny of the Archbishop Wiped off Cleared from his Charge of Apostacy Saunders Falshoods of the Archbishop Parsons his Complements to the Archbishop Fox in behalf of Cranmer The Conclusion Errata and Emendations belonging to the Memorials Where the Reader finds this mark * after the Figure denoting the Line he is to tell from the bottom PAge 5. Line 21. for At read All. P. 29. l. 11. r. Imprisoned P. 30 31. in the Margent in three places r. 1534. P. 36. l. 8. after Appendix Note That the Dissolution of S. Swithins in Winchester tho laid here under the year 1535. happened not that year but about five years after viz. 1540. But the occasion of the Discourse there which was of the vast Wealth obtained to the King by the Fall of Religious Houses made the Author produce it in this place as an Instance thereof Ibid. l. 20. * r. Diocesan P. 37. Among the Diocesan Bishops Consecrated under the year 1535 place Hugh Latymer Consecrated Bishop of Worcester and Iohn Hildesly or Hilsey a Friar of the Order of Preachers first of Bristow and afterwards of Oxford Consecrated Bishop of Rochester next after Iohn Fisher Executed for Treason These two
themselves and are as much bound to obey as their Temporal Subjects or Lay-men as the Priests call them that the Issue was the abolishing of that Foreign Papal Power and the expulsion of it out of this Realm by the full consent of Parliament A Licence dated Feb. 13. this Year was granted by the Arch-Bishop to Mary the Relict of Sir Henry Guilford Kt. to have the Eucharist Matrimony and Baptism ministred in any Chappel or Oratory within her Mannors where she should reside during her Life And such a Licence dated also Feb. 13. the next Year was granted by him to Margaret Marchioness of Dorset Whether indulged to them by the Arch-Bishop the rather to free them from danger for not frequenting their Parish-Churches and for the avoiding the Superstitious and Idolatrous Worship there performed and that there might be some private Places for purer worshipping God and administration of the Sacraments or only for the Convenience of those Ladies the Reader hath liberty to judg CHAP. VI. The Arch-bishop presseth the Translation of the Bible THIS Rub of the Papal Power being now taken out of the way and the King's Supremacy settled in the next Sessions of Parliament in Novemb. 1534. a Way was opened for a Reformation of Errors and Abuses in Religion So that as the Arch-bishop judged it a thing impossible to make any amendment of Religion under the Pope's Dominion so he thought it now the same being dispatched out of the Realm a meeâ— time to restore the true Doctrine of Christ according to the Word of God and the old Primitive Church within his Jurisdiction and Cure and with the said Pope to abolish also all false Doctrine Errors and Heresies by him brought into the Church for the accomplishing of which he let pass no Opportunities A Convocation now afforded him one Our Arch-bishop from his first entrance upon his Dignity had it much in his mind to get the Holy Scriptures put into the Vulgar Language and a Liberty for all to read them The Convocation now was so well disposed by the influence of the Arch-bishop and his Friends that they did petition the King that the Bible might be translated by some Learned Men of his Highnesses nomination And as this good Motion was briefly made in the House by the Arch-bishop so they agreed upon him to carry their Petition But they clogged it with another which the Arch-bishop did not so well approve of For about the Month of December they pass'd this Order of Convocation The Bishops Abbots Priors of this Upper House of Convocation of the Province of Canterbury met together in the Chapter-House of St. Paul unanimously did consent that the most Reverend Father the Arch-bishop should make instance in their Names to the King that his Majesty would vouchsafe for the encrease of the Faith of his Subjects to decree and command That all his Subjects in whose possession any Books of suspect Doctrine were especially in the Vulgar Language imprinted beyond or on this side the Sea should be warned within three Months to bring them in before Persons to be appointed by the King under a certain Pain to be limited by the King And that moreover his Majesty would vouchsafe to decree that the Scriptures should be translated into the Vulgar Tongue by some honest and learned Men to be nominated by the King and to be delivered unto the People according to their Learning This was resolved in the Convocation Decemb. 19. Accordingly the King issued out soon after his Proclamation What this Proclamation was I do not know unless it were one I meet with about this time against bringing in or printing seditious Books of Anabaptists and Sacramentaries who were said to be lately come into the Realm and against some of his own Subjects who publickly disputed in Taverns and other open Places upon those Points of Religion which the King was offended withal For the Correction and Regulating of which the King in the said Proclamation commanded sundry Articles to be observed which for the length of them I have put into the Appendix Unless perhaps this Proclamation may belong to the Year 1538. About the month of Iune this Year was a Book drawn up for Bishops and Priests wherein was an Order for preaching and in the same were Forms devised for the Beads as well for Preachers as Curates In which Forms the King's Title of Supream Head was specified In this Book was commandment given by the King that â—very Preacher should before Easter once in solemn Audience deâ—â—are the usurped Jurisdiction within this Realm of the Bishop of â—ome and the King 's just Cause to decline from the same and also to open and declare such things as might avow and justify the King's refusal of Marriage with the Princess Dowager and his contract anew with Queen Ann. And also in the same Book an Order was given for the suppression of the General Sentence or Curse This Book the Arch-bishop who we may well suppose had a great hand in it sent by the King's Commandment to all the Bishops and to the Arch-bishop of York though out of his Province that Arch-bishop lying under some Jealousy as it seems with the King Therefore after the receit of the Book the said Arch-bishop of York the next Sunday which was the second Sunday after Trinity went from Cawood to York and there in his own Person declared as well the King's Cause touching the Matrimony as his refusal of the Pope's Jurisdiction so fully that nothing that needed to be opened was left unspoken as that Arch-bishop wrote himself to the King in his own Vindication And that the Auditory might be the greater he sent to York forthwith upon the receit of the Book to publish there that he would be there the next Sunday following and caused the Churches to make an end of their Service in such time as every Man might have opportunity to be at the Sermon and especially required the Mayor and his Brethren and one Mr. Magnus and Sir George Lawson his Majesty's Chaplains to be there And a very great Confluence there was Then the Arch-bishop preached from that Text Vxorem duxi c. Whence he took occasion to utter and declare both his foresaid Matters and the Injury done to the King's Highness by Pope Clement As the Convocation this Year had declared the Pope to have no Jurisdiction in this Kingdom so this would not serve the King till all the Learned and Spiritual Men in England had subscribed to it with their Hands The Arch-bishop's Church of Canterbury began For the Prior and Convent thereof moved and influenced not a little by their Diocesan solemnly subscribed an Instrument for abolishing the Pope's Supremacy and for acknowledgment of the King Supream Head of the Church of England under this Position Quod Romanus Episcopus non habet majorem aliqâ—am jurisdictionem a Deo sibi collatam in hoc regno
their own Houses where they received Causes Complaints and Appeals and had learned Civilians living with them that were Auditors of the said Causes before the Arch-bishop gave Sentence pretending that he held it as the Pope's Legat Urging also the great Troubles and Inconveniences it caused both to the Clergy and the Laity and that every Man must by virtue of that Court be forced up to London from the farthest part of the Land for a slanderous Word or a Trifle And that they thought it convenient if it were the King's Pleasure to continue that Court that he would settle it upon some other and not upon the Arch-bishop that so it might appear the Original of that Court was from the King and not from the Pope And lastly that it would not be safe to constitute the Arch-bishop the Pope's Legat because it would infringe the Power of the Vicar-General This was drawn up in way of Petition and Complaint either to the King or Parliament by a Combination of some of the Convocation as I suspect the Paper being writ by the Hand of the Register of the Lower House of Convocation The great Wheel we may be sure that set a moving this Device was Winchester his never-failing Adversary The King notwithstanding bad the Arch-bishop maintain his Court. And he answered all their Pleas against it and by way of Protestation affirmed that he kept not his Court by virtue of his Bull from Rome for Legat and that none could suspect that he did And that he saw no Cause but that he might keep that Court by virtue of the late Act of Parliament that gave Power to enjoy all things that were before had from the See of Rome And finally he answered that it was the King's Will and Command that he should continue his Court. To which the Convocation or rather some part of it made a Reply that may be seen in the Appendix But notwithstanding these Discouragements which were thrown in probably to hinder his good Designs the Arch-bishop vigorously prosecuted a Reformation at this Convocation Where assisted by Crumwel the King's Vicar General he earnestly laboured for the redress of several Abuses and Errors in the English Church And that not without good Success at length For after much deliberation among the Clergy there assembled and much opposition too he got a Book of divers good Articles to that purpose to be agreed upon and subscribed An account of which by and by shall follow CHAP. XI Articles of Religion NOW though I do not find the King went so far as that it should be enjoined on all the Clergy to own the Articles of this Book by their own Hands subscribed yet he published and recommended them to all his loving Subjects in general to accept and repute them to be agreeable to God's Laws and proper for the establishment of Peace and Concord And further probably in prudence the King thought not fit yet to go considering the great Disputes and Arguments that had happened in the Convocation hereupon Now because this was one of the great Services our pious Prelate contributed to the Church and was one of the first Steps made in the Reformation of the Doctrine and Worship it will not be amiss here in order to the inlightning this History to set down the Heads of this Book though it be done by others before me And notwithstanding what the Noble Author of the History of Henry VIII saith he gathered by some Records that this Book was devised by the King himself and recommended afterwards to the Convocation by Crumwel yet we have reason to attribute a great share therein to the Arch-bishop They that are minded to see a Draught of these Articles from the Original with the Royal Assent prefixed to them may have it in Dr. Fuller's Church-History Which he tells us he transcribed out of the Acts of the Convocation The Bishop of Sarum also met with an Original of them in the Cotton Library wrote out fairly as it seems for the King 's own Use and subscribed with all the Hands of the Convocation thereunto He also hath inserted the Transcript of them in the first part of his History of the Reformation In the Rebellion in the North which happened this Year 1536 chiefly raised by Priests and Friars many Copies of these Articles for the Book was printed by Barthelet did Crumwel send by the King's Order to the Duke of Norfolk the King's Lieutenant there to disperse in those Parts together with the Original Copy it self as it was signed by the Hands of the Convocation amounting to the number of 116 Bishops Abbots Priors Arch-deacons and Proctors of the Clergy Which the said Duke had order to shew unto the Clergy and others as occasion served that they might understand it was a proper Act of the Church and no Innovation of the King and a few of his Counsellors as they gave out And after he had made his use of this Original he was required to reserve it safe for the King This choice Treasure which the King himself required such care to be taken of Sir Robert Cotton afterwards procured at his no small Expence no doubt It is very fairly written in Vellam and at the bottom of the first Page is written Robertus Cotton Bruceus by Sir Robert's own Hand signifying his Value of this Monument It is still extant in that incomparable Library in the Volume Cleopatra E. 5. And there I have seen it and diligently compared it Excuse this Digression and I now proceed to the Articles themselves These Articles were of two sorts some concerning Faith and some concerning Ceremonies The former sort were digested under these five Titles following I. The Principal Articles of Faith And they were these That all those things that be comprehended in the whole Body and Canon of the Bible and in the three Creeds are true and constantly to be believed That we take and hold the same for the most holy and infallible Words of God That the Articles of the Faith contained in the Creeds are necessary to be believed for Man's Salvation That the same words be kept in which the Articles of Faith are conceived That all Opinions contrary to the Articles and which were condemned in the four first Councils are to be utterly refused II. The Sacrament of Baptism That it was instituted and ordained by Iesus Christ as necessary to Everlasting Life That by it all as well Infants as such as have the use of Reason have Remission of Sins and the Grace and Favour of God offered them That Infants and Innocents must be Baptized because the Promise of Grace and Everlasting Life pertains as well to them as to those who have the use of Reason And that therefore Baptized Infants shall undoubtedly be saved That they are to be Baptized because of Original Sin which is remitted only by Baptism That they that are once Baptized must not be
Baptized again That the Opinions of Anabaptists and Pelagians are to be held for detestable Heresies That those who having the use of Reason shall come to Baptism shall obtain the Remission of all their Sins if they come thereunto perfectly and truly repentant confessing and believing all the Articles of the Faith and having firm Credence and Trust in the Promise of God adjoined to the said Sacrament III. The Sacrament of Penance That that Sacrament was instituted of Christ in the New Testament as a thing so necessary for Man's Salvation that no Man that after his Baptism is fallen again and hath committed deadly Sin can without the same be saved That such Penitents shall without doubt attain Remission of their Sins That this Sacrament consists of Contrition Confession and Amendment of Life That Contrition consists first of Acknowledgment of our Sins Unto which the Penitent is brought by hearing and considering the Will of God declared in his Laws and feeling in his own Conscience that God is angry and this joined with Sorrow and Shame and fear of God's Displeasure That secondly it consists of Faith Trust and Confidence in the Mercies and Goodness of God whereby the Penitent must conceive certain Hope and repute himself justified not for any Merit or Work done by him but by the only Merits of the Blood of Iesus Christ. That this Faith is begotten and confirmed by the Application of Christ's Words and Promises That Confession to a Priest the second part of Penance is necessary where it may be had That the Absolution given by the Priest was instituted of Christ to apply the Promises of God's Grace to the Penitent And that the words of Absolution pronounced by the Priest are spoken by the Authority given him by Christ. That Men must give no less Faith and Credence to the Words of Absolution pronounced by the Ministers of the Church than they would give unto the very Words and Voice of God himself And that Men in no wise contemn this Auricular Confession As to the third part of Penance viz. Amendment of Life That all are bound to bring forth the Fruits of Penance that is to say Prayer Fasting and Alms-deeds and to make Restitution and Satisfaction in Will and Deed to their Neighbour and all other good Works or else they shall never be saved That Works of Charity be necessary to Salvation That by Penance and such good Works we do not only obtain Everlasting Life but deserve Remission or Mitigation of these present Pains and Affliction in this World Mark here by the way how the Doctrine of Merits is propounded Our Merits do not extend to Pardon and Everlasting Life but only to the removal or abatement of temporal Afflictions IV. The Sacrament of the Altar That under the Form and Figure of Bread and Wine is verily and substantially contained that very same Body and Blood which was born of the Virgin Mary and suffered upon the Cross. And that the self-same Body and Blood of Christ is distributed unto and received by all the Communicants That therefore this Sacrament is to be used with all due reverence and honour And that before any receive it he ought religiously to try and search his own Conscience V. Iustification That the word signifies Remission of Sins and our Acceptation or Reconciliation into the Grace and Favour of God That Sinners attain this Justification by Contrition and Faith joined with Charity That neither our Contrition and Faith nor any Work proceeding thence can merit or deserve the said Justification That the Mercy and Grace of the Father promised freely for Christ's Sake and the Merit of his Blood and Passion be the only sufficient and worthy Causes thereof This was the Sum of the Articles concerning Faith Those concerning Ceremonies followed next which were likewise comprised under five Titles I. Of Images That they be representers of Vertue and good Example That they be stirrers of Mens Minds and make them often to remember and lament their Sins especially the Images of Christ and our Lady That it was meet they should stand in the Churches but be none otherwise esteemed That the Bishops and Preachers diligently teach the People according to this Doctrine lest there might fortune Idolatry to ensue That they be taught also that Censing Kneeling and Offering to Images be by no means to be done although the same had entred by Devotion and fallen to Custom but only to God and in his Honour though it be done before the Images II. Of Honouring Saints That they are to be honoured but not with that Confidence and Honour that is due only unto God trusting to attain at their Hands that which must be had only of God That most especially Christ is to be lauded and praised in them for their excellent Vertues which he planted in them and for their good Example And that they are to be taken wherein they may to be the Advancers of our Prayers and Demands unto Christ. III. Of Praying to Saints That tho Grace and Remission of Sins be to be obtained only of God by the Mediation of Christ yet it is very laudable to pray to Saints in Heaven to be Intercessors and to pray for us and with us unto God after this manner All Holy Angels and Saints in Heaven pray for us and with us unto the Father that for his dear Son Iesus Christ his sake we may have Grace of him and Remission of our Sins with an earnest purpose not wanting ghostly Strength to observe and keep his Holy Commandments and never to decline from the same again unto our lives end That in this manner we may pray to our Blessed Lady Saint Iohn Baptist or any other Saint particularly So that it be done without any vain Superstition as to think that any Saint is more merciful or will hear us sooner than Christ or that any Saint does serve for one thing more than another That Holy Days are to be kept to God in memory of him and his Saints upon such Days as the Church hath ordained but may be mitigated and moderated by the King being Supream Head IV. Of Rites and Ceremonies As Vestments in God's Service Sprinkling Holy Water Giving Holy Bread Bearing Candles on Candlemass-day Giving of Ashes on Ash-wednesday Bearing of Palms on Palm-sunday Creeping to the Cross and kissing it and offering unto Christ before the same on Good-friday Setting up the Sepulchre of Christ Hallowing of the Font and other-like Exorcisms and Benedictions and laudable Customs That these are not to be contemned and cast away but continued to put us in remembrance of Spiritual Things But that none of these Ceremonies have power to remit Sin V. Of Purgatory That Christians are to pray for Souls departed and to commit them in their Prayers to God's Mercy and cause others to pray for them in Masses and Exequies and to give Alms to others to pray for them that they may be relieved and holpen of some part of
be neither Patron nor Approver of that Doctrine until he saw stronger Proofs for it And so much did he dislike Oecolampadius and Zuinglius their Opinion in this Matter that he applied that Censure of S. Hierom concerning Origen to them That where they wrote well no body writ better and where ill no body worse And he wished those Learned Men had gone no further than to confute Papistical Errors and Abuses and had not sown their Tares with their good Corn. That which detained our Arch-bishop in this Error was the Veneration he had for the Ancient Doctors of the Church whose Writings as he then thought approved the Doctrine of this gross Presence judging that none could ever reconcile those Authors to the contrary Opinion Indeed he judged it the very Doctrine of the Fathers from the beginning of the Church And he reckoned that it must be a Truth because otherwise it could not consist with God's Goodness to his Spouse to leave her in such blindness so long It seemed also that he built this his Error upon the words of Scripture taking the sense of This is my Body literally Vadian by this Book had intended to have brought Cranmer off from this Opinion And before him several Attempts had been made that way but he remained so rooted therein that he seemed to be ever unmoveable He supposed also that the giving up this Doctrine would prove a great Impediment to the Work of the Gospel that now proceeded well in the Nation He advised and beseeched all both Lutherans and Zuinglians that the Churches of Christ would lay aside their Controversies in that Matter and agree and unite in a Christian Concord together that they might propagate one sound pure Doctrine consonant to the Discipline of the Primitive Church And this would be the way to convert even Turks themselves to the Obedience of the Gospel But I recommend the Reader to the Arch-bishop's own Letter to the said Vadianus wherein he may see how fast and firm he stuck to this Doctrine in these days He will find it in the Appendix Sanders in his lying Book of the English Schism would make his Reader believe that Cranmer was of this Opinion for another Reason namely because his Master K. Henry thought so and that he had so devoted himself to him that he in all things whatsoever believed and did in conformity to him giving Cranmer therefore the Nick-name of Henricianus But we must attribute that Suggestion to the well-known venemous Pen of that Man who cared not what he writ so he might but throw his Dirt upon the Reformation and the Reformers The said Author with the same Malice would have it that Cranmer was very variable and inconstant having been first for a Corporeal Presence afterwards a Lutheran and then a Calvinist And that he thus changed his Opinion as a Sycophant and Flatterer to comply with every Man's Humour that was uppermost That all the time of K. Henry he remained of that King's Opinion who was a vehement Enemy to Luther but when he was dead he became wholly Lutheran and put forth a Catechism dedicated to K. Edward and printed it in which he taught that every Christian that received the Sacrament either under the Bread or in the Bread or with the Bread certainly received into his Mouth the very true Body and Blood of Christ. But that scarce a Month passed when the Wretch that is his word understood that the Duke of Somerset the King's Governour was a Calvinist and not a Lutheran What should he do He printed his Catechism again changed the word and of an Henrician and a Lutheran became a Calvinist But to give a more true and respectful account of our Arch-bishop as to his continuance in this Opinion and his change of it Hitherto we have seen his Opinion for a Corporal Presence In the next Year viz. 1539. I find one Adam Damplip of Calais a Learned Preacher convented before him and several other Bishops for not holding the Real Presence From which Opinion the Arch-bishop with the rest did endeavour to bring him off Though then he marvelled much at the Answers that Damplip made and confessed openly and plainly that the Scripture knew no such term as Transubstantiation In the Year 1541 he had one Barber a Master of Arts of Oxford brought before him for denying the said Corporal Presence the Arch-bishop disputed again earnestly for that Doctrine against this Man yet could not but admire at his readiness in citing his Places out of S. Augustin nor could tell how to confute them as Mr. Raphe Morice his Secretary related afterward to Iohn Fox And this Tenet he held to the very last Year of K. Henry that is to the Year 1546. When by more mature and calm deliberation and considering the Point with less prejudice and the sense of the Fathers more closely in conference with Dr. Ridley afterwards Bishop of Rochester and his Fellow-Martyr he at last quitted and freed himself from the Fetters of that unsound Doctrine as appears by the Epistle Dedicatory before his Book of the Sacrament in Latin printed by the Exiles at Embden Which Epistle we may give credit to being written as is thought by Sir Iohn Cheke who well knew the Arch-bishop and Matters relating to him After Arch-bishop Cranmer and Ridley had changed their Opinion Latimer not long after changed his in this Point For as they all three died Martyrs at Oxon I am willing to join them together here It was but seven Years before his Burning that he relinquish'd that old Error that is about the Year 1547 as he confessed to Dr. VVeston in his Disputation There is an Argument the said Latimer made use of to prove the deceit of the Blood of Hales which Argument supposes him then of this Opinion It was pretended by the Priests that none could see this Blood but those that were confessed and absolved by the Priest and so clean in Life and their seeing of it was a sign they were so But said Latimer in those Times for the exposing of this Fraud Those Wretches that scourged Christ and nailed him to his Cross did see his Blood with their bodily Eyes and yet were not in clean Life And we see the self-same Blood in form of Wine when we have consecrate and may both see it feel it and receive it to our Damnation as touching bodily receiving We shall perhaps say more of the Arch-bishop's Opinion in the Eucharist when we come to speak of his Book relating to that Argument Divers Priests now as well Religious as Secular had married themselves after the Example of the Arch-bishop who kept his Wife secretly with him But some of these married Priests were so indiscreet that they lived publickly and openly with their Wives though the Ecclesiastical Laws were in force against such Marriages nor had they any Allowances by the King and Realm in Parliament Only some had Dispensations as
Mannor was not given to Christ-Church till after the Year 1400. Thomas Goldstone a Prior of that Church and a great Builder built the Mannor-house for a Mansion for the Priors and a Chappel annexed and a new Hall adjoining to the Dormitory and divers other Edifices there as we learn from the History of the Priors of Canterbury lately published To which we may add a Record in that Church to direct us in the Computation of the Time Viz. Anno Dom. 1508. In vigiliis S. Marci Capella dedicatur in Manerio de Lyvyngsborn procurante Thoma Goldston At the Dissolution this was alienated and given to Gage and from him it came to Arch-bishop Cranmer and his Successors And the Bargain was confirmed by Act of Parliament Anno Henr. 34. The Arch-bishop as he had opportunity preferred Learned and Pious Men in his Diocess in the Benefices of his Church and such who freely preached against the Pope and his Superstitions against Images and the Worship of them The chief of these were Nic. Ridley afterwards Bishop of London whom he made Vicar of Herne and Prebend of Canterbury and Iohn Scory afterwards Bishop of Chichester whom he made one of the six Preachers Michael Drum and Lancelot Ridley worthy Men were two more of the Six These he preferred and divers others about through his Diocess that set the Abuses of Popery open before the Peoples Eyes in their Sermons This so angred the Men of the old Religion and particularly some of his own Church in Canterbury that they detected them to the Arch-bishop by articling against them for their Doctrine This they did this Year when the Arch-bishop visited his Church And about two Years after they did so again as shall be taken notice of in due Season About this time it was that Serles and Shether two of the Six Preachers of Canterbury were by the Arch-bishop's Censure put to Recantation for some unsound Passages they had preached Which made them such Enemies to the Arch-bishop and such Contrivers of his Ruin by devising and drawing up a great number of Articles against him if they could have accomplished their Design as shall be seen hereafter under the Year 1543. It was observed of Shether at this time that after the pronouncing his Recantation or Declaration he added these words Good Christians I take God to record that I never preached any thing to you in my Life but the Truth And so in short gave himself the Lie and overthrew all the Recantation he had made before The latter end of the Year there was a Convocation Wherein one of the Matters before them was concerning the procuring a true Translation of the New Testament Which was indeed intended not so much to do such a good Work as to hinder it For having decried the present Translation on purpose to make it unlawful for any to use it they pretended to set themselves about a new One But it was merely to delay and put off the People from the common use of the Scripture As appeared plainly enough in that the Bishops themselves undertook it And so having it in their own Hands they might make what delays they pleased For in the third Session a Proposition was made for the Translation and an Assignation to each Bishop of his Task As Matthew to the Arch-bishop of Canterbury Mark to the Bishop of Lincoln Luke to Winton Iohn to Ely and so of the rest But the Arch-bishop saw through all this And therefore in a Sessions that followed after told the House from the King to whom I suppose he had discovered this Intrigue that the Translation should be left to the Learned of both Universities This was a Surprize to the Bishops who all except Ely and S. David's protested against it and began to undervalue the Sufficiency of the Universities as much decayed of late and that they were but young Men and that the greatest Learning lay in the Convocation-men But the Arch-bishop roundly said that he would stick by his Master's Will and Pleasure and that the Vniversities should examine the Translation Bishops Consecrated May 29 being Sunday William Knight was Consecrated Bishop of Bath and Wells by Nicolas Bishop of Rochester by Virtue of the Arch-bishop's Letters to him assisted by Richard Suffragan of Dover and Iohn Suffragan of Bedford in the Chappel of the said Bishop of Bath's House situate in the Minories without Aldgate September the 25 th Iohn Wakeman late Abbot of Teuksbury was Consecrated the first Bishop of Glocester by the Arch-bishop Edmond Bishop of London and Thomas Bishop of Westminster assisting Iohn Chambre B. D. was Consecrated first Bishop of Peterburgh Octob. 23. in the Cathedral Church of Peterburgh in the Presbytery there by Iohn Bishop of Lincoln Thomas Bishop of Ely and William Bishop of Norwich by Commission from the Arch-bishop February the 19 th Arthur Bulkeley in the Chappel of Iohn Incent LL. D. Dean of St. Paul's by Iohn Bishop of Sarum by virtue of Letters Commissional from the Arch-bishop William Bishop of St. David's and Iohn Bishop of Glocester assisting Robert King another Abbot and Titular Bishop Reonen Suffragan to the Bishop of Lincoln was this Year Consecrated Bishop of Oxford The Date or his Consecrators I cannot assign the Act being omitted in the Arch-bishop's Register He was first a Monk of Rewly a Priory without Oxford of the Cistertian Order Then Abbot of Bruerne in Oxfordshire After Abbot of Thame of which he was also called Bishop and lastly of Oseney Both which he surrendred to the King at the dissolution of Monasteries This Man when Suffragan preached at S. Mary's in Stamford where he most fiercely inveighed against such as used the New Testament In Q. Mary's Reign he was a persecutor of the Protestants and died 1557. CHAP. XXIV The King's Book revised THE Arch-bishop was this Year among other things employed in the King's Book as it now was called that is The Erudition of any Christian Man spoken of before For the King was minded now to have it well reviewed and if there were any Errors and less proper Expressions to have them corrected and amended And so to have it recommended unto the People as a compleat Book of Christian Principles in the stead of the Scripture which upon pretence of their abuse of the King would not allow longer to be read Accordingly a Correction was made throughout the Book and the correct Copy sent to Cranmer to peruse Which he did and added his own Annotations upon various Passages in it at good length And had it not been too long I had transcribed it wholly out of a Volume in the Benet-College Library But for a taste take this that follows In the Title under his own Hand was this written Animadversions upon the King's Book Vpon the Chapter of Original Sin For the first Offence of our Father Adam No Man shall be damned for the Offences of Adam
White-meats About Alhallontide was twelve-month he preached in S. Dunstan's Church beside Canterbury that Men should love God and fear God but not to trust him too much Turnor in the time of his being at Chartham did cast no Holy Water neither before the Sacrament nor upon any Altar in the Church except the high Altar Nor also before the Crucifix in the Rood-loft according to the laudible Ceremony He christned three Children upon one day and did not anoint them with Holy Oil neither upon Back nor Belly He neither incensed the Crucifix in the Rood-loft nor any Altar in the Church except the high Altar Nor distributed any Holy Candles among his Parishioners as hath been accustomed Sir Iames Newnam and one Lawrence took down an Image of our Lady to the which was no Offering except Candles at the Purification of Women nor any Miracles noted to be done there by the said Image Scory one of the six Preachers said that much Superstitions were used in the Church as making of Crosses upon Palm-Sunday setting of them up and Blessing them with the Holy Candles Ringing of Bells in the Thunder For think you said he that the Devil will be afraid or flee away at Cross-making hurling of Holy Water ringing of Bells and such other Ceremonies when he was not afraid to take Christ himself and cast him on his Back and set him on a Pinacle Those things that be good of themselves may not utterly be put away although they be abused For then the Holy Sacrament of the Altar should be set aside which is daily bought and sold. Serles one of the six Preachers in a Sermon said If the Preacher preach Error and erroneous Doctrine the simple Man though he receive it and believe it it doth not infect nor corrupt him And this he repeated twice He said also that Moses sent Letters from Hell to teach the State thereof and how Men should live And another likewise out of Heaven Item they say said he that only Faith justifies and that it maketh no matter how we do live Christ died for us and by his Blood hath washed all our Sins away therefore what needeth us to fast or pray Sandwich a Canon of Christ's-Church said in his Sermon in the Year 1542. Whereas a good Christian or Evil preached unto you truly the Word of God as I report me to the Conscience of you all yet some that have evil Ears did Evil report of me But if their Ears were cut off as Malchus's was and set up where every Man might wonder at them I think therein a Man should not wish much against Charity At another time in the Year 1543. he said in his Sermon Some if they are given to Goodness to follow the Decrees of Holy Church to kneel before the Blessed Sacrament they will counsel them from the same and say Deus in manufactis Templis non habitat They will have none of the Holy Doctors They will not have S. Augustin S. Ambrose S. Hierom S. Gregory Basil Gregory Nazianzen c. Since the time we have been given to new Fangles the Spirit of new Fangle hath brought in the Spirit of Error But what Remedy then said he to obtain the Spirit of Truth again Of that said he I spake the last time that I preached and shewed you that we must return where we went out We must return to our Dog to our Conscience again and that will certify us where is the Truth Shether one of the six Preachers said That there was one strait Way to the Truth in which we all Men have gone a long time saving a few now of late not being content to follow that Trade have wandred in divers Pathways to seek a neerer way to the Truth But they are like unto one that being clean lost was fain to ask which way he might go to the end of his Journey And to such it was answered You be clean out of the Way and there is none other means for you but even to turn back again and to begin your Journey again where you left Nothing at all as the Informer adds admonishing the People of the Way which Men had lost by defending and retaining the Usurpations of Rome Nor no mention that the King's Majesty hath reformed the Abuses of Superstitious Religion But even as one that would have all things honestly reformed to revert again into their Superstition for the maintenance of all Blindness and Error commanded every Man to turn back and to begin where they left Dr. Willowby the Vicar of Chilham keepeth still in his Church a certain Shrine gilt named S. Austin's Shrine Which Shrine was conveyed from S. Austin's of Canterbury unto the Parish-Church of Chilham at the suppression of the Monastery of S. Austin's Item a Rood there which had Shoes of Silver being a Monument of Pilgrimage or Offering standeth yet still being only spoiled of the Monument He said Images had Power of God to help sick People vowing unto them the Communication then being of our Lady of Cutupstreet between the said Vicar and own Dawson of Chartham a Miller Memorandum that Potter's Wife was banished out of Feversham for her suspect lying with Dr. Willowby and also was compelled to forsake Chilham for the same about two or three Years past and yet she remains in the Company of the said Doctor Serles mentioned before in a Sermon made in the Chapter-house of christ's-Christ's-Church An. 1543 said Some that occupy this place of Preaching say no Mattins Mass nor Even-song once in a Quarter They be never seen confessed nor to occupy Porteous nor Mass-Book These use no Vocal Prayer Beware of their Doctrine In the Church of Leneham in the Day of Assumption he said That as the Moon is in the Full at fourteen Days even so Mary was conceived fully with Christ when she was fourteen Years old Item he said That if one had looked in Mary when she was full conceived with Christ he should have perceived him in his Mother's Womb with a Bush of Thorns on his Back For he was Crucified Crowned and pricked with Thorns That Mary bare Christ poorly for she had no Fire but begged a Coal of one and a Stick of another to warm her Child He preached that Mary nourished her Son with Milk but not with material Milk but with Milk that came from Heaven For no Woman else can nourish her Child with material Milk than she that is conceived by knowledg of Man And no question this Heavenly Milk came along the milky Way That all the whole Faith of the World remained in Mary only for the space of three Days and three Nights That Faith was dead in the Apostles and in all the World from the Death of Christ till his Resurrection and remained in the Virgin Mary whole and only That the Sorrows that she had were greater and more painful than Christ's but for Death only That Christ descended into Hell and rose the third Day and ascended into
them After that the printed Injunctions and others not printed with the Book of Homilies were delivered both to the Bishop for his Church and the Arch-deacons for their respective Arch-deaconries strictly injoining them to see them speedily executed reserving other new Injunctions to be ministred afterwards as they should see cause Their next Work was to examine the Canons and Priests by virtue of their Oaths which they had taken concerning their Lives and Doctrines What was discovered in other Places concerning the Vices of the Clergy we may conlude from what was found among the Dignitaries of St. Pauls For when the Canons and Priests belonging to this Church were examined one of them named Painter openly confessed that he had often carnally used a certain Married-man's Wife whom he would not name And divers others both of the Canons and Priests confessed the same of themselves There be remaining in the Archives of the Church of Canterbury the Injunctions of the King's Visitors to the Dean and Chapter there bearing date Sept. 22. An. 1 Edw. VI. subscribed by the Visitors Hands Which Injunctions do all relate to the particular Statutes of the Church and are of no other moment There was now a Book of Homilies prepared for present use to be read in all Churches for the Instruction of the People and Erasmus's Paraphrase upon the New Testament in English was to be set up in all Churches for the better instruction of Priests in the Sense and Knowledg of the Scriptures And both these Books by the King's Injunctions aforementioned were commanded to be taught and learned CHAP. III. Homilies and Erasmus's Paraphrase ARch-bishop Cranmer found it highly convenient to find out some Means for the Instruction of the People in true Religion till the Church could be better supplied with learned Priests and Ministers For which purpose he resolved upon having some good Homilies or Sermons composed to be read to the People which should in a plain manner teach the Grounds and Foundation of true Religion and deliver the People from popular Errors and Superstitions When this was going in hand with the Arch-bishop sent his Letters to the Bishop of Winchester to try if he could bring him to be willing to join in this Business shewing him that it was no more than what was intended by the former King and a Convocation in the Year 1542 wherein himself was a Member to make such a stay of Errors as were then by ignorant Preachers spread among the People But this Bishop was not for Cranmer's Turn in his Answer signifying to him That since that Convocation the King his old Master's Mind changed and that God had afterwards given him the Gift of Pacification as he worded it meaning that the King made a stop in his once intended Reformation He added That there was a Convocation that extinguished those Devices and this was still in force And therefore that now nothing more ought to be done in Church-Matters And a Copy of this Letter he sent to the Lord Protector trying to perswade him also to be of his Mind The Arch-bishop answered these Letters of Winchester Wherein he again required these Homilies to be made by virtue of that Convocation five Years before and desired Winchester to weigh things But he replied It was true they communed then of such things but they took not effect at that time nor needed they to be put in execution now And that in his Judgment it could not be done without a new Authority and Command from the King's Majesty Then he used his Politicks urging That it was not safe to make new Stirs in Religion That the Lord Protector did well in putting out a Proclamation to stop vain Rumors and he thought it not best to enterprize any thing to tempt the People with occasion of Tales whereby to break the Proclamation And as in a natural Body he said Rest without Trouble did confirm and strengthen so it was in a Common-wealth Trouble travaileth and bringeth things to loosness Then he suggested the Danger the Arch-bishop might involve himself in by making Alterations That he was not certain of his Life when the old Order was broken and a new brought in by Homilies that he should continue to see the new Device executed For it was not done in a Day He wished there were nothing else to do now He suggested that a new Order engendred a new Cause of Punishment against them that offend and Punishments were not pleasant to them that have the Execution And yet they must be for nothing may be contemned There were two Letters Winchester sent to the Arch-bishop in answer to as many from the Arch-bishop In which he laboured to perswade the Arch-bishop not to innovate any thing in Religion during the King's Minority and particularly to forbear making Homilies and refusing for himself to meddle therein An imperfect part of one of these Letters I have laid in the Appendix as I transcribed it from the Original So when it was perceived that Winchester would not be brought to comply and join in with the Arch-bishop and the rest they went about the composing the Homilies themselves Cranmer had a great hand in them And that Homily of Salvation particularly seems to be of his own doing This while he was in composing it was shewn to Winchester by the Arch-bishop to which he made this Objection That he would yield to him in this Homily if they could shew him any old Writer that wrote how Faith excluded Charity in the Office of Justification and that it was against Scripture Upon this Canterbury began to argue with him and to shew him how Faith excluded Charity in the Point of Justifying And Winchester denied his Arguments And in fine such was his Sophistication that the Arch-bishop at last told him He liked nothing unless he did it himself and that he disliked the Homily for that Reason because he was not a Counsellor The Council had now put this Bishop in the Fleet for his Refractoriness to the King's Proceedings where if his Complaint to the Lord Protector were true he was somewhat straitly handled For he was allowed no Friend or Servant no Chaplain Barber Taylor nor Physician A sign he gave them high Provocation While he was here the Arch-bishop sent for him once or twice to discourse with him and to try to bring him to comply with their Proceedings in reforming Religion He dealt very gently with him and told him That he was a Man in his Opinion meet to be called to the Council again but withal told him that he stood too much in Obstinacy that it was perverse Frowardness and not any Zeal for the Truth And laboured to bring him to allow the Book which was now finished and the Paraphrase of Erasmus The former he could not allow of because of the Doctrine therein by Cranmer asserted of Justification by Faith without Works Which Cranmer took pains to perswade him about
addicted to the old Superstition would commonly disturb the Preachers in his Church when he liked not their Doctrine by causing the Bells to be rung when they were at the Sermon and sometimes beginning to sing in the Choir before the Sermon were half done and sometimes by challenging the Preacher in the Pulpit For he was a strong stout Popish Prelat Whom therefore the Godly-disposed of the Parish were weary of and especially some of the eminentest Men at Limâ—hurst whose Names were Driver Ive Poynter March and others But they durst not meddle with him until one Vnderhil of the Band of Gentlemen-Pensioners of a good Family and well respected at Court came to live at Limehurst He being the King's Servant took upon him to reprehend this Abbot for these and such-like his Doings and by his Authority carried him unto Croyden to the Arch-bishop there the Persons above-named going along as Witnesses In fine the mild Arch-bishop sent him away with a gentle Rebuke and bad him to do no more so This Lenity offended Vnderhil who said My Lord methinks you are too gentle unto so stout a Papist To which Cranmer replied Well we have no Law to punish them by No Law my Lord said the other If I had your Authority I would be so bold to unvicar him or minister some sharp Punishment upon him and such other If ever it come to their Turn they will shew you no such Favour Well said the good Arch-bishop if God so provide we must abide it Surely replied the other again God will never con you Thanks for this but rather take the Sword from such as will not use it upon his Enemies And so they parted And this indeed was the constant Behaviour of the Arch-bishop towards Papists and such as were his Enemies For which he was now and at other times taxed by Men of hotter Spirits but his Opinion was that Clemency and Goodness as it was more agreeable to the Gospel which he laboured to adorn so was more likely to obtain the Ends he desired than Rigour and Austerity The Arch-bishop did one thing more this Year of good Conducement to the promoting true Religion and exposing False and that was in countenancing and licensing an earnest Preacher in the South-West Parts named Thomas Hancock a Master of Arts whose Mouth had been stopped by a strict Inhibition from Preaching in the former King's Reign The Arch-bishop saw well what a useful Man he had been in those parts of England where he frequented having been a very diligent Preacher of the Gospel and Declaimer against Papal Abuses in the Diocesses of two bigotted Bishops Gardiner of Winchester and Capon of Sarum In this first Year of the King many zealous Preachers of the Gospel without staying for publick Orders from Above earnestly set forth the Evangelical Doctrine in confutation of the Sacrifice of the Mass and the Corporal Presence in the Sacrament and such like And of the Laity there were great numbers every where especially in populous Towns of such as did now more openly shew their Heads and their good Inclinations to the New Learning as it was then called In Southampton of the Diocess of Winchester in Salisbury Pool and Dorset of the Diocess of Sarum did this Hancock chiefly converse and officiate in the latter end of K. Henry When he was suspended à Celebratione Divinorum by Dr. Raynold Commissary under Dr. Steward then Chancellor to Bp Gardiner upon pretence of the Breach of the Act of Six Articles because he had taught out of the Ninth to the Hebrews That our Saviour Christ entred once into the Holy Place by the which he obtained unto us everlasting Redemption That he once suffered and that his Body was once offered to take away the Sins of many People And that one only Oblation sufficed for the Sins of the whole World And though all this was but mere Scripture yet they found it to contradict their Notions and therefore they thought convenient to suspend him But as these Bishops did what they could to stifle all Preaching of God's Word so the Arch-bishop's Principle was to encourage and send forth Preachers So Hancock notwithstanding his former Suspension obtained a Licence from our Arch-bishop to preach Now to follow this Preacher a little after his Licence obtained At Christ-Church Twinham in the County of Southampton where he was born as I take it from his own Narration he preached out of the Sixteenth Chapter of S. Iohn The Holy Ghost shall reprove the World of Sin of Righteousness c. because I go to the Father The Priest being then at Mass Hancock declared unto the People That that the Priest held over his Head they did see with their bodily Eyes but our Saviour Christ doth here say plainly that we shall see him no more Then you saith he that do kneel unto it pray unto it and honour it as God do make an Idol of it and your selves do commit most horrible Idolatry Whereat the Vicar Mr. Smith sitting in his Chair in the face of the Pulpit spake these words Mr. Hancock you have done well until now and now have you plaid an ill Cow's part which when she hath given a good Mess of Milk overthroweth all with her Foot and so all is lost And with these words he got him out of the Church Also in this first Year of the King the same Person preached in S. Thomas Church at Salisbury Dr. Oking Chancellor to Bishop Capon and Dr. Steward Chancellor to Bishop Gardiner being present with divers others of the Clergy and Laity His place was Every Plant which my Heavenly Father hath not planted shall be rooted out Whence he inveighed against the Superstitious Ceremonies Holy Bread Holy Water Images Copes Vestments c. And at last against the Idol of the Altar proving it to be an Idol and no God by the First of S. Iohn's Gospel No Man hath seen God at any time with other places of the Old Testament But that the Priest held over his Head they did see kneeled before it honoured it and so made an Idol of it And therefore they were most horrible Idolaters Whereat the Doctors and certain of the Clergy went out of the Church Hancock seeing them departing charged them They were not of God because they refused to hear the Word of God But when the Sermon was ended Thomas Chaffen the Mayor set on as is likely by some of the Clergy came to him laying to his Charge the Breach of a Proclamation lately set forth by the Lord Protector That no Nick-names should be given unto the Sacrament as Round-Robin or Iack in the Box. Whereto he replied That it was no Sacrament but an Idol as they used it But for all this Excuse the Mayor had committed him to Jail had not Six honest Men been bound for his Appearance the next Assizes to make his Answer As Dr. Ieffery about this time had committed two to Prison for the like
Subscription to his Articles of Religion But in his absence when his Back was turned they became as bad altogether as they were before Yet he conceived good hopes of the Lay-people if they had but good Justices and faithful Ministers placed among them as he wrote to Secretary Cecyl To whom he signified his Desire that the Articles of Religion which the King had mentioned to him when last at London were set forth Them he intended to make the Clergy not only subscribe which being privately done he saw they regarded not but to read and confess them openly before their Parishioners At his Visitation he constituted certain of his Clergy Superintendants who in his absence were to have a constant Eye over the Inferior Clergy After this Visit to Glocester he returned back again to VVorcester in October and then proceeded in his Visitation there Here Iohnson and Iollisf two Canons of this Church disallowing some Doctrines recommended to them by the Bishop in his Articles abovesaid held a Dispute thereupon with him and Mr. Harley who was afterward Bishop of Hereford And one of these behaved himself most insolently and disrespectfully to both The Bishop sent up by Harley a large Relation of his Visitation in writing and the Matter these Canons misliked and recommended Harley to the Secretary to give Account of the Disputation This caused him to break out into a Complaint for want of good Men in the Cathedrals Ah! Mr. Secretary that there were good Men in the Cathedral Churches God then should have much more Honour than he hath the King's Majesty more Obedience and the poor People better Knowledg But the Realm wanteth Light in such Churches whereas of right it ought most to be In Worcester Church he now put in execution the King's Injunctions for the removal of Superstition For which there arose a great Clamour against him as though he had spoiled the Church and yet he did no more than the express Words of the Injunctions commanded to be done After his Visitation was over he accounted not his Work done but soon went over both his Diocesses again to take account of his Clergy how they profited since his last examining them and to oversee even his Superintendents themselves to commend their Well-doings and to see what was ill done So great was his Pains and Zeal which made him most truly and experimentally write as he did to the Secretary There is none that eat their Bread in the sweat of their Face but such as serve in Publick Vocation Yours is wonderful but mine passeth Now I perceive that private Labours be but Plays nor private Troubles but Ease and Quietness These Matters I extract from two Original Letters of this Bishop to Secretary Cecyl which I have thought well worthy of preserving in the Appendix and there they may be met with Whereas it was mentioned before how the Bishop had sent up a Writing of the Matters in Controversy between the two Canons and himself we may see what Care the Council took hereof and what Countenance they gave the Bishop by an Order they made Novemb. 6. 1552. Which was that a Letter should be wrote to Mr. Cheke and Mr. Harley to consider certain Books sent unto them touching Matters of Religion in Controversy between the Bishop of VVorcester and two of the Canons of VVorcester and to certify their Opinion hither that further Order may be therein taken Ian. 29. 1551. Upon suit made by the Dutchess of Somerset to Sir Philip Hobby and Mr. Darcy Lieutenant of the Tower to be a Mean unto the King's Majesty and my Lords that the Bishop of Glocester who had been Chaplain unto the Duke might be suffered to have access unto her for the settling of her Conscience Order was by their Lordships taken for the same and a Letter written to the Lieutenant of the Tower in that behalf as followeth To the Lieutenant of the Tower to permit the Bishop of Glocester from time to time to speak with the Dutchess of Somerset in the presence of Sir Philip Hobby and of the said Lieutenant And in case the said Lady of Somerset desire to speak with the said Bishop apart that in that case they license her so to do May 29 1552. A Warrant to make a Book to the Elect Bishop of VVorcester and Glocester of discharge of the first Fruits and Tenths to be paid for the same in consideration that he hath departed with certain Lands to the King's Majesty Which probably he seeing would whether he would or no be pulled away from him to be conferred upon some of the Mighty of the Court made the best of a bad Market and got himself freed from that Charge payable to the King April 12 1553. A Letter was wrote to the Chancellor of the Augmentations to cause a Book to be made from the Bishop of Worcester and Glocester of a Surrender to the King's Majesty of his Jurisdiction in the Forest of Dean with a certain Deanery which of right belongeth to the Bishoprick of Hereford And thereupon to make another Book of the Grant thereof from his Highness to Mr. Harley Elect Bishop of Hereford April 16 1553. A Letter to the Chancellor of the Agumentations to cause a Book to be devised in form of Law Licensing the Bp of Worcester and Glocester to give to three poor Vicarages in his Diocess the Parsonages whereof are impropriated to his Bishoprick such Augmentation of Living towards their better Maintenance as he shall think convenient out of the Lands of the said See April 25 1553. A Warrant to the Receiver of the Wards to deliver to the Bishop of Worcester by way of Reward twenty Pounds for his Attendance here ever since the Parliament by his Majesty's Commandment These are Transcriptions out of a Council-Book CHAP. XIX Troubles of Bishop Gardiner IN this Year 1550 the Council and our Arch-bishop had much trouble with some other Bishops also of a quite different Judgment from the above-spoken of I mean Gardiner Bishop of Winchester Nicolas Bishop of Worcester and Day Bishop of Chichester Of whom what I shall here briefly set down are for the most part Extractions out of an old Council-Book and K. Edward's Journal At Greenwich June 8. was this Order of Council concerning Bishop Gardiner Considering the long Imprisonment that the Bishop of Winchester hath sustained it was now thought time he should be spoken withal and agreed that if he repented his former Obstinacy and would henceforth apply himself to advance the King's Majesty's Proceedings His Highness in this Case would be his good Lord and remit all his Errors passed Otherwise his Majesty was resolved to proceed against him as his Obstinacy and Contempt required For the Declaration whereof the Duke of Somerset the Lord Treasurer the Lord Privy-Seal the Lord great Chamberlain and Mr. Secretary Petre were appointed the next Day i. e. Iune 9. to repair unto him Signed by E. Somerset T. Cant.
would do in them it not being reasonable he should subscribe them in Prison This being reported to the Council Iuly 15 it was agreed that he should be sent for before the whole Council and examined Whether he would stand at this Point Which if he did then to denounce the Sequestration of his Benefice for three Months with intimation if he reformed not in that space to deprive him This Order was Signed by Somerset Wilts Bedford Clynton Paget Wyngfield Herbert Iuly 19. The Bishop of VVynton was brought before the Council and there the Articles before mentioned were read unto him distinctly Whereunto he refused either to subscribe or consent Answering in these words That in all things his Majesty would command him he was willing and most ready to obey but forasmuch as there were divers things required of him which his Conscience would not bear therefore he prayed them to have him excused And thereupon Secretary Petre by the Council's Order proceeded to read the Sequestration Thus fairly and calmly was this Bishop dealt with by the King and his Council from Iune 8. to Iuly 19. And notwithstanding this Sentence the Council favorably ordered that the Bishop's House and Servants should be maintained in their present State until the expiration of the three Months and that the Matter in the mean time should be kept secret The three Months expired Octob. 19. but with such Clemency was he used that it was November 23 before his Business was renewed And then considering the time of his Intimation was long sithence expired it was agreed that the Bishop of Ely Mr. Secretary Petre Dr. May and Dr. Glynne all Learned in the Civil Law should substantially confer upon the Matter and upon Tuesday next the 26 th day of this present to certify unto the Council what was to be done duly by order of the Law in this Case And now the Arch-bishop of Canterbury began to be concerned in this troublesome Business A Commission dated Decemb. 12 was issued out from the King to the said Arch-bishop and to the Bishops of London Ely Lincoln to Sir VVilliam Petre Sir Iames Hales and some other Lawyers to call the said Bishop of VVinchester before them and continuing in his Contempt to proceed to deprive him December 14. The Lieutenant of the Tower was ordered to bring the Bishop on Monday next to Lambeth before my Lord of Canterbury and other Commissioners upon his Cause and likewise upon their Appointment to bring him thither from day to day at times by them prefixed December 15 was the day of VVinchester's first Appearance The Business done this Session was the opening and reading the Commission and after that divers Articles against the Bishop Who then made a Speech Wherein first He protested against these his Judges and excepted against their Commission and required this his Protestation to be entred into the Acts of the Court. Then desiring a Copy of the Commission it was granted him together with that of the Articles too to make his Answers to Next the Archbishop gave him his Oath to make true Answer Which he took still with his Protestation Then the Bishop desiring Counsel the Arch-bishop and the rest not only granted his Request but allowed him whomsoever he should name Which was the next Day allowed also by an Order of Council Certain honourable Persons were deposed and sworn for Witnesses as Sir Anthony Wingfield Controller of the Houshold Sir William Cecyl Secretary Sir Rafe Sadleir Sir Edward North Dr. Cox Almoner and others The Bishop also protested against them and the Swearing of them At this first Sessions he had also said in the hearing of a great Multitude present concerning the Duke of Somerset and some other Privy-Counsellors sent to him in the Tower That they had made an end with him before for all the matters for which he was committed In so much that he verily thought he should never have heard any more of it This coming soon to the Ears of these Nobles highly offended them as reporting falsely of them So that to justify themselves in as publick a manner the next Sessions they sent their Letter dated December 17 signed by the Duke of Somerset the Earls of Wiltshire and Bedford and Sir Edward North wherein they denied any such Matter saying That the Bishop defended his Cause with Untruths and that upon their Fidelities and Honours his Tale was false and untrue For that their coming to him in the Tower was to do their endeavour to reclaim him And they prayed the Commissioners that for their Vindication they would cause this their Letter to be publickly read Which was accordingly done though the Bishop thinking how this would reflect upon him under his former Protestation laboured hard that he might first be heard and that he had something to propose why it should not be read Which notwithstanding they would not grant Ianuary 19. The Council sitting at Greenwich the Bishop's Servants came and desired that certain of them might be sworn upon certain Articles for Witness on his behalf And if they might not be sworn that upon their Honours as they would answer before God they would witness truly according to their Conscience and as effectually as if they were sworn upon a Book And they were allowed The Bishop to make his Cause the more plausible as though he were the publick Defender of the Roman catholick-Catholick-Church in England at this time laboured to make it believed that he fell into all this Trouble for the Defence of the Real Presence in the Sacrament and for maintaining the Catholick Doctrine in a Sermon before the King and that he made his Book to vindicate himself therein And therefore in one of his Appearances before the Commissioners openly in the Court delivered them his Book against Arch-bishop Cranmer printed in France and to make it suit the better he had altered some lines in the beginning of his Book so as to make it to relate to his present Case But in truth Gardiner had wrote and finished his Book before This Cranmer unvailed in his Answer to this Book of Gardiner's Saying there That he made his Book before he was called before the Commissioners as he could prove by a Book under his own Hand-writing and that he was called before the Commissioners by his own Suit and Procurement and as it were inforcing the Matter But indeed the true Cause was That he was called to Justice for his manifest Contempt and continual Disobedience from time to time or rather Rebellion against the King's Majesty and was deprived of his State for the same In short after a greal deal of Pains and Patience the Bishop was by the Arch-bishop and the rest of the Commissioners deprived after no less then two and twenty Sessions held at divers places that is from the 15 th of December to the 14 th of February though Stow falsely nameth but seven The Bishop when he saw the
Ely By the way one might enquire why he resorted not rather to his Friend and Patron the Arch-bishop of Canterbury But the reason may soon be guessed namely That after the Fall of Somerset the Arch-bishop's good Friend he came not so often to Court or transacted Business there unless sent for knowing his Interest likewise to be but little with the Duke of Northùmberland who now bare all the Sway and who had a jealous Eye of him as he had of all Somerset's Friends And so the Arch-bishop might have rather hindred than forwarded A Lasco's Business if he had appeared in it But this en passent The Chancellor gently received A Lasco and dismissing him sent him to Secretary Cecyl with this Message to get him to propound the Business the next Day in the Afternoon at the Council-Board when himself should be there promising him likewise that he would be assistant to him in procuring him a Warrant in Writing to be directed to all Ministers and Church-wardens of the Parishes of Southwark and S. Katharines that for the time to come the Strangers of this Congregation should receive no Molestation in that regard any more Accordingly A Lasco the next Morning sent one of the Elders of his Church to Cecyl with his Letter excusing himself that he came not being grievously afflicted with a Pain in his Head Therein he acquainted him with the Sum of his Conference with the Lord Chancellor adding that the obtaining such a Warrant would be necessary for them to produce and shew to such as at that present did annoy them and to be hereafter kept by the Church That they might not be forced at other times upon the like Occasions to create new trouble to the King's Council or himself in suing for new Warrants of that Nature Meaning hereby to put the Secretary upon drawing this up the more formally and substantially And so intreating him to hear what the Elder had to say and to dispatch him he took his leave This Letter also is inserted in the Appendix The Superintendency of A Lasco seemed to extend not only to this particular Congregation of Germans but over all the other Churches of Foreigners set up in London as also over their Schools of Learning and Education They were all subject to his Inspection and within his Jurisdiction And Melancthon in an Epistle to him in the Month of Septemb. 1551. speaks of the Purity of Doctrine in his Churches His Condition now as to worldly Circumstances began to be so good that he was able to relieve and succour such Learned Foreigners as should retire hither For when one Nicolas Forst a Learned and grave Man who had lived long in the University of Lovain and had spent some time with Melancthon was minded for the sake of Religion to convey himself into England he recommended him earnestly to the Superintendent as a Person fit to teach in his Churches and Schools and that he would friendly entertain him as an Exile for the same Cause himself was and find him some little Nest to remain in Nay and the said Melancthon himself had some thoughts of sheltering himself under A Lasco here as appears by the forementioned Letter wherein he stiles him his Patron For the Superscription of his Letter is thus Illustri Magnifico ac Reverendo Viro Nobilitate generis Virtute Sapientia praestanti Dn. Iohanni a Lasco Patrono suo colendo So much of Deference and Honour did Learned and Pious Men then use to give him In this Letter Melancthon told him that the Calamities of the Churches were great and that he himself expected Banishment and might probably in a short time arrive where he was And in respect of his hospitable reception of Strangers he told him that he believed he did often remember that saying of the exiled Queen Non ignara mali miseris succurrere disco Nor was A Lasco any ways unfurnished for this Spiritual Government being a Man of good Learning and of great Piety Strictness and Gravity from his younger Age and of whom the great Erasmus himself acknowledged that he learned much For in his Epistle to Iohannes a Lasco the Arch-bishop of Gnesne who was Namesake and Unckle to our Superintendent he speaks thus of his Nephew That he was but Young yet Grave beyond his Years and that he himself accounted it none of the least parts of his Happiness that he happened to have his Converse and Society for some Months praising the Endowments that God had given him And particularly concerning the Benefits he received by him he could not but confess Senex juvenis convictu factus sum melior ac sobrietatem temperantiam verecundiam linguae moderationem modestiam pudicitiam integritatem quam juvenis a sene discere debuerat a juvene senex didici That by the Conversation of that young Man he an old Man became better and that Sobriety Temperance Awfulness government of the Tongue Modesty Chastity Integrity which the Young ought to learn of the Old he an old Man had learned of a Young This he wrote in August 1527 soon after A Lasco was gone from him And in Iune the same Year while he resided with him in another Letter to Leonard Cox a Learned English Man he signified the great complacency he took in his Company Iohannis a Lasco tale sum expertus ingenium ut vel hoc uno amico mihi videar satis beatus That he had found A Lasco's Parts to be such that he seemed happy enough in his single Friendship And this good Understanding continued between them as long as Erasmus lived For A Lasco seems to have been with him in his last Sickness when as the last Token of Erasmus's esteem of him he made a purchase to him of his own Library that incomparable Treasure if we may believe the Author of his Life in English A Lasco thought not the Clergy obliged to Celibacy or single Life for he himself was a married Man Who his Wife was I know not but as for her Qualities she was in all probability a pious and discreet Woman whereby she gained a great share in his Affections He stiled her The other part of himself But in August 1552. God deprived him of her Which Stroke put him for some time under much sadness and indisposition both of Mind and Body as appears by one of his Letters He was alive at the Accession of Q. Elizabeth to the English Throne And though he came not back then to England again whence he departed upon K. Edward's Death yet according to that great Interest he had here with the most eminent Persons and even the Queen her self he neglected not by his Letters to promote the Reformation and to give his grave Counsel in order thereunto And Zanchy Publick Professor at Stratsburgh knowing the sway he bare here in a Letter to him in the Year 1558 or 59 excited him in these words Non
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
of London and immediately dispatched the Earl of Arundel and the Lord Paget unto her with a Letter writ from Baynard's-Castle where they now were removed from the Tower In which Letter they beg her Pardon and to remit their former Infirmities and assure her calling God to witness to the same that they were ever in their Hearts her true Subjects since the King's Death but could not utter their Minds before that time without great Destruction and Bloodshed of themselves and others The Copy of this Letter may be read in the Appendix The same day the Council wrote to the Duke of Northumberland their Letters dated from VVestminster sent by an Herald Wherein the Duke was commanded and charged in Q. Mary's Name to disarm and discharge his Souldiers and to forbear his return to the City until the Queen's Pleasure And the same was to be declared to the Marquess of Northampton and all other Gentlemen that were with him The Herald was also by virtue of his Letters from the Council to notify in all Places where he came That if the Duke did not submit himself to the Queen's Highness he should be taken as a Traitor and they of the late King's Council would persecute him to his utter Confusion And thus far our Arch-bishop went For this was signed by him and the Bishop of Ely Lord Chancellor the Marquess of VVinchester the Duke of Suffolk the Earls of Bedford Shrewsbury Pembrook the Lord Darcy Sir Richard Cotton Petre and Cecyl Secretaries Sir Iohn Baker Sir Iohn Mason Sir Robert Bowes The Duke saw it in vain to oppose and so submitted to this Order And the Plot that his â—mbition had been framing so long and with so much Art fell on a sudden Very speedily Queen Mary was owned Abroad as well as at Home Dr. VVotton Dean of Canterbury Sir VVilliam Pickering Sir Thomas Chaloner Ambassadors in France writ their Letters to her and the Council acknowledging her and ceasing any further to act as Ambassadors She continued Dr. VVotton and sent for Pickering and Chaloner Home and sent Sir Anthony St. Leger the beginning of August Ambassador thither joined with VVotton This Determination the Council August 12 signified to the said three Ambassadors But now to cast our Eyes upon the State of Religion at this Time Upon this Access of Queen Mary to the Crown whose Interest as well as Education made her a Zealous Papist the good Progress of Religion was quite overthrown and the pious Arch-bishop's Pains and long Endeavours in a great measure frustrated and he himself soon after exercised with great Afflictions The first pretended Occasion of which was this It was reported Abroad soon after King Edward's Death that the Arch-bishop had offered to sing the Mass and Requiem at the Burial of that King either before the Queen or at S. Paul's Church or any where else and that he had said or restored Mass already in Canterbury This indeed had the Suffragan of Dover Dr. Thornton done but without the Arch-bishop's Consent or knowledg But however such good Impressions of Religion had the Arch-bishop left at Canterbury that though Mass was set up there and Priests were through fear forced to say it yet it was utterly contrary to their Wills And about New-years-tide there was a Priest said Mass there one Day and the next came into the Pulpit and desired all the People to forgive him For he said he had betrayed Christ but not as Judas did but Peter And then he made a long Sermon against the Mass. But the aforesaid slanderous report so troubled the Arch-bishop that to stay it he wrote a Letter to a Friend of his that he never made any promise of saying Mass nor that he did set up the Mass in Canterbury but that it was done by a false flattering lying Monk Dr. Thornden such a Character in his just Anger he gave him who was Suffragan of Dover and Vice-dean of that Church in the absence of Dr. Wotton who was then abroad in Embassy This Thornden saith my Manuscript writ but a few Years after by Scory or Becon as I conjecture was A Man having neither Wit Learning nor Honesty And yet his Wit is very ready For he preacheth as well extempore as at a Years warning so learnedly that no Man can tell what he chiefly intendeth or goeth about to prove so aptly that a gross of Points is not sufficient to ty his Sermon together Not unlike to Iodocus a Monk of whom Erasmus maketh mention in his Colloquies who if he were not garnished with these glorious Titles Monk Doctor Vice-dean and Suffragan were worthy to walk openly in the Streets with a Bell and Cocks-comb Besides this Letter the Arch-bishop resolved to do something in a more publick manner in vindication of the Reformation as well as of himself So he devised a Declaration Wherein he both apologized for himself against this false Report and made a brave Challenge with the assistance of Peter Martyr and a few more to maintain by Disputation with any Man the Reformation made under K. Edward This Declaration after a first draught of it he intended to enlarge and then being sealed with his own Seal to set it upon the Doors of S. Paul's Church and other Churches in London This Writing wherein the good Religion and Doctrine practised and taught in the former Reign was so nobly owned and offered to be defended in such a publick manner was not only read by some Body boldly in Cheapside but many Copies thereof were taken and so became dispersed It was also soon after printed in Latin and I suppose in English too Sure I am in the Year 1557 it was printed beyond Sea by the Exiles From which Print I shall here transcribe it being sent from Grindal to Iohn Fox for his use in the writing his History A Declaration of the Reverend Father in God Thomas Cranmer Arch-bishop of Canterbury condemning the untrue and slanderous Report of some which have reported That he should set up the Mass at Canterbury at the first coming of the Queen to her Reign 1553. AS the Devil Christ's antient Adversary is a Liar and the Father of Lying even so hath he stirred his Servants and Members to persecute Christ and his true Word and Religion Which he ceaseth not to do most earnestly at this present For whereas the most noble Prince of famous Memory King Henry VIII seeing the great Abuses of the Latin Masses reformed something herein in his Time and also our late Soveraign Lord K. Edward VI took the same whole away for the manifold Errors and Abuses thereof and restored in the place thereof Christ's Holy Supper according to Christ's own Institution and as the Apostles in the Primitive Church used the same in the beginning The Devil goeth about by lying to overthrow the Lord's Holy Supper and to restore the Latin Satisfactory Masses a thing of his own Invention and Device And
so much that the Bishops and Priests grew for this Cause as well as for their Cruelty into great dislike with the People This more at large is shewed in a short Manuscript Treatise I have made by a certain Person nameless imprisoned for Religion intitled thus All sorts of People of England have just Cause of displeasure against the Bishops and Priests of the same There was this Year April 2 a new Parliament that the last Year being dissolved Great was the Sadness that now possessed the Hearts of the English Nation even of Papists themselves the most considerate and wisest part of them seeing the great Slavery the Kingdom was like to be ensnared in by what the Parliament was now in doing that is to say restoring the Pope's Tyranny here in England that had been so long and happily cast out and allowing the Queen's matching with Prince Philip whereby a Spaniard should become King of England Which when P. Martyr had signified in a Letter from Strasburgh to Calvin May 8 he told him Tanta est rerum perturbatio ut nullo pacto explicari queat That it could not be told what a Disturbance there now was and that all good Men that could fled away from their own Country from all Parts of the Land Mentioning three noble Knights to be come lately to Strasburg not less famous for Piety then Learning Morisin Cheke and Cook At this Parliament wherein the Mass was set up and confirmed by an Act all that were suspected to favour the Truth were turned out of the House Which made Hoper out of Prison in one of his Letters write Doubtless there had not been seen before our Time such a Parliament as this that as many as were suspected to be Favourers of God's Word should be banished out of both Houses In this Parliament a strong and certain Report went that the bloody Act of the Six Articles should be revived and put in execution This created abundance of Terror in Mens Hearts There was nothing but Sighs and Lamentations every where and a great many were already fled out of the Realm unto whom this Rumor had reached Iohn Fox a Learned and Pious Man who had an excellent pathetick Stile was now set on work Who took his Pen in his Hand and in the Name of the Protestant Exiles wrote a most earnest expostulatory Letter to the Parliament to disswade them from restoring this Law again He told them they had a Queen who as She was most Noble so She was ready to listen to sound and wholesome Counsel And that they had a Lord Chancellor that as he was Learned so of his own Nature he was not Bad were it not for the Counsels of some But that as among Animals some there were that were born to create Trouble and Destruction to the other so there were among Mankind some by Nature cruel and destructive some to the Church and some to the State The Letter is worthy the Reading Which I have therefore placed in the Appendix as I transcribed it out of a Manuscript Collection of Fox's Letters There was indeed such a Design in the House of Commons of bringing again into force that Act of the Six Articles but whether it were by the importunity of this and other Petitions or that the Court thought it not convenient so much to countenance any of K. Henry's Acts this Business fell And this Parliament was short-liv'd for in May it was dissolved by reason of a Bill for confirming Abby-Lands to the present Possessors which it seems gave offence to the Court. CHAP. X. Arch-bishop Cranmer disputes at Oxon. A Convocation of the Clergy now met in S. Paul's but was adjourned the Prolocutor Dr. Weston Dean of Westminster and some other of the Members being sent to Oxon and it was generally thought the Parliament would remove thither too to dispute certain Points of Religion in Controversy with three of the Heads of the Protestant Party Arch-bishop Cranmer Bishop Ridley and old Father Latimer now all Prisoners Who for that purpose in the Month of April were removed from the Tower by the Queen's Warrant to the Lieutenant towards Windsor and there taken into Custody of Sir Iohn afterwards Lord Williams who conveyed them to Oxford there to remain in order to a Disputation The Convocation while they sat at London agreed upon the Questions to be disputed and they resolved that these three pious Men should be baited by both the Universities and therefore that they of Cambridg should be excited to repair to Oxford and engage in this Disputation also The Questions were these I. In Sacramento Altaris virtute verbi divini a Sacerdote prolati praesens est realiter sub speciebus panis vini naturale corpus Christi conceptum de virgine Maria item naturalis ejus sanguis II. Post consecrationem non remanet substantia panis vini neque alia ulla substantia nisi substantia Christi Dei Hominis III. In Missa est vivisicum Ecclesiae Sacrificium pro peccatis tam vivorum quam mortuorum propitiabile These Questions the Convocation sent to the University of Cambridg requiring them seriously to weigh and deliberate upon them and if they contained true Doctrine then to approve of them Accordingly the Senate of that University met and after due deliberation found them agreeable in all things to the Catholick Church and the Scripture and the antient Doctrine taught by the Fathers and so did confirm and ratify them in their said Senate And because Cranmer Ridley and Latimer the Heads of the Hereticks that held contrary to these Articles were formerly Members of their University and being to be disputed withal at Oxford concerning these Points they decreed in the Name of all the University to send seven of their Learned Doctors to Oxford to take their parts in disputing with them and to use all ways possible to reclaim them to the Orthodox Doctrine again And accordingly the said Senate April 10. made a publick Instrument to authorize them in their Names to go to Oxford and dispute Which Instrument may be seen in the Appendix They also wrote a Letter the same Date to the University of Oxford to signify that they had appointed those Persons to repair unto them not so much to dispute Points so professedly Orthodox and agreeable to the Fathers and General Councils and the Word of God as to defend those Truths in their Names and reduce those Patrons of false and corrupt Doctrine if possible unto a sound Mind This Letter is also in the Appendix So that this coming of the Cambridg-Divines to Oxford was to seem a voluntary thing to shew their Zeal for Popery and vindication of their University against liking or approbation of Cranmer and his two Fellow-Prisoners So roundly was the University already come about to the old forsaken Religion This Oxford-Disputation was after this manner Hugh Weston S.T.P. Prolocutor of the
Lower House of Convocation Owin Oglethorp Iohn Seton W. Chedsey S. Th. P.P. Hen. Cole Will. Geffrey LL.PP. William Pye Ioh. Feckenham Ioh. Harpsfield S.T.B.B. representing the whole Lower House of Convocation went down to Oxford To them were joined by Commission the Chancellor of the University the Vice-Chancellor the Professors and Doctors c. as namely Holyman Tresham Ri. Marshal Morwent Smith S. T. P. P. of Oxford And Iohn Young William Glyn Ri. Atkinson Tho. Watson Cutbert Scot Alban Langdale Tho. Sedgwick S. Th. P. P. of Cambridg in the Name of the Whole University All these being met at S. Mary's there were read the Letters Commissional to them sealed with the Bishop of London's Seal and the Subscription besides of the Bishops of Winton Durham Wigorn Chichester Lincoln Bath Roff. Hereford S. Davids Glocester and Oxon. And with these Letters were conveyed certain Articles which had been lately by the Upper House resolved upon which Articles were of the Sacrament of the Altar of Transubstantiation and of the Adoration of the Eucharist and the Reservation of the Sacrament of the Church and of its Institution and by whom and for whom and to whom it is to be offered The Contents of the Letter were to summon before them Cranmer Ridley and Latimer and to propound those Articles to them to dispute on publickly The Sum of which it seems were contracted into the three Questions abovesaid Then they provided themselves three publick Notaries Next they celebrated and sung the Mass of the Holy Ghost Then they went a Procession according to the Custom of the University This formal Pageantry being finished and the Commissioners returned to S. Mary's and being come into the Choire to the number of three and thirty seated themselves before the Altar And then sent to the Mayor and Bailiffs to bring Dr. Cranmer before them by virtue of the Queen's Letters to them Who within a while was brought guarded with Bill-men Coming before them he gave them great Reverence and stood with his Staff in his Hand They offered him a Stool to sit but he refused Then VVeston the Prolocutor began a Speech wherein he commended Unity in the Church of Christ and withal turning to the Arch-bishop told him how he had been a Catholick Man once and in the same Unity but that he had separated himself from it by teaching and setting forth erroneous Doctrine making every Year a new Faith And therefore that it had pleased the Queen to send them to him to recover him again if it might be to that Unity And then shewed him the Articles to be disputed on causing them to be read to him and requiring his Answer and Opinion thereupon Then the Arch-bishop answered extempore That as for Unity he was very glad of it and said that it was a Preserver of all Common-wealths as well Heathen as Christian. And illustrated the Matter by some Stories out of the Roman History And added that he should be very glad to come to an Unity so it were in Christ and according to the Church of God Then he read over the Articles three or four times And being asked whether he would subscribe to them he answered That in the form of words in which they were conceived they were all false and against God's Word and therefore that he would not agree in that Unity with them Nevertheless he said if they would give him a Copy of the Articles and time to consider of them he would by to Morrow send them an Answer Which was granted him the Prolocutor bidding him write his Mind of them that Night It was moreover agreed between them that in whatsoever he dissented from them they would proceed to publick Disputation thereupon in the publick Schools by Scholastical Arguments in Latin And lastly they told him he should have what Books he would ask for And so VVeston gave the Mayor charge of him to be had to Bocardo where he was before His Behaviour all this while was so grave and modest that many Masters of Art who were not of his Mind could not forbear weeping This was the Work of Saturday On Sunday Cranmer sent in what he had writ upon the Articles to the Prolocutor to Lincoln-College where he lay After Cranmer was carried back the Mayor and Bailiffs brought Bishop Ridley And when the same Articles were read to him he said That they were not true But desired a Copy of them and he would draw up in writing his Answer and soon transmit it to them And did offer to dispute as Cranmer had done before Lastly Latimer was brought to whom the Prolocutor said as he had to the two former Latimer confessed that in the Sacrament of the Altar there was a certain Presence but not such an one as they would have And he also promised to send them his Answer shortly to these Articles requiring a Copy But by reason of his old Age his Infirmities and the weakness of his Memory he said he could not bear a Dispute but that he could and would declare his Mind of the said Articles All this that I have above said concerning the managery of this Affair I do for the most part extract out of a Letter of VVeston's writ unto the Bishop of London from Oxon. I cannot here omit old Father Latimer's Habit at this his appearing before the Commissioners which was also his Habit while he remained a Prisoner in Oxford He held his Hat in his Hand he had a Kerchief on his Head and upon it a Night-cap or two and a great Cap such as Townsmen used with two broad Flaps to button under his Chin an old thredbare Brisâ—ow freez Gown girded to his Body with a penny lether Girdle at which hanged by a long string of Leather his Testament and his Spectacles without case hanging about his Neck upon his Breast This was the Work of Saturday On Monday Cranmer was brought into the Respondents Place in the Divinity-Schools the Mayor and Aldermen sitting by him In the midst of the Disputation because what he was to answer was more than he could well remember extempore he gave in to Dr. VVeston his Opinion written at large in answer to each Proposition and desired Weston who sat on high to read it These Writings are preserved in Fox's Monuments and may there be seen This Disputation began at eight in the Morning and lasted till two The Beadle had provided Drink and offered the Arch-bishop thereof sometimes but he refused nor did he stir all the while out of his Place though the Prolocutor had granted him leave to retire for a while if he had any occasion And after having learnedly and boldly maintained the Truth against a great many clamorous Opponents he was carried back by the Mayor to Prison And then the two next days Ridley and Latimer took their Courses Cranmer had cautiously provided two Notaries to take Notes of what he said lest he might be misrepresented And they
were Iewel afterward Bishop of Sarum and one Gilbert Mounson Who also at Ridley's request were granted him Cranmer required at the Commissioners Hands more time to have these weighty Matters more diligently scann'd and examined Urging that he had so much to speak that it would take up many Days that he might fully answer to all that they could say He required also that he and his Fellows might Oppose as well as Respond that they might produce their Proofs before the Popish Doctors and be answered fully to all that they could say But neither of these Demands would be allowed him Which he in a Letter complained of to the Council For indeed as Cranmer plainly apprehended the Design now was not to look impartially into the Truth or Falshood of these Doctrins but to gain Glory to themselves and to have a shew for the Resolution that was before taken up of condemning them all three The same Week on Thursday Harpsfield disputed for the degree of Bachelor of Divinity And among other Opponents Cranmer was called forth for one by Dr. Weston Where first taking notice of Weston's opposing Harpsfield out of the Scripture against a Corporal Presence which was Harpsfield's Question but whereas he left the sense of the Scripture to the Catholick Church as Judg Cranmer told him he was much mistaken especially because that under the Name of Church he appointed such Judges as had corruptly judged and contrary to the sense of the Scriptures He wondred also he said why Weston attributed so little to the reading of Scriptures and conferring of Places seeing Scripture doth so much commend the same in those very Places which himself had alledged And as to his Opinion of these Questions he said they had neither ground of the Word of God nor the Primitive Church Nay and that the Schools have spoken diversly of them and do not agree among themselves And having prefaced all this he began his Disputation with Harpsfield by asking him some Questions as how Christ's Body was in the Sacrament according to his Mind and Determination And whether he had the Quantity and Qualities Form Figure and such-like Properties of Bodies And when there was great declining to answer this and some affirmed one thing and some another Harpsfield said they were vain Questions and not fit to spend time about and added that Christ was there as it pleased him to be there Cranmer to that said He would be best contented with that Answer if their appointing of the Carnal Presence had not driven him of necessity to have inquired for disputation-sake how they placed him there sithence they would have a natural Body Then some denied it to be Quantum some said it was Quantitativum and some affirmed that it had Modum quanti and some denying it Dr. Weston then stood up and said It was Corpus quantum sed non per modum quanti A very grave decision of the Point Then Cranmer asked Whether good and bad Men do eat the Body in the Sacrament and then how long Christ tarried in the Eater Harpsfield said They were curious Questions unmeet to be asked Cranmer replied He took them out of their Schools and School-men which they themselves did most use Then he asked how far he went into the Body and how long he abode in the Body With these Questions Cranmer puzzled them most heavily For which way soever they answered there would follow Absurdities and Inextricable Difficulties In conclusion Dr. Weston gave him this Complement That his wonderful gentle Behaviour and Modesty was worthy much commendation Giving him most hearty thanks in his own Name and in the Name of all his Brethren At which all the Doctors put off their Caps On Wednesday as soon as Latimer who came up last had ended his Disputation the Papists cried Victoria applauding themselves loudly as though they had vindicated their Cause most strenuously and satisfactorily against Cranmer and his two Fellows And so VVeston had the confidence to tell them to their Faces Though to him that reads the whole Disputation and considereth the Arguments on both sides impartially there will appear no such matter allowing for all the Hissings and Noises confused Talk and Taunts that were bestowed upon these very Reverend and good Men. Whereof Ridley said in reference to his Disputation That he never in all his Life saw or heard any thing carried more vainly and tumultuously and that he could not have thought that there could have been found among English Men any Persons honoured with Degrees in Learning that willingly could allow of such Vanities more fit for the Stage than the Schools He added That when he studied at Paris he remembred what Clamors were used in the Sorbon where Popery chiefly reigned but that that was a kind of Modesty in comparison of this Thrasonical Ostentation Whence he concluded very truly That they sought not for the sincere Truth in this Conference and for nothing but vain Glory But the Professors of the Gospel on the other hand were as glad of this Dispute wherein these three chief Fathers of the Church had so boldly and gallantly stood in the defence of the Truth and maintained the true Doctrine of the Sacrament so well And Dr. Rowland Taylor in Prison elsewhere at this time for Christ's sake wrote them a Congratulatory Letter in the Name of the rest Which is as followeth RIght Reverend Fathers in the Lord I wish you to enjoy continually God's Grace and Peace through Jesus Christ. And God be praised again for this your most excellent Promotion which ye are called unto at this present that is That ye are counted worthy to be allowed amongst the number of Christ's Records and Witnesses England hath had but a few Learned Bishops that would stick to Christ ad ignem inclusive Once again I thank God heartily in Christ for your most happy Onset most valiant Proceeding most constant suffering of all such Infamies Hissings Clappings Taunts open Rebukes loss of Living and Liberty for the Defence of God's Cause Truth and Glory I cannot utter with Pen how I rejoice in my Heart for you three such Captains in the Foreward under Christ's Cross Banner or Standard in such a Cause and Skirmish when not only one or two of our dear Redeemer's strong Holds are besieged but all his chief Castles ordained for our Safeguard are traiterously impugned This your Enterprize in the sight of all that be in Heaven and of all God's People in Earth is most pleasant to behold This is another manner of Nobility than to be in the Forefront in worldly Warfares For God's sake pray for us for we fail not daily to pray for you We are stronger and stronger in the Lord his Name be praised and we doubt not but ye be so in Christ's own sweet School Heaven is all and wholly of our side Therefore Gaudete in Domino semper iterum gaudete exultate Rejoice always in the
them either by Writiting or by Disputation in the English Tongue By whom this Declaration was drawn up unless by Iohn Bradford I know not for I meet with it a MS. which contains divers Pieces of that good Man This remarkable Declaration I have reposited in the Appendix This now is the second time a publick Challenge was made to justify K. Edward's Reformation the former the last Year by Cranmer the latter now by divers of the Learned Men in Prison After they had lain fifteen or sixteen Months thus in Prison their Livings Houses and Possessions Goods and Books taken from them they made such another Address unto the King and Queen and the Parliament therein undertaking either by Word or Writing before them or indifferent Arbiters to be appointed by them to prove themselves no Hereticks nor Teachers of Heresy as they were pretended to be nor cut off from the true Catholick Church though by the Popish Clergy excommunicated and Secondly By the Testimony of Christ his Prophets and Apostles and the Godly Fathers of the Church to prove the Doctrine of the Church the Homilies and Service taught and used in K. Edward's Time to be the true Doctrine of Christ's Catholick Church and most agreeable to the Articles of the Christian Faith And this was the third publick Challenge they made This being preserv'd in Fox's Acts I forbear to transcribe it CHAP. XV. The Exiles and their Condition BUT let us now turn our Eyes from the Prisoners which were kept under close Confinement here in England unto the Exiles that by the good Providence of God made their Flight into foreign Countries from these Storms at home These were both of the Clergy and Laity Who though great watch was laid for them and Prohibitions given out against any that should privately attempt to transport themselves yet by taking their Opportunities and the favour of divers Masters of small Vessels at Lee in Essex and upon the Coasts in those Parts they safely got to the other side of the Sea They scattered themselves and took up their Harbours as they could But they found little Hospitality in Saxony and other places in Germany where Lutheranism was professed But on the contrary the Exile English were much hated by those of that Profession because they looked upon them as Sacramentaries and holding as Calvin and Peter Martyr did in the Doctrine of the Sacrament Therefore when any English came among them for Shelter they expelled them out of their Cities And when a grave Pastor of Saxony a Friend of P. Martyr's who though he were a Minister yet was not of their Mind had entertained some of them the rest clamoured against him and hated him for it About this time the Saxon Divines wrote many Books against the Sacramentaries and namely one Ioachim Westphalus wrote a Book against Calvin And he and the rest got these Books printed at Frankford on purpose as Martyr conjectured the more to spight the English and French Churches that abode now there and to provoke them At Wesel the English were under some trouble and the Senate were about to command them to depart thence because of their different Sentiments from the Augustan Confession in some Points But Philip Melancthon interposed and interceded with the Senate on their behalf And when some clamoured against them he took their part saying That their Case ought to be weighed by friendly Disputations and not exploded by Noise and Hissing and declared his judgment to be That these poor Exiles were to be retained and helped not afflicted and vexed by any rough Sentence He wrote also to the Governors of Frankford to the same purpose viz. That the English were not to be oppressed but to be cherished considering their Sentiments were found in the main Articles of the Christian Confession and that whereas they differed in some Points they were to be instructed and informed and not to be rudely thrown out from among them by Force and Violence And indeed it was admirable to observe at this Time the exceeding Heats that were in the Lutherans against all other Protestants only for differing from them in this one Point of the Sacrament There was a Book published in the Year 1555. in favour of their Opinion of the Corporeal Presence which was called Farrago Doctrinae Lutheranae This P. Martyr called Valdè insulsa a very foolish Book It contained a Collection of Sentences out of the Fathers and also out of the Writings of Luther Philip Brentius Pomeran c. They added some out of Bucer Illyricus and Ioachim Westphalus to shew that they agreed together They inserted divers Letters sometime writ against the Sacramentaries Indeed Calvin and Martyr they mentioned not by Name but A Lasco they did In this Book there was a Discourse added under this Title Quod Christi Corqus sit ubique Which was to serve as a Proof of their Doctrine And in the conclusion there was a Common-place De Magistratus officio Which was thought to be put in upon no other reason but to inflame and irritate Princes against the Sacramentaries These Saxon Divines were exceeding hot against those that believed not as they did In their ordinary Discourses they stiled them Hereticks False Prophets Suermeros Sacramentiperdas About this Time they were gathering new Votes against Calvin and as it was thought they intended to attempt some Excommunication against such as differed from them in this Point And this that I have said is enough to explain the Reason of the Inhospitality of the Lutherans to our Exiles But in other Places they were received with much Kindness and had the Liberty of their Religious Worship granted them as in Strasburgh Frankford Embden Doesburge Basil Zurick Arrow Geneva At Zurick they were received into one House with Bullinger and had great Favour and Countenance shewn them by the Towns-men and Magistrates Who offered them by Bullinger to supply them with such a quantity of Bread-corn and Wine as should serve to sustain thirteen or fourteen People But they with Thanks refused it Having I suppose wherewith to subsist otherwise of themselves and being willing to be as little burthensome as might be In these Places some followed their Studies some taught Schools some wrote Books some assisted at the Printing-Presse and grew very dear to the Learned Men in those Places At Embden they â—aving gotten among them by Sir Iohn Cheke's Means as was thought an Original Copy of Arch-bishop Cranmer's Book of the Sacrament translated it into Latin and printed it there with a Preface before it And there they preserved the said Original as a most invaluable Treasure Here they printed other good Books in English and conveyed them into England At Geneva a Club of them employed themselves in translating the Holy Bible into English intending to do it with more Correctness than had hitherto been done having the opportunity of consulting with Calvin and Beza in
meaning Thirlby Hethe Tonstal c. that they held their Peace for this Consideration though they knew this well enough Who if they had done their Duty to the Crown and Realm should have opened their Mouths at this Time and shewn the Peril and Danger that might insue to the Crown hereby Another Cause he urged to the Queen why he could not allow the Pope's Authority was Because he subverted not only the Laws of the Nation but the Laws of God So that whosoever be under his Authority he suffered them not to be under Christ's Religion purely For proof of which he gave these Instances God's Will and Commandment is that when the People be gathered together to serve God the Ministers should use such a Language as the People might understand and take profit thereby For God said by the Mouth of S. Paul As a Harp or Lute if it give no certain sound that Men may know what is stricken who can dance after it it is put in vain So it is in vain profiteth nothing if the Priest speak to the People in a Language they know not And whereas when he urged this to the Commissioners they told him That that Place respected Preaching only He told the Queen That S. Paul's words meant it not only of Preaching for that he spake expresly of Praying Singing and giving Thanks and of all other things which the Priests say in the Churches And so he said all Interpreters Greek and Latin Old and New School-Authors and others that he had read understood it Till about thirty Years past Eckius and others of his Sort began to invent this new Exposition And so he said all the best Learned Divines that met at Windsor 1549 for the Reformation of the Church both of the New Learning and the Old agreed without Controversy not one opposing that the Service of the Church ought to be in the Mother-Tongue and that that Place of S. Paul was so to be understood Again Christ ordained the Sacrament to be received of Christian People under both Forms of Bread and Wine and said Drink ye all of this The Pope gives a clean contrary Command That no Lay-man shall drink of the Cup of their Salvation So that if he should obey the Pope in these things he must needs disobey his Saviour Again He instanced in the Pope's taking upon him to give the Temporal Sword to Kings and Princes and to depose them from their Imperial States if they were disobedient to him and in commanding Subjects to disobey their Princes Assoiling them as well from their Obedience as their lawful Oaths made unto them directly contrary to God's Commandment that commandeth all Subjects to obey their Kings and their Rulers under them Then he spake of the Superiority the Pope claimed above Kings and Emperors and making himself Universal Bishop And how his Flatterers told him he might dispense against God's Word both against the Old and New Testament and that whatsoever he did tho he drew innumerable People by heaps with himself to Hell yet might no mortal Man reprove him because he is the Judg of all Men and might be judged by no Man And thus he sat in the Temple of God as he were a God and named himself God and dispensed against God If this were not he said to play Antichrist's part he knew not what Antichrist was that is Christ's Enemy and Adversary Now added he until the time that such a Person may be found Men might easily conjecture where to find Antichrist He took God to record that what he spake against the Power and Authority of the Pope he spake it not for any Malice he ought to the Pope's Person whom he knew not nor for fear of Punishment or to avoid the same thinking it rather an Occasion to aggravate than to diminish the same but for his most bounden Duty to the Crown Liberty Laws and Customs of this Realm of England and most especially to discharge his Conscience in uttering the Truth to God's Glory casting away all Fear by the Comfort which he had in Christ who saith Fear not them that kill the Body As touching the Sacrament he said That forasmuch as the whole Matter stood in the understanding those words of Christ This is my Body This is my Blood He told the Commissioners That Christ in those words made demonstration of the Bread and Wine and spake figuratively calling Bread his Body and Wine his Blood because he ordained them to be Sacraments of his Body and Blood And he told them He would be judged by the old Church which Doctrine could be proved Elder and that he would stand to And that forasmuch as he had urged in his Book Greek and Latin Authors which above a thousand Years continually taught as he did if they could bring forth but one old Author that said in these two Points as they said he offered six or seven Years ago and offered so still that he would give place Then he shewed her how fond and uncomfortable the Papists Doctrine of the Sacrament is For of one Body of Christ is made two Bodies One natural having distance of Members with Form and Proportion of Man's perfect Body and this Body is in Heaven But the Body of Christ in the Sacrament by their own Doctrine must needs be a monstrous Body having neither distance of Members nor Form Fashion or Proportion of a Man's natural Body And such a Body is in the Sacrament teach they as goes into the Mouth with the Form of Bread and entreth no further than the Form of Bread goes nor tarrieth no longer than the Form of Bread is by natural Heat digesting So that when the Form of Bread is digested the Body of Christ is gone And what Comfort said he can be herein to any Christian Man to receive Christ's unshapen Body and it to enter no further than the Stomach and depart by and by as soon as the Bread is consumed It seemed to him a more sound and comfortable Doctrine that Christ hath but one Body and that hath Form and Fashion of a Man's true Body Which Body spiritually entreth into the whole Man Body and Soul And though the Sacrament be consumed yet whole Christ remaineth and feedeth the Receiver unto eternal Life if he continue in Godliness and never departeth until the Receiver forsaketh him That if it could be shewed him that the Pope's Authority be not prejudicial to the things before-mentioned or that his Doctrine of the Sacrament be erroneous then he would never stand perversly in his own Opinion but with all humility submit himself to the Pope not only to kiss his Feet but another Part also For all these Reasons he could not take the Bishop of Gloucester for his Judg representing as he did this Pope But another Reason was in respect of his own Person being more than once perjured having been divers times sworn never to consent that the Bishop of Rome should have any Jurisdiction within this Realm
be excused from taking the Archbishoprick of Canterbury because this Promotion would so much interrupt his beloved Studies Desiring rather some smaller Living that he might more quietly follow his Book And as he had been an hard Student so he was a very great Writer both in respect of the number of Books and Treatises he compiled as of the Learning Judgment and Moment of them The first Treatise he wrote was that which was done at the Command of Henry VIII viz. Concerning the Unlawfulness of his Marriage with his Brother Arthur's Widow Which he made appear to be both against the Word of God and against the Judgment of the Antient Fathers of the Church and therefore a Case indispensable by the Pope And so well had he studied the Point and so well was assured of what he had wrote that he undertook before the King to maintain the Truth of it at Rome in the presence of the Pope himself The King accordingly dismissed him to the Pope in joint Embassy with the Earl of Wiltshire and some others for that purpose He presented his Book to the Pope offering to stand by it against any whomsoever that should attempt to gainsay it But the Pope thought not fit to suffer so tender a Point to be disputed wherein his Prerogative was so much touched When he had finished thâ—s Discourse it was sent to Cambridg and had the Approbation and Subscription of the eminentest Doctors there viz. Sâ—lcot Repps Câ—me and divers others Among which I suppose were Heines Litiner Shaxton Skip Goodrick Hethe who were then Gremials After this Book â—e was much employed in writing more at various Times and â—pon various Occasions Fox mentioneth Cranmer's Book of the â—eformation which I suppose was that of the Publick Service the Catechism the Book of Homilies which was part by him contrâ—ed and part by his Procurement and by him approved and pubished Likewise the Confutation of eighty eight Articles devised and propounded by a Convocation in King Henry's Reign and laboâ—red to be received and enjoined though they were not But his Discoâ—rse wherein he stated the Doctrine of the Sacrament in five â—ooks must especially be remembred Which he wrote on purpose for the publick Instruction of the Church of England And it â—s the more to be valued as being writ by him in his mature Age after all his great Readings and Studies and most diligent and serioâ—s perusals of all the Ecclesiastical Writers whereby he became throughly acquainted with their Judgments and Opinions in that Doctrine And in it are contained his last and ripest Thoughts on â—hat Argument This Book displayeth the great Weakness of that â—istinguishing Doctrine of the Church of Rome that asserts Transubstantiation Besides these many other Writings and Discourses were made by him Which we are beholden to the Bishop of Sarum for retrieving the Memory of and preserving the Substance of divers of them in his excellent History viz. A Learned Speech made to the Lords concerning the Pope and a general Council Which that Right Reverend Author thinks was made about the Year 1534 which was soon after his being made Arch-bishop Some Queries in order to the correcting of several Abuses in Religion whereby the People had been deceived Some Queries concerning Confirmation With the Answers which were given to them by Arch-bishop Cranmer Some Considerations to induce the King to proceed to a further Reformation These three last were presented by the Arch-bishop to the King about the Year 1536 as the Bishop of Sarum supposeth And having seen the Originals thereof in the Cotton-Library hath transcribed them to us in the Addenda to the Collections His Resolution of seventeen Questions concerning the Sacraments Anno 1540. A Collection of Passages out of the Canon Law to shew the necessity of Reforming it Anno 1542. His Letters to Osiander and Letters of Osiander to him concerning the Proceedings of the German Divines Whose Violence the Arch-bishop disliked A Speech made in the Convocation Wherein he exhorted the Clergy to give themselves to the study of the Scriptures and to consider seriously what things in the Church neeâ—ed Reformation Anno 1547. His Answer to the Demands of the Rebels in the West drawn up by him by Order of the Council Anno 1549. His Declaration to vindicate himself from an Aspersion That he had caused Mass to be sung in Canterbury Aâ—d offering therein a publick Dispute to maintain the Reformation Anno 1553. Besides two Volumes in Folio writ by Cranmer own Hand upon all the Heads of Religion Consisting of Allegtions of Texts of Scripture and of antient Fathers and later Doctos and School-men upon each Subject There were also six or seveâ— Volumes of his Writings which were in the Lord Burleigh's Iâ—ssession as appeared by a Letter of the said Lord which the Bishop of Sarum saw But he thought these may now be lost Most of tâ—e forementioned Writings are preserved in the Cotton-Library or iâ— that of Corpus-Christi Cambridg or among the Manuscripts of the Right Reverend Bishop Stillingsleet To which we must add the mention of a bundle of Books lying in the Palace-Treasury in Westminster in defence of the King's Title of Supream Head and concerning the Divorce and seveal other Matters with a Pâ—eface against Cardinal Pole Which aâ—e supposed to be written partly by Dr. Clark Bishop of Bath and Wels and partly by our Arch-bishop Several other Letters Speeches and Arguments of our Arch-bishop may be found in these Memorials which I omit here rehersing But I will add to these divers Pieces besides of this Prelat's writing as they are set down by Melchior Adam at the End of Cranmer's Life Who indeed did but transcribe them from Gesner and he from Iohn Bale's Centuries I. A Preface to the English Translation of the Bible This is transcribed in the Appendix II. A Catechism of Christian Doctrine printed by Gualter Lynn Anno 1548. This Catechism was first framed in Germany and by the Arch-bishop himself or his special Order turned into English And to fix an Authority to the same he caused it to be published in his own Name and owned it for his own Book This Dr. Rowland Taylor who lived in the Arch-bishop's Family declared before Gardiner Bishop of Winchester and Lord Chancellor at his Examination before him And in this sense we must understand the Author of the History of the Reformation when speaking of this Catechism he stiles it A Work that was wholly his own It was said before that Iustus Ionas he I suppose that dwelt with the Arch-bishop was the Translator of it into Latin It treated of the Sacrament after the Lutheran way Which Way the Arch-bishop embraced next after his rejection of the gross Papal Transubstantiation This Catechism was printed first by the Arch-bishop's Order about the Time of King Henry's Death or soon after In a second Edition tâ—e word
Not was inserted in a certain place of the Book to alter the Doctrine of the Real Presence which was asserted in the first Edition This Dr. Martin one of Queen Mary's Commissioners threw in his Dish at his Examination in Oxford But the Arch-bishop professed his Ignorance concerning the foisting in of that Word The addition of which Word indeed he thought was needless still holding the Body and Blood truly present in the Holy Supper though after a spiritual manner III. The Ordinances or Appointments of the Reformed Church This was the Book of Common-Prayer with the Preface before it beginning There was never any thing c. as I learn out of Bale IV. One Book of Ordaining Ministers Which I suppose was the Form of Ordination published in the Year 1550. V. One Book concerning the Eucharist with Luther With whom Cranmer once consented in the Doctrine of the Presence VI. A Defence of the Catholick Doctrine in five Books Which was his excellent Work in vindication of himself against Bishop Gardiner and Dr. Richard Smith Whereof much hath been said before VII Ecclesiastical Laws in the Time of King Edward This was the Book of the Reformation of the Ecclesiastical Laws the management of which was by the King's Letters committed to eight whereof Cranmer was the chief VIII The Doctrine of the Lord's Supper against Gardiner's Sermon This Sermon is the same I suppose with that Book of his intituled A Detection of the Devil's Sophistry wherewith he robbeth the unlearned People of the true Belief of the most Blessed Sacrament of the Altar Which gave occasion to the Arch-bishop's first writing upon this Argument IX One Book against the Error of Transubstantiation X. One Book How Christ is present in the Supper XI One Book Concerning eating the Lord's Supper XII One Book Concerning the offering up of Christ. These five Books last mentioned are nothing else but the five Parts of his Book of the Holy Sacrament mentioned before XIII One Book of Christian Homilies Which must be the first Part of our Book of Homilies published under King Edward XIV One Book in answer to the Calumnies of Richard Smith For this Man had writ against Cranmer's Book of the Sacrament as well as Gardiner but done so scurrilously that Cranmer calls it his Calumnies XV. Confutations of Unwritten Verities Written against a Book of the same Smith intituled De veritatibus non scriptis Which he afterward recanted XVI Twelve Books of Common-Places taken out of the Doctors Those Volumes mentioned by Bishop Burnet I suppose were some of these Common-Place Books XVII Concerning not marrying the Brother's Wife Two Books Which must be those drawn up for the Use and by the Command of King Henry XVIII Against the Pope's Supremacy Two Books This was the Declaration against the Papal Supremacy said to be put forth by the Bishops in the Year 1536 upon occasion of Pole's Book of Ecclesiastical Vnion XIX Against the Pope's Purgatory Two Books XX. Concerning Justification Two Books I cannot trace these two last-mentioned Books unless by them be meant those two Treatises of Justification and Purgatory that are set at the end of the Institution XXI Pious Prayers One Book This Book I suppose was the Orarium seu libellus precationum put forth by the King and Clergy 1545. From whence a Book of Prayers was translated into English Anno 1552. XXII Letters to Learned Men One Book This I cannot hear any tidings of XXIII Against the Sacrifice of the Mass and against the Adoration of the Bread One Book Said to be writ while he was a Prisoner Which makes me conclude it to be part of his Reply to Gardiner's second Assault of him under the Name of Constantius XXIV To Queen Mary One Book or rather one Letter which was that he writ after his Examinations before her Commissioners and the Pope's Sub-delegate If some body of Leisure and that had the Opportunity of Libraries would take the pains to collect together all these Books and other Writings of this Arch-bishop and publish them it would be a worthy Work as both retrieving the Memory of this extraordinary Man who deserved so well of this Church and serving also much to illustrate the History of its Reformation But I know nothing of this nature done since the industrious Iohn Day in the Year 1580 printed a Book in Folio containing our Arch-bishop's Answer unto Stephen Gardiner Bishop of Winchester against the true Doctrine of the Sacrament Also to Richard Smith Also a true Copy of the Book writ by Stephen Gardiner Also The Life and Martyrdom of Cranmer extracted out of the Book of Martyrs And now we are mentioning this great Prelat's Writings it may not be unworthy to take notice of what I meet with in a Letter of Arch-bishop Parker to Secretary Cecyl in the Year 1563 his Grace being then at Canterbury Where he spake of the Great notable written Books as he stiles them of his Predecessor Dr. Cranmer which he had left behind him at some of his Houses at or near Canterbury whether Ford or Bekesborn or both or with some Friends in those Parts These Manuscripts it seems were embezeled and surreptitiously taken away by private Hands probably during his restraint in Queen Mary's Days and now studiously concealed by some that were minded it may be to stifle them being chiefly levelled against the Roman Church and Bishop Parker who was a great and painful Searcher after Antient and Learned Manuscripts and a diligent Retriever of eminent Mens Writings had by credible Information learn'd in what Hands many of those Books were and had sent either for the Persons concerned or to them to demand the said Books But they denied them Whereupon knowing no other way to recover them he desired the Secretary by some Power from the Queen's Council to authorize him to enquire and search for those Books and such-like Monuments by all Ways as by the said Parker's Discretion should be thought good whether giving the Parties an Oath or viewing their Studies Wishing he might recover them to be afterwards at the Queen's Commandment Adding that he should be as glad to win them as he would be to restore an old Chancel to Reparation This Letter of Arch-bishop Parker I have inserted in the Appendix But whether after all his diligence he succeeded in the recovery of those Manuscripts I know not I am apt to think he did and that these Writings of Cranmer that were in his Possession and afterwards bequeathed unto the Library of Benet-College and those other divers Volumes which were as was before-said in the keeping of the Lord Burghley might be some at least of them An inquisitive Man would be glad to know what the Matter and Contents of these numerous Writings of our Arch-bishop were and that seeing so many of them are perished the knowledg of the various Subjects of them at least might be preserved This besides what hath been shewn already may be gathered by what
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
not in all Respects according to his Wish And so prayed God to guide him with his Holy Spirit and to bless his Pious Endeavours But the Troubles at Home and Abroad frustrated this excellent Purpose which for two Years he had been labouring to bring to some good Issue His next Resolution was to go as far as he could in this Matter since he could not go as far as he would And he bethought himself of assembling together the Divines of his own Church and that by the King's Authority to confer with them about drawing up a Body of Articles of Religion which Purpose he had likewise communicated to Calvin For which he greatly commended him Telling him That since the Times were such that that could not in the least be hoped for which was so much to be wish'd viz. That the chief Teachers of the divers Churches which embraced the pure Doctrine of the Gospel might meet together and publish to Posterity a certain and clear Confession out of the pure Word of God concerning the Heads of Religion then in Controversy he did extreamly commend that Counsel which he had taken to establish Religion in England lest things remaining any longer in an uncertain State or not so rightly and duly composed and framed as it were convenient the Minds of the People should remain in suspence and wavering And then quickening him told him That this was his part chiefly to do That he himself saw well what that Place required of him or rather what God exacted in respect of that Office he had laid upon him That he was of very powerful Authority which he had not only by the amplitude of his Honour but the long-conceived Opinion that went of his Prudence and Integrity That the Eyes of the Good were cast upon him either to follow his Motions or to remain idle upon the pretence of his Unactiveness He took the freedom also with Cranmer to blame him for not having made more Progress in the Reformation Which he thought he might have done in the three Years space wherein King Edward had already reigned And told him That he feared when so many Autumns had been passed in deliberating only at last the Frost of a perpetual Winter might follow Meaning that the People would grow stark cold in minding a Reformation Then he reminded him of his Age that that called upon him to hasten lest if he should be called out of the World before Matters in Religion were settled the Conscience of his Slowness might create great Anxiety to him He particularly put him in Mind of the great want of Pastors to preach the Gospel and that the Churches Revenues were made such a Prey Which he called An intolerable Evil. And said that this was a plain reason why there was so little Preaching among us That a parcel of Slow-bellies were nourished from the Revenues of the Church to sing Vespers in an unknown Tongue But in the close he excused him in regard of the many and great Difficulties that he wrestled with Which were certainly most true In so much that if he had not been a Man of great Conduct and indefatigable Industry the Reformation had not made so fair a Progress as it did in his Time And one may admire rather that he went so far the Iniquity of the Times considered than that he went no farther For the Great Ones in the Minority of the King took their Opportunity most insatiably to fly upon the Spoils of the Church and Charitable Donations little regarding any thing else than to enrich themselves Very vitious and dissolute they were in their Lives as the soberer Sort in those Days complained and therefore the less to be wondered they were so negligent to provide for the promoting the Reformed Religion and Piety in the Land In the mean time the chief Preachers did what they could to redress these Evils For they plainly and boldly rebuked this Evil Governance and especially the Covetousness of the Courtiers and their small regard to live after the Gospel and sometimes incurred no small Danger by this Freedom Mr. Rogers Vicar of S. Sepulchres and afterwards a Martyr under Queen Mary was one of these Who so freely discoursed once at S. Paul's Cross concerning the Abuse of Abbies and the Churches Goods that he was summoned before the Privy-Council to answer for it And so were divers others upon the same Reason And I am apt to think that these Preachers did what they did by the Counsel and Direction of the Arch-bishop So that the present State of Things and the Endeavours of him and the rest of the Clergy considered he was a little too hastily censured by Calvin in that behalf But Cranmer was of so mild and gracious a Spirit that he did not seem to conceive any Displeasure against Calvin for this his unjust Charge of Negligence but kept up a great Esteem and Value for him But that I may take occasion here to insist a little longer upon this Argument and vindicate the Honesty and Boldness of the English Clergy in speaking their Minds against the Sacrilegious Spirit that reigned in these Times it may not be amiss to give some Account of a Communication that happened about December or Ianuary 1552 at Court between Sir William Cecyl the King's Secretary and one Miles Wilson a grave Divine and Acquaintance of the said Cecyl and a Man of Eminency in the University of Cambridg Discourse happening between them of divers and sundry things relating partly to the propagating Christ's Religion and partly to the preservation and encrease of the Common-Wealth the said Wilson delivered to Cecyl an Oration to read which he had composed De rebus Ecclesiae non diripiendis Concerning not spoiling the Church of her Means and which he once pronounced in the Publick Schools of the University about that Time when those Matters were in agitation above Cecyl being a good and conscientious Man had in this Conference signified to him his earnest desire to hear and see what could be proposed out of the Holy Scripture in so unusual an Argument To shew this and to give also a short view of his said Oration because the Secretary's infinite Business would not allow him to read long Discourses Wilson soon after digested the Contents thereof reducing it into some Syllogisms and Ratiocinations more apt to urge and easier to remember and more accommodate to perswade These with his Letter he sent to the Secretary His Ends herein were to satisfy him in this Point being a Man of great Stroke in the Publick Transactions of those Times who might accordingly use his Interest and Endeavour to retrieve what had been so unjustly taken from the Church that the famous Schools lately dissolved to the great ruine of the University might be re-edified again and that those Livings which were miserably spoiled by covetous Patrons might be restored and enjoy their whole Revenues to the real Honour of the
State And lastly that the Hospitals impoverish'd or wholly beggar'd might by his means be remedied and helped by the King's Council that they might revert to their former Condition that is to succour and help the Poor He urged moreover to Cecyl that the destruction of Schools would be the destruction of the Universities and that all Learning would soon cease and Popery and more than Gothic Barbarism would invade all if Learned Men were not better taken care of than they were and if the Rewards of Learning viz. Rectories Prebends and all were taken away from them This Man had also freely discoursed these Matters to two other great and publick-spirited Men viz. Goodrich the Lord Chancellor who was Bishop of Ely and Holgate Arch-bishop of York To both whom he had also given the Names of a great many Schools Parsonages and Hospitals that had undergon this sacrilegious Usage And he particularly mentioned to Cecyl a Town not far from Cambridg called Childerlay where a Gentleman had pulled down all the Houses in the Parish except his own And so there being none to frequent the Church the Inhabitants being gone he used the said Church partly for a Stable for his Horses and partly for a Barn for his Corn and Straw This Letter of Wilson to the Secretary together with his Arguments against pilling the Church subjoined I have thought worthy preserving in the Repository for such Monuments in the Appendix But to return from this Digression which Calvin's Censure of our Arch-bishop occasioned And when in the Year 1551 he dispatched into England one Nicolas that Nicolas Gallasius I suppose who was afterward by Calvin recommended to be Minister to the French Congregation in London at the desire of Grindal Bishop of London that he would send over some honest able Person for that Place with Letters to the Duke of Somerset and likewise to the King to whom he presented also at the same time his Book of Commentaries upon Esay and the Canonical Epistles which he had Dedicated to him both the King's Council and the King himself were much pleased and satisfied with this Message And the Arch-bishop told Nicolas That Calvin could do nothing more profitable to the Church than to write often to the King The substance of what he wrote to the King that was so well taken was to excite and sharpen the generous Parts of the Royal Youth as Calvin hinted in a Letter to Bullinger CHAP. XXVI The Arch-bishop highly valued Peter Martyr AS for the Learned Italian Peter Martyr who is worthy to be mentioned with Melancthon and Calvin there was not only an Acquaintance between him and our Arch-bishop but a great and cordial Intimacy and Friendship For of him he made particular use in the Steps he took in our Reformation And whensoever he might be spared from his Publick Readings in Oxford the Arch-bishop used to send for him to confer with him about the weightiest Matters This Calvin took notice of and signified to him by Letter how much he rejoiced that he made use of the Counsels of that excellent Man And when the Reformation of the Ecclesiastical Laws was in effect wholly devolved upon Cranmer he appointed him and Gualter Haddon and Dr. Rowland Tayler his Chaplain and no more to manage that Business Which shews what an Opinion he had of Martyr's Abilities and how he served himself of him in Matters of the greatest Moment And in that bold and brave Challenge he made in the beginning of Queen Mary's Reign to justify against any Man whatsoever every Part of King Edward's Reformation he nominated and made choice of Martyr therein to be one of his Assistants in that Disputation if any would undertake it with him This Divine when he was forced to leave Oxford upon the Change of Religion retreated first to the Arch-bishop at Lambeth and from thence when he had tarried as long as he durst he departed the Realm to Strasburgh This Man was he that saw and reported those voluminous Writings of this Arch-bishop which he had collected out of all the Antient Church-Writers upon all the Heads of Divinity and those Notes of his own Pen that he had inserted in the Margin of his Books Which the Arch-bishop communicated to him when he conversed with him at his House And from these and such-like of the Arch-bishop's Labours he acknowledged he had learned much especially in the Doctrine of the Sacrament as he writ in his Epistle before his Tract of the Encharist The Fame of Peter Martyr and the Desire of preserving all Remains of so Learned a Professor and great an Instrument of the Reformed Religion hath inclined me to put two of his Letters into the Appendix though otherwise not to our present Purpose being Originals writ by his own Hand from Oxon. The one to Iames Haddon a learned Court-Divine and Dean of Exon to procure a Licence from the King or the Council for a Friend and Auditor of his to preach publickly The other to Sir William Cecyl to forward the paiment of a Salary due to him that read the Divinity-Lecture in the Room of Dr. Weston a Papist who had claimed it himself and laboured to detain it from him I cannot forbear mentioning here an Instance of his Love and great Concern for our Arch-bishop his old Friend and Patron after the Iniquity of the Times had parted them the one then in Prison and the other at Strasburgh It was in Iune 1555 when Queen Mary supposing her self with Child was reported to have said in her Zeal That she could never be happily brought to Bed nor succeed well in any other of her Affairs unless she caused all the Hereticks she had in Prison to be burnt without sparing so much as One. Which Opinion very likely the Bishop of Winchester or some other of her Zelotical Chaplains put into her Head This Report coming to Martyr's Ears afflicted him greatly not only for the Destruction that was like suddenly to befal many Holy Professors but more especially for the imminent Hazard he apprehended that great and publick Person the Arch-bishop to be in Which made him express himself in this manner in a Letter to Peter Alexander to whom that most Reverend Father had also formerly been a kind Host and Patron That from those Words of the Queen he might discover that my Lord of Canterbury was then in great Danger CHAP. XXVII The Arch-bishop's Favour to John Sleidan TO all these Learned and religious Outlandish-Men to whom the Arch-bishop was either a Patron or a Friend or both we must not forget to join Iohn Sleidan the renowned Author of those exact Commentaries of the State of Religion and the Common-wealth in Germany in the time of Charles V. About the end of March Anno 1551 He procured for him from King Edward an Honorary Pension of two hundred Crowns a Year as some Aid for the carrying on his
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
a firm Purpose to conform himself thereunto and so continue to proceed from time to time shewing himself a sober and fruitful Hearer and Learner This whole Preface for the Antiquity and Usefulness of it and to preserve as much as we can of the Writings of this most Reverend Man I have transcribed and placed in the Appendix The Edition in the Year 1540 had a remarkable Frontispiece before it Which because it is somewhat rare both in regard of the Antiquity and Device of it I will relate In the upper â—art thereof you see King Henry VIII sitting in State guarded on each hand of him with the Lords Spiritual and Temporal holding in his right Hand a Bible closed which he delivered unto Arch-bishop Cranmer being on his Knee in the Name of the rest of the Bishops all which stood at his right Hand bare-headed their Mitres lying up-the Ground in token of their Acknowledgment of the King's Supremacy and this Motto issuing out of the King's Mouth Haec praecipe doce Holding also in his left Hand another Bible stretched towards the Lords Temporal and delivered to one whom I suppose to be intended for the Lord Crumwel at the head of them standing on the left Side and this Word coming out of the King's Mouth towards them Quod justum est judicate and this Ita parvum audietis ut magnum and this A me constitutum est decretum ut in Vniverso Imperio Regno meo homines revereantur paveant Deum Viventem Among these Nobles is the Figure of one on his Knees and these Words issuing out of his Mouth Verbum tuum Lucerna pedibus meis Over the King's Head is the Figure of God Almighty sitting in the Clouds with these Words coming out of his Mouth in a Scrole towards the right Hand Verbum quod egredietur de me non revertetur ad me vacuum sed faciet quaecunque volui And in another Scrole towards the Left with his Hand pointing to the King Ecce servum qui faciet omnes voluntates meas Underneath the Bishops there is another Figure representing Arch-bishop Cranmer his Coat of Arms by him with the distinction of a Crescent He stood with his Mitre on his Head and dress'd in his Pontificalibus his Chaplain behind him and a Priest with a Tonsure kneeling before him in the posture of a Candidate for Priests Orders and having his Hand stretched out to receive the Bible offered him by the Arch-bishop and out of his Mouth this Scrole Pascite qui in vobis est gregem Christi On the other Side opposite to the Arch-bishop and underneath the Lords Temporal stood another Person whom I conjecture to be the Lord Crumwel with his Shield by him blank without any bearing and out of his Mouth came Diverte a malo sequere pacem persequere In the lowest part of this Fronticepiece you have the resemblance of a Priest preaching out of a Pulpit before a great Auditory of Persons of all Ranks Qualities Orders Sexes Ages Men Women Children Nobles Priests Souldiers Tradesmen Countrymen Out of the Mouth of the Preacher went this Verse Obsecro igitur primum omnium fieri obsecrationes orationes postulationes gratiarum actiones pro omnibus hominibus pro regibus c. Implying the Benefit accruing to Princes by the Peoples Knowledg of the Scriptures namely That it taught them to obey and pray for them And out of the Mouths of these Hearers of all sorts issued Vivat Rex Vivat Rex and out of the Mouths of the Children God save the King denoting the great Joy the People conceived for the enjoyment of God's Word and the preaching thereof and their Thankfulness to the King for his Permission of the same In the middle stood the Title of the Bible which was this The Bible in English that is to say The Contents of all the Holy Scriptures of the Old and New Testament with a Prologue thereunto made by the Reverend Father in God Thomas Arch-bishop of Canterbury This is the Bible appointed to the Use of the Churches Printed by Richard Grafton Cum Privilegio ad imprimendum solum An. Dom. MDXL. CHAP. XXXIV Arch-bishop Cranmer compassionate towards Sufferers for Religion AS he had a great Love and Value for the eminent Professors and Patrons of the Gospel so he bare a most compassionate Spirit towards those that suffered for the sake of it It made a very greaâ— Impression upon him when he heard that Sir Iohn Cheke had been taken up and Indicted soon after Queen Mary's access to the Crown namely in the Month of August which was the next Month after And not knowing wherefore he was Indicted whether for his meddling in the Lady Iane's Business or for his Zeal in promoting Religion he earnestly desired Sir William Cecyl to inform him whether If for the former Considering as he said he had been none of the chief Doers in that Matter he hoped he should have been one of them that should have partaken of the Queen's Favour But if it were for the latter viz. his earnestness in Religion if he suffer for that said he Blessed is he of God that suffereth for his sake howsoever the World judg of him For what ought we to care for the Iudgment of the World when God absolves us But wishing most passionately withal That some means might be used for the Relief of him and the Lord Russel who it seems was clap'd up for the same Cause And indeed as our Arch-bishop was in the time of King Edward he was the same under King Henry that is the common Patron as far as he might or dared of such Priests who were drawn into Trouble for professing or preaching that Gospel So he shewed himself to Turner before-mentioned And in the Year 1533 or 1534 I find him in a Commission for the relieving of another that had been most straitly and rigorously handled by Stokesly then Bishop of London and his Chancellor His Name was Thomas Patmore Parson of Hadham in Hertfordshire a Learned and Godly Man who had by them been condemned to Imprisonment for Life together with the loss of his Benefice and Goods because he had perswaded his Curat to marry a Wife and being privy to his Marriage did nevertheless suffer him to officiate in his Church And because he had preached certain Doctrines at Cambridg as laying little stress upon the Pope's Curse and that we are saved only by God's Mercy and that all that are saved are saved by Faith and that it is against God's Law to burn Hereticks This poor Man after three Years close Imprisonment in Lollards-Tower by the Means of his Friends who put up frequent Petitions to the King and the Lady Ann Bolen was at last released and obtained of the King a Commission to our Arch-bishop to whom were joined Audley Lord Chancellor and Crumwel Secretary of State to enquire into his Injuries and unjust handling and to determine
such men should be driven from them provided they do reside a good part of the year upon their Churches V. Since the Dispensation of two or three benefices hath been granted by former Princes to some Priests for the merit of their life and maners they cannot without injury be deprived of them Nor yet can they in al respects reside personally and perpetually VI. When many have designed their sons for the Universities and have been at no smal charges to give them learning because they have entertained good hope that they might hereafter be assistant to their friends and relations this hope being gone their care about this matter wil also grow cold otherwise of it self cold enough For as he said Where there is no honor there is no Art VII The houses of the Rectories in many places are either ruined or none at al or let out by Indentures Going to the Court of Rome Going to a General Councel Going to a Synod or Parlament Violent detaining Remedies That there be a les number of those that follow the Court who heap up benefices upon benefices That they who have many Benefices reside a certain time upon each That a way be found wherby such as live in Towns and Cities may be forced to pay Personal tiths Which being now almost quite taken a way the Benefices in such places are in a great part lessened When some of the Bishops by reason of the slendernes of their possessions cannot afford Stipends to the Priests their fellow laborers that they who serve them reside for a certain time of the year in their own parishes That Rectors who heretofore have payd pensions to Monasteries in ready mony be not now compelled to pay the same in bread-corn to Lay-proprietors That in Woody places where the custome hath alwayes obtained tith may be payd of Sylvae caeduae that is Wood that is cut to grow again especially when there is a great scarcity of corn in such places Parishes are not divided jure divino Whence followeth that as many Benefices may be layd into one so one by reason of the greatnes of it may be divided into two NUM LXXXIX Pole Cardinal Legate to Archbishop Cranmer in answer to the Letter he had sent to the Queen ALmighty God the Father by the grace of his only son god and man that dyed for our sins may geve yow trew and perfect repentance This I daylie pray for my self being a Synner but I thank God never obstinate synner And the same grace the more earnestly I do pray for to be geven to them that be obstinate the more neade they have thereof being otherwise past al mannes cure and admonition to save them As your open sayings in open audience doyth show of yow Which hath cawsed that those judges that hath syt apon the examination of your greviouse fautes seing no lykelod of ony repentaunce in yow hath utterlie cast awaye al hope of your recoverie Whereof doith follow the most horrible sentence of condempnation both of your body and soule both your temporal death and eternal Which is to me so great an horrour to here that if there were ony way or mean or fashion that I might fynd to remove you from errour bryngeng yow to the knowledge of the truth for your Salvation This I testifie to you afore God apon the Salvation of myne owne sowle that I would rather chuse to be that meane that yow might receive this benefyt by me then to receive the greatest benefyt for my self that can be geven under heaven in this world I easteme so moch the salvation of one sowle And becawse it happened to me to see your private lettres directed to the Qwenes Highnes sent by the same unto me wherein you utter and express such appearaunt reasons that cause yow to swarve from the rest of the Church in these Articles of the authoritie of the Pope and of the Sacrament of the aulter Concluding with these words That if ony man can show yow by reason that the authoritie of the Pope be not prejudicyal to the wealth of the realm or that your doctrine in the Sacrement be erroneous then you wold never be so perverse to stond wylfullie in your own opinion but shal with al humilitie submytt your self to the truthe in al things and gladly embrace the same Thise your words written in that lettre geveth me some occasion desyring your wealth not utterly to dispayr thereof but to attempt to recover yow by the same way that yow open unto me Which is by reason to show yow the error of your opinion and withal the light of the treuthe in both causes But whither this may healp yow indede or bring you to revoke the same with trew repentaunce this I know not and I fear moche the contrarie For that I see the ground and begynning how you fel into errour in both thise articles not to be of that sort that maketh men commonly to fall into errours and heresies Which sort and way is by medling with your wyt and discourse natural to examen the Articles of the faith Makeing your reason judge thereof which ought to bee judged and ruled by the tradition of the faith Which abuse causeth men dayly to fall into errours and heresies And the same also is in yow and is joyned with that yow have done But here standeth not the grownde of your errour nor yet in this other common maner of faulling from the trouthe which S. Paul noteth in the Gentiles and is in al meâ— commonlie that followeth their sensual appetites Qui veritatem Dâ—i in injustitia detinent Which thing also hath been occasion of your â—rrour But yet not this is the very grownde thereof but a further sawte that you geveng your othe to the truthe yow mocked with the same as the Iewes mocked with Christ when thei saluted him saing Ave Rex Iudaeorum and afterwards did crucifie hym For so did yow to the Vicar of Christ Knowledgeng the Pope of Rome by the words of your othe to be so and in mynde entendeng to crucifie the same authoritie Whereof came the plague of deape ignoraunce and blyndnes unto yow Which is now that bringeth you to this greivous peryl to perish both bodie and sowle From which peril no reason can deliver yow But yow discovereng your self touching the entrie when yow shuld make the customable othe of al legitimate Busshops in Christendom which is the dore for you to entre to the service of God in the highest spiritual office withyn this realme and seeing you made the same but for a countenaunce nothing meaneng to observe that yow promised by the othe this is a dore that every thieffe may entre bye This is not the dore that thei entre by that mean earnestlie the service of God Wherein the Prophets sentence is playne askeng this question Quis ascendet in montem Domini aut quis stabit in loco sancto ejus And then answering to the same
sayeng Innocens manibus mundo corde qui non accepit in vano animam suam nec juravit in dolo proximo suo Haec est generatio quaerentium Dominum quaerentium faciem Dei Iacob So that yow now entryng to the mownteyne of God which was to that high Archbushoprick and to the Primacie in the realme by a cleane contrary way which is as yow confesse your self by a fayned othe by fraud and dissimulation what more playne sentence can be against yow if yow have a thousand reformations in your mynde then that al this doith not make that this shuld be the way to the trew service of god nor that yow useng a false othe shuld be of that generation which with their hart sought god but utterlye concludeth against yow that if those that absteine from al deceit with their neighbour speciallie in othe be blessed of God he that confesseth to have used such dissimulation in his othe not with one neighbour or twayne but with the hole realme with the hole church what can he receve but the malediction of god What can more evidentlie show that man to be none of that generation that seketh god As if there were none other proffe that followed in your acts such a deceitful and shameful entrie doith manifestly declare and most of al one of the furst acts yow did after this Which was to pluck the rest of the realme of whom yow had chief cure out of the House of God bryngeng them furthwyth into the Schisme And that we see now that the hole realm by the high mercy of God beyng brought into the House of God agayn there to receive his grace and benediction and this to be done by those princes and those ministers Qui non acceperunt in vano animam suam nec jur averunt in dolo proximo suo your person yet remayneng without deprived of the grace graunted to them what doith this showe but that it is the just sentence of god against yow for your deceitful entrie into his service and the mercy of God toward them that not wyllenglie went furth but by your traiterous means were thrust out So that here now I have told yow whither yow heare me or no the very cause of your blyndnes and ignoraunce Which is the vengeaunce of god against yow for your dissimulation and perjurie to him and to the hole church at your entâ—eng to the high service thereof Wherby yow have deserved to be cast out of the howse of god which is the church in tenebras exteriores ubi est fletus stridor dentium Which is the place and state wherein I see â—ow now lye and the same I saw so evidently in your lettres from the begynneng to the eand as nothing can be more playne yow showeng your self in the same to be so ignoraunt that you know not those things which be evident to every man which everie man that hath any exteriour light by experience and knowledge of things past doith know Here much is wanting that be once of the church as dead bodies when the spirit is out But to al that be within the body of the Church this geveth comfort and liffe as the spirit doith to the bodie And this shal be sufficient to say for everie mans information of the truthe in this matter that will beleave other that old or late experience or the contynual doctryne of the hole church hath taught in everye christen realm Whereof none ever found this fawte that the Popes Lawes Spiritual were not to be exercised because the same could not aggree with their politick lawes but rather found fawte when the Pope himself or his Ministers did let the course of those lawes which aggreed with everie politick body as the Sowle of man with al complexions and forme of body And when they were stopped then semed to be stopped the breath and liffe of justice as no realme can gyve as I sayd afore greater or surer testimonye than ours For when the authoritie and lawes of the Pope did flourish in the realm al justice florished wythal and that stopped and cast out as it was thise latter yeares al good justice and civil maner of lyvyng was stopped and cast furth withal So that when you came furst to mervayle of a thing never seen nor harde of afore in this realm that a Busshop made by the Popes authority shuld not be deposed without his authoritie what doith this show but a deap blyndnes and ignoraunce of the use of the law in this realme ever continual and never broken of ony just prynce untyl yow your self were made Busshop Which healped them to break al good lawes and customes of the realme and then afterward to make this for a great reason that the Popes lawes shuld not be now agayn admytted for then yow say al the hole realm that cast out his authoritie must nedes knowledg themself accursed Which god yow say forefend And this yow show yow cannot abyde for nothing by ony maner that the realme shuld knowledg themself accursed Which they cannot yow say avoide if thei admyt the Popes law as good This word yow shuld have sayd afore the realm had cast furth the Pope's authoritie for to have letâ—ed them from their faull into the curse and this had bene the very part of a good Busshop But after that thei were faullen from the lawes which thei had admytted afore and therby ronne into the curse which you say cannot be avoyed of them that hath ones admytted them Then I with al good and catholick men do say god â—oreâ—end they after this shuld not knowledg their state to be accursed Which if thei dyd not thei could never be absolved from the curse And he that forbeddeth now the knowledge of the same doith in effect procure that being accursed indede thei remayne ever accursed This is your monstrous and blynde love yow pretend to bear to the realme being accursed your self and blynded in the knowledg of your state to have the hole realm remayne styl accursed But the true affection thise two Catholick princes beare to the realm with the bloode of those that resisted thâ— swarveng from the Popes authoritie hath obteyned of the high mercy of God that the hole realme hath with repentaunce knowledged their evel state thei stode in syneth the leaveng of the authoritie of the Pope in the realme and with repealing of those lawes made contrary have asked absolution and received it and be delivered of al curse received into the grace of goâ— and brought into the churches lapp again thei onelie left out that doith refuse this grace and hath not so moche grace to accept it Whereof if ony should be deprived none hath deserved it more by the just wrath of God to be deprived then he that was chief doer to make the realm lese it as yow by showeng your self in this to be the verie membre of Satan both then but most of al now Which deprived
of grace of repentaunce hymself wold draw al other to his dampnation and dissuadeth al retorne to grace This your charitie yow now show to your contrie which as I said hitherto is very vengeaunce of God toward yow Of the which this great blyndnes gyveth a great testimonie that yow show in your lettre writeng of thise thynges as though yow had never knowledge what had been done in the realme afore your tyme nor what was the state of your time nor yet what is the state of the realm at this present bryngeng for a great inconvenient that if the Parlament shuld accept the lawes of the Pope thei shuld be constrayned to repeal those that were done against his lawes and authoritie As though this were not so done already And showeng so great ignoraunce both touching the doctrine of the church and in this â—oyncte touching the Popes authoritie and the experience of the custome of the realm yet yow conclude that ignoraunce might excuse other men how prejudicyal the canon lawes be to the wealth of the realm if thei wold accept the same But you cannot be excused by ignoraunce And seeing in this the very trouthe that ignoraunce cannot excuse yow as in trouthe it cannot being of that kynde it is But if that do not excuse you then malice doith condempne yow Which is the very cause to bring you to ignoraunce inexcusable both in this poincte of the authoritie of the Pope as in the doctrine of the Sacrement Wherin it is no lesse monstrous And this yow show most where yow think to speak with lesse obstinacy As where yow say that if thei that follow the Popes doctrine hereiâ— could bryng in but one old auncyent Doctor of the Church of their opinion you have offred afore as yow offer yet to gâ—ve place unto them and to consent to the same What a proffe is this to show your profound blyndnes If there be no let but this because yow see not of the old Doctors at the least one that were against yowr opinion in the defence of the Popes doctrine other men seeing so many and not one auncient approved doctor that ever dissented what a wonderful blyndnes is this not to see one against yow For this is playne when the Pope showeth his sence and doctrine in this Article he doith not speak thereof as of an Article that he himself hath newly found nor yet ony of his predecessours but that al hath uniformally received one of another of their fathers unto the Apostles tyme and they of Christ. Which argument is so strong so evident to the condempnation of your opinion and confirmatyon of the Popes that manie sage and learned men writing against the opinion yow follow being diverse sortes of arguments to confound the same set apart al form of reasoneng and onelie stick upon the testimony and uniforme consent of al the old Doctors of the Church to this day Which testimonies be so meny that they fyll up great books as amongst other my Lord of Durham at this present in his book written of this matter taketh this way to ground hymself most apon the perpetual consent of the old Doctors continuing unto this age and al against your opinion Which book is abrode and hath been seen of yow Then if yee wil think him of so smal judgment or knowledge that in such a nombre as he bringeth there is not one that maketh to his purpose but al for your purpose whom he entendeth to oppugne other this must prove a wonderful blyndnes in hym and not in hym alone but in so menie learned men that taketh the same way or ells in yow that amongst so menye testimonies som more clerer then som not to see so moche as one alone this is an evydent proff that yee be stark blynd For if yee were not if it were but one brought furth unto yow as is mentioned in that book the condempnation of Berengarius that was of your opinion and that done by a General Councel of all the Nations in Chrystendom growndeng it self upon the uniform doctrine of their forefathers Were not this enough yf yow had yies to see to show that more then one old Doctor were of the Popes doctrin And if this be not sufficyent proff unto yow the same being enough to Berengarius hymself which was converted therby and persuaded to recant his opinion what doth this show but that he was not utterly blynded but that he saw some testimonie against hym yow utterly to have lost al syght that se not so moch as one But of this your monstrous blyndnes I mervell the less the more I see the same to procede of the very justice and wrath of God against yow with whom yow mocking on that maner as yow showed in comyng in such a high place in service of the church as was to be Archbishop and Primate of the Realm as to swere in dolo not onlye Proximo but Vniversae Ecclesiae Wylleng afterward to pervert the old order of the churche which yow called a Reformation me semeth to here the very words and curse of S. Paul that lighted upon the false Prophet Bariesu letting the coorse of the doctrine Evangelical preached by hym when he then curseng hym said O! plene omni malo omni fallaciâ fili diaboli inimice omnis justitiae non desinis pervertere vias Domini rectas Et ecce nunc manus Domini super te eris caecus non videns solem usque ad tempus The effect of this I do see hath lighted upon yow for entreng by deceit to be a chieff Doctour in the church perverteng Vias Domini rectas to be blynded I pray God it be but ad tempus But hitherto I have not known a more deaper blyndnes And if that was ponnyshment of that false prophet to lese his corporal syght for a tyme that being an infidelle for very ignoraunce did put obstacle to the very trew doctrine of the faith never hard of afore to be blynded corporallie for a tyme yow that first knew the doctrine and preached the same which afterward yow do pervert if yow were stricken with a gretter and more notable blyndnes the which yow show now this is evident to come of the verie hond of god which mans hond cannot heale but only the hond of god that justlie ponnyshed yow therewithal And the sorer and more desperate cure is of this your blyndnes the more yow acquyett your self therein as though yow had a great gift of light above al other For so yow show in your lettres persuadeng your self to have found a way in teacheng the doctrine of the Sacrament of the aulter that other hath not seen Which is to take away the absurdity both to the sence and reason of man that is in the catholick doctrine toucheng the Sacrement of the aulter as yow say in that forme of bread and wyne to be the verie trew real presence of the body of Christ and that it is
the people and from the people to burne hym as it was and ever shal be where mere temporal lawes without spiritual doith rule Which state may be compared to be like such a thorne whereof fire doith come furth to the destruction both of the governour and the people And how the lawes of the realme might be wel likened to such a thorne after that the spiritual authoritie was cast furth the destruction of such a sort of men of al degrees both great and smal the great spoyles that were taken may geve sufficient proff to al them that hath ony sence or remembraunce of things so lately done And now comyng again to the spiritual authoritie and Law to joyn it self with the Temporal this is like to the fyer that Moyes saw In rubo which gave liâ—ht and dyd not burne nor never doith when it is wel used And if it be not wel used the faute is in the persons and not in the thing as the faute is not in the Temporal lawes when the Prynce doith abuse them howbeit of their nature they be tanquam sâ—inae as was also Moyes law sharp to which was mitigateâ— and so shal be in every when they be joyned with the spirituall ought not to be called Forreyne Lawes More here wanting Non in probabilibus humanae sapientiae verbis ne evacuetur crux Christi As it shuld be in this case For if this probabilitie were followed the sklaunder of the cross shold be voyd For this were no sklaunder to the Iewes to hear Christ honoured in a figure thei being ever used to the same Nor it wold seem so moch folyshe to the Gentiles and infidelles after we had accepted Christ for God to honour him in a figurative maner But this being the counsel of Christ to utter his great misterie in forme that he should have it sklander to both the Iews that seke signes and were used to be taught by figures and also the Gentiles that styck upon the judgment of reason The more probable you make it the further you swarve from the trew doctrin of Christ and verie trew maner to teach it And here may no new maner be taught What a haynous pride is this this doctrine passeng a thousand yeare and as menye hundred beside as hath bene syneth this Sacrement was instituted by the myddest of the Iewes and Gentiles with this sklaunder and appearaunce of folyshnes never being founâ— fawtie in ony one of the Busshops and preachers of the word of God that they confessed the real presence of the body of Christ in the Sacrement of the aulter but al found fautie and condemned of heresie which denyed the same And ever the doctrine of the presence prevayling and triumpheng above mans reason or sence may be capace of the same Which both God wil have mortified and dye utterlie when this mistery and meate of liâ—se is spoken and taken For as that was the beginneng of the destruction of man when followeng the probabilitie of reason he wold feade hymself with meate prohibite unto hym So the counsil of God hath ordeyned this to be the begynneng of the liffe of man to take a sensible meat wherein nother reason nor sense can find ony probabilitie or make any judgment thereof But because I have entreated this part more largely in another epistle that I send unto yow wherein I show that stondeng as yow do without repentance of the maner of your entrie to the service of the church yow could never be nother good schoâ—ar of this doctrine and moche less a Master I wil now procede no further to reason with you herein knoweng al to be in vaine and no healp nor meane to recover yow but only prayer Which with al my hart as I wold for mine own sowle I wyl not fayle to use for yow to hym whom yow have so greatlie offended as I never redd of ony Busshop that ever was in the church But the founteyne of his mercie is never closed to them that wyl cal for it as myne own entier prayer is to the infinite mercy of God that yow may have the grace so to do sendeng yow for obteynyng of that his holy Spiriâ— Qui condemnat mundum de peccato de judicio de justitia that seeing furst your sore condempnation yow maye therewith be sturred with al humilitie and contrite hart to demaund some comfort Which cannot be hoped of without your former condempnation of your self Wherunto to bryng yow it hath cawsed me by wryting to set furth so earnestly some part of your grievous offences afore yow Wylleng yow no less comfort then I wold to myne own sowle And the same I say concludeng and eandeng as I began It may please the paternal love that God beareth unto al synners for his sake that being his only Son God and man dyed to pay their ransome for to forgeve yow and to deliver yow ex Ore Leonis which hath so devowred yow that if you be not plucked out as theProphet Amos saith of Israel Quomodo si eruat Pastor duo crura aut extremum auriculae I say if you be not plucked out by the eare yow be utterlie undone both body and sowle Which yet again and ever the infinite mercy of God may defeande yow from Wrytten in the coorte at St. Iames the vj. of Novembre 1555. Yowr very trew coumfortore in God yow not refuseng hys grace R. Pole Car. Leg. NUM XC Archbishop Parker to the Secretary desiring the Councels letters in order to his discovering of certain Writings of Archbishop Cranmer SYR Being here and wold be loth to be idle and thereupon havyng consideration as wel of these quarters for the common quyet among the people as respecting the common service of the better sort toward the Q. Highnes and her affairs I fynd them al in so good order that I do rejoyce therin As for my ecclesiastical persons I deal with them indifferently that I fynd also obedience in them Now Sir with spying and serching I have found out bi very credible enformation among other things in whose hondes the grete notable wryten bokes of my predecessour Dr. Cranmer shuld remayne the partyes yet denying the same and therupon despayre to discover them except I maye be ayded bi the Councells letters to optayne them I pray your honor to procure ther letters to authorise me to enquire and serch for such Monuments by al wayes as bi mi pore discretion shal be thought good whether it be bi deferryng an othe to the parties or veweng ther studies c. This opportunytie of enformation being suche I wold wyshe I coud recover these bokes to be afterward at the Q. Commandment I wold as moche rejoyce whyle I am in the countreye to wynne them as I wold to restore an old Chancel to reparation Because I am not acqueynted with the stile of the Councels letters in this case I send you no minute trusting that your goodnes wil think the lauber
a Clergy was now in England He makes a heavy Complaint against the frequent practice of beastly sins in the Priests Adultery Sodomy c. and that they never were punished And in my memory as he proceeds which is above thirty years and also by the information of others that be twenty years older than I I could never learn that one Priest was punished These Exiles are a sort of men who generally write with Passion and Prejudice against their own Countrey so that ordinarily little more credit is to be given to their Information than to the Intelligence of Deserters from an Army I am sure he hath shamefully belied the Clergy of England in accusing them of the frequent practice of such beastly sins and then affirming that he could never learn that one Priest was punished for it in the space of fifty years before that time It is true that Crimes of Incontinence as such especially in the Clergy were then cognoscible and punishable only by the Ecclesiastical Law and in the Spiritual Courts but Rapes were then as well as now in Clergy-men as well as Lay-men tryable and punishable at Common-Law And of this the Laity took such malicious advantage immediately before the Reformation that they were wont to pretend all Acts and even Indications of Incontinence in Clergy-men to be so many Rapes and to Indict them as such Insomuch that scarce any Assizes or Sessions passed at that time wherein several Clergy-men were not Indicted of Rapes and a Jury of Lay-men Impannell'd to Try them who would be sure not to be guilty of shewing over-much favour to them in their Verdicts Neither was the Ecclesiastical Authority then so remiss as is pretended as not to have punished any one Priest for Incontinence within the space of fifty years before If I had my Papers by me I could produce Examples of many Incontinent Clergy-men punished and deprived by their Ordinaries within that time About this very time wherein this Preface was wrote Dr. Weston altho otherwise a man of great Note and Interest among the Popish Party was deprived of the Deanry of Windsor for a single Act of Incontinence and about twenty years before this Stokesly Bishop of London is by Iohn Bale reported to have deprived Iohn Lord Abbot of Colchester for an horrible Act of Incontinence Indeed I know Bale to have been so great a Lyar that I am not willing to take any thing of that kind upon his Credit however his Testimony may serve well enough against such another foul-mouth'd Writer as this E. P. seems to have been Ibid. line 11. ab imo The Archbishop supplied the City of Canterbury with store of Excellent Learned Preachers Turner the two Ridleys Becon c. Turner never was Preacher in Ordinary at Canterbury but at Chartham near Canterbury He is said indeed afterwards in this History to have been one of the Six Preachers of the Church of Canterbury which may be true yet to Preach there three or four Sermons in a year upon so many Holidays is not a sufficient ground to say that that City was supplied with such or such Preachers Page 164. in imo The University of Cambridge laboured under great suspicions of being spoiled of its Revenues she having observed how those of her Sister the Church were daily invaded by Secular hands The University hath ever been so dutiful as to own the Church to be her Mother Page 183. line 10. ab imo Farrar was Consecrated Bishop of St. Davids by Thomas Archbishop of Canterbury endued with his Pontificals The latter words are a Translation of Pontificalibus indutus which signifies no other than being Invested or Attired in his Episcopal Habit. Page 184. med Bishop Farrar hearing of great Corruption among those belonging to the Chapter of the Church of Carmarthen and chiefly Thomas Young Chanter after Archbishop of York c. I suppose the Chapter of the Church of St. Davids is here meant for there was no such Church at Carmarthen and Young was at this time Precentor of St. Davids Page 208. line 13. ab imo Bishop Ridley at his entrance upon the See of London was exceeding wary not to do his Predecessor Bonner the least injury but rather did many kindnesses to his Mother Servants and Relations he continued Bonner's Receiver one Staunton in his Place In this last case Ridley could not give any evidence of Kindness or Unkindness for Staunton held his Place of Receiver by Patent for life Page 224. med The Council sitting at Greenwich the Bishop's Gardiner of Winchester Servants came and desired that certain of them might be sworn upon certain Articles for Witness on his behalf And if they might not be sworn c. And they were allowed From this relation any Reader would imagine That the Bishop's Servants desired that themselves might be sworn in behalf of their Lord and Master whereas in the Council-Book from whence this Matter is reported it is plain that they desired that some of the Privy-Counsellors might be sworn or at least be obliged to declare upon their Honour what they knew of the matter then in question in favour of the Bishop Page 267. line 21. This Scory Bishop Elect of Rochester was at first preferred by the Archbishop to be one of the Six Preachers at Canterbury and always continued firm for the Purity of Religion and endured Trouble for it He was a Married man and so deprived at the beginning of Queen Mary's Reign fled beyond Sea c. Scory was so far from continuing always firm to the Purity of Religion that in the beginning of Queen Mary's Reign he reconciled himself to the See of Rome submitted himself to Bishop Bonner made a formal Recantation and did open Penance for his Marriage however afterwards he resumed his former Principles when he had got beyond Sea Page 270. line 17. ab imo All this I have related of this Divine Dr. Iohn Redman who died in 1551. that I may in some measure preserve the Memory of one of the Learnedest men of his time and lay up the Dying Words of a Papist signifying so plainly his dislike and disallowance of many of their Doctrines I cannot imagine why Dr. Redman should be accounted or called a Papist at the time of his Death who had all along lived and then died in the Communion of the Establish'd Church and had but little before joined with the Archbishop and other Bishops and Divines in compiling the Book of Common-Prayer If because he had once held the Popish Doctrines concerning Justification the Sacrament of the Altar c. with equal and for the same reason Cranmer himself and all the Bishops and Eminent Divines of that time may be called Papists Or if it was because he judged it unlawful for any Priest to marry a second time as is related page 157. he therein followed the Canons and received Doctrines of the Ancient Church and hath many Learned and Worthy Divines of our own Time and Church
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-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